#20

Wow! It's #20 already. To be perfectly honest, I Didn't expect me to get this far. I'm kind of proud. But anyway.
I would really appreciate it if there would be some feedback given by those who read this. I just want to find out if what I'm doing is good or could use a makeover.
So here's my new review:

Note: There will be spoilers in this review!

Babel





Director: Alejandro González Inarritú

Cast: Brad Pitt ("Richard Jones"), Cate Blanchett ("Susan Jones"), Adriana Barraza ("Amelia"), Rinko Kikuchi ("Cheiko Wataya"), Mustapha Rachidi ("Abdullah")


Review: Communication is an essential thing in the world of today. Wherever you go or whoever you are, you have to be able to communicate with the people around you.
Communication is also the topic of "Babel".
The movie starts with two little Morrocan boys in the middle of nowhere. Their father buys a rifle from a neighbour to shoot the jackals and save their goat. The boys are sent to feed the goat on the nearby mountains. They take the rifle with them. At the top of the mountain the two start joking around and try to shot a bus in the far distant. They think that nothing happened, but then the bus stopps. Inside the bus are Richard and Susan Jones who are on their holidays. They have had some marriage problems and so their contact with eachother is not that heart warming at the moment. When they drive through Morocco, Susan takes a nap in the bus. But suddenly she is shot in the shoulder. Since there is no hospital nearby they drive to the village of the tour guide. When they arrive in the village Richard calls his sister-in-law to contact the embassy. But the people in the bus are scared and want to go on. So Richard and Susan, who by now has lost a lot of blood, are left behind.
Change of scene:
We are in the USA where Richard's and Susan's kids are being watched by their Mexican nanny Amelia who is an illegal immigrant living in the USA for almost 16 years. She gets a phone call from Richard who tells her that she can go to her sons wedding that evening. But it turns out that Susan's sister can't make it in time and so Amelia has to take the children to Mexico to the wedding. They have a great time and stay until it's very late. Santiago, Amelia's nephew, takes the three back to San diego, but there are problems at the border since Amelia hasn't got any confirmation that she is in charge of the children. So Santiago breaks through, but they are followed by the police. They drive into the dessert, where Santiago leaves Amelia and the kids. The next day, Amelia leaves the children behind as well, because she wants to find help. But instead she gets arrested.
Change of scene agian:
We now find ourselves in Tokyo where the deaf-mute Cheiko is being sent off the volleyball court because she insulted the referee. She plays in a deaf-mute team and the girls meet at a restaurant/lounge after the match. While driving to the lounge we learn that Cheiko's mother died recently and that she and her father have had quarrels, because Cheiko thinks that her father doesn't pay attention to her. While we follow Cheiko during her day we also learn that she is still a virgin. When a group of guys talk to the girls and turn away because they realise that they are deaf-mute, she takes off her panties in the restroom to show the guys the "real hairy monster". At home, Cheiko gets visited by two police officers who want to talk to her Dad. But he isn't home. She goes out again and meets the cousin of one of her friends. He takes her to a disco, but makes out with Cheiko's friend in the end. So she goes home and calls one of the officers who left his card in case she wanted to talk to them. When he gets there she finds out that they didn't come this afternoon because they wanted to talk about the suicide of her mother but because they wanted to know if her father gave away a rifle while hunting in Morocco a few years ago.

"Babel" is an episodic film. The episode are short and are not told chronologically. Inarritú has managed to create a movie that doesn't live from the extraordinary performances of the actors but from the stories that are being told and which lead together in the end.
There is also a fourth plotline about the two boys who shot Susan. They try to run away from everything but sooner or later their father finds out and the police come after all of them.
The tone of the movie is rather melancholic and quiet which makes it even more intense. Another factor that improves the intensity is the Academy Award winnig music composed by Gustavo Santaolalla. Intensity is a keyword to describe "Babel". The world in which everything happens seem so real and almost tangible so that the viewer can feel what the characters probably feel. The director is able to make us, the viewers, understand how important it is to not only talk constantly, but also to listen in a world that is hard to understand.

8,7 out of 10 communication problems

#19

I know that I promised a review about "The Dark Knigh" but since I still am a little puzzled about how I feel and how much I liked the movie I decided to watch the movie once more before I review it so you guys have to wait a little longer. Just so much: I liked it, but I'm not sure how much I liked it.
But since the Olympics ended today I just wanted to write a short conclusion about the last 16 days of Beijing:
16 Gold Medals for the German athletes is a respectable result. We ended up 5th in the medal ranking with a total of 41 medals. I'm really satisfied with this result. 16 gold medals is really a lot.
I'm happy and proud of every German athlete who won a medal. It's an amazing achievement to be under the top three athletes in the world. I congratulate alle the athletes who participated. Through the Olympics I came to love Beachvolleyball, mostly because Sara Goller and Laura Ludwig are really talented, young and also hot. I have always been attracted to beauty combined with amazing talent. But that's another story.
I have to admit that I am surprised about the way the Chinese held these Games. They seemed to have been really good hosts and even though there are a lot of issues concerning human rights and political differences, the Chinese did a terrific job and raised the bar for London 2012. But I'm sure that the Brits will be just as good hosts as the Chinese and hopefully I can go to London in 2012 and see some of the dedcisions of the next Olympic Games.

And now for a short review:

The Virgin Suicides





Director: Sofia Coppola

Cast: James Woods ("Mr. Lisbon"), Kathleen Turner ("Mrs. Lisbon"), Kirsten Dunst ("Lux Lisbon"), Josh Hartnett ("Trip")

Review: Suburban Michigan in the 1970s. Mr. Lisbon is a math teacher at the local high school. He has 5 daughter. Cecilia is 13, Lux is 14, Mary is 15, Bonnie is 16 and Therese is 17. They all are blond, tall and very beautiful. But since her mother is worried sick about her daughters they have basically no contact to other teenagers. One of the reasons for their mother's worries is Cecilia who is depressed and tries to kill herself. After she comes back from the hospital her parents throw her a welcome back party where boys are invited. But Cecilia hasn't been that much better and kills herself that very evening. This causes her mother to be even more protective. None of the girls is allowed to go out, but when the heartbreaker of their school, Trip, asks Lux out to Homecoming Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon allow their girls to go. But it ends in another tragedy. Even though Trip has feelings for Lux he leaves her alone after having sex with her on the football field. When Lux gets home the next morning her mother takes all the girls away from school. From now on they have to stay inside the house and Lux has to burn all of her records for punishment. But as the movie is narrated constantly by a neighbors boy we find out that the Lisbon girls contact 4 of the neighbors and listen to music over the telephone. The 4 boys have been in love with the girls for a long time and they hope for a romantic adventure with the Lisbon girls. Some nights later, Lux invites them over to go for a ride. lux is going to get her parents car and the boys are to wait in the living room for the three other sisters. They can't wait and go to the basement where they find one of the sisters who has hung herself. They run out of the house and nearly stumble over the second sister who has put her head in the oven. The next morning the police find all of the girls dead in their home. Lux has killed herself with the exhaust fumes of her parents car and the fourth sister killed herself by taking too many sleeping pills.
"The Virgin Suicides" is a social behaviour analysis that shows the viewer what overprotection and too much worry can cause in your children. It seems to be a popular topic in movies to show parents with beautiful teenage daughters who are protected from society and men as if they were raw eggs. The biggest problem is that many children and teenager are crying for help but nobody hears them. In a time where growing-up isn't a slow but a very fast process and sex seems to be a goal that must be reached as fast as possible in some social groups, it is very difficult and confusing to be a teenager. Especially when you don't have anybody who can help you with your situtation. And there you have the vicious circle that I see. Even though 13 or 14-year old girls may already be sexually mature they still are childs psychologically. So they are pressured by society into being sexually active and they think that this is the right thing to do, but in the end their minds don't understand what is happening, because it still is in a child phase.
So to come to a conclusion:
"The Virgin Suicides" is not a movie that lives from its cast, even though they all perform more than solid, but from its psychological dimension. And therefore its rating is not based on what the movie is in itself but also on what influence the movie has on the viewers mind. It made me think a lot about the problems teenagers and especially teenage girls have, even though it is set in the 1970s.

8,3 out 10 psychologically damaged teenage girls

#18

So I finally managed to get time to watch a movie. With all the Olympics and series that I've been watching lately it was kind of hard to find 100 minutes of continous time to watch a movie.
But before I go into reviewing it I want to say something that I'll do different starting with this review:

I have been avoiding spoilers as much as possible because I didn't want to ruin the movies for anybody but since the texts I write are reviews I will stop avoiding spoilers by all means and I will write the reviews as they come into my mind without censoring them.
So:

There will be spoilers on this site from now on and they will not be marked in any way!

And there will also be no differentiation between plot and review anymore. There will just be a review part that contains both, plot and my thoughts on the movie.

But to get started:

The Big White




Director: Mark Mylod


Cast: Robin Williams ("Paul Barnell"), Holly Hunter ("Margaret Barnell"), Giovanni Ribisi ("Ted"), Woody Harrelson ("Raymond Barnell"), Alison Lohman ("Tiffany")


Review: Paul Barnell is broke. He owns a travel agency in the middle of Alaska and nobody is ever booking any flights. But Paul has other problems: His wife seems to have Tourrette syndrome and his brother Raymond has been missing for five years. But the latter seems to become a positive fact, because Raymond had a $1,000,000 life insurance which Paul wants to be paid out to him. But there is one little problem: In Alaska, a man can only be declared dead after seven years. But Paul needs the money immediately. One night he stumbles across a dead body in a dumpster next to his agency. This seems to be perfect. He takes the body home, makes everybody believe that raymond has come home and then simulates his death. everthing seems to work out fine, but then there is Ted, an employee at the insurance company, who wants to save the company money so that they transfer him to another place. He lives with his girlfriend who works as a self-employed telephone psychic.
In the meantime, the guys who killed "Raymond" come back to the dumpster to get the body back to their employer since he wants prove that they did the job. When they hear that a body has turned up, they go to Paul's house and kidnap his wife Margaret. And to make it even worse, the real Raymond turns up because he has read about his death in the paper.
So Paul tells the gangsters that he got $50,000 from the insurance company and that he'll give them half of it and then he tells Raymond that he got $100,000 and wants to share it with him.

"The Big White" is a weird comedy though and through. But weird in very charming and entertaining way. It all starts when Paul finds the body and wants to make everybody believe it's Raymond. To make the body hard to identify he kicks it off a cliff and puts meat and bacon on it, so that the wolves will eat it. As crazy as the idea is it works out. But Ted doesn't believe Paul and he finds evidence to prove that he is right. When Paul gets beaten up by Raymond, he goes to Ted's boss to tell him that Ted beat him up. So he gets the check.
As strange as the plot is, the characters are what make the movie remarkable:
There is Paul, played by Robin Williams, a loser who loves his wife very much and who tries to do everything to make her better.
Then there is Margaret, played wonderfully by the beautiful and talented Holly hunter, Paul's wife who has completely lost it and thinks she has Tourrette.
Also, we have Ted, played by a terrificly over-the-top-ambitious Giovanni Ribisi, who wants to get the hell out of Alaska and gets more and more affected by Paul's case. Over this he nearly loses his flaky girlfriend Tiffany, who is portrayed by the absolutely cute and gorgeous Alison Lohman. Tiffany tries to make a living as a telephone psychic. She really loves Ted, but he starts to care less for her after he was assigned to Paul's case.
Finally there is Raymond, played by Woody Harrelson, who seems to be completely out of his mind.
And then there are the two gangster, Jimbo and Gary, who establish some kind of a sick friendshipy relation to Margaret while they kidnap her.

The movie ends with a showdown on a glacier outlook, where Paul is supposed to exchange the $50,000 and the body in exchange for his wife, but Ted tries to stop them. This is the moment when Raymond appears, kicks Ted in the balls, runs towards Paul and finally shoots at Margaret because he can't shoot at his brother.

To sum it up, "The Big White" is a very kind and warm comedy even though it deals with death and betrayal. Holly Hunter was 47 by the time the movie was shot, but she looks incredibly beautiful and sweet. Alison Lohman is, without a doubt, the most beautiful actress born in the 70's and this is with Heather Graham, Angelina Jolie, Live Tyler, Cameron Diaz and Mena Suvari as a competition.

8,3 out of 10 frozen bodies

That'll be it for today. I will be back with my personal review of "The Dark Knight" either Wednesday night or Thursday afternoon. So stick around if you want to know Fox's way of thinking about the "Best Movie of the last 20 years".

#17

Buenas Tardes,
today the Olympics startet two days before the official opening with the first leg of the women's football. Germany v Brazil ended 0:0 but it was an entertaining match with chances on both sides. I guess both teams will make it at least till the semi finals. I hop that this year the German team will finally win the Olympic Gold Medal. But I guess we need to wait and see.
Anyway I watched another of my DVDs today:

Pan's Labyrinth




Director: Guillermo del Toro

Cast: Ivana Baquero ("Orfelia"), Sergi López ("Captain Vidal"), Maribel Verdú ("Mercedes"), Doug Jonas ("Fauno/Pale Man")

Plot: Spain during the Second World War. 10-year-old Ofelia and her mother are driving to an old mill in the middle of the woods where Ofelia's new father, Captain Vidal, is trying to hunt down some separatists who hide in the mountains and woods surrounding the mill. Ofelia is rather dreamy girl who likes to read fairy tales and lives in her own dream world. When they pause on the way to the mill because Ofelia's pregnant mother is feeling sick, Ofelia sees a creature that looks like a fairy to her. When they finally arrive at the mill, Ofelia sees the creature again and follows it into a labyrinth. At the end of the labyrinth she finds a stairway into an underground dungeon where she meets an ancient creature: a "Fauno". The "Fauno" tells her that she is a princess from another world and that, in oreder to return to her kingdom, she has to pass three tests. The first test is to climb into an old dying tree to kill the giant turtle that lives under it, in order to keep the tree from dying. Ofelia passes the test and has to face the second one. Meanwhile, Ofelia's mother is getting worse. Simultaneosly, Mercedes, one of the maids, is helping the separatists. She smuggles food and medicine to them, because her brother is with the separatists. As Ofelia is living her fairy tale we meet her new father, Captain Vidal. His guards found two men in the woods and brought them to the mill as prisoners. When they try to tell Vidal that they were hunting rabbits he slams the younger man's nose into his face and then shoots the older man. He wants to find the separatists by all means. Ofelia's second quest is to go into another dungeon to retrieve an item from a safe. In the dungeon she finds a table with the most incredible meals on it. At the end of the table sits an eyeless creature which does not move, but the pictures on the wall behind it show that it eats the children who come into the dungeon. The "Fauno" said to Ofelia that she wasn't to touch or eat any of the food. But while leaving the dungeon she take two grapes which make the creature awake and attack. Ofelia is able to escape the creature, but the "Fauno" is mad at her because she didn't do as she was told. The story continues as Captain Vidal finds out that there are traitors below his man. He kills the doctor, who also helped the separatists and then finds out about Mercedes but she manages to injure him and get away. At this point the final showdown begins with Mercedes escape and Ofelia's third and last challenge...

Review: Guillermo del Toro's six times Academy Award nominated and three times winning movie is a thriller/drama par excellence. When you first meet Ofelia you might think that she is just a dreamy 10-year-old girl who wants to live in the stories of her books. But there is more to this little girl than mere interest and facination in fairy tales. Ofelia has taken the part of an adult in her relationship with her mother. She is in many ways more grownup than a lot of people in their forties or fifties. Ofelia is not afraid of a lot of things. When she first meets the "Fauno" she is rather intrigued than afraid. towards the end of the movie she even hugs the scary looking creature. During her quests she acts as if she was older even though some stupid things she does remind the viewer that she is in fact a 10-year-old girl. Her love for her mother and the hate for her new father make her wish to live in the "Fauno's" world bigger. She wants her family to be safe and happy and away from Captain Vidal who is as ruthless as he is brutal.
Brutality is a major topic in del Toro's movie:
Captain Vidal and his men kill everybody who is in their way without asking any questions. The violence in this movie is pretty graphic therefore it got a R-Rating respectively a "ab 16" classification which absolutely is the correct choice.
The plot is very intruiging and thrilling and leads to a final showdown right from the beginnig, but you have to know a little bit about the war and the Franco regime in Spain at that time. The question now is whether or not "Pan's Labyrinth" deserves its fiftyninth place at the imdb.com Top 250. My answer would be:
Top 250? Yes!
#59 with an average of 8,4? Yes!
Guillermo del Toro has created an own sub-genre. "Pan's Labyrinth" is a mixture of a violent fairy tale thriller and a war drama. This may sound weird and impossible in the first moment but it works perfectly.
I will try to watch the movie in Spanish in the nearer future and give you update of my opinion then, but for now:

8,7 out of 10 screaming, eyeless beasts


That's everything for today.

#16

The last couple of days have been really slow, so there are no real big news.
Rafael van der Vaart is finally going to Real Madrid for 15m €. That's not that bad since he could have left for 1.5m € next summer. But I guess Bernd Schuster really wanted him there and since Cristiano Ronaldo is much more expensive and much harder to get they took Rafa. It's a shame that we won't see much of his wife, Sylvie, anymore.
Tomorrow you should watch Bayern Munich v Inter. The ZDF will broadcast the Franz-Beckenbauer-Cup live from the Allianz Arena from 20:15 on. This will be the last test-match of Bayern so they should be up to shape. I'm hoping for a good match and some nice goals. Maybe Klinsmann will give Mehmet Ekici and Toni Kroos another chance.
But to come to another topic: Today's movie review.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian of Narnia





Director: Andrew Adamson

Cast: William Moseley ("Peter Pevensie"), Anna Popplewell ("Susan Pevensie"), Skandar Keynes ("Edmund Pevensie"), Georgie Henley ("Lucy Pevensie"), Ben Barnes ("Prince Caspian"), Sergio Castellito ("King Miraz")

Plot: One year has passed since the Pevensie children returned from the wonderful land of Narnia, where time passes a lot faster than in the "real" world. They ruled as Kings and Queens in Narnia for many years, but they returned and left Narnia as it was and thought it would stay like this. Unfortunately one year in our world is 1300 years in Narnia time. And a lot has changed since they left. But they don't return on their own will, but they are called with Susan's horn that she left in Narnia. It was blown by Prince Caspian, the crown prince of the Telmarines who is pursued by his own warriors, because his uncle wants him dead to take the throne for himself. He is rescued by a dwarf, a Narnian, whom the Telmarines thought to be dead. When Caspian's uncle, now King Miraz, finds out that there are Narnians left, he decides to kill them all once and for all. So there is a new war going on in Narnia and the Pevensie children are going to help Prince Caspian win the war against his own uncle.

Review: When I watched the first Narnia movie, "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe", I already realised, that C.S. Lewis took some of his ideas from Tolkien, but it didn't bother me that much because it was a good and entertaining movie, but with "Prince Caspian" this changes. Even though it is still fun and entertaining, it lacks of new ideas, a thrilling plot and in effects. The film starts with Miraz' wife giving birth to a boy. But when we first get to London to see the Pevensie kids, there is no real explanation of what happened to them in our world. All we get to know is that Susan seems to be a loner and Peter likes to fight for no apparent reason at all. And when the children come back to Narnia it is merely mentioned that so much time has passed and that they were the great leaders of this world. This could have been done with a simple flashback to show what they really mean to the Narnians.
The next problem is the plot:
The Telmarines have conquered Narnia. But why? Nobody ever tells you. And why do they need to kill all the Narnians? No explanation there either. But that's not the mean problem with the plot. Everything seems to happen out of any real context. The Pevensies are called to Narnia and they just help without asking real questions. And what bugged me the most:
Why do the Telmarines have a Spanish accent? Yes, they are from the South Sea, but this accent is dubbed so badly in the German synchro that you wish for the english original right from the start of the movie.
Another big problem are the CG-effects/costumes. The "The Lord of the Rings"-Movies are 5 years old and yet the seem to be done better than "Prince Caspian". Don't get me wrong. Some effects, like Aslan's fur, are really good and nice to look at, but some effects look like taken from the late 90's of the last century. And this is also the case with some of the costumes, especially the creature-costumes. Some of them like the budget had been around $30m when in fact it was around $200m.
And to finally look at what's wrong with "Prince Caspian" you need to take a look at the characters. The male Pevensies, Peter and Edmund, are unlikeable. Peter is stubborn and bitchy and Edmund never seems to be doing anything constructive or helpful. And Miraz seems to be a clone of King Leonidas from the movie "300". And even Aslan seems to be a weisenheimer who is only in the movie to tell everybody platitudes.
A last point of criticism is the rating. In Germany you are allowed to see the movie with 12. And I agree with this rating. But it feels like the movie would've been better if the had added a little bit more violence and therefore a higher rating, but it seems like they had to get a PG or 12 rating, so that all the little kids can see the little mouse talk.
Nevertheless I said that the movie is fun and entertaining and it really is. There is a lot of humor in it and most of the characters work just fine. Especially Susan, played by Anna Popplewell, has turned into a real cutie.
The music and the locations are good as well and help the movie to at least transport the feeling of a real existing world.
As a résumé I think it is important to say that everybody who liked the first movie will come to like the second one as well even though there are some major flaws in it.

7,3 out of 10 majestical roars

That is nearly it for now but:

For those who do not want to be spoilered: Don't continue reading!!!!!





I wanted to add, that I probably will not the next Narnia movie due to some simple facts:
1. Susan and Peter will not return to Narnia, so the next movie is about Edmund, Lucy and King Caspian.
2. The plot seems to be less interesting as the last ones.

#15

So since nobody seems to be reading my blog I decided to switch the language to English more often. It's seems to be a nice practice for me anyway since I normally don't write in English. All I do is watch movies in English. Unfortunately there is hardly anybody who wants to talk to me in English. The last time I did that for fun, was on a night out in Mainz at least 2 years ago when we went to this awful club and a friend of mine decided to talk to me in English since nobody else cared about the fact, that I hated it there. It was a fun night after all even though I did not understand why they charged us 7€ entrance fee.
I watched Hamburger SV v Real Madrid today. It was quite an entertaining match even though Madrid won 2:1. It seems like the Spanish are hard to beat these times.
I also watched part of the third league match Aue v Jena which was surprisingly entertaining and thrilling. Jena lead 2:0 by half-time but then they got sloppy and Aue was able to turn the match upside down and won 3:2. Quite nice to see that there is still football where the heart counts more than the money...

A River Runs Through It




Director: Robert Redford

Cast: Craig Sheffer ("Norman Mclean"), Brad Pitt ("Paul Mclean"), Tom Skerrit ("Rev. Mclean"), Emily Lloyd ("Jessie Burns")

Plot: Norman and Paul Mclean are brothers. They're sons of a Presbyterian minister in Montana. And even thogh they're very different from each other they also are very close. Norman was always the quiet and more reserved one whereas Paul, even though he's the younger one, was always kind of a troublemaker. From early childhood on their father taught them how to fly-fish in the Blackfoot River. When Norman leaves for college in 1926 Paul has to make it on his own for the first time. 7 years later Norman returns to Missoula, his hometown, as professor in English Literature. His brother has become a locally known newspaper reporter who is most known for his fly-fishing. Norman has applied for several jobs as a university professor and will spend his summer back home. At a local dance he meets Jessie whom he imediately falls in love with. He meets her parents and her brother, who seems to dislike Norman, but nevertheless they go fishing together. Or at least they plan to because Neal, Jessie's brother, comes more than 3 hours late and is still hammered. But after all Neal and Norman get along. In the meantime Paul has gotten into debt at a local gambling establishment. Norman tries to help his brother but he doesn't want his help and so Norman leaves. A couple of days later Norman gets a letter which tells him, that he got the job at the University of Chicago. He decides to ask Jessie to marry him and to go to Chicago with him. But before that he, Paul and their father go fly-fishing together one last time...

Review: "A River Runs Through It" was Robert Redfords third movie and the third one to win an Oscar. As an actor you can argue whether you like redford or not. (I do like him as an actor.)
But as a director he truly seems to have a gift. "A River Runs Through It" is a perfect combination of family problems, love, growing-up and maybe growing apart, and melancholy. And melancholy is the "ingredient" that makes the movie feel so real. This melancholy is built up by various influences. First there is the music of the movie which is always in the background but always fits the mood of a scene perfectly, then there are the actors, especially Sheffer and Pitt, who portray the process of becoming an adult and to grow apart from your brother and best friend in a very sensitive way and lastly there are these beautiful landscapes which make for the perfect melancholy and which give you itchy feet. I really hope that someday I might be able to see Montana and its beautiful rivers and valleys for myself. This kind of feeling is very rare when I watch movies and so I have to admit that "A River Runs Through It" touched me deeply, which is very rare as well.

8,4 out of 10 Blackfoot River trouts

This will be it for tonight. I will be writing a review about one of my favourite TV series in the near future so stayed tuned and alert for it.
Bye

#14

Es musste mal wieder ein Tag Pause her bevor ich den nächsten Film in Angriff nehmen konnte.
Leider passiert in der Fussballwelt nach wie vor relativ wenig, wenn man mal davon absieht, dass meine Bayern heute Mittag 4:2 in Tokio gegen die Urawa Red Diamonds gewonnen haben.
Ein wirklich sehr schön anzusehendes Spiel mit einer sehr hohen Klasse für ein Vorbereitungsspiel. Das hat den deutschen Fussball in Asien sicherlich einen Schritt nach vorne gebracht.
Vor allem die 2,5 Tore von Poldi (das erste Tor war meiner Meinung nach ein Schweini-Treffer) haben mich positiv gestimmt was Poldi's Entwicklung angeht. Das wird sicher endlich mal 'ne gute Saison für den Jungen.
Aber jetzt komme ich ohne große Umschweife zum heutigen Review:

Die Verurteilten (The Shawshank Redemption)




Regie: Frank Darabont

Darsteller: Tim Robbins ("Andy Dufresne"), Morgan Freeman ("Ellis Boyd 'Red' Redding"), Bob Gunton ("Warden Norton")

Plot: Andy Dufresne wird wegen des Mordes an seiner Frau und deren Liebhaber zu zweimal lebenslänglich, also zu 50 Jahren Gefängnis, bestraft. Er kommt ins Shawshank Gefängnis. Als er ankommt wettet der schon seit über 20 Jahren inhaftierte 'Red' darauf, dass Andy als erster der Neuankömmlinge zusammenbricht. Jedoch gibt Andy in der ersten Nacht keinen Mucks von sich. Als er dann redet, wendet er sich als erstes an 'Red', der ihm einen "rock hammer" besorgen soll, damit Andy seinem Hobby, der Geologie, nachgehen kann. Nachdem Andy monatelang von den "sisters" missbraucht wird, schafft er es deren Anführer in die Klapsmühle zu schicken. Desweiteren erarbeitet er sich die Anerkennung seiner Mithäftlinge, allen voran 'Red', indem er einen der Wärter dazu bringt ihnen kühles Bier zu besorgen, wenn er dem Wärter hilft sein Erbe ohne Abzüge an den Staat zu behalten. In den darauffolgenden Jahren schafft es Andy immer weiter in der Gunst der Gefängnisaufsicht aufzusteigen und schließlich schafft er es sogar staatliche Unterstützung für die Bibliothek des Gefängnisses zu bekommen. Doch eines morgens tritt Andy nicht zum Appell aus der Zelle. Hat er sich etwa erhängt? Nein. Er ist tatsächlich ausgebrochen. Aber wie hat er es gemacht....?

Review: Wie bei so vielen Klassikern des Kinos hat es auch bei "The Shawshank Redemption" lange gedauert bis ich ihn mir angeguckt habe. und auch dieses Mal bereue ich es, dass ich die DVD nicht schon viel früher eingelegt habe. Es gibt viele gute Stephen King Verfilmungen, allen voran "The Green Mile" und "The Shining", aber "The Shawshank Redemption ist doch nochmal ein gutes Stück besser als die anderen Filme. Das liegt zum einen daran, dass die Charaktere einen ungewöhnlichen intensiven Tiefgang besitzen und daran, dass die Bilder sehr authentisch wirken. Man glaubt sich in jeder Sekunde inmitten von Shawshank Prison. Vor allem fühlt man mit den Gefangenen die mitunter schon fast 50 Jahre abgesessen haben. Auch sind die Freundschaften die entstehen, wenn man so lange Zeit zusammen gefangen ist sehr glaubwürdig in die Geschichte eingebunden. Vor allem steht natürlich die Freundschaft von 'Red' und Andy im Vordergrund, aber auch Nebencharaktere wie Brooks wachsen einem so an Herz wie ich es sonst nur aus Serien kenne, die ich schon seit 3-4 Staffeln verfolge.
Angenehm zurückhaltend ist auch die spärlich verwandte Musik, die ausschließlich der Untermalung der Stimmung dient, was außerordentlich gut funktioniert.
Und auch der Plot fesselt durchgehend, obwohl das Erzähltempo eher gemächlich daher kommt.
Aber es entstehen immer wieder Fragen wie: "Was ist in der Steinmauer unter der großen Eiche in Buxton vergraben?" oder "Werden 'Red' und Andy sich jemals wiedersehen?".
Alles in allem ist "The Shawshank Redemption" ein absolutes Meisterwerk, das den Sprung in meine persönliche Top 10 geschafft hat und nicht zu Unrecht auf Platz 3 bei imdb.com steht. Und das obwohl der Film 1994 keinen Oscar gewann trotz 7 Nominierungen.

9,6 von 10 unschuldig eingebuchteten Verbrechern