Reno Reviews STATE OF PLAY

ENGLISH - (PG13) - 11 June 2009 - Thriller/Drama
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Running time: about 127 mins.
Director: Kevin Macdonald
Producers: Andrew Hauptman, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner
Writers: Matthew Michael Carnahan, Tony Gilroy, Peter Morgan, Billy Ray
Casts: Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, Helen Mirren, Robin Wright Penn, Jason Bateman, Jeff Daniels
Plot: Based on the BBC mini-series of the same title, a team of investigative reporters work alongside a police detective to try to solve the murder of a congressman's mistress. "State of Play" will explore issues in investigative journalism and the relationship between the press and political figures.

THE VERDICT:

Reno Ooi says:

WARNING FOR SPOILER! "State of Play" is a political thriller, and just merely a political thriller -- nothing more. It fulfills all elements of its genre: a little murder case linking to a larger political plot and finally a twist at the end of the story. It's completely a typical kind of thriller you can expect, which mean you can predict the story as well.



The cast is the only thing that makes this movie being higlighted -- Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck. If not for the cast, the whole movie is nothing to look into. Russell is definitely a good actor in no matter what role he plays, including this one as a street-smart journalist. Meanwhile, Ben plays his part as a congressman -- which you may doubt at the begining why the producer put him on such unexpandable role. The doubt will be answered at the end of the story, 'cause he did play a big part on the twist of whole thing. It's always been a nice and enjoyable thing to watch two big stars in one screne.

As it's a political thriller, which I just found out that it's an adaption from a Brittish series, it has the dark tone that is liked by people who like thriller, and felt bored by people who can't appreciate thriller. You must understand that true thrillers are more tend to be an art-kind of film, rather than a commercial one. Speaking of art, this story is welly penned, despite the fact that people who are familiar with thriller story can easily predict it. Conversations play the most important part in thrillers, and this movie make those talkings easily followed and so do the story.

At the end, it's hard to say whether this movie is worth to watch. It depends on whether you like this kind of political genre movie or not. It requires a certain understanding about American politics and ability to adapt to the fast-paced conversations in the movie. What I can say is that it's definitely enjoyable to watch the two stars in it.

THE RATINGS.....
CAST - 4.5 stars
STORY - 3.5 stars
CINEMATOGRAPHY - 3.0 stars
EFFECTS - 3.0 stars
an overall>> 3.5 stars
GreenTea-O-Meter: 14.0