Self/less

So....mortality....kinda sucks, huh? We only get one crack at this life so you might as well make the best of it with what little time we have, right? Well, what if we weren't limited to just one go-around? What if we had another chance, maybe multiple chances? It's a potential-filled dilemma, one with countless layers. If we could, should we? I missed 2015's Self/less in theaters but was able to catch up with it on DVD.

A real estate mogul who has piled up fortunes on top of fortunes in a career spanning 40-plus years, Damian Hale (Ben Kingsley) is quickly dying of cancer that is spreading throughout his body. With doctors telling him he only has months to live, Damian undergoes a dangerous medical situation called 'shedding' where his mind/psyche are transported to the body of a much younger man, a body grown/built genetically in a lab. So while his body may have failed him, his mind won't, giving him a chance to live on and accomplish so much more as a younger version of himself (Ryan Reynolds). New and improved Damian dives into his new-found life, celebrating, partying and living life like he was actually running out of time. It all seems too perfect...and it is. Damian begins to feel funny, begins to question exactly what's happened. Can he figure it all out before something even more dangerous happens to him?

Ever heard of a movie called Seconds? Ha, well I have! I even reviewed it for you! You can read my review from 2010 HERE. It's got 6 whopping views so...yeah, it's a threat to go viral any second. 'Self/less' is a tweaked remake of the 1966 flick from director John Frankenheimer and starring Rock Hudson. It's a very 1960's movie with a fabulous ending, one that almost saved the movie for me. But that's my rule. If you're going to remake a movie, do one that has little to no reputation or has a ton of untapped potential. This version? It takes the basic premise and goes from there, doing its own thing.

What if you weren't tied to your physical being? What if your conscious could be moved to another vessel? In this frightening age of science, who knows? Maybe that's not too far away...if it hasn't happened already. Director Tarsem Singh turns in an unsettling, creepy thriller with that potential-filled premise. It received pretty negative reviews -- although fans seem to like it -- and bombed at the box office, making just $12 million. Not good. I liked it though, taking the remake and stylizing it and building up some great scenes of doom. It moves at a lightning-pace early on once Damian goes under the procedure, and I wish it would have slowed down a little bit, let it breathe and develop. It's always entertaining though and worth a watch.

This Ryan Reynolds fella, he's been in the news lately for a little movie called Deadpool. Heard of it? Yeah, it's doing pretty well in theaters. He's always been an immensely watchable actor through drama or comedy, but his HUGE movie never seemed to come along until Deadpool. As young Damian, Reynolds is us, he's the viewer. He's trying to piece it all together, knowing the pieces just don't quite fit...but not quite able to figure out why. I'll always think of Reynolds as motor-mouth, fast-talking Van Wilder, but he's shown previously and does it again here that he's quite capable of heavier drama into anti-hero territory. A very solid lead performance!

Now officially into badass, screen legend territory, Kingsley has some fun and gives the film some muscle early on as older Damian, a ruthless businessman who sees his clock running out. Just wish he'd been around longer! The always-solid Matthew Goode plays Albright, the suspiciously smooth doctor who offers the seemingly-dangerous medical procedure that moves psyches without too much risk. Victor Garber is a welcome addition as one of Damian's business partners and friend, making key appearances at the beginning and end. As for the rest of the cast, I don't want to give away too much about what's going on so...look for Natalie Martinez and Derek Luke in key supporting parts!

My theory I write about often is my Christmas Eve theory. Sometimes it's more fun not to know what your presents are. The build-up, the anticipation! 'Self/less' is a rare movie where the payoff works. So does the build-up. The mystery and all those unanswered questions do a great job building the tension as young Damian begins to figure out exactly what's happened. My biggest issue is that 'Self/less' didn't know how to wrap things up. The last 25 minutes or so degenerate into unnecessary action pyrotechnics with car chases (that's actually pretty cool) and a chase and gunfight. I liked that simmering tension and unease through the first 80 minutes more. So thankfully, my issues aren't deal-breakers. An enjoyable thriller with a cool premise and good cast. Worth a watch for sure.

Self/less (2015): ** 1/2 /****

The Imitation Game

Ever heard of Alan Turing? Until about 24 hours ago, I hadn't although I unknowingly was quite aware of his ridiculously important historical contributions. How about something called Enigma? Yes? No? No matter how you answered, here's an easy recommendation as the movie awards season jumps into the full swing. History, World War II, just a film fan, check out 2014's The Imitation Game.

It's 1939 and World War II isn't going well for the Allied effort, especially in England as the German Luftwaffe wreaks havoc with its bombing all over the country. British intelligence is working hard behind the scenes, a huge effort meant to crack one of Germany's essentially unbreakable code, the Enigma. A brilliant mathematician and professor, Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) is working with British intelligence to break Enigma, but the effort seems impossible. There are literally millions and millions and millions of possibilities to break Enigma, and Alan and a small group of cryptanalysts have a limited window each day to break it before they have to start from scratch the next morning when the Enigma settings are changed. Turing especially is confident he can do it, but as the war rages on and the casualties pile up, even Turing's difficult personality may prove to be the biggest roadblock.

Here's another example of how powerful and interesting and truly, downright interesting history can be. Based on a true story -- with some artistic license taken here and there -- and from director Morten Tyldum tells a truly remarkable story, one that the British government kept under wraps for over 50 years after the end of WWII. The soldiers did the fighting, civilians back home built much of the materiel, the politicians fought and negotiated, all of it essential to the war effort. 'Imitation' does a great job of showing how Turing, a single man, drastically changed the course of the war for the Allies. It is a large-scale story in terms of content but small-scale in its focus. This is a movie about Turing and the men and women in intelligence who helped to break Germany's seemingly perfect code, saving millions of lives and cutting years off the war. Oscar bait? Sure, but it's a goodie.

That Benedict Cumberbatch fellow, he seems to be an actor with some potential (besides having a really cool name). Though he's been working in film and television since the early 2000s, he seems to have hit his groove as an actor, able to do fun blockbusters like the Star Trek sequels and as he shows here, act his freaking butt off. What a performance, one that will hopefully earn him an Oscar nomination, if not a win. It's always tough portraying a historical figure, even if it is one without a ton of name recognition. This is a brilliant, tortured man who was years ahead of his field, an individual who developed one of the first computers, one that helped Turing and Co. eventually break Enigma (relative spoiler I guess). The story also takes a personal detour in the second half of the movie, Cumberbatch truly bringing the individual to life.

It's the little nuances that Cumberbatch does so well, so effortlessly. His Turing is a socially awkward, brilliant individual with a troubled background. He commits himself to his work in almost dangerous fashion. It is an entire commitment. He hits people in the wrong way because his Alan is short, curt, abrupt and believes entirely in himself. All negative, right? He adds these little snippets as he tries to put his pride aside (although I wouldn't consider it pride in Alan's eyes, he just thinks he's right) that humanize him. We see that a lot in his scenes with Keira Knightley's Joan Clarke, a similarly brilliant young woman who doesn't get the respect she deserves because she's a woman and obviously can't be good at math. Kudos to Cumberbatch though, delivering a low-key performance that isn't necessarily a huge LOOK AT ME part that nonetheless steals the movie.

The 'Imitation' cast is uniformly solid. The queen of the period piece, Knightley is perfectly at home in the WWII story in providing an ideal counter to Cumberbatch's Alan. Their chemistry is smooth and easy, two individuals with different backgrounds but plenty of common ground. The other individuals working with Turing include an excellent Matthew Goode, Matthew Beard, Allen Leech, and James Northcote. Charles Dance and Mark Strong are very good too as intelligence officials, one more helpful than the other in assisting Turing's seemingly impossible plan to break the code. Rory Kinnear makes a quick appearance in a flash-forward of sorts as we see Turing living in England in the 1950s.

Let's say this. 'Imitation' tries to accomplish a lot. A LOT. The actual story is astounding that this happened. It wasn't a handful of people but thousands, but THIS HAPPENED. The story never feels disjointed which is a big compliment when you consider how much ground is covered, three-plus years is the crux of the story during the WWII portions. It's fascinating watching Turing's early-model computer come to fruition, the frustration when breaking the code doesn't happen both inward and outward, and eventually when it does happen the unintended consequences. Think of this. Okay, they've broken the code. They now CAN'T ADMIT they've both broken it because then the Germans would know they have broken it. What do you do now? How do you put the code to best use without revealing it has been broken? It is those moments where the movie is at its strongest.

So yeah, we've got some good, old-fashioned Oscar bait here. This is a good movie with a fascinating, always interesting story with some great performances. It isn't though, a great movie. When the story reveals a secret part of Alan's life, but it takes away from the power of the WWII/Enigma story. It is a tragic secret that alters Alan's life in a huge way but at times it feels tacked on like the story didn't exactly know how to handle it, especially in the finale. It is a complaint but nothing even remotely being close to a dealbreaker. Still a must-see movie.

The Imitation Game (2014): ***/****

Match Point

For years, director Woody Allen was associated with New York City, filming countless movies there and basically making the city another character in his stories. After being one of the city's most recognizable celebrities and biggest promoters, Allen has started filming in Europe over the last eight or nine years, specifically London and more recently Paris.  The cities always are key to his story, not just being a jumping off point that could be any international city.

Sitting in my Netflix Queue for almost the last year was Allen's 2005 film Match Point, a cold, dark film where London is as cold and barren as the characters and story. The Netflix description was pretty accurate, a thriller with Hitchcockian tones (is that a word? Eh, it sounds cool).  I'd like to think that's a compliment, but the more I think about it, I'm just not sure.  Allen has a personal directing style that's all his own, but with Match Point and 2007's Cassandra's Dream, he does seem to be going down the smart, sophisticated thriller that Hitchcock is so often associated with. Good or bad, compliment or criticism, the movie is a good one.

A successful mid-level professional tennis player, Irish-born Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) is moving on with his life. Working as a tennis pro at a high-end club, Chris meets Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode), a young businessman raised in a very well-to-do upper class family. Chris and Tom hit it off quickly, Chris becoming very popular with the Hewetts (parents Brian Cox and Penelope Wilton), especially their single daughter, Chloe (Emily Mortimer). Chris sees a chance at a life he never had growing up and embraces it, including starting to date Chloe, a relationship that quickly becomes serious. Everything seems to be going perfectly for Chris until he meets Nola (Scarlett Johannson), Tom's American fiance, with whom he has an instant sexual/physical attraction. Chris is going down a bad road -- and he knows it -- but can he stop himself?

There is a lot to like about this movie so I was surprised to read a fair share of hate for 'Match' at any number of message boards.  The script -- from Allen himself -- is well-written even if it does depend on coincidences and chance encounters a bit much for my liking. At just over two hours, the movie has a leisurely pace for a thriller. Scenes are in no rush to speed up to the message, enjoying the process of just getting there.  Long scenes of uncut dialogue, just two people communicating, pepper the story, giving the movie a throwback feel from the 1960s.  Allen just sets his camera up and lets his actors act.  He doesn't call attention to himself much, filming from a distance. It is a cold story (in terms of visuals but also what's going on with the characters), one that I can understand some viewers having trouble getting into.

Where I had a problem is that not one character is particularly redeeming or even remotely likable.  I don't need anyone to be a saint of angelic proportions, but someone to root for is always nice.  Some are obviously worse than others, but they all have these annoying character traits -- some on a larger scale than others -- that hamstring them. Rhys-Meyers as Chris is obviously the worst, a conniving, rat-like manipulator who betrays all those around him while cheating on his wife and possibly much, much worse. Johannson's Nola goes from the sexual, beautiful gorgeous ideal to a clingy, overly-emotional wreck. Even Mortimer -- who ends up being the most sympathetic of all these wrecks -- has this passive aggressive way of communicating, condescendingly pointing out that she's rich and you're not.  A mess of characters, all of them very interesting to watch take each other down.

The acting then can be hard to judge.  I disliked and/or hated most of the characters, wanting them to get what they deserved in the end.  I guess that's a good sign then of the actors/actresses bringing their characters to life, especially Rhys-Meyers.  There is something about him physically that makes me not like him, not as a character but as a person (and I feel bad judging him like that). Chris is a weasel, a smooth, suave sophisticated just all around bastard able to convince everyone around him he's quality people. The cast on the whole works well together, all of them with their own egotistical reasons for doing what they do.  Johannson's performance is a little too far over the top at times, but it's a quality performance. Mortimer, Goode, Cox, and Wilton are relegated to the background at times, but all carry themselves well, especially Mortimer as the ultimately pretty sweet Chloe and Goode as Tom, the charming, roguish brother-in-law.

Allen's story builds and builds, that sense of dread building as the situation gets murkier and murkier.  The story goes about the route you would expect as Chris backs himself into a corner and then has to claw his way out, lying left and right to cover his ass.  The opening scene gives you an indication of exactly where the story is going, but that being said, I hated the ending.  It needed more resolution than what's provided.  My reasoning most likely comes from my dislike of the Chris character, but a relatively open-ended finale was disappointing.  It doesn't ruin the movie, but it does take it down a notch. A different, more emotional ending would have done wonders for the movie on the whole.

Match Point <---trailer (2005): ***/****