Tag Archives: Chicago

Source Code

There’s a bomb on a commuter train heading for Chicago. We know this because, in Source Code, we see it explode. And then we see it explode again. And again. And again. And each time, an army pilot Colter Stevens (doe-eyed Jake Gyllenhaal) who’s working for a secretive new military time-travel program, is sent back in eight minute chunks, to try and find the bomber and change the course of the future….

So it’s a doomsday-ish sci-fi thriller – think Twelve Monkeys meets Murder on the Orient Express – and Jake is really rather good in it. He is of course acted off the damn screen by the inestimable Vera Farmiga, who plays his cool but conflicted operator. We mostly see her seated, looking directly into camera, and the emotions flickering across her face are remarkably subtle and nuanced. Jeffrey Wright too is excellent as the slimy inventor of the Source Code. Michelle Monaghan as the sappy saccharine-sweet love interest, I frankly just don’t get. Anyway, Ms. Monahan aside, it’s worth taking out on dvd.

As for locations, well there’s only so much you can do with a railway carriage and the inside of a military lab. Without giving away too much of the plot, there is one image in Jake’s flashbacks that stand out: of the Cloud Gate in Chicago’s Millenium Park. Cloud Gate – known to locals as “The Bean”, for obvious but somewhat unimaginative reasons – is a public sculpture by British-Indian artist Anish Kapoor that looks like a giant shiny mirrored drop of liquid mercury. There’s a bit of an a-ha moment about this when the whole thing wraps.

Traitor

Traitor is a subdued little story about a Muslim soldier called Samir (Don Cheadle) who’s deep-deep-deep undercover as an explosives expert with a  ruthless terrorist cell. When his government handler – the only one who knows he’s one of the good guys – is shot dead, Samir must avoid being clapped in chains by the FBI, prevent an appallingly grandiose nation-wide atrocity AND not blow his cover with the wingnuts.

So, it’s an almost-really-good film. I call it “subdued” in my opening, because with all that malarkey going on, it’s not a tense or thrilling ride in the style of, say, a Bourne movie. Having said that, it’s not without interest either  – the insights into the workings of the terror cell itself are fascinating, chilling and considerably more thought-provoking than the usual. Traitor filmed in Toronto, Marseilles and Marrakech in Morocco, though none of the locations are particularly stand out. Ultimately the whole thing is held together by the excellent performances of Cheadle’s Samir, and Guy Pearce as the relentlessly dogged FBI agent – though there’s a schadenfreude-esque plot twist towards the end that is particularly satisfying. Worth a squizz.

Eagle Eye

Remember that movie where the bad guys made Will Smith chase through the streets with his shirt flapping open?………. Um, OK, maybe not specific enough? Enemy of the State, it was called, and in it a shady government agency used its superior surveillance technology to snoop and meddle and basically frack up someone’s life. Eagle Eye has a similar plot arch. But then again, it seems to have borrowed quite shamelessly from just about every other skop-skiep-en-donder thriller ever made; in particular it has echoes of the recent Angelina Wanted movie, perhaps because of it’s Chicago locations and the movie’s frenetic look-and-feel. Think Will Smith meets Jason Bourne meets Daniel Craig meets Mission Impossible (same plane-in-tunnel, same goddam actress) - but starring this generation’s Tom Hanks; Shia LaBoeuf.

 

Shia plays twin Jerry Shaw, whose brother was (or wasn’t) doing something clever but shady in the Military. On the day of his brother’s sudden death, Jerry is inexplicably drawn into a convoluted and wholly impractical web of terror which results in car chases, humungous explosions and the kind of crowd scenes that always sidetrack me into budget-consideration cul-de-sacs. There’s not much characterisation going on, but that doesn’t seem to matter, since director DJ Caruso (who, I belatedly realise, is not the same person as David – he who speaks portentiously whilst remaining unable to give eye-contact – Caruso) keeps the whole thing charging along at a cracking pace.

In the end though, it’s lovely Rosario Dawson who smacks down the errant villain with a crow-bar. Enough said, really.

Batman, The Dark Knight

OK, let me start by saying; 1) Heath Ledger is as good as the hype and 2) the latest three hour Batman movie isn’t – at least not quite.

Batman may have hoped to inspire goodness in mankind, but at the start of Christopher Nolan’s latest saga, it’s kind of backfired. Vigilantes and bad guys alike have taken to dressing up in tights and mouseketeer hats and are collectively confusing the hell out of the GPD (that’s Gotham Police Department to you). And worse still, the successful crack-down on organised crime has brought the city’s mobsters into the collective thrall of an appalling, a-moral, dysfunctional villain – Heath Ledger’s now-notorious Joker. Up against this anarchistic and chaotic force of un-nature is gloomy-two-shoes Batman and his cohorts – Bale, Caine, Oldman, Freeman again – joined by Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) a golden-boy District Attorney with really nice hair.

Batman, The Dark Knight looks great, and I was interested to read somewhere that 1995′s Heat was one of the inspirations for some of the Dark Knight’s relentless criminal set-pieces – it’s got the guns and that breathy sense of inexorable movement. And (plot spoilers from here on in) if it had all ended with the final show-down between Batman and the Joker, it would have been a truly well rounded movie-going experience. But Harvey Dent going bad? It just didn’t make sense. And on a separate but related whinge, am I the only one who thinks Maggie Gyllenhaal is hardly worth the bother of a run to Woolies, let alone a killing spree?   

Anyway, one thing I did admire about the movie was the refreshing up-dating of the aura of Gotham; no more dark and dirty alleys, but a grand, modern, thriving city. It’s Chicago that gets to play host to the production and according to Wikipedia, the movie generated $45 million in Chicago’s economy, creating thousands of jobs in the process. There’s a cute little website called Chicago.Everyblock that lists every location the movie used in the city and links it to a little map. Nice. And of course you can always check out Emmanuel Levy’s in depth comment.

Ever the art director, it was the Redhead who noticed that many of the movie’s locations looked out onto the same street, and as it turns out he was right (again, dammit) The IBM Building was the site of the Wayne Enterprises Boardroom, Harvey Dent’s office, the Mayor’s office and the Police Commissioner’s office. (And Di, Bruce’s bedroom was built separately on the 39th floor of Hotel 71 on East Wacker Drive……)

Having scouted extensively all over the world Chicago was ultimately chosen as the main location for Batman because director Christopher Nolan had a “truly remarkable” experience there filming Batman Begins – a great advert for the benefits that come from rolling out the carpet for filmmakers. Somehow though, I doubt he’ll be rushing back to Hong Kong. The shoot there was plagued by unhelpful city officials expressing concern over possible noise pollution and traffic. Like flipping an 18-wheeler on Chicago’s La Salle street wasn’t potentially problematic??? I guess it’s all about attitude.

At the end of the day, jurisdictions all need to consider: do you want an extra $45 million kicking around your economy or don’t you? (and that is NOT a trick question.) 

Wanted

Scrappy tyke James McAvoy butches up nicely in Wanted, the first American movie by Kazakh director Timur Bekmambetov. Bekmambetov previously made the partly-brilliant, partly-poor Night Watch / Day Watch vampire movies and this latest opus is equally patchy; sometimes it is edge-of-the-seat thrilling, other times it’s just dozy. Although it’s apparently based on a comic book, for the uninitiated, Wanted borrows too much from all sorts of other movies. The Matrix is the most obvious of course; in Wanted too, nothing is quite what it seems, and certain humans are evidently not affected by things like gravity or pain.

McAvoy is transformed from weedy, put-upon accountant to buff enforcer for a shadowy group of assassins known as The Fraternity. His handler is the too-skinny-by-half Angelina Jolie (she’s got the scary look of a Bratz doll in this movie – though she’s pretty good, actually, and the chemistry between the two of them is palpable.) After his brutal training he’s sent after the man who allegedly murdered his father. But during the mission he begins to question whether the Fraternity can actually be trusted.

Wanted is set in Chicago, though due to constraints brought about by a number of films shooting in the city at the same time, much of the movie ended up being actually filmed in Prague. The Wrigleyville neighbourhood features, and there’s a dramatic chase scene along Wacker Drive – and a couple of sites recount the buzz of the on-location filming – David Dalka for instance.

There’s also a fascinating interview with the movie’s Chicago Location Manager Mark Mamalakis at MovieMaker.com . Says Mamalakis:

“I used to joke that my job was like being a public relations director on a pirate ship. It can be very intimidating to see 15 trucks parked in front of your house and strangers entering your living room or bedroom moving furniture, wall pictures, carpets, kids bicycles, etc. Since the location manager or scout are the first crew members that the homeowners will meet, usually days or weeks but sometimes only hours in advance, it’s important for the locations department to build a rapport with the owner or tenants before the actual prep or shooting starts, making them feel comfortable and interested in what is going to happen.

The key is to create a situation where our crew can get their work done and hopefully the experience will be memorable for the owner (and it usually is, in a good way).”

Wanted is a good-looking film that’s an entertaining enough way to spend 110 minutes – particularly if bullets emerging slo-mo from exploding skulls is your thing. (it is breath-takingly violent.)

Little did he know……

In Stranger than Fiction, Will Ferrell plays Harold, an anal IRS agent who begins hearing a voice in his head, narrating his life. But then the narrator – a distinguished author with writer’s block – Emma Thompson, says: “Little did he know that this simple seemingly innocuous act would result in his imminent death……”

I’d noticed the movie at the video store on numerous occasions and chosen not to select it. I’m not sure why not; in a film starring both Ferrell and Thompson, perhaps I feared that the clown be cancelled by the thesp, or vice versa? Too cerebral for Ferrell, too downbeat for Thompson? Whatever; I was wrong, wrong, wrong. Stranger Than Fiction turned out to be a clever, intriguing and often moving comedy that is full of warm characters and some quirky but genuine insights into the human condition.

It is also an incredibly stylish film, in the broadest possible sense. You can’t help be struck by the locations, production design, and visual effects, but here the use of locations to define the characters is particularly detailed. 

 

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