Something's Gotta Give
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton, Amanda Peet, Keanu Reeves, Frances McDormand, Jon Favreau
Writer/Director: Nancy Meyers
Synopsis: This romantic comedy starts when an unmarried 63-year old ladies' man Harry Sanborn (Jack Nicholson) pursues a sexual liaison with the much younger Marin Barry (Amanda Peet). An attempted tryst at the vacation home owned by Marin's uptight mother, Erica (Keaton), is foiled when Mom shows up along with her sister, Zoe (Frances McDormand), at an inappropriate time. Then, through a freak heart attack incident, Harry had to stay over at Erica's house for a few days with Erica alone, much to Erica's displeasure. As a result, they both get involved in many quarrels but they also develop a strong connection and attraction over time. However, they couldn't accept the fact that they are in love with each other. To complicate matters, a handsome young doctor (Keanu Reeves), is also courting Erica. Would Erica and Harry finally realise that love doesn't have anything to do with age at all and admit that they are meant for each other?

In a Nutshell Review: This movie is strictly for older people only. Anyone else would probably fall asleep. However, anyone who is patient enough and is willing to explore the movie further would discover that the movie does have a rare and rather touching story to tell and would find it to be a good movie.

Full Review: First of all, I never wanted to watch this movie. I was in Seattle and I missed my bus to Vancouver and the next bus was 4 hours away. To fill time, I decided to watch a movie; There was ROTK, but the time was a bit late, so, i pick this movie. I don't have a very high expectation for this movie. The idea of 2 people older than my parents falling in love again does not really appeal to me. After I finished watching it, I still feel that maybe I should have watched other movie, but the movie is actually not so bad, and it actually make me think about the possible messages that it has.

On the surface, the movie looks like it tackles the issue of love across ages. First, it shows Harry likes to romance younger women, like he says, "Some say I'm an expert on the younger woman -- since I've been dating them for 40 years.". Then it show the younger Keanu Reeves character, Julian pursuing the much older Erica. And of course, the main love story between Harry and Erica. However, what the movie is really about is how strong, elegant, beautiful older women can be compared to their younger counterpart. The movie took pains to show how many older men can get young, hot dates easily whereas their female counterpart get ignored by the younger men. And then, it turn the table around and attack this idea openly by showing how Erica is pursued by both Harry and Julian. Suprisingly, this ideas do work well, thanks to the actors' great and believable performance. The success of the movie is mostly because of the cast.

Jack Nicholson basically plays himself in this movie. Well-known for romancing younger women in real life, he can probably do this role in his sleep, but while he does that, he also do a little more to develop the character further. Harry might look like a womanizer, but deep inside him, he does has his own insecurity issues to deal with. Then there is Diane Keaton, a veteran Hollywood actress, who truly shines in this movie. The movie has been marketed as if it's a Jack Nicholson movie, but Diane Keaton is the one who owns the movie. Her perfomance is great, both affecting and funny all at once. Do not be surprised if she gets nominated for an Oscar next year. Keanu Reeves may be well known for being a lousy actor, but here, at least he knows how to stay well in the background and complement the main stars rather than becoming a distraction; and he also have fun with it too (after all the work in the Matrix, he looks quite hunky too).

In the end, the movie is really more meant to older people. There are some times when people (older ones I assume) in the cinema laugh and I don't. The movie also gets really boring in some parts, especially in the early part. The dialogues aren't really that interesting either. But it manages to be better later on, thanks to the actors, as it shows how the main characters get in touch with their feelings and what they do with it. Those scenes are affecting and funny and for that, I give good marks for this movie. Maybe 40 years later, If I watch this movie again, I'll be impressed. hehehehehe.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Finally, after months of not updating this blog, I have posted my first review, The Last Samurai.

Here's how I do the review:
- title, cast and director info + synopsis
- in a nutshell review for those who is lazy to read the whole thing
- Full review (normally very longwinded)
- the rating
- the official website (if it exist)

I hope you enjoy it!

Ricky

The Last Samurai
Cast: Tom Cruise, Ken Watanabe, Tony Goldwyn, Timothy Spall, Koyuki, Hiroyuki Sanada, Billy Connolly, Shichinosuke Nakamura, Masato Harada, Shin Koyamada.
Co-writer/Director: Edward Zwick
Synopsis: Set in the late 1870s, this epic film depicts the beginnings of the modernization of Japan, as the island nation evolved past a feudal society, as symbolized by the eradication of the samurai way of life. We see all this happen from the point of view of an alcoholic Civil War veteran turned Winchester guns spokesman, Captain Nathan Algren (Cruise), who arrives in Japan to train the troops of the emperor, Meiji, as part of a break away from the long-held tradition of relying on employed samurai warriors to protect territories, as the emperor's new army prepares to wipe out the remaining samurai warriors. When Algren is injured in combat and captured by the samurai, he learns about their warrior honor code from their leader, Katsumoto(Watanabe), which forces him to decide which side of the conflict he actually wants to be on... (synopsis courtesy of movies.yahoo.com)

In a nutshell review: While in many ways a great movie, The Last Samurai could have been more, to quote Katsumoto , “all perfect” had it starred another actor other than Tom Cruise. But it’s still ultimately worth seeking out and is one of the best movies this year.

Full Review: The Last Samurai has been one of the movies that I anticipated most this year. Since I knew about it last year, I have been waiting impatiently for this movie to reach the screen. I mean, looking at the details about the movie, they are really ingredients for a perfect movie. First, there is Tom Cruise, an actor whose acting talent has been unfortunately undermined by his fame. He has starred in Vanilla Sky and Minority Report (both my favourites) recently, which are thought provoking movies that do not necessarily always attract large audiences. It shows that Tom Cruise actually dares to take on challenges to make good movies apart from doing formulaic Hollywood blockbuster (like the Mission Impossible sequels). A movie that stars him is definitely worth watching and I think that an Oscar has been overdue for him as well. Secondly, there is academy award winning director Edward Zwick who has directed a classic war movie before “Glory”. Lastly, it’s about Samurais and Japan!! – the potential themes that can be explored by this movie are classic: honour, heroism, tradition vs modernization, redemption and since this is a samurai movie, you are pretty much guaranteed that there would be swordfights and battles as well. There is also a great amount of respect and effort put in by Cruise and Zwick to this movie by casting talented Japanese actors (especially my favourite actor Hiroyuki Sanada who plays Ryuji in The Ring) and allowing much dialogue in the movie to be Japanese. Cruise has also reportedly spent 2 years preparing for this movie, by training the martial arts and speaking Japanese to get the part right. Normally such passions put in by the cast and filmmakers could only result in very good product in the end. Or is it always true?

Well, for the most part, The Last Samurai manages to fulfill its potential to be great. Most of the efforts put in translate very well into the screen. The acting (except for Tom Cruise, which I’ll get to later), cinematography, actions, direction are excellent. The themes that I mentioned above are indeed explored, and surprisingly themes like power, duty and even the future rise of Japan to be a powerful force are included as well. There are even scenes which predict what kind of Government would shape Japan in World War II, and dare I say it, I can even sort of identify the movie to the current situation in Iraq where the American government is trying to “modernise” the country. The movie also balances the drama and action in such a way that it delivers both to equally satisfying result. Overall, the movie should have been perfect. Too bad that the main problem with the movie is the very man who got this project going: Tom Cruise.

I sincerely didn’t want to criticize Tom Cruise, after all the efforts that he put into the movie. However, he just falls into the usual syndrome of acting as himself; in other words, when you watch him, you see him as Tom Cruise, not as the character that he plays (this also happens when I first watched Minority Report). Don’t get me wrong, I think he tried his best already and he has scenes in which he show how well he can act like the scene where he craves for Sake while getting treatment for his injury and his scenes with Taka (played by Koyuki) when he apologise to her for killing her husband. However, this is not a performance that will get him even an oscar nomination. He is once again a victim of his own popularity which resulted in his efforts going down the drain. As a result, it can actually be very hard to take the movie very seriously. I mean, you get to see Tom Cruise as himself learning how to fight with swords, learn Japanese and even romances* the woman whose husband he killed all within 6 months? The movie could actually turn out to be a joke unintentionally for some casual viewers and that is a pity because they would lose sight on what the movie is really about. And also, some scenes between Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe (who plays the samurai leader Katsumoto) are very awkward because they are spoken in English. There are lines which are meant to be serious and meaningful but instead made me laugh when I hear it, and that’s sad too. Last but not least, there is also something about the direction that I think could have been done better. Now, Edward Zwick has done a fabulous job with the picture. He practically practices the art of storytelling – “show, not tell”. I also think that he has studied many Japanese films to film this in a very quite, restrained manner similar to many Japanese films (the horror ones in particular). While this subtle approach is definitely always recommended, however, I wish that he could have been less subtle in his approach. There is a scene where Katsumoto meets The Emperor and I think that the scene have some meaning to it but because Zwick choose to shot it like it is, the meaning is open to interpretation. While normally I like this approach, I really wished that he could have just hammered the meaning to us. But this directorial issue is minor compared with Tom Cruise issue. As much as I hate to say it, I think if he loved to make this movie so much, he should sacrifice his role to a more suitable actor and just lend his support as producer.

All things said and done, The Last Samurai is still a great, if somewhat disappointing movie. Definitely recommended if there is no other better picture out there.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Official website: www.lastsamurai.com .

*- actually the relationship between Algren and Taka is very subtly portrayed in the movie, they are not shown clearly to be a very romantic one, just with the potential of it only. However, I do point this out because of my fear of people misunderstanding the whole thing as Tom Cruise always gets the girl issue.

PS: Shin Koyamada (who plays Katsumoto’s son) made a great debut here, he can beat Legolas any day in Archery =P.