Review: Victory & M:I 3

Victory, set in the early 1900's, is the story of a hermit, Heyst (played by Willem Dafoe) who travels to a nearby port in the Dutch East Indies to gather his father's belongings. While there, he stays in a hotel owned by a racist German where an orchestra made up of all women plays every night. One night the orchestra leader agrees to sell the violinist to the German hotel owner but Heyst helps her to escape. They travel back to his mostly deserted island and fall in love.

In the month that passes a new set of travelers arrive at the German's hotel. Unfortunately for him, they are disruptive and scary and he decides he must get rid of them or go out of buisness. He remembers Heyst stole the violinist from him so he makes up a story of betrayal, deceit and treasure and puts Heyst and his island in the center of the story. So the three men, Mr. Jones, Ricardo and Pedro travel to the island to find the treasure and bring their disruptive and scary lives with them.

I'm pretty sure I put this movie in my queue because of Rufus Sewell but I didn't realize it was based on a novel by Joseph Conrad. The scenery was beautiful and although it wasn't a heart-pounding scary story, it was interesting. It reminded me what would have been an adventure story in the 30's maybe. I enjoyed it but unless you're in the mood for a slower moving period piece, I wouldn't recommend it.

The cast includes: Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill, Rufus Sewell and Irène Jacob as the violinist.



I confess I did not want to watch Mission: Impossible III. Between the lousy second movie in the series and the recent insanity displayed by the movie's star Tom Cruise, I was really very disinterested. However we were hanging out with friends and the majority ruled so I watched it.

I was pleasantly surprised. It was definitely more entertaining than M:I 2 and I managed to forget what a flake Tom Cruise is during the 126 minute show. If you like action/adventure movies, you'll like this one. I still won't recommend it to you though. Tom Cruise is still a flake.

This movie stars Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ving Rhames.



PS All the Tom Cruise links point to different places for your entertainment.