The Beach (2000)

The Beach is easily one of the strangest movies I've ever seen. Mostly this is the result of it's inability to decide what kind of movie it's going to be. At the start The Beach seems like Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire) is directing Leonardo DiCaprio through an edgy travel/adventure movie. The soundtrack and cinematography for this opening section are done in such a way that you feel you're watching the start of a horror movie, giving you a not-so-sneaking suspicion that something sinister is afoot. After DiCaprio and his two French companions discover the titular beach, you believe that said sinister something is that you've been tricked into watching a crummy island soap opera. After far too long of that, the movie transforms again: this time into something strange, psychological, and borderline brilliant. But then The Beach's cop out ending allows it to avoid conclusions, consequences, or doing anything interesting.

The one thing that stops The Beach from being a complete waste of a movie is Leonardo DiCaprio; this movie was filmed smack in the middle of his turn of the century metamorphosis. He's no longer the shallow pretty boy of Romeo + Juliet and Titanic, but he's also not yet as subtle or mature as we're now used to seeing him. To utilize the beach metaphor, here DiCaprio is testing the waters of actually acting, and is in the process of learning to swim. It's fascinating to watch him in this stage of his development, even if he occasionally flounders. For me this made up for the fact that Danny Boyle was unable to create a direction, an ending, or any coherence with The Beach.

Moon (2009)

A somewhat experimental film from director Duncan Jones who also helped write the film, Moon is his only feature film to date but man did he start his career off with a bang. There is only one human character in the entire film, Sam Bell, played by Sam Rockwell who maybe should've won Best Actor for his performance and it's unbelievable he didn't even get a nomination. In addition to the main man, Kevin Spacey voices a robotic helper (GERTY) that floats around the lunar station with one program, help Sam. His whole character has a very HAL (2001: A Space Odyssey) like feel to him that's done very well. Sam does have some interaction with people at NASA and watches old videos of his wife and child but other than that it's mostly just the two of them in a station on the moon overseeing some kind of unexplained mining project. While this is probably starting to sound really boring let me assure you it isn't.

The plot has some amazing twists and the script does a great job of setting them up, plus the dialogue between Rockwell and Spacey is great. After setting up the world this film is going to take place in a fairly big accident happens and things start to stop making sense for Sam Bell. He begins to have hallucinations, has problems discerning reality, and begins to get pretty sick. The soundtrack is pretty sparse but fits well for the film and the camera work is great. An excellent mind-bender that will keep you thinking for days and will leave you wanting to watch it again right away, I know I did.

North Face (2008)

Given that we've reviewed a movie about Nazis in the snow and a movie about mountain climbing, I figured it only right to review a movie about Nazis in the snow climbing a mountain.

The 2008 German film North Face recounts the 1936 attempt to summit the Eiger via its north face, one of the deadliest routes in the world having accounted for 64 deaths since 1935. The narrative arc follows a pair of German climbers disillusioned with the political climate surrounding Nazism and more intent on honing their mountaineering skills as they compete against a pair of Austrians with similar aspirations for conquering the indomitable Swiss peak. All the while, a reporter from Berlin (Ulrich Tukur, notable for his role as Grubitz in the highly recommended The Lives of Others) propagandizes their climb as exemplary of German athletic prowess. A young photographer accompanies the reporter, and acts as a love interest throughout the film for one of the climbers. Once the climbers’ ascent begins they face a series of challenges and setbacks, dooming them to face the harsh weather and unforgiving landscape of the Eiger.

Nazi Bromance.

For a film about a mountain, North Face is unfortunately flat. Nearly every element feels contrived, injected into the plot line as an arbitrary means of heightening the drama and inevitably distracting from the excitement of the historical reality. The direction was thrilling and visceral, enveloping the viewer in the Eiger’s erratic weather and terrifying beauty, while the script faltered along, barely able to conjure any empathy for the characters. The romance between climber Toni and photographer Luise remained unsubstantiated and thoroughly uninteresting from beginning to end. The soundtrack kept making me think I was watching a Michael Bay film. Tukur stands out as the only memorable performance. I would recommend North Face purely for the sake of its adventure, though it never quite achieves what appeared to be a potential for greatness.

The Crazies (2010)

While my positive bias for zombie movies and some of the lead actors let me enjoy this movie I can't say it was very good. The acting is pretty good as well as the makeup but the cinematography and editing are a little lax and the story itself, especially the end is pretty weak. I liked the setting of a small town for the zombie flick (a little reference to Night of the Living Dead (1968) perhaps) and the total destruction of the town was pleasing in some small slightly sick way, like any good thriller, but there are a number of parts of the film that have you asking 'how did that work? Wasn't he over there?' and some of the action/characters/motives aren't believable even for a horror movie. The gore is great and plentiful but the religious references were a unnecessary and misplaced. While I liked watching this, unless you enjoy zombie movies or have a soft spot in your heart for Timothy Olyphant, this probably isn't worth wasting your time on and you can definitely find better horror movies on the Queue. (see some of Buggin Out's early reviews if you're looking for a good horror flick)