‘Match Point’ Download and Reviews
“Match Point” Movie Details
Match Point tagline: Passion Temptation Obsession
 Match Point DVD Cover |
Actors:
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John the Chauffeur |
“Match Point” Movie Review
“Match Point” Plot Summary
At a turning point in his life, a former tennis pro falls for a femme-fatal type who happens to be dating his friend and soon-to-be brother-in-law. add synopsis
The Talented Mr. Allen: Woody’s best film since ‘Crimes & Misdemeanors’
MATCH POINT (2005) ***1/2 Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Scarlett Johansson, Emily Mortimer, Matthew Goode, Brian Cox, Penelope Wilton, Margaret Tyzack, Ewen Bremner, James Nesbitt. The Talented Mr. Allen: Woody’s best film since ‘Crimes & Misdemeanors’Woody Allen has been a respected filmmaker for over thirty years and in recent memory has been in something of a slump with his trademark New York neurotic comedies of late and it has been well over a decade since he attempted anything resembling a drama (his last was a combination of comedy/ drama for his masterpiece ‘Crimes & Misdemeanors’ in 1989) and in his latest stab at it comes through remarkably with his best film in sometime
Jettisoning his usual choice of his beloved Manhattan The Woodman jaunts across The Big Pond and sets his story in London (not the first European adventure mind you – he did go to Paris for ‘Everyone Says I Love You’) with the plot focusing on a borderline callow young tennis player cum pro, Chris Wilton (Rhys-Meyers giving Jude Law a run for the money as sexiest Brit on screen) whose philosophy for life is being lucky rather than being good or great at something. This proves to be his one flaw as he obtains a job as an instructor for a supremely private resort club where he befriends one of his charges, Tom Hewett (Goode), whose shared love for opera has him inviting the unassuming Chris to a performance where his family has a box seat reserved. Here he meets the rest of Tom’s family: respected businessman Alec (the ubiquitous Cox), tipsy mum Eleanor (Wilton) and engaging sister Chloe (the wonderfully sublime Mortimer) who falls deeply head over heels in love with Chris almost immediately. Chris too finds himself in love with Chloe and before you know it is taken in by the wealthy clan as one of the family
As the story progresses Chris finds this sudden shift in his life moving along nicely and to his agreement accruing a position in one of Alec’s many business ventures as an apprentice seller and weekends at the sprawling estate of the Hewetts. It is there he also meets Tom’s gorgeous American fiancee, Nola Rice (Johansson giving one of her better performances to date), a fledgling actress who beguiles Chris immediately and he is smitten by her, intoxicated by her very presence that the two wind up in a countryside embrace leading to a moment of unbridled passion. While Nola makes light of giving in to their primal desires as a lack of clarity on her behalf, Chris cannot get enough of her; Nola explains this desire is temporary and that she is getting married to Tom; end of story
Chris tries to do what’s right and eventually marries the unsuspecting Chloe and absorbs himself in work until one day while playing a set with Tom he is informed that Tom has dumped Nola and is in love with another unknown woman. The fire is re-ignited in Chris’ soul and the determination heightened as he becomes infatuated in finding Nola again to seduce her once and for all. Allen allows his talented class plenty of room to act up a storm but not overact the seemingly straight-forward melodrama at hand but what makes it rise above the norm is the way his leads make their seemingly unsympathetic characters empathetic. Rhys-Meyers remains cool as a cucumber until the predictable complication ensures his affair with Johansson will lead to an unlikely scenario that borders ridiculous mystery theater affair however maintains a balance of dread in when the couple will come to a head. Johansson mixes the smoky cadence of her Kathleen Turner-like vocals into a come-hither-insouciance not before experienced and has the tricky task of making her Nola’s head case come to fruition with believability; she succeeds succinctly
Allen’s screenplay is literate, clever and crafty and at once familiar with a few of his trademark quips tossed in with elan that his upper crust characters make the most of what they can with a dry bright witticism here and there. The storyline flows evenly amidst its choppy third act that feels a tad rushed yet when the darkness comes it echoes ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’ which it has a lot in common with but never trespasses entirely. This is Allen’s most adult film in sometime and not to besmirch it perhaps his most challenging one to date. Thank God Woody is back in fine form, not unlike an old tennis pro on the senior’s tour with a wicked backhand.
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‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ Download and Reviews
“2001: A Space Odyssey” Movie Details
2001: A Space Odyssey tagline: Let the Awe and Mystery of a Journey Unlike Any Other Begin
 2001: A Space Odyssey DVD Cover |
Actors:
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Poole’s mother |
“2001: A Space Odyssey” Movie Review
“Two Thousand and One: A Space Odyssey” Plot Summary
Mankind finds a mysterious, obviously artificial, artifact buried on the moon and, with the intelligent computer HAL, sets off on a quest.
Magnificent and deliberately mysterious
Spoilers ahead.2001: a Space Odyssey is without a doubt the most challenging and successful film by the late Stanley Kubrick. This is not a film that you watch in order to be entertained or amused. Instead it provides you with a banquet of food for thought, images that linger in the mind’s eye long after the movie itself is over. It is a film that you could meditate on
The film intentionally offers us more questions then it can answer, it is made to puzzle and mystify, but leaves the viewer nevertheless with a sense of awe and reverence (that is allowing that he has engaged himself in the process of viewing it, enjoyment of this film requires some effort on the viewers part) the questions that it does pose are large and ominous, concerning the genesis and destiny of the human race, it’s ultimate place in the cosmic design and the existence or lack of some creative intelligence behind the structure of the universe itself
The first of the films Four Quartets gives us a distinct view of the species past. We see our distant ancestors, half-ape half human, in a state of near starvation. The climate has destroyed most of the plant life and the vegetarian beasts are near starvation. An extra-terestial object, a perfectly smooth and angular black monolith, appears and the animals are simultaneously inspired by it’s presence to tool-making and violence. They are transformed overnight into carnevores, and when two tribes encounter each other near a water source, the tribe that has developed tool making capacity, as well as beligerence, soundly destroys the neighboring tribe. The new chief of the winning tribe, empowered by the first vestiges of technology triumphantly throws the bone that he used as a weapon in the air. We see the bone transformed into a floating satellite, which contains nuclear weapons. We soon learn that the world is torn apart by nuclear paranoia. The characteristics inspired by the monument’s appearance that once helped us to survive now threaten our very existence
Once again humanity is in crisis, once again the unearthly presence represented by the black monolith will step in to aid humanity in the next step in it’s development. On an exploration of the Moon a monolith identical to the earlier one we have seen is discovered. The governments of the world, normally mortal enemies, have come together in secret to discuss the implications. A mission is arranged. the monument has been engaged in some kind of radio communication with Jupiter. A few men will travel to the destination of the transmission. Most of them will, for most of the time, be kept in a state of suspended animation. The pilot of the spacecraft will be HAL a super computer who has been programmed to imitate all of the traits of human beings
The film has many outstanding sequences. As usual for Kubrick the use of classical music is outstanding. Most memorable are ‘Blue Danube’ and ‘Also Spake Zarathustra’ (particularly appropriate given the film’s theme of transcending ordinary consciousness.) The cinematography is particularly excellent as well, after a single viewing the film’s final 30 minutes will haunt you for the rest of your life
The character of HAL is the most important from the view of the film’s central thesis. In imitating all the characteristics of human beings he comes to have their negative traits as well. The paranoia he develops which almost leads to the mission’ s ruin is an exact mirror of the paranoia that has allowed the political situation back on earth to reach a point of desperate crisis. The film suggests that these are the traits that we must leave behind if we are to proceed to the next phase in our evolution
The architecture of the film is also meaningful. The designs of many of the spacecraft are intended to suggest reproductive organs and the process of birth and rebirth, the central motif of the movie. The ending of 2001 is the most spectacular and triumphant ever filmed
This movie takes a view of life similar to that presented in the poetry of William Butler Yeats and James Joyce’s novel Finnegan’s Wake. It posits a pattern to history and human evolution that is cyclic, yet progressive, repeating the same events at large intervals, yet with the human race as developing according to the will of a being with a larger purpose in mind. Though we never learn what this purpose is, the film assures us that the human race is not meant for failure, it’s destiny is grand beyond it’s capacity to imagine. It continues to amaze me that in spite of this film many people continue to regard Kubrick as a misanthrope
This is a religious film, not in the conventional sense of adhering to any specific creed, but because of it’s invocation of wonder at the vast panorama of existence and it’s involvement with the deepest and most vital questions of purpose and truth. In the hands of any other director, this would all be perhaps a little too much. Hollywood’s view of life is too puny, usually to encompass the grandeur and intensity of a vision such as this one. But Kubrick was a visionary, he directs with utter confidence, not only that he can handle material of this kind, but that he is the only one to do it. The process of making this film used all of his creative resources. The writing partnership with Arthur C Clarke is the most fruitful in cinematic history. Kubrick had to invent some of the special effects that were used in the movie’s astounding climax. The resources to bring his vision to life did not exist at the time, so he brought them into existence.2001 is a absolutely unique movie experience. Those who miss out on it do so at the detriment of their own intellectual and imaginative capacities.
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