Reviews

The classic Zemeckis-Hanks flick. The kind of movie I knew was good from the first scenes, with the long tracking shot of a FedEx package, when the camera is glued onto it and the focus shifts on Tom Hanks' character. I was sold. And I'm not talking about the plane crash scene which was just impressive. Look at the track records of Robert Zemeckis (before the perfcapt movies) and tell me he's not a good director. The narration here works so well because it's always focused on something, mainly Tom Hanks, and never wavering, and all the drama is channeled through him. When you think about it, there's only 1 character for 1h30 of the movie (unless you count Wilson as a character) and it's never boring.

Only the end felt a little flat, Tom Hanks is basically mute, and we don't really experience how what he's gone through has changed him.

In the end it's basically a very well made and thoroughly researched mass entertainment movie, which of course has these little annoying 'merican narrative things (Tom Hanks is SO good at his job, he loves his wife SO much), but it moved me, so kudos.

It's kinda a Korean variation on Cast Away, this time the guy get stuck on an island after a suicide attempts. Ironically this island is the middle of a river not far away from a city. Kim, the protagonist, represents all what society deems to be a loser: an indebted, underachieving, dumped-by-his-wife shell of a man. But stranded on this island, he reinvents himself with one (stupid) goal: cook some noodles, starting from scratch. It gives him the purpose he had lost in his mainstream life. And his renewed existence intersects with the one of another weirdo and evolves into something real cute.

Funny and touching at the same time, it's Korean, it's good.

While the exceptional original series has stopped for almost ten years, here the Babylon 5 universe comes finally back in direct-to-DVD.

Alas! Don't expect a sensational return, it's more a "test" to show that Babylon 5 is still viable on screen. Here, of all the original cast remains only Lochley and Sheridan. These two rather aged well, on the other hand the new CGI gave a heck of youthfulness to the ships and to our good old station which are both wonders to behold.

Because of his openly religious theme - I've always believed Straczynski was an atheist -, the first story hasn't quite convinced me. However, it's rather dramatically well-rounded, thanks in particular to the great dialogs written by Straczynski's fine and sensitive nib.

The transition between the two stories is magnificent, stamped with the melancholy of passing time and the infinity of space, both illustrated by beautiful pictures. We thus understand that the goal of The Lost Tales isn't to cause a stir, but rather to revive little by little the memories buried by time and bring them up to date. We can also notice the subtle tributes to Richard Biggs and Andreas Katsulas, deceased not long ago, who are "Out there somewhere, beyond the Rim".

Thus begins Sheridan's story, lightweight, during an interview marked with humor. But like usual, on him will fall a prophecy he must face alone, with difficult choices to make. The story takes its time, detached from Hollywood standards. In view of the amount of dialogs, we can feel that Straczynski kept control 'till the end. Questionings, qualms, and dreams filled with beautiful SFX follow one another in a dramatically efficient story, although far from the epic scale of the show. The conclusion too fall a little flat.

It doesn't matter, it wasn't Straczynski's goal to do something spectacular. His goal was to bring the franchise back to life and let the door open to future wonders, and as far as that is concerned, The Lost Tales is a success.