More brief reviews....

The new “Mission Impossible” movie is an intense, action-filled movie that re-establishes Tom Cruise as our national action hero.  The film was shot in some remarkable places around the world, e.g., Dubai, Budapest, and Moscow.  Regarding the latter, this film has some of the best aerial shots of the Kremlin that I can remember seeing.   This movie has more humor than its predecessor’s particularly with the addition of Simon Pegg.   The female lead is Paula Patton, who apparently can pack a punch as effectively as the men.  Cruise (or a stunt man) does some incredible stunts, particularly off the side of the Burj Khalifa, tallest building in the world.  I am not sure what was CGI  but it didn’t matter, the effect was so exciting.  The weakest cast member was Jeremy Renner.   He doesn’t have Cruise’s action-hero star power, so he paled a bit by comparison.  Lea Seydoux played a key role as a femme fatale who has the unfortunate distinction of being pushed out of one of the half-mile high Burj Khalifa windows.  She is a beautiful woman and plays her part believably.   I saw the movie in IMAX.  It is a wonderful medium that increases the intimacy and excitement of the stunts.  I recommend “MI: The Ghost Protocol” highly.

I attended a Broadway touring company presentation of “My Fair Lady.”  It was well-staged and performed.  I only stayed until after the intermission.  In spite of the high quality music and lyrics, Broadway musicals, in general, do not engage me.  And “I could have danced all-night” seemed to be inserted into the show, without clearly informing me about what Liza thought she should dance for.  I probably missed something.

I saw the indie film “Another Earth.” The film stars Brit Marling and William Mapother (Tom Cruise’s  first cousin) who has all of Cruise’s facial features, but not put together as well.  Both of these actors were convincing in their roles. The story is about a promising young woman who has a bit too much to drink and drives.  She hears a news report about the discovery of another earth.  While behind the wheel, she cranes her neck to see the new planet and drives head long into another car, killing the driver’s pregnant wife, and the couple’s son.  The driver is in a coma for four years, and she conveniently goes to prison for four years. As part of her redemptive process, she offers her services to him, post-coma, as a housekeeper.  This was part of a strategy to find a way to say she was sorry, but instead falls in love with him.  Fast forwarding, she wins a trip to the new earth.  She instead gives the ticket to her lover in hopes that he might see his family again.  This was possible through a plot device which said that the two worlds and their inhabitants lost synchronicity when the new earth became visible.  He goes, she stays.  In the final scene she meets herself in the back of her house.  I liked the movie while watching it, but after about a week, it seems less compelling.  The plot so stretches credulity that it seems mostly a contrivance.   The notion that he might find his family again was so far-fetched that her self-sacrifice lost its punch.   I was also distracted by the poor quality of the cinematography and lighting.  I appreciate it is a low-budget picture, but think more could have been done it make it a bit more visually appealing.  The soundtrack by Fall on Your Sword was effective in underscoring the storytelling.  “Melancholia,” another recent release (see my review elsewhere) has a similar plot device, i.e., the discovery of a new planet close to the earth, but it is visually stunning and makes its point without having to stretch believabililty.

 

“Homecoming” has proven to be one of the best dramas on television.  The plot involving a possibly turncoat returning prisoner of war is contemporary and compelling.  Claire Danes is spectacular as the obsessed bipolar CIA operative who has no boundaries when it comes to protecting the country.  Danes inhabits the character fully and the scene where she is in full-blown mania is realistic and convincing.  The plot is full of twists and turns and it’s difficult to tell who is patriotic and who is a traitor.   Damien Lewis is also superb as the conflicted returnee and Mandy Patinkin plays the depressed and possibly duplicitous CIA boss of Dane’s character.  Morena Baccarin plays the wife of Damien Lewis’ character.  She is warm, controlled, and beautiful.  She was great in last season’s “V” and is equally good here.  

Brief reviews

Brief reviews:

“The Tourist”- Now all together:  Angelina is gorgeous; Angelina is sexy; Angelina is elegant.  Now having gotten that out of the way, the tourist reminds me of one of the Audrey Hepburn caper movies, e.g., “Charade.”  In spite of her many strengths, Angelina has a bit less of the elegant but a lot more of the sexy that Hepburn. Those who say there was no chemistry between Angelina and Johnny Depp don’t seem to understand there was to be no chemistry until the very end.  Nevertheless, there is on kiss fairly early on in the movie that was very hot, including some tongue action.  That meets my criterion for “chemistry”, as opposed to the Matt Damon and Emily Blunt kiss in “The Adjustment Bureau.”  I do not regret spending two-hours on “The Tourist.” 

“Insidious”- This spook-movie was good for the first half.  It was creepy and unnerving at times.  The second half was pretty bad because it was so derivative.  Patrick Wilson played the same character he played in “Little Children.”  He is getting type-cast as a slacker kind of guy.  The creepiest part of the movie was in the séance where the medium put on a strange gas mask-like contraption.  This movie would have been so much better if the writers did not feel compelled to explain everything (as silly as the explanation was turned out to be).  I’ve read that American audiences do not like lose ends in a movie so maybe that is why we have so many silly endings.  There are two examples of a movie with an inconclusive end that are quite good.  The first is “Picnic at Hanging Rock,” an Australian import from the early 1970’s.  The second is “The Entity” starring Barbara Hershey (who is also in “Insidious”).  The latter is in the horror genre and involves a woman being molested by an unseen spirit.  We don’t know why, but we do see the how.  We also know that the attacks continued after she left town.  For me, that was a anxiety-filled, ambiguous, ending.  Martin Scorsese includes “The Entity” on his list of the eleven scariest movies ever made.

“Love and Other Drugs”- To be clear, I just do not get the whole Anne Hathaway craze, but apparently I may be alone in that.  This film can’t decide if it’s an indictment of the pharmaceutical industry, a romantic comedy, a disease-of-the week movie, or a film about a man child growing up.  Jake Gyllenhaal was good, and he has the most manscaped eyebrows and chest hair I have ever seen.  The movie was made in Pittsburgh so I enjoyed that part.  This is a badly focused story that is just passable. 

“The Borgias”is a new period piece from Showtime.  It stars Jeremy Irons as the patriarch of this family of ambition and moral laxness.  Irons is wonderful and revels in his character.  This series is worth watching just to see him act.  I did not know much about the Borgias but look forward to learn more about their family-based crime syndicate. 

The Musica Sacra Series presented a program titled “Opposites Attract” at Atlanta’s First Presbyterian Church.  The program included Stravinsky’s “Symphony of Psalms” and Faure’s “Requiem.  The church’s acoustics were terrible.  The chamber quality of the “Symphony” was totally lost in the sound blur of the hall.  Even worse, Faure’s delicate and elegant “Requiem” sounded leaden.  The organ was about the only instrument that benefited from the acoustics.  I left with a headache. 

Emory presented the Serafin String Quartet as part of its noontime concert series.  The program was a pastiche of movements from various quartets.  One was the Allegro from Dvorak’s String Quartet in F Major.  This is a melodic and beautifully shaped movement and helped to remind me of what a good composer Dvorak really was.  There were two pieces by Jennifer Higdon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Higdon) who is currently en vogue in the classical music world.  Her pieces were introduced by the ASO’s music director Robert Spano.  Higdon’s music is melodic and tonal.  The first piece was her “Amazing Grace for String Quartet.”  I have a deed for a piece of land Wasila if you can guess what theme it is based on.  The second Higdon work was two movements from her “Sky Quartet.”  These pieces were pleasant enough but didn’t seem to warrant the awe that she seems to inspire.  I need to hear more of her music.  The Serafin group was good, and substitute viola player Luke Fleming was particularly good.  His playing was strong and it reminded me of what a wonderful tone the viola has.