12 Years a Slave

This is the film that won Best Film (Drama) at last night's Golden Globe Awards. This was the only award it received. Strangely enough, neither of the two nominated actors - Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lupita Nyong'o - took home a statue, which is a shame, really. Granted, I have not seen all the films that travel the award circuit this season and cannot attest to either Matthew McConaughey's or Jennifer Lawrence's (the two the afore mentioned lost to) performances in their respective films yet but the one has lost a lot of weight for his film and the other has been Hollywood's darling for the last couple of years (and kudos to them) and this clearly needs to be lauded over actual acting performances.

To the film at hand. Yes, it is about a slavery but fortunately it is not of the sappy kind. The tale unfolds slowly and is told quietly, with only occasional burst of extreme violence.

It is the true story of Solomon Northup, a free man in New York state, who gets lured to Washington D.C. under false pretenses and kidnapped and sold to a slave trader. He first ends up at the plantation of one Mr. Ford, who is not an evil man and probably thinks of himself as someone caught in the system he has no way of opposing. After a fight with the vicious foreman, Solomon is sold on to Edwin Epps. On the Epps property, his name is changed to Platt and his new labor is picking cotton. Epps - unlike Ford - is indeed an evil man and drunkard, proudly calling the slaves his property. He is sexually obsessed with the slave girl Patsey, much to his wife's chagrin. Mistress Epps tries repeatedly to have him sell Patsey and - as he refuses - throws a bottle at her and later scratches her barely healed face. All this, to get back at her husband.

Solomon, meanwhile, tries to survive and does not admit to being able to read and write as to not draw any attention to himself. He does once reach out to a white man picking cotton with him. He asks him to send a letter for him, but the guy immediately tells on him. Solomon can appease Epps by telling him that the man is lying and only trying to get Epps to make him foreman.

After more than a decade in slavery, he finally meets someone he can trust with his story and giving word to his friends and family. Bass, a Canadian who is on the property to build a gazebo does make his opposition to slavery clear and helps Solomon by writing to his folks on his behalf. Solomon is picked up by an old friend and returns to his family for a tearful reunion.

The cast in this is absolutely fantastic (see top of the page).

8/10

World War Z

Let me sum this up:
(1) We do not know what happened.
(2) We do not know how it started.
(3) We do not know where it started.
(4) This is not over.

Gerry Lane, formerly of the UN, is called back to duty when a zombie outbreak overruns the earth. He is sent off to assist one young, bright doctor to learn more about the new threat where they first heard of it - in South Korea. Unfortunately, the young, bright doctor panics, trips, and shoots himself falling down before he even got off the plane. So Gerry gathers all information he can get and moves on to Israel, who finished its big wall surrounding Jerusalem a week before it all began.

Unfortunately, in Jerusalem the inhabitants and newly arrived refugees are so happy about having found safe haven that they celebrate by singing and changing into microphones. We know that zombies react to and run towards sounds. This jubilation now is so loud that the creatures outside the city walls find a way of getting inside. It looks pretty impressive, too.

So Gerry has to move on. He boards a plane from Belarus that was destined for Jerusalem, as well, but immediately takes off again when they realize what is going on outside. On the plane, hidden away in a closet is one single zombie (of course), but one zombie is all it takes to start and epidemic. Gerry causes the plane to crash before he and his new found friend, an Israeli female soldier, get infected.

Luckily, they crash within walking distance of where they wanted to go anyway - a WHO research facility in Cardiff. It is there that Gerry realizes (through flashbacks) that the zombies avoid terminally ill people like the pest (pardon the pun). To test the theory he injects himself with some deadly disease or other. It works. The word spreads. The day is saved.

Yes, it has plot holes and relies on coincidences more often than it should. But it is very entertaining and the zombies in close-up really look pretty awesome. And the sound they make individually is great - in a very creepy way.

The 3D was yet again totally unnecessary, though.

7/10

Killing them Soflty

When a illegal poker game gets robbed for the second time, a hitman by the name of Cogan is brought in to kill the guys that did it. Everybody knows that Markie, the man that runs the poker game, orchestrated the first robbery and even though now everyone is convinced he had nothing to do with the second robbery, Cogan shoots him anyway to restore order and faith in the Mob protected games.

The small time crooks that actually did it suffer similar fates, because one of them - a heroin addict - cannot keep his mouth shut and brags to his would-be drug runner about it. All of this gets complicated by another hitman brought in who causes trouble to Cogan because he is a drunk and constantly soliciting hookers.

Yes, the story is confusing with longish conversations and somewhat hard to follow. But it is pretty to watch and has quiet the noir feeling about it (all that rain).

Here is an example of a rather beautiful, if brutal, scene. Markie gets shot:

6/10