Source Code Review
Perhaps I was expecting too much from Duncan Jones. Bowie's son released an absolute scorcher of a film in 2009 called Moon which in my opinion is in the top ten sci-fi films of all time. This film seems to attempt to follow the same structure of that film in a way; big name actor, sci-fi script, impressive supporting actor/actress and also a big twist at the end. Well Source Code doesn't have quite the same impact in its twist as most people will guess it before it rears its head but its effective all the same.
The story follows some dude who wakes up to much confusion on a train in the body of a guy in the last 8 minutes of his life. The army are making him do this so he can find out who has blown up the train and who plans to make a massive explosion in the city. Interesting premise, so why does the story come across as so boring and mundane? The critics are lapping it up so maybe my criticism isn't too well founded as the general consensus is that its a slick stylish action film with brains giving it an impressive 91% on rotten tomatoes.
There's not a huge amount to comment on in this film. The action is relatively mediocre, the acting is sufficient and we know that Gyllenhall can do this kind of stuff in his sleep and the story descends into a kind of love story at the end. The unfortunate thing with this whole love story vibe is that the main character has obviously known the chick for a few 8 minute sessions and even then he spends most time ignoring her and punching students in the face. This is why films that have to cram a number of different things in shouldn't stray into romance, they don't have the time for it. It's just like "I've got to save the world so I'm finding out who planted the bomb by punching people, putting my gun at people, jumping off stuff, running and by the way I love this girl who I just met, back to the punching and serious dialogue about army people and emotional father people". Stop it action films, the only love there needs to be is a man's love for punching people repeatedly and his heartwarming affection for bullets being fired at bad people till they stop being bad/alive. Preferably this man also has an affair with slow motion and doves but now I'm getting into John Woo territory (still the best action film director of all time)
As my friend pointed out the film can be summarised as "Groundhog Day meets Speed" (that's Speed the film not Speed the drug....A drug-styled remake of Groundhog Day could be good though....watch this space)but it doesn't have the urgency of the latter and the characterisation or character development of the former. This is quite a dissapointment because the amount of characterisation Duncan Jones can seem to put into anything is extraordinary such as Kevin Spacey's robot in Moon which was excellently characterised with just voice and an emoticon face :), :(, :/. This may be due to the fact that Jones co-wrote Moon whilst this was written by another and in my opinion less awesome writer.
It isn't a bad film, I'm not saying that, it is just that the film was over-hyped so for this I am giving it a 6 out of 10. Some cool actions scenes, brilliant premise but the delivery was a bit off and the wishy washy ending kind of ruined it. Perhaps I was just waiting for an epic twist a la Moon and got one that you could have guessed before watching the film. Meh. Also if you haven't, watch Moon as I've been its personal hype man this entire review, maybe they should pay me for promoting it? I'll look into it. Till next time where I may review L.A. Noire as its pretty much a film if a film was the same thing with a little variation for 30 hours. I'll save it for the review after I've completed it. Hugs and Kisses to all.
The story follows some dude who wakes up to much confusion on a train in the body of a guy in the last 8 minutes of his life. The army are making him do this so he can find out who has blown up the train and who plans to make a massive explosion in the city. Interesting premise, so why does the story come across as so boring and mundane? The critics are lapping it up so maybe my criticism isn't too well founded as the general consensus is that its a slick stylish action film with brains giving it an impressive 91% on rotten tomatoes.
There's not a huge amount to comment on in this film. The action is relatively mediocre, the acting is sufficient and we know that Gyllenhall can do this kind of stuff in his sleep and the story descends into a kind of love story at the end. The unfortunate thing with this whole love story vibe is that the main character has obviously known the chick for a few 8 minute sessions and even then he spends most time ignoring her and punching students in the face. This is why films that have to cram a number of different things in shouldn't stray into romance, they don't have the time for it. It's just like "I've got to save the world so I'm finding out who planted the bomb by punching people, putting my gun at people, jumping off stuff, running and by the way I love this girl who I just met, back to the punching and serious dialogue about army people and emotional father people". Stop it action films, the only love there needs to be is a man's love for punching people repeatedly and his heartwarming affection for bullets being fired at bad people till they stop being bad/alive. Preferably this man also has an affair with slow motion and doves but now I'm getting into John Woo territory (still the best action film director of all time)
As my friend pointed out the film can be summarised as "Groundhog Day meets Speed" (that's Speed the film not Speed the drug....A drug-styled remake of Groundhog Day could be good though....watch this space)but it doesn't have the urgency of the latter and the characterisation or character development of the former. This is quite a dissapointment because the amount of characterisation Duncan Jones can seem to put into anything is extraordinary such as Kevin Spacey's robot in Moon which was excellently characterised with just voice and an emoticon face :), :(, :/. This may be due to the fact that Jones co-wrote Moon whilst this was written by another and in my opinion less awesome writer.
It isn't a bad film, I'm not saying that, it is just that the film was over-hyped so for this I am giving it a 6 out of 10. Some cool actions scenes, brilliant premise but the delivery was a bit off and the wishy washy ending kind of ruined it. Perhaps I was just waiting for an epic twist a la Moon and got one that you could have guessed before watching the film. Meh. Also if you haven't, watch Moon as I've been its personal hype man this entire review, maybe they should pay me for promoting it? I'll look into it. Till next time where I may review L.A. Noire as its pretty much a film if a film was the same thing with a little variation for 30 hours. I'll save it for the review after I've completed it. Hugs and Kisses to all.