mircea-lungu Reviews

John Wick (2014)

A revenge movie without a reason for revenge

[6/10 · 27 May 2017]

I think the director started from the correct observation that too many revenge movies have very similar premises: the protagonist is revenging his family. The wife and daughter in Death Wish, the unborn baby and a four year coma in Kill Bill, the wife in Memento, the family in Gladiator, etc...

So instead of thinking that there might be a good reason for this family premise thing, our storyteller decides to break the mold and have the protagonist revenge... his puppy. A totally excessive and brutal retaliation in which dozens die, together with the perpetrator and his father.

But then again, on a second thought maybe it's not good to break completely free of this family premise after all... so let's make the puppy be a present from the recently deceased wife. Oh, but maybe the puppy is not enough? Let's have the expensive sports car of the protagonist be also stolen!

There there! Now we're creative, novel, traditional, and have insured that a large audience can clearly empathize with our Keanu Protagonist and cheer at the death of the bad people who did all these horrible things.

---

Besides this lack of a reason for it's existence, the revenge is well executed, thus 6 stars.

And Who Taught You to Drive? (2012)

if you are living in a different culture or went through driving school... then you'll like this

[9/10 · 2 February 2014]

If you live in a different culture, and sometimes you don't fully understand it, if you ever took classes to get your driving license, and your instructor was constantly unhappy with the way you progress, or if you are just interested in cultural differences between Germany, India, and Japan then you will enjoy this movie.

the movie has surprisingly good acting by actors that you didn't hear about, beautiful imagery, and fun cultural clashes.

it is true, i had no expectations, or in fact, i was expecting that it will be hard to watch 1h30 of driving instructions, so this might be part of the reason for which i was positively surprised.

Beyond the comedy, it is an interesting meditation on what it means to be living in a different country.

Seven Psychopaths (2012)

Skinny, toothless, and blind

[6/10 · 21 April 2013]

Hmm, it's quite risky with all these movies that expect to be watched twice to be fully understood. At times the first watch feels one too much already.

I saw In Bruges by the same director and I liked it. This one I didn't. So I wanted to write a review to say don't watch it. But then I changed my mind. Indeed, the movie reminds me of the joke with the man selling a horse at the market. A customer stops, looks at the horse, and a dialogue ensues:

• it looks so skinny...

• yes it's quite weak.

• and, it does not have teeth...

• no it doesn't... the twit!

• it also looks like it's not seeing well...

• yeah, it is blind; such an old piece of turd!

• then why bring it to the market?

• well, i just want to ridicule the bastard.

For a comedy I found the movie a bit like the horse in the story. A bit skinny (the humor is diluted by a dramatic atmosphere, a meta-text which also yearns to be critique of Hollywood clichés into which the film falls nevertheless), without teeth (that would be the plot, or any kind of character development), and blind (the movie starts with a discussion about shooting people in the eye and goes downhill towards scenes worthy of horror movies).

But "comedy" is in the eye of the beholder after all, so go and see it...

Looper (2012)

Wow: Bruce Willis shooting kids and defenseless women?

[4/10 · 15 October 2012]

*** SPOILER ALERT *** *** BUT PROBABLY READING THE SPOILER IS WORTH IT !!! ***

This is not a science-fiction movie as there is not too much science in it. This is a fantasy movie which brushes superficially over time-travel, includes toddlers with super-powers, and has Bruce Willis shooting defenseless kids. I am not kidding! Bruce fu#$ing Willis shooting little kids! And running through the fields with his shotgun intent to kill a young mother with her child! (And this movie is supposed to be watchable by 15 year olds.)

The premise of the movie is weak: the loopers that have to terminate themselves is unconvincing. There is too much gratuitous violence. The antagonist is a cute little boy with anger management problems. The secondary anti-hero, the head of a terrible mafia gang, looks so soft and chubby you have to keep reminding yourself that he is not Santa. But the most painful realization at the end of the movie is that there is no story: Joe, the main character is a selfish criminal that does nothing to redeem himself but two things: 1. in a momentary impulse tries to give half of his silver to his girlfriend (although the relationship is not too well outlined), and 2) his final gesture in which he decides that he wants to sacrifice his life to save the life of a child who, by this sacrifice, might not become a real bad mafia guy, development which we are not sure that will have been avoided by this self-sacrifice, just as we are not sure how bad he will become in the future as the report comes from old Joe, who happens to be a criminal too, so the fact that he dislikes another criminal does not mean that the other one is worse.... So after all it might look like the story is the one of the character that starts being selfish and ends up being a generous sacrificing being. Only that the sacrifice seems more like the impulse of a second, a knee jerk reaction. There was no transition, there was no "growth" of the character from one state to the other.

Elfen Lied (2004)

Probably the best anime ever. Ever :)

[10/10 · 5 February 2006]

From the first episode where, in a dreamlike atmosphere, we see a nude girl with an iron mask on her head escaping a high-security facility and in the process, magically tearing apart a bunch of armed guards, to the very last episode, blood continues to flow (and nudity continues to be shown). This does not mean that the movie is distasteful, on the contrary, there is some kind of strange beauty associated with the violence which results in a mix of sadness and melancholy that stays with one long after watching the movie.

I did not see too many anime to have an authoritative opinion on this, but I believe that the excellent soundtrack is also one of the sources of the emotional blend of sweet and bitter atmosphere in the movie. The theme of the anime is sung in Latin, has a heavenly sweet voice sing a deeply sad song. The theme is associated with the intro and ending clips, which being symbolically very rich, adds a strong sense of magic and mystery to it.

One of the nice parts, and maybe also of the sources of strong emotions associated with the movie is the way in which the director develops some of the main characters in such a way that they are complete. They have good parts and they have bad parts, they love and they hate. You love them at times and then you hate them at other times. And because you get to know them pretty well, you will eventually get involved to the point that you really fear for their fate.

Besides being complete, the characters are idealized and put in deep emotionally situations: they risk their lives for their loved ones, they die for their loved ones, they hurt for their lost ones, they cry, they laugh with joy and everything at the highest level of involvement. Maybe this is why we like them: in a way they are so much more alive than us!

Inocence and pain, beauty and menace, death and love, blood and hope, all these make from Elfen Lied an addictive series which will leave a long-lasting impression on you. And be prepared to watch all the episodes together, it might be hard to stop before the last one!