Review: 10 Things I Hate About You

Unconventionally Sweet

 

A modern day retelling of  The Taming of The Shrew, this movie is perhaps most famous for it’s breakout success in two relatively unknown actors of the age, Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger. I might want to point out that I watched this movie long after The Dark Knight got released. So it obviously had an impact on my viewing of Ledger’s performance. Not anything too distracting. But I was pleasantly surprised by his performance. But more on that later.

 

10 Things..  is a move that can manage to bring a smile to your face even on your most dreadful days. Probably one of the reasons why the movie works is due to the subtlety in it’s humor. The humor is mostly underplayed. And the few moments when it does manage to bring out a gag you just can’t stop laughing. That said, the story is fairly generic if not for the Shakespearean reference. Cameron James (Joseph Gordon Levitt) is the new kid at Padua High School who falls for Bianca Stratford(Larisa Oleynik). But twists and turns abound as he finds out that Bianca can’t date as long as her sister Kat( Julia Stiles) doesn’t date. He devises an elaborate plan to get Kat hitched so that he can date Bianca. Enter Patrick Verona( Heath Ledger). What follows is a humorous and at times bittersweet love story that engages every pulse and tugs at your heartstrings. By the end I am fairly certain that even the most stoic ones will crack and show the emotion beneath the veneer.

 

The real reason why the movie works is the performances it evokes out of each of the characters. Julia Stiles flourishes in her character to bring a lot of shades to a character that is supposedly one dimensional at the outset. Larisa Oleynik is short and sweet in her portrayal of the sometimes selfish, sometimes confused younger sister. The two provide a fairly positive chemistry that is at once vibrant and refreshing. It also makes the tension and psychological connection between the sisters much more tangible and real. In this context, a word or two must be said about veteran actor Larry miller who plays the bumbling and overzealous father who is protective about his daughters. He manages to evoke quite a few laughs. He probably also gets the best lines. Joseph Gordon Levitt is a revelation in his portrayal of Cameron, an otherwise generic high hormone teenager who falls in love with the cute chick. He underplays his performance and thus brings about an added nuance to a character that could have otherwise been lost as just another character. David Krumholtz pleasantly surprises as Michael, the bumbling guide-mentor of Cameron.

 

But the man of the moment and the person to look out for in this movie is none other than the late Heath Ledger. To be honest, the only works of him that I had seen prior to The Dark Knight were the ones in Patriot and Lords of Dogtown. While those gave u a glimpse of the unconventional streak that has been his hallmark over a decade it is with this movie that I fully realized his potential to be one of the greatest and possibly one of the most gifted actors of his generation. His portrayal of Patrick Verona takes the cake with him displaying everything from perfect comic timing to the romantic teen heartthrob. Trust me, you will fall in love with this guy. He is a revelation in more ways than one. It’s just sad that there won’t be more such Patrick Veronas to look forward to. He plays his role to perfection and with a swagger that you’d normally attribute to senior or more seasoned actors. All in all a perfect 10 for Ledger.

 

10 things proves that teen comedy certainly doesn’t need to be generic and be played by the book as long as you have a good narrative and well rounded characters with solid performances to back it up. 

Review: Terminator Salvation

Lacks the heart of the originals but still packs a solid punch

 Ok. Just finished watching the movie about an hour back. And to be honest I was impressed. Now this is not fanboy-speak. The movie clearly has issues. I will come to that later. But as an audience who has just seen a movie it does impress you as a viewer. Lets not kid ourselves. This isn’t the future his mom warned him about. This isn’t the movie that Cameron had conjured up in his brilliant mind all those years ago. But the movie still works even if its purely at an aesthetic level. To go into the nitty-gritties of the story would have it fall face first into the desolete concrete post-apocalyptic landscape that it itself has created. But judging it on the basis of it’s ability to provide rock solid entertainment for fans and non-fans alike, and audiences in general it wows in more ways than one.

 

The story here is a convolution of all the time-travel paradoxes that has been proposed in the prequels preceding it. A death row inmate, Marcus Wright (played beautifully by the upcoming Aussie Sam Worthington), is persuaded  to donate his body for science by a beautifully creepy  Dr. Serena Korgan (an underutilized Helena Bonham Carter). With his last memory of being strapped to death, he wakes up in an unfamiliar world and a harsh war-ravaged landscape. The story shifts to 2018 where John Connor (again a class act by Christian Bale), prophesized leader of the resistance, is fighting a near impossible and brutal war against the AI network run by Skynet.  It is at this point that Marcus befriends a teenage survivor Kyle Reese (played to the point by Anton Yelchin) and his little companion Star, a mute child with a premonition about the machines. However, as followers of the terminator canon will know, Kyle Reese is actually the father of John Connor who gets sent back in time in the first Terminator movie to impregnate his mother Sarah Connor. So, as Kyle gets taken by the machines , the rest of the story follows John’s and Marcus’s efforts to locate and rescue Kyle. However, a twist in the story develops when Marcus is disclosed to be something more than he believes to be. It also provides an added dimension to the tension between John and Marcus that eventually builds up to an explosive climax.

 

Ok, enough for the story. The story as I have mentioned already has loopholes the size of the HKs in the movie. Going into those details will simply rob the viewer of deriving the pleasure of watching a big screen summer action movie. However there are definitely issues in this movie that simply cannot be ignored. For instance the supporting characters had really no supporting role to play. The characters of Common, the resistance leaders are nothing but a joke. The screenplay leaves a lot to be desired. Again, the imp. character of John Connor’s wife, Katherine Connor has absolutely no significance in the storyline. Atleast I didn’t see the character do anything worthwhile throughout the movie. It is also a shame because it meant the wastage of a perfect talent in the form of Bryce Dallas Howard. Also it wouldn’t have hurt to show a little bit more into the perspective of the character of Blair Williams ( favourably portrayed by Moon Bloodgood) , a character which although commands far more screen presence than the rest of the supporting cast is given precious little to do than jumping in and out of the story.

That said, the strength of the movie lies in it’s technical aspect. And this is a point where the movie excels. The editing is top-notch. There weren’t any drag down moments, not any I can recall.  The cinematography is excellent. It really does create a sense of realism about the post-apocalyptic landscape in which the movie is set. Also its worth mentioning that the landscapes gel with the characters to give it a tangible feel to the action on screen and doesn’t seem like the actors spent half their time in front of a green screen imagining the environment to which they are reacting. But the greatest strength of the movie is obviously in it’s special effects. This movie quite clearly has the most tangible special effects or visual effects shots in any of the summer movie to appear so far. Nothing really looks fake. And the machine designs work beautifully on screen. The action sequences are top-notch. Finally you have an edge of the seat thrill ride watching an action sequence and not get that feeling of boredom of watching a few thousand pixels running around with no discernible clarity. Also thank McG for not using that overused technique of late, the jerky camera motion. It is non-existent in this movie and that helps a lot to portray a neat and clean action. But the feather in the cap for ILM in this movie is definitely the creation of such a realistic digital double that it may well have been the man himself. I have pondered about that particular sequence a lot and have come to the conclusion that ILM has succeeded in creating a CG double that does not fall into the trap of uncanny valley. Finally a word on the production design. Absolutely amazing and flat out brilliant. Creates an environment that feels real in every way.

 

A final word about the direction. McG is no Cameron and I’m sure he never intended to be one. It would be an unfair comparison but then again, he is the one who decided to helm the movie so the comparisons are inevitable. The guy is still getting the hang of things. He knows his way about the action but he still has a long way to go if he has to make the drama complement the action and not the other way round. Here’s hoping that he gets another shot with no. 5. Yeah!! I am waiting for it. Bring it on!