Sunshine
With his roots initially based firmly in the theatre, British
director Danny Boyle has only had a brief but very spectacular
film career. His entire body of work, to date, consists of
‘Shallow Grave’ (1994), ‘Trainspotting’
(1996), ‘A Life Less Ordinary’ (1997), ‘The
Beach’ (2000), ‘28 Days Later’ (2002) and
‘Millions’ (2004). All of these films were controversial
and popular hits and, together, they have established Danny
Boyle as one of the most promising film directors to recently
emerge out of England. What is interesting about Boyle’s
work is that there is no underlying rhyme or reason to the
selection of his movie vehicles. There are no ongoing themes
or motifs that can subtly link his movies, or indicate his
particular cinematic interests. Rather, Danny Boyle seems
more preoccupied with investigating a wide range of movie
genres, simply to see what he can make of them. So far his
meanderings through movie genres have been extremely successful.
His latest movie, ‘Sunshine’, is no exception.
With this movie Danny Boyle explores Outer-Space in an astounding
Science-Fiction thriller. ‘Sunshine’ is not a
juvenile fantasy film like the ‘Star Wars’ or
‘Star Trek’ sagas, instead, it is a more visionary
attempt to depict what space travel could possibly be like
in the not too distant future. A crew of 8 men and women are
journeying on a possible suicide mission to kick-start the
Sun again, which is dying, with a very large and dangerous
nuclear device. Naturally, along the way, ‘incidents’
are going to happen. So much for the plot, which really isn’t
that important, for this movie is really all about Danny Boyle’s
extraordinary visual interpretation of his space premise.
Possibly, the film’s closest cousin would be Stanly
Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ (1969),
for similar themes and events are echoed in Boyle’s
‘Sunshine’. Kubrick’s movie was noted for
its hallucinatory visual effects, and now, almost 40 years
later, Danny Boyle has much more digital toys to play with
to create his own version of hallucinatory space travel. There
is an incredible visual grandeur to this movie, as Danny Boyle’s
camera concentrates on the blinking computer display terminals,
and the technology of the spaceship’s control room.
With a frenzied exhilaration the camera will rush up and down
the gangways of the ship, or position its self outside to
observe the ship passing over the surface of a planet, or,
silently wander through the immense vastness of Outer-Space.
All of these images are edited together in such a way as to
quietly penetrate your subconscious, and they leave you with
an indelible memory of an amazing journey undertaken. Danny
Boyle has created an ‘instant’ classic with his
movie, and ‘Sunshine’ can proudly take its place
in the movie genre of serious Outer-Space cinematic exploration.
Rogue Assassin (War)
Jet Li is the current undisputed ‘King’ of the
Kung-Fu Action Movie. Jason Statham is quickly emerging as
a serious rival for Li’s crown. Producers Steve Chasman
and Jim Thompson probably thought it was a pretty good idea
to cash in on the popularity and rivalry of the two actors
by coming up with a movie that could pit one star against
the other. Anyway, what looks good on paper sometimes doesn’t
translate so well onto the silver screen. This is the case
with director Philip G. Atwell’s ‘Rogue Assassin’,
a rather slick yet soulless movie designed to showcase the
talents of Jet Li and Jason Statham. The major problem with
the movie is the script. It is a rather convoluted and hard-to-follow
story about an FBI agent at ‘war’ with a mercenary
assassin. About halfway through the movie I decided to give
up on the plot, and just concentrate on the action. There
are plenty of Kung-Fu fights, heaps of gory violence, and
much general mayhem. All of this is shot in a rather glamorous
way, with plenty of zappy editing, mixed to an up-beat disco
soundtrack. It is standard fare as far as action movies go,
and strangely alienating and non-involving. Jet Li and Jason
Statham should take the blame for the failure of the movie.
There is no rapport between the two actors, and for all intents
and purposes they could be appearing in two totally different
movies. Neither pays any respect to the other, and both try
to upstage each other outrageously. Perhaps Jet Li and Jason
Statham were at ‘war’ with each other on the set?
Who knows, and who cares? All I know is that I am a big fan
of both Jet Li and Jason Statham, and I was looking forward
to their movie with much anticipation. I was bitterly disappointed.
Evening
Lajos Koltai’s movie ‘Evening’ features
an extraordinary cast, which includes Claire Danes, Toni Collette,
Vanessa Redgrave, Eileen Atkins, Natasha Richardson, Glenn
Close and Meryl Streep. When was the last time you saw such
a formidable list of genuine movie stars in the one movie?
Watching the movie was a bit like having a score card, and
ticking off each actress as she made her appearance. Unfortunately,
there was nothing much else to do while watching the movie,
as this story about an aging woman on her death bed, recollecting
her past, was a bit on the dull side. I endured the movie
mainly to see Meryl, but when she finally made her entrance
you could have blinked and missed her. She was looking pretty
good though!
