ScreenArt

The sun in the title is Pierce Brosnan & Salma Hayek, the lover thieves. After a high-profile crime they retire to, where else, someplace in the Caribbean Islands. And we must all think for a few minutes that the sun has set and we know that it really hasn't. Brosnan trades off his charm and built to fit a retired vacationing person. Hayek's dresses have cleavage cuts that are mathematically computed to reveal just about enough to tease the viewer.

The bulk of the story is about the drama between Woody Harrellson, a F.B.I agent and Pierce Brosnan when the former challenges the latter to steal a diamond of historic value guarded in a luxury yatch stationed in their island. Kill any logic nearby and you have a mediocre crime-caper-drama in your hands. Of course, there's a twist in the last 5 minutes and another one in the last two minutes - was not blown away by any means at the ingenuity of the screenplay, but I chuckled.

Labels: Cleavage, One Minute Review, Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek

I don't remember the last time I had such great fun while watching a gangster/heist genre told in a back & forth and then back-to-front with a lot of characters, but doesn't gloss away any characterizations and packs the story with punches and ironies... well now I remember, it's 'Pulp Fiction'. While on the way to rob a bank, the wonderfully versatile Benicio Del Toro disguised as a Jewish scholar talks of the translation of Bible where the translators substituted 'virgin' for 'young woman' and how the whole story took a wrong turn. This exactly reminds one of the foot massage talk between Jackson and Travolta before they shoot a few renegades in 'Pulp Fiction'. Snatch' is a step ahead of 'Pulp Fiction' when it comes to dialogues - cool, witty and sharp; but a bit low on the style factor. But what's lost in the style department is copiously made up in the pace - the editor must have been the busiest man in the British film circuit while working on this movie. You show me a single sagging scene in this movie, and I will... need I bother to challenge?

The movie is about many gangs, ranging from the juvenile to the hardened mafia, running after a piece of 84-carat diamond. While the diamond keeps changing hands, we get to know the attitudes and lifestyles of those who chase the gem: a man's weakness for gambling costs his life; a man's love for his mother costs the mafia's lives; helpless boxing promoters fighting to save their lives; a Russian don refusing to give up his life; a hit man accidentally losing his life; clueless street fighters caught in the big game are juggled with their lives. There's much more - terrific performances, laugh out loud brilliant lines and a convoluted yet superbly lucid screenplay and fluent direction. If the word masterpiece is to be reserved only for those movies that define a genre, transcend time and set milestones, this movie may fall a little short. But who gives a damn - 'Snatch' has 100% entertainment value and that by itself qualifies it as a masterpiece.

Labels: One Minute Review

Spain. 1944. Second World War. Guerillas against Fascist regime. This is the setting against which Guillermo Del Toro has based his story which fuses gritty reality and absolute fantasy.  I didn't get the catch, if there are any hidden messages meant for the audience.  This is how it goes: Vidal is a military captain who has his base somewhere in the mountains, determined to wipe out the guerillas.  He marries a widow who already has a daughter Ofelia.  Now, Ofelia's world is two-fold - the world which everyone sees, and hates but continues to live; and the under-world, a fairy place where she is a princess.

The screenplay strongly commits to the effects of fairies on real-life that it's quite impossible to dismiss the fantasy part as a mere figment of Ofelia's imagination.  There are scenes - in both the worlds that are great, but seeing them together, one after the another, some how distorts the movie effect and reduces the punch.  Either it should have been a complete reality, or a complete fantasy.  In tying the knot and in searching meanings, I was lost.  One striking aspect of the movie is its photography, which creates a magnificent atmosphere, that you almost buy the fantasy scenes.  One question lingers at the end of the movie: Why is it called Pan's Labyrinth?

Labels: Guillermo Del Toro, One Minute Review, Pan's Labyrinth

The magic found in the books, not the spells or potions but the way the story unfolds, is devastatingly missing in the movies. The movies so far are at best a fair adaptation with a somewhat understandbale storyline and at worst, like this one, are rushed & choppy. Harry Potter is the only character who is considered for screen development with Dolores Umbridge & Hermione Granger coming in at distant second and third places. Like diamonds in the rough, there are a few scenes that work; but taken as a whole, the movie seems like it has been written, directed & edited by a pampered child - comfortably twisting characters and plotlines, huge holes in character portrayals and cuts from one scene to the next with no smooth transition in-between. If this piece of writing is insipid, blame it one the movie for dulling my senses.

Labels: Harry Potter, One Minute Review