Stone (2010)

Is Milla Jojovich a good actress? This might inspire more internal debate within yourself then you might expect. Sure the case for the opposition is strong - she's been involved in so many blotted on the cultural landscape- it betters belief if she can read English, the amount of times when says yes to a shitty script and some might say that she was previously at her best when she was playing on her naivety like her character in The Fifth Element.  But in Stone, she has to go toe-toe in the acting stakes with De Niro and Edward Norton, two of the... well they've been better in previous years and still capable of returning to previous glories- Jojovich has never been that good. But I'm here to tell you that maybe we shouldn't have wrote her off since-and i never thought I'd be writing these words- she acts Norton and De Niro into a corner.
The story of Stone is that De Niro plays a prison parole officer and Norton is one of his last cases before he retires. Jojovich plays Norton's wife and takes it upon herself to offer herself to De De Niro so he might look on her husband's case favorably. The strange part is she doesn't seem to mind and well- the term nymphomanic is thrown around and misused a lot but she'd probably knob a door off its hinges.
Maybe Jojovich does so well were Norton and De Niro don't is that in a highly sexual (not gratuitously sexualised though) film, a lilith thing like her can play that more credibly. No one wants to see Bobby D humping away. It makes you wonder if St. John's Ambulance were waiting on the side.. just in case.  Norton looks equally embarrassed with the 'sex stuff' that permiates through his character.
But Stone is an interesting watch because you struggle to fully understand the 3leads motives- De Niro has an extremely dysfunctional abusive relationship with his wife and it's made her an alcoholic wreck but it's not clear why he's like that. Norton seems to taking a vested interest in reforming his character but how sincere is he. Jojovich seems to be fully invested in getting her husband free but she's not that interested in being the least monogamous. These questions are as frustrating as they appear and maintain your interest. Especially Jojovich's character and congrats on your performance here. I hope it's not a fluke. 'Psycho hose beast' fits her like a... glove?  Now if we can suggest to her how to kill her husband Paul W. S. Anderson we'll really be cooking with gas...

I watched Stone (2010) on Blu-ray via LoveFilm.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Belle De Jour (1969)...

A Perfect Getaway (2009)

I decided to watch A Perfect Getaway today because i'm a lil hungover and i need some lightweight, undemanding fare. Can't watch Atom Egoyan films everyday. The main draw here would be the director/writer David Twohy. He made Pitch Black (2000), which is a great slice of wierd sci-fi thiller and put Vin Diesel on the map. They also made a quasi-sequel The Chronicles of Riddick (2004), which is FUHHHGGIN AWFUL. It's like Vin Diesel walked on the set of Dungeons and Dragons and they decided to keep him in the film cos Vin Diesel was a big deal at the time. Anyway, since i know A Perfect Getaway is very similar in theme (people killing each other on a desolate locale) to Pitch Black, this should should play to Twohy's strength...

This story is essentially a murder mystery. Not in the Sunday night ITV or Murder She Wrote sense- No, in this story the protagonists (Milla Jovovich and Steve Zahn) on their honeymoon in Hawaii are told there is another couple who are killing couples on the island. They come in contact with Chris Hemsworth & Marley Shelton and Timothy Olyphant & Kiele Sanchez, so basically in this murder mystery the implication is, it's one of these two couples, instead of, say 5 suspects with motives.

Before I lay into the HUGE problem with the film (It's a Biggie), in the interest of parity- A Perfect Getaway is plenty exciting and thrilling (I watched it on a laptop and it still translated.) but really that's the only decent card in it's hand. 

The writing really stinks- there's this terrible running meta-gag where characters are discussing screen-writing devices like 'red-herrings'- it just annoyingly takes you out of the film.

The film's Waterloo, it's Alamo is the massive gaping hole it leaves in the reveal of the murderers. To be fair even after that, the film is still exciting and you're still curious to see how it's going to play out (if only to see how Twohy is gonna MacGuyver his way outta this one...) but David Twohy... I understand, mate. You thought, what's the least obvious conclusion this film could have? BUT the problem, Dave, is that you would need the MOST amazing explanation to land it satisfactorily and reveal of the murderers in A Perfect Getaway, doesn't remotely come close to making sense. It's not like 'they did it? i could have sworn it would be...'- No, this just confounds everything that came before it. I mean the film stops and they explain what happened but it is in no way satisfactory. I suppose you guessed who it is, haven't you? I've spoiled it haven't i?

Well, just count yourself lucky- you didn't waste 90mins on this film.

I'm sorry Dave. That was a bit strong. I apologise; like i said it's entertaining and exciting but with your last 30mins, you took everything from the 1st hr and said well... well you probably said 'Oh this will really fuck with audience- they won't know what's going on!' You're right Dave, but sadly they won't care either.

I watched A Perfect Getaway on LoveFilm Online - http://bit.ly/hl07Bl

My 2011 in Movies will return with Wall-E (2008)...