Sunday, September 14, 2014

Closed Circuit



A few weeks ago I watched a movie with my dad called Closed Circuit. It is a crime drama about lawyers trying to defend someone accused of terrorism. I had never heard of this movie until I sat down with my dad to watch it. I had no previous knowledge about the movie and had no idea what the movie was about. When it first started I was very confused. It starts off with views from a bunch of different security cameras. You’re just sitting there watching random people until all of a sudden everything explodes. It then cuts to 6 months later and leaves you very confused.
                The rest of the movie you follow two ex-lovers who get teamed up to try and defend the guy accused of being the leader that setup the bombing. However, the two aren’t supposed to talk with one another about the case. Martin was put on the case because the attorney, named Simon, that was supposed to defend him committed suicide. Martin and Claudia, the other defense attorney, had an affair in the past but had broken up.
                Martin goes around trying to figure out clues about what had happened. A reporter from the New York Times invites Martin to a party and tells him that Simon’s death might not have been a suicide. Martin realizes that the same taxi picks him up every time and has the feeling that he is being watched. He finds out that Simon realized this too and died when his investigation reached this point.
                Martin uncovers the fact that the terrorist was really an undercover agent in MI5. MI5 messed up and accidently funded the terrorist attack and were willing to kill people in order to cover it up. They killed Simon, killed the reporter that Martin talked to, and tried to kill Martin. Martin meets Claudia secretly and tells her about his findings. Claudia brings this up during the first closed hearing. The judge asks to question the terrorist’s son because he was the major informant for MI5.
An assassin tries to kill Claudia when she gets home but she manages to escape. The terrorist’s son manages to escape from his surveillance because he believes he would be killed. Martin, Claudia, and the terrorist’s son spend the entire night hiding from MI5. They manage to safely get the kid to the court hearing. However while the court meeting is going on, MI5 killed the accused terrorist and made it look like a suicide. This ended the case and Martin and Claudia were allowed to live as long as they didn’t tell anyone about what they found.
Closed Circuit was interesting movie about a government agency trying to cover up their mess up. It shows how we shouldn’t believe everything the government tells us. It also shows how the government has control over pretty much everything. The story of Closed Circuit was very cool and pulled off very well. The whole movie you’re scared for the people in the movie. However, I didn’t really like the end of the movie. It felt to me like it ended very abruptly. Things went from being very intense to the case just ending. Pretty much nothing they did matters since the case just ended and MI5 completed their cover up.  All in all Closed Circuit was an alright movie that had its good and not so good moments.

Word Count (571)

BattleShip



                A few days ago I managed to catch the second half of a great movie. This movie is called Battleship. For those who don’t know, Battleship is about a ship led by Lieutenant Alex Hopper going up against an alien attack intent on destroying the world. His ship, along with several others including one that is led by his brother, is trapped in by a force field put up by the aliens. His brother’s ship was sunk and he was killed. A Chinese ship was also sunk but Alex Hopper managed to save their captain.  Alex Hopper and the Chinese captain, Yugi Nagata, work together to take out the aliens and save the world.
                Battleship is one of those classic stories of a young, foolish, reckless guy in the army that gets put in charge and leads them to victory, no matter the odds. They are going up against an enemy that has way better weaponry. They also have four ships while Alex Hopper only has one. The story is very predictable but still very exciting.
                The action sequences in Battleship are phenomenal. It’s not very often that you see these large warships fighting and you get to see the inside workings of the ship. When the aliens send out those giant balls that tear apart the ship was great to watch.  The way they tear through the ship was cool to watch but also kind of scary.
                There were some parts of Battleship that were very hard to believe. And I’m not just talking about the fact that there were aliens but other parts of the movie as well. For example, Hopper and Nagata somehow manage to hit the cockpit of the alien ship with sniper rifles. This would be a very hard shot.  And also it’s kind of dumb that this advanced alien species with very advanced weaponry doesn’t even have bulletproof glass. Another part that was hard to believe was the way the marine managed to beat the alien in a fight. He did have some help from the other guy but why did no other aliens join in? They were at a base full of them and they all just let the humans get away.
                All in all, I think Battleship was a great movie. The fight scenes were great even though the story was predictable. Not everybody likes this movie but I know I do.

Word Count (403)