Jarhead (2005)

United States, 2005
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, Brian Geraghty, Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper
Director: Sam Mendes
My Rating: *** / ****

I was one of those kids who in his youth was mesmerized with John Rambo. I mean, who wouldn't anyway? I think that it is safe to say that every kids of '80s would at least catch a glimpse on who is Rambo regardless if he has already seen the film or not. I was one of those who hasn't seen the film but had enough feed on Rambo. Enough that sometimes, i'm re-enacting his actions. A muscular guy with a huge machine gun, taking down a whole army of Vietnamese all by himself, fight for a righteous act, wicked looking combat knife, and of course, that red bandanna. But then again, when i really had the chance to see the film in question (part II, not part I) years later, i decided to dislike it, entirely.

Now, aside from that, since that moment i had a solid concept inside my head about a war movie. That every war movie is different, yet every war movie is the same. Ow, wait, that sounds exactly like the voiceover at the end of this film, Jarhead, which i was about to write.

Over the years, as i grow older, and digested more movies than it's allowed, i learnt of an anti-war movie which is a film that instead of putting the weight on its deliverance upon patriotism-issues (which was a turn-off for me, since i was often at odds against the protagonist's patriotism. Take "Pearl Harbor", or "Black Hawk Down" for an instance), it often, if not always put the word war before a question mark. Such as, "why war?". Take "Full Metal Jacket", or "Appocalypse Now" as an example. Okay, you may disagree with my analogy. But that's how i viewed the anti-war film.

"Jarhead" was undoubtedly was those among the anti-war films. It told about the Gulf war, the first Gulf war, by the way, when Iraqi soldiers tried to "re-capture" Kuwait. But, of course, it didn't justified the war, or taking side. It viewed and told the war from a perspective of a "Jarhead" (which is a jargon that branded to the Marine Corps). A young soldier, Anthony Swofford (Gyllenhaal) who had undergone a harsh basic training only to be sent to the desert with almost nothing to do. Swofford and his fellow-mates must wait for a war that it turns out, never come to the tip of their rifles. And during those wait, their 'personal-war' begun.

Well, unlike most other anti-war film that i've seen, this film doesn't questioned the need of war, nor deal with the soldier's humane perspective in killing others. This film is simply dealt with the soldier who had been trained to kill, trained to love their rifle, trained to make their rifle into the part of their body, trained to believe that they were there to serve their country only to find that their training had been taking its toll more than they could give. "At least, let him kill the man", someone said. And that's how one could summarized Jarhead in short words. Their in-ability to kill, not their guilty-conciussness after the kill that led them questioned the war.

On the other side of coin, this film was like any other war film that i've seen because there were almost no variety to the characters. We see the same kind drill-instructor, we see the same kind mind-insane team-mate, we see the same kind of lead actor, and we see the very same kind leader (who also gave personal speech that was delivered by any other war films only with different style). But, if anything, though it's a little bit too long for me.. (at some point, i wondered if i should turn off the film and sleep instead), i enjoyed Jarhead with its absence of patriotism-issue that could make me slap myself on the temple. I enjoyed the handy camerawork and cinematography (though, what do you expect from desert environment? green mountains?). And, had to admit, even though i never liked Jake Gyllenhaal, i dig him in this film. And this film was among the top 10 of my best-of-2005 films list.

Well, not much of a review, but hope it helps.

Intermezzo

It's been a month, i know. But, check out this blog.

http://www.cinematical.com

This blog had a LOT of gimmicks and tidbits about movies and current gossips.

New Job, Old Faces

Title.

Transporter 2 (2005)

France / United States, 2005
Cast: Jason Statham, Alessandro Gassman, Amber Valetta, Katie Nauta
Director: Louis Letterier
My Rating: **1/2 / ****

My friends had been commenting on my appearance lately. Well, i've been fucked up lately, that's for sure. I think it's because: 1. I haven't take a bath in like 48 hours, 2. I haven't had a decent sleep for like a week?, 3. I've got this guest who calling himself FATE who keep knocking in my door? (eh, forget this one). Aaaaanyway, one thing for sure is that my mood had been on a greyscale lately. No damn color visible. Everything was either gray or little darker. Gloomy, bleak, it's the color of death. And death, is suck.

But as any situation darker per se, there's absolutely nothing that couldn't be solved by watching some mindless-fuck movie just to let the brain-janitors to clean the aftermath of mind war that had been going on my brain. That's my prescription, by the way, it may not worked on everybody.

So, i prepared several movie that i deemed to be a light-watch, a movie i could enjoy without thinking as much, without even care about the characters or lines of dialog. Transporter 2 was (i think) would be one of the such.

I have told everybody who cared on this site, that Jason Statham is one of those actors that i could enjoy without caring much about his character. Seeing him for the very first time in Snatch, recognize him in Transporter, for me, almost every character that he played had somewhat emanates more than enough charisma to make-up what lacking in almost every aspect of the film he currently in. Remember Mean Machine? he plays as a wicked-mean goalie whose presence provides fear. A real fear. *Shudders*.

Of Transporter 2 case, the film was lacking almost anything. It lacks logic, it lacks characters, it lacks plot, it lacks whatever-you-name-it. Now that's a pretty bad shite. I wouldn't give it a 2.5 rating if i was in my best of shape. But again, i need movie that could made me giggle, not a movie that requires me to think and forced me to watch it again *pointing downward* and so, even though it was that quick to make me respond to the movie with something like, "Oh shite, that's soooo not possible", i could dig the movie. It means to be mindless-fuck-actions and it gave me actions. The movie-makers and director were aware enough that they didn't tried to make a logical action movie that they were concentrated on how to deliver the action. And you know what? they were pretty good at it, i give you that. And Frank, he was this kind of hero / anti-hero protagonist that had a cool fashion that even James Bond looks like a high-schooler. Hell, he even had an extra suit tucked on a waterproof plastic in his car's trunk just in case the suit he wore smeared from blood and/or explosions. If that's doesn't make you smile, i dont know what is. And he doesn't even crack a smile, even though that i was scared a bit when they revealed at the beginning of a movie that instead of a hot-girl (some may not like it, but yeah, i think Hsu Chi is hot. She was the babe in the first Transporter film anyway), Frank was protecting a little-child (i was afraid that it was going to be like Man on Fire stuff, which is though good, but not really the kind of movie that i'm looking for from a mindless action like Transporter). And yeah, Jason Statham delivers.

The action sequences were well taken, given my eye enough delicacy to chew upon, and - the one thing of importance, IMO, for this kind of movie - never stops. The intermission between actions were long enough to spill the bean a little bit on the plot, but never too long to bother itself on explaining the plot. Which is non-existant anyway. One thing to praise upon this film is, that the movie-makers behind this film knows what he's doing. He wants to entertain his viewers. He wants to make a good action-flicks which everybody could enjoy (well, not everybody anyway, since there's this trigger-happy machine-gun girl who wears lingerie everytime she's on screen. That's weird). Long story short, he knows how to made a good action movie. And that was just about what i could say about this film.

This film works best when you're watching it in a cold night, in a dim-lit room, on a wider-screen, with your feet slouching on a couch or somewhere, and with a warm tea or something else you fancy in your hand.