Shallow Grave

After putting interview subjects through the ringer, three crass roomates (Ewan McGregor, Christorpher Eccleston, Kerry Fox) finally find a candidate to inhabit the fourth room of their Edinburgh flat who summarily winds up dead from an overdose, leaving behind a small fortune of the mob's money. Danny Boyle's feature film debut is an unfunny, cruel minded psychological thriller which drew comparisons to Hitchcock due to voyeuristic situations and body disposal but totally lacks the tension and wit. With characters so unlikable, lacking any human qualities until the screenplay wishes to humanize McGregor on a dime, and for all its so called originality, at its core the plot and themes could not be more hackneyed.

* 1/2 out of ****

Steve Jobs

A window into the life of the megalomaniacal Apple visionary as told in three acts in the frantic moments leading up to three launches (the 1984 Mac, the introduction of 1988's NeXT computer, and the iMac in 1998) as he strategizes, confronts, insults, embraces, threatens, or demeans several major players in his life including his faithful assistant and conscience Joanna Hoffman (Kate Winslett), head programmer Andy Hertzfeld (Michael Sthulbarg), close friend and pc pioneer (Steve Wozniak), former Pepsi chair and current Apple CEO and father figure John Sculley (Jeff Daniels), and Chrisann Brennan, a troubled ex-girlfriend (Katherine Waterston) whose daughter Jobs initially denies paternity of. An endless source of fascinating, the latest Steve Jobs movie (and hopefully the last) was hatched by top industry talent. At first, Aaron Sorkin's relentless, droll, sometimes forced dialogue and Danny Boyle's kinetic, stylistic approach do not seem to mesh, but they eventually gain footing and even approach greatness, especially in a second act brilliantly edited and acted wrangle between Fassbender and Daniels. Although to my mind Michael Fassbender seems miscast, he appears to come close to the core of his enigmatic and in many ways despicable character and is given truly fine support by a uniformly excellent cast.

*** 1/2 out of ****

28 Days Later...

A radical environmental sect releases a group of test monkeys from a top secret lab, inadvertently unleashing a flesh eating virus and decimating the British population. Left standing are a small band of uninfected survivors who have the almost impossible task of evacuating the Isle. Danny Boyle, a director whose style over substance approach to moviemaking has resulted in some riveting films, falls completely flat here with this undead outing. Shot largely in digital, one of the first films to do so with the now widely used format, 28 Days Later... has a dismal, murky quality which isn't aided by its complete lack of narrative thrust and usually competent actors such as Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, and Brendan Gleeson who flounder in Alex Garland's lackluster, inert screenplay.

Trance

An art auction employee (James McAvoy), heavily indebted to a gangster (Vincent Cassel) and familiar with the intricate workings of his firms security protocol, stages a robbery of an invaluable Goya painting, crosses his creditor but, thanks to a blow to the head, can't remember where he hid the original. After a few torture sessions fail to ignite his memory, they enlist the help of a gorgeous and ethically unscrupulous hypnotherapist (Rosario Dawson) to help determine the painting's location. Danny Boyle's Trance, which reteams him with John Hodge, the penner of some of his early career success (Shallow Grave, Trainspotting) is murky, overplotted, and hyperstylized, and even though its conclusion isn't half as exciting as its set-up, it can't be said that the film is boring. I enjoyed Dawson's work, even though her relationships with her costars are dubious at best, and McAvoy and Cassel deliver surprisingly tame, uninspiring performances.

Frankenstein

In his 2011 production of Frankenstein for the Royal National Theater, Danny Boyle and playwright Nick Dear proposed two remarkable takes for the often told Mary Shelley tale: first was to cast actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Johnny Lee Miller (both currently in a feud of sorts over the latter's Sherlock ripoff series) as the monster and the creator, and having them alternate roles for each successive performance (I saw the version with Cumberbatch as the monster, filmed for the screen). The second was to give the monster his voice back, something which was robbed of him in most film renditions. Boyle's vision is unique, bold, intelligent, humorous, and extremely dark, with his lead actors (the monster is the meatier role), abetted by a game supporting cast, delivering sublime performances in what are backbreaking, highly demanding roles.

127 Hours

January 2011 Review 127 Hours tells the true to life tale of Aron Ralston’s horrific 2003 mountain climbing excursion in Robber’s Roost, Utah. Without telling a soul, Ralston grabs a few supplies and heads out on his trek. The opening of the film is mostly silent, as we see Aron navigate the dangerous terrain of the Utah desert. Soon, fate takes its part and a small avalanche ensues, releasing a boulder that lands on Aron’s right arm, hopelessly trapping him at the base of a canyon. It is from this position that most of the film is seen.

            127 Hours, base on a book by Ralston called Between a Rock and a Hard Place, must have seemed liked a tough sell to the studios due to the limited spacing of the narrative. However, it is a success due to the screenwriting, directing, and acting, all involved firing on all cylinders to deliver a successful film. James Franco shows his range as Ralston while delivering his comic sensibilities as well. He generates feelings in us for a character that could have been made out to be selfish or unlikable. The performance is on an Academy Award level.

The screenwriters, realizing how limited they are, do an interesting thing by visualizing Ralston’s thoughts, fears, fantasies, etc. while he is trapped. This helps increase audience sympathy and further bring us into his plight. Other techniques are used as well that help broaden the film and make its limited range negligible.

Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, Trainspotting) seems like the natural choice to direct Aron’s story (he also co-wrote). After a career dabbling in fantasy, action, survival, and horror, his resume corresponds to the material. What we get (along with some agonizingly intense moments) is a well made actioneer where the protagonist is immobilized for most of the film and where most of the action takes place in our minds.

Original Review Danny Boyle seems to be the natural choice to direct Aron Ralston's story, after dabbling in fantasy, survival, and horror tales, and Ralston's story containing all of those elements. 127 Hours begins with Ralston (played with believability by James Franco) fool-heartedly preparing for a weekend canyoning excursion. While out he does some biking, meets some girls, then becomes stuck more or less between a rock and a hard place-the title of Ralson's book (a boulder traps his hand and he becomes unable to extract it). Much of the film will take place from this point on, and it is here where Boyle's talents come into play (Franco's are not wasted either) making the film exciting and even brutally intense at moments. The outcome of this story is known by many who follow news events, but the way audience members were shrieking and cringing during a key sequence is a testament to the fillmmaker's abilities.

Millions

Millions is a film of wild imagination, directed with fervor and energy. It is not constructed or told in a traditional fashion. It tells the story of two young British brothers who have just recently lost their mothers and relocated with the father, two of the hardest situations for children to cope with. One day while playing near the train tracks a bag of money seemingly falls from the sky near Damian, the younger brother. Since he is a kind, God fearing boy, Damian with the help of the saints whom he has visions of decides to give the money to the poor. However, his older, wiser, and greedier brother Anthony will have no part of this when he finds out about the loot and decides to spend and surprisingly invest the money. However, it is seven days until Britain switches over to the Euro upon whence the boy's money will be worthless. From this point Millions goes off in several directions, many of them spectacular and some not. Still, Academy Award winning director Danny Boyle's talent is clear here in a children's film, the likes of which rarely receive this kind of treatment.
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