Movie Reviews – January 2007

Here are the movies we saw this month:

Most of them were Netflix rentals, one was on the Turner Classic Movies channel on television and we saw three in the theater. Also this month we got a DVD burner so we can record TV shows if we want to. We had a VCR before and we still have it hooked up to the DVD burner in case we want to copy an old tape we have, but we use the DVD to record anything new.

Here are my reviews:

Enigma

This was a costume drama set in World War II England. A disgraced cryptographer races against time to break the German code before a doomed convoy falls into the clutches of the German Wolfpack. Kate Winslet plays the brilliant, but ignored code worker who realizes the key to solving the code is already in their hands, but no one knows it. With a stolen enigma machine they travel across countryside to the place where the key is hidden. They are pursued by the security squad who thinks our heroes might be up to no good. Kate’s character provides the best dialogue in the movie. When the lecherous head of section corners her in the file room he says, “You know, without your glasses you don’t look half bad.” She replies, “You know, without my glasses nor do you.”
Netflix – three stars

Children of Men

The movie is set about 20 or 25 years in the future. The human race has become infertile and there hasn’t been a new child born in about 15 years. A man is contacted by a former lover who wants him to help her get passage for a young woman. The society is bleak. Martial law has been declared. The entire world except England is in anarchy. Our hero agrees to help when he discovers that the young woman is pregnant. Their plan is to get her to the coast where they can meet with an oceangoing aid society. When they get to the port, the people who are chasing them set an ambush. The Army is called in and the young woman gives birth in the midst of a firefight. This is a gripping movie.
Theater – four stars

Too Late the Hero

Set in the South Pacific in World War II, a lazy American Navy Lt., due to go on leave, is pressed into service to help the British Army take out a key Japanese radio installation at the north end of the island. At the decisive moment he refuses to do the noble thing and several of his comrades get killed. But on the journey home he finds his true heroic nature and saves the day. An acceptable action adventure
Turner Classic Movies – three stars

Brassed Off

British coal miners are facing the closing of their mine. Throughout the history of their mine the miners have had a brass band. A retired miner runs the band and it is practically his entire life. With the hardships facing them, the miners decide to disband the band. The old band leader has a physical collapse from black lung and the band gathers to play him a few tunes. They decide not to break up just yet and compete in the all England brass band contest. Of course they win, but the band breaks up anyway. Both feel good and sad
Netflix – three stars

Apocolypto

Mel Gibson’s newest movie is set among the Maya just before the Spanish takeover of Mexico. The movie is just great for costume and setting and I have never seen anything like it. The movie opens in a small, rural, Mayan village. The village gets raided by warriors from the big ceremonial center. They kill many of the people and take the rest away to be sacrificed. Just before he is captured, our hero hides his pregnant wife and son in a well. Through a series of unbelievable circumstances, he escapes. He is driven to make his way back to the village to free his wife. Pursued by the warriors he uses all his wily forest tricks to even the odds. He saves his wife and they make their way deeper into the forest realizing the Spaniards are going to change everything. I was really impressed by the look and feel of this movie. I thought the villagers were portrayed as a little primitive, however. The village is only one day’s march from the capital and I can hardly believe that being so close, the aristocracy could have enough peasants to sacrifice at the rate they seem to be doing it. The scenes in the city were out of this world.
Theater – four stars

Charlotte’s Web

Some pig! This was a live action version of the classic children’s story. We took Rachel to see it. Wilbur the pig is saved by the little girl but is destined to be Christmas dinner. Charlotte the spider figures out a way to save him by weaving words into her webs over Wilbur’s home. Very sweet.
Theater – three stars

Taking Lives

Angelina Jolie portrays a serial murderer profiler. She is on loan to a French Canadian police force on the track of the killer. When she becomes involved with one of the suspects things get complicated. There is a clever ending in this movie. Some of the French speakers can barely be understood. Average thriller
Netflix – three stars

The Iron Giant: Special Edition

I don’t know what was so special about this edition. Traditional animation was used in this movie rather than the CGI which is more common these days. A boy discovers a giant robot that appears to be a menace to the countryside. This is set in the 50s and a government agent is dispatched to get to the bottom of the Giant problem. The giant appears to have amnesia but seems to be gentle at heart. When the government people surround him and attack him he shows that he is nothing to be messed with. This makes things worse of course and the boy persuades him that he is really good at heart. The giant destroys himself in a last effort to save the city from harm. But in the last scene we see his blown up parts making their way north to eventually be reassembled into the giant once again. An OK way to spend some time
Netflix – three stars

The Governess

A young Jewish woman is hired by a reclusive inventor and travels to his Scottish estate. She is to teach the inventor’s daughter, but in the meantime is seduced by the inventor and has an ongoing affair. The movie is set in the 1840s and the inventor is experimenting in the newly discovered field of photography. The governess is clever and she helps the inventor solve a number of riddles which enables him to “fix” his photographic prints. When he scorns her, she presents his wife with some erotic pictures she has taken, packs her bags, and returns to London to become the star photographer of the Jewish sector. I liked depiction of the problems of early photography that this movie showed.
Netflix – three stars

Star Trek: Enterprise: Season 1: Disc 1

I had been intrigued by the premise of this TV series when it came out a few years ago. I saw a few episodes but really did not pay much attention since it did not seem to fit in our viewing schedule very well. The series is about Earth’s first ventures into space and how the Vulcans seem to be hampering them. The production values are very good but the story lines are hardly any better then any of the earlier Star Trek series. We had hoped that being able to see three or four straight seasons of shows would be as fun as seeing Firefly or Deadwood. While we may choose to revisit this series from time to time it was not as compelling as the other two just mentioned.
Netflix – three stars

Loch Ness Incident

This was a dramatic movie of a documentary of the making of a documentary. Whew! The main action follows a famed director, a conniving producer, and a suspect cast of actors and production crew. They go to Loch Ness to document the impact that the monster has on the local people and tourists of the area. All the while, another documentary crew is filming the goings on of the first documentary team and that is how the movie is presented, through their (the first team’s) eye. The producer (of the second team) intends to take advantage of the famed director’s name, but has no intention of producing a documentary the director expects. Things get out of hand when the barely-glimpsed real monster starts ramming the boat. This was a strange movie and was kind of fun to watch. It reminded me a little the Life Aquatic.
Netflix – 3 stars

Boys of Baraka

As opposed to the Loch Ness Incident, the Boys of Baraka was a real documentary and a grim one at that. Baraka is an American school in Kenya that takes at-risk, middle school black youths and gives them two years of education away from the ghetto. The story shows the boy’s selection, travel to Africa, adapting to the new environment, and their summer’s holiday after a year’s study. The heartbreak is that because of heightened security threats in Kenya at the time, the boys are unable to return to Africa for their second year. They find themselves once again in the defeating environment of the projects. Several of the boys appear to be making a success of themselves, but since this movie was only made a couple of years ago we don’t know that everything has turned out for the best. Their situation is heartbreaking and the movie reminded me a great deal of the children in Born into Brothels.
Netflix – 3 stars

This is my first attempt at movie reviews. Most of the reviews I’ve seen by the pros have a brief rundown of the plot and some analysis of what they saw. It’s hard for me to know that I am doing these reviews the right way or even the same way as the other reviewers. I invite your comments and suggestions I would be happy to answer any other questions about the specific movies that we saw.