Starring: Tom Hanks, Stanley Tucci, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and more ...
Director: Steven Spielberg
Genre: Comedy
this movie opens today (fri, 6/18) in theaters nationwide, but i saw the screening (yes, free screening) early this week, and it was just great. the story itself was kinda, .. well.. blah! but since "the terminal" casts the everyman guy tom hanks and directed by steven spielberg, they make it worthwhile to sit through the entire movie. if it had been made by any filmmaker other than steven spielberg and featured any star other than tom hanks, i doubt it came out as nice. it's a classic spielberg who's always able to put a little humanity to the movie he makes and the character he develops. he just did it again!
the terminal is about a guy named viktor navorski (tom hanks), who's just arrived at JFK airport from a fictional republic of krakozia. while viktor was in the air, his country was overthrown in a coup, making viktor's passport and visa invalid. the immigration couldn't let him in because united states cannot recognize the country while it's still in war during the political revolution. as unyielding airport security executive, frank dixon (stanley tucci) explains that viktor is not allowed to enter america. with little understanding of english, viktor gets the point when he was told that he cannot leave the international departures and arrivals' lounge. he's a man without a country, trapped in a bureaucratic nightmare.
the plot continues as viktor tries to survive in the international lounge. america is only behind the revolving door, yet, it seems so far away. although he's officially free within the lounge, he could just try to break free.. but being a foreigner in a foreign land, he wants to make sure that he's doing the right thing. even after frank told him that viktor's a crack in the system and the guard won't be watching the doors, he knows he's being trapped. frank thought that when viktor leaves the airport, he can be detained for entering the country illegally and can be someone else's problem, not his. on the other hand, frank is wondering what's inside the planter's nut can viktor's carrying around with him everywhere. "a promise", viktor says.
viktor tries as much as he can to make the lounge his new "home", and while he stays, he meet people working in the lounge and become his friends, played by chi mcbridge, diego luna and kumar pallana. he learns english by comparing notes from books with the ones in his language. then he saw amelia (cahterine zeta-jones), a flight attendant who comes to the airport twice a month and got picked up by a guy who turns out to be married. amelia thought that viktor was just another frequent flyer passenger that she met in the airport on her stops to JFK, and viktor is falling in love with her. amelia thought her life as she finally finds someone who really listens to her.
the film does allow both hanks and spielberg to show off a loose, giddy feel for comedy that neiher has let shine in a long time. hanks's hesitant, barely english-speaking navorski owes to classic and other near-silent physical comedy performances. in a way it kinda reminds me of kofka from "taxi". spielberg also gets to showcase his crackerjack timing as well, especially in a carefully engineered meeting between amelia and viktor during which airport workers run interference. tucci's and zeta-jones's characters exist in counterpoint to hanks's viktor, so they're left remarkably unrounded, and hanks's gifted work is also a tic-riddled, showy bit of genius acting that leaves you aware that you are watching someone act.
the film is somewhat political. it kinda gives a look of how paranoid america is, in a comic way of course, and how the homeland security (used to be the immigration office) tries to secure the country. the subtexts is about a mass of minimum-wage, underpand and underappreciated kids, immigrants, and minorities working hard to make the american dream possible for JFK's busy travelers. the terminal is an infuriatingly minor work courtesy of two major talents. there's no doubt that spielberg gives a well-directed movie, a vintage, a classic. hanks is just genius, there's no doubt about it. with 2 oscars in his belt, you just cannot question his talent. his character is probably the best thing he did as close to "forrest gump". and it surprised me that when i thought being "jayus" and work on "plesetan" jokes only a courtesy of indonesian kids.. there are some jokes that's similarly jayus in english.
it's a worth-see movie if you're a big fans of spielberg and hanks.. yeah, of zeta-jones too (love her new hairdo!). but i have to admit, as much as i feel entertained with this movie.. something's just a little off. maybe it was the romance, maybe because the story was too stretched .. i don't know. but whatever it is.. it's original and it's fun to watch and cleverly entertaining.
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Jake Gylenhall, Ian Holm, and more ...
Director: Roland Emmerich
Genre: Action & Adventure
honestly, it's kinda tricky doing a review for this movie. "the day after tomorrow" is a disaster epic movie about global warming. jack hall (dennis quaid) is a paleoclimatologist, whose research says that global warming will lead to a new ice age. during a conference in new delhi, he brought his concerns and gave a fair warning about his theory only to be dismissed due to economic infeasability by the american vice president (kenneth welsh), who looks alot like the one we currently have. soon after the conference, the irregularities in the weather comes rather abruptly. snow in india, hail with blocks of ice destroying parts of japan, and temperature drop near the greenland. birds are seen to fly south, escaping themselves from the upcoming storm, turbulence in the sky, ripping off the planes from the sky and before long, tornadoes (not just one, but three!) ripping apart los angeles, and tsunami roars into new york city.
in the midst of mother nature's wrath, jack's son, sam (jake gyllenhall) was on a trip to new york to be involved in an academic decathlon team, which includes the girl he's been eyeing for, laura (emmy rossum). as they arrived to new york, it was raining cats and dogs, and before they can go back to washington dc, where they live, manhattan was flooded with the wall of water, almost as high as the skylines, and buried manhattan along with it. they managed to go to the high place, more precisely, the upper level of new york's public library. as the weather worsened, the water becomes ice and snow came in. the temperature keeps dropping fast. in the meantime, jack was able to get the president's attention to abandon and evacuate the south part of the country. he draws a slash across a map of the united states, and told everyone on the south should leave while those who lives in the north are too late to be saved. despite his own advice, he was off to new york, trying to save his only son, sam, with two of his buddies whose always been with him through his arctic journeys.
i have to admit, roland emmerich is an expert in making disaster movie like "godzilla" or "independence day". the graphic was swell.. plain awesome. you get the visual message of how dangerous and unpredictable mother nature is. however, this is a movie. despite the theory and the science behind it, this movie is meant for entertainment. and as hollywood entertains us.. it always has to be a mixed of happy ending, impossible actions, and a bit of love story... oh, and corny dialog too. yes, the movie is profoundly silly, yet scary.
picturing new york being destroyed, it's kinda giving me a mixed feeling. don't we have enough problems already? not only we're being destroyed in the real life, but over and over in the movie. why not focus on just destroying "hollywood" for once? and as many hollywood grand-scale movie in the past, many small stuffs that many audience wouldn't notice with the grand disaster it offers, weren't being explained in detail. stuff like.. walking from the north of philly to new york while the temperature keeps dropping (and it's not a short walk!), how possible is that? or while jack's expertise is needed, he left and go to new york to "save" his son, who godknows might be dead or alive. and the silly things keep showing. the body heat, the american refugees fleeting to mexico that that was being refused in mexican border. the US president have to make a deal to erase mexican debts as long as they allow they open the border to americans. ha! it's pretty funny to put america in that position.
the casting was pretty good, this movie definitely gives jake gylenhall a push to his acting career, despite the lack of it in this movie. it's just weird seeing him in a box office movie, when we know he's one of those actors who do act and always in indie label production, but hey it's about time for him to go mainstream, i guess. both gylenhall and quaid do what can be done with impossible and corny dialog in an unlikely situation to make it work. sela ward was also in it as jack hall's wife, although her beautiful face was only in few scenes. ian holm, as a wise scottish metereologist, was giving a performance during the quiet scenes and eventhough the scene may not mean anything, he makes it something.
overall, i do like the movie and the grand of the action and the idea behind it. but i find it annoying to see the small details being ignored and out of place. but as i said in the beginning.. it's meant for entertainment, so i have to accept it as that. and i must say, it's quite entertaining to see. it makes a fun movie.
this movie opens today (fri, 6/18) in theaters nationwide, but i saw the screening (yes, free screening) early this week, and it was just great. the story itself was kinda, .. well.. blah! but since "the terminal" casts the everyman guy tom hanks and directed by steven spielberg, they make it worthwhile to sit through the entire movie. if it had been made by any filmmaker other than steven spielberg and featured any star other than tom hanks, i doubt it came out as nice. it's a classic spielberg who's always able to put a little humanity to the movie he makes and the character he develops. he just did it again!
honestly, it's kinda tricky doing a review for this movie. "the day after tomorrow" is a disaster epic movie about global warming. jack hall (dennis quaid) is a paleoclimatologist, whose research says that global warming will lead to a new ice age. during a conference in new delhi, he brought his concerns and gave a fair warning about his theory only to be dismissed due to economic infeasability by the american vice president (kenneth welsh), who looks alot like the one we currently have. soon after the conference, the irregularities in the weather comes rather abruptly. snow in india, hail with blocks of ice destroying parts of japan, and temperature drop near the greenland. birds are seen to fly south, escaping themselves from the upcoming storm, turbulence in the sky, ripping off the planes from the sky and before long, tornadoes (not just one, but three!) ripping apart los angeles, and tsunami roars into new york city.
