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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.