Junebug (2005)

United States, 2005
Cast: Embeth Davidtz, Alessandro Nivola, Benjamin McKenzie, Amy Adams, Celia Wetson, Scott Wilson
Director: Phil Morrison
My Rating: *** / ****

There were times, when I wrote my reviews, a moment where I don’t know how to begin, what to tell, and how to wrap the review. When such times occurs, I would usually give a simple sentence as a whole opinion and writing some bla-bla-bla, yada-yada-yada that based and centered on it thus made my review had a little sense of pretentousness and pointlessness.

It usually happens when I had no idea on what to wrote as the movie itself didn’t gave me anything to start off. There were no apparent crap to bashed upon, nor apparent beauty to praise upon. Everything is just seem so subtle that I had to dig further into my consciussness to find the hidden message the film had for me. If, at anytime, I failed to find the hidden message, then it’s because simply the movie sucks, and really really had nothing to offer.

Fortunately, that’s not the case with Junebug. I had watched it twice (yes, twice) in the last four days – editor note: he tried to be less than the late Pauline Kael who believes that the first movie impression is the foremost important thing in order to made a honest review – to catch the glimpse of meaning from this slow-paced character-packed family drama.

Like most film that entirely dependent on character developments, Junebug is a magnamous slow-paced that it would leave most of the audience simply impatient (oh yeah, I had my impatience) with it. Medeline (Davidtz) was an art dealer. One day, she met George (Nivola) and they fall in love and married soon after. Six months later, while in the vicinity for business purpose, the couple decided to drop on George’s parents’ place. Wonder, how many films already that came out based on this fact alone (in-law visits).

Here is the family that Medeline had to deal with: Peg (Watson), the mother, criticizes everyone, second-guesses every decision, and never wrong (of course, according to her). Eugene (Wilson), the father, always in silence, in solitude, and most of his time are spent in his basement wood-carving. Jhonny (McKenzie), George’s younger brother, newly married to his high-school sweets, Ashley (Adams) which is pregnant.

Jhonny was a desperate young man, he feels like everybody around him overwhelmed him, pitying him (maybe because he didn’t have a high-school diploma?), thus, he responded everything with his usual, withdrawing, not talking, and find something to busied himself with. Ashley was a sweet, chatty, cheerful, optimistic, and supportive. She’s the one we could fall in love with, but in my point of view, she’s the one who suffer the most in this film. Even I almost cried for her tragic moment on one scene (not telling) in both viewing, worse at the second viewing.

Okay, I could talk on and on and on about how each characters intertwined and developed. But at the very least, the above three pharagraphs could cover the surface.

Many of people on RT (rottentomatoes.com) named this movie as their one of best of 2005. Understandably. I would too, if I was a Northern-American. As some of the reviewers put it, this film is great because it’s true. Well, I guess, it’s true to those who had lived their life in Northern-American. For I, who had spent his entire life so far in Indonesia, found a considerable difficulty in connecting with the situation. Not with the characters, but situation. Nonetheless, I was fascinated with the characters and how they dealt with the problem.

The problems portrayed in this film, I think, were common in families. All the problems that could be attributed to one basic problem. Communication. Hell, I used to suffer from my relationship because of the shite communications thingy as well. But, unlike many of its Hollywood counterparts, these problems are not solved during the short visit, just in time for the film to end. We didn’t see Ashley takes comfort on George, or Medeleine breaks into Jhonny's solitude by sleeping with him, even though the chances are there. And, this is the best, even though we didn’t see Ashley and Jhonny as a perfect couple you can get, we didn’t see ‘divorce’ shadowed their relationship.

Amy Adams as Ashley won last year’s Sundance film-festival for her performance. And I couldn’t agree more with it. Ashley’s character was a joke-potential. We see love, we see cheerfulness, but we should see tragedy, and sadness as well, and if the actress behind it doesn’t had the talent to deliver such dicotomy, we would laugh and dismissed the character entirely. It’s a win-all or lose-all situation. And of course, on this case, Amy Adams wins it all. The rest of the actors also came great. At least, none of the important characters (Medelene and George’s family) fall short on the acting department. Thus, made this film into an enjoyable joy-ride of characters’ study.

All in all, family’s problems go on and on, and they aren’t solved, they’re dealt with. Now, that’s leave me with a problem, should I watch this movie again? Because I feel like I haven’t seen it enough. And giving it a mere 3 rating won’t do justice. Ah, well…

Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)

United States, 2005
Cast: David Straithairn, Robert Downey Jr., Patricia Clarkson, Ray Wise, Frank Langella, Jeff Daniels, George Clooney
Director: George Clooney
My Rating: **** / ****
David Straithairn’s act really took my breath away. Particulary when he says his closing statement, “Good Night, and Good Luck”. The expression of his face, the way his eyes wanders like he doesn’t really wants to end and said something more, the tone of his voice, and the way George Clooney captured the scene. All of them captivating me, led me to a state of pure intense that – again – literally took my breath away.

“Good Night, and Good Luck” is one of the five best drama of 2005 according to Golden Globe awards. For me, it’s one of the five best film of 2005 that I’d already seen. Not without a reason. This film is a second film in a relatively short-interval that I watched and told about the live of newsies and delivered in a black/white picture. The difference was of course the quality of the picture – physically. “His Girl Friday” shot in 1940 where color in film was yet implemented and “Good Night, and Good Luck” was intended to shot in a grayscale tone.

In a sense – wait, not just in a sense, but it just IS – “Good Night, and Good Luck” is a docu-drama (part documentary, part drama, and oh, throws a little bit of thriller in it, because that’s the way I see it) about public war between Edward R. Murrow, a journalist from CBS with Senator McCarthy about the senator’s policy against those people who in his opinion solely (that is, without further physical or publicly released proof) un-American. Right. He’s an anti-Communist senator. And Murrow attacks his policy which is just appropriate through his show “See it Now” which he co-produced with Fred Friendly (Clooney). But if you think about it, you could easily put the situation into modern days where we’d change the “anti-Communist” to “anti-Terrorist”. But that of course, is beyond the scope of this review.

This movie is easily a thrill-ride. The reporters involved in “See it Now” show were literally put their heads on a chop-block when they’re started to attack Senator McCarthy policy. It could easily be observed from the office’s shot, from the meetings prior the show, from executive decisions, and ultimately, I held my breath when all the crew, right after Murrow said his closing statement, waiting for the phone to ring. Now, that’s what I call thriller. And the climax was rewarding.

But of course, the star of the show, the spotlight of it all, was David Straithairn who played Edward R. Murrow. I can’t quite remember it rightly, but the last time some actor put me in awe by his act is when I saw Daniel Day Lewis in “Gangs of New York” back in 2001. That’s leave me wondering how was Phillip Seymour Hoffman does act in Capote as he is the winner of the last Golden Globe Award for Best Leading Actor in Drama whereas David Straithairn was only become a nominee. But his performance alone, is enough to keep me entertained, keep me hooked up to the story line, sometimes keep my breath away (which actually a good thing, in this case), and leave me in awe after this thrill-ride approaches its end. The actors selection for this film is nowhere near good. Is wayyyy above good. Even though the only “star” on this film was George Clooney who comfortably put himself on the bench, the actors chosen in this film were chosen based not by their stardoms but by their roles and that’s what made this film easily one of the very best of 2005. And if you want to know what’s my opinion of good film and good acting, consequently on what base my reviews are upon, you ought to watch this movie, and tell me what you think. “Good Night, and Good Luck”.

Lord of War (2005)

United States, 2005
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Jared Leto, Bridget Moynahan
Director: Andrew Niccol
My Rating: ***1/2 / ****

“That’s one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. The only question is: How do we arm the other eleven?”, Yuri Orlov (Cage) matter-of-factly saying right before one of the best opening sequence of the year in what I think is the most underrated movie of 2005. Why, even James Berardinelli hasn’t reviewed this film yet.

The rest of the film is told in flashback, with voiceover by Orlov, starting in 1980 and end to where he is now.

Yuri Orlov and his family came to US from Ukraine when he was a young boy. They runs and owns a restaurant. And Yuri, with his brother Vitaly (Leto) were part of the business. Until one day, a turn of event led Yuri to what later become the profession he’s best at. An arms dealer.

A sensitive issue, a bleak comedy, a grand visual, a great performance, oh, make it plural, great performances, a strong-witted script (came from Andrew Niccol who also wrote “The Truman Show”, “Gattaca”, among others), and an appropriate ending, made this movie a clean swift land on a top 6 / 7 of my shortlist on best of 2005. I even wondered myself, how come that there weren’t much attention given to this film. And why’s all the love to that gay-thingy “Brokeback Mountain” whilst none given to this movie? Okay, Brokeback may be better but not by this much of margins. Well, I guess everybody’s entitled to his / her own comment. And mine is, I enjoyed “Lord of War” a great deal.

To say that this film is a kind of a bleak comedy maybe a little bit off by some people’s standard. But it was a satiric comedy as we see Yuri made his way through the arms business ladder, dealing with cold-hearted dictators (or rebels) as a customer, rivaling with equally (if it isn’t more) cold-hearted business-rivals, but at the same time squeeze his way moral-wise by rationalizing his crimes, his denials that his business is actually killing-off people (“it’s not our wars”, he said), and his pretention to live a double-life in front of his family.

Yuri’s narration througout the movie was quickly became the center of this movie. It would of course needed a hand of a good scripter to deliver such narration in order to brought this movie to its highest point. Andrew Niccol was clearly up the par with the high expectation. Yuri’s narration was able to give a satyrical feel to otherwise blatant and pretentous political-war drama, Hollywood-style.

This film, as Yuri’s narration recapped his 20-years of gun-dealing career, dealt closely with various war-zones all-over the world (most often shown, was his dealing with his best customer, a dictator ruling Liberia, Andre Baptiste) and of course, by doing so, shown how cruel a thing the war is. We see a child executed military-style in Lebanon, a child not more than 12 wielding an AK-47, listed as a soldier, a real-soldier not just a mere citizen wielding a gun, a dead men lying on the street while a nazar bird digested on his remains, a mother stabbed and killed by several men, a shot through the head, with brain tissues and blood sprayed nicely (nice?) behind him. As far as Yuri’s morality issues concerned, he’s been on every scene I mentioned. But, he made an excuse to himself, justified his action by saying, “it’s not my war”. One particular scene even involved Yuri’s customer went only several hundred meters downhill from where the deal took place to made a massacre upon refugee camp consisting mainly of women and children in Sierra Leone right after his customer made purchase. And what does he say? “there was seven massacre more on Sierra Leone that week”. Will he be able to get out of the industry, as it started to creep on his family? Will he realize that his business is actually killing people, and like it not stained his hands with blood as well? Will he realize, as his counter-role, a rare-breed officer (since he couldn’t be bought) Valentine (Hawke) states that the longer he’s in custody, the more lives could be saved? I leave those questions’ answers to you.

Nicolas Cage as Yuri gave a superb performance up to a point where we can’t easily imagine someone else on his seat. But, the other supporting characters were less developed. Especially his nemesis. The one that supposed to be his arch-rival, his counter-role, the one that obsessed with him, to brought him down, to justice, an interpol officer Valentine. Tough he’s described by Yuri as his arch-nemesis, I’m barely able to see his obsessions.

One point of interest though, the movie ends with a statement that even though there are many private arms dealer like Yuri, the biggest arms dealers in the world were US, UK, Russia, France, and China which all five were permanent member of UN Security Council. Well, it wasn’t something entirely new. Everybody knows it already. But to made a statement in a commercial entertainment-product such as film? Well, that’s new.

Santa's Slay (2005)

United States, 2005
Cast: Bill Goldberg, Douglas Smith, Emille de Ravin, Robert Culp
Director: David Steiman
My Rating: 1/2 / ****

“Joy to the World”, a rather famous Christmas song was playing as we see the house in a midst of a light snow-rain. We then joined a family about having dinner. A formal dinner with Turkey, and a guest. By seeing this sequence, we expect something funny about this movie. Plus, one of the cast of the family was a familiar face – and squeak – Fran Drescher, better known by her role at “The Nanny”. So indeed, after a joke or two being thrown, light preambule to the dinner being opened, and a pre-dinner pray being said, suddenly, the chimney rattles and “bump” we see a familiar grandpa with red overalls and oversized belly, oh my, it’s Santa. He’s real after all… Not! Even before the shock had passed, our Santa rolls on the table and literally nails both of the family’s father’s palm to the table with a pair of dining knife, he then sets the family’s mother’s head into fire, kick the guest’s until he flew backward and crashed the cupboard as he goes, throws a star ornament of a christmas tree to the back of one of the daughter, smack the aunt’s head with a table’s foot with nail portruding out of it, and made one of the other daughter fell into a furniture resulting in the girl’s neck penetrated by the furniture. He even throws the family’s dog into rotating fan.

As this is one of those movies that I watched before actually made any information-gathering regarding of what kind of movie it is, who was the actor / actress of this movie, and ultimately, what it is all about. So, my jaw dropped on the floor due to the opening sequence. Alas, more because of my surprise and the hillarity of the irony than the horror-ness or gore-ness of that scene.

Right, I guess that’s all I can say about this movie. It’s an obvious meaningless and pointless B-grade slasher horror flick. And the first 7 minutes were unfortunately the only watchable part of this movie – Aw, it was even a powerful introduction. The rest? Ah, boring is the best to describe it. I mean, after that fast-rate butchery on the first 7 minutes of course I would expect that some more bodies would get butchered, slaughtered, tortured, or whatever. But do I get it? A big NO. Even boring was giving it too kind of a review.

Not enough sympathy to the devil albeit, it was probably the best casting of this movie (Bill Goldberg as Evil Santa). Not enough reason for the devil to hunt our heroes, not enough blood to call it a would-be cult-classic, not enough slaughtering to call it a slasher-flick, not enough dramas nor characters to keep us hooked to fill the blanks whenever Bill Goldberg aka Evil Santa is out from the screen, even not enough jokes and ironies to call it a satyrical horror/comedy and the ultra-cheesy conclusion which almost made me puke. The half star (actually it was a little less than a quarter, but half-a-star was the lowest grade I could give to a movie which actually had its moment) I give would solely granted because of the first 7 minutes and Hulk Hogan-ish Evil Santa portrayed by Bill Goldberg.

My Newly Added Movies Collection

In no particular order:

• The Brother's Grimm
  
• Four Brothers
  
• The Cave
  
• Underclassman
  
• Hide and Seek
  
• Crimen Ferpecto
  
• Hustle & Flow
  
• The Constant Gardener
  
• A Sound of Thunder
  
• Flightplan
  
• Pretty Persuasive
  
• Thumbsucker
  
• The Man
  
• Doom
  
• Junebug
  
• Lord of War
  
• Down to the Bone (2004)
  
• Death to the Supermodels
  
• The Fog
  
• Wedding Crashers
  
• Good Night and Good Luck
  
• The Chumscrubber
  
• Two for the Money
  
• Half Light (2006)
  
• Looking for Fidel (2004)
  
• Mozart and the Whale
  
• Lonesome Jim
  
• Tamara
  
• Kronk's New Groove
  
• Fourth World War
  
• Moolaade
  
• Lila Says (2004)
  
• Stranger In My Bed
  
• Um Tiro no Escuro
  
• Bad News Bears
  
• Peaches (2004)
  
• Nine Lives
  
• American Pie's Band Camp
  
• Kings and Queens
  
• Red Eye
  
• Into the Blue
  
• Must Love Dogs
  
• Cry Wolf
  
• The Exorcism of Emily Rose
  
• The Great Raid
  
• Santa's Slay ---> Now, this is a very very stupid but hillarious horror. Gore but humorous as well. Happy Holiday! Here comes Santa.. ha ha ha.. wicked sick.
  

Otherwise mentioned, all the movies were released in the year 2005

I know, some of the movies are bound to be junk, but, i could expect much from Junebug, Good Night, and Good Luck and several foreign films. The rest? ow well, some mindless fucking stupid movie once in a while won't hurt. I'd be writing short on Santa's Slay later on, man the movie is soooo stupid, that even it felt so good.

His Girl Friday (1940)

United States, 1940
Cast: Cary Grant, Rosalind Russel, Ralph Bellamy, Gene Lockhart
Director: Howard Hawks
My Rating: ** 1/2 / ****

Turn on your time-machine, and let’s go back in time. To a world where a raging war that took live of millions was just a nightmare yet to come and not a bloody-ink on a book of history.

It’s 1940 where this film was one of the first, if not the first film that features character’s dialog overlapping each-other and not just taking turns as it used to be. With a script that could easily made a three-hour long film, this film delivers its kicks, its wits, and its non-stop comedy in a rapid-fire. One of the most important film in American history that even one could easily argue that someone cannot learn about American film history without including this film in its syllabus.

Based on a play about live as a newspaper reporter, the trio main-cast on this movie were involved in a some kind of a bizarre love triangle. Hildy was a known reporter for her brilliance, but has recently quit her job as she tries to become a less obsessive person and become more like a commoner. Her editor, Walter Burns – also her ex-husband – doesn’t want her to quit, of course (or for that matters, doesn’t want her to divorced him, either). So when on one day, she went to the “Morning Post” where she had her reputation built nicely around her to meet Walter, he doesn’t waste a time to lure her back into his office, and his home. But, it was only to find that she brought a news in which he doesn’t like nor he has been prepared for. She was getting married with someone else with less enthusiastic in life (read: led a boring life). And so, for the rest of the film we see him trying desperately to win her back. Both her heart, and her old-enthusiastics on Journalism, in a roller-coaster joy ride of hillarious comedy ever made by Hollywood delivered – as I had stated earlier – in a rapid dialog show-down. I had to focus rather hard to catch the dialog, often rewind to had a better understanding since I watched it without subtitles.

The movie wasn’t that great, I’ve seen better (well, of course since it’s an 1940 movie with black and white pictures, and monotonous sound), it manages to hook me right after Hildy and Walter walks out of Walter’s office to greet Bruce, soon-to-be Hildy’s husband. With dialogues that slapping one another, providing a sense of irony as well as sarcasm, the movie was able to keep the pace up until which I think is the best scene in a movie where Hildy, who has finally found and obey her true instinct, Journalism, doing as frantic as an addict could be to type the story she had covered, while Walter as an editor, instructs his employees to change the headlines of tomorrow’s editon, while Bruce was desperately trying to persuade Hildy to go with him. *SPOILER* This three-way monolog was created beautifully, that even if you had sympathy with Bruce, we knew right from the start of the News Room scene that Hildy cannot turns her back from her life-calling which is Journalism, you would simply be smiling. Especially when Hildy made a ‘stupid’ remarks before the end of that scene, “Where’s Bruce? I thought I heard him a while ago?”. This ‘stupid’ remarks made me laugh heartily, a thing that after so many movies had become a rarity.

Though I didn’t understand some of the dialogs delivered, further, the movie also incorporates several “in-jokes” which make things went even deeper into the haze. But, I’ve got more fun by merely seeing the gestures made by the characters, or most importantly the chemistry between Hildy and Walter. Now, that’s what I call chemistry. It was hillarious, romantic, and warm. I felt so envious to them, and that’s the proof of how effective this duo turns out to be. And if you were watching movies, it was appropriate that you at least enjoy the movie. Not necessarily understand, which I think is secondary (well, that’s why after a while, I re-watch a particular movie), but enjoyment is the first and the foremost important things when it comes to movies. And that’s what I had.

PS: This film has become a public property. You could easily downloaded it, copy it, even alter it without violating any copyrights out there. See Archive.org for more info.

Ryoko Hirosue

Isn't she a babe? around the same age as i am, it was to no one's wonderment that i had a crush on her. Well, actually i had a certain favor to girls with small eyes. But usually, i never cared much of them (read: i never intentionally look for their info on the net).

On Hirosue, i first laid eyes on her not a week ago when i watch a movie on local televesion entitled "Wasabi" with French actor Jean Reno. My affection toward Jean Reno was similar to that with Jason Statham. I had a tendency to enjoy the movie they played even though that the movie turns out to be a crappy ones (such as this one (Wasabi) or The Transporter 2) so i stood my ground, only occassionally change the channel (there's nothing good on the other TVs anyway) and watch the movie until end.

Wasabi told about a French policeman who happened to had a lover in Japan whose for one reason or other lose any contact with her. Now imagine his surprise when he found out that his lover died and left him with a hefty-sum of money to his beneficiary and also a daughter. Hesitantly though, he flew to Japan to met his daughter, and maybe, just maybe claim his lover's heritage. Note: He should be excited to had that much of money. But his character demands that he shouldn't be to excited. Bah! Pretender!

Now, before the daughter made her appearance, i had almost lost interest to this movie. But when the daughter made her presence (known as Yumi), i fell in love. And the rest is history. I would love to see another movie that starred by Ms.Hirosue. What a lovely smile she had.

P.S: I had to go to Japan. I really do. As a student, perhaps? *thought wanders* ~~~~

Weekly Box Office Report

How's the long weekend? I've got a superb one. Though, of course, i won't going into details here.

Well, here comes the last weekend Box-Office report for the past week.. aw, all right, i know that it has been several days past. But everybody wants a holiday.

In several weeks, the battle for the audiences are still between the big gorilla and his affection blonde, and the bunch of kids led by a lion who fought against the white witch. And of course, being a cute-ish family movie for a holiday-season, so far, Aslan and the kids were the victor of the battle.

But, the first week of a brand-new-year wasn't a PG movie, but an R-rated movie. Hostel - quoting its official plot - Two adventurous American college buddies, Paxton and Josh, backpack through Europe eager to make quintessentially hazy travel memories with new friend Oli, an Icelander they've met along the way. Paxton and Josh are eventually lured by a fellow traveler to what's described as a nirvana for American backpackers--a particular hostel in an out-of-the-way Slovakian town stocked with Eastern European women as desperate as they are gorgeous. The two friends arrive and soon easily pair off with exotic beauties Natalya and Svetlana. In fact, too easily. Initially distracted by the good time they're having, the two Americans quickly find themselves trapped in an increasingly sinister situation that they will discover is as wide and as deep as the darkest, sickest recess of human nature itself--if they survive.

I took the poster from the Chinese-version simply because i liked it more than the other poster out there. Brandished by "Produced by Quentin Tarantino", this cheap-budgeted horror flick was written directed by Eli Roth and distributed by Lions Gate Films who both has been established themself as an horror-specialized movie-men. They (who had watch it) said that it had similar shock to Saw (a Lions Gate Films as well), only better. In Saw case, i really didn't expect it to be that good, so i guess it was enough reason for me to wait for this movie. There's a one-minute clip available on the net that depicted what to expect in this movie. Though i really must warn you. If you didn't dig for the 'gore' scenes, never watch the clip, let alone the movie. This is a 'gore' movie that doesn't soften itself like Saw or Texas Chainsaw Massacre (remake). The statistic says it all. Sixty-five percent of the weekend audiences (in the U.S) were under 25, and 60 percent were male.

Random trivia: The movie was written, produced, directed and released theatrically all in a twelve month period, which is three times faster than the average Hollywood film.

Another two new releases for this week, however, weren't that good. They didn't even made top-10. Adam Sandler produced movie (which of course, packed with his cronies), Grandma's Boy falls on #13. And Uwe Boll's latest disaster, Bloodrayne, as expected came on #19 with lousy 900+ theaters opening averaging for US$1,573.

My take, i never cared about Adam Sandler's works (unless if he's teamed ON SCREEN with Drew Barrymore), and i believed that somewhere on this site i had a statement, a fair-warning that everyone who doesn't liked to waste their money should Never seen anything from Uwe Boll if it was an adaption from video-game. Might as well flush the money down the toilet. And that statement shall holds true again. Some random guy even said that Bloodrayne was every film professor's nightmare and some other guy said that it was so UN-tertaining that made having cancer seem fun.

Quick links:

• Hostel
  
• Grandma's Boy
  
• Bloodrayne
  

Boiler Room (2000)

United States, 2000
Cast: Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Ben Affleck, Jamie Kennedy, Scott Caan, Ron Rifkin, Nicky Katt, Nia Long, Taylor Nichols, Tom Everett Scott
Director: Ben Younger
My Rating: *** / ****

"Reco!"
For Seth Davis (Ribisi), a 19-years-old college-dropout, a job promising tons of cash would surely had its appeal. Seth had run an illegal casino in his house, and it makes profit but it has made the relationship between him and his father (Rifkin), an allegedly legal attache - which is bad already - worsened. And so, when Seth offered to become an on-job-training in a stock-consultant firm company, JT Marlin.

What he doesnt' know was that everybody who worked on JT Marlin were on a boiler-room. Usually, people who worked on such firm would work no less than 18 hours-a-day to boost their client's portfolios whilst in so called "Boiler Room", the employees work over the phone, promising an untold-riches, providing confidential "tips", and ultimately preying on the customer's greed and fear of missing one hell of a chance. In short, what they're doing is nothing more than just a scam.

Our hero, Seth, of course doesn't aware at first to the business-practical that the JT Marlin had done on a daily basis. All he ever knew was that whenever he found a potential stupid rich man who would blindly investing his money to something unknown and unheard of (they called him "pope"), he would scream out of his lunge "Reco!!!!!" and that's when every senior broker would run to his desk to made the final 'sell'.

Curiosity kills the Cat
A talented salesman to begin with, Seth was quickly raised the ladder. He made a good money, up to a point where he doesn't need to open his casino anymore (it loses money anyway), his relationship with his father was getting better, and to add more drama to it, a cupid had decided to come to his side. But that's when curiosity kills the cat.

At first, he's just simply curious as to how come the comission on JT Marlin was higher than those of the opposing firm. He only utters his curiosity to one fellow-worker who he trusts best Chris (Diesel), who happen to takes a liking to Seth. Well, he'd be more like a brother to Seth in the end. And then a series of unfortunate events follows. And the truth was emphasized by the fact that his father knows about JT Marlin and gave his son an ultimatum, "Dont talk to me again, ever!". And that's when the world crumbles beneath his feet.

Talk is Cheap
This movie involves two of my favourite things to happen on a movie. 1. It relies heavily on dialogue. I always love movie that relies heavily on talk, instead of explosions. And this movie owned a lot - since its frightening resemblance - to David Mamet, my second favourite screenwriter (only second to Charlie Kauffman). And that was all the reason it needs. 2. It's about scam. Nothing intrigues me more than to see people getting double-crossed, people getting scammed on the screen.

It also had an effective deliverance of the emotion that came to Seth. One particular shot was when Seth involved greatly on one customer he thought as a "pope" at first but it turns out to be just a regular poor-guy. We were brought to the poor-guy family, and how does the scam that had been done by Seth was literally took the family apart. So intense.

And on the end, the movie's conclusion was nothing sort of great.

Scene Stealer
I've got no problem whatsoever with the casts. Vin Diesel gave a more than decent performance here, as Seth's "big-brother". And Giovanni Ribisi thought that this movie was his first adult-performance, it delivers, even though it rather hard to accept Ribisi as JT Marlin's brightest star at the second-half of the movie. But, i've got to admit that the scene stealer on this movie was Ben Affleck. He took the role that Alec Baldwin's took in a David Mamet's Glengarry Glenn Ross. Ben was on screen for only two scenes. And he could really convince me on both scenes. And if i was on a Seth's shoe, i would definitely be moved on by his speech and took the opportunity to work on a scam JT Marlin blindfoldedly. Really, this is his best performance that i ever saw of him.

Happy New Year

My New Year's resolutions:
Watch more movies, Read more books (yeah, like that's a news), Really start my own business (i had an investor ready, the only question left would be wether i could make him really convinced of the prospect in the business i had been proposed to him, or not. And that would be decided by the time i took him to do some market-survey later this week. If everything goes as planned, in a two months or so, three tops, my so-called-and-hopefully new business would be up and walking - not yet running), and maybe, settling down.

All in all, Happy New Year, may it brings only good things.