Thursday, October 9, 2008

Following Christopher Nolan


Following (1998)

A story about a man who likes to follow people to study them for his book. He meets a burglar who teaches him the tricks of the trade. I usually don't put any spoilers on my reviews but this movie's good and bad parts come from the twist in the end that has to be spoiled a bit to tell you what worked and what didn't. I'm just going to say if you liked Memento, you'll probably find this one interesting too and can stop reading here if you want to keep some of the surprise. The movie is built so that it moves in three layers in different times towards the big twist in the end. And the twist is what makes and unfortunately breaks this movie. It's quite clever and all the pieces of the puzzle fall nicely into place, but I just have to wonder why would a mob hitman go through all that trouble. Wouldn't it be easier to just take out the lady if she's trouble and get yourself an alibi. Oh well it's a nice movie, but a bit far fetched. The cast was quite good and you can clearly see the themes of Memento popping up.
66%

I couldn't review the rest of Christopher Nolan's movies with the Batman movies nor with the short movies, so I'll put the missing few here. You can find The Dark Knight and Batman Begins here and Doodlebug here.



The Prestige (2006)

This was a huge surprise when I saw it. I had already seen The Illusionist which is very similar in themes and released at the same time. I didn't really like it that much so somehow I wasn't expecting much from this one either. Well this turned out to be a brilliant movie. The mood, the looks and the cast are all top class with a good story with nice twists to keep it interesting.
90%



Insomnia (2002)

Remake of Erik Skjoldbjaerg's Insomnia. Doesn't bring anything worth while to the old movie, but the great cast keeps it interesting. This one proves the point again that great comedians make the best villains as Robin Williams is quite amazing as the twisted killer. And of course Al Pacino makes a great role as the insomniac detective. But other than the great cast, this offers very little new if you've seen the original and that makes it quite redundant.
68%



Memento (2000)

I think this is a bit over rated. I mean it's a great movie, but isn't really worth all the praise it gets. It's relying heavily on one twist and the fact it's told from the end to the start. If you'd turn the narration around it would be barely average movie, but that's what makes it special. It tells us nothing new, but it tells it in a way we aren't used to and thus making it seem fresh. But that's where it also fails to be a masterpiece. It only works once. Next time you see it, it's the barely average crime thriller, nothing else. Brilliant movie for one watch, but don't spoil it with another.
81%

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