An alteration of the timeline for the superhero, The Flash, creates ripples that disastrously alters the Universe. The Flash must team with other heroes to restore the timeline while the Earth is ravaged by a war between Aquaman's Atlantis and Wonder Woman's Amazons. From: IMDb.com
Man, what's with all of those recent biopics, that aren't really
biopics at all. It certainly seems to be a trend nowadays, to make a
movie and to tell a story that happens to feature a well known person
in it, without making it all about him/her, or cover the entire persons
lifespan. Not that it's a bad thing necessarily, I mean, it works out
well for some movies, of which this movie is also an example.
This is also one of those movies that only covers one small snippet of
its main subject's life-story. In this particular it focuses on Alfred
Hitchcock, during the productions of his hit-movie "Psycho".
So please don't watch this movie expecting to learn a lot about Alfred
Hitchcock's other movies or history and personality. It's not really a
movie that teaches you anything at all, unless you are absolutely
clueless about who Hitchcock was and what reputation he had. Only that
way this movie still might bring you some surprises.
It perhaps sounds a bit negative all but it really isn't though. This
is simply just another type of movie. It's more the type that
entertains and gives you a good time while watching. It never gets too
deep or heavy with anything, despite of some dramatic plot development.
It's true that everything sort of stays on the surface because of that,
keeping this movie on the safe and simplistic side but that's all
simply a choice, the movie very deliberately makes.
Perhaps it's also true that everything worked out great and
entertaining for me because I'm interested in Hitchcock and known
"Psycho" inside out. Therefore it's also true that this movie might not
work out as great and entertaining to some others, who aren't really
interested in the movie its subject to begin with. And lets just say I
doubt this is really the type of movie that will make people curious
and more interested in Hitchcock and his movie.
Problem with Anthony Hopkins as Alfred Hitchcock is that they not only
do not look alike but they also hardly sound alike. It's a bit of a
problem that Hopkins has such a distinctive voice of his own and heavy
makeup got applied to him, to make him still look somewhat like the
real Hitchcock. But in all truth and honesty, it wasn't as distracting
as I had feared. As a matter of fact; despite that Hopkins sounds and
looks nothing alike Hitchcock, he still is great in the role and truly
becomes the part! Equally as great and perhaps even better was Helen
Mirren as Hitchcock's wife, Alma Reville.
And the movie truly relies on the dynamic between its two main leads.
The movie above all things is about the relationship between Hitchcock
and his wife. There are of course plenty of other developments and
story lines in this movie but the movie eventually always gets back to
its two main leads and luckily so, since this is still where most of
the interesting and effective stuff comes from.
This is simply a good movie and a good watch. Really nothing more than
that but also most definitely nothing less.
It's clear that not all movies are made to impress but some are just
made to entertain. And this movie most definitely does not impress but
luckily it still is being an entertaining enough little action flick to
consider this movie to be a good and watchable enough one.
There are several problems with "Stolen", one being that the movie
isn't being anything original to watch, making this a standard and
mediocre movie, basically all the way through. You could say this movie
is like being a combination of many different genre movies, while the
movie itself is coming up with very little original of its own. Also
funny how in some ways this movie subtly references to "Con Air",
another action movie director Simon West and actor Nicolas Cage did
together, prior to this film.
It's being an action movie with a significantly lower budget though,
when comparing it to "Con Air". And this also truly shows in this
movie. Really nothing all that spectacular happens in it and it mostly
consists out of a bunch of formulaic shot car chases and the occasional
gun- and fist fight. But please, don't watch this movie expecting it to
provide you with big explosions and mind blowing stunts. It's
definitely being a somewhat 'smaller' action flick, that also should
had felt as a more personal and involving one.
That's another problem; you just don't ever care for any of the
characters or what happens in its story. After all, you basically
already know how everything shall progress and eventually end.
The story is just being a bit too simple and also too straightforward
at times. It seemed as if the movie was trying to add some more
dimensions to the story and get some more characters involved but it
never really works out. Actors such as Danny Huston and Malin Akerman
for instance are absolutely wasted in the movie and are given far too
little to do to truly make an impact on its story. It seems that the
movie was holding back and somewhat reluctant and preferred to take the
safe and more standard approach to things, wasting every opportunity to
make this a more original and also a more impressive and entertaining
movie to watch.
But the movie its story was lacking more. It isn't always taking the
most sensible approach to things and it often could had gotten to its
point way sooner. It for instance takes far too long for the Nicolas
Cage character to finally come up with a plan and starts executing it,
making it almost feel like an afterthought and as a way to wrap things
up quickly. Sometimes it really has some pacing issues; the one moment
it takes the movie to long to make a point or allowing its action to
kick in and the other it's coming too its point to early wand wraps
certain things up too quickly.
It perhaps is also true it could had used a stronger villain in it.
Josh Lucas is mostly just silly looking in this and doesn't ever come
across as psychotic or threatening enough. But again, this also for
some part might be due to it that the movie has a predictable story,
that also progresses in a standard and formulaic way and you already
know in advance how things are going to end. So perhaps it's not fair
to put all the blame on just Lucas.
But really, these are all reasons why "Stolen" just isn't a perfect or
even great movie to watch. Other than that, it remains a perfectly
watchable one. It's not boring, it's not offensive, it's never truly
bad. It's basically being just like most other 'low' budget modern
action flicks, that take very little risks but still provide plenty of
entertainment and also action to please the genre fans.
(Review originally written at 1 August 2009) An Australian western. How weird does that sound? Still the atmosphere and nature of Australia seems to fit the genre perfectly. It's a dirty, raw and bleak movie all in one. It's also a movie that's a bit too much aware of its own style. It often prefers its artistic and deeper meaning approaches over its true story. The movie at times definitely feels like its style over substance and it prevented me from truly finding this a great movie. Of course westerns are often about its style and atmosphere but this movie definitely over does this at times. No, the movie was not as great as I had initially expected it to be. It had a more than great concept and enough elements in it to expect this to be a fresh and original movie. It's still fresh and original all but the whole package still slightly disappoints. Having said that, "The Proposition" is simply still a good movie to watch. It doesn't have the best written story but the way it's being told still makes this a good genre movie. It's of course slow, doesn't always feature a lot of dialog and features some typical characters from the genre., that all makes this a good watch, especially when you're into 'modern' new westerns, such as movies like "Unforgiven", "Open Range" and "3:10 to Yuma". The movie has a surprising cast, with mostly Australian actors that are also well known beyond the boundaries. Best known is of course Guy Pearce and John Hurt but it's really Ray Winstone who gives away the best and most impressive performance of the movie. To me he also was the main character and I'm not too sure if the movie would had worked out as well without him. A good and original western from Australia. 7/10 Watch trailer
