The Shawshank Redemption

The Shawshank Redemption is a dramatic prison film adaptaion of Stephen King's novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by film director Frank Darabont.  It stars Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, who play two inmates.   This movie is wonderful, it is great on how it shows frienship of two men.  Its also a great exmaple of how inmates can become institutionalized by being in a prison.
    The film is about a banker named Andy Dufrain (Robbins) who is convicted for murdering his wife, and the man she was having an affair with.  He comes to a prison called Shawshank where he meets Red (Freeman), where the two of them form an incredible friendship.  While at prison Andy experience hardships of brutal prison guards, bull queers, and a corrupt religious prison warden.  Andy  ends up helping the Warden by doing finacial crimes by ripping of the tax system. 
    Soon we come to find that their is evidence now that Andy has been innocently convicted of murder. The Warden refuses to let him go, becauses Andy leaving will means less of tax return for him.  He removes his chances to get another trial.  So Andy gets back at him by escaping and by letting information out about what illegal activities the Warden and the prison staff has been doing. 
    Red alone now without his friend, has been stuck in prison for so long that he has become institutionalized.  Soon Red gets a parole approval and has a hard time adjusting to the outside.  However, he knows the only way to survive is to find his friend Andy.  The film ends with Red and Andy reunited at the shores of the Pacific Ocean.
    The Shawshank Redemption is well directed and written for screen by Frank Darabont.  The dialogue is good, and the two main characters are well defined.  The  leading performances are also good, and Morgan Freeman ended up getting an Academy Award nomination for his performance.  The look of the film is good too,  they capture the time and the feel of a prison over the span from the 40s to the 60s.
    One of the main the themes of film is prisonization (institutionalization is what they call it in the film.)  The character Brooks is an old man in the film who has been behind bars most of his life.  He had become so use to prison life, when finally set free he became depressed because he lost all of his friends.  Now he was just a nobody and meant nothing on the outside, so he kills himself.  Red dreads this is what is happening to him that when he is finally released that this feeling will overcome him.  However Andy has hope about his life like the quote he gives "It is either get busy living or get busy dying."
    Prisonization seems to be the current theme of the modern day American prison inmate.  The average age of the prison population is increasing.  With California's Three Stikes Law this feeling is now becoming on to more criminals.  Criminals are now only committing crimes so they can come back.  The only answer to this problem is to give the offender once release on the outside something to live for once released.
    In my opinion, prisonization is one of the main problems for recidivism. The Shawshank Redemption makes us ask can really rehabilitate a criminal, or is prison just warehouse to put criminals at.  The film says that rehabilitation is a made up, "Its a politicians word."  The only thing that can change a man is hope that ex-convict can find something worth living for. 
    Shawshank touches on many others ascpects of prison politics.  For example the using of prison labor.  The Warden did not care about if this help the prisoners, he only cared about all the new revenue he would be bringing in.  Prison labor cuts away work from law biding citizens, it forces people out job because prison labor is so cheap to hire.  In the movie there is a scene where one contractor is scene bribing the warden so he would take his contract away.
    The idea of educating prisoners was also brought up.   When Andy wants to build an library he ask the warden for funding.  The warden says the only way to get funding is by state funding, and the only time the state cares about funding prisons is when more guards, more bars, and more walls are needed.  Education is one of the key components to preventing higher crime rates.  So the film states that the government simply just does not care about helping make criminals better people. 
    One thing I would of added to this movie is more depth to the prison guards.  They all seemed to be stereotypically bad people.  It would been nice to show a prison guard that cared about corrections.
    The Shawshank Redemption is a great film. Its strongly recommended to a general audience, and to people who have stong feeling toward the correction institutions.

Rating - 90%

R.I.P Sidney Lumet

One of the greats has died today, sad day indeed.  He brought us so many classics like 12 Angry Men, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, and Network.  He may of been a short man but damn was a great one.
Godspeed

Hanna

Hanna is the most badass film of the year so far.  It is a rare breed of a film an artistic action film that is bombastic pulse pounding adrenaline rush.  It stars Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett and is directed by Joe Wright (Atonement, Pride and Prejudice).

The film is about a girl named Hanna (Ronan) who has spent her whole life training with her dad in the Arctic to be warrior and to hide from the CIA.  When her dad allows to finally to go out into the world to kill the head of this CIA operation played by Blanchett.  After thinking she has killed her mark she tries to integrate back into the world, however with this Black-ops group still following her it will be hard for her to get close to anyone because with bad people following her its possible they will get hurt too.

The film is a success because of three things.  The character of Hanna is a very complex one which Ronan hits it right on the head, she is able to catch the deadly side, and the vulnerable side.  Joe Wright's visual style is like no other here,  he films the action scenes so weirdly and intensely that makes you feel almost like you are on drugs in some parts.  Finally the Chemical Bros.  score is also one of the best I have ever heard.

My only criticism with this is not even the film itself, its with the MPAA forgiving this a PG-13.  There really violent moments to this, that I thought no way this can e PG-13.  What can I say America loves violence,  but sex and the King of England saying the F-word sixteen times is bad.  However it is not a complaint I have with film personally.

Hanna has many allegory to fairy tales like little red riding hood, it is also interesting to see how she has to come to understand the world after being isolated from it.  Hanna has never heard of music, so when she finally hears it is cool to see her act like a child and go crazy over it.  After all she never really had a childhood to begin with.  Overall I strongly recommend this movie.

Rating 93%

Antichrist

This is probably the most disturbing film I ever seen. It is about a couple who's kid died by falling out of a window while they where having sex. So to deal with this despair they go a cabin they own to find away to get rid of their grief. While at this cabin weird things occur that involve their subconscious selves, leading to terrifying truth that one in the couple is hiding from the other.

Now I do think the film is well made, and the film also looks gorgeous to look at. However, I had trouble believing these characters. There is no humanity to found in them, and there actions are far to exaggerated for the audience to connect with them. It is certainly interesting while you watch it, but way to inhumane for it to be good.

Rating 52%

Source Code

Source Code is one fun sci-fi thrill ride. Its quantum physics meets terrorism meets groundhog day. Its definitely one of the best films of the year so far. With a great performance by Jake Gyllenhaal and a good job in directing by Duncan Jones (director of Moon).

The film is about a soldier who wakes up on a train, and is in the body of another man, who is accompanied by a beautiful woman. He has no clue what is going on and within a few minutes the train explodes. Soon the soldier wakes up in capsule where he learns he is in a government program called source code which is able to occupy the last 8 minutes of someones life. His mission is to figure out who blew up the train, because there will another attack soon.

Jake Gyllenhaal gives may be one of his best performances of his career here. He has to go through so much arrange emotion here, sadness, confused, anger, romance, and being an action hero all at the same time. This role has also what all actors like "catharsis". Its one of the best Hollywood leading male performances I've seen in awhile. Michelle Monaghan is also good romantic interest too.

The film has problem though, the score feels cheap, and some of the cgi moments also looked cheap too. The ending is also a bit of an cop-out too. However the editing is good and the sound design works to great effect. The scenes are so well written and acted that I'm able to forgive its flaws.

Rating 89%