25th Hour

As a longtime semi-fan of Spike Lee, I'd had 25th Hour on my "to watch" list ever since it first came out. I was interested in the setting in post-9/11 New York, keen to see Ed Norton, willing to pay money for another great Lee flick. So even though all the details added up right, for some reason it's taken until now for me to get around to watching this film.

The basic premise is simple enough: one evening in the presence of Ed Norton, who, the following day, is going to prison on a drugs rap. He hangs with his father, his girlfriend, a couple of old schoolfriends, his dog, his colleague... What we have here, ladies and gents, is a character study and a treatise on the value of relationships.

The performances are almost all strong, with really only one duff note. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Barry Pepper are good, as you'd expect, Brian Cox even better, and Rosario Dawson very appealing. The weak link is the drastically overrated (well she must be rated highly by someone since she gets so much damn work) Anna Paquin. Nothing of her character rings true -- from the oh-so-obviously-fake tattoo, to her role as a schoolgirl, to... well, it all sucks.

Paquin's appearance is a shame, because it really hurts what was otherwise a pretty good movie -- funnily enough, much as I felt Jodie Foster's did in Lee's Inside Man. Does Spike suffer the same problem as Tarantino, in that he can't write convincing roles for women? It's sure starting to look that way...

Scores
Acting: 12 (severely penalized for Paquin)
Story: 13
Direction: 15
Enjoyment: 14
Involvement: 15
Total: 69

United 93

We all know the story told in United 93. On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda hijackers took control of four aeroplanes in a terrorist attack on the United States. Two of them ploughed into the Twin Towers of New York's World Trade Center; one was flown into the Pentagon; and the fourth was United 93. On that plane, fearing the worst, and having learned from frantic calls to loved ones that their plane was going to be used as a flying missile somewhere in the United States, the passengers fought back, albeit ultimately in vain.

These are the facts such as we know them today, notwithstanding numerous conspiracy theories of varying credibility.

I have watched almost every film and documentary on 9/11 that has crossed my path, but this is far and away one of the most traumatic I have seen.

Some of the reasons for the power of this film include: several key roles of armed-service and air-traffic control personnel are played by the people themselves; the cast of actors is largely made up of "unknowns"; and incredibly taut direction by Brit helmer Paul Greengrass. He puts you right in that plane on the edge of your seat for a huge chunk of the running time.

How this movie is not in contention for Best Picture at the Oscars this year is beyond me. I don't think I will see a film as good as this in quite some time. Thankfully, Greengrass has not been overlooked, and he is up for Best Director.

You might say, "Well, it's easy to manipulate the viewer and provoke an emotional response when you use a true story with an inevitable ending." Sure, I accept that on a certain level. But how many true-life films have you seen that are shit? My guess is: almost every one you ever watched. This is a horse of a different colour entirely. All those disaster movies you've seen? All those plane-hijack scenes you've watched? They will be as nothing to you once you have watched United 93.

The one thing that caught me off guard slightly, and I don't understand why Greengrass did it, was the use of David Rasche in a small but potentially important role. Rasche used to play the lead role in an offbeat US comedy show called Sledge Hammer! way way way back, so his appearance slightly shattered my concentration on the film at hand. This unnecessary known actor broke the tension a little too much for this viewer.

The scores
Acting: 14
Story: 14
Direction: 17
Enjoyment: 16
Involvement: 18
Total: 79

911 Loose Change

Seriously, if you have even a passing interest in 9/11 and/or conspiracy theories, you simply MUST see this documentary movie. It is available as a download (free, I think), or you can watch it streaming online (it's about 80 minutes or so).

It's quite incredible and totally terrifying... If even half of the facts and figures presented are for real - and I don't doubt they are - then some really serious questions need to be asked of the US administration. Check it out here. Or you can watch the so-called final cut, which runs 2 hrs 10 mins, by clicking here.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.