FANTASY FILM FESTIVAL


DAY 1


Well the festival officially kicked off on Wednesday and I was there opening night. The festival's official opener was Kiss Kiss Bang Bang at 8:15 pm, but I opted to see Sin City instead at 10:45, the second movie of the festival. It was shown in its original version (all movies at the festival are shown in their original versions, occasionally with subtitles). Since I arrived in Cologne a bit early, I went for a double featire and saw Crash at 6 pm at the same theatre. Not really part of the festival, but since I already was there, why not? Here are my thoughts on both movies:


Crash

This one seems as a love/hate movie of the year so far, similar to last year's Closer only that this one recieves more love than hate. Yet, I read really two sided reviews on it. Some of them glowing others full of disgust about this movie. Usually, I'm on the hate side of love/hate movies, but just as it happened with Closer last year I embraced this movie warmly. It didn't click with me as well as Closer did which basically blew me away with its amazingly adapted screenplay and brilliant performances, but this was still a truly well-made drama which was better than most Best Picture nominees of last year.

To make a short summary: The movie deals with a couple of days in lives of completely different people living in the metropol LA and shows their lives being connected to each other in dramatic ways. It revolves around the topic of current racism and different approaches to it.

I can see why people wouldn't like this movie. In its approach to the topic of racism it takes some controversial ways. The movie is merciless in many aspects and it never plays around with them, but much rather shows the real deal. I have read a couple of times that some things in this movie are just unrealistic. For the most part, I have to disagree. The only two unrealistic things about the movie were that the cops actually did let Cameron (Terrence Howard) go after chasing him down and it was also a bit unrealistic how all these stories of the characters were inter-woven with each other and how all the dramatic stuff happened to then within such a short period of time. But other than that, I had little problems with the realism of the movie.

Actually, the realism in some parts of it was really well-made, like the scene when Sandra Bullock said that she knew what was coming, but if she turned around and walked away, she'd be perceived as a racist. I must say that I have already been in a similar situation and that certainly doesn't feel well. Overall, I really liked the way the movie dealt with its topic. There are little compromises and not a real happy ending. The twist (spoiler when Don Cheadle's character finds the dead body of his brother) was very well-done. There were actually several scenes in the movie that shocked me and left me with my mouth opened: highlight for spoilers When Ryan Phillippe's character ends up shooting Peter even though he didn't pull out a gun or when the store owner "shoots" the girl. Some very intense scenes there. I thought the movie started out rather slow and gradually got better till the very end.

What I also liked about it was that in the end only a few of the characters turned out to be good people with the exception of Michael Pena's locksmith and partially Ludacris' Anthony. That was also a thing I liked about Closer. The movie's cast is mostly what makes Crash a great movie. Performances are great all-around, especially by Terrence Howard, Matt Dillon and the always great Don Cheadle. Sandra Bullock was really good, but underused. Brandan Fraser was the only one whose performance I wasn't particulary fond of and I thought his character was rather useless to the story.

The movie's final 30 minutes elevate it from good to great. I loved the way they ended things in it and what they made out of characters. Speaking of the characters, I thought the screenplay was great and even better than Haggis' Million Dollar Baby with various characters that almost all are interesting on their own. My favorite characters were Matt Dillon's Sgt. Ryan, Ryan Philippe's Officer Hanson and Terrence Howard's Cameron. I liked how the Dillon's character is on the one hand a racist, ut on the other hand realizes that he really is an asshole and also has good sides to him if he wants to show them. I like the change of Ryan Philippe's character towards the end of the movie and I liked the depiction of Howard's Cameron as a rich African American who most likely wishes he was white. Very well-written movie.

As for the technicals, this movie fares well. The editing and cinematography are both great and the movie's haunting score is brilliant and hopefully receives an Oscar nomination. The pacing was a bit off in the beginning, but improved later on.

This is not to say the movie was flawless. I have mentioned a couple of the flaws above about one or two things being a bit unrealistic and Brenad Fraser's character as well as the slow pacing at the beginning. My only other major problem with the movie was that overall, while it depicts different stereotypes well and has some good approaches to the topic of racism, it doesnt seem to have a clear message. Everything is shown well, but it is mostly "just there".

Overall, I wasn't blown away, but it definitely exceeded my expectations as it wasn't nearly as pretentious as I expected it to be, but much rather honest and raw in its way of telling the story. Haggis is a good directed and I hope to see another movie by him soon. Crash is not a masterpiece, but it is a superb drama and the best of its kind in a long time.


My Grade:

A- (8.5/10)





Sin City

Now this movie was officially part of the Fantasy Film Festival. First of all, I need to say that the showing was nearly sold out and that was the biggest screen of the theatre with around 700-800 seats. I think only about 20 seats were empty when the movie started. The atmosphere was great, the audiences consisted mostly of movie geeks who were not at the festival for the first time, hehe.

The movie itself was by far and away my most anticipated movie of the year and to say it right away, I was bitterly disappointed. Not to say it wasn't good, but I suppose by anticipation was too high up. Now to the good parts first:

The movie's style was breathtaking. The violence was great, especially considering how highly-stylized it was. The director could have never pulled off that violence if it wasn't black and white without getting the NC-17 rating. (SPOILER Just think of Bruce Willis ripping of Yellow Bastard's genitals or Mickey Rourke finishing off Kevin). I loved the director's play with colors throughout the movie.

Moreover, the movie had some truly cool characters, especially Kevin, Marv and Miho. The performances are good all-around mostly. Mickey Rourke's Marv is a blast, Elijah Wood's Kevin is silently creepy, Bruce Willis' Hartigan is a greatly-played tough cop and Nick Stahl is an amazing Yellow Bastard. Unlike many, I wasn't too thrilled by Clive Owen's Dwight. I thought he was just decent. Jessica Alba, however, really can't act well. I saw that in Fantastic Four and I thought exactly the same in this one as well.

Unfortunately, this movie is a case of the popular style-over-substance. Now Kill Bill Vol. 1 was similar, but that one had even cooler characters and better dialogue as well as better acting. I'd compare this one to Zhang Yimou's hero which was visually brilliant, but lacked in the screenplay department. It's very similar here. I actually was thrilled by the first segment, "Big Fat Kill" with Marv. I thought it was by far the best and stood out of the movie. That is partially thanks to the best characters of the movie: Marv and Kevin and also thanks to the ingeniously creepy storyline with the child-like cannibal.

From then on, it went a bit downhill. The second segment, despite having part of it directed by Tarantino, was probably the worst out of the three. A very generic story, with decent performances and way too many gratuitous scenes that didn't add anything and seemed as time-fillers. Miho was the only great part about it. Even the usually great Benicio del Toro was just okay. The third segment, "That Yellow Bastard" was an improvement, but still not great. Bruce Willis and Nick Stahl shined, but Jessica Alba really wasn't good and the story was simply too plain with nearly not enough action.

Overall, it was a bit of a mixed bag. A good mixed bag, but mixed nonetheless. Amazing visuals, but only an average story with the exception of the first 40 minutes. Marc was probably my favorite characters. I also thought it lacked some humor.

The crowds were in love with it, though. There was some applause throughout the movie and great applause at the end of it.


My Grade:

B (7.5/10)



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So that was my first day at the Fantasy Film Festival. I skipped the second day because I was realy really tired on the first and almost fell asleep towads the end of Sin City, so I slept in on the 2nd day and today, I'll be seeing at least two more movies at the festival. This time, much less-known ones than the two above.

Stay tuned for more reviews and reports.

Nice reviews. I loved "Crash", too. My only big problema with it (Yes, there were a lot of coincidences, but as they always are in this "Differents stories that blend together" stuff) was that the script hemmaered us with trhe messagge a few too many times. We would have got it had they insisted less, and had the movie been a little shorter. But overall, great film.

On the other hand, I was bored trough "Sin city". I agree completely, lots of amazing style, no substance at all. And yep, the same thing happened to me with "Kill Bill 1"! The second, though, was great.

Oh, yeah, and "Closer" rules the world.

I agree. Kill Bill Vol. 2 was better than the first one because it had the great story to back up the style.

I still like Vol. 1 a bit more than Sin City simply because it has better dialogue and Uma Thurman.


I have seen about 9 other movies at the festival already, but since I am gone all day and come back tired I simply have no time to write up the reviews yet.

Anything outstanding?

Quite a couple.

A post will follow.