Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Donald Seymour This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

robertllr First of all, "Journey To The End Of The Night" has nothing to do with the 1934 novel of the same title by Louis Ferdinand Celine. If the script writers borrowed Celine's title for some allusive reason, it escapes me.The movie is an unremarkable and predictable crime thriller/family drama. The dimly-lit and grainy cinematography--set in the seamy red-light district of Sao Paulo, Brazil--is nothing special; and the sentimental sound track, weak plot, and un-inspired dialogue contribute nothing original to the genre.The roles are thankless, and the actors in them give about the performances you'd expect from their B-class status. The worst by far is Brendan Frazer. He makes a fine Dudley Do-Right; but his performance as a ruthless crime lieutenant is laughable. Frazer's baby face, squeaky voice, and limited range couldn't convey threat, malice, or even the weak psychological conflict the script calls for--even on his best days. The other performers are just about as bad.However, there is one astonishing exception to all this lack-luster ness; and that is the performance of rap artist Mos Def, who plays a Nigerian dishwasher turned drug courier (when the real courier--a genuine tough guy--drops dead while having sex with a transsexual prostitute.) Mos Def's character, Wemba, is a retiring young man, a meek, short-statured student with only the most modest of aspirations in life. When we first meet him, his drug-dealing boss asks him about his background. Mos Def replies laconically; but his dropped words, half-finished sentences, and subtle facial gestures convey his melancholy character and difficult and disappointed past to us at once. It's a beautiful morsel of acting.Wemba takes on the job partly out of need, but mainly out of loyalty to his boss. While the written role of Wemba is hardly Shakespearian, Mos Def is brilliant in what he does with it. And while one could barely give a damn what happens to the rest of these flat and unappealing characters, Mos Def creates for his unenthusiastic but diligent courier a vivid, likable, three-dimensional figure--a simple soul who, when push comes to shove, shows unexpected courage—not because he has anything to back it up, but just because he is good guy--the sort of person who naturally does the right thing. He is not smart, or capable, or strong. And when he politely sticks to his guns (figuratively speaking, he is practically the only person in the film--other than the blind soothsayer and his dog--whose isn't popping a cap into someone at some point) and defies the people who threaten him, you know that he certainly won't be rescuing his own behind.Fortunately, (for Wemba, if not for the movie) the writers have thrown a bit of magic and fate (predictable as always) into the story mix here. And it is only that little bit of luck that leaves Wemba as last man standing in this otherwise silly little drug-dealing bloodbath.I know nothing of rap music, or Mos Def's career as a performer. But, if this part is any indication of his thespian potential, I'd say that boy can act!

charlytully Mos Def plays the Bob Cratchit clone, called Wemba here (on his own time, Wemba is studying to follow in Cratchit's footsteps as a bookkeeper, a dead giveaway of director Eric Eason's remake intentions). Wemba works as a dishwasher for brothel owner Sinatra, aka Rosso (Scott Glenn)--the Scrooge-like character. Sinatra gives Wemba a chance at a new life, if he can pull off the sale of a fortune in cocaine left behind at the brothel when the Mr. Fezziwig stand-in (The Russian=Johannes Sioberg) is gunned down in a murder-suicide by Mrs. Fezziwig (Carla Esposito here) in a tragic love triangle involving Sinatra's original drug mule, Baaba (Henry Babatunde Fadayumi). All Wemba need accomplish is to exchange the coke for the money-filled backpack of the Spirit of Christmas Past, aka Bosco Tang (Faroouq Olawale Sadia).Unfortunately, Sinatra's partner (the Jacob Marley character), his son Paul (Brendan Fraser), is still alive, and wants to get his hands on both the coke money and Fanny Scrooge, known here as Angie or the second Mrs. Sinatra (Catalina Sandino Moreno). Paul also believes he's the actual father of his step-brother Tiny Tim, dubbed Lazar (Luke Denis Nolan) in this retelling. In an effort to learn why Wemba is late returning to the brothel, Paul sends his personal thug Rodrigo (Milhem Cortaz, in the Undertaker role) to kidnap the Spirit of Christmas Future, the blind seer (Rui Polanah) to learn which way the cookie will crumble.Meanwhile, Wemba has made the exchange, but he's knocked unconscious by the two Collectors (designated as such in both the 1951 and the 2006 renderings). Fortunately, his cash pack is still at hand when the Spirit of Christmas Present--Monique (Alicia Braga)--comes to Wemba's rescue. Before he can return to the brothel, Rodrigo guns down Monique, as well as the clairvoyant's seeing-eye dog.Back at the brothel, Paul already has sliced open the face of this movie's Mr. Groper, the transsexual prostitute Nazda (Matheus Nachtergale), probably because Nazda had earlier snuffed out Baaba's life. The disfigured Nazda returns to Sinatra's office just after Paul has informed his dad he's confiscating all the drug money if Wemba ever returns. Nazda shoots Paul twice, Paul shoots Nazda once, and then Nazda puts two more bullets into Paul, blasting him to his death in the courtyard way below the broken-out office window. Nazda dies of his own bullet wound a moment before Wemba finally brings home the bacon. Rodrigo is hot on Wemba's heels, but Sinatra and Rodrigo exchange fatal shots, with the brothel owner bestowing his wife and money upon Wemba before expiring. The Seer looks on benignly as Wemba, Angie, and Lazar prepare to depart. Unbelievably, the Spirits have accomplished Wemba's transformation in a single night!While this remake was okay, I still am most partial to the 1951 version of A CHR!STMAS CAROL, aka SCROOGE, starring Alistair Sim in the title role.

Claudio Carvalho In a dark and decadent area of São Paulo, the exiled Americans Sinatra (Scott Glenn) and his son Paul (Brendan Fraser) own a brothel. Paul is a compulsive gambler addicted in cocaine and his father is married with the former prostitute Angie (Catalina Sandino Moreno), and they have a little son. When a client is killed by his wife in their establishment, they find a suitcase with drugs. In the night that they have scheduled a negotiation with African buyers, their African liaison dies while having sex with the travesty Nazda (Matheus Nachtergaele). Sinatra proposes to the Nigerian dishwasher of the brothel, Wemba (Mos Def), to travel to the harbor of Santos, close the business with the drug dealers and in return he would receive a large amount. Wemba accepts but while returning to his car in the harbor, he is attacked by two smalltime thieves and passes out. His lack of contact with Sinatra and Paul leads to a sequence of misunderstandings with a tragic end."Journey to the End of the Night" is a movie about losers that have a second chance in life, but waste it along a night of entwined mistakes. None of the characters is totally evil, they are ambiguous and develop a sort of empathy with the viewer. Scott Glenn plays an owner of a brothel, but also a family man concerned with the future of his son. The addicted and violent character of Brendan Fraser has a deep trauma from his childhood. Angie, played by Catalina Sandino Moreno, is divided between Sinatra and Paul. Wemba, played by Mos Def, is a simple honest worker that accepts to participate in a dirty business to raise easy money. The excellent Brazilian actor Matheus Nachtergaele performs a travesty in a key role. Watching this film somehow I slightly recalled "After Hours", a comedy of errors in New York. The lighting uses weird colors (yellow, red, green) and together with the bad weather, highlights the underworld of a poor and dark area in the cold São Paulo, in a film-noir style. The story is predictable, there are many coincidences, but I liked this movie. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "12 Horas Até o Amanhecer" ("12 Hours Until Dawn")

Tony Camel Film Noir (literally 'black film') was a term created by French film scribes who noticed how 'dark', downbeat and black the textures and themes of many American crime and detective movies finally released in France following the WWII. (Films they hadn't been able to see under German occupation.) These B&W flicks initially came into vogue in the '40s, became more popular in the post-war era (especially as B-films, played behind more conventional cinema from Hollywood) and lasted up until the classic "Golden Age" to about 1960 -- or maybe 1958 -- as "Touch of Evil" is usually cited (by film professors) as the end of the classic noir period.It's interesting to note that film noir is not a genre, but rather a mood, style, point-of-view, or tone of a film. This tone can be blended with other genre's to form a most satisfying effect (most recently, the film "Brick" exploited noir conventions in High School setting!).Caper films, with its intricate plotting and criminal-characters existing on the periphery of society are some of the most significant examples of famous noir works. Most feature a "tone of pessimism, and darkness" and mainly share the form's visual style. But their main focus usually lies in the way they detail the strategies of the crime, that typically end up in fatal outcome, suggesting that there is a moral order to the universe, and that bad guys should not succeed.Crime Capers fall into several categories. In recent times, we've seen the jazzy stuff produced by Guy Richie and Soderbergh. In the 70s, we saw the existential masterpieces by Melville. In the eighties, we've seen caper films that were really romantic comedies at heart. Indeed, the fusion of capers has made its way into many a sub-categories heading.The same can be probably said for thrillers, although less fusions exist with classic thrillers. This category usually sticks to increasingly tense dramatic situation and if anything, veers into the realm of action films. Note that both "Fatal Attraction and "Basic Instinct" feature action set pieces that could easily be cut into a Bruckheimer film.JTTEOTN is not a caper film, a thriller, an actioner or even a straight noir -- its all those things, and none of them. "Journey to the End of the Night" suffers (wrongly) from being a not "instantly categorizable" work (not in the marketing sense, but in the processing sense; i.e, how our brains orient to story: who am I supposed to root for? Brendan Fraser? No. Scott Glenn? No. Mos Def, yes, finally, but not wholeheartedly, because even the saintly Wemba is a drug runner who undertakes his mission solely out of greed). Its these types of transgressions that play against the contemporary mores, and a viewer's desire to enjoin and identity (within the first ten minutes) with a hero. Still and all, I would argue, that it is precisely this break with convention that has such an a lasting effect on the viewer. And makes JTTEOTN a most powerful post-modern noir.