The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)

The Chronicles of NarniaMany have read C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and now even more people have seen it. There has been a BBC production in the 80s but they did not have the CGI power of WETA at their disposal to make this tale come alive. Aslan (spoken by Liam Neeson) is simply amazing and so are any and all fairy creatures in this movie.

The costumes are stunningly beautiful, too and everything is just … shiny; too shiny in fact. So shiny that the scenes emit sterility and suffocate any real emotion. Emotion wise the movie also suffers slightly under the crux of child actors such as Lucy who only have one expression on their face even when crying. It is understandable that Georgie Henley was swept away by all this and the work on set must have been overwhelming for her and it shows throughout the movie, esp. when she leans her head on the dead Aslan and cries.

Continue reading

Broken Flowers (2005)

Broken Flowers (2005)The latest Jim Jarmush movie Broken Flowers is in the tradition of all Jarmusch movies a mood piece where you begin a journey, visit different places much like in a road movie and in the end return to where you came from not quite the person you were in the beginning.

Don Johnston with a “t” (Bill Murray) recently dumped by his girl friend and contemplating life in his newly gained solitude receives an anonymous pink letter claiming he has a son who might come looking for him. Only by sharing the news with his neighbor is Don coaxed out of his passiveness after much convincing. Without much to go on his neighbor and hobby detective commences to formulate a cunning plan to uncover the mystery and sends him on a readily planned road trip to visit his past, to “check in” on his former girl friends from twenty years ago.

Continue reading