November 2004 Archives

I've moved a few more reviews over from my "old" (now offline) site:

• Limbo
• Last Night
• Lantana
• Curse of the Jade Scorpion
• Jackie Brown

I'm going to try and finish up the move soon. I have about 10 more. Of the above, I liked them all but really really recommend Lantana. I enjoyed rereading the review and now I want to pick it up to buy.

Intacto ([Info] [Rent] [Buy]) (or Intact, as its English title) is a very intriguing Spanish/English movie from 2001 about luck, both good and bad. It stars Max Von Sydow [Info] as the luckiest man in the world, and several excellent Spanish actors trying to get to him. I was mesmerized, even if a bit confused, by the plot, and really enjoyed both the camera work and the soundtrack.

The movie starts with someone being very lucky at the roulette wheel (only one of several similiarities I saw between Intacto and Run Lola Run [Info] [Rent] [Buy]). Frederico (Eusebio Poncela [Info]) gets called to to steal the patron's good luck, which he does by merely touching him. Sure enough, the formerly lucky patron loses his next big bet, much to his and his cohort's chagrin.

Then, for some unexplained reason, Frederico decides to leave his cushy job as Official Luck Stealer and tells Samuel (Sydow) that he is leaving. Well, The Jew, as he is known, doesn't take too kindly to that, and so he steals Frederico's luck on the way out.

Frederico spends the following years trying to find another lucky person, to try and get back at Samuel. He finally finds an airplane crash survivor, Tomás (Leonardo Sbaraglia [Info]) and they begin a very strange journey through the underground world of luck stealers, which include a former bullfighter Horacio (Guillermo Toledo [Info]). There are all sorts of interesting competitions, where they try to find out who is the luckiest, using as currency pictures of poor souls from whom they've already stolen all their good luck.

Their quest is complicated by the fact that Tomás is a fugitive from justice and is being tracked by a tenancious police officer and, unbeknownst to her, a luck stealer herself, Sara (a truly bravura performance by Mónica López [Info]). They have some very narrow escapes, as well as several very surprising competitions (including the one where the contestants race blindfolded through a thick forest trying to avoid trees), finally culminating in a shocking showdown with Samuel.

What a wonderful film! It really posited a very believable "luck" underground and made it all very interesting without spelling everything completely out. The acting was top-notch all around, and the subtitling was done very well. A couple of the twists were truly remarkable, and I enjoyed myself completely. The ending I have to ponder on a bit, as I'm not really sure why he did what he did, but I'll bet there's a good reason. If I had the patience to sit through the entire director's commentary (what little I listened to was very good), I'll be it would all become clearer.

The camera work was superb. There were several really clever shots - you know, ones that make you go "Wow, that's neat!" without feeling like the director (Juan Carlos Fresnadillo [Info], surely someone to watch) and the cinematographer (Xavi Giménez [Info]) were trying too hard. I loved the one where they swapped positions in the car, backlit by a setting sun. And the music was really cool too.

Yup, so this picture is a winner. I highly suggest Intacto!

I've done a little watching and also some buying. For watching, I had the pleasure of sitting down for Intacto [Review] [Info] [Rent] [Buy], a really top-notch Spanish/English film, riffing on the subject of luck. Reminded me a little bit of Run Lola Run [Info] [Rent] [Buy] with its playing with time as well, although not nearly so completely. Just more imagining how things might have been different had the luck been changed. But an excellent movie and one I will review here shortly.

I also picked up a couple of Best Buy "2 for $15" specials. Once Upon a Time in the West [Info] [Rent] [Buy], a Sergio Leone [Info] classic, as well as This is Spinal Tap [Info] [Rent] [Buy], the special edition even. Looking forward to watching both of these.

I watched Sam Peckinpah's [Info] [Rent] [Buy] Cross of Iron [Info] [Rent] [Buy] on a quiet Sunday evening and thought it just okay. I recently watched a Peckinpah retrospective on cable and it mentioned his last few films weren't really ones he made while at the top of his game. And Cross of Iron is one of his last and it felt very over done. His trademarked slow motion killings all seemed forced and a little out of place in a World War 2 film; that sort of movie making works okay in a mythical Old West, but just doesn't seem to fit the WW2 oevre. I also thought that it was typically Peckinpah to be contrary and film a World War 2 movie from the German side, especially during them getting their butts kicked towards the end of the Russian campaign. I enjoyed James Cobrun [Info] and James Mason [Info], both solid professional actors, but I thought even Maximilian Schell [Info] overacted as the maniacal officer driven towards earning an Iron Cross.