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DVD The Jacket
When you put on The Jacket, prepare for a head-trip into fragmented reality. Coproducer Steven Soderbergh might have fared better with this mind-bender than British director John Maybury (who indulges an excess of heavy-handed "style"), but it's intriguing enough to hold your attention as Gulf War veteran Jack Starks (Adrian Brody) sustains a head-wound that results in amnesia and fragmented timelines. One involves Jack's apparent killing of a policeman, after which he's institutionalized and subjected to straight-jacketed experiments in sensory isolation (with Kris Kristofferson as the doctor in charge); the other is a possible future involving a nihilistic waitress (Keira Knightley) with connections to his past, and the discovery that Jack will die in four days if he can't solve the brain-teasing puzzle he's fallen into. The Jacket aspires to the cleverness of Memento and falls short of that target, but Brody gives this exercise in desperate disorientation a certain gravitas that keeps you watching as his tormenting visions begin to unravel. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Brad Renfro and Kelly Lynch make the most of their small supporting roles. --Jeff Shannon
The movie was well dne and very much worth watching.A military veteran goes on a journey into the future, where he can foresee his death and is left with questions that could save his life and those he loves.The plot is not boldly original or spine chillingly extravagent, but it is executed flawlessly. A very deep, provoking and motivating story. You can either take the future and do nothing, or force yourself and fight to make a change for the better.
It's NOT a Friggin' Thriller!
Jack Starks is in the Gulf War when he receives a serious head wound from a gunshot. Initially presumed dead, a nurse suddenly realizes he's still alive when he blinks. His body is saved, but his mind is still severely traumatized. Rocked with distortions of time and events, Jack struggles to become a normal member of Amercian society upon release from the military hospital.
But things quickly go strangely awry for Jack. While hitchhiking across the U.S. he runs into a mother and daughter sitting alongside the road next to their broken down truck. The daughter, a sweet young girl, helps Jack fix the truck while the girl's drugged-out mother pukes in the bushes nearby. After the truck is started, the mother pushes past Jack, inserts her daughter into the truck, and abruptly and rudely leaves.
Then Jack gets picked up by a young man in a station wagon who ends up killing a cop while Jack is traveling with him, and since Jack can't remember a lot of things (remember, he's got some brain damage from the gunshot wound to his head), he's arrested and sent to an asylum for the criminally insane run by actor Kris Kristofferson.
During all of this there are fragments of Jack's mind that seep onto the screen in very surreal ways (punctuations of color, blast pieces of the war, etc.), and Jack's not all that sure WHEN he is. Is it 1992?
In a brutal method to try and "help" Jack, Kristofferson's character drugs him and places him in a straight jacket then into a morgue box for isolation. During these "sessions", Jack seems to travel into the future. To 2007 to be exact. But why? Apparently this time holds some significance and the audience is slowly let in on it as the film progresses. In 2007, he meets up with the same young girl turned young woman that he'd met alongside the road years before and helped get their truck started. A race to save those that he loves in the past soon takes place from what he learns in the future. But is it all real, or is it just another fracture in his mind?
This film has been SERIOUSLY MISLABELED as a thriller. It is not a thriller or even a horror-stylized film. If you had to categorize it, I'd say it's a Sci Fi Drama. Even the insipid tagline for the film, "Terror has a new name," is horribly misleading.
In the vein of MOMENTO and THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT, this film has a lot going for it, even above those two other movies (which I also enjoyed by the way). But where THE JACKET succeeds is in coherency, while MOMENTO and THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT kind of left me wanting.
The acting was also stellar. Keira Knightley (PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN and BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM) plays the young woman who Jack meets in 2007 and begins to believe that he may very well be time-traveling. I never thought Knightley could perform in such a starkly different role than the upbeat films I've seen her in, but she does so very admirably here. Adrian Brody (THE PIANIST) plays the lead role of Jack Starks and does so with understated grace. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kris Kristofferson, and Brad Renfro all pull in strong supporting roles, too.
So if you're not a big thriller fan, don't worry about it. Pick up this film and enjoy it.
This movie will impress...
When this movie first came out I have to tell you that the trailer reminded me of every other horror/thriller on the market (need I grunt as I hint toward House of Wax?), but I must say having seen it that I'm thoroughly impressed. This film makes viewers THINK and that's what I like! From a storyline basis we are given a complex story that, although non-linear, doesn't confuse for too long. The result is a thrill ride of intrigue that I'll safely say most won't predict.
The story is that of Jack Starks (Adrien Brody), who suffered a bullet to the head in the Gulf War and now has memory problems. Trouble is those memory problems are the basis as to why he is framed for murder and charged criminally insane. While at the Alpine Grove Institute Jack is subjected to a unique form of treatment involving a morgue locker and a strait jacket. When Jack starts traveling inbetween the future and the past, he begins to get the impression that reality doesn't always follow a distinct path.
This movie all seemed to come together to make an impressive story, and for that I must tip my hat to Tom Bleeker and Marc Rocco, both talent that have had little or no experience with Hollywood (which probably explains the fresh idea). The screenplay from writer/producer Massy Tadjedin, also relatively new to the industry, flows naturally and fluidly. Director John Maybury, a talented and experienced director (although most of you won't know any of his previous works), again delivers lifelike characters and impressive symbolic shots to reveal not only moving pictures, but still life that tells a story. Adrien Brody delivers a strong performance as a supposedly sane man on the verge of cracking, while still offering a tenderness in the scenes of the past. Kris Kristofferson delivers another powerful performance, complete with a classic "moving" moment when he realizes his effect on patients. Kiera Knightley is the star of this show, however, with a powerful performance that fills you with lust, sorrow, and compassion for her character. As an admittedly avid Knightley fan I must say that I was digging for flaws in her performance to back my neutrality when reviewing, but I have to say in a world ridden with murder, loss, and death she breaks through and forces you to care for her character. All in all this movie impresses with a thrilling storyline, involving plot, emotional performances, and stands alone as one of the only movies invovling far-fetched ideas that doesn't divert my attention. Disregard the cheesy tagline, "Terror has a new name" and I cringe at the back of the box stating, "Jacob's Ladder meets One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", this movie holds to none of those quotes (and thank god for that)!
The DVD itself has relatively little to offer in the ways of "wow-me cutting edge technology", but then aren't movies supposed to be the meat and potatos themselves? We get a crystal clear Dolby 5.1 soundtrack (which really adds to the effect of being trapped in a morgue locker) as well as a few special features (nothing impressive, I tuned out within five minutes). In today's world we're too concerned with special effects and deleted scenes, however I am not. I remember seeing "The Abyss" and "Terminator 2" and thinking, "WOW, that was cool! I wonder how they did that?" but I also remember falling asleep to that free rental crappy VHS tape explaining the special effects in both movies. As far as deleted scenes, do we all realize at this point that these scenes were deleted for obvious reasons? I've yet to see a simple DVD like this show me a decent cut scene. Where's the interviews with the writers? That's a special feature I'd like to see!
You get two hostage crises for the price of one in Hostage, an overwrought but otherwise involving thriller grounded by Bruce Willis's solid lead performance. Making a dramatic pit-stop on his way to Die Hard 4, Willis plays a traumatized former Los Angeles hostage negotiator, now working as a nearly-divorced police chief in sleepy Ventura County, California. Willis suddenly finds himself amidst two potentially deadly stand-offs when a trio of hapless teenagers seize hostages in the fortress-like home of an accountant (Kevin Pollack) whose connections to organized crime result in Willis struggling to rescue his estranged wife and daughter, who are being held hostage by faceless thugs at an undisclosed location. Having directed two of Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell video... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Bruce Willis - Kevin Pollak - Serena Scott Thomas Director(s): Florent Emilio Siri DVD Release Date: Released the 21 June 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Brutal and breathtaking, Sin City is Robert Rodriguez's stunningly realized vision of Frank Miller's pulpy comic books. In the first of three separate but loosely related stories, Marv (Mickey Rourke in heavy makeup) tries to track down the killers of a woman who ended up dead in his bed. In the second story, Dwight's (Clive Owen) attempt to defend a woman from a brutal abuser goes horribly wrong, and threatens to destroy the uneasy truce among the police, the mob, and the women of Old Town. Finally, an aging cop on his last day on the job (Bruce Willis) rescues a young girl from a kidnapper, but is himself thrown in jail. Years later, he has a chance to save her again.
More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 16 August 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Action buffs will have a fine time with the spray of bullets, shattering glass, and pyrotechnic silliness that makes up the bulk of Assault on Precinct 13. Updated from the little-known cops-and-robbers classic John Carpenter made in 1976 (two years before he made his name with Halloween), this high-concept thriller is mostly a lowbrow kill-fest, and is very happy with itself for being so efficient in both categories. A decrepit police station on its last night before retirement--New Year's Eve, no less--plays unexpected home to a gang of criminals who become snowbound in the basement lockup. Another mysterious gang of people who stealthily gather in the blizzard outside want one of the particularly nasty criminals (Laurence Fishburne) dead, and they'll take the rest of the... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Laurence Fishburne - Ethan Hawke Director(s): Jean-François Richet DVD Release Date: Released the 10 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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As a bleak and chilling mood piece, The Machinist gets under your skin and stays there. Christian Bale threw himself into the title role with such devotion that he shed an alarming 63 pounds to play Trevor Reznik (talk about "starving artist"!), a factory worker who hasn't slept in a year. He's haunted by some mysterious occurrence that turned him into a paranoid husk, sleepwalking a fine line between harsh reality and nightmare fantasy--a state of mind that leaves him looking disturbingly gaunt and skeletal in appearance. (It's no exaggeration to say that Bale resembles a Holocaust survivor from vintage Nazi-camp liberation newsreels.) In a cinematic territory far removed from his 1998 romantic comedy Next Stop Wonderland, director Brad Anderson orchestrates a grimy,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Christian Bale - Jennifer Jason Leigh - Aitana Sánchez-Gijón Director(s): Brad Anderson (II) DVD Release Date: Released the 07 June 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Movie studios, by and large, avoid controversial subjects like race the way you might avoid a hive of angry bees. So it's remarkable that Crash even got made; that it's a rich, intelligent, and moving exploration of the interlocking lives of a dozen Los Angeles residents--black, white, latino, Asian, and Persian--is downright amazing. A politically nervous district attorney (Brendan Fraser) and his high-strung wife (Sandra Bullock, biting into a welcome change of pace from Miss Congeniality) get car-jacked by an oddly sociological pair of young black men (Larenz Tate and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges); a rich black T.V. director (Terrence Howard) and his wife (Thandie Newton) get pulled over by a white racist cop (Matt Dillon) and his reluctant partner (Ryan Phillipe); a... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Paul Haggis DVD Release Date: Released the 06 September 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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