Film Review: '127 Hours'

What to do next?

That must be an interesting question for a director to ask himself, especially following Oscar domination. Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire nabbed eight statuettes at the 2009 Academy Awards, quite the rare feat. Boyle returns this year with a wildly different movie, but one that is also unmistakably his.

127 Hours follows the well-known story of Aron Ralston, a climber who amputated his own arm in 2006 after it became lodged under a large boulder in Moab, Utah.

If you watched Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours without knowing the director’s name, it wouldn’t be difficult to discern that it’s the same guy. The cuts, edits, colors and surreal feel of Slumdog Millionaire all remain intact. Furthermore, Simon Beaufoy and A.R. Rahman return to provide the script and music, respectively, so it’s not exactly a surprise that 127 and Slumdog feel similar.

Unlike Slumdog, 127 is largely a one-man show. James Franco plays Ralston, and his performance is believable to the point of being jaw-dropping. I cannot imagine another actor playing this part. It’s obvious Franco cared a great deal about the role, and this shows in the obvious care he took in filling it. He’s emotional when he needs to be and funny when the time is right, and the desperation on his face and in his dialogue are palpable.

As the director, it was Boyle’s job to help keep us interested in this tale, which takes place mostly in the narrow canyon where Ralston finds himself trapped. Boyle and Beaufoy pull this off by taking us into Ralston’s thoughts and into his past, giving us a glimpse at what went through his mind while fighting for his life. We see moments from Ralston’s childhood, his time with a past love, and even a few glimpses into his future.

In one genius bit, Boyle demonstrates Ralston’s obvious thirst by showing the audience snippets from beverage commercials. It works exactly as it’s supposed to; I wanted to go fill up my Coca-Cola at the concession stand.

In another wonderful scene, Ralston interviews himself talkshow-style through his camcorder. The scene works very well, and also highlights Ralston's biggest mistake that day: not telling anybody where he was going. Scenes like this also serve to highlight the collaborative nature of the movie: Beaufoy's writing is wonderful, and Boyle hits cinematic perfection in the way he switches views as Franco switches roles during his morbidly funny self-interview.

Some of film's more surreal moments might be a little off-putting to some viewers; I know this because I was one of those viewers. The crowd shots that open and close the movie struck me as a little unnecessary and out of place. If they had a point, aside from making us recall Slumdog's greatness, I must've missed it. That said, these are minuscule nitpicks when compared to the greatness displayed by everyone involved in this picture.

One should not review 127 Hours without touching on the amputation scene. After all, we arguably wouldn’t be seeing this movie if Ralston hadn’t been forced to take such an extreme measure to preserve his own life. The scene itself is handled very tastefully and powerfully. This is not a Saw movie; we actually feel for Ralston after following him through his harrowing 127-hour journey.

All the talk of people fainting while watching the amputation is probably accurate; some people can simply take more than others when going to the movies. Boyle frames the surprisingly short scene very tastefully, and judging from the interviews with Ralston that I’ve come across in recent months, the portrayal is actually very true to how the amputation really went down.

All that said, I was focusing on Franco’s face more than his arm during that scene. The look in his eyes does more than the shattered bones and nerve bundle and gore combined. I would nominate Franco for Best Actor on that merit alone, if I had the privilege of voting in the Academy.

127 Hours is a much smaller film than Slumdog, though it still manages to be a cinematic powerhouse at the same time. The music does not stick out as much as it did in Slumdog, and the story is far simpler, as it should be. This is obviously a Danny Boyle movie through and through; his fingerprints are all over it. Beaufoy is at the top of his game as well.

At the end of the day, however, it's Franco who stands out. Boyle was clearly not afraid to let him run with the role. Strip away all the flashy cuts and surreal touches, and you still have an honest, raw and wonderful performance by a very skilled actor. Franco proves here that he can adeptly carry a film, even when he must do so by filling such a difficult role. James Franco is here to stay, and I could not be more excited to see what he does next.

'Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare' is the best thing ever.

Back in October, I suggested that Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption DLC, Undead Nightmare, just might be the best thing ever.

It is.

My Playstation 3 isn't connected to our Internet, so I can't exactly write a full review since I haven't experienced Undead Nightmare's multiplayer. However, I can write a sweet list explaining the DLC's awesomeness. Here are five reasons why Undead Nightmare could be my game of the year.


1. It puts other downloadable content to shame.
With its Episodes From Liberty City Grand Theft Auto IV add-ons, Rockstar Games demonstrated that its approach to downloadable content would be different from that of other developers. Undead Nightmare continues this trend. This is more than just a typical add-on pack. We get new weapons, new outfits, new challenges, a new visual style, a new main questline, and more. If you're looking to get some bang for your buck, look no further. At about $10 as DLC and $30 on disc (or cheaper if you find a good holiday sale), Undead Nightmare is a steal.

2. The Blunderbuss.
Undead Nightmare introduces several new methods for dispatching foes. Though Holy Water and the Explosive Rifle are very cool, the Blunderbuss steals the show. Its reload time is very slow, and its range is only moderate, but its effect is more than worth dealing with those little caveats. The Blunderbuss essentially turns whatever it's pointed at into a fine pink mist. Oh, and you can create ammo from undead body parts. I love poetic justice.

3. Mythical creatures. Enough said.
I don't want to spoil anything, but suffice to say Undead Nightmare doesn't take itself too seriously. You'll find all kinds of mythical creatures across the game's desolate, zombie-filled landscape. These include the Four Horses of the Apocalypse, all of which can be found, broken and ridden. Each offers a different ability to help John Marston in his quest. Be sure to search for more mythical creatures (and some freaky undead ones) in Undead Nightmare's surreal Wild West.

4. Once again, you get to play after the ending.
Bethesda Softworks and Obsidian Entertainment, take note. Good open-world games let you play after their endings. I love Fallout: New Vegas, but I would've rather seen the game delayed a few months so the ending didn't force me to reload a previous saved game to keep playing. Rockstar devised a very clever way to allow players to continue after Red Dead Redemption's ending, and they don't disappoint here, either.

5. It's a gaming revolution.
My number five may sound like overly high praise, but hear me out. The zombie genre (in every medium) almost always presents apocalyptic scenarios in which the undead have taken over the known world. So, why haven't we seen a truly open-world zombie gaming experience? Resident Evil and Left 4 Dead are great, but they are very linear. Undead Nightmare is the first truly open-world zombie-filled game I've played. I believe zombie games were meant to be played like this, and Rockstar pulled it off in a very big way with this game.


It may be "just DLC", but Undead Nightmare is also the best DLC I've ever experienced. If you like cowboys, zombies or good games in general, you owe it to yourself to give this game a try.

Film Review: 'Unstoppable'

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with director Tony Scott’s films. I appreciate some of his work, namely Man on Fire and Déjà Vu, but even those movies are brought down by Scott’s method of shooting his pictures. His jerky edits and distracting camerawork simply are not up to par with the often-excellent stories he tells.

Scott’s latest movie, Unstoppable, doesn’t do a whole lot to overcome these problems. That said, I enjoyed this movie more than I could’ve imagined. What we have here is not a deep thinking piece or a dramatic powerhouse; we instead have a balls-out thrill ride that strikes the perfect balance between character and white-knuckle action.

Frequent Scott collaborator Denzel Washington stars as Frank, a grizzled Pennsylvania train engineer who is tasked with training new employee Will, played by Chris Pine in his first major post Star Trek role. Elsewhere on the tracks, a series of blunders made by two other rail workers turns another train into an unmanned missile. Guess who gets to chase it down.

This may seem like just another runaway train movie, and in a lot of ways, that’s exactly what it is. One fact sets it apart, however: this is a good runaway train movie, made great by its simplicity. Aside from an inept corporate boss played by Kevin Dunn (Shia’s dad from Transformers), there really aren’t any true bad guys in Unstoppable. There’s no terrorist plot, no nuclear weapons onboard (though we do have some volatile chemicals, of course). Unstoppable is, purely and plainly, Denzel Washington and Chris Pine versus a train, with some help from a yardmaster played by Rosario Dawson.

Washington is, as usual, on his game here. His character’s personality and demeanor are very similar to those of many of the characters he has played, and that’s not a criticism. The guy is very fun to watch on screen, and that’s very important in a film like this.

The real story here is Pine. His performance isn’t exactly Oscar-worthy, but who cares? Unstoppable was his chance to prove his ability to play someone other than Captain Kirk. He does it very well, I’m happy to say.

Unstoppable is a very well-balanced film. Case in point: my favorite scene, in which Will tells Frank the story of his alienation from his wife. As Will tells the story, Frank is forced to interrupt several times to answer the radio. Each time, Will waits and then continues. All the while, we’re building up to a huge moment in the train chase. The scene is absolutely brilliant in the way it weaves the characters’ stories in with the looming disaster at hand. The entire film pulls this off very impressively, too. These backstories are important because they make us care, but Scott knows never to linger on them for too long. He always promptly gets back to the action, and trust me, there’s a lot of action to be seen here.

Unstoppable is a good, old-fashioned popcorn movie that deserves to be seen. Despite his annoying camerawork, director Tony Scott has produced his best film in years, with the help of some very good performances by Denzel Washington and Chris Pine. If you’re looking for a good summer movie to see in the fall, make it this one.