JohnnyNoGood

I found this film to be different from what I or anybody would come to expect from modern dramatic films. By now, everyone knows the premise so I'll jump right into the critique. "A History of Violence" wasn't quite what I expected and for that I can appreciate it better. It took a very unconventional way to tell the basic story and never took turns that I expected. The main characters were realistically flawed and there were many scenes in the film that made the audience uncomfortable, which was necessary and intentional. Graphic violence and sexual situations were blades at the bottom of a seemingly straight-forward drama. The film had some excellent performances by both Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen, but the sub-characters such at the two children were terrible. I never bought the little girl's performance one bit! And much of the dialogue was rather bland, but Ed Harris more than made up for the sub-par juvenile acting and blank script. The film made the audience do a lot of work to decipher what it was saying and how it was saying it. I found it's message to be profound and meaningful, but anyone looking for a straight-forward thriller/drama should look elsewhere. Unconventional, thought-provoking, and interesting.

I'm sure everyone already knows the plot, so I'll spare that paragraph. "The Life Aquatic" was a worth-while film. The characters were very interesting and each one, in spite of their rough edges, add so much to each other. But the characters, mainly Zissou, don't seem to change. They all are well-established and have motivations to get what they want, but throughout the film, no one (except Owen Wilson) are altered by the journey for the Jaguar Shark. I thought the plot was simple enough to house the wide array of characters, but also included enough side-plots and mini stories to keep the audience attention. The best part of "The Life Aquatic" is the range of emotions. About 4 completely different genres are found within the film. And even though such contrast might make it hard to categorize, it's somehow finds it's niche without a niche. "The Life Aquatic" is a very enjoyable movie. I liked it from start to finish and it never hassled me to take notice of certain things or decipher any convoluted scenes. It was simple and had such great dramatic scenes. Look at it as it's own entity, not just "another Wes Anderson crazy character laugh-fest."

After highly anticipating this movie's release, I must say that I was a little disappointed. I can't quite pinpoint what it is about this movie I didn't like, but something was...missing. It is a really well-made movie, from the

cinematography to the set design and even costuming. They were all nothing

short of awesome. But where "Hero" went wrong was it's originality. I know it's been said before, but it was EXACTLY like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon."

Not because it's ancient China or a beautiful "kung-fu" epic, but almost

everything that made CTHD great was spliced right into "Hero." From the music to the love story to the visual elements and fighting styles, it has the same feeling, mood, and characters that CTHD did (but without the heart and

development). I enjoyed Jet Li immensely and like I said, it's very well done and visually beautiful, but too little originality and not enough development to be CTHD.