No pun intended in the title but I find it rather interesting that Tom has had some sort of major 'running' sequence in a lot of his films, especially the more recent ones.
Sprint sequences:
1. Ethan in downtown Shanghai after the Rabbit's Foot interrogation (M:I 3).
2. Ray and the first tripod he sees that starts to vaporize everything in its path (WotW).
3. Vincent chasing Max who took off with his briefcase (Collateral).
4. John Anderton on the run (MR).
5. David running through an empty Times Square (VS).
These are just a select few.
Another, perhaps more intriguing theme has to be the 'eyes' trilogy. Tom worked on three films all dealing with a character who couldn't see or was struggling to see the bigger picture.
Eyes Wide Shut. I'll admit, I didn't understand Kubrick's vision in this film but the title seems to refer to the character of Bill who was so naive that he couldn't actually understand the bigger implications of the small incidents that occurred around him.
Vanilla Sky. Everyone is telling David to 'open your eyes' and wake up. It's ironic. When David was alive he lived his life like a dream but when he finally 'woke up' to reality, Julie took his life and thrust it into a nightmare. I think his conscience must have played some part in messing up his lucid dream (not just technicalities) and he had trouble seeing that (he was in a lucid dream).
Minority Report. Can you see? A film dealing with the issue of pre-destiny vs free will, John tries to find out the meaning between Agatha's visions of Anne Lively. He believes in the system, a little too much faith perhaps as it blinds him to the fact that there is a very huge flaw in pre-crime. A human one.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
| posted at 09:40 am | |
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I don't write reviews and won't ever because I'm far too incoherent to write a proper one. So I'll just relate some thoughts about Tom's latest film.
*SLIGHT SPOILERS*
What a great way to kick-start the summer. It's really been a while since the last time I saw a flick that was unapologetically action-packed with a nice plotline to boost the story.
The action sequences were just fucking incredible. From the mindless, major-scale attack on the bridge to the ultra-slick Vatican break-in. No words can describe how much I adore the attack on the bridge. 'Awesome' is an understatement.
Thank goodness for teamwork, which was sorely lacking in M:I 2. It's still all about Ethan but the IMF team played pretty major roles in the action sequences this time, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Plot-wise it was quite complicated but not as convoluted as M:I. Yes, I did think the first M:I got unnecessarily complex towards the end. I still love that film nonetheless. This time round, JJ Abrams injected a personal aspect to the movie, making Ethan more human. I was a little disappointed that Davian wasn't the mastermind because I sure as hell wanted to see Philip Seymour Hoffman do some serious damage.
I totally digged the bomb in head thing. What a cool concept.
Minor gripe with the Rabbit's Foot. Let's just say that I don't really like MacGuffins. I know that whatever the Rabbit's Foot is, it's not going to advance the story in any way but these are the sort of useless details that I'd like to know. So we got this anti-god explanation, but that only suggests that it's man-made and possibly a bioweapon. Oh well.
Overall, I enjoyed the hell out of this movie, even on second viewing. Great cast, plot, action... and a fantastic opening.
| posted at 05:34 pm | |
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