Elizabethtown (2005) 7/10
I can’t say that Elizabethtown is a good film per se. For one, the plot is a muddled mess. If at the end of the film you asked yourself what the plot was your answer will be there it really isn’t about anything. Whoever wrote the script for Elizabethtown should be fired.
And yet, the movie has its charms. It has easy, wry humor, suprising moments of poignancy and above all a solid chemistry between Kirstin Dunst and Orlando Bloom. I still don’t think much of Bloom of a lead actor, and here he is merely passable. He wasn’t as bad as i’d though he’d be- certainly a marked improvement from Kingdom of Heaven, but still a long way from leading man material. The good thing is that Bloom has excellent chemistry with Dunst, meaning that when they are togther, the movie glides. But when there’s only Bloom, well the plot meanders.
And somewhere inside Elizabethtown is Cameron Crowe, a director who knows his craft, but is working with a dud script. Elizabethtown isn’t quite Almost Famous, which remains Crowe’s crowning achievement, but as an enjoyable fluff, it satisfies.
Fearless (2006) 8/10
This is Jet Li’s best film in years. Period. It harkens back to the good ol’ 90s. It pointless for me to elaborate because you have to see Jet Li move to appreciate the physical artistry of this film. Of course, the usual bugbears appear: plot sags when the setting shifts to the countryside, same ol’ flower vase female role, predictable plot, etc. Still as far as action goes, this is excellence par none in what has been a barren run of good chinese action films in the past few years.
Creep (2005) 4/10
While it does effectively create a claustrophobic feel and actually starts off quite well, the film eventually collapses under the weight of its implausibility. Plus, it isn’t even very scary, especially when the bogeyman looks like a ripoff of Gollum. Seriously, skip this.
