Moonrise Kingdom

Hilarious!

The latest offering from director Wes Anderson is a film set in a pathfinder summer camp in the 1960s. The camp division is run by the hapless Scout Master Randy Ward (Edward Norton) who "loses" one of his Khaki Scouts (and eventually all of his scouts). The only police officer on the island the film is set is one Captain Sharp (Bruce Willis), who - together with the at this point remaining scouts - sets out to find the missing Sam Shakusky.

The eventually learn that Sam is on the run with his beloved Suzy Bishop, daughter of the local couple of lawyers (played brilliantly by Bill Murray and Frances McDormand). The journey they take is as awkward as both young kids. And really everything and everyone else in this film. They are first hunted and later aided by the other Khaki Scouts and run off to the HQ camp to get married.

I love the narrator (if you will) played by Bob Balaban. He is placed in different sceneries, sometimes on the very edge of the picture, dressed in a red coat and a greenwool hat, which makes him very much look like a garden gnome. The rest of the cast is wonderful, as well. Short appearences included are by Harvey Keitel (Harvey Fucking Keitel!) as the commander of the scouts, Jason Schwartzmann (normal sight in any Wes Anderson film) and the ever brilliant Tilda Swinton as "Social Services" (her name, apparently).

Aside from The Darjeeling Ltd. possibly my favorite Wes Anderson film.

8/10

Forget Me Not

Will, a musician, is on the verge of killing himself when he sees from his window that Eve, who works in the bar where he just played a gig, has trouble with a drunk guy. He abandons his plan for the time being to come for her rescue.

They eventually spend the entire night and most of the following day walking over London and slowly getting to know each other. Will, however, does not want to become too involved and Eve cannot quite figure out what his deal is.

The pace of the story is similar to that of Before Sunrise - two people that by chance spend the night in each other's company, but with a very different ending from the Ethan Hawke/Julie Delpy trip through nightly Vienna.

I watched this mostly because I think Tobias Menzies is hot and didn't know what to expect from it.

Turns out this is one of the saddest films I have ever seen.

7/10

From Russia with Love

The second James Bond film revolves around a cryptograph, quite a handy device with the cold war going on and such. The evil SPECTRE empire devises a plan to steal on such thing from the Soviets and then sell it back to them. In a film full of agent and double agents the big, bad, mysterious mastermind is only referred to as "Number 1". Yet we are treated to a shot of the (iconic!) white cat!

The bond girl, Tatiana Romanova, is recruited by SPECTRE's number 3 Rosa Klebb as a means to fool the Brits. Poor Tatiana (Tania to her friends) is led to believe she is doing it for Mother Russia, thinking Klebb to be working for SMERSH (whaterever that may be). Incidentally, Klebb is played by one Lotte Lenya, who was born in my hometown of Vienna.

The adventure begins in Istanbul and takes Bond and Tania (with an unfortunate contact from Turkey) via train, truck (already without their Turkish friend) and powerboat all the way to Venice. Hot on their heels is one SPECTRE minion, a well built blond agent.

Now, what is it with people laying out the entirety of their plans to someone they intend to kill? It is one of those story devises I always found rather puzzling and, ultimately, annoying. Here it is used through the blond guy, who thinks himself about to do away with 007. Oh, well.

In the end, British coolness prevails - girl, cryptograph and all.

6/10

Dr. No

The first of many, many James Bond films is Dr. No.

James Bond himself is played, of course, by Sean Connery. Obviously, this is the type of secret agent that defined similar characters for years to come. And this is what James Bond was to be like for a long time - right up to Daniel Craig, who was remodeled in the spirit of re-imagination that took place around the time. Before, it was not possible for a hero of his caliber (or Batman, or Spiderman, etc.) to show any signs of vulnerability. 007 is suave, cool and a ladies' man.

The first so-called Bond girl is Ursula Andress. Her name? Honey Ryder. The names of the Bond girls were persistantly ridiculous and put the female in her place. She is "Honey" as well as "honey" and not only needs saving, she also falls for the hero. She is introduced with the obligatory bikini shot.

The villain is Dr. No, a half-German, half-Chinese recluse, who is a member of SPECTRE (SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion). SPECTRE becomes a theme throughout the series and - as we learn in later films - is headed by evil genius Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Dr. No, as well as several other Asian characters in the film, is played by caucasian actor, Joseph Wiseman. This was in a more innocent time, after all, before casting a white man in the role of an Asian man was being frowned upon.

The plot is straight-forward. Dr. No plans to interfere with the Project Mercury launch with his atomic-powered radio beam. He works from within a well-protected secret lair, filled with quite the art collection - including a Goya painting of the Duke of Wellington, that had been stolen in the year before the film came out and was only recovered in 1965.

Bond strolls through the Jamaican scenery while doging more than one attempt on his life, thanks to his driving skills, his natural suspiciousness and sheer luck. The tarantula scene had to be filmed with a stuntman, as Sean Connery suffers from Arachnophobia.

In the end, he single-handedly takes out Dr. No's entire operation and saves the dame.

5/10