Prisoners (2013) - Villeneuve arrives in Hollywood with grim crime story

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Two very serious-looking male stars in a sea of grey and darkness make up this poster for Denis Villeneuve's Prisoners

During a normal Thanksgiving celebration a family suddenly lose two daughters. The tracks to finding them are few, and as despair lurks, the mystery widens.

 

Prisoners is written by Aaron Guzikowski (Contraband (2012)) and directed by Canadian master filmmaker Denis Villeneuve (August 32nd on Earth/Un 32 Août sur Terre (1998)), whose 6th feature it is.

With a strong opening and a monumental rain (so great it made me wonder how it was created) this thrilling, very well photographed (cinematographer Roger Deakins (Sicario (2015))) film pulls you in. It serves several good performances: Jake Gyllenhaal (Jarhead (2005)), Hugh Jackman (The Greatest Showman (2017)), Maria Bello (Lights Out (2016)) and more in the background: Terrence Howard (Iron Man (2008)), Viola Davis (Widows (2018)) and Paul Dano (Youth (2015)) are also good. 

The film is long but it manages to keep us close to its electrically grim story. Unfortunately it is resolved poorly, SPOILER since Guzikowski's script finally refuses to accept the obvious crook (a pedophile) to instead give us some babble about labyrinths, snakes - and Melissa Leo (Coast (2021)) as a heavy! She is a Jigsaw-like (from Saw (2004-) franchise fame) character, who punishes God for children's cancer and locks Jackman into a hole ... - Unsatisfying.

 

Related posts:

Denis Villeneuve: Dune/Dune: Part One (2021) - Villeneuve revitalizes another SF boulder 

2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Blade Runner 2049 (2017) - Villeneuve's speculative sci-fi sequel is fascinating but flawed 

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
2016 in films - according to Film Excess
Arrival (2016) - Villeneuve, Heisserer and Adams head sensational sci-fi wonder
Incendies (2010) - Villeneuve's dreary and depressing, wildly overrated drama 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 46 mil. $

Box office: 122.1 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 2.65 times its cost)

[Prisoners premiered 30 August (Telluride Film Festival, USA) and runs 153 minutes. Guzikowski's script landed on the 2009 Black List, a list of Hollywood's most popular unproduced scripts. Shooting took place from February - May 2013 in Georgia. The film opened #1 to a 20.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#4), grossing 61 mil. $ (50 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 11.6 mil. $ (9.5 %) and France with 9.7 mil. $ (7.9 %). It additionally made an estimated 18.3 mil. $ on the North-American home video market alone. The film was nominated for 1 Oscar: Best Cinematography, lost to Emmanuel Lubezki for Gravity. It also won 2 National Board of Review awards, among other honors. IMDb's users have rated the film in at #163 on the site's Top 250, sitting between Raging Bull (1980) and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998). Villeneuve returned with Enemy (2013). Jackman returned in Chantoozies: Baby It's You (2014, music video) and theatrically in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014); Gyllenhaal in Enemy. Prisoners is certified fresh at 81 % with a 7.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Prisoners?

The Prestige (2006) - Nolan's overrated magician picture

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Two familiar male star leads and a hazy female star wedged between them make up this dark, enigmatic poster for Christopher Nolan's The Prestige

Robert Angier and Alfred Borden are magicians in Victorian era London, feuding over a prestigious teleportation trick.

 

The Prestige is written by Jonathan Nolan (Interstellar (2014)) and his brother, English master filmmaker Christopher Nolan (Following (1998)), whose 5th feature it is. It is an adaptation of the same-titled 1995 novel by Christopher Priest (Short Circuit (1986)).

It is an overrated film in which we have to take two men who make tall hats disappear gravely serious. Basic suspense and a teasing final image don't disguise that The Prestige suffers from miscasts in its female roles and general awkwardness.

 

Related posts:

Christopher Nolan: 2020 in films - according to Film Excess

Tenet (2020) - Nolan blows smoke up your ass 

Top 10: Best UK movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

2017 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
2017 in films - according to Film Excess 
Dunkirk (2017) - Nolan champions cinema with masterful war movie  

Top 10: Best future-set movies
Interstellar (2014) - Nolan heads to space in opulent, exciting epic
2014 in films - according to Film Excess
The Dark Knight Rises (2012) or, Batman and the Storm, Darkness, Anarchy, Evil, Depression
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess  
Inception (2010) - Nolan's best is a grand piece of action sci-fi, perfectly awesome nonsense 

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]  
2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2008 in films - according to Film Excess
The Dark Knight (2008) - Nolan's best Batman  
Batman Begins (2005) or, Modern, Dark, Smooth Batman 
Memento (2000) - Nolan's overrated amnesia mindfuck   
Following (1998) - Nolan's ineffectual debut

 

 

Watch a fan-made trailer for the film here 

 

Cost: 40 mil. $

Box office: 109.6 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 2.74 times its cost)

[The Prestige premiered 17 October (Rome Film Fest) and runs 130 minutes. Shooting took place in June 2005 and from January - April 2006 in Colorado and California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #1 to a 14.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent 1 more weekend in the top 5 (#3), grossing 53 mil. $ (48.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 6.8 mil. $ (6.2 %) and Spain with 5.1 mil. $ (4.7 %). The film was nominated for 2 Oscars. It lost Best Cinematography (Wally Pfister (Batman Begins (2005)) to Guillermo Navarro for Pan's Labyrinth and Art Direction also to Pan's Labyrinth. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. IMDb's users have rated the film in at #42 on the site's Top 250 list, sitting between Whiplash (2014) and The Usual Suspects (1995). Nolan returned with The Dark Knight (2008). Hugh Jackman (Real Steel (2011)) returned with 2 voice performances, a TV-series performance and a short prior to his theatrical return in Deception (2008); Christian Bale (American Hustle (2013)) in 3:10 to Yuma (2007). The Prestige is certified fresh at 76 % with a 7.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Prestige? 

The Fountain (2006) - Aronofsky's sensorial meditation on mortality

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+ Best Psychedelic Movie of the Year + Best Mega-flop Movie of the Year

A truly striking, space-set poster for Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain

The Fountain is a strange journey in three ages: Thomas struggles to save the woman he loves; as a 16th century conquistador in New Spain, protecting her from attacking Mayans; as a neuroscientist in present time, dealing with her cancer diagnosis, and in an organic spaceship in the future.

The Fountain is a highly unusual, psychedelic and metaphysical triple story about the search for immortality, which isn't held together by a central suspense curve, SPOILER but one that does find its final release in our natural conclusion: death.
Hugh Jackman (The Greatest Showman (2017)) and Rachel Weisz (The Whistleblower (2010)) play the loving, troubled couple, and Weisz relates all of creation to Mayan myths in The Fountain, which is interesting.
The Fountain is written and directed by New-Yorker master filmmaker Darren Aronofsky (Pi (1998)), with Ari Handel (Noah (2014)) contributing story elements. It did not grab me as strongly as Aronofsky's preceding, harrowing drug drama Requiem for a Dream (2000), but it is a sensual, aesthetic waterfall of beautiful sounds, images (cinematography by Matthew Libatique (Ruby Sparks (2012))), music (score by Clint Mansell (United (2011))) and lights. A rare experience and obviously the result of serious, painstaking efforts.

Related posts:

Darren Aronofsky: mother! (2017) - Bring a flask with you to this one!
Black Swan (2010) or, Manic Dance

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 35 mil. $
Box office: 16 mil. $
= Mega-flop
[The Fountain premiered 4 September (Venice Film Festival, Italy) and runs 96 minutes. Aronofsky developed the film after Requiem for a Dream as a 70 mil. $ package with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett for Warner Bros. But as Pitt dropped out weeks before shooting, the film fell apart, and the sets, including a Mayan temple, were auctioned off. Aronofsky attempted to recast with Russell Crowe, but he was too exhausted after Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Aronofsky was able to reshape the film to a budget half the original size, and the project was again green-lit. Jackman prepared extensively for his performance, training t'ai chi and yoga for many months before shooting. Aronofsky cast his girlfriend Weisz, who visited terminal patients and witnessed brain surgery as preparation. The budget was kept low by minimizing the use of CG effects and using macro photography instead, (blowing up extreme closeups, including deep-sea images of micro-organisms shot by Peter Parks). Shooting took place in Guatemala, Montreal, Quebec, Canada and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania over 60 days in 'early 2005'. The film opened #10 to a 3.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed 10.4 mil. $ (65 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 1.3 mil. $ (8.1 %) and Russia with 0.6 mil. $ (3.8 %). It was nominated for a Golden Globe. Roger Ebert gave the film a 2.5/4 star review, translating to a notch harder than this one. Jackman returned in The Prestige (2006), Weisz as a voice in Eragon (2006) and in a physical part in My Blueberry Nights (2007). Aronofsky returned with The Wrestler (2008). The Fountain is rotten at 52 % with a 5.9/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Fountain?

The Greatest Showman (2017) - Stars soar in spirit-rousing musical

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Hugh Jackman promises joy, magic and show on this poster for Michael Gracey's The Greatest Showman

P.T. Barnum grew up in poverty but had a family and a dream to dazzle, which made him create the New York circus with a multitude of American oddities, winning him renown the world over.

The Greatest Showman is written by Jenny Bicks (Sex and the City (1998-2004)) and Bill Condon (Dreamgirls (2006)), based on the life of P.T. Barnum, and directed by debuting Michael Gracey (Ned Kelly (2003), digital compositor).
Although based on reality, The Greatest Showman offers glittering fantasy from beginning to end, it seems, or more accurately, it wraps the reality it loans from in bright colors and costumes, eye-popping visuals and, most crucially, a barrage of pop songs, stars and upbeat showmanship with current themes of inclusion and diversity underpinning its plot.
It is a film it is easy to scoff at, - indeed its effervescent, unreal glamour and style nears the ridiculous and phony at times, - but it nevertheless bound to make your feet go ticking to the rhythms of its catchy songs and your heart race at its audacity and pathos-packed stretches, unless it is carved of stone. Because this imaginative take on Barnum is fueled with an undeniably likable sincerity, enthusiasm and spirit.
It is delivered through the engaged, sympathetic performance by Hugh Jackman (Logan (2017)), a performer with tremendous skill and range. Michelle Williams (Species (1995)) plays his mighty pretty housewife, who puts him right, while Zendaya (Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)) and Zac Efron (High School Musical (2006), TV movie) enjoy sweet chemistry and both have a luminescence that rockets their scenes upwards. Rebecca Ferguson (Life (2017)) is excellent in the dramatic part as opera singer Jenny Lind, lip-syncing her swelling Never Enough convincingly, while Keala Settle (Ricki and the Flash (2015)) as the bearded lady sings for real and has the film's best song, the truly fantastical This Is Me.
The music is a box of delights, and the costumes, hair and makeup help make the film's wealth of characters come to boisterous life. Seamus McGarvey's fluid cinematography is a joy, and the film is ripe with visual knockouts, unhindered by constraints of realism or convention.
Musical fans will adore The Greatest Showman with glee for although modern and hip, it is also a throw-back to some of the genre's greats from many decades ago. The Greatest Showman is a big, loud, infectious - and rare - spectacle, brimming with heart and soul.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 84 mil. $
Box office: 104.9 mil. $
= Too early to say
[The Greatest Showman premiered 20 December (Taiwan, South Korea and North America) and runs 105 minutes. The project was announced with Jackman in the lead in 2009. Gracey was chosen to direct in 2011. Lyricists Pasek and Paul were hired in 2013. Jackman has revealed that the long development process was due to the studio being reluctant to finance an original musical. Shooting took place from November 2016 - ? in New York. Veteran filmmaker James Mangold was credited as an executive producer and directed re-shoots for the film. The film opened #4, behind holdover hit Star Wars: The Last Jedi and fellow new releases Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Pitch Perfect 3 to an 8.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it rose to a 15.5 mil. $ second weekend, still at #4, one of the biggest second week increases for a wide release ever, testifying to its great word-of-mouth among audiences. The film is still missing a Chinese release date, but it is set to open in Norway, Finland, France and the Philippines later in January and in Japan in February. It is nominated for 3 Golden Globes. Gracey is set to return as director with ninja-adventure Naruto. The Greatest Showman is rotten at 56 % with a 6/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Greatest Showman?

The Wolverine (2013) - Many good elements in Mangold's Japan-set superhero adventure actioner

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+ Best Superhero Movie of the Year

Hugh Jackman is a pumped, mad macho mutant man on this dark poster for James Mangold's The Wolverine

During WWII our hero Logan rescues a young Japanese from the nuclear bomb impact at Nagasaki. In our time, the man has become an old scientist, who summons Logan back to Japan ...
 
The Wolverine is the surprisingly good 6th film in the X-Men franchise and the second Wolverine movie, following X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009). It is written by Mark Bomback (War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)) and Scott Frank (Logan (2017)), based on the 1982 Wolverine comics by Frank Miller (Weird Tales (1978)) and Chris Claremont (Big Hero 6 (2008)), and directed by great New-Yorker filmmaker James Mangold (Cop Land (1997)).
The film makes effective use of its Japanese setting, from which the storytellers have drawn exotic elements such as the samurai culture, a Japanese garden, a so-called bullet train, a love hotel, ninjas and more. Some of the set pieces, (especially the one in the Japanese garden and the one on the train), are outstanding action.
The Wolverine is a well-produced action adventure with an adequately exciting story about a mutant blond, who has stolen Wolverine's abilities, SPOILER which he regains only by performing heart surgery on himself!
The film is ripe with sexual overtones from both Logan and other characters, and Hugh Jackman (Prisoners (2013)) is good, particularly in the scenes in which he invokes brutal, Dirty Harry-style justice.
Marco Beltrami (Scream 4 (2011)) has made an effective, orchestral score, and Wolverine has very fine visual effects and stunt performances. Unfortunately the climax of the film is too long, which is especially a shame since The Wolverine is such an otherwise good piece of entertainment.

Related posts:

James Mangold: 2013 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED VI]

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
Knight and Day (2010) - Diaz and Cruise invigorate Mangold's action romance
Cop Land (1997) - Stallone faces corruption and turns in some good acting in fine crime drama

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 120 mil. $
Box office: 414.8 mil. $
= Box office success
[The Wolverine premiered 16 July (London) and runs 126 minutes. Development was ongoing for years, with Christopher McQuarrie and Darren Aronofsky involved at various points as directors. Filming took place in Australia and in Japan, including Tokyo, from July - November 2012. The film was converted into 3D in post production. It opened #1 to a 53.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent its second week at #2 and then left the top 5, grossing 132.5 mil. $ (31.9 % of the total gross). The film's 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 40.5 mil. $ (9.8 %) and Russia with 22.2 mil. $ (5.4 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch better than this review. The film was followed by Logan (2017), also by Mangold and starring Jackman. The Wolverine is fresh at 69 % with a 6.3/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Wolverine?

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - A BAM in every direction for the tired franchise

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The poster for  Bryan Singer's X-Men: Days of Future Past

X-Men 4 (not counting the origins movie X-Men: First Class (2011) or the Wolverine films (2009 and 2013)), is a huge event movie that has strong hold over large audiences the world over, as is evident from its impressive B.O. numbers.
In case you're wondering, my three stars is a very generous assessment of the film in my opinion.
It seems almost impossible to give an outline of Future Past's plot without either being too general or go into too much detail, but trying might be fun, so here goes:
The future is terrible due to anti-mutant 'sentinels' that emulate mutant powers to defeat them (successfully), a technology based on Mystique's mutant powers of shape-shifting after her capture by her nemesis, Dr. Bolivar Trask, a powerful weapons scientist, in the mid-1970s. To prevent sentinel-extinction, the X-Men collaborate to send Wolverine back in time to make Mystique a good girl, who doesn't try to kill Trask - or President Nixon! - and thereby provide the need for the sentinels. But this is a difficult task, getting the younger, apathetic Xavier to wake up and smell the morning coffee, - and get him and Magneto to meet and agree on anything. Their oppositional personalities clash again in Future Past, one a hopeful, the other a skeptic.
Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook (2012)) gets a chance to play empowered angry-woman, who may or may not turn good, in the last second, of course, ( - which do you think it is...?)
The most interesting new character is Peter/Quicksilver (Evan Peters (Adult World (2013)), a young ADD-type guy, who can think and act really, really fast. Peters is energetic and well into the character and brings some fun into an otherwise very self-serious sci-fi action adventure. Other young performers, like Booboo Stewart as 'Warpath' (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)) is pretty much wasted due to his ridiculous make-up and costume, which is a shame.
Future Past is not generally a movie with any great actors' work in it; the universe isn't geared for that, and the ones singled out here are minor nuggets; the big guys, James McAvoy (The Last Station (2009)) and Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave (2013)), so good actors by themselves elsewhere, can't bring much to X-Men.

Fassbender at one point gets in contact with the power-figures in the human world by removing a stadium (!) and putting it on top of the White House, then ripping out the vault that they all hide in, and tearing it open of the lawn. His lacking subtlety seems symptomatic for a movie that stomps around different times and locations without much drive behind it, - what is it all for, one wonders, (if one has fallen out of the universe, as I clearly have.)
X-Men (2000) was really good; X-2 (2003) was even better; X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) by Brett Ratner (Red Dragon (2002)) was humongous and not very good. By X-Men: Days of Future Past, I have lost my enthusiasm for the series, which seems to have now developed into a possibly never-ending franchise. All things have a time, and for me, X-Men had a time, and that time lies clearly in the past.

The details:

Regarding the curious plot of Future Past, a nonsensical title if there ever was one, production people of the movie have said that with a time traveling movie, 'you can do anything'. Meaning that the time travel philosophy of parallel universes etc. makes everything feasible narrative-wise. Which is really only true, as long as you can get your audience to come along with you. With Future Past, I wondered why, - in all the other X-Men movies, - we've never heard of the sentinels, which were created and developed in a 50-year period following the mid-1970's? (Thus probably should have been an issue in all the other movies as well... - Is it all a parallel universe? Does anything have any consequence at all? - Not good questions for any movie.)
All logic and cohesive thought comes to an end sometime in a superhero franchise like X-Men, which likes to somersault around with multiple characters, times, places... This one also continually relies on the audience being familiar with the previous films, which is another weakness in my mind.
In the end, the X-Men are popcorn and multi-plex and merchandise fodder above all else. The Beast character most incarnates this, as he time and again grows from nice man into blue, ravenous wolf-like monster; pure eye-popping spectacle and very little else.
Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects (1995)), the director behind the two first and this X-Men film is the man who has shaped the franchise as it is more than anyone. As I zone out of the X-Men universe, I get more interested in Singer's personal problems, as he was accused of raping a boy many years ago while promoting Future Past, which he instantly stopped doing, (with good reason.) That case, and possibly more than the one, go on, as Singer, - one of the most successful directors in the world today, - is poised to direct the next X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) (Zzzzzzzz), but will he be able to? Reality sometimes beats fiction, and this is certainly a case of that, for me, anyway.

Evan Peters as Peter/Quicksilver eating a burger for an X-Men: Days of Future Past photo shoot, a movie mainly about selling and eating, (for the people involved, if you catch my drift)

Watch the trailer here

Budget: 200 mil. $
Box office: 739.6 mil. $ and running
= Big hit

What do you think of the X-Men movies and the newest chapter?
Any thoughts on Bryan Singer's private debacle?