The Man from Earth (2007)

Eight people in a room and only a few shots outside the room, if you have to make a movie like that, the story better be tight enough to make the viewer watch it as there  are no action sequences,  no stunning visuals etc to be awed by.

And The Man from Earth gets it right, as after just 12 minutes into the movie the story begins, with a simple but extremely interesting question

“What if a man from the upper Paleolithic survived until the present day?”

A man, who lived close to 40 thousand years!

What follows is an intellectual discussion as the others are trying to find out a glitch in the story of man who claims to have been a cave man and is still not only alive but younger and healthier than most of them.

IMDB – 8/10

Rotten Tomatoes – 84%

Rating

Plot: 9/10

Although, there is a plot twist in the movie it seems like just a part of the plot, as the plot, the concept of the story itself is so amazing that just like the protagonists friends, the audience also keeps guessing as to what’s happening

Does he have a mental disorder? Is this a practical joke? Is he telling the truth

Just about an hour into the movie the plot thickens as he makes an outrageous claim.

Acting: 7/10

The casting is perfect!

David Lee Smith is John Oldman (I guess there was pun intended) does his part perfectly well as the guy who’s lived of 40,000 years or at least pretending to do so.

Our favorite though was Ellen Crawford as Edith who does not believe the story and is very skeptical about the whole thing.

Direction: 8/10

Richard Schenkman does a really good job as the story starts just a few minutes into the movie and keeps the audience gripped but there are enough pauses and distraction from the story to let the audience sink it in and then move on with the story again.

Best Lines

Dan: Time... you can't see it, you can hear it, you can't weigh it, you can't... measure it in a laboratory. It is a subjective sense of... becoming, what we... are, instead of what we were a nanosecond ago, becoming what we will be in another nanosecond. The whole piece of time's a landscape existing, we form behind us and we move, we move through it... slice by slice.

Linda Murphy: Clocks measure time.

Dan: No, they measure themselves, the objective referee of a clock is another clock.

Mystic River (2003)

There are movies that entertain you & then there are some that change your perception, Mystic River is one of the movies that will captivate you and make you think over and over about it.

From the legendary director Clint Eastwood and with some of the best actors like Sean Penn ,Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Laurence Fishburne and many more.

It comes with a fairly good plot twist but amazing performances and direction .

Origin

Based on novel of same name by Deniis Lehane.

IMDB - 8/10

Rotten Tomatoes -87%

Run Time: 137 MIN

Rating

Plot Twist – 6/10

It has a fairly good plot twist not some thing that will shake your very ground but something  that you won’t see coming.


Acting - 9/10

Our two favorite performances were,

Sean Penn as Jimmy Markum. He justifies the character and definitely deserves an academy award for it is one of his best performances ever!

Dave Boyle played by Tim Robbins portrays the man who has lost his mind but is trying to figure out the reality of life and does it splendidly!.

Direction - 8/10

Well its Clint Eastwood, he never falters, great direction that keeps the viewer engaged throughout the movie which can be considered as a little slow paced but it's hard to get bored.

Location – 6/10

Mystic River is a river 11.3 km long in Massachusetts seems nice and movie revolves around it, it's perfect for the essence that the director desired. Not many stunning visuals though,

Best Lines

Your pal Markum, the moment I laid eyes on him, I could tell he’d done time. They never lose that tension, it settles in their shoulders.

He lost his daughter. That’s what’s in his shoulders.

No, that’s in his stomach. The tension in his shoulders, that’s prison.

Conclusion

It's probably one of the darkest movies by Clint Eastwood and is definitely one of the most power packed performances by its cast members. Do not miss it, as this one could could be considered a classic in a few years from now. 

The Illusionist (2006)

If The Prestige had a sister it would be The Illusionist as the movie is based on a magician however not to the level of Nolan’s Masterpiece, but to be fair, it's is not about the rivalry of two magicians, it’s a love story instead.

Though it comes from Neil Burger however it isn’t as thrilling as his Limitless (2011), although it does carry an impressive cast Edward Norton, Jessica Beil & my favorite Paul Giamatti & last but not the least Rufus Sewell.

The plot is simple but good acting and a small twist add essence to it.

Origin

It is based on a short story by Steven Millhauser known as Eisenheim the Illusionist, however it does have some relation to a true incident known as Mayerling incident
.
You can relate it to the movie minus the magic, so there was a prince, a princess and a murder mystery as well.


IMDB -7.6

Rotten Tomatoes -74%

Run Time : 110 MIN

Rating

Plot Twist - 6/10

Well, the plot twist is not amazing but good as it has the best time of deliverance and the possibility never hits your mind as it justifies the title very well.

Acting - 6/10

Not one of the best performances of Edward Norton and Jessica Beil hence the rating but we do have other actors worth mentioning,

Paul Giamatti – We know him from so many movies but yet he is the right character in every movie, his character in each movie is significant and he does it so well. He could be the bad villain from Shoot Em Up or a small but effective one from The Amazing Spider-man 2 (Rhino) and of course we have Cinderella Man, the list is endless, point being the guy is as versatile as they come.

Rufus Sewell – Hard to recognize but his skills speak for himself, we have seen him in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter as Adam & Dark City 

Direction -6/10

Nothing outstanding about the direction, but no complaints either.

Location– 8/10

Vienna, Czech Republic, Austria & Prague. The visuals are amazing especially in the times when the movie was set the 1800s

Best Lines

Are you completely corrupt?

No, not completely, which is why I’ll advise you not to accuse anyone.
I thought we might end this evening with a discussion of the soul. All of the greatest religions speak of the soul’s endurance beyond the end of life. So what then does it mean to die?

Conclusion

The movie isn't bad at all, in fact some of you might actually enjoy it. It's just that after having seen a lot of movies which have a higher degree of plot twists and a story one can connect to better. It just falls short.