Untraceable: Death by Viral Marketing

OK. So not quite two full years without a post. Between work and grad school, life gets pretty busy. But, as Ferris Bueller said, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it." How true.

Well, I've had some time to stop and look around, and wandered down to the local Blockbuster where I got "Untraceable". The movie caught my attention when it was released in the theatre since it was a cinematic take on IT and Privacy Law, which I'm studying in grad school. Basically, a tech-savvy psycho has created a website with a live video feed. He goes out, kidnaps a person, and sets up an elaborate means of torture. One guy gets pumped full of a blood thinning agent, and bleeds from the web address etched into his chest. Another guy dies from overexposure to heated lamps. The scenarios get a little more scary each time.

Now, if that were it, OK, a rather boring twist on an old plot device. However, "Untraceable" tosses in a tech-savvy twist. The more people who visit the website, the faster the person dies. It is death by viral marketing. And there are message boards for each kill. The comments can be a little difficult to read as the camera pans in and out, and the comments scroll quickly as more are added, but you get the sense of the car crash: it is gory, nasty yet you can't help but slow down and look.

Aside from the tech-savvy twist, the writing is also good and the plot comes together very well. I couldn't help but chuckle when Diane Lane's character speaks in tech about a website that just showed a live video of a cat being tortured and killed. Her superior doesn't understand anything about mirror websites or routing, and thinks it's a waste of time since it's just a cat. Then there is the super-techie played by Colin Hanks who is into online dating and avatars. The banter is lively, entertaining and humorous. The speech her superior gives about the website, telling people not to visit it, is a little predictable with its sound bites, but it does serve a point in the overall plot development of the movie. It adds another piece to the puzzle.

You're given the pieces to the puzzle bit by bit, which keeps you riveted. You start to put it together with Diane Lane's character, and though you know she is going to get captured from the previews, the way in which it happens is unnerving. There are lots of little things throughout the movie that make sense by the end, lots of little cues you start rooting to see.

As technology continues to advance, early tech movies like "Hackers" and "The Net" seem dated and humorous now. I get the sense that "Untraceable" will not fall into that bunch; it will remain relevant, perhaps more so as privacy is pushed to the front. Humans are curious, and when friends or coworkers pass around links, you can't help but click on them. Even the FBI, in the movie, wasn't immune. They were sort of caught between a rock and a hard place: click on it and the person dies that much faster, but if they don't click, they don't know and can't help.

Overall, I enjoyed it. A new take on the power of the masses, and perhaps people will think twice before meeting up with a stranger to pick up tickets to a game, or meeting an online date in person. You would think common sense would factor in, but viral marketing plays on the curiosity and the fact that a trusted source has given you the information. You don't know until it is too late.

Rating: G$_G$_G$_G

Casino Royale -- Smart, Witty Bond Movie

I just saw "Casino Royale" and was quite impressed. A smart, witty, stylish Bond movie. What are the odds?

Daniel Craig is a welcome breath of fresh air. He brings a very different take on the Bond franchise, presenting a more angry, brooding bond rather than the happy-go-lucky, gag-me Bond of recent times. His physique lent itself quite nicely to a much more active Bond, a Bond who actually chases people, on foot.

The movie also introduced a mass audience to Parkour/Free Running, a rather impressive underground sport. If you haven't seen it, or want to see more, check it out. Amazing stuff.

The dialogue was fantastic. One of the better-written Bond movies, I would say. Bond is rather quiet, but when he speaks, it is intelligent, witty and humorous. Craig plays the part so well, and his delivery is excellent. Even the facial gestures were good, and entertaining. Not every actor can say as much non-verbally and verbally.

The story was okay. The plot was a bit rough around the edges, but it did integrate technology quite well and did keep things moving along. It was predictable in parts, but yes, this is a Bond movie so some predictability is expected, assumed or a given. Still, I was not checking my watch, wondering how much time was left. Rather, I was asking myself if this is really it because it can't end like this. I didn't want it to end.

So bravo to Craig, and the writer's of this Bond flick for steering the franchise in a new, much improved direction.

I am actually looking forward to the next Bond movie.

Rating: G$_G$_G$_G

Meet Joe Black

Okay. I'll admit, I've never been a big fan of Brad Pitt. Can't argue with his looks but he never struck me as a man with a wide range of roles.

Except he seems to have made up for that lack of range in "Meet Joe Black," a curious, how shall I put it, love story about death. The pairing of Anthony Hopkins and Brad Pitt is odd, yet interesting and it works rather well. And old-school English actor with the American hotty. What an interesting pairing indeed.

There are a few scenes I like the best out of this whole contraption of a movie. The first is in the beginning when Brad Pitt get hit's by a car and then a cab! He gets hit twice! And why? For crossing the street when he clearly shouldn't be, and then to stopping in the middle of the street! True love indeed. For whatever reason, it was hilarious to watch his body get bounced around, even though it was a wee bit obvious it wasn't really his body. It was predictable yet entertaining.

His shift from the coffee shop guy to Joe Black is well done. No longer the witty, loquacious coffee shop guy, everything seems new and interesting. Pitt does a nice job of playing the curious child (as an adult), who is seeing and experiencing things for the first time. The family dinner in the beginning, the board meeting with the phrase "death and taxes" which is rather amusing.

The best part, however, is when he goes to the hospital for the first time and speaks in Rasta and a Jamaiccan accent to an old woman. Of all people to ever speak with a Jamaican accent, Pitt is not one of them. He did a nice job though. Better than expected. And that dawning of knowledge, that a hospital is now the best place for Mr. Death to be.

And then there is the part close to the end, where there is one final meeting and Joe Black is almost revealed, and the "death and taxes" bit, the two certainties in life, come back around. That was entertaining.

All in all, a fairly good movie.

Rating: G-$_G-$_G-$

Word Wars -- Rriigghhtt

I don't remember my reasoning for renting this movie. In hindsight, I think I got it confused with "Word Play" which has to do with crossword puzzles. If you're not reading or listening to your iPod on the "L" then you're doing the crossword puzzle or Sudoku challenge in the day's issue of Red Eye.

"Word Wars" deals with the ubiquetious word game known as Scrabble. There were many a Friday or Saturday night in college spent playing Scrabble, and it was fun and certainly helped increase my vocabulary at the time. The idea that there are people who literally do nothing but study and play Scrabble is mind boggling to me, and "Word Wars" chronicles the lives of 4 "word nerds" as they get ready for the 2002 National Scrabble Championship in San Diego.

Okay. Most people who have been in my apartment notice first off that I have quite a few books. They are stacked all over the place and have such a range that I could run my own library if I were so inclined.

What is in my apartment pales in comparison to the amount of books, papers or anything with words on them that these "word nerds" collect. Dictionary upon dictionary upon dictionary. Books on everything from gastrointestinal disease to the particulars of mining to pop culture to philosophies I've never heard of from countries I didn't know that were countries.

The really nifty thing about this movie though is how it tracks each player's thought process, and the use of anagrams. As they move from city to city and player to player, the new location starts as a word that is an anagram of that destination. The players spout off random combinations of letters, things that they might get, and proceed, with in seconds, SECONDS, to generate anagrams and words that actually have meaning!

That was impressive. Made me want to go out and by a Scrabble game and see what anagrams and useful words I have managed to accumulate from the books in my apartment.

It is a little slow in parts, and just mind boggling that these people spend their entire lives studying Scrabble, literally traveling from compeitition to competition to earn money to survive until the next one.

The word knowledge itself is worth the price of renting this movie. You'll want to look through the dictionary and wonder why you never knew that was a real word.

Rating: G-$_G-$_G-$

The Devil Wears Prada

I'll admit I was a bit hesitant in seeing this movie. I read the book, and the book was hilarious. What could've been a really depressing book was a sarcastic, witty, humorous slant on life in a job that "pays the rent."

I was skeptical about such wit and humour being duplicated on the big screen, but screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna is able to get most of it. And the casting is supurb! Meryl Streep does an excellent job portraying the cynical, ruthless, control-freak Miranda Priestly. Her delivery is curt, business-like and very much like how I envisioned the character in the book. Anne Hathway as Andy Sachs is just as good, playing the naive-to-wise 20-something making her way to the Big Apple.

Emily Blunt and Stanly Tuccie both give excellent performances. Stanly Tucci, who plays Nigel, strikes that perfect balance between Miranda's confidant and Andy's mentor, placating one while encouraging the other.

Though there are some very memorable scenes in the novel that were left out of the movie, like driving stick-shift in Manhattan rush hour traffic in stilettos, while not knowing how to drive stick-shift, the movie still did an excellent job capturing other telling scenes.

The jokes didn't fall flat. The audience was laughing for the majority of the movie and there wasn't that sense of contriteness that was in the movie version of The Da Vinci Code.

For an up-beat, funny, hey-my-job-isn't-so-bad and it's not the end of the world type movie, The Devil Wears Prada is worth seeing.

Rating: G-$_G-$_G-$_G

Napoléon

In a bit of a non-fiction biopic mood, I added the Napoléon miniseries to my Netflix queue. When I popped it in the player, what to my wondering eyes should appear.... but some familiar names and faces. To be perfectly honest, I let the credits run while I checked my e-mail. Biopics never have well-known people in them, right?

Wrong.

This miniseries is LOADED with major names and faces. Christian Clavier, Isabella Rossellini, Gérard Depardieu, and - my, oh my - John Malkovich, just to name a few. It's an incredible example of what a few (okay, more like eight, with a few North American firms thrown in) major European production studios can do when they work together. Now if only EU diplomacy could.... well, I digress. We're here to talk about the movie.

I had never seen Christian Clavier in a dramatic role before. I know him best from the Astérix et Obélix series of movies, in which he plays Astérix, the short but mighty Gallic warrior. I was in serious doubt of the possibility when he faced off in Episode 1 with Gérard Depardieu, who plays Obélix, the stout and obstinate Gallic sidekick. That moment past, I was sucked into the story, based on the biography of Napoléon Bonaparte written by Max Gallo. Since it is a pan-European miniseries, it is in English. The actors do a wonderful job - I'm betting that most of them spoke English beforehand, but this miniseries must have required some extra work all around.

It is a stunning look at many sides of Napoléon's life: domestic, military, and family are all represented. I would have to read Gallo's work to see the footnotes, but some of these vignettes seem awfully good to be true, if you get my drift. It gives a picture of the Emperor as an actual human being, and a good idea (if it's accurate) of how Napoleon was able to sway so many people on his way up the food chain. Isabella Rossellini plays the role of Joséphine de Beauharnais very well - an older woman, widowed by the Révolution, who won Napoléon's heart. Christian Clavier is the spitting image of the portraits of Napoléon. And John Malkovich is a great, intriguing Talleyrand. The miniseries stretches over four episodes on two discs. It is a beautiful production - filmed on location in many cases, in period clothing. It cost approximately $46 million to make, and it was worth every penny.

So, final verdict? Definitely worth a watch if you're a history buff. It's a four-hour smorgasbord of all things Napoleonic. If that's not your cup of tea, stay away and go for the 1-hour Biography on A and E.

The Family Stone

Alas, my string of bad movies doesn't seem to end.

With this particular cast and the particular story line, you'd think it'd be a comedy. Meeting your future family-in-law can certainly be portrayed in an entertaining, light-hearted manner. Such experiences often yield entertaining stories. Such is not true with The Family Stone.

What started out with gags and the finacee clearly out of her element, quickly became a depressing, can't end well story. Ugh. It's a little slow to get started, and the humor is sucked out much too quickly. The two paraelle dramas in the background move to the front, and, well, it was easy to guess the ending 20 minutes into the movie.

I don't quite get how this film got classified as a comedy. It's more of a drama with a slash of comedy in an effort to lighten the mood, and falls a bit short. Which you see in the previews are the only funny parts of the movie, and the rest is forgetable.

A very forgettable movie indeed.

Rating: G-$_G$