TRASH IN MY EYE No. 165 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux
Equilibrium (2002)
Running time: 107 minutes (1 hour, 47 minutes)
MPAA – R for violence
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Kurt Wimmer
PRODUCERS: Jan de Bont and Lucas Foster
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Dion Beebe
EDITORS: Tom Rolf and William Yeh
COMPOSER: Klaus Badelt
SCI-FI/ACTION/DRAMA with elements of mystery and thriller
Starring: Christian Bale, Taye Diggs, Emily Watson, Sean Bean, Sean Pertwee, William Fichtner, Angus Macfadyen, Dominic Purcell, Matthew Harbour, and Emily Siewert
The subject of this movie review is Equilibrium, a 2002 dystopian science fiction film and action movie from writer-director Kurt Wimmer. Starring Christian Bale and Taye Diggs, the film is set in a fascist future where all forms of feeling are illegal, and the story focuses on a law enforcement officer who rises to overthrow the system.
In a dystopian future, the totalitarian regime of the city-state, Libria, has eliminated war by suppressing emotions. The rulers believe that ultimately emotions cause humans to kill one another. The cost of ridding the world of violent emotions, however, is the loss of love and kindness. Books, art, music, or any kind of creativity that might arouse the emotions are also strictly forbidden, and such material is contraband to be destroyed on sight. Feeling is a crime, and those who insist on feeling are called sense offenders. Sense offenses are punishable by death, and the government requires its citizens to inject themselves with a drug called prozium, which keeps their emotions in check.
Of course such a government would face rebellion, and it does from the regions outside the city known as the Nethers. To fight sense offenders in the city and in the Nethers, the government created an elite unit made of a special kind of police officer/warrior known as the Grammaton Cleric. Stronger, inhumanely agile, and quicksilver fast, clerics use a form of fighting known as “the Gun-Katas,” which mixes martial arts and firearms handling that makes it possible for one cleric to kill a room full of armed men in the span of several seconds.
The best of these warriors is John Preston (Christian Bale), who destroys sense offenders with ease (and perhaps relish, if he could feel emotions). However, when Preston misses a dose of Prozium, he begins to have feelings again, and he experiences a pang of conscience when he must kill in the Nethers. Suddenly being capable of feeling, he finds himself drawn to a sense offender scheduled for execution, Mary O’Brien (Emily Watson). There is, however, danger in Preston’s feelings. His new partner, Brandt (Taye Diggs, who gives a nice sheen to Brandt’s bold and ruthless ambition), is, like Preston, intuitive – able to sense when someone is have feelings and emotions, and Brandt is determined to make a name for himself – even if it means bringing Preston down.
Some might mistake writer/director Kurt Wimmer’s 2000 film, Equilibrium, for a clone of The Matrix (1999). The fancy, martial arts fighting (Gun-Kata, a style developed by Wimmer and the film’s choreographer, Jim Vickers) certainly encourages that belief, but unlike The Matrix, wire work martial arts (or wire-fu) – using wires to lift the actors high off the ground – wasn’t used here.
Equilibrium actually borrows from or resembles (in part or whole) such classic science fiction novels dealing with dark futures as Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, George Orwell’s 1984, and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, and even a bit of William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson’s Logan’s Run. In the case of Equilibrium, the filmmakers make the right choice of focusing on crime (feeling) and punishment (death) rather than on the practicality of these future laws against emotion and feeling. In that way, the plot is free to unfold as a narrative about the struggle for freedom in a futuristic setting. In terms of entertainment, that’s better than an examination of the hard science of using drugs to suppress emotions or even telling the story from a sociological point of view.
Christian Bale is expert at playing the tightly coiled male or the stoic warrior. However, he’s also quite artful at slowly revealing his emotional side in ways that endear him to the viewer. Watching his government-issued impassive and detached façade crumble to reveal a fully functional human is a joy. Bale may not be the leading man, but he is a leading man. Good performances from Taye Diggs, Emily Watson, and Sean Bean add credibility to Equilibrium’s concept. Still, it would have been nice to see more character in the supporting characters.
7 of 10
B+
Friday, August 4, 2006
Updated: Thursday, January 30, 2014
The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.
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TRASH IN MY EYE No. 34 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux
Limbo (1999)
Running time: 126 minutes (2 hours, 6 minutes)
MPAA – R for language
EDITOR/WRITER/DIRECTOR: John Sayles
PRODUCER: Maggie Renzi
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Haskell Wexler
COMPOSER: Mason Daring
Palme d'Or nominee
DRAMA/THRILLER/ROMANCE
Starring: Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, David Strathairn, Venessa Martinez, Kris Kristofferson, and Casey Siemaszko
The subject of this movie review is Limbo, a 1999 drama and crime-thriller from writer-director John Sayles. The film focuses on a fisherman who tries to protect his new girlfriend and her daughter from his past and his brother’s present. The film was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, and at the 1999 Seattle International Film Festival, Sayles received the “Golden Space Needle Award” for “Best Director.” The National Board of Review, USA also gave Limbo a “Special Recognition” award “For excellent in filmmaking.”
John Sayles is a true independent filmmaker, rarely dealing with the major studios to produce his pictures, although they have distributed them, as is the case with Limbo. Upon seeing this film, one can understand why he remains an independent. Most directors can do this kind of film once or twice, but to make a career out of films like this, a director has to have an iron will.
Joe Gastineau (David Strathairn, a veteran of several Sayles films) lives, but that’s all he does. He merely lives, working a few odd jobs in a small Alaska town. He meets and helps out Donna De Angelo (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves) a lovelorn lounge singer and the mother of one of Joe’s coworkers Noelle (Vanessa Martinez), and Joe gently falls for Donna. When Joe’s self-inflated half-brother Bobby (Casey Siemaszko, Young Guns) blows into town, the four take a journey to up-country Alaska that changes and endangers their lives.
The acting is good, especially from the trio of Strathairn, Ms. Mastrantonio, and Ms. Martinez. Strathairn is a vulnerable and moody character, but a quite approachable guy, a strong and supportive man when he has to be. Ms. Mastrantonio is punch drunk from the love of broken relationships, but she never gives up on the positive, even when things keep falling apart. Ms. Martinez is the sullen, self-pitying teen; quiet and withdrawn, she is an imaginative storyteller who can take elements of her life and create metaphorical delights. Sayles has affection for these characters, and, because he takes time to give them depth, we care about them.
Sayles, a novelist and short story writer, creates films with characters that are very much like real people. Each and every character has their own story, and a Sayles movie is actually of composition containing all these characters’ stories. His gift is to show the viewers enough of each story so that they can get a feel for the film. We see more of the lead characters’ stories, but we get a taste of every person’s story. He is a visionary, able to weave stories with the same complexities and depth of a novel into the visual shorthand of a film.
Critics have accused his films of not having passion, but they have sold their souls for the press junkets and star interviews of the major studios and their product. A Sayles film is vibrant and engaging. He makes you think, and he lets you be part of the film, to put yourself inside the story. This is as vicarious a thrill as any adrenalin-monkey action movie.
8 of 10
A
NOTE:
1999 Cannes Film Festival: 1 nomination: “Palme d'Or” (John Sayles)
Updated: Sunday, January 26, 2014
The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.
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TRASH IN MY EYE No. 10 (of 2002) by Leroy Douresseaux
Murder at 1600 (1997)
Running time: 107 minutes (1 hour, 47 minutes)
MPAA – R for sexuality, violence and some language
DIRECTOR: Dwight H. Little
WRITERS: Wayne Beach and David Hodgin
PRODUCERS: Arnold Kopelson and Arnon Milchan
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Steven Bernstein (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: Leslie Jones and Billy Weber
COMPOSER: Christopher Young
DRAMA/CRIME/THRILLER with elements of action
Starring: Wesley Snipes, Diane Lane, Daniel Benzali, Dennis Miller, Alan Alda, Ronny Cox, Diane Baker, Tate Donovan, and Harris Yulin
The subject of this movie review is Murder at 1600, a 1997 crime and detective thriller from director Dwight H. Little and starring Wesley Snipes and Diane Lane. The film follows a homicide detective and a secret service agent as they try to unravel the conspiracy surrounding a young female staffer found dead in a White House wash room.
Washington D. C. Police Homicide Detective Harlan Regis (Wesley Snipes) gets a call that there has been a murder at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the address of the White House. When he arrives, he discovers the body of a slain young woman, and it is obvious that the Secret Service has already tampered with and removed evidence from the crime scene. He immediately suspects a cover up.
Through a lot of effort, he eventually convinces Secret Service Agent Nina Chance (Diane Lane) to join him in the murder investigation. From that point, they operate through a myriad of roadblocks and obstacles. They are constantly on the run from murderous pursuers and others intent on stopping the investigation. Raising the intensity level, the murder occurs during a touchy international incident between the United States and North Korea.
Directed by veteran helmsman Dwight H. Little (episodes of “The Practice” and Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home), Murder at 1600 is a surprisingly intriguing and exciting movie. With elements of suspense, mystery, and drama, it is something of a thriller and an action movie. Little expertly paces them film so that there is never a dull moment. Something’s always just around the corner, and some seemingly nefarious person is always in the next room. Add the element of government paid snipers and assassins, and the result is a nice edge of your seat picture - a chase movie for grown ups.
The writers Wayne Beach and the late David Hodgin do a wonderful job creating a single plot line that neatly divides into other interesting plot lines. Very little is thrown away in this movie. Like a classic whodunit, the suspects and motives pile on, but not like crap on the wall. Rather, it’s like a complex puzzle, with not too many pieces, for the viewer it’s an engaging challenge to put together.
Wesley Snipes has always wanted to be an action movie badass, but his gift is in his untapped acting talent. His rock solid good looks and thespian skills make him a natural leading man in the old Hollywood tradition (Kirk Douglas or Humphrey Bogart). Like them, he is best in dramas that are suspenseful and intriguing. He carries this movie on his strong shoulders even when the movie action becomes implausible.
Diane Lane (“Lonesome Dove”) is also another surprise. She is a natural beauty, more earthy than doll-like without a model’s overdone and artificial looks. She’s a woman’s woman – gritty and determined to do her job. Her Nina Chance is the ideal partner to Snipes' Regis. She isn’t the typical action movie female baggage; she holds her own, and she gets to pull Regis out of the fire a few times.
Ronny Cox as President Jack Neil and Alan Alda as Alvin Jordan, National Security Advisor are very good and quite intense in their parts. Both are seemingly determined and over anxious to “be real” in their parts. Dennis Miller makes a light add-on to the story and manages to serve a function, but nothing, not even his light part, hurts this movie.
Murder at 1600 isn’t by any means great, but it is very good and somewhat smart entertainment. The last fifteen minutes or so is an exercise in the implausible, and is often inadvertently funny. However, there is something to be said for making a movie that could have been bad quite enjoyable.
6 of 10
B
Updated: Wednesday, January 22, 2014
The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.
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