This has been an interesting couple of weeks as far as movie releases go. Of the three movies I saw this holiday, two were Oscar-worthy and one was Oscar-the-Grouch's-trash-can-worthy. Let me elaborate ...
Pretty much everyone who lives on this spinning blue ball we call Earth knows that Peter Jackson's long-anticipated trilogy has finally reached its conclusion. Based on the classic novels by J.R.R. Tolkein, “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” has been touted as the biggest movie release of the year.
If the lines at the theater are any indication, I would have to agree with them. We purchased our tickets in advance AND arrive a half-hour early, but still had to sit in the front row because every other seat was taken.
I'm not going to say much about this movie, except that if you haven't seen it, drop everything and head to GKC Varsity Cinema in the Sault right now!
As far as nominations go, “The Return of the King” has been nominated for “Best Picture-Drama,” “Best Director,” “Best Original Score” and “Best Song” in the 2003 Golden Globe Awards.
The film stars Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins, Sir Ian McKellen as Gandalf, Liv Tyler as Arwen, Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn, Sean Astin as Samwise Gamgee, Orlando Bloom as Legolas and Andy Serkis as Gollum/Smeagol.
Anyone who has seen either of the first two movies, “The Fellowship of the Rings” and “The Two Towers,” will remember these vivid characters.
“The Return of the King” is rated PG-13 “for intense epic battle sequences and frightening images,” so is only recommended for mature viewers.
The other Oscar-worthy movie I saw was “Cold Mountain.” In fact, as the most-nominated movie of the year, it's pretty much a guarantee that this film will walk away with at least one award. It's been nominated for Golden Globes in several categories — “Best Picture-Drama,” “Best Actress-Drama (Nicole Kidman),” “Best Actor-Drama (Jude Law),” “Best Supporting Actress (Renee Zellweger),” “Best Director,” “Best Screenwriter,” “Best Original Score” and “Best Song (Sting).”
“Cold Mountain” is based on a novel by Charles Frazier and tells the story of Ada Morgan (Kidman), a city girl who moves to country with her ailing minister father (played by Donald Sutherland).
Upon meeting the young, shy Inman (Law), Ada is immediately smitten. She vows to wait for him when he enlists in the Confederate army and leaves to fight the Civil War.
Three years later, Inman lay in his apparent deathbed when he receives a letter from Ada asking him to come home. He packs up his things, slips past he troops and begins his Homer's “The Odyssey”-like trek back to the little town of Cold Mountain, South Carolina. As a deserter, he would be shot on sight, so much make his away across the country virtually unseen.
Meanwhile, Ada's father has died and her home and farm are in disrepair when she is visited by spirited country girl, Ruby (Renee Zellweger),who decides to help her.
“Cold Mountain” was an excellent movie and I can see why it earned so many Golden Globe nominations. Kidman, Law and Zellweger all did incredible jobs with their roles.
The film was somewhat graphic in its portrayal of war and had some pretty explicit scenes, so isn't recommended for children. It is rated R “for violence and sexuality.”
If you get the chance to see this movie, I highly suggest you do.
Now, for the grand finale ...
I said earlier that, of the three movies I saw, I thought two were excellent and one was not so good. Well, here is the “not so good” one.
“Paycheck” certainly had a lot of potential, don't get me wrong. With such big name actors as Ben Afleck and Uma Thurman, you'd think it would rate a little higher on the scale.
However, I found the film mostly boring, dull and completely overrated.
Afleck stars as “reverse engineer” Michael Jennings. He is hired by various technological companies to unravel competitors' advancements by taking them apart and working backward from the finished product. He then remakes the product, modifying the idea slightly so the company can circumvent copyright laws.
Obviously, his employers wouldn't want Jennings to blab about his exploits or resell the idea to another company, so he signs a contract before each job to have his memory of it erased.
When Jennings is offered $90 million to work on a top-secret project for three years, he accepts and the action begins.
Upon waking after his memory erasure, Jennings goes to the bank to claim his money, but finds he has signed away his cash in exchange for a manila envelope with 19 mundane objects within (paperclip, bus pass, quarter ...). He must use these items to figure out what he's been doing the past three years.
As an added bonus, his girlfriend, Rachel (Thurman), shows up. He, of course, doesn't remember her at all.
Does this sound familiar to anyone at all? Maybe the director and screenwriters and their memories erased of similar movies — “Total Recall,” “Johnny Mnemonic,” “Minority Report” and “The Bourne Identity,” to name a few.
What's even more ironic is that “Paycheck” is based upon a 1953 short story by Philip K. Dick, who also wrote “Minority Report” and “Total Recall.” Do we see a pattern here?
Maybe it was good the first time, okay the second time and only slightly fetid the third time. But, after the same premise has been done so many times any possible entertainment value has been completely milked from it, movie-makers should just give it a rest already.
Sure, it was truly an interesting concept — someone sells his mind for a paycheck, then has his memory erased and has to follow clues he left himself to figure out what happened. The only problem was that it's been done before in pretty much the same way it was done in “Paycheck.”
The film is rated PG-13 “for intense action violence and brief language,” so isn't recommended for children. Honestly, I wouldn't really recommend this movie for anyone. If you're hurting and really want to see a movie, I suggest “The Last Samurai,” “Cold Mountain,” “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” or “Something's Gotta Give.” Even if you've already seen these, a second showing would be about 10,000 times better than a first showing of “Paycheck.”
I would have to say the film made it close to the top of my Hated Movies List, along with “Eyes Wide Shut,” “The Thirteenth Floor,” “Magnolia,” “Vanilla Sky” and “Solaris.”
