500 Days of Summer review

 Number 461 on the top 1000 films of all time is the romantic-comedy 500 Days of Summer.

Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a greetings' card writer in LA who is looking for his soulmate. He thinks he has found it in Summer (Zooey Deschanel) a woman who doesn't believe in love or soulmates. What happens next?

If there were a list for most underwhelming films of all time, 500 Days of Summer would be number one. If I were to describe this film in one word, it would be average. Sure it was entertaining enough, but it didn't blow me away.

Let's start with the comedy or lack thereof. For the most part, none of the jokes elicited much more than a little chuckle from me. The funniest part was the parodies of the Ingmar Bergman films where Tom imagines himself in The Seventh Seal and Persona. Since beginning this challenge, I have become overly-familiar with Bergman. Otherwise I was only snickering throughout, sometimes at the narration or Tom's friends saying how pathetic he was being.

Let's come onto Tom and Summer whose romance was the focus of this story. Both characters were incredibly insipid. Tom was extremely whiny and Summer felt more like a rough sketch of the girl-next-door rather than a three-dimensional character. I am unfamiliar with Zooey Deschanel's other work, but this role was nothing compared to JGL's role in previous rom-com 10 Things I hate about you.

If anything, the true star of the show Chloe Grace Moretz who co-starred as Tom's half-sister Rachel. Many times she acted as the voice of reason. She was only twelve at the time, but you could already see her promise as an actress.

500 Days of Summer also employed a non-linear narrative in an attempt to subvert expectations. We are shown the different days of Tom and Summer's relationship out of order. However, we didn't get enough time on each day before it cut to the next. This hardly made for a cohesive film.

500 Days of Summer was certainly watchable enough, but it was nothing more than that.

Enemy at the Gates review

 Number 734 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 2001 war drama 'Enemy at the Gates.'

Set during the Battle of Stalingrad during WW2, 'Enemy at the Gates,' follows the sniper Vasily Zaitsev turned living legend. His colleague Commisar Danilov (Joseph Fiennes) uses Vasily as a piece of propaganda to embolden the Russian troops fighting against the Germans. One such German is Major Konig (Ed Harris) who is another sniper who embarks to kill Vasily at any costs. 

Based on a true story, although no doubt creative license was taken, Enemy at the gates received its fair share of criticism for its historical inaccuracy. I am not a historian so I cannot comment on this. However, 'Enemy at the Gates,' took a massive historical event and told it on the micro-level, delivering an entertaining and gripping narrative. Granted, it was probably overly-simplistic at times, but it was thrilling nonetheless.

Law and Harris embark on a cat-and-mouse game that always keeps the tension at a high. Both of them are such living legends that the death of either would surely tip the scales in the balance of power. there is excitement abound in the many battle sequences - this was 2001 so we can forgive the ropey CGI, but the special effects were great.

What was less great was the love triangle between Vassily, Danilov and interpreter Tania Chernova (Rachel Weisz.) I understand that love stories add heart and offset the darker themes, which is all well and good, if they actually work. But this one didn't and it distracted from an otherwise good film. Danilove grows so obsessed with Tania that he has her transferred to headquarters so he can work more closely with her. And Joseph Fiennes' portrayal of him was creepy and predatory. And as for Law and Weisz, I don't think there were any sparks in between them, let alone fireworks.

Also, can we talk about the accents? Ron Perlman stars in a supporting role, playing a former protege of Konig, but he does the weirdest accent. It isn't German or Russian, but a peculiar hybrid of English and Australian. Considering, Fiennes, Law and Weisz speak in their natural accents why doesn't Perlman? Also Ed Harris does a strange accent. I don't know what it was, but it certainly wasn't German.

This film might have faltered with its oversimplified plot and faltering love triangle, but it was an entertaining film.