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Gilda · 06-30-2005, 12:14 AM

Just got the home theater back, so it was DVD time:

The Final Cut *** out of ****:

Robin Williams, in a another compelling but understated performance, plays Hakman, a "cutter", a man whose profession is to produce a movie of a person's life, taken from that person's lifetime of memories. Well not memories exactly, which is one of the movie's themes. About one person in 20 is given a Zoe implant, a device that is grafted onto the brain sometime in the womb, and which records all of a persons visual and auditory inputs. When the person dies, a cutter reviews all of the information that has been recored, every second of the person's life, and cuts it into a movie to be shown at a remembrance, and kind of funeral service.

An officer of the corporation who makes the Zoe implants has died, and the family wants Hakman to cut his movie. Hakman is well known as the best in the business, and always manages to produce a film that is satisfactory to the family, which is to say, everyone looks like a saint. Hakman is haunted by memories of a childhood event in which a friend may have been killed due to his negligence, and this drives his desire to symolically right other people's wrongs by cutting the sin from their lives.

Williams is always at his best when he's reined in, and his performance his is once again top notch, reminiscent of Awakenings.

The Jacket ** out of ****

Adrien Brody is an American soldier killed in the first gulf war. Or at least, he should have been, having been shot in the head at close range. He somehow manages to survive, but with retrograde amnesia, which sometime interferes with his ability to make memories. One day in 1992, while walking along the highway, he encounters a drunken woman and her little girl, and gives them some help. He makes the mistake of taking a ride from the wrong driver, and suddenly finds himself on trial for the murder of a policeman and then in an insane asylum.

Kris Kristofferson is the head psychiatrist who pumps him full of drugs, straps him in a full body straight jacket, and puts him in a morgue drawer for hours at a time, for no discernible purpose. Brody finds himself transported into the future, where he encounters a young woman with a troubled past, and tries to help her.

The machinations of what happens and why don't really make much sense, though they're certainly intersting as they're occurring. When it's over, however, I got a distinct sense of, "That's it?" Good performances, but too many holes to be convincing or compelling.

06-30-2005, 12:14 AM	#1130 (permalink)
Gilda 32 flavors and then some Location: Out on a wire.	Just got the home theater back, so it was DVD time: The Final Cut * out of *: Robin Williams, in a another compelling but understated performance, plays Hakman, a "cutter", a man whose profession is to produce a movie of a person's life, taken from that person's lifetime of memories. Well not memories exactly, which is one of the movie's themes. About one person in 20 is given a Zoe implant, a device that is grafted onto the brain sometime in the womb, and which records all of a persons visual and auditory inputs. When the person dies, a cutter reviews all of the information that has been recored, every second of the person's life, and cuts it into a movie to be shown at a remembrance, and kind of funeral service. An officer of the corporation who makes the Zoe implants has died, and the family wants Hakman to cut his movie. Hakman is well known as the best in the business, and always manages to produce a film that is satisfactory to the family, which is to say, everyone looks like a saint. Hakman is haunted by memories of a childhood event in which a friend may have been killed due to his negligence, and this drives his desire to symolically right other people's wrongs by cutting the sin from their lives. Williams is always at his best when he's reined in, and his performance his is once again top notch, reminiscent of Awakenings. The Jacket* out of ** Adrien Brody is an American soldier killed in the first gulf war. Or at least, he should have been, having been shot in the head at close range. He somehow manages to survive, but with retrograde amnesia, which sometime interferes with his ability to make memories. One day in 1992, while walking along the highway, he encounters a drunken woman and her little girl, and gives them some help. He makes the mistake of taking a ride from the wrong driver, and suddenly finds himself on trial for the murder of a policeman and then in an insane asylum. Kris Kristofferson is the head psychiatrist who pumps him full of drugs, straps him in a full body straight jacket, and puts him in a morgue drawer for hours at a time, for no discernible purpose. Brody finds himself transported into the future, where he encounters a young woman with a troubled past, and tries to help her. The machinations of what happens and why don't really make much sense, though they're certainly intersting as they're occurring. When it's over, however, I got a distinct sense of, "That's it?" Good performances, but too many holes to be convincing or compelling. __________________ I'm against ending blackness. I believe that everyone has a right to be black, it's a choice, and I support that. ~Steven Colbert