Thursday, October 08, 2009

Saving Grace

England. Some small village at the coast. Graces husband dies. After a short period of sadness she needs to find out that her husband has left nothing but a huge amount of depts. Grace has no income but has to pay back the depts or her house will be auctioned. Her gardener Matt has the saving idea: plating marijuana and sell it later on. Grace has the right touch for plants ,and this crazy idea could change her whole finacial problem. So they plant marijuana in secret, but very soon the whole village is informed without their knowledge. When the time arises where the drug needs to be selled Grace decides to drive to London, even though she has no idea what is expecting her or whome she heeds to talk to. I can simply warmly recommend this mivie. It is so full of heart and humor. Many scurile and funny characters are the essence of this story, especially the main actress is lovely, so full of energy and hope. It´s only about the characters and how life sometimes plays.

Equilibrium

After the third world war humans try to create a cure against agressiveness that could lead to death and desperation of the whole polulation. They find that a liquid that represses all emotions (love, commiseration, anger, jealousy, sadness, and so on) is the right thing. Everybody needs to take it in a defined period of time so the repressed feelings can´t appear on the surface of the mind of a person. The leader of the humans and the ideal of a world without war is called "Father". he makes rules and gives orders. To make sure everybody stays within the system brutal laws are taking place, people that don´t take the liquid are called "sense-offenders". The clerics, a group of some kind of special agents with breathtaking abilities of fight-methods (reminding me a bit too much of Matrix) burn everything that is somewhat connected to fellings like books, art, music,... and kill the sense-offenders (sometimes by shooting them, sometimes by buring them alive). As you probably noticed, this movie is very very violent, many people die and lots of guns are in use.  The main actor, John Preston (Christian Bale), is the best of the best within the clerics. His wife has been excecuted because she stopped taking the liquid, but nevertheless he is still the hard, ideologic man. But then he shoots he best friend and college. After that he changes. Very soon he is hunted, tries to find the undeground that wants to overthrow the system (guess what, of course with bombs and violence and stuff). Well, this movie could be good, it includes lots of interesting ideas but what comes out in the end is a violent and flat movie. The actors are not developing any deep profile and the special effects and action parts have a very much too high priority. Not even the soundtrack is too good. So, if you don´t mind people being shot every five to ten minutes or whatever this is a movie for a popcorn-evening. Not deep, good looking actors and not too much thinking.

Equilibrium

After the third world war humans try to create a cure against agressiveness that could lead to death and desperation of the whole polulation. They find that a liquid that represses all emotions (love, commiseration, anger, jealousy, sadness, and so on) is the right thing. Everybody needs to take it in a defined period of time so the repressed feelings can´t appear on the surface of the mind of a person. The leader of the humans and the ideal of a world without war is called "Father". he makes rules and gives orders. To make sure everybody stays within the system brutal laws are taking place, people that don´t take the liquid are called "sense-offenders". The clerics, a group of some kind of special agents with breathtaking abilities of fight-methods (reminding me a bit too much of Matrix) burn everything that is somewhat connected to fellings like books, art, music,... and kill the sense-offenders (sometimes by shooting them, sometimes by buring them alive). As you probably noticed, this movie is very very violent, many people die and lots of guns are in use.  The main actor, John Preston (Christian Bale), is the best of the best within the clerics. His wife has been excecuted because she stopped taking the liquid, but nevertheless he is still the hard, ideologic man. But then he shoots he best friend and college. After that he changes. Very soon he is hunted, tries to find the undeground that wants to overthrow the system (guess what, of course with bombs and violence and stuff). Well, this movie could be good, it includes lots of interesting ideas but what comes out in the end is a violent and flat movie. The actors are not developing any deep profile and the special effects and action parts have a very much too high priority. Not even the soundtrack is too good. So, if you don´t mind people being shot every five to ten minutes or whatever this is a movie for a popcorn-evening. Not deep, good looking actors and not too much thinking.