Green Zone

Green Zone is an exceedingly mediocre action film which, given its pedigree, means it is a dissapointment. The film is directed by Paul Greengrass, written by Brian Helgeland, and stars Matt Damon, so quality shouldn't be an issue. The plot also follows what an interesting story (the search for WMDs after the invasion of Iraq, and faulty intelligence surrounding the search), but what should have been a taught politically relevant action film, ended up coming off as a middling Bourne knockoff.

The biggest problems with the film revolve around a script that's filled with dialougue that could be described as overly expository at best, and subtle as a brick to the face at worst. The film has absolutely no confidence in the audience being able to understand any subtext and takes the approach of 'why be understated about the political point we're trying to make when we can present it in the manner of an eighth grade civics project.' This extends to the characters in that everyone has to have one all defining characteristic and never show any variation from that whatsoever. It doesn't help that everyone delivers their lines with the earnestness that I exhibit when begging someone to go on a date with me and eventually it just caused me to scream "I get it! One US official who wanted to invade Iraq lied about the intel and screwed everything up for everybody, and this will have far reaching geo-poltical consequences for years to come." (this did cause me to get a few looks, but whatever that's how I roll). Also heaven forbid anybody exhibit even the an iota of a sense of humor (though Jason Isaacs' mustache was interesting), I mean you wouldn't want to the audience to feel like the characters had a personality or anything.

My next issue has to do with the way the film was shot. I think I'm pretty much done with this whole cinema-verte handheld camera method of shooting action sequences. Yes I get that its supposed to add intensity and authenticity, but what really happens is that its difficult to get any sense of what's going on. Granted my raging crystal meth addiction could have something to do with my inability to process, but I still think this is a bad way to go. If there's no sense of geography of whats happening in a scene I don't care how 'in your face' the action is, its going to be difficult to be grabbed by it. This is the difference between watching a great hong kong fight scene, and something by Michael Bay. The former is more difficult to pull off, but infinitely more rewarding.

I'm probably being harder on Green Zone than it deserves as in spite of all the problems it manages to be moderately entertaining. I just expected something better. On a side note with all the self-serious Iraq War films that have come out over the past couple of years its telling that the film that has done the best job dealing with the complex issues surrounding the invasion is In The Loop -a profane british farce, that deals with a fictional conflict. The lesson of course is that important political points can always be enhanced by copious amounts of profanity.

Kick Ass

Lets just say upfront that Kick Ass moves well and is generlaly entertaining. However I think the hype machine surrounding it hurts it a little bit in that the expectation is you're going to see the ultimate deconstruction of super-hero films when, at its core, Kick Ass ends up being a grittier, more profane, twist on the genre. For awhile at the beginning it looks like its going to follow a darker path and really try to show what happens when real people dress up in costume and fight crime (I think we can all agree that in real life they'd end up dead), but it ultimately diverges into a more conventional narrative. If anything it has a lot in common with the criminally underrated Mystery Men, in that they both send up the genre's conventions while ultimately being faithful to the core elements that make people enjoy about costumed vigilantes beating up overweight gangsters.

All that said once you accept what Kick Ass is, its pretty enjoyable. Aside from our title character (a high school nerd who has a slightly above normal tolerance to pain and rather than having a romantic kiss in the rain with his girlfriend ends up nailing her in the alley behind the comics book store ), the real enjoyment comes from the father- daughter crime fighting duo of Hit Girl and Big Daddy, with the latter being played by the one and only Nicolas Cage. As regular readers will realize from my love of The Bad Lieutenant, I can never get too much Cage in my life and he doesn't dissapoint here. My particular favorite touch is how he applies mustache extenders when suiting up in order to mask his true identity (because if there's one thing we all know a Fu Manchu will confuse everyone). Hit Girl is also great and goes a long way to supporting the idea that little kids beating up adults and spouting profanity is always funny.

So yeah, Kick Ass doesn't reinvent the wheel but it exhibits a nice sense of humor and good sense of pace and style. It'll be interesting to see what the already planned sequel does with the material since I didn't feel like there was any kind of over-reaching plot line in play. But its not like The Godfather did either, right?

Greenberg

Greenberg was an interesting film to watch but I ended up respecting it much more than I enjoyed it and will probably won't go out of my way to watch it again. The story follows the titular Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller) who's just been released from a mental institution and is spending six weeks at his brother's house in LA while the family is out of the country. The rest of the story follows him as he begins a quasi relationship with the family assistant, and reconnects with people he used to know fifteen years ago. Not a lot happens in terms of big events, but the film has an unforced tone and some nice character moments that feel like something you would actually encounter in real life. I also appreciated how it stayed away from any big emotional denouncements, and tried to stay as grounded as possible.

Unfortunately the film's uncompromising nature is what ultimately kept me from being truly engaged. The main character is for lack of a better term a 'dick,' and not a likable one at that. He's just a guy who makes everyone feel uncomfortable whenever they interact with him, and whose self absorption rivals even my own. While I think that the character is portrayed realistically, and the film doesn't try to make him falsely appealing at all, hes not somebody I would want to spend any time with in real life. I didn't even really mind that the female lead was attracted to him (since we all know women like going out with jerks, otherwise my social life would be completely, as opposed to just mostly, non-existent) but my lack of identification meant that it was difficult to have any real connection with the film on more than an intellectual level, and I really didn't end up caring if there was any emotional advancement or not. Of course I'm not really sure what my point is because had the film made the character more polished, or forced some dramatic metamorphosis, most of what makes it interesting would have been eliminated. Anyway I'm not really sure I can recommend it, but its not a complete waste of time if you do see it. (I need to stop now)

One Tree Hill: The Last Day of Our Acquaintance

Wow the last Tree Hill until April 19th, I may not make it that long. Plus the title of the the episode is filled with such wonderful ambiguity. What does the last day mean? Is someone going to die? Or maybe just get a bad case of amnesia? And Whose Acquaintance? Brooke and Julian? But they were so much more than acquaintances! Maybe the episode is going to be about a fight between Nathan and the pool guy. Oh One Tree Hill consider my interest piqued.

-Brooke takes out her anger at Julian by screwing up the costuming for the film. Rather than firing her on the spot Julian just gets all whiny and walks away.

-Nathan and Haley find her mom's funeral arrangements just lying around, get mopey, and then immediately they find her passed out on the kitchen floor. Could this be the acquaintance that's ending?????

-The CW is TV to talk about, which I guess I'm doing now. That's good marketing.

-Clay starts recruiting a tennis player who is played by the actress who played his dead wife, nothing creepy about that.

-The CW is now throwing three commercials in each break. How dare they screw up my free online viewing with more ads.

-Third sister (remember the one who'd slept with the other two's husbands) still refuses to go see her dying mother. Odds that she turns up at the last minute in a montage set to a power ballad?

-I swear to god if the majority of this episode is devoted to the incredibly boring experience of the mom dying I won't watch this show again until after April 19th. Do I really need to hear an incredibly tedious story about Nat King Cole and Chicken Dumpling soup (which Haley makes her mom write down with her dying breath), just die already.

-Jaime's spending the day with Chester the morbidly obsese rabbit. To distract him from dying Grandma Nathan decides to kill chester and eat him in front of Jaime. Now that's good parenting.

-It turns out that Jaime wouldn't have had Chester if it wasn't for grandma:

Nathan: Didn't your mom and I buy you Chester?

Jaime: Grandma taught me to wish upon the star

Nathan: And you wished for Chester (the morbidly obese rabbit)? *Subtext Added

Jaime: Wouldn't you?

Well then

-Brooke hears Alex talking about having sex with who she assumes to be Julian, gets mad, and punches her in the face. On set,. Right before a scene is set to shoot. This finally causes Julian to fire her. Bout time, she had better job security than a government employee (da duh da da da dut duh).

-Uh Oh, Brooke found out that Alex had been sleeping with Alexander and not Julian. She feels foolish. Though apparently a black eye is enough to shut down a $50K a day movie shoot. So its possible for hollywood to get remove Angelina Jolie's thousand gallons of tatoo ink, but can't handle a shiner? If this is all it takes to shut down film production that just gives me another reason to punch Kate Hudson in the face.

-Pshyco tennis player googles Clay and finds out that she's a dead ringer for his dead ex wife (that's a lot of dead). Rather than causing her to feel some sympathy for him, it just makes her more attracted.

-I really can't take much more fortune cookie wisdom from dying mom. Its poorly written even for this show.

-In the upset of the century daughter number three shows up at the hospital. Maybe this means mom can finally die.

-Taylor reminds the mom of herself. So the mom also slept with her sisters' husbands? Go mom.

-HAHAHAHA, 'definitely not gay' fashion designer Alexander was also sleeping with Brooke's mom. That is range. Maybe this is the acquaintance that's ending.

-The sisterhood of the traveling borings (see what I did there) has a cathartic moment at mom's deathbed.

-Julian immediately takes Brooke back because her psychotic nature can be explained by her irrationally intense love for him. Good call there chief. I guess this acquaintance will not be ending.

-Alexander tells Victoria he likes her alot, so she slaps him and takes him back. I guess this acquaintance isn't ending either.

-Since Alexander didn't show up, Alex goes to her meathead costars room to have some anger sex. But of course, she doesn't notice the open laptop and camera he has positioned RIGHT NEXT TO THE BED. This isn't going to end well.

-Finally the mom is dead. If somebody read that last sentence in isolation it could make for an interesting interpretation (well that could be for a lot of reasons).

-Just as Lauren decides she wants Mouth's..mouth, Skillz walks back into the house (thus restoring the minority quota on the show). Could this be the fated Acquaintance?

-Show ends with psycho tennis player dying her hair to look like Clay's ex wife and saying that she's going to get him. Yeah this will go well, we haven't had a fatal attraction story line in a good season and a half.