Saturday, December 31, 2011

Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol

I saw this in IMAX so I could watch the first six minutes of the Dark Knight Rises, and it was worth it. As for Mission Impossible, I generally enjoyed it. Unusually for a sequel, its actually the best of the series (though to be fair the first two were really not good), and director Brad Bird has a nice touch balancing the inherent ridiculousness of the subject matter with some very well-executed set pieces. Unlike its predecessors this installment actually has a sense of humor about itself and thankfully, pretty much, abandons the trope of everybody wearing a mask to explain any plot development. Speaking of the plot, its pretty much just an excuse to deliver the action, which it does well, but its engaging enough to keep everything from getting boring. Incredibly deep its not, but in general its a well-crafted action film which is saying something given a lot of what is floating around out there.

Okay, I think that's it with blockbusters. I'm hopefully going to knock out some Oscar contenders over the next couple of weeks to restore my artistic credibility (says the guys whose written about 30,000 words recapping One Tree Hill episodes).

Thursday, December 29, 2011

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

So I haven't read the books, or seen the swedish original. Other than a passing knowledge of the main character I really came into the film uninformed so I think I can actually give a pretty clean opinion. Basically I just found the film to be okay, but ultimately flawed. Oh its watchable, but I found the central mystery to be pretty run of the mill and uninteresting. This is a big problem since much of the film's (two hour and forty minute) run-time is devoted to trying to find this girl that went missing from a family of a bunch of rich ex nazis 30 years ago. Since I didn't substantially care what happened this left me just sort of feeling kind of 'meh' at the resolution.

That said, I think Lisabeth is actually a pretty interesting character, and I'll check out the subsequent films just to see if they can do anything substantial with her. It didn't interest me enough to check out the books though which I think indicates its ultimate failure.

Also, this has been pointed out elsewhere, there is a scene that will absolutely change the way you listen to Enya (which I know you all do, you are only human).

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows

I generally enjoyed the first Sherlock Holmes film, but this one just kind of left me feeling blase. It had all the elements that made its predecessor enjoyable, but just in greater quantities and amped up to 11. Here's an example of what I mean. At one point we learn that Holmes is afraid to ride a horse. Smash cut to next scene of everyone riding a regular horse, followed by Holmes on what can best be described as Li'l Sebastian . So okay that's moderately amusing once, but its repeated about four more times in a row, and the returns diminish quickly. This is the main problem with the rest of the film as I eventually just got tired of watching bullet time sequence after sequence, and wondering what just happened. By the time we got to the ending denouement, I had stopped caring much at all.

Just so this isn't a complete rip job, I will say I still generally enjoyed Downey's portrayal, and could still some potential for future films of the series. Its not as much of a step down as the Pirates of the Carribean sequels were, but its still a step down all the same.

Bonus: Exit Through the Gift Shop

I finally caught up with this documentary from 2010, and I really enjoyed it. Its an interesting look at street art, and also functions as an almost satirical look at the art world in general. Its well worth checking out.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

The Muppets/The Descendants and a bonus because it took me so long to write this post

I actually started this post two weeks ago, and now I"m no longer motivated to write something coherent. So there's that.

The Muppets

Don't you dare say anything bad about the Muppets. They're consistently one of the few forms of children's entertainment that can walk that fine line between genuine sentimentality and cloying, without becoming annoying. This film pretty much continues that. If you liked the old muppets stuff, you'll enjoy this, if you didn't you probably think Thomas Kinkade makes great art.

And Jason Segal is pretty much a real life muppet so he fits in well.


The Descendants

I've come to the conclusion that Alexander Payne just doesn't work for me. I sort of get, intellectually, why people go crazy for his films (Election, About Schmidt, Sideways) but they always just end up leaving me cold. Its not that there un-watchable, in fact they're generally well acted and have some moments of real humor, its just that I never really end up caring about the characters and spend most of the proceedings disengaged.

The Descendants takes place over the few weeks after George Clooney's wife is thrown into a coma after a boating accident. He soon learns that she was cheating on him before the accident, and on top of all that, he's dealing with selling 25 million acres of pristine Hawaiian wilderness that his family owns. Not quite hilarity, soul searching, and Matthew Lilliard ensue.

The preceding two paragraphs are what I wrote two weeks ago. Its how I still feel, and I can't really be bothered to write more. The film didn't make angry, it just left me cold and kind of restless. If you liked it that's fine, I just think I'm done trying get Alexander Payne.

Crazy, Stupid, Love

Saw it on a plane, pretty contrived and forgettable, though it does have some appealing performances. Don't go out of your way to see it.



Saturday, November 5, 2011

Take Shelter/A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas

Take Shelter

This film follows a man who starts to have very distinct dreams about a coming apocalypse, and as a result starts to build a storm shelter in his back yard as a sort of Noah's Ark to protect his family, while engaging in increasingly erratic behavior. The interesting thing is that he (Michael Shannon) suspects that he's probably going insane the entire time that he's doing this, and most of the film concerns his struggle with trying to come to terms with what may very well be the onset of schizophrenia. It does a really nice job portraying this, and leaves whether he's actually crazy or not undecided until the very end.

Otherwise, the thing I appreciated about this was that even when Shannon's wife thought he was going insane, she didn't make a big speech, run off crying, or try to make his life any more difficult. No, rather she calmly sat down with him and they tried to work their way through it like, you know, normal people. Sort of the anti-Adrian Balboa. Its sort of sad that this is considered ground-breaking behavior in a film.

A Very Harold & Kumar 3D christmas

While I'm not going to deny that I laughed quite a bit during this film it lacked the, dare I say, focus of the first film in the trilogy which kept it from being more than an moderately entertaining divergence. Still, these are likable characters, and as long as the film focused on them it moves along at a nice pace. The obligatory Neil Patrick Harris cameo was also fun, and I enjoyed the heck out of the waffle-bot, particularly the 'commercial.' Its incredibly crass, but not in a mean-spirited way, and the 3-D adds nothing. So I guess what I'm saying is its not a horrible way to pass 90 minutes.

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Real Steel

Either the prospect of Rock-Em-Sock-Em Robots the Movie makes you smile, or it doesn't. If it doesn't there's no way Real Steel has any chance of entertaining you so I wouldn't even bother going to see it. For me though, well I sort of enjoy the over the top ridiculousness of the premise and felt that, if executed correctly, the film could be a successfully 'dumb' action movie. It sort of succeeds.

The plot is pretty basic. In the future people have decided they'd rather watch robot's fight than actual people (why this is, is never adequately explained. Its difficult for me to believe that watching guys play video games will ever replace a real live fight, Its not like battle bots was tremendously popular, but whatever). Hugh Jackman is a washed up boxer, fighting robots around the country with the occasional help of Kate From Lost (Note, the actress who plays her will always be Kate from lost. She's not quite good enough to ever escape the role so I hope she just accepts it). Eventually a son he never knew shows up, they fight, they bond, they find an old robot and turn it into a fighter, etc. Nothing new here, all that matters is whether or not there's enough Robot on Robot action. There is, and its much better executed than say, Transformers (i.e. I could actually tell what was going on), and that's good. But man is the film too long. Over two hours. They should have chopped a half an hour out (anything involving the Robot dancing would have been fine) and it would have been so much better. Also, as much as they tried, I couldn't get that emotionally involved in what robot won the fight. I mean I love my quesadilla as much as the next guy, but if it suddenly got beat up by the neighbor's Cuisinart I can't say I'd be that broken up (not as much as the quesadilla maker at least - zing).

But whatever, its more watchable than you think, and features some of the most blatantly self-aware product placement I've ever seen. And if there's one thing I can always appreciate, its wholesale selling out.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Moneyball/Contagion

Its appropriate that I saw these films back to back since Steven Sodenbergh was two weeks away from shooting the former, before production was stopped, and ended up directing the latter instead. So that's something, and shows what an informed blogger I am.

Anyway Moneyball first. I'm a fan of the Michael Lewis book, and was definitely curious about how the film would get a conventional narrative out of the story of a small market baseball team that initiates a statistical revolution, but doesn't end up winning the big game. They get around this issue by focusing on the triumph of an idea rather than a team, and focusing a character who had no more than a passing mention in the book (Billy Beane's daughter). Overall the approach works. I wouldn't watch this film for a 100% accurate representation of the Billy Beane (just like I wouldn't watch the Social Network to learn about Facebook), but its entertaining, well-acted, and moves along at a nice pace. Its radically simplifies the basic idea, but in general captures the spirit of the book, which is more than I can say about The Blind Side (which in the interest of full disclosure I haven't been able to bring myself to watch even though somebody gave me a copy that is sitting on my floor. If I want to see a film about a brave white woman whose gumption helps her save an under appreciated black child I'll just watch the help. No I won't).

Contagion on the other hand attempts to show how a pandemic would affect the world, but in the most clinical, non-thrilling manner possible. Really for most of the film its almost as if Sodenbergh wanted to just do a meticulous live-action simulation of the mechanics of a pandemic. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. By stripping out most of the normal gyrations of this genre (namely worrying about who's going to die), you're able to really just focus on the effects of the disease and consider its implications. Really the only times the film doesn't work is when it jumps away from this approach and focuses on a completely unnecessary side plot involving a paranoid blogger (Jude Law). Still overall its engaging (if a bit draggy at times) and will make you try to avoid physical contact with other people (thankfully I'm already way ahead of them on that count).

Note: Two girls in front of me thought they were going to see The Ides of March (playing in the next theater). When they realized there was no Baby Goose in this one there was much consternation for a few minutes, but I'll give them credit that they actually sat through the whole thing.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

The Ides of March

This is a film that wants you to understand that it is important. Every scene is crafted to show the weight of what the characters are going through, every speech meant to either make an impassioned plea or show you how screwed up and full of compromise the political system really is (what a new and radical sentiment). Its kind of like the West Wing only without the sense of humor or likable characters.

Now given the film's cast (George Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei, and Geoffrey Wright) this is all executed competently and in a reasonably engaging matter. However I couldn't help but feel the entire thing was all surface, and not doing anything new. Its almost as if Clooney got so tied up in trying to make something momentous he ended up drowning in it. Its not worthless by any stretch of the imagination, just no where near as insightful or important as it thinks it is.

Postscript: I now remember why the film felt so familiar. Its really just a remake of Primary Colors, except not as good. Its lacking that films sense of humor, and identifiable characters, so its unsurprising this film ended up just leaving me blase.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Drive

Drive has become an incredibly divisive film with people either calling it 'genius' or 'incredibly pretentious and slow.' I guess I fall closer to the former camp, but I can't say I fell as head over heels in love with it as a lot of its defenders.

The film follows an un-named driver (Ryan Gosling) who works as a stuntman/mechanic/getaway driver, and goes through life saying as little as possible. He eventually forms a relationship with a neighboring woman (Carey Mulligan) and her child, but when he tries to help her recently released (from prison) husband get out of some trouble, things, to say the least, go bad. And that's pretty much the whole plot. The film as a whole is a slow burn, punctuated by moments of extreme violence. With one notable exception (which I'll get to in a minute) it doesn't lay anything out for you, and just tries to communicate via subtext with as little dialogue as possible. And in general I liked this approach. The whole thing has a sort of hypnotic quality, and I appreciated that the script doesn't feel the need to underline every beat. Basically stuff happens, they don't try to soften the idea that the ostensible hero is a bit of a pshycopath (of course so is Batman), and you just kind of have to roll with it. That's all good.

However there are two things in the film that kept me from completely embracing it.

1) The music. I actually like the choice of using sort of euro-pop electronica to score the film. It fits the overall vibe well. What doesn't work are the lyrics. While the rest of the film tries hard to let the subtext and the emotion speak for themselves, the song lyrics are the complete opposite and blatantly spell out every emotion that the characters might be experiencing. Seriously it reminded of the Family Guy joke where Randy Newman just wrote songs about what was happening. It would be like you see a film where a guy just killed his brother and a song started where the words were 'Oh I bet you feel really bad and conflicted...' Just a weird choice that completely out of sync with the rest of the film.

2) I'm sorry but any film set in Los Angeles that features multiple car chases, and not one instance where they're sitting in traffic just throws me out of the reality of the story. Seriously, these guys were driving back and forth from the Valley in broad daylight at one point, weaving all over, probably averaged like 80 mph, and only saw other cars sporadically. I call BS. Having sat through LA traffic for years I think I can reasonably say this isn't possible (definitely not at the regularity that the film portrays it). The only time I was driving as unimpeded that the chases in the film, was new years eve 2009 coming home from a 10 pm screening of The Bad Lieutenant at the New Beverly. And that was so eerie we spent the whole time commenting on how crazy the whole thing was, and that we were probably going to get car jacked at any point.
In an even more ridiculous moment, Drive features a scene where Gosling is making a get away drive around the staples center during a game with no significant other of cars around. In fact they show that no fans leave the game until the final tip, enabling him to sneak away in the mass exit. Right. First of all there would have been a steady stream of ans leaving from the middle of the 4th quarter on, and he wouldn't have been able to make a qucik left turn within two miles of the stadium. The only film to less accurately portray LA travel is 500 days of summer that somehow made it look like lots of people use the subway.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Warrior

Warrior takes the basic sports formula and applies it to MMA. This mostly works. The story follows two brothers who haven't seen each other in 14 years after their mother took one of them across country to get away from an abusive father. The movie picks up with the younger just having gotten out of the marines, and the elder working as a physics teacher in danger of losing his job and house. They each end up entering a winner take all tournament and, in a surprise to no one who saw the trailer, end up on a collision course (literally) with one another and their various demons.

Since there's nothing really that new or surprising in the story, what really matters is execution. Admittedly I have a soft spot for sports films, so I might not be the most objective opinion, but I think that the film mostly succeeds in what it tries to do. The three central characters (two brother and their estranged father) are compelling, and I cared what happened to them. When the film focuses on their relationship is when its at its best. In addition, the fight scenes are well staged and believable (even if, like every other fight film, they make it look like every fight is an all out brawl instead of 20 seconds of flurries followed by four minutes of getting a submission like real MMA fights), and the final showdown was as satisfying as it could have been given the genre's accepted conventions.

That said, it does has its problems. When we get to the tournament things do get a bit out of control, and cartoony, and it feels more like a plot device than something that might actually happen. Additionally, the wife is completely unsupportive and shrill until the protagonist starts winning, and the big emotional denouement between the younger son and the father ended up feeling more like an excuse to get Nick Nolte to cry than anything that moving.

Still, I can't deny that I was generally entertained throughout, and cared what happened in the end (that's what she said). Since that's the most important thing a sports film needs to do Warrior can be considered successful. Or at the very least a solid B. Not close to Hoosiers, but way better than Seabiscuit.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Big Recap

So I've been on the road and don't feel like writing anything in depth so here's the run down:

Another Earth

Nice little Sci-Fi film that actually has very little special effects or, indeed, science fiction. The film just uses the discovery of another planet identical to earth as a framing device for a story about two people brought together as the result of a tragedy (but not in the way you might expect). I liked how the film dealt with the relationship honestly, and the resolution felt real and unforced. Its not a big film, but one worth checking out.

Water for Elephants

This was a plane viewing (I guess its too much to ask that United have the individual entertainment consoles in the seats), and I just found it kind of boring. It basically has the same framing device (and really story) as Titanic (replace gloria stuart with Hal Holbrook...sexy), except it takes place at a depression era circus and doesn't have the guts to at least kill one of the main characters like the former film did. Its not horrible, just overwhelmingly perfunctory and unnecessary.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Any film that a features a monkey in pants is going to be on my good side (its like he thinks he's people), so Planet of Apes automatically gets a couple of points from me. Also I saw it in Hong Kong where it was 60% humidity and 90 degrees, so I think the respite of the theatre air conditioning would have made me feel good about whatever I was watching (side note: At hong Kong theatres you buy pre assigned seats, and they don't open the theatre until five minutes before the start time. Everybody then crams their way in. I just thought it was interesting). That said, this reboot is generally entertaining, even if the human villians are drawn so broadly its laughable (though I guess they felt it was necessary so people would actually root for the monkeys). My biggest problem is that in a matter of hours, the main primate is able to round up hundreds of large simians from just the south san francisco bay area, Being a resident of that general vicinity I refuse to believe there are that many giant ape-sized primates just hanging out waiting to be liberated. On the other hand pants-wearing super smart monkey's presented no problems for me.

The X-Files: I want to Believe

Really disappointing. I've seen pretty much the entire run of the original TV show, and consider it one of my favorites. This film just comes off as a pale imitation, and they completely ruin the Scully character making her Adrian Balboa to Mulder's Rocky. She was always skeptical in the show to be sure, but would never just hang him out to dry like she does in this film. Just a weak effort all the way around.

The Lincoln Lawyer

Another plane viewing, but one that was surprisingly entertaining. I avoided this one in the theatre's because even though I do love me some McConaghy, the trailers made it look like another Grisham-lite-lawyer-on-a-mission film, which I'm almost as tired of as emo vampires. The Lincoln Lawyer actually ended up being a pretty well-executed reasonably intelligent thriller, with a plot that generally made sense. I'd dare say this is even McConaghy's best lawyer role since Amistad (you forgot he was in that didn't you?). Boom, double punctuation.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Captain America

Captain America manages to be the most straightforward unironic of the Marvel film adaptations and it works much better than I would have expected. The Captain doesn't have any of the angst or recklessness of most other superheroes, he just wants to go out and kill some Nazis. I think this is the right approach, because when you're main character is named after a country and runs around with a shield its going to be difficult to sell that he's secretly tortured. Anyway, even though I'm getting tired of origin stories the film was generally well executed, and had a nice sense of humor about itself to go along with the lack of irony. The Cap isn't as compelling as Iron Man, but he's way more interesting than the Hulk, and I'll be interested to see what Joss Whedon does with all these characters in the Avengers.

All that said, and possible spoilers ahead (actually definite spoilers ahead), the action scenes don't always hold up to scrutiny, and the ending in particular lacks any semblance of sense it almost serves to derail the whole operation. Dig This. So if you're flying a bomb loaded plane that's hurtling out of control for NYC and you don't have time to find a safe landing area, where do you think you'd end up crashing the plane? Somewhere in the Atlantic? Possibly Maine? Boston? I mean, you literally only have seconds to make a decision so obviously you must be super close to new york? Right? Wrong. Apparently the Captain didn't have time to find a corn field, but he did have time to fly to the freaking North Pole to crash and then be frozen for the next sixty years. Right, if you're trying to convince us that he doesn't have enough time to even finish a radio conversation with his girlfriend but he does have time to fly 5,000 miles out of the way then you should probably rethink your story execution. Whatever, shut up brain.

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Harry Potter and the deathly hallows Part 2

I've said it before but I don't think there's anyway that anybody who hasn't read the books would have more than the most basic idea of what's going on while watching these films. Particularly the last couple. This isn't really a problem since a billion people have read the series, but it makes it sort of pointless to review the films in a vacuum. In that sense there's not much to say. The film does a nice job hitting the required beats and, for people familiar with all the backstory, there are some undoubtedly affecting scenes. My biggest issue is that the whole thing felt a little rushed which considering they broke the final book into two parts is a little ridiculous. Maybe a little less wandering around the woods and whining in part 1 would have been okay? Also the way they changed the final battle didn't really make any sense, and didn't really seem to save any time. I don't think it killed anything, it was just an odd choice.

So now that the series is done so I have any closing thoughts? Good question Eric, you are quite the adroit interviewer. I guess I found them entertaining and about as reasonably well executed as you could hope for given the time constraints of a feature. Since I'm not a bug wuss I didn't feel like a part of my childhood ended or anything like I'm hearing from who I'm sure are a bunch of 20 something coldplay fans (now if you asked me about the ending of the Sweet Valley High series of TV movies I might say something different). I also don't have any real desire to go back and revisit the series any time soon. But I said that about the Madea series too and now I can't get enough of them. What can I say, people in fat suits speak to me.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Tabloid

This documentary from Errol Morris tells the story of a former Miss Wyoming (Joyce McKinney) who was accused of abducting, and raping, a Mormon missionary in England back in the late 1970's, and then being constantly hounded by the press with allegations of actually being a high class prostitute. Eventually she jumped bail and eventually the case went away, with McKinney resurfacing a few years ago having cloned her deceased bull dog. Most of the film is devoted to Mckinney telling her story, and while she may not be guilty of everything's she's accused of, she is clearly nuts (and incredibly narcissistic). The film works hard to try and imply that being constantly hounded by the press may have driven her there, but its pretty obvious that even before the case happened she had issues.

The film is a little more interesting as a reflection of how the media consumes a sensational story, but it doesn't cover anything that new. Don't get me wrong, this is a well made documentary (though Morris does go a little crazy with the wacky animations over the voiceovers) but the story ultimately doesn't feel like it justifies feature treatment. Maybe a slot on the history channel, but not much more.

Monday, July 18, 2011

The Trip

The Trip is a film that follows Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon (playing "Steve Coogan" and "Rob Brydon") on a five day roadtrip (hence the title) to some restaurants in the north of England that "Coogan" is writing reviews of. The vast majority of the film's run time is filled with them busting each others balls, and making fun of the other's impressions. "Brydon" in particular spends much of his time lampooning "Coogan's" pretentiousness, but it never feels forced or particularly mean spirited. Just two guys with a shared history acting silly on a road trip. When the film stays focused on this dynamic it works pretty well, and their interactions are generally pretty funny (though at two hours its a bit long). Where the film doesn't work is when it tries to shoehorn in a plot about "Coogan" breaking up with his girlfriend and trying to find meaning in a successful yet shallow life. None of this comes off as particularly profound, and really just feels worked in because somebody thought a more conventional plot line was needed. Thankfully it doesn't make up the majority of the run time, but it definitely kills the momentum whenever it intrudes. Really I just would have been fine with 90 minutes of Coogan and Brydon talking smack and left it at that. Not everything has to have profound implications (which is what I told you sister after our date last night).

Thursday, July 7, 2011

We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming...

I was just out for a run when I rolled up to a traffic light next to two twenty-somethings (or possibly younger). I immediately heard the guy utter the following words to his girlfriend:

"According to Jim was really funny last night."

Yes someone actually said that about a show starring the lesser Belushi that's been off the air for two years, is currently showing on syndication at 11 pm in the Berkeley area, and features plot descriptions like:

"Andy finds Jim's missing wedding ring with a metal detector. Unbeknownst to Cheryl, Jim has been wearing a fake one for more than a year."

and

"Cheryl tries to set an example for her girls by forbidding use of the vacationing neighbors' swimming pool, only to succumb herself. "

or

"Cheryl lies that Jim's opinion matters as she remodels their bathroom, but her fib is undone by his choice of a state-of-the-art toilet that speaks with the voice of James Earl Jones."

(okay that last one sounds pretty awesome).

The conversation didn't stop there. The girlfriend immediately got annoyed that he had watched it without her, and then they made up by launched into a recap of their favorite moments from the show. At this point the light thankfully changed before I threw myself into traffic.

This explains so much about society.





Friday, June 24, 2011

X-Men First Class/Super 8

X-Men

Here's the one minute synopsis: Better than the third one, not quite as good as the second one, and way better than that Wolverine film. Otherwise the two leads are good, it has too many side characters to care about, and they black guy dies first (which I have to believe was intentionally ironic). Generally entertaining though.


Super 8

For most of its run-time Super 8 is a moderately entertaining, if mediocre, film that is completely undone by a bullshit final 20 minutes. Its not that the ending didn't make sense, it was just stupid, cliched and lazy. Since I can't properly make passive aggressive, petty, criticisms without discussing details stop reading now if you don't want to know any spoilers (though anybody who's alive will figure out whats going to happen halfway through).

Anyway film begins at a funeral in the late 70's for a mother/wife/saint who just died in a mill accident. The grieving husband is played by Coach Taylor from Friday Night Lights, who spend the whole film doing that squinty "I'm trying not to cry while still being tough but fair" look he perfected on that show. He and his son have never been close (we know this because one of the characters says "He doesn't know that boy") and now have to figure out how to deal with each-other. The son is helping his fat friend shoot a zombie movie and while in the process they witness an airforce train get run off the tracks and set an alien free. The rest of the film deals with everyone trying figure out whats going on, while coming of age, and whining about their dead mommies. Of course all this angst gives the main kid the strength to teach the Alien a life lesson about letting go of the past which is how he saves the world. Seriously. This is how it ends. No wait it actually ends with the alien ship's magnetic force pulling the dead mom's locket out of the kid's hand after he gives a speech about moving on. That is what we call subtext.

Its too bad because the film has a few interesting ideas (in particular a captured Alien that really just wants to be left alone an leave) which could have been built into something more interesting, and I generally think director JJ Abrams does good work. Unfortunately it gets too wrapped up in its earnestness, and desire to bludgeon every small point into the ground to effectively work. I guess what I'm trying to say is --- Super 8 isn't so super (its writing like that that makes grad school such a good investment).


Saturday, June 11, 2011

Tree of Life

This is one of the most ambitious films I've ever seen. I'm not exagerrating. Tree of Life shows us both the creation, and end, of the universe paralleled with the story of a man (Sean Penn) trying to come to terms with his difficult upbringing (with most of that story told in a flashback to his adolescence). Add to all of this the fact that the film has very little dialog (just a lot of the same whispered narration and fevered imagery characteristic of earlier Terrance Malick film's like The Thin Red Line) and you have at the very least an incredibly unique, and audacious, experience.

The question is ultimately whether all this works, and twenty four hours later I still don't know. It kind of reminds me of Charlie Kaufman's Synechode New York, except unlike that film Tree of Life doesn't explicitly collapse under the weight of its ambition. Considering that the film tries to address mans' relationship with god, the effect of discipline vs. grace in raising children, and the natural order of life that's saying something. Still (and repeating myself here) I don't know if it works. There are points where Malick does seem to get bogged down in his style, and the whole enterprise constantly borders on pretension. But for my next equivocation I will admit that the film is beautiful to look at, and there are several bravura, almost hypnotic, sequences. Alright at this point I'm just rambling. Tree of Life has a lot to recommend it, and it holds together better than could be expected given the unwieldy premise. You'll have to decide whether or not it's successful, or just a little full of itself. I obviously haven't been able to.

Side Note: The screening I went to was filled with senior citizens. And since this is Berkeley it means it was full of entitled senior citizens. This immediately caused problems as the subdued nature of the film was reflected in its sound projection, leading to comments along of the lines of "What Did he Say?" "I can't hear anything", etc. The lovely couple behind me not only spent the first hour eating popcorn while rustling the bag as much as possible, there also had conversations like this:
Husband: "That's Brad Pitt"
Wife (3 Seconds later): " Is that Brad Pitt?"

They also made at least two bathroom trips during the film and since there were stairs involved this meant they they block my view for five seconds at least four times. Thankfully halfway through they shut up. They may have died, I was too relieved to check.

Friday, June 10, 2011

One Tree Hill: This is my house, this is my home

Well here we are the season 8 finale. I was going to see the new Terence Malick film but this seems like a much better use of my time. Concurrent viewing is Giants- Reds.

-Great we begin with a Jaime voice-over. Maybe its from beyond the grave. That would be awesome.
-Jaime decides he wants to walk to the river court by himself. Nathan in a solid parenting move decides to let him. Maybe this will lead to the beyond the grave voice-over we're hoping for.
-Brooke wakes Julian up to show him that the baby is beginning to show. He says she's just fat and then slaps her.
-So our opening narrative device is to to cut to each of the main couples and have the couple in the new scene use a variation of the closing line from the previous scene. (I'm actually overstating this, I think it only happened twice, which is plenty).
-Jaime and his girlfriend have swapped one shoelace so he's walking around with a girlie lace. My boy chuck mocks him so he puts his regular lace back in and then totally brushes off his girl Madison at school. Oh Snap. Men, they're all the same.
-First commercial break and still no minorities. I'm counting on at least one Q flashback to meet our quota of one per every three episodes.
-We jump ahead 3.5 months during one break, this shown by Brooke drawing her stomach on the wall and writing 3.5 months. For a show that once jumped ahead four years between seasons this is nothing.
-Apparently Julian finished his film and the reviews are in. Of course everybody loves it - the key quote: "A gentle voice that cuts through the white noise of modern film-making." I guess they were reading the review from Mr Skin.com.
-Mouth and Millie now somehow have a morning show called "Mouth and Millie in the morning." Its as bad as you would think. Seriously it makes Good Morning America look watchable.
-Madison gets all passive aggressive with Jaime and takes out her matching shoelace as well. He slaps her.
-The fact that CWtv.com runs three minutes of commercials during each break severely reduce the likelihood of me continuing this for season 9. I mean if I wanted to devote an hour of my life to this show I'd watch it live for gods sake.
-Well Brooke and Haley's big business idea is to reopen the corner cafe. Because nothing like a coffee shop in a failing North Carolina town to replace a major clothing line.
-Bartender guy (I forget his name) is spending a year in the Air force, and receiving a letter each week from his movie star girlfriend. However he happens to see a national enquirer cover with her in a compromising position with another guy. I'm sure he'll handle this well and consider the source before making accusations.
-Brooke is having twins. Yeah!
-After the commercial break they use the stomach chart to show that we've jumped another 2.5 months in the future. I think more shows should incorporate this time-keeping technique.
-Hey everybody's favorite singer songwriter Kate Voegele just happens to be performing at Bartender guy's air base. I'm sure they just brought her back to wrap up the season and not for any other purposes. *Googles Kate Voegele* Wait she has a tour starting two weeks after this episode aired? Oh CW you sly foxes.
-Because shes so great Millie is offered a network morning gig, but she doesn't want to leave Mouth. He slaps her.
-Bartender guy's name is Chase. I thought you should know.
-Clay and Nathan are out recruiting marginal NBA prospects for their agency. They decide to sign some prospect because he's shooting hoops at 3 AM which obviously shows he has intangibles that exceed the fact he's not considered one of the top 75 players in the draft. And he's white. Of course he is.
-We come out of the next commercial break with Brooke covered in placenta and screaming to the heavens as her demon spawn wreaks havoc throughout the hospital. She then takes the scissors meant for the umbilical cord and drives it between the eyes of the bad seed who already killed the sibling. Fin.
-Just kidding stomach clock tells us we're at 7 months.
-Jaime tries to get Madison back by apologizing and giving the girle shoelace back. This works. Must try one day.
-I'm not joking about this next part - they bring Skillz back by having him wear a chicken suit and say 'aw hell no.' And thus ends the shows stab at racial balance.
-Millie decides to turn down the network job and stay with Mouth.
-Brooke is standing in heels, wearing a mini-skirt, on a stool, getting a heavy bag of flour off a top shelf and falls. This causes her to give birth (without noticing apparently) prematurely. Not a good sign for her future parenting skills. I mean seriously what 7 month pregnant woman gets on a stool and starts throwing around bags of cooking supplies?
-Aww Alex came to meet Chase a year later just where she said she would. I guess this means we jumped another five months ahead. He decides to forgive her (which given the way she looks isn't surprising).
-Nathan find's Dan working as a short order cook in some backwoods town. They have a moment and Nathan leaves. And this ends the appearance of the one cast member with any acting ability.
-I still can't get over the fact that the only appearance by the one black regular in the show's run was in a chicken suit for 1o seconds.
-Jaime's closing voice-over is unbearable (probably because he's reading from Lucas's book - which is just as unbearable as I remember).
-We get a closing montage with all the (white) characters speaking from the book which is obviously supposed to wrap up the series. Unfortunately does not end with Jaime getting hit by a train.

And we're done. I love it so much.




Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Midnight in Paris

Look, I really like Woody Allen's work. The guy can just flat out write, and (with the exception of the awful Celebrity) even his lesser works at least have enough of his unique sensibility and intelligent dialogue to make their viewing worthwhile. That said Midnight in Paris definitely falls into this 'lesser' category. Don't get me wrong-I generally enjoyed it. The film follows a hollywood writer (Owen Wilson) who's in Paris with his fiancee while trying to write a novel. He's obsessed with the Paris of the 1920's and, through some unexplained rift in the space time continuum, every night he's able to transport back to that time and mingle with his literary heroes. Allen uses this setting to make a rather blunt commentary on nostalgia clouding peoples judgement, but in general its just a rather whimsical, well written, travelogue of Paris. The film didn't have quite the impact for me that Allen's best works do, for instance Crimes and Misdemeanors. It may be because I"m not somebody who thinks the past was all that great (mostly because I wasn't living then) but am somebody who arranged to have his mistress murdered by Jerry Orbach. Still its still a thousand times better than anything starring Kevin James.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Hesher

There is a scenario where I could kind of see Hesher working. If the approach was to make a parody of the type of films that have a manic pixie dream girl drop in and completely change the life of someone who's stuck in a rut/manically depressed/perfectly fine, and replace the girl with a dreadlocked/profane/tatooed/sociopathic/metal-head played by Joseph Gordon Levitt - I could see how that might have been interesting. Indeed the last two scenes in the film made me think that it might have been the maker's actual intent. However the rest of the film is so mis-executed that it doesn't even come close to achieving this goal or, indeed, coherence.

The film follows a boy who just lost his mother in a car accident, and whose father is so drugged out on pain killers he doesn't even notice when the titular Hesher moves in and starts throwing off everybody's equilibrium. Natalie Portman's also around but for what reason I have no idea. Anyway Hesher engages in increasingly sociopathic and deranged behavior that apparently has no consequences, but helps everyone move beyond their grief. Again I think this could have worked as satire, but the film plays everything so straight and cliched that any chance at humor is killed. Don't get me wrong Levitt has a live wire energy that is occasionally amusing, but its just wasted by the rest of the film. Its too bad because there are elements that could have worked, and actors I like (Rain Wilson as well as the aforementioned Levitt, and Portman) but all in all its just a, pretty tedious, misfire.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

One Tree Hill: Flightless Bird

So its been almost exactly a year since I last watched an episode of everybody's favorite North Carolina based soap opera, and when I heard that the eighth season finale (you got that right, eight sesasons...and it was supposed to be the series finale but the CW decided to re up it for another year) aired this week I felt obligated to go and watch. Of course I forgot that the CW posts a week later so it wasn't up yet. But since I had already opened the player and wasn't wearing any pants I figured I'd watch the penultimate episode to get properly acclimated.

Anyway will I be able to step a year away, or will the labyrinthian plotting prove too intricate for me? We shall see. Anyway a few predictions:
-There will be at least one baby that came out of nowhere
-At least one character will have been killed because the actor wanted to pursue 'more mature' products
-There will be a ridiculous amount of product placement
-I will see, at most, one minority
-The kid playing Jaime will have learned how to act (okay I made the last one up)

Tonights concurrent viewing is the second half of game three of the western conference finals.

And away we go:

-Brooke is pregnant (prediction 1 is good to go)
-Good god Mouth is still a sportscaster
-So the big conflict is apparently that the outdoor court that the main characters played on as kids is being turned into condos. Keep in mind this is just a single blacktop court in what looks like the middle of serious weed country. Its not like this is the venice courts we're talking about. And apparently there's some bird called the 'Snidely Whiplash' (I may be off on the name) that just happens to be conveniently living there and is endangered.
-Brooke and some of the others go to Puerto Rico for a 'photo shoot.' Budget constraints mean that they apparently stand in the lobby of a Holiday Inn express, and then show B-roll of a real resort, before cutting back to our protagonists leaping around like idiots.
-Clay's big weekend is to put on a bedazzled shirt and drink beers out of a cooler in his living room. Did I mention this took place in North Carolina?
-Nathan and a bunch of other guys camp by the basketball court so they can find they can find the endangered bird. I'm not really sure why they need to camp since the court is right in the middle of town, but whatever.
-Great, Millie is still on the show. And she's apparently a reporter. Dressed in a dog costume. Doing a report about people cleaning up after their dogs. And she has an opportunity to be a correspondent on a morning show. Actually that makes perfect sense.
-Ahh the bird is actually called the Snipey Plover. I guess its kind of clever that they gave the fake endangered bird a name with snipe in it.
-Chuck and Jaime climb into an earthmover and see the key is in it before running off. Will this come back into play later?
-Brooke doesn't want to tell her friends that she's pregnant so when they go out she dumps sushi in her purse and throws drinks over her shoulder when no one is looking. Clever Girl. Why order something else when you can engage such an intricate subterfuge? Of course the supermodel is the only who noticed her plan and immediately deduced the situation. Just like real life.
-Thunder are back to 12 down with just under 9 to play. Might be an interesting game after all. -Lauren gets drunk, strips down to her underwear and locks herself out of her room for no apparent reason. Been there.
-I forgot Brooke wasn't supposed to be able to get pregnant. I guess this is sort of like an immaculate conception then.
-CW online runs the same 10 second promo three times in each break. It has made me remember that this is 'TV to Talk about'
-OKC within 6
- The running joke through this episode is that Clay is wearing a sheet that makes him look like Brian Boitano. Because its those kinds of timely references that will appeal to your key 18-29 demographic.
-Quinn goes driving around the neighborhood (with the super model) near the resort and has this amazing observation:
'Sometimes it just strikes me how poverty and privilege became silent neighbors. And the world just keep going because it has to.'
I didn't realize this was going to be a very special episode. She gets over this very quickly and has the model posed with a bunch of colorful locals so she can get something a little more 'real.' I'm assuming she'll donate all proceeds to a local orphanage.
-Chuck (jaime's friend) gets mad and jumps into the earth mover destroying the campsite and clay's recliner. Rather than beating him into oblivion they try to talk about why he's angry. It ends in hugs. Good god this kid is going to become a serial killer.
-OKC down 9 with just under 4 left. I think the dream may be dead.
-The reason Chuck is mad is because his new mentor is leaving for the air force. This is particularly disturbing to him because his real dad told him he was leaving to buy Chuck a bike and then never came back (playa). Chuck then confesses that he still never learned how to ride a bike. I'm sure this will not become an issue in the future.
-Ohh, chuck's rampaging destructing uncovers a snipe nest. See kids, acting incredibly irresponsibly with construction equipment always results in good things.
-They do teach chuck to ride a bike. He then gets hit by a bus. Or not.
-Brooke was apparently going to move to New York but is staying town because of the pregnancy. Yeah they apparently don't allow children in manhattan (note to self if true we now have another reason to move to manhattan)
-Nathan tells jaime if he makes a shot the court won't be bulldozed. He of course makes it. Its going to be too bad when he loses all trust in his father after the court gets destroyed next week. I'm almost looking forward to the inevitable drug habit.

How I've missed this show, I'm definitely all in for the finale.


Saturday, May 14, 2011

WIn WIn

I saw this a week ago, and I'm really not motivated to write about it now. Its a nice enough little movie, and worth checking out as a character piece. It doesn't really stick the ending, but thats not a fatal flaw. Plus its got Paulie from Rocky as a rich guy suffering from dementia. So that's cool.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Thor

When I was in playing in the percussion section in the band at Martin Luther King middle school (shut up) one of my fellow drummers suggested getting a cowbell for his drumset that had 'god of thunder' painted on it. Being idiots we all seriously thought this was a great idea (on a completely unrelated note we also all really teenage mutant ninja turtles were cool). We were of course idiots. Why do I bring this up? Because its my blog.

Note: I originally wrote two more paragraphs actually linking the opener to a discussion of the film, but blogger didn't publish them. I don't really feel like going back to re-write them because nobody actually reads this, but I will say it was pulitzer worthy. As for the film itself, I generally enjoyed it. Its not great, but it doesn't take itself too seriously and moves along at an engaging pace. Thor as a character isn't as interesting as some of the other Marvel heroes, and the 3-D is awful, but overall its a fine, if slight, film.

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Fast Five

I was so bored by the first Fast and the Furious that I haven't even bothered to see any of the previous sequels. Then I started seeing a lot of positive reviews for this one (the Onion AV Club even gave it a B and they hate everything), and it looked like it might be the kind of over the top unintentionally hilarious action that I generally enjoy (see Cliffhanger for an example) so I decided to check it out. I'm somewhat surprised to say that it actually kind of was entertaining. Oh its aggressively stupid and implausible, listen to this podcast for a pretty humorous breakdown, but so were most of Sly Stallone's films and it didn't stop be from enjoying/laughing at them. The acting is about what you would expect (though I did enjoy The Rock who spent the whole film turned up to 11), and it's twenty minutes too long, but overall surprisingly not sucky (technical term). I don't want to bother going through the plot holes since that's part of the fun, but the biggest thing it did reemphasize is how aggressively apathetic I am too anything involving cars. Seriously anytime they showed a slow motion sports car peeling out, or somebody staring intently while turning (which was often), my eyes just glazed over. To be fair the vehicles I have driven in my life are:

1978 VW Bus
1982 Volvo 740 GLE
1980 Honda Accord Wagon
1989 Honda Accord
1992 Toyota Camry
1994 Toyota Camry

So what do I know. Still the musical montage in Rocky IV remains my all time favorite movie car scene and that's only because Rocky shifts approximately 400 times while trying not to cry. Art.

So yeah Fast 5 - surprisingly not completely worthless and generally watchable in a really stupid, probably racist (mainly coming from the way they portray of Tyrese Gibson's character. Really a fast talking black guy who basically spends the entire file going "Awww Schnap"? Its practically a minstrel show), super loud kind of way.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Less Than Zero

Less Than Zero may be one of the pointless films I've ever seen. Not the worst, the most pointless. Lets go through a brief plot rundown shall we:

-Open with a scene of Jami Gertz, Andrew McCarthy and Robert Downey Jr. graduating from high school. Everybody is so happy and full of life.
-Smash Cut to six months later, McCarthy comes back to LA for Christmas break and finds his girlfriend Gertz has not only slept with his best friend, but is not a crack snorting model (I know that's a redundant description). But even more dramatically Downey has in the course of six months bankrupted a record label, become addicted to smack, and owes $50K to drug dealer James Spader which he has no hope of repaying. Spader of course makes him become a male prostitute in order to get restitution.
-We have an hour of Gertz whining at McCarthy to help Downey (even though the film gives no reason why he should other than the fact that they were high school friends), even as Downey keeps getting deeper and deeper into trouble.
-Rehab scene where downey gets clean after one night of detoxing.
-Cut to Palm Springs, Spader acts Spadery, he an McCarthy exchange blows, then McCarthy drives off in his convertible with Gertz and Downey.
-Downey dies on the drive home
-Funeral

FIN

Trust me this description makes the film seem much more interesting than it actually is. I don't mind bleakness (I am someone who's watched Requiem for Dream more than once) I just ask that the desolation have a point, or at least be artfully rendered (like Raging Bull). With Less than Zero we actually have a rather puritanical anti-drug PSA (I guess), but it has none of the dark humor or energy of American Psycho and Rules of attraction (more recent films based on the works of Brett Easton Ellis) which also dealt with the shallowness of materialism but were also, you know, entertaining. Whatever I'm done, I'll just say that Less than Zero equals the number of minutes I felt weren't a waste of my time (zing!).

Source Code

Source Code is a well-executed sci-fi thriller that has a somewhat more intelligence than the average offering. It doesn't reach the level of something like Inception, and isn't as subtle as director Duncan Jones' previous effort Moon, but overall its solid and worth checking out. Other than that I only have a few comments:

-The actual ending is a but of a cop out, and almost seems like they're setting up for a sequel which makes no sense given the logic of the film. The natural ending point would have been about five minutes earlier when they essentially stop time.
-So Jake Gyllenhal's character falls in love with Michelle Monaghan over the course of the same 8 minutes (basically the hook of the film is that he continually goes back and relives the last 8 minutes of a a guy who died in a terrorists attack life to try and find the bomber). Granted he probably goes back, lets say, 20 times, but I'm unconvinced that he could become so enraptured in approximately 3 hours that he's be willing to do what he does in the film. Lets just say after he has to spend some time with her outside of that 8 minute window and it turns out she's someone horrible, like a Thomas Kinkade fan, and now he's stuck. Maybe not the best planning there. Of course Michelle Monaghan's character looks like Michelle Monoaghan so maybe I'm just completely off base.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Hanna

First go watch the trailer , now you pretty much know what the film is about and I don't need to recap. See, we call that division of labor around here. In general the film opens strong, moves along reasonably well, and then kind of peters out at the end (kind of like your...never mind I'll restrain myself). Its reasonably entertaining, and as I've said before I always enjoy seeing kids beating up adults (or getting beaten up by adults I'm not picky, I just like intergenerational warfare). The action does get a bit repetitive, and when the film tries to interject some humanity by having Hanna interact with a 'colorful' family it doesn't really go anywhere. Indeed they just sort of disappear without any real resolution so the film probably would have been better off not even introducing them. Still thats a minor point, and generally the film is entertaining in a 'don't think too hard about the logic' kind of way.

All that said, there is a fundamental flaw in the set up that keeps me from getting wholly invested with whats going down. Basically the whole premise of the film is that Cate Blanchett's character has been hunting Hanna and her father for 16 years and will stop at the nothing to stop them. As a result Hanna has to go and take down approximately 5000 government operatives and assorted hit men in order to have a chance at peace. The problem is that the way Blanchett plays the character is more exasperated than driven. She seems generally annoyed when she gets the signal that Hanna's father is still alive, not because that she wished they were dead, but because now she has to deal with it. Really you get the feeling that if Hanna's father had just kept his head down and moved to, say, Fontana, Blanchett would have been completely fine never dealing with them again and hundreds of expendable crewman could of avoided death at the hands of a borderline psychotic teenager. As a result I never really bought that anything that happened was necessary, and felt that the father was just a paranoid sociopath who could have given his daughter a normal life if he wasn't so consumed with getting revenge. Of course that's how I roll most Thursdays so who am I to judge.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Sucker Punch/Your Highness

Well this week I saw two films specifically because the box office performance was so bad I wanted to see them before they got pulled from the theaters. Even in the face of overwhelmingly negative reviews I strode into the viewing experience with some hope they wouldn't be complete wastes of times based solely on my enjoyment of the filmmakers' prior work. I went 1 for 2 (or more accurately .75 for 2).

Sucker Punch

Unlike a lot of people I kind of enjoy Zach Snyder's work. I thought 300 was a lot of fun and Watchmen, while flawed, was interesting. At the very least he has unique visual style that I figured would keep me engaged even if the film sucked. It most assuredly did not. Sucker Punch is more than anything, incredibly boring. There's a lot of scenes where you can see Snyder trying so hard to make things look 'cool' that the effort is practically bursting off the screen. Generally when you have to work that hard to be cool, you fail (trust me, its how I spent my high school experience). Snyder spends all his time trying to make Sucker Punch Inception- lite (most of the action takes place in two dream levels) using dragons, WWI nazi robots, nuclear bomb, and women dressed as strippers, which granted sounds cool but just fails epically here. I could go on, but I was too bored to get very worked up.

Your Highness

I really enjoyed the previous James Franco/Danny McBride/David Gordon Green collaboration Pineapple Express so I went in to Your Highness hoping for the best even though the reviews had pretty much universally condemned it as offensively juvenile. And while I would agree with the last part of that description I'm not sure its really a problem. Your Highness is first and foremost incredibly silly, and incredibly filthy, but is so good natured about it its hard to get too offended. I'm not saying its a great work of art or anything, indeed no joke is too cheap or obvious, and the plot is at best perfunctory - but I laughed. The film has the good sense not to take itself seriously (even the big shift in plot when our protagonist gives his inspiring speech is undercut by the fact that he's wearing, um, a severed Minotaur penis around his neck as a trophy) and while not all of the jokes work, enough do and I generally enjoyed myself. I wouldn't watch it with anybody who doesn't have a heightened sense of the absurd, but in general I think its better than most people are giving it credit for.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Paul

Paul is kind of a tweener film. Its not that great, but it isn't bad either. I generally laughed at the appropriate times, and found certain aspects reasonably clever, but when all was said and done it didn't really stick with me. Its certainly nowhere near as good as the previous Nick Frost and Simon Pegg collaborations (Sean of the Dead and Hot Fuzz), but in general its reasonably entertaining. It is a little bloated at two hours (the beginning twenty minutes in particular are draggy) and I would have been fine cutting at least two of the ancillary characters, but (this is more equivocating than the women I date) I still generally enjoyed myself. The parts that work best are just when the characters are allowed to hang out and riff (and I'm including the CGI alien played by Seth Rogen in the group) and not try to push what is actually a pretty thin plot forward.

The only other thing I want to say is that one of my brother's name is Paul and we were actually together for a wedding the day the film opened. My other brothers and I then spent approximately 15 hours making a variation of the "Hey did you hear Paul came out today?" joke. A combined 18 years of post secondary education between us. This country is screwed.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Drive Angry

Look there was very little chance that I wasn't going to enjoy Drive Angry. The trailer made it very clear that it was of a genre that I have a particular affection for - the film that knows it so ridiculous that it just embraces its over the top nature and revels in excess (try to find that sub category at blockbuster). When this type of thing is done well it can range from great (Bad Lieutenant), to a borderline piece of surrealism (Crank 2), or at the very least just be incredibly entertaining (Shoot 'em up). There is a close cousin, but not exactly the same, as the as that genre as is doesn't realise its ridiculous, but is still entertaining because of its over the topness (ie. Rocky IV). My question going in was just where on the spectrum Drive Angry was going to fall. The answer ended up being on the lower end, but I still enjoyed myself.

I'm not really going to go into the film details, but if you want a nice overview read this piece, the author likes the film more than I did but you'll get an accurate representation of what you're in for.

I have two additional thoughts:

-William Fincher is great as The Accountant (though I may be biased).
-Nic Cage is unfortunately the most disappointing part of the film. He goes through the entire film with none of the energy that characterizes his best efforts. As a result the film lacks the spark that could have made it something truly interesting, and not just moderately entertaining.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

The King's Speech

I finally decided to see this because it was the only best picture nominee I hadn't watched so I figured I might as well be a completest. Sort of like how I went out with all your sisters. Even the one who looks like Bruce Vilanch. Boom Roasted!

Much like last year's Frost/Nixon, The King's Speech is really just a sports movie for people who claim they're much to cultured to enjoy anything as banal as competition. We have a talented underdog who because of past trauma is too afraid to get back in the game (The King with a speech impediment). A maverick outsider who doesn't play by society's rules, but whose unorthodox training methods might be the only thing that make our hero reach his true potential (in this case a failed actor turned speech therapist played by Geoffrey Rush). And of course a climatic event where our plucky underdog overcomes his previous limitations to succeed and inspire those around him (The Speech). Heck, they even through in several training montages, except instead of a boxer training in slow motion with Eye of Tiger blaring in the background, we get an aristocrat getting elocution lessons over a classical etude (also known as Eric's 2007 spring break). Of course since it stars people with British accents wearing tuxedos The King's Speech gets nominated for 12 Oscars, while Rocky 4 got shut out. Can you explain this to me? I mean Rocky's speech at the end of that film ended the cold war for god's sake (If I can change, and you can change, then we all change!!!), all George VI did was tell a country they were entering a war over which he had no say. Its an outrage. I blame the kids and their rock and roll.

Anyway back to the film in question. Overall the Kings Speech is fine, if a little overrated. Much like the central action in 127 hours, its a little difficult to make something as inherently internal as overcoming a speech impediment compelling for two hours. As a result the film does drag a bit in the middle and I found myself checking the watch a couple of times. Still the central relationship is good, there are some nice moments of humor, and the film does stick the landing which is of course the thing it had to do. I don't think its the best picture of the year, and when it inevitably beats Inception (and True Grit, and The Black Swan, and The Social Network, and Scott Pilgrim (not nominated but should have been, that's right I'm including a double parentheses, that's how I roll, I don't need brackets)) I'll only be mildly annoyed.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

127 hours

The story of Aron Ralston, who goes hiking in a remote canyon, gets his arm trapped under a rock for five days, cuts it off (the arm not the rock) and walks out is an amazing one - I'm just convinced it makes for a great film (see what I did there). To be sure director Danny Boyle and star James Franco do their best to make it one, working overtime with stylistic flashes and strong acting to try and keep you involved for the entire duration while in reality you're just waiting for Ralston to cut his arm off already. In particular there are several times during the middle section (when he's trapped) where the film feels draggy and no amount of hyperactive directorial flashes can make it intensely compelling. Thats not to say the film is worthless by any means. The beginning and ending sequences have a real energy, and the money shot is just as cringe inducing and intense as you'd expect it to be. If anything I wish the film had spent less time in the canyon, and more time on the fact that he still had to climb out and walk back to civilization after self amputating his arm and not having any food or water for several days. I get that it wants us to feel the desolation of being trapped for five days, and that approach may have been unavoidable. Its just, for me, the much more interesting story begins when he decides to cut the appendage off and everything before that feels a little bit too much like 'Hey look at us we can make you watch a film about a guy being trapped under a walk for five days.' Like I said its not bad, but its not quite successful at what it sets out to do. Definitely check it out, but just keep your expectations in check. And if for some reason this wins best picture instead of Inception, The Social Network, or the Black Swan...well I probably won't do anything.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Carlos

This three part film with a runtime of just under six hours chronicles the life of Carlos the Jackal, a terrorist currently serving a life term in a french prison. He's best known for a 1975 raid on an OPEC meeting in vienna and having a sweet nickname. So sitting through a film that was actually as long as Valentines Day felt (the Ashton Kutcher vehicle, not the day) the obvious question is whether or not Carlos is a compelling enough character to devote so much time to. Before I answer that let me briefly segue into what the film does well. Edgar Ramirez is a compelling presence as the titular character, and the film goes to great pains not to romanticise his life, which thankfully means little in the way of super stylish montages and very short, messy and matter matter of fact violence. This approach, and the runtime, also means that it captures how dreary the life of a terrorist must actually be - constantly moving, having most of your efforts fail , all the while knowing that some day its all going to end badly.

This is also means that you are sitting through six hours of what is often very mundane action. That wouldn't be a debilitating if we were invested in the character but that's not really the case here. As he's portrayed in the film, Carlos is a man of shifting ideology (going from fighting for Palestinian freedom, to Marxism, to finally Islamic revolution), ready to jump on whatever horse will have him. This amorphous personality meant I never really get any sense as to why he cares so much about committing terrorist acts, and since most of his speeches are just just sound like typical 'revolutionary' cliches there's no way to tell what beliefs he really has. As a reult, I never ended really caring what happened to him, and therefore its difficult to say that this subject deserved such a thorough examination. Not that its boring, its too skillfully made for that, but its just too often feels like a slog to wholly recommend.

However none of this was the film's biggest problem. No that would be the subtitles. The white they were projected in instantly became unreadable whenever they were against a white (or simply bright) background, and since the film often uses black and white news footage, and had lots of scenes in the desert, this got really annoying. Really that's the biggest reason not to see it. Well that and that the film felt the constant need to show a fully nude Carlos in an effort to show how he gets fatter, softer, and hairier over time. Sexy.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Season of the Witch

I saw this movie for one reason - my all consuming love for all things Nicolas Cage (well that I just haven't been able to bring myself to see The Kings Speech. I'm sure its great and all, but another english monarch film doesn't really excite me. Now if you're talking about the fifth fast and furious sequel, FiveFast, that's a whole other story). Unfortunately Cage goes through this whole film with the 'I can't believed I just filed for bankruptcy and have to film six more movies this year' sheen on his face which kills any chance it had of being ludicrous fun. Its not like the story didn't have potential for some good old unitentional comedy. Cage and Ron Perlman star as crusading knights who become disenchanted by the nobility of their quest and desert after killing approximately 600,00 poorly CGI'd infidels. Soon after they're commissioned to bring an accused witch to a far away abbey in the hopes that the monks there can cause her to lift the bubonic plague. The film spends some time playing with the idea of whether or not she's actually a witch, but it becomes apparent pretty quickly that she is. The one thing the film does which I appreciated is that they make it that she's not just a witch, she's actually the Devil (spoiler alert). As a result we get a climax which involves Cage and Perlman having a fistfight with said Devil. Read that last sentence again. Sounds like it should be tons of over the top fun right? Too bad the film doesn't completely embrace the ludicrousness of the premise, and instead tries to walk a line between an exorcist type vibe and camp and ends up failing at both. The proceedings aren't help by a stilted script, mediocre (at best) acting, really cheap looking CGI, and a general lack of energy from everybody involved. Oh its not unwatchable, just eminently forgettable which, in a movie that features Nicolas Cage fighting the Prince of Darkness, is really unforgivable. Thank god somebody is releasing that movie done well in three days.

One more observation. There's a point in the film where after deserting Cage and Perlman are riding through a village. Since they're now notoriously wanted men one of them decides it would be a good idea to cover his face. Its not the one who was specifically cast for Hellboy because his face is, um, distinctive. That's some heads up planning there.

Also would it have been too much trouble to feature this song over the closing credits?


Wednesday, February 2, 2011

The Way Back

I had a real hard time writing a coherent review for this film. I kept circling a point but wasn't really able to clearly enunciate what I' was trying to say and ultimately just quit trying (which I guess might actually be appropriate). Just keep that in mind when you read this and feel thats its even more disjointed and badly written then usual.

The Way Back tells the story of three men who break out of a Siberian prison and walk to India. Actually six break out but they tell us right at the beginning that only three make it to India so you do spend a good chunk of the film trying to figure who dies, but that's not really the point. What's really amazing about the film is that director Peter Weir does his best to make sure its as subdued and unconventional as possible, and bends over backward to remove any sense of real tension or conventional payoff. For example he doesn't show the actual prison break, or how they sneak across the trans-siberian railroad into Mongolia, just cuts to after the fact like it wasn't that big of a deal. Additionally, the deaths are treated in as perfunctory manner as possible, and the avoidance of convention is so deliberate that when he shows a character running over a mountain and yelling "Water" it ends up being a muddy puddle. The film also has an incredibly spare score refusing to underline most moments with any kind of musical cue. Finally the character development is kept to a minimum as bits of backstory slip of over the course of the narrative but just enough to move the plot forward.

Anyway what you're left with is an mannered, slow developing, intentionally tension-less story about amazing endurance. There really aren't any lasting conflicts between the characters as they all just sort of settle into a resigned momentum that keeps them moving forward. I do really respect the effort to avoid convention, and try to get to the root of the story. In particular the approach means that you don't really stress out whether they're going to get caught or not, or whether they'll even be that successful. Rather you just sit back and view the spectacle of walking through brutal conditions. This approach does yield some nice moments, and definitely made me appreciate the enormity of the quest. Thaaaaat said, I don't think it completely works. While I don't necessarily miss the traditional beats of this kind of film I do think there needs to be a bit more narrative momentum, and character development, to give the viewer something more to hold on to. While I think that the film does a good job capturing the drudgery of endless walking (having run an ultra marathon I can in a very tiny manner relate) it doesn't necessarily make for the most compelling viewing. As the film runs over two hours I do think there is room for tightening, and several portions where it could have easily picked up its languid pace.

However (and man is this turning into an equivocating review), the fact that I wasn't completely bored by the entire proceedings is a testament to how well the film is made. There is definitely a meditative quality to certain sections, and most moments on their own are impressive. That may ultimately be the films downfall. It has a lot of interesting pieces, but they don't necessarily cohere. It often ends up feeling episodic, and the desire to avoid convention means they skip over a lot of details that would have help pull the whole thing together. I give director Weir credit for not hollywoodizing everything, but ultimately I just wasn't able to get fully involved by what should have been an amazing story.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Conan The Barbarian

I was interested in finally watching this film for two reasons. One, its the film that thrust the former governor of california (Gray Davis) into National Prominence. Two, there's a certain group of film geeks thats always insisting its one of the classics. Combined with the fact that it also stars James Earl Jones, is directed by John Milius, and written by Oliver Stone meant that I definitely wondered if this was secretly a great film hidden by a less than thrilling title (sort of like Buffy the Vampire Slayer being one of the great television dramas of the last twenty years).

Well its definitely not a classic, and in a lot of ways its actually pretty bad. The acting is pretty much universally awful (with the exception of James Earl Jones a brief Max Van Sydow appearance, who appear to be the only characters with a pulse) and the line readings are so flat its almost as if the actors are using all their faculties to just remember was the next word is. That being the case its probably a good thing that there is remarkably little dialougue, just long stretches of pointing and grunting (as well as some of the worst voice over narration I've ever heard). And look, I actually enjoy Arnold most of the time, but he spends all of this film either looking lost, or like he's nannete the gorilla. Not an auspicious film debut, but at least he had the roids going.

All that said the film features stuff like Conan punching a camel out, biting the jugular of a buzzard whose feeding on him while he's crucified to a tree, and casually bedding some woman who turns out to be possessed in order to get directions (he just shrugs it off and goes to sleep when she turns into a ball of fire and flies off). Also the score is more interesting, and generally much more understated, than you would expect from an ostensible sword and sandals epic. As a result its difficult for me to completely dismiss Conan, but I can't really recommend it either. Rather than embracing its pulpy nature, the film tries too hard to be serious and intense, but ultimately just doesn't have the actors to pull it off.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Blue Valentine

Blue Valentine follows the unraveling of a marriage interspersed with flashbacks to the, happier, beginning of the the relationship (and also features the most disconcerting sex scene since A History of Violence). These type of films, with overwhelmingly bleak subject matter, are really tough for me to evaluate. They are unsurprisingly going to be intense and induce strong emotional reactions, but this could be happening independent of the film's actual quality. In order to make it worth my time to watch something that is just inherently harsh there has to be something more that makes it worthwhile, otherwise I just kind of wonder what the point is. I feel the same way after watching Kevin James' films but at least there you have the mocking factor, and only experience a little more soul-crushing despair.

Allow me a digression that hopefully better illustrate my point. I'm currently reading this novel called 'Lullabies for Little Criminals.' The story is told from the point of view of a twelve year old girl whose parents had her when they were fifteen, mom died soon after childbirth, and she is now living with her junkie dad who has tuberculosis. Her life then continues to get worse after that (including stints in foster homes, juvie, turning tricks as a thirteen year old, not to mention a little ride on the H-Train). Anyway if all the book offered was a chronicle of a really screwed up childhood I'd probably have quit already. However the characters are richly developed, language lyrical, and the whole thing just feels incredibly observant. As a result the story is sad (often overwhelmingly so) but never feels bleak. More importantly it doesn't feel like the author is making everything so sad just to show that she can. Rather she's telling an story that also happens to be sad (the ending may be upbeat, haven't gotten there yet). Too often it feels like people creating films/books/tv shows strive to come up with the most hard core depressing scenario possible just to show that they can. I'm not saying everything has to have a happy ending (indeed it would be boring if it did) but if you're going to make me sit through an incredibly disconcerting scenario you need to use the setting to get at something deeper to justify the discomfort.

So does Blue Valentine do this? I'm still not sure. The performances are undeniably strong and I really enjoyed the score, but the key thing that it does right is convincingly illustrate how these two people who currently can't live together actually ended up married. If they hadn't have been able to do that then I would'e written the whole thing off. As it is, the film manages to be a realistic portrayal of the end of a marriage which manages to avoid beating you over the head with its subtext until the very end. You'll just have to decide if that sounds appealing to watch.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Wes Anderson is one of those guys whose work I generally enjoy. I get that his style could be annoying (and has been endlessly parodied) but for whatever reason his blend of whimsy and idiosyncratic behavior always manages to at least make me smile. Granted they're not necessarily the most substantial films (though I would argue that Rushmore and Life Aquatic, in particular, have some real depth and melancholy) but they're usually entertaining, and exhibit a unique voice.

Fantastic Mr. Fox comes off just like you'd expect a stop-motion animated film from Anderson to play. It has colorful characters (in this case anthropomorphic animals who wear formal attire), an oddball sense of humor, and some generally low-key sentimentality. The story is actually pretty slight, and the life lesson at the end feels forced, but in general the film is a light enjoyable ride with some moments of real inspiration.

Note: My favorite bits of the film are when they have the animals suddenly act like, well, animals. For instance interrupting an extended monologue to suddenly tear into food. It reminded me of one of my favorite Family Guy bits - when Brian the Dog remembers to act like a dog (ie. starts barking at a vacuum cleaner) which...never mind. I found it funny. I'm also apparently twelve.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Harry Potter and the deathly hallows Part 1

Or HP7A as its been called. Of course the acronym ends up sounding more like a STD so I guess there's that. As for the film itself I don't think there's that much to say. Anybody's who's all in has already seen it, and if you're not there's no point. More than any of the other films this one would probably make the least sense to a viewer who hadn't seen its predecessors and, to me at least, it seemed as though it would have been very difficult to understand what was going on if you haven't read the book. All that said it does a decent job moving things along, and more than any other film it shows how that without Hermione Harry would have been dead at least three years earlier.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Jackass 3-D/The Expendables

Jackass 3-D

I don't think I need to get into the 'plot' such that it is. At this point you're either on board with Jackass or you're not, and I sort of am. I won't deny that I get a sort of warped sense of joy from seeing people attempt and fail ridiculous stunts, and the way its presented in the Jackass universe the carnage comes off more as slapstick than actual masochism.

Anyway Jackass 3-d hues closely to the format established by its predecessors. With the exception of the opening and closing sequences, the stunts all have the charmingly low key DIY visual aesthetic of youtube videos, and there's more than enough carnage to keep fans happy. The unique this about the entry to the canon is that for the first time you see a real sense of fear on the faces of the participants (as well as more time being spent on the physical toll the stunts take). You could argue that before they were too young to know any better, and while age definitely plays a role, I think the bigger factor is that the majority of the film was shot with the cast being sober (due to some addiction issues of Steve-O). Therefore its understandable that they might actually have visible reservations about say, getting kicked in the nads by a donkey or running through a maze of tazers and cattle prods, and as a result the film has a somber undertone that I haven't seen before. Anyway the closing credits make it look like that this is probably the last entry and for the sake of everyone involved long term health I hope that's really the case.

The Expendables

I really wanted to like this reunion of great eighties action stars (plus Crank 2's own Jason Statham) but I just can't. On the whole the Expendables tries way to hard to be over the top and testosterone filled, and you can practically feel the mechanics of the plot groaning at all times. I never would have thought that an action film starring Sly Stallone, Dolph Lungren, Jason Statham, etc would every be too restrained, but this was. Its almost too self-aware and ends up feeling more like a plod than the glorious piece of testosterone laden unintentional comedy it should have been. I guess next time the participants need to do as much coke as they did back in the eighties to get a better result.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Quick Round up of stuff I haven't mentioned

There were several films I saw while traveling this summer that I haven't written up yet and in the interest of completeness should be mentioned:

Invictus - Should have been great, was tolerable at best

Before the Devil Knows you're dead - Man this was bleak, well made film though

Prince of Persia - Pass

Robin Hood - Unnecessary

Raging Bull - Bleak as hell, and probably not as good as the hype suggests. Still you can't dismiss the artistry.

The Devil Wears Prada - A plane selection, and I think I'm the first person who ever watched this back to back with raging bull. I've had a lot of people tell me how great it was and I was curious. It was okay, but I'm tired of films where the protagonist can't get a high powered job without alienating everyone in their life. A lot of people can maintain perfectly normal lives while finding the intensity of their work rewarding. Whatever.

Valentines Day - Obviously this was a plane viewing. You know how bad the reviews were? Its worse, almost offensively bad. Its the type of film I never watch voluntarily, and if this is what passes for a mainstream romantic comedy I weep for everybody who has to sit through them. I'm serious, you have no idea how much this sucked.

I also watched all three lord of the rings films back to back to back on a 15 hour flight and I was surprised how well they held up. The stuff with Frodo really drags, but otherwise they were still engaging films and I was surprised how much I enjoyed watching them again.