The Thin Red Line

The only thing crazier than how many recognizable actors there are in this movie is how many had their scenes cut completely during the editing process, including Martin Sheen, Gary Oldman, and Mickey Rourke. War movies have a funny away of apparently attracting attention from everyone in the business, as The Thin Red Line was released the same year as Saving Private Ryan, which itself has an extensive and extremely famous cast. I thought it was less distracting here though, except for the scene near the end where George Clooney shows up to give a speech than Sean Penn narrates over.

The Thin Red Line is overall a more painterly and less action-oriented war film than Ryan, focusing more on the internal lives of the soldiers than the combat they take part in. I think they're actually pretty good companion films. Ryan is in the European theater and wears its heart on its sleeve, Line is in the Pacific and a bit more introspective and detached. Ryan begins with one of the most famous war scenes ever made, a gigantic, loud, violent slaughter. Line begins with a soldier played by Jim Caviezel resting on an island with some natives, and there's a full 45 minutes before anyone is in real danger. They're both gorgeous movies, Ryan with its color correction and perfectly chaotic action, Line with its more natural cinematography and focus on wildlife, and intricately pieced together battle scenes.

This is the first movie by Terrence Malick that I've seen (hey, he's only made five), and I was very impressed by his work, though I'm not sure how much I'd like his other stuff. The way intense fighting punctuates and breaks up the long periods of slow moving or still scenery with minimal dialogue creates an intriguing contrast, but a film of nothing but the latter might be tough to handle. Of course, I have no idea if any of his other movies are like that, other than to say I get the impression that that's what The Tree of Life might resemble.

In any case, The Thin Red Line is not a perfect war movie, but I do think it is a great one. There are many brilliant and captivating scenes, and even when things slow down, it's still very nice to look at. If there's one viable criticism, it does seem a bit scattered at times, as it sort of lacks a central figure, and instead bounces from soldier to soldier, letting them narrate their thoughts in turn. The performances are generally very good, even if none of them are terribly substantial. John C. Reilly gets what I think is a single scene of dialogue, and certain characters will pop in at a certain point and then just disappear completely, like the parts played by John Cusack and John Travolta. Nick Nolte might have the most dialogue as an impassioned Lieutenant Colonel, though Penn and Caviezel probably have the biggest parts from a screen time perspective.

It's hard to say whether the somewhat disjointed nature of the film is entirely intentional, or a result of Malick having to trim about 40% of his original cut, or if the full thing was even worse with the additional characters. I didn't really mind the movie being this way, because it was an engrossing experience while watching it. It does result in a slight feeling of dissatisfaction though, especially in retrospect, not having a real central plot to grasp onto. I guess war though can be a pretty existential experience, and this is about as existential as war movies can get. In that way, it's sort of a masterpiece.

Band of Brothers

Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks' The Pacific just started airing last night, so it seemed like a good time to revisit its counterpart in the European theater, Band of Brothers. It's a miniseries that war movies wish they could be, telling the stories of a very important company throughout their struggles without any sacrifices made in production value over its more than ten hours of running time. At times it's quite violent, though it doesn't really cross the line to gratuitous, and three of the episodes feature no combat whatsoever. A lot of the best moments just look at the friendships that formed between the troops and how they tried to cope with the constant danger they lived in, though that's not to say the battles aren't impressively done. The frantic camerawork, the well-considered but brutal situations they're fighting through, the strong visuals and amazing sound work make every fight exciting and harrowing no matter how many times you watch them. I feel like the presentation of the cast could have been a bit clearer, because names and ranks fly by at a rapid pace and even after seeing it three times I still can't match every single name with a face. For the most part you remember the main guys pretty well, and they effectively convey the "brothers" theme through the whole thing. Sometimes random troops die and that's just war, but every time someone you recognize gets killed or seriously injured it's like a dagger through the heart. I don't know how anyone can watch this and see the interviews with the surviving members and not feel immense respect for these soldiers. I hope The Pacific can successfully hit the right notes too.

Fringe - Season 1

The premise of another crazy sci-fi show from the creator of Lost got me excited for Fringe, though it didn't turn out as good as I expected. Still, it was mostly enjoyable from week to week, and improved noticeably in multiple ways as it got closer to the conclusion of its first season. We already know a second is on the way so apparently it was successful enough, and I hope it continues to grow into something really interesting as it goes on. The main reason to watch it at first was just to hear the voices of John Noble from the third The Lord of the Rings movie and Lance Reddick from The Wire every week, who I could listen to talk for hours, but you can't blame the show for not having intriguing stories, just maybe not exploring those concepts to their full potential.

Most episodes follow the same basic formula. There's the cold open that shows the mystery of the week unfolding, which usually has an interesting hook and is often simply the best made scene in the show, then special agent Olivia Dunham and her ragtag team bounce back and forth between decent detective work and decent supernatural medical stuff for a while until they catch the bad guy in time for a few minutes of character development and hints at a continuous plot. Seemingly unrelated cases do sort of come together into one large conspiracy by the end, and there's a solid conclusion to some dangling plot threads along with a couple twists and revelations in the last episode.

I think the problem with the show is that it just doesn't go far enough with its big ideas. JJ Abrams gets credit for making his crazy nerdy ideas more mainstream-friendly than some other creators of televised speculative fiction, but they lose something in that translation. The show has a pretty bad habit of explaining anything close to a complex idea in an overly simple way that treats the audience like a bunch of morons, and if that's what it takes to keep most people watching, then that's a shame. I guess it's nice not having to worry about making it to another year, but the bigger fan base ends up also being less passionate. Anyway, Fringe is mostly worth checking out.

Invincible

Another Wahlberg movie? Just looking at his list of credits, I've seen a lot of his work (seven movies). Not that I mind. He's a solid actor and seems likable enough. His performance here is nothing special, you root for his character but he never really stretches out. It's a Disney sports movie, so maybe we shouldn't expect that many dramatics from it. Kinnear has a nice little career comeback going, and does a decent job as the coach who believes in underdogs. Banks seems to be good in everything she does, and this is the biggest part I've seen her in. Although again, there wasn't much there for her to do. The rest of the cast is rounded out by a bunch of bit actors playing believable Philadelphians, even if their dialogue is unrealistic. Am I supposed to believe sports fans from a city this famous for its vitriol can boo for over a minute without swearing once?

The movie itself is decent, for what it is. It's the true story of Vince Papale, who broke into the NFL at age 30. Details are changed to make it more inspirational and exciting, with plenty of little subplots mixed in to add a bit of a depth. It's generally filmed well, with some nice football scenes, although the cinematography is a bit odd at times. A little too yellow. It does seem a little hokey at times, like it's trying too hard to be uplifting. The story's good enough that they don't have to try to exaggerate it as much as they do. You know the kind of movie it is; it's really not very good, but it's difficult to hate. I'll admit I had a smile on my face in the climactic moments. I wouldn't really recommend you pay money to see it. But sometimes it's nice just to feel happy.

The Darkness

The Darkness is based on a comic by Top Cow Productions, although it seems significantly different in visual style. Starbreeze Studios reworked the concept to work better in a first person shooter, and spent more time with the mafia aspect and World War I setting than the more supernatural stuff. The Darkness comes off of Starbreeze's previous hit, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, a prequel to the Vin Diesel movies.

The Darkness is a fun game, although the shooting action itself isn't all that good. Apparently that's a quirk of Starbreeze, they make good first person shooters without good shooting. From what I've gathered, Butcher Bay succeeded because of atmosphere, graphics, and hand-to-hand combat, while The Darkness succeeds because of atmosphere, graphics, and the darkness powers. They just make you feel like a badass and add immensely to the experience. Which scenario sounds cooler?

1) A door opens, and a man walks through and shoots the other men inside the room.
2) A door opens and a sharp black spike darts in, smashing out all the lights in the room, covering it in shadow. An ominous figure walks in with the appearance of a man, but he has several demonic appendages protruding from him, including two ravenous-looking snake-like creatures. The man dispatches the others in the room with his guns and lashing, impaling tentacles. When it is over, the two creatures greedily consume the hearts of the fallen.

Other cool touches include Jackie, the protagonist, merely dropping his pistols and pulling out new ones when they're out of ammo, and the brutal "execution" moves he performs when right next to the enemy. The game's not all just violence though. If you want, you can spend time helping out the normal citizens you see around you, and there are plenty of calmer, even tender moments, like going to see Jackie's girlfriend at her new apartment and watching To Kill A Mockingbird together (The PS3 version includes this and other movies, plus some cartoons and music videos, in their entirety on various televisions in the game world). They really try to immerse you in this world, which can help gloss over some of the other flaws and adds to the success of the story.

The plot has two main threads, as Jackie deals with his traitorous uncle Paulie and the Darkness inside him that is trying to control him. The two are mixed well, and it moves along with generally good voice acting and presentation. The conclusion is a bit... inconclusive, though not totally unsatisfying. The sound design is pretty good, with nice music and effective sound effects. Some of the textures look bad up close and the people can look a bit weird, but generally the graphics, lighting and overall visual quality are quite good. The game can be a bit glitchy, and the core gameplay isn't quite as solid as you might like, but thanks to the peripheral touches it's a good experience. It's also a very funny game, the main story is very serious (and well, dark), but there are lots of humorous phone messages, posters, and NPC conversations sprinkled throughout. The story might be a bit short, but you should at least try the game if you're interested.