After more than four years, The Random Films is moving to a new home. The rebranded, restructured and refashioned blog will have new features such as First Peeks (trailers of upcoming movies) and TV Series (reviews of favorite television shows). Hope you support the new blog just the same. Please visit:MOVIEcracy
Brute force. Uncanny power. Devastating weapons. These elements
may make up the coolest and most amazing superheroes. But more than the strength
of mind and body, it is the strength of character of the hero that will make
anyone look up to him. In this second installment to the Captain series, Captain
America: The Winter Soldier successfully portrayed the hero and the man behind
the shield.
Unlike Captain America: The First Avenger, the film is set
in modern day Washington, D.C., some two years after the Battle of New York (The
Avengers movie). Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) now works for the espionage agency
S.H.I.E.L.D. headed by director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). On a mission to
free S.H.I.E.L.D. hostages from pirates, Rogers and agent Natasha Romanoff or Black
Widow (Scarlett Johansson) step into an agenda which sent terrifying shockwaves
in the agency and in humankind.
March is the International Women’s Month, and so for the
whole month, let’s look into the movies that highlight the strengths and triumphs
of women. Let’s begin with this 2009 Australian comedy horror film which does
not only reflect the prowess of a woman, but also the tragedy and brutality that
her wrath can bring. Get ready for some mild gore and be up for The Loved Ones.
The Loved Ones begins
with a vehicular accident on a road. Brent (played by Xavier Samuel) is driving
with his father in the passenger seat. All of a sudden, a bloodied man appears
on the middle of the road, and swerving to avoid hitting the man, Brent’s car
crashes into a tree.
REC or [·REC]2 is a 2009 sequel to the internationally-acclaimed 2007 Spanish horror film REC (see Random Film: REC). Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza still co-wrote and co-directed this second installment. It follows the events immediately after the events of REC, and hence, it still has that shaky camera and claustrophobic effect.
Plot. Dr. Owen, an official from the Ministry of Health, and a special group called GEO team are sent to the quarantined building to control the situation. Inside the building, they encounter the infected victims but Owen uses his rosary and religious mantra to drive them away. It turns out that Owen is actually a priest sent by the Vatican to acquire a blood sample from the Medeiros girl (the carrier of the virus which spread the demonic possession). They eventually reach the penthouse (owned by another priest in charge of her) and found the sample. However, it is set on fire while when they test it to confirm. The only option is to get a sample from the Medeiros girl herself.
Meanwhile, several other characters also surface. Jennifer’s father has come back after buying medicine for his child (the infected girl from REC who was thought to have tonsillitis only) and insists on entering the building. He convinces a firefighter and both go inside. Likewise, three teenagers – Tito, Mire, and Ori – manage to get inside the building via the sewage system. However, the police later seal the exit. Click here to read full review of "REC 2".
The Counterfeiters (German: Die Fälscher) is a 2007 Austrian-German film written and directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky. It stars Karl Markovics, August Diehl and Devid Streisow. It is distributed by Sony Pictures with English subtitles.
Plot. The movie is based on a memoir, entitled “The Devil’s Workshop,” by Adolf Burger, a Jewish Slovak stenographer who was involved on the Operation Bernhard plan. The plan was a secret strategy by the Nazis during the Second World War to flood the economy with fake Bank of England bills. In this way, Great Britain would be destabilized and the Nazi Empire would gain greater control.
The film opens with a rich man arriving in an expensive hotel in Monte Carlo. Later, a French woman he slept with earlier discovers the tattooed numbers on his arm. The man is actually a Nazi concentration camp survivor named Salomon Sorowitsch.
The movie rewinds back to 1936 in the war-torn Berlin. After being caught by police from forging currency and passports, Salomon Sorowitsch is imprisoned in a labor camp and then later to Mauthausen concentration camp. Inside the camp, Salomon uses his skills and paints the guards and their families in exchange for extra food rations.
Consequently, Salomon is transferred to another concentration camp where he is imprisoned with other Jews who have artistic and printing skills. There he learns that they are commissioned to forge British pounds. In return, they are kept with better conditions than other Jewish prisons, with comfortable bunks, a washroom and adequate food.
In the beginning, Salomon finds this as an opportunity for him to escape the brutality for Jews, but his motives are soon complicated by his growing concern for his fellow prisoners. Then he harbors to sabotage the Nazi operation. He tells the authority he can forge the US Dollar, and excited, the Nazis give him the chance. But Salomon and his fellow prisoners delay their task. One day, the camp guards suddenly announce that the printing machines are to be dismantled and shipped away. The counterfeiters fear that they will be killed. But before anything happens, the camps flee as the Red Army arrives. The counterfeiters rise up and, along with the other prisoners of the camp, escape and stand for their freedom.
The movie then switches back to Monte Carlo. Salomon dances with the French woman on the beach and realizes he has been throwing money all this time. However, he can always make money. He laughs.
Review. The Holocaust is a survivor’s tale and with every film dealing with this subject, we see protagonists braving this tragedy in the bloodiest and most heart-breaking means. With Stefan Ruzowitzky’s “The Counterfeiters,” we see the idea of “survival of the fittest” in a different way – very cunning, witty, suspenseful and mildly dramatic.
The movie centers around the life of a Salomon Sorowitsch with Operation Bernhard as the backdrop. Hence, it is not 100% historically accurate for it is only a fictionalized version; but what it lacks in true facts, it compensates for its deep theme of morality and guilt. In the film, the protagonist is faced with the chance of a “better” life in exchange for his service as money forger. As an outlaw, he approaches it not with the principles of a righteous man but with the self-protective instincts of a seasoned criminal.But will his cooperation justify his survival? Is his personal deliverance worth his partnership with the evil?
In the beginning, Salomon sees things for his own good. Sooner, he sees the other prisoners – impoverished, sickly and brutally mistreated. He might be a hardened man, but it is human nature to be soft, compassionate and mindful of others. Will he let that will to survive compete with his moral obligation to help others? Must justice for himself be an injustice for others? Or can he make justice for both parties?
At the end of the movie, we see the present-day Salomon, wealthy and gambling away his riches. He is disgusted with that life, but he simply does not care – he can make money. This part is somewhat funny and ironic. But Salomon is a learned man. Like every learned man, he simply have to laugh about the lessons from the past.
Reception. The Counterfeiters is a huge critical success. It appeared in many critics’ top ten lists of the best films in 2008, including being 4th in Josh Rosenblatt’s list of The Austin Chronicle. It also won the Best Foreign Language Film in the Academy Awards 2007.
Rating. Five stars out of five for this movie. This is a true classic.
