Rashomon

Rashomon – 88min - NR/Not Rated

As you might have guessed by my screen name, I am a fan of the Japanese culture and have always liked Akira Kurosawa films. I was eager to watch Rashomon and was not disappointed. This is a marvelous movie. I had to watch this movie a second time to really observe some of the wonderful elements in the film. The first viewing I let the story take me away and paid no attention to any of the finer elements. I truly love so many aspects of this film, from the cinematography to the acting. The story captures many facets, I really don’t have enough time to truly dedicate to fully explore all of them. If you have never experienced a Kurosawa film this is a good one to start on. I would suggest Seven Samurai next, but that will have to wait till a different review.

The story takes place at a ruined gatehouse called Rashomon. It’s raining and three people talk about a crime while they wait for the rain to stop. A wood cutter (Takashi Shimura) was involved in an investigation that took place after he finds a body in the woods. A priest (Minoru Chiaki) was also a witness to events that took place. They are joined by a commoner (Kichijiro Ueda) and they proceed to tell him what they witnessed at the investigation. The movie takes place in flashback as each of the people involved in the crime tells their stories of what happened. A bandit by the name of Tajomaru (Toshiro Mifune) attacks a couple on the road, husband and wife (Masayuki Mori and Machiko Kyo). They are giving testimony to the magistrate so we get to see the crime from the different points of view. There is one person giving testimony from the dead husband point of view, she is a medium (Noriko Honma) they did a voice over with the husband talking through her, she does a wonderful job of a haunting portrayal of channeling the dead husband’s sprit.

The theme of the film is that each event is changed by the memory of those who remember it. We get to see each of these versions play out as the person is telling them. I believe there are three sides to a story, your side, my side and the truth. This movie personifies that thought. With each telling of the same events we see more of what motivates each person by how they tell what went on. I also like how it tells the story of human nature without being overly preachy.

The technical aspects of the film are wonderful. We have some really good use of camera angles and lighting. There is one scene that uses a hand held camera and they use it as a great element in following the characters through the woods. This was one of the earliest uses of this type of shot. There is also a shot that is up at the sun through the canopy of the forest and it makes for a wonderful setting of the environment. Kurosawa could not bring lights into the forest so they had to use full length mirrors to light the shots. During the investigation scenes, the audience takes the role of the investigator and the actors tell us directly what they saw giving us a feeling of involvement in the story. I also found that the title of the film has now been used to describe what happens when people tell the same information from different points of view. It’s called the Rashomon Effect.

I have fallen in love with the way Kurosawa tells a story. I truly can’t explain how I completely fall into the story and time fades away. I am going to have to spend some time on his other films. I feel a connection with his stories that I have not felt with any other director.

What movie have you known about but have not watched yet? You know the one, it has your favorite actor in it or it’s made by your favorite director but you have not had the time to see it. When it came out in theaters and you said I will go see it next week but never did. Take some time this week and follow back up on it and watch it. Hopefully you will have a wonderful experience like I had while watching this film. Tell me about what movie you watched.

Rio

Rio – 96 min - G

Wow! This is A first for The Fat Samurai – a review of an animated movie. I truly enjoyed this film from many aspects: story, animation and performance. The performers did a wonderful job of bringing depth to the characters. This movie gets a green light from me. If you are looking for a family movie that everyone can enjoy, take them down to Rio. Well, the movie Rio not the actual Rio, Rio. The actual Rio might be great but the movie is cheaper and closer.

In Rio, macaw Blue (Jesse Eisenburg) and his owner Linda (Leslie Mann) are approached by Ornithologist Dr. Barbosa (Gracinha Leporace). Dr Barbosa tells them Blue is the last male of his kind and they need to take him to Rio to mate with Jewel (Anne Hathaway), the last blue macaw female. They head to Rio but along the way Blue and Jewel are bird-napped. With the help of some local birds (voiced by Jamie Foxx, Will i Am, and George Lopez) they adventure across Rio to get back to safety.

Walking up to the booth and being informed that the next movie is Rio took me by surprise. I thought, “this should be interesting”. I have enjoyed animated movies in the past but since I have started really looking at movies for this blog I have observed so much more of the creation process. Reviewing an animated movie seems harder to me. I don’t just focus on whether it was a good story or how it made me feel, I look at films from a production standpoint. How a movie was performed and filmed are important to my review process. I spent most of the time watching this film with my ears, I enjoyed what I was seeing but I also focused on not just what was being said but how it was said. I think that most people who see a movie like this don’t truly realize how hard it is to sell a performance with just your voice. The cast was well chosen for the different feel of each of the characters they were portraying. Typically they complete all of the voice acting first and then have the animators create the scenes. This speaks volumes to how the animators created a life like image based on the mannerisms of the creature they are modeling infused with the actor’s inflection and performance.

The animators did a great job of modeling the movements of the birds. All of the characters in this film were done really well. Everything was does with such attention to detail, the smallest things helped give this movie a life-like feel. I did see this movie in 3D and they did a good job of not overdoing the in-your-face novelty that you sometimes see. I liked how they made some of the subtle things in this movie show in different layers. The scenes that took place in the jungle also benefited from the 3D effects. There were two scenes that I really appreciated the 3D, one was during the parade and I felt like the confetti was going to fall on me and in the long swooping scenes of flight over the landmarks of Rio de Janeiro.

This is the part of the blog that I usually talk about the crew, and how they shot the film, but in this case I am way out of my league. I have never really thought how much an animated movie also relies on camera placement and lighting. Even those elements are still very much a part of this process. It was hard for me to think of this movie like that. The Director Carlos Saldanha has brought us the Ice Age movie so this kind of film is nothing new to him. He has several people on his previous films working on this movie as well, so they do work well together. The sound track to this movie was also very catchy, I did want to go get a copy of it and many movies don’t movie me to get the sound track.

So the question I have for you on this post is what animated movie made you cry, This movie did not have any moment that made me cry but I know that Toy Story 3 had a few tear jerking moments as well as Cars, I know I know some stupid animated cars made me cry. When Lightning goes back at the end to make sure the king finished his last race. Snif, Snif gets me every time.

Your Highness

Your Highness – 102 min –R

I thought the AC was on in the theater because I felt a breeze. As it turns out the breeze was coming from all of the sucking from the screen. There is not enough red in the world to express how bad this movie was. I am a fan of at least two of the performers, so I thought if nothing else, I could see past all of the poor aspects of this film and focus on them. No, I couldn’t. I ended up feeling sorry for them and wondering what tragic series of events resulted in them performing in this movie. Perhaps they lost a bet. I typically try and say something good about a movie even if I did not like it. So, let me think. Hum. Oh, I have one; I never have to see this movie again.

The story takes place in a fantasy world where there are two princes: Fabious (James Franco), the classic hero-type and Thadeous (Danny McBride), his lazy, stoner brother are forced to quest together when Fabious’s bride, Belladonna (Zooey Deschanel), is kidnapped by the evil wizard Leezar (Justin Theroux). On their journey they get some help from a fellow hero named Isabel (Natalie Portman). They stumble and bumble from one profane joke to the next without really doing anything. This film is one long string of vulgar jokes that focus on drugs, sex and other sophomoric hijinks.

This movie fails because of a poor concept. It all starts with the script, or stopped in this case. The ones to blame are Danny McBride and Ben Best. When writing crude humor it needs two parts, not just vulgarity but also cleverness. Giggling at your own fart jokes is not entertainment. The Director, David Gordon Green, has done some good stuff in All the Real Girls and George Washington. He has even worked with the stoner genre in Pineapple Express so it’s not like he is unfamiliar with this kind of subject matter, the only thing I can think of is that it’s the script. You can see from a production stand point where the cast and crew were really trying to make this work. The cast is giving it their all, but it’s hard to offset the complete lack of substance in the script.

I can see how this project got funding, if you add up the elements separately you might have a good product here. Some real named talent for the cast, a great crew in Tim Orr cinematographer, Craig Alpert for editing and Gary Freeman for art direction. So far so good we have a good crew and cast and having Gordon at the helm, looking good. Um, did anyone stop and read the script before setting off with the prize winning ensemble? I am guessing no.

I was only brought to this movie for Portman and Deschanel. I have liked their work in the past and looked forward to seeing what they do with this challenge. I ended up feeling bad for them. It was like watching someone tell a really bad joke and they are completely oblivious as to the depth of the embarrassment at its failure. They really had nothing to do in the film, each of them were nothing more than decoration for all they were given to do. What a shame. It’s like having a high performance sports car and never driving it, just park it and look at it.

I wonder sometimes as people are making movies do they see the train wreck they are on or are departments so compartmentalized that they don’t see the work adding up to failure? Or is it something that they can see but have no way of turning away from the enviable crash, so with no other option, they sell it for all they are worth. If you are going to Suck, SUCK BIG!!

This reviews question is around what your thoughts are on why this film failed? OR did you really like it? My apologies if you were unfortunate enough to have watched it. After we have talked about it let’s turn our back on this bad experience and never speak of it again.

I now post to IMDB

See my review here IMDB ok, ok I know.. its a link back to here but I can now be found there as well as here, but I like you reading me here. I just like you reading me.