The Jacket
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Movie Reviews of The Jacket
Movie Review: Much better than the trailer looks...
Summary: 4 Stars
I must agree with the previous reviewer...the trailer looks like a horror movie, but this is actually a very facinating movie. I'm a complete chicken (don't like horror movies) and I found this movie to be very engrossing. Probably not for everyone (my wife wouldn't like it, I think...), but if you like modern fiction with a twist, this is the movie for you.Movie Review: Watch something, anything, other than this!
Summary: 2 Stars
I can't understand why so many people have been singing the praises of this film. As others have pointed out, this film is a none-too-subtle ripoff, primarily of "Jacob's Ladder" (which, in itself, was inspired by "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge") but also of elements of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," "Twelve Monkeys," and probably other classics of the sanity-bending genre that I can't recall at the moment. We were not even five minutes into the film yet when I turned to the friend I was watching it with and said, "Is this going to end up being a 'Jacob's Ladder' remake?" That's how blatant it is. By thirty minutes into it, I was mentally naming the films that each sequence in the film was stolen from whenever there was a scene change. There was even a shot in which we see Adrien Brody's character staring into a coffee cup, and the camera slowly descends toward the surface of the liquid in an exact copy of a similar scene in "Taxi Driver." Now, I'm well aware that stealing (aka "influence") is a hallowed tradition in all fields of art, and being influenced by one's predecessors is not in itself a bad thing. The problem is that this film is not even a tenth as good as any of the films it steals from, and is not even a hundredth as original. The film's intent seems merely to try to give you the same sense of creepiness and dread that you get in its sources, but it completely lacks their depth. "Jacob's Ladder," "Twelve Monkeys" and "Cuckoo's Nest" were great because you delve deeply into the souls and mental confusion of the central characters. All of the characters in "The Jacket" are as interesting as cardboard cutouts and I never came to care about what happened to any of them. The only reason I even gave this film two stars is because of the incredible acting talent (Brody, Jennifer Jason Leigh, etc.) that is wasted in it. How Adrien Brody was able to stomach this after doing "The Pianist," I have no idea. Their talents are worthy of greater productions than this. Don't waste your time. Movie Review: Making a difference
Summary: 4 Stars
We know Jack Starks is a genuinely good person from the first time we see him. During the first Gulf War, he ceases shooting Iraqis because there is a boy among the men. Following the maxim that sometimes bad things happen to good people, he ends up severely wounded and shipped back home. Going from bad to worse, he is wrongly convicted of killing a police officer after he is released from the hospital and is sent to a sanitarium for treatment. Part of this treatment entails being injected with an experimental drug, restrained by a straight jacket and confined in a metal drawer for a period of time. While in the drawer, Starks can see the future very distinctly. I won't reveal specifically what he does with this ability, though I will say that what he chooses to do is consistent with his munificent nature and makes a positive difference. Adrien Brody plays Starks with the requisite sympathy, proving throughout the film he is an actor with serious plans for longevity. The (still) young Keira Knightley holds her own opposite Brody, proving she is more than capable of earning her stay. Kris Kristofferson turns in memorable performance as Dr. Becker, and Jennifer Jason Leigh looks nearly unrecognizable as Dr. Lorenson, a dramatic difference from her sexy young persona. The new James Bond, Daniel Craig, also turns in a decent performance as a psychiatric patient. Brian Eno's score is quite good, though Peter Deming's cinematography is an attraction in itself. The DVD contains a short documentary on creating the look of the film and there are some deleted scenes included as well. This is definitely worth watching at least once because it reminds us there are people like Jack Starks in this world, though I plan to watch it several times for the divine Miss Knightley. Movie Review: Actually Six or Seven Stars
Summary: 5 Stars
This is great filmmaking, period. If you're starved for something that challenges you, makes your grey matter function at a higher speed and is more interested in emotional depth than car crashes and gun battles making up the final 30 minutes of every single mainstream movie out there, buy this film.
The entire cast delivers restrained yet very deeply moving performances, almost haunting in their ability to resist what a lesser director might have forced out of them. This film could have been a popcorn movie - yet another cartoonish, ham handed attempt by inept commercialized video makers to make a scary flick. Instead we get genuine art.
Particular praise must go to John Maybury's direction, also the camera and sound work. It doesn't look like an American film, which I offer as high praise these days. The script avoids the cliches inherent in a time travel movie. And it's riveting. Totally riveting. You can't get your eyes off the screen.
My couch could have caught on fire while I watched this film and I wouldn't have noticed.
What strikes you after watching it isn't just the afterglow of a great film and your endlessly murmuring "wow" to yourself. It's the sadness that the only quality films coming out of this country are by people who have to create silver from dust, they have to work on the slimmest of budgets, they have to beg and scrape to pay for every day's shooting budget.
They're to be thanked and supported as they save us fom the Mount Everest of festering garbage that's come out of the major Hollywood studios for the past twenty years.
It's nice to support a director, scriptwriter(s) and cast who don't treat me like an idiot.
Movie Review: Claustrophobia, anyone?
Summary: 4 Stars
Here is a rather horrifying thought: how would you like it if someone put you in a straight jacket, bound your feet, then put you in the drawer of a morgue and left you there for hours? What's that you, you say? You'd rather not sample that particular adventure? Neither would I. However, it's the basic premise of this movie.
Surprisingly enough, the movie actually turns out to be rather upbeat in spite of this fact. Of course, it's upbeat in a rather twisted, bizarre sort of way. It is kind of a cross between a ghost story and a time travel movie. And, yes, the movie is as weird as that sounds, although weird doesn't make it not worth seeing.
Of course, the biggest feature of this film is Keira Knightley. She adds a great deal of flavor to a movie that looks for all the world like it's going to be a real downer.
If you're into movies that are not afraid to be classified as "experimental," you may well want to check this one out. If you're not claustrophobic, you will be perfect for viewing this film!!