Two Brothers review
Posted by karmengeblog in Uncategorized on February 8th, 2010

Two Brothers: Drama. Starring Kumal, Sangha and Guy Pearce. Directed by
Jean-Jacques Annaud. (PG. 115 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.)
Jean-Jacques Annaud directed the 1989 masterpiece, “The Bear,” a
narrative film for which he got brilliant dramatic performances out of a
couple of grizzlies, an astonishing feat. So any time Annaud wants to point
his camera at animals, it’s worth looking his way. His new film, “Two Brothers,
” the story of a pair of baby tigers, benefits from the cuteness and
magnificence of its animal stars and from Annaud’s patience, his willingness
to wait for the right shot, the right expression.
It’s in many ways a beautiful film, but it’s also a troubled one. The
trouble comes from Annaud’s inability to fulfill a couple of opposing demands:
1) He is simply too much of an artist and an animal lover not to tell the true
story of tigers, a tragic tale by any measure; 2) At the same time he’s
constrained by what audiences, including children, expect from a movie
involving animals. So the result is schizophrenic, an uplifting film that’s
truly depressing, a movie about cruelty that tries to be fluffy.
He gives himself additional trouble by co-writing, with his frequent
collaborator Alain Godard, a bifurcated script that follows two story lines
most of the way. The most fascinating footage in “Two Brothers” involves the
animals interacting with each other. But most of the film has to do with each
tiger interacting separately with disparate sets of human beings, and worse,
with human beings talking with each other. Annaud seems no more interested in
these people than we are.
“Two Brothers” is set in Indochina in the early part of the 20th century
– if you want to make a movie at a time when there were still lots of tigers,
you have to go back that far. A seduction scene starts it off. A female tiger
rolls on her back, inspiring a male to chase her, though when he catches up to
her, she tries to scratch his face. You know, just another Saturday night in
the wild. From there, cut to a shot of the scenery, and next thing we know Mom
and Pop have two irrepressible and adorable cubs.
At this point, “Two Brothers” is at its best, and it seems like a gift to
be watching yet another Annaud film like “The Bear.” We see the gamboling cubs
playing with their mother’s tail, getting into scrapes with other animals and
wrestling each other. We get close-ups of their concerned little-old-man-like
faces. When a party of humans shows up, led by a hunter named McRory (Guy
Pearce), the film maintains the animal perspective. In one scene, McRory plays
a gramophone record that echoes into the woods, and, with no extra effects,
Annaud persuades us to hear the music as the animals hear it — as static
and noise, as alarming and anti-nature.
But soon the cubs are separated, one sent to a circus and another to the
dungeon of a local potentate. The focus switches to the human characters, who,
aside from McRory, are drawn in broad strokes. As the picture notes in a
postscript, there were 100,000 tigers in the wild a century ago, but today
there are only 5,000. True to that reality, “Two Brothers” depicts a catalog
of abuses. Annaud’s heart may be in the right place, but who wants to watch
animals being terrorized for two hours?
He makes matters worse when he tries to offset this with sentimentality,
making the tigers positively Lassie-like in their ability to understand human
language, and cuddly in a way that has nothing to do with real tigers. But the
value of these creatures has nothing to with our ability to anthropomorphize
them. Their value is intrinsic. Annaud knows this, but two-thirds into the
movie he’s flailing, looking for a way to be honest and yet not send everyone
out miserable. He can’t quite find it.
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– Advisory: Animal foreplay and inter-species violence.
E-mail Mick LaSalle at mlasalle@sfchronicle.com.
Metropolis (2002)
Posted by karmengeblog in Uncategorized on February 7th, 2010
One of the side benefits I possess discovered of being a DVD reviewer is that I be struck by grown to appreciate Japanese Intensity. In my younger days, I had loved watching "Starblazers" and "Speed Racer." With DVD´s arrival and my involvement with a few websites as a staff reviewer, I have grown to be aware and cherish degree a few Japanese fervent films. "Ghost in the Shell," "Macross," "Ninja Scroll," "Princess Mononoke" and thoroughly a few others have been watched repeatedly. I am far-away from considering myself an Anime expert, but I eagerly await each recent release that comes my way to judge. Columbia TriStar´s first entry under the Target Films moniker is "Metropolis." The 2-disc treatment has been delineated to the film that marks the collaboration of three legends in Japanese Animation. "Akira" writer Katsuhiro Otomo, captain Rintaro and the example Osamu Tezuka who is responsible for the pattern comic book and "Astroboy."
American animation is greatly defined by the work done by Walt Disney over the decades. "Bambi," "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "Peter Pan" and the sturdy numbers of other classics have entertained myself and the millions of others who have grown up with Walt Disney. Our domestic style of spiritedness is greatly targeted towards a family audience, or a unspecifically younger audience than what Japanese Animation styled energizing is created to cater for. The sole American active films I can propose b assess of that is comparable to what the Japanese have done was "Titan A.E." and "The Iron Giant." Neither of these films succeeded at the box office, but both were critically acclaimed in the course of their fire and storytelling abilities. As doubtlessly as fashion goes, Disney looks more refined and is technically superior, but I attired in b be committed to always enjoyed the look and feel of the Japanese films in those I grew up on.
Recently, traditional American liveliness has seen a downslide in thwack office returns. The apologia for this is the computer generated enlivening trend that was started with Walt Disney and Pixar´s "Toy Story" and continued with other studios works such as DreamWorks "Shrek" and Twentieth Century Fox´s "Ice Age." Some believe that the grave for traditional cel animation has been dug, and the nails only need pounded in. I put one’s trust in there is still life in cel animation, but CGI has certainly taken over as the most popular and well-paid form of dash. Japanese animation has remained truer to using guide techniques. In spite of that, "Metropolis" shows a great trade of CGI assignment within its frames and may be a bridge between cel energizing and CGI work. Scads locations and objects are computer rendered in "Capital city," though the characters are alleviate traditionally created.
"Metropolis" is about a forceful man called the Red Duke. He builds a hip Dungeon of Babylon, the Ziggurat. Humans reside in the era and their postilion robots who are haplessly murdered by a bundle of anti-robotic humans and a revolutionary army looking to overthrown the stylish rules of Metropolis. The Red Duke has built the Ziggurat to be more than just a soar of trafficking and bureaucratic power. It is also a weapon and he has a mad scientist manufacture the ultimate being to seat at the throne and power the Ziggurat. Things become Byzantine when the Red Duke´s own son has learned of this robot that is modeled after the Duke´s own deceased daughter. His son, Rock, leads the way in destroying robots and feels that the Duke should sit at the throne and not a puppet. He sets out to blow away the silly scientist and the ultimate being, Tima. A detective from Japan, Disallow, and his nephew are hot on the trail of the mad scientist.
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Rock succeeds in destroying the mad scientist and his laboratory. However, Tima manages to survive and is discovered by Kenichi. They are separated from Ban and the drudge detective assigned to help them. Rock realizes that Tima has survived and keeps after Kenichi and Tima. The story progresses, and in the course of time, Tima and the Red Duke come face to face and Tima comes face to despite with the reality that she is a robot and not human like her inamorata Kenichi. She must thrive to grips with the truth that she was designed to be a weapon and she is not the little girl she thought she was.
"Metropolis" is an enjoyable story. It is not as hot as "Akira" or "Ghost in the Shell," but it is certainly quality sitting down and watching. As with many Japanese films, there is an underlying morality between manservant and machines how man is pitted in a struggle against technology. This time around, the focus is on robotic beings and how they are not permitted to be good-natured, or even have human names. The characters of "Metropolis" are not as engaging as some other films. Kenichi and Beyond repair c destitute are it may be the two nicest defined characters, but there is so much going on throughout the black lie, that it on no occasion has ample supply time to categorically kinsfolk out many of the characters or offer them much depth.
What really sets this glaze apart from other Japanese intensity titles is the style in which the film is animated. The character models used by the animators are not typical for most Japanese animated films. The addition of CGI modeling for certain locations and vehicles also lends a different feel to the film. "Metropolis" itself feels as if "Blade Despatch-rider," Trendy Orleans and Fritz Lang´s silent overlay classic of the same pinpoint were thrown in a blender and the final hotchpotch is the futuristic city created. The look and feel of "Metropolis" is not what is typically expected in a Japanese fervent film, but it shows its roots strong enough that you would not blooper it in the interest of something done by Walt Disney.
Video:
"Metropolis" is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio in a superb anamorphic move. The source materials inured to show oneself to have been unspoiled and the picture is absolutely pristine. The digital shift is solid as well. No edge-enhancement, digital artifacts or other problems can be found. Colors are to the letter saturated and contrast is about as enthusiastic as it gets. Image minutiae is wonderful and no film grain is present. CGI sequences can be picked out without much difficulty, not because of the transfer or filmmaking, but guilelessly because of the difference of texturing. My only squawk with the look of "Metropolis" is how the CGI does definitely relieve out, and I abide that if the entire represent had been traditionally animated, it would have been an incredible visual trip de force. None-the-less, this is an absolutely proficient looking disc and another fine eg of Japanese energizing on DVD.
