| The best things about this movie are not the things the marketing department wants to to see it for. Bat alumni George Clooney and Nicole Kidman toodle around the world chasing a stolen nuclear warhead (with an amazing wealth of intimate personal knowledge of all the persons involved), managing to access America Online from Sarajevo AND Vienna - I can't even log on in Texas! |
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The best things of which I speak are some interesting camera tricks (despite some cheesy CGI effects that aren't even necessary)by the cinematographer and some heart pumping music by Hans Zimmer. Director Mimi Leder, and this sounds sexist to say, applies her feminine touch to the movie in a way I would defend as thematic - her camera lingers on the beauty of our world so we worry more about losing it.
She also spends some time exposing a little remorse, an aspect I appreciated after so many summers lately of KILL KILL KILL and no kind of mental repercussions or anything. Very novel, that, but not the type of thing that drives the pacing of the movie. |
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Enough characters abound so you do have to pay attention, and lots of languages and subtitles thrown in for good measure.
I was dubious of the locations at first, with Nicole Kidman parking her Calvin Klein (he got a credit) clad heinie in a Turkish airplane hangar with the electric fans going full tilt. But they are all in the former Yugoslavia, Macedonia, Russia, and of course, NYC.
Nicole and George's characters are nicely painted, with lots of tics
and idiosyncracies - but really, would a woman who reports directly to the president wear miniskirts like Amanda on Melrose Place and CHEW GUM in the war room? And Clooney almost looks as if he is having a petit mal as he tries to cuteness implode. |
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A major character, a piano teacher named Dusan, is played beautifully by Marcel Iures - he has an interesting face and Mimi Leder lets her camera soak him up.
Plotwise, it's a great deal of same old, same old when it comes to terrorists and nukes. I would sum it up by saying it's a stylish rendition of a mediocre movie. |
| As with Kiss the Girls, the best scene is the inciting incident of the nukes being stolen, rather than the climactic victory of the good guys (oops - did I give it away?) Maybe this is the new approach to making films; wow 'em within the first 15 minutes then coast til the credits. Attention spans are waning, budgets are waxing...it's just a matter of time until Contact 2 consists of that awesome opening shot and then Jodie Foster sitting on a car and then the credits (don't forget the soundtrack - on sale in the lobby!)... |
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You get almost everything you could want (I don't mean to disappoint naked celebrity fans - but no naked George or Nicole) in the movie, but how many times has this type of story been done, and how many more might it still?
A few things aren't clear - why does the US rush in to save the Russian provinces - I mean, why can't they do all this footwork? The bad guys might as well have a parade with banners saying Local Bad Guys Union #457.
It's not a terrible film, it's just a little silly, but it looks fabulous. You make the call. |
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