Movie Review: Red Lights (2012)

Genre: Investigative Thriller  

Director: Rodrigo Cortés  

Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Cillian Murphy, Robert De Niro, Elizabeth Olsen, Toby Jones  

Running Time: 114 minutes  

Synopsis: Academic physicists Dr. Margaret Matheson (Sigourney Weaver) and Dr. Tom Buckley (Cillian Murphy) run a side-business debunking psychics and paranormal advocates. Margaret's student Sally (Elizabeth Olsen) joins their investigations and starts a romance with Tom. When celebrity blind psychic Simon Silver (Robert De Niro) surprisingly comes out of retirement, Tom is eager to expose him as a fraud, but Margaret is more careful.

What Works Well: The first act introduces interesting characters and adds depth to Dr. Matheson through a side story involving her son, while the debunking sessions and academic sparring with rival physicist Dr. Shackleton (Toby Jones) are sharp. The cast members battle valiantly to prop-up the disintegrating script.

What Does Not Work As Well: Writer and director Rodrigo Cortés clumsily steers into a bewildering narrative turn about halfway through, and the drama never recovers. The remainder of the film is a toothless exercise in silly special effects, the gritted-teeth obsession with a touring entertainer never close to supporting the weight of unfolding carnage. Another attempt at a late twist arrives with the never-good sudden introduction of narration and carries all the impact of a wet noodle.

Conclusion: Accelerates with promise, but then stops dead.



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Movie Review: Oppenheimer (2023)

Genre: Biographical Drama  

Director: Christopher Nolan  

Starring: Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh  

Running Time: 180 minutes  

Synopsis: In 1942, theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) is recruited by the US Army's General Leslie Groves (Matt Damon) to lead a team of scientists in developing a nuclear weapon that could end World War Two. Along with their families, the scientists are based at the purpose-built town of Los Alamos in New Mexico. Previously, Oppenheimer's pre-war education allowed him to meet Europe's top physicists. Once established at Berkeley, he mingled with communists including his lover Jean Tatlock (Florence Pugh), before marrying ex-communist Katherine (Emily Blunt). 

After the war, the US is gripped by anti-communist fever and Oppenheimer is subjected to a secretive interrogation to determine if he should retain his security clearance. In the 1950s, retired Admiral Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.), formerly a high-ranking member of the Atomic Energy Commission, is offered a cabinet post in the Eisenhower administration. His previous interactions with Oppenheimer become a pivotal topic at his senate confirmation hearing.

What Works Well: This epic and stylish biography covers Oppenheimer's scientific, personal, and career milestones with bravado. Director and writer Christopher Nolan adapts the book American Prometheus (by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin) into a gorgeous-looking, fast-moving, cross-cutting story of scientific theory and war reality colliding into a victory imperative. Against a backdrop of shifting global alliances, the drama packs the moral dilemmas, self-doubt, state secrets, and personal rivalries inherent in the development of technology capable of annihilating the planet. The three hours of running time fly by, aided by excellent performances from a stellar cast, with Cillian Murphy brilliantly portraying Oppenheimer as an intriguing combination of accessible and arrogant. 

What Does Not Work As Well: At times, the avalanche of names and characters is overwhelming. While the science is respected, the theory and practical challenges of developing the atomic bomb could have been addressed in more depth.

Conclusion: Explosively enriched entertainment.

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Movie Review: 28 Days Later (2002)

A zombie apocalypse horror film, 28 Days Later is a creepy vision of societal collapse.

In England, animal liberation activists invade a lab to free captive chimpanzees and accidentally release a fast-spreading virus that causes rage, triggering an epidemic. 28 days later, bicycle courier Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up from a coma at an abandoned London hospital. Chased by zombie-like infected humans thirsty for flesh and blood, he is saved by the intervention of survivors Selena (Naomie Harris) and Mark.

Jim insists on visiting his parents' home, then he and Selena connect with fellow survivor Frank (Brendan Gleeson) and his daughter Hannah. They pick up a radio transmission promising safety at an army checkpoint near Manchester, and head out in Frank's cab. After several close escapes they connect with Major Henry West (Christopher Eccleston) and his small group of soldiers, but Jim and Selena's troubles are far from over.

Director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland revitalize the zombie genre (although the term is never used) with a sparse, character-driven journey into a collapsed civil structure. 28 Days Later delivers a haunting vision of evacuated cities beset by marauding infected victims seeking fresh blood, with pockets of survivors left to fend on their own. Whether surviving another day to live in this nightmare is even worth the effort is a question posed early, Jim's parents finding a peaceful ending when all hope seems lost.

The zombies move quickly, and while the violence is often shocking, Boyle's jerky hand-held cameras and dark environs imply more than what they show. Not satisfied with revealing street-level horrors, Garland takes the story towards the essence of the human condition. The second half shifts gears a couple of times. First Major West and his men appear to provide refuge, but a twist awaits, initially outrageous but upon reflection most plausible in the context of men reverting to the laws of the jungle. The ability to kill in the name of living becomes a pressing reality.

The tangle with the military men adds thematic spice, but does create a movie-within-a-movie and takes the intense focus away from the core apocalypse story. The star-free cast helps to maintain dour concentration within the changing nature of the challenge, Cillian Murphy as Jim navigating the transition from courier to adept survivor with help from Naomie Harris' unyielding determination to do what it takes.

As the rules of chaos take hold, the abstract happenstance of who lives and who dies is a random variable. One drop of blood landing in exactly the wrong place is as much a cause for a machete attack as hordes of chomping zombies. With the virus easily representing the spread of any condition that corrodes social fundamentals and triggers anarchy, 28 Days Later is disturbingly cogent.



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Movie Review: Anthropoid (2016)

A World War Two action drama based on real events, Anthropoid is a stellar retelling of the assassination attempt on Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich of the Nazi SS, also known as the Butcher of Prague.

It's late 1941, and Heydrich has been appointed by Hitler to crush all resistance in occupied Czechoslovakia. Agents Jozef Gabčík (Cillian Murphy) and Jan Kubiš (Jamie Dornan) of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile are parachuted into the countryside. Jozef's foot is injured upon landing, and the two men have to evade Nazi sympathizers and make their way into Prague. They find the resistance decimated, but manage to connect with a surviving cell led by "Uncle" Jan Zelenka-Hajský (Toby Jones) and Ladislav Vaněk (Marcin Dorociński).

Jozef and Jan are harboured by a local family, and to facilitate their movements connect with underground members Lenka (Anna Geislerová) and Marie (Charlotte Le Bon), as they set about planning their mission to assassinate Heydrich. They track his movements and select a location for an ambush. There is dissent about the mission within the ranks of the dispirited resistance, with Vaněk among those fearing the Nazi retaliation. The day of the strike arrives, and not much goes according to plan.

Directed and co-written by Sean Ellis, Anthropoid is an exquisitely constructed film. Breathing deeply from the soul of a city crushed under the Nazi boot, Ellis delves into the people, the places and the events with obvious care, fleshing out in admirable detail the characters, emotions and frightful consequences of a seminal yet controversial mission.

With the Nazis at the height of power and Czech resistance effectively crushed by Heydrich, the idea of a ragtag group assassinating the third most powerful man in Hitler's regime (and the main architect of the Holocaust) was rightfully inconceivable. And even should they succeed, the bloody and disproportionate reprisals were predictable, piling more agony onto an already suffering nation.

And yet. The potential morale and propaganda boost was undeniable, and the message of unyielding continued resistance would register at the highest levels of the Third Reich. And so Jozef and Jan carry on their reconnaissance, meld into the city, cozy up to Lenka and Marie to help conceal their identities, and cobble together the resources and help to try and carry out their mission.

Ellis dedicates the first hour of Anthropoid to the careful set-up, the attempted assassination lands right at the midpoint, and the second half of the film kicks into a high gear. Now the hunters are the hunted, the backlash is, as anticipated, fearsome. Acts of historic heroism and treachery play out on the streets of Prague, culminating in a fearsome climax at the Cathedral. The final battle is filmed with an artistry at once horrifying and stirring. Sacrifice, brutality and heroism in a World War Two context have rarely been captured on-screen with this level of passion.

The performances are stoic, Cillian Murphy most prominent as the singularly determined agent, Toby Jones providing stalwart support as the astute leader of the surviving local resistance.

Heartfelt and unblinking, Anthropoid takes its place among the great World War Two movies.

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Movie Review: Batman Begins (2005)

A superhero origins story, Batman Begins kicks off the trilogy with an engrossing and cerebral character-centred experience.

In Gotham City, a young Bruce Wayne has a traumatic encounter with bats, then witnesses his parents' murder during a mugging. Wracked by guilt, Wayne (Christian Bale) abandons his family's wealth and heads out into the world, living a life of squalor and crime. Dumped into a remote prison in Central Asia, he is rescued by Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson), who oversees his combat training and inducts Wayne into the League of Shadows, an organization of elite warriors led by the mysterious Ra's al Ghul. Once Wayne learns the League's real agenda, he abandons them and returns to Gotham to fight crime on his own terms.

With help from long-time family butler Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine) and Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), head of the Applied Science Division at Wayne Enterprises, Bruce gradually adopts the crime-fighting persona of Batman. He keeps his mission a secret from childhood friend Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes), now an idealistic Assistant District Attorney. Wayne embarks on a quest to both reclaim control of Wayne Enterprises and rid Gotham of corruption, starting with violent crime lord Carmine Falcone (Tom Wilkinson). He recruits honest police lieutenant James Gordon (Gary Oldman) and uncovers a vast psychotic drugs conspiracy involving psychologist Dr. Crane (Cillian Murphy), a villain known only as Scarecrow, and an unexpected powerful mastermind.

A big screen reboot of the Batman mythology, Batman Begins is an exquisite effort from director and co-writer Christopher Nolan. Committed to a surprisingly bright palette and an emphasis on people rather than action, Nolan creates a seminal example of what a smart comic superhero adaptation can achieve. Batman Begins first and foremost engages the mind and forgoes cheap thrills, and the origins story goes a long way towards grounding the film in the person of Bruce Wayne rather than the antics of a man in a costume.

The 140 minutes are surprisingly brisk, and despite some jumping around in time Nolan tidily breaks down the narrative into three parts. The backstory is the longest and best, rich in the details of a young Bruce experiencing the trauma of being trapped in a well, triggering a close encounter with bats, with a direct line from that experience to the death of his beloved parents. His formative years are then scattered on a life in search of any meaning in the company of other lost souls, until the intervention of Ducard and subsequent training as an elite warrior.

The second act focuses on Wayne defining his mission in life, buttressed by Alfred and supplied by Lucius on his way to assembling the raw material for what makes a Batman. Both Alfred and Lucius carry echoes of the past with strong links to the legacy of Bruce's father, and a large part of Batman Begins' appeal resides in the continued multi-generational commitment to do right. The finale is what can be expected, the true villains making themselves known and triggering an opera of mayhem with Batman improvising on the fly to save his beloved Gotham.

On the way to the transition Nolan has plenty of fun providing backstories to everything from the Batcave to the Batmobile, with detours to explain the origins of the suit, the mask and the emergency light signal. This is a true beginnings story, and nothing is left undefined.

Christian Bale slips into the role comfortably, displaying enough emotional depth to play up the emphasis on the individual rather than the role. Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Liam Neeson, Tom Wilkinson, Rutger Hauer (a slimy executive at Wayne Enterprises) and Cillian Murphy ensure that every key role is bolstered by a serious talent boost. Only Katie Holmes is overwhelmed, with a difficult, underwritten role and an unconvincing performance.

Batman Begins is a storytelling masterpiece, a fascinating crime fighter finally receiving his deserved high quality big screen production.

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Movie Review: Dunkirk (2017)

A stellar World War Two film, Dunkirk is the story of an army's survival, defeat salvaged from the jaws of catastrophe as seen through the eyes of the combatants.

Three separate but convergent stories related to the evacuation of the defeated British Army at Dunkirk, France in 1940 are recounted simultaneously. In the first story young British Army Private Tommy (Fionn Whitehead) barely survives patrol duties in the town and flees to the beach where he tries to find his way onto an evacuation ship. But with the beaches under fire from German guns and aircraft, the injured are being evacuated first. Over the course of a week Tommy teams up with Gibson (Aneurin Barnard), a soldier of few words. They rescue fellow soldier Alex (Harry Styles) from death by crushing and then attempt to smuggle themselves on-board any available outbound vessel.

The second story takes place over one day and features civilian Mr. Dawson (Mark Rylance) and his teenaged son Peter (Tom Glynn-Carney) responding to the British Navy's call for assistance. Without waiting for official help they set sail from England in Dawson's small boat with their eager helper George (Barry Keoghan). The Dawsons soon pluck a shell-shocked mariner out of the water, and doggedly continue on their way towards the hell of the Dunkirk beaches.

The final story takes place over one hour, and centers on Farrier (Tom Hardy), one of three Royal Air Force pilots flying towards the skies over Dunkirk to provide what support they can and counter the German air threat. Farrier engages in dogfights with Luftwaffe fighters and attempts to shoot down bombers targeting evacuation ships. Gradually Farrier becomes increasingly isolated and low on fuel.

Meanwhile, the Navy's Commander Bolton (Kenneth Branagh) is doing his best to organize an orderly withdrawal of more than 300,000 men in the face of hostile seas and incessant enemy pressure.

Written, directed and co-produced by Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk is a beautifully overwhelming and all-encompassing multi-sensory experience. Eschewing traditional narrative structures in favour of telling a story with barely any dialogue, no defined heroes and no venomous villains, Nolan allows the evacuation itself to take centre stage as a seminal event and pursues it from the land, the sea and the air.

Whereas Saving Private Ryan was about the ethos of a generation, Fury delved into the limits of sacrifice and Hacksaw Ridge focused on one individual's private war against war, Dunkirk is about a nation's psyche. As such Nolan is less interested in the mechanics of battle or individual actions; rather this is a film about collective character being forged through the mist of a stunned and stunning reaction to a devastating retreat.

Each of the three stories generates specific momentum and unrelenting tension. The fear, frustration, hunger and desperation of the massed soldiers builds up in the eyes of Tommy, Gibson, Alex and others, willing to try anything to get on a boat, despite the danger of being blown out of the water by the marauding German bombers. The stoic response of the civilian population is represented by Mr. Dawson and his son Peter, and their chapter most embodies the spirit of Dunkirk as a country comes together to rescue its sons. Meanwhile the dogfights and aerial duels in the sky are superbly choreographed, the pilot Farrier aware that his contribution can only be small but yet decisive in terms of morale and for the lives he may save.

To augment the impressive vistas of a gloomy beachfront war theatre, Hans Zimmer provides a soundtrack that is simultaneously filled with dread, anticipation and extreme anxiety, adding to jarringly loud sound effects that bring the horrors of war to the fore. Every bullet in Dunkirk registers as a transmittal of potential death, every bomb and torpedo an individual parcel of destruction. The few lines of dialogue suffer in comparison and are often drowned out or garbled.

In the absence of a focus on individuals, Nolan's cast is filled with newcomers and relative unknowns in most of the key roles. Mark Rylance as Mr. Dawson, Kenneth Branagh as the pier master Commander Bolton and Tom Hardy as the pilot Farrier share the most prominent acts of above-and-beyond valour. On the beach, the widescreen is filled with thousands of startled young men maintaining relative calm and some discipline in the face of enemy fire as they patiently await either rescue or death.

Dunkirk is war in its unspoken complexity, death, hope, bravery and astonishing selflessness coming together to define a nation and write a momentous chapter in a history-defining conflict.

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Movie Review: Red Eye (2005)

A reasonably enjoyable action thriller that personalizes the danger posed by terrorists, Red Eye may be full of large plot holes but nevertheless offers up rousing entertainment.

Lisa (Rachel McAdams) is a proficient manager at the Lux Atlantic Hotel in Miami. After attending her grandmother's funeral in Dallas, she boards an overnight flight back to Miami. She finds herself seated next to a handsome man calling himself Jackson (Cillian Murphy) who had shared a drink with her at the airport prior to departure.

Soon after departure, Jackson quietly reveals himself to Lisa as a terrorist. He has associates waiting to kill Lisa's father Joe (Brian Cox) at his house in Miami unless Lisa cooperates. Jackson demands that Lisa use the plane's in-flight phone to call the Lux Atlantic and change the suite assigned to the United States Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, to place him in the kill zone of a terrorist plot. A terrified Lisa has to hold her nerve, delay making the call, and try to thwart the plot and save her father's life.

Directed by veteran horror master Wes Craven, Red Eye offers up a unique premise that is both it's success and failing. Confining most of the action to a single overnight plane ride creates a claustrophobic environment ripe for cranking up the psychological suspense, and hems Lisa into an effective "no where to run" scenario.

But even at the economical running length of 85 minutes, the Carl Ellsworth script is stretched to fraying as it prolongs the drama in the sky. The film needs to keep finding new ways to make sure that Lisa avoids fulfilling Jackson's demand, and after the first couple of sidesteps, the mind begins to wander towards questions such as why did Jackson not get his mission done while stalking Lisa on the ground, before the plane ever took off. It would have been helpful to spend a bit less time on the plane and bit more time fleshing out the terrorist plot, to provide some additional context to Jackson as a man and a mission.

The final 20 minutes, after the plane lands, are undeniably exciting as Lisa races to try and prevent a catastrophe, but they also turn Red Eye into a more conventional cat and mouse, hide and seek thriller. Lisa, pushed over that mythical edge that frequently exists in action movies, is transformed into an all-action heroine and leads Jackson on an extended chase, complete with old-school horror elements featuring the always popular "behind which door is the killer hiding" trope.

Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy both do well in what is essentially a two-person drama. McAdams is as ever irresistibly perky and likeable, and Murphy capitalizes on his almost too-good-to-be-true looks to prove that indeed, Jackson is no good.

Red Eye provides a compact shot of adrenaline that may not be perfect, but is enough to make any overnight trip an exhilarating blur.

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