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REVIEWSPREVIEWS
Criminal
Criminal is a remake of an Argentinean film, Nine Queens, released in 2002 in America. Produced by Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney, it is typical Soderbergh territory, who didn’t direct the film but co-wrote it (with Sam Lowry), handing over the directing reins to his long time assistant Gregory Jacob.
Richard Gaddis (John C. Reilly) is a cool, calculated self-confident con man who believes every single person he meets is a promising target. Along comes our naïve Rodrigo (Diego Luna) who is rescued by Richard during a small time money changing sham gone awry. Richard, seeing the potential in him, asks Rodrigo to be his new protégé. Rodrigo, wanting to pay his father’s debts, agrees.
As the day progresses we are led to a con that can make their life more comfortable involving a counterfeit antique silver certificate and Richard’s sister (Maggie Gyllenhaal). The counterfeit is to be sold to an Irish millionaire who is to leave the country the next day to avoid being taxed by the government.
Trying to make the deal as well as making sure that they themselves don’t get conned is what predictably follows and the plot resolves in an half-interesting way, making the movie an OK watch if you like con movies. But I recommend Matchstick Man instead. —Farheen Jawaid
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Guess Who
Guess Who tries to prove this: so what if the DNA doesn’t match. There are more important things which matter. Black beauty Theresa Jones (Zoe Saldana) and Simon Green (Ashton Kutcher) are in love with each other. And the best time to pronounce their engagement will be her parents’ 25th wedding anniversary.
So, she brings her boyfriend to meet the parents, Percy Jones (Bernie Mac) and Marilyn Jones (Judith Scott). As most fathers are, and should be, Percy is selective in choosing his daughter’s life-partner. A little extra selective. But Simon has no problem with that: he holds a good job and has a promising future ahead of him. There is just one big problem: Simon is white.
The moment Simon is introduced to the parents, the rest of the movie sees the suspicious Percy finding grounds on which he can disapprove the white boy, while Simon fights for the love of his life. Although Simon’s humour and smartness turn the situation even worse for him, the parents at last cave in.
Directed by Kevin Rodney Sullivan, Guess Who follows its 1967 predecessor Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Sex-related humour with some dicey dialogues expands the PG circle to 13. Kutcher’s presence doesn’t really cause any major waves, as it’s Bernie Mac’s performance that provides the core comedy. —Aftab Borka
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House of Flying Daggers
As A. O. Scott of the New York Times states and a certain guru named Roger Ebert agrees, comparing a vigorously athletic contest between people defying the vertical and horizontal rules of gravity to American musicals like Singin’ in the Rain and An American in Paris seem a bit outstretched. And it is … to someone who hasn’t seen Zhang Yimou’s Hero and suddenly it all makes sense.
Embroidered in silk brocade of love and betrayal in peak foliage season somewhere in the Tang Dynasty, House of Flying Daggers is an ocular opulence of an opus. Mr Yimou’s vision is as clearly and beautifully defined as ever, and Zhang Ziyi, who’s kicking up a lot of hype this side of Hollywood, shows off enough sexual candour to blast the screen in two, and that too without showing skin.
Her depiction of a blind courtesan, who later on is revealed as the member of an underground militia (The Flying Daggers) opposing the bureaucracy, is astonishingly effective. Following her are two lieutenants Leo (Andy Lau) and Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro), whose allegiance come into question when the hunt is escalated in to a love-triangle.
An argumentative point provoked by most critics is that the movie ultimately looses some of its soul in the vigour of confrontation. Yes, that does happen, but who says that criticism isn’t bias. —Mohammad Kamran Jawaid
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