'When you lie to me, I hurt you...'

Lies are bad allies, period. If you weren’t taught this principle while growing up, then you most certainly will learn it very quickly during a CIA interrogation, especially if you are a terrorist. 

In her latest movie, director Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), gives a very surreal interpretation of the capturing of Osama Bin Laden. For 13 years the world has been following the cat-and-mouse game between America’s clandestine agencies and the leader of the extremist group – Al Qaeda. In ‘Zero Dark Thirty’, we get to witness his demise and the events that lead up to it.

Bigelow was actually set to start filming another movie when they received news of the raid on Bin Laden’s compound, and his subsequent death. They immediately altered course and started drafting a new script. Fortunately, much of the groundwork done for the first film came in handy and production for ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ could start right away. 

In the world of espionage, the greatest virtue any intelligence agency or agent can possess, is that of patience. Much of the film’s concept also revolves around this. 

Most of us, to our annoyance, are bound, often limited by time in our careers. When you work for the CIA, and are pursuing one of the most dangerous men on the face of the earth, extracting information from co-conspirators is given all the time necessary. That’s good news for the hunters, it's bad news for the terrorists.

‘Zero Dark Thirty’ manages to convey this message really well. America is in it for the long haul when it comes to bringing to justice those who inflict terror upon her citizens, and they will find you, no matter where you are in the world. The characters, for most of the time, also gave some exciting performances. Jessica Chastian, who plays ‘Maya’, is not only a pretty face in this movie, but also the face of a calculating operative that won’t become derailed in her attempts at succeeding in finding Bin Laden. 

Jason Clarke, who plays the character ‘Dan’, also manages to portray his character’s inner turmoil quite accurately. He knows he has a job to do, he knows there are plenty of lives at stake, including his own. But even suffering emotionally as a result of ‘seeing to many naked tortured men’, is simply part of the job description and the characters in this movie certainly knows that.  

In contrast to Clarke and Chastian, Jennifer Ehle and Mark Strong’s performances were slightly methodical, and it shows.   Ehle who plays Maya’s senior CIA analyst, at times delivered her dialogue with inflections and rhythms almost more accurate in style than Meryl Streep herself. Strong appears to have had some coaching from Al Pacino for his character, but comes across as being confused between just following his teaching and copying the master himself. 

With minor flaws like this, ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ still managed to be nominated for five Academy Awards, including: Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay and won for Best Sound Editing.

It’s a gritty movie and will keep you entertained until the very end with its steady storyline. Bigelow really did succeed in sustaining the suspense throughout the entire film, and the shifts in momentum you'll encounter is superb. 

If there is one thing you'll take away with you from this movie then it's this: if you are a terrorist and get caught, redeem yourself and co-operate, because 'When you lie to me, I hurt you.’ 

A Bad Connection

What do ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, ‘Cast Away’, ’12 Monkeys’, and ‘The Matrix’ have in common? ‘Cloud Atlas’, that’s what. It’s a German Drama/Science Fiction film of sorts that got released recently. Well, 2012 recently. 

With a stellar cast ensemble such as this one, I was hoping to see something truly brilliant. My flame of hope however got extinguished very abruptly once I noticed that the plot clearly got lost somewhere between, uhm, the clouds. 

The lead cast of this movie are: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Hugh Grant, and Susan Sarandon, to name the more known actors. Then there are also, Jim Broadbent, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Ben Whishaw, James D’Arcy, Keith David, Zhou Xun and David Gyasi.

There are moments of interpretative brightness coming from the actors when tapping into the psyches of their characters, but mostly it feels like an exercise in futility, and none of it really seems to - connect, not only them with each other, but with you the viewer too. 

Hugo Weaving appears to at times quite literally do a reinterpretation of a slightly more devilish Agent Smith, whereas Hanks appears to still be lost on an island, only this time, he's on quite a few. It’s all a bit out there, but, ‘Heil Zeitgeist’, I guess.  

It definitely seems to be far easier winning an Oscar with no clothes on rather than doing so wearing any, if you had to analyse Berry’s labored efforts. Less shouldn’t be more, not in the dropping-your-knickers-in-front-of-the-camera sense anyway. Apparently if you want to ride the gravy train of acting success, flashing your privates is all that will do. No wonder authentic performances in general are falling by the way side.

The big idea:

It all just seems like a bit of a repeat of the same old message: 'The powerful that exploits the weak for their own personal economical gain, the more connected you are, the more powerful. The more powerful, why, the skies the limit. The concept of ‘everything is connected’, also seems to get lost in the many sub-plots, including the watered down one of: ‘What was, will be, what is, already was’, and round-and-round we go.

Unfortunately, the world on this atlas seems to be spinning out of control in a manner that is just excessively farfetched, not allowing any real plot to thicken at all, least of all to communicate anything sound. It's a very extravagant, yet watered down attempt to portray re-incarnation, or saying that what we do now can have ripple effects in the future.

It just proofs once again that just because you are being different, doesn’t mean you are special, the one message ‘Cloud Atlas’ does succeed in communicating.    

Fortunately, the make-up for this movie was not half bad, but again, also reminiscent of Star Trek, and therefore - again, uninspiring.

What you can align yourself with in a more positive way, is the concept of love that metaphorically gets portrayed in the form of music, and that music is an unique universal language that we all seem to speak. This idea gets woven quite well into the film, and throughout it. Almost like a thread in a tapestry. I found it refreshing. 

If love is indeed the music that connects us all and everything else, then I believe it’s the only connection worth having.

The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire.

Aim for the stars, and you' land on the trees. If you should land on some building's roof however, make sure you are inside a car and then drive it dangerously close the edges, you'll definitely get people to sit up. Exactly what Continental Tyres did with their commercial when they introduced themselves to the South African market during the early 90's. 

Never before was a commercial done like this, (an approach that tends to make you win at Cannes), something Continental also achieved. They won a silver that year. Not only did they encapsulate and portray all the benefits one would like to associate with a reliable tyre, but they did so in an innovative manner, and in the process, took their advertising to a whole new level. (Hats off to the creatives for pulling this one off. Terry Murphy was the copywriter and Roddy Louther the Art-Director.)

The commercial was shot on the 24th floor of a building in the central part of Johannesburg. 'Zi Germans', in true fashion, managed to keep everything German. I'm not sure if there was some deal that happened behind the scenes, and if that was the reason they used an Opel too, either way, the intention of what they wanted to achieve was clear: 'Let's make it super'.

I remember this ad simply because it used to scare the living daylights out of me. Who in their right mind was that crazy to go and drive a car on top of building and at an alarming speed too? Little did I realize back then what remarkable things you can achieve with moving-camera, nor was I aware that later on in life I will be introduced to the fascinating world of stunts, stunt-rigging and now also advertising, in the process learning and picking up some fascinating techniques, including some of that which were used in this ad. (Lots of cable rigging systems I'm sure).

With this effort of theirs, Continental made a great ad. It was fresh, market related and gutsy. Their final product is proof of how rewarding it can be when you manage find a great concept and then execute it in a, fresh, out-the-box manner. Now, If that's not advertising, I'm not sure what is.