Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011) - 3 Stars
Whether they are saving the NOC list, preventing the spread of a new super virus, or, in the case of Ghost Protocol, stopping global nuclear war, it seems that Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his gang never get a moments respite. This time, a very bad thing has happened in Russia and when Ethan’s crew is blamed and summarily disavowed, they must race both their enemies and the authorities in a race to stop a madman from triggering nuclear war.
The cast, mostly returning from MI:3, includes Simon Pegg as the comedy relief computer hacker Benji, Paula Patton as the equal parts sexy and deadly Jane, and newcomer to the franchise, Jeremy Renner as the suspiciously well trained analyst, William Brandt.
One of the major faults of the film was that the villain was conspicuously absent for much of the film. He actually does occupy the scene but he is so generic and uninteresting that you don’t really care who/when/what he is. This is especially apparent when you contrast against the series’ previous baddie, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman who simply devoured every scene he was in.
The majority of the film serves to create a thinly plausible storyline which allows Cruise et al to perform all manner of palm sweat inducing hi-jinx. Most notable and cringe worthy of which involves a REDICULOUS series in which Cruise must climb, untethered on the outside of the world’s tallest building. Many of these sequences are pretty exciting and serve as the main reason to see the film.
I think it is a testament to the directing prowess of Brad Bird that the film can be, more or less, a hollow action vessel and still be quite enjoyable. He handily keeps the audience on the edge of their seat while shadowing the, sometimes massive, plot discrepancies in such a way as to not make them obtrusively distracting.
Summary: If obscene action and outrageous stunts can hold your attention, it’s a fun flick for an after holiday palate cleanser.
The Devil’s Double (2011) - 3 stars
‘The Devil’s Double’ is a purportedly true story centering around Saddam Hussein’s younger son, Uday, and his sociopathically excessive lifestyle as seen through the eyes of his body double, Latif. Latif, a moral soldier forced from his family, is given everything at Uday’s disposal to hasten the transformation into Uday’s body double and plaything. Forcing Latif to be his accomplice in heinous acts, most centering around sexual depravity and torture, Latif must decide, against threat to his loved ones, how much horror his soul can withstand before defying Uday.
Uday and Latif are played by the same actor, Dominic Cooper, and with startling ability. After the first 10 minutes you forget entirely that he is a single man as he embodies both characters with such vigor (especially the rabid Uday) and finds the precise tones with which to play against his own characterizations. His performance is impressive to say the least and very well may be Oscar worthy at best.
Unfortunately, his portrayal is set within a story that does not prompt much in the way of emotional volatility. Of course Uday is insane and terrible. And, of course Latif is a good and moral man in a terrible position. But the story fails to allow Latif any foray into appreciating his new life of wealth and luxury, no pause to consider turning a blind eye to the atrocities in order to secure his family’s security and live a life unparalleled in excess. This unwavering dedication to good makes Uday’s usurpation not only inevitable, but makes it seem that Latif waits far too long to commence usurping if we are to believe he is still decent and not simply a coward. The path through the film is well paced, but with little deviation from the emotional median.
The film is shot well, with wonderful set design reminiscent of old Hollywood pictures contrived with outrageous set pieces. You get a great feeling for the opulence in which the Hussein clan lived. Also the the international and familial disputes are well portrayed for maximum drama.
Summary: A flashy feature film entrance for the excellent Dominic Cooper but lacks real punch due to sparse story-induced character introspection. A good rental if you’ve seen everything else at the Redbox.
Season of the Witch (2011)- 0 Stars
I genuinely love
Nicholas Cage. Every ten years or so, the proper tributes are made
to the God’s of Hollywood and he comes out with a wonderful film (Leaving Las
Vegas, Bad Lieutenant, Raising Arizona, Ghost Rider 2). In the
meantime, he offers up dozens of inexplicably terrible films. Not just a
terrible performance from Mr. Cage, but somehow leaving the audience wanting on almost
every level including, most especially, adequate wiggery (before you send
letters, I’m talking about bad hair).
However his prior blunders
may have been a minor bad movie aperitif to the filet minion that is ‘Season of
the Witch’. I couldn’t venture to say that it is his worst movie as
that would be like proclaiming a particular grain of sand on a beach is the
ugliest, but I will say that it is one of the most incomplete, joyless and
hollow films I have ever seen in MY life.
The premise is that
Behman (Nic Cage) and Felson (Ron Perlman) become knights of the highest
caliber during the Crusades against the Muslims, as crusaders were want to do. But
as they perform increasingly brutal acts they become disillusioned with the
cause and desert the army. In their travels they find a city beset
by the black plague and are conscripted to transport an alleged witch across
dangerous lands so that a group of well-qualified monks can destroy her and
lift the plague from the land. They join the group and unpleasant
things occur to everyone along the way.
A major plot point in
the beginning of the film is that Behman (Cage) is not quite sure that the
young girl is truly a harbinger of evil. For some reason though, that question is answered
about 15 minutes after it is raised and then reposed repeatedly throughout the duration
of the film. It would be like reporter come into Charles Foster Kane’s office
an hour into the movie and saying ‘Hey Charlie, you know the name of your
childhood sled? What was that again??” then continued on with the
proceedings.
The acting in some
sections seems to be a parody of itself including a distinct lack of any
accents from our heroes and the use of modern day colloquialisms more befitting
a New York crime thriller. Not everyone is terrible but none of them seem to care
enough about being in a feature length studio movie to overshadow the scenery
gobbling of Cage and Perlman.
The effects, of which
there are a fair amount, are on par with a high-budgeted SyFy network film,
perhaps about a mutated boll weevil or snowboarding teenage zombies. Some
scenes are so poorly rendered, including the final battle, that astonishment
must either turn to laughter or sobbing to keep from brandishing a firearm in your living room.
I will say little more
on this film as to further explore is reasonings and machinations would be like
asking a child why they drew on the walls. And to continue to bash it for
laughs would be like taking the fish out of the barrel and taping it to the end
of the gun. Neither would offer
satisfaction.
Summary: Unpleasant in all aspects. Far too violent for children and incomprehensible to adults. Never watch it, never consider it.
The Descendants (2011) - 4 ½ Stars
Films about family interaction and the difficulties that lie therein often run the risk of becoming trite rehashing of overcooked clichés and underwhelming characters. Neither is the case with the Alexander Payne’s ‘The Descendants’.
Matt King (George Clooney) is a workaholic father drawn back into the family fray due to the sudden hospitalization of his wife. Now, dealing with two daughters, a pending land deal that will affect both the financial future of his extended family and the whole of a Hawaiian community and several difficult revelations about his family, he must decide what being a successful man really entails.
As with many of Alexander Payne’s films, the interplay between tragedy and comedy is superb. His directing ability, along with the screenwriters, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, produce characters that evoke both intense empathy and uproarious laughter often within mere moments from one another. Oh, and the actor’s have a little something to do with the film’s success.
Clooney gives a perfunctorily excellent performance in a role that could have easily veered into melodrama were it in less capable hands. The showing from his two daughters, played by Shailene Woodley and Amara Miller was impressive to say the least. Shailene steals the film with her incredible portrayal of the eldest daughter and semi-former wild child, Alex. Judy Greer, Matthew Lillard and Beau Bridges all offer above average performances and newcomer Nick Krause as Alex’s nearly brain-dead friend, Sid, gives a one of the more empathetic portrayals in the feature and, while he’s not perfect, he shows glimpses of a tremendously intuitive young actor.
The Hawaiian landscape is featured prominently and provides as much back-story to the personalities of the characters as any other aspect of the film. (I remarked at one point that the island was another character then promptly threw myself through a plate glass window.) Almost everyone in the story wears bathing suits or free flowing Tommy Bahama shirts for the duration, despite most being multi-millionaires. This visual juxtaposition offers up a tangible complexity to these characters from the very start. This offers a base from which the audience is able to to progress into fairly serious 'not everything is as it seems' territory where the filmmakers seem to be so comfortable.
The pacing of the film is inspired, drawing the audience into the prolonged and almost redundant tedium of caring for a severely ill loved one. Despite this seeming monotony, every scene is as necessary as any other, prodding and pressing the characters to expose them as uniquely full and complex individuals. In films today, much is made about the 'events' of a story using characters as simple catalysts for action but 'Descendants' truly understands the fulfillment that accompanies good characters and executes them with near-perfection.
Summary: If you are looking for well crafted, well acted, deliberately paced, and impressively funny/emotional film, go check out 'The Descendants' when it comes to your town. With its success in a limited release I believe it will be sooner rather than later.
The Killer Inside Me (2010)- ½ Star
Small towns tend to be the worst at keeping secrets. So when your sheriff is revealed to be a long standing, sadomasochistic murder machine, it can come as somewhat of a shock.
Lou Ford (Casey Affleck) is a deputy in a dusty southern berg where he was born and raised. A trusted and upstanding member of the community, he unwisely starts up a relationship with a local whore (Jessica Alba) who he had been charged with running out of the city limits. The affair quickly spirals out of control leaving Lou to cover up his tracks the best way he knows how: a BIG-ASS pile of fashionably dressed, 1960’s corpses.
This film seems to only be 2/3rds complete. With an abrupt beginning almost totally devoid of an secondary character development and an even more disjointed ending, the films fails to make us care much about any character, including our protagonist. In most places it tries to make up for severe lapses in narrative explanation and relational interaction between characters by overdosing on atmosphere and mannerism. Everyone is excitingly dressed and twangs along with a lovely drawl or catch phrase but it’s all pomp and no circumstance. Without real motivation all the idiosyncrasies can’t help these flat and meandering characters.
The decision to add Affleck as a voiceover throughout the film could have been pre-determined but, I suspect, that is was added when the audience expressed it’s inability to follow even the most simple of interactions. Also, in one of the more disingenuous moves seen since Twin Peaks, his reliability as a narrator is called into question towards the end, making the entire exercise as unfulfilling as listening to a man mutter to himself on a street corner. The film maintains profoundly graphic violence throughout, which seems to replace the character’s growth as the source for climax and/or valley. I found these scenes gratuitous if only for their triviality to characters development or plot necessity.
I wanted to enjoy this movie. The cast is distinguished with supporting members including Kate Hudson, Ned Beatty, Elias Koteas, Simon Baker and Bill Pullman. But all are reduced to clunky, almost puppeteer-esque movements through the course of the film. Perhaps that was the intent of the director to again indicate the unreliability and skewed perspective of our anti-hero by making those around him somewhat one demensional, but if that is the case this film was even more poorly executed than I previously thought.
Summary: An interesting idea, executed as a patchwork of partially cooked personas and an even less directional story. All involved have done much better work. Skip this 60’s S&M love letter.
Trailer for 'The Killer Inside Me'
The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia (2009)- 3 ¾ Stars
Meet the White family. They make the cast of ‘Swamp People’ look like Nobel Laureates who have trained at a conservancy for French butlers. With illustrious family tree that is well known to law enforcement, local governments and the whole of West Virginia, they rob, deal drugs, shoot one another and generally kick up a CRAZY amount of shit for everyone surrounding their ignoble genealogy.
The most notable of the clan is Jesco, the current ruling patriarch. He has made himself famous statewide in the perpetuation of his father’s unique style of Appalachian tap dancing*. His other three brothers met violent ends, leaving himself, his mother and his sister as the only remaining members of the original clan. Don’t worry though; there are innumerable cousins, nephews, uncles, and aunts all having children at such a rate that the White family genome is likely to make up the majority of the human race by the time Cthulhu rises again. (They’ll probably convince old Cthie to snort oxycontin with them).
While the characters are truly fascinating, the documentary is difficult to watch in many sections, specifically when it veers into chronicling the children of the clan and the almost assured inference that none of them will live past 35. In one scene a mother begins snorting pills hours after her newborn baby girl is born (it’s implied that she didn’t stop throughout the pregnancy as well) and the baby is subsequently taken by Child Protective Services. Issues of rehab, imprisonment, family struggles, death and an almost unimaginable disregard for their general well-being has left most of the family looking and sounding 30-40 years older than their birth certificates would indicate.
This is one of the more compelling documentary’s I have seen, if only for the candor with which the family interacts with the film crew. Seemingly nothing is off limits as they are filmed talking about criminal exploits, future crimes, rampant drug use, terrible violence, and children beginning their decent into all of it around the age of 10. The film serves as an unwavering portrait of honesty as it entrances the viewer with images of an inconceivable lifestyle as well as some fascinating discussion by family members as to why they think their family exists as it does today.
Summary: For those of you that enjoy REAL DEAL human spectacle, this is right up your alley. The White’s are like a train wreck that has been picked up by a tornado and thrown into the bowels of hillbilly hell**.
*closely resembles a febrile seizure
**more whittlin’ than regular hell
Trailer for 'The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia'
I Love You Phillip Morris (2009) – 3 stars
While the film makes several notes that this is, in fact, a true story, the characterizations of the individuals portrayed have almost certainly been exaggerated. The exploits of Steven are more than able to carry a story but Jim Carrey’s particular spin makes him seem like a caricature, rather than real person. Various extreme mannerisms, a severe southern twang, and Carrey’s trademark gyrations distract from a deeply complicated man at the center of a story regarding identity. At the same time, McGregor’s Phillip serves little more than a token physical representation regarding the necessity of change for Steven.
While the characters are exaggerated in much of the film, it really hits its target in the more subdued scenes, especially a scene in which Steven interacts with a boyfriend who has fallen ill. These quiet scenes hold much more heft that the rest of the movie, mostly due to the fact that the characters stop being a series of characteristics and become people with which we can’t help but empathize. It is my belief that the filmmakers were attempting to create a comedy as much as a character drama and while many scenes WERE funny, this made for a disjointed pace throughout.
Summary: A truly interesting story told with a bit too much pomp and circumstance.
Trailer for 'I Love You Phillip Morris'
Fright Night (2011) – 2 Stars
Being a teenager is difficult. School, connecting with peers, romantic stirrings, fighting vampires, understanding yourself as an individual; it’s a lot to handle. Just ask Charley Brewster, who is pretty sure the new guy on the block is knocking off the neighbors by the house load. With the help of a few friends and a Vegas magician, does he stand a chance?
Charley (Anton Yelchin) is beseeched by his estranged junior high pal, Ed (Christopher Mintz -Plasse) to investigate a series of odd disappearances in their neighborhood. But, with a new set of cool-kid friends (including the younger Franco progeny, Dave) and the requisite ready-to-bed hottie girlfriend, he doesn’t have time to pay any attention to old Ed. Then things get quite weird.
In a genre that is a often an opening salvo for many young actors, the caliber of performance was above average. Yelchin, along Colin Ferrell as the vampire Jerry, and Peter Tennant as the Criss Angel-esque occult magician Peter Vincent, all turn in totally serviceable performances in their attempts to scare and delight. Farrell especially seems to delight in the opportunity to smolder throughout. Unfortunately, for a horror film that attempts a fair amount of comedy, neither the scares nor the laughs come often or big enough to satisfy the audience.
The story is based off of the original ‘Fright Night’, which I have not seen but am told is held in some novel regard by 80’s horror aficionados. I would guess, though, that many of the conventions in the film that we now view as fairly commonplace were somewhat innovative when the original came out in 1985.
Unfortunately, this movie did worse at the box office than it deserves. In fact, ‘Fright Night’ is a bona fide flop on a fairly severe scale. And it’s not a bad movie. It’s an almost totally average movie, with few aspects standing out as especially good or bad. In my opinion, its R-rating and August release were a real stake in the heart. (I would like to point out that this is my only use of vampire humor and I should be applauded for my restraint, as such)
Summary: Middling horror flick that is too violent to been seen by the teens that might enjoy it. If you’re looking for a good scare, wait another month when the real horror movies start rolling out.
After the Thin Man (1936)- 4 ¾ Stars
Nick Charles (William Powell) and his wife, Nora (Myrna Loy), are returning home after the Thin Man case, ready for a month of relaxation but must delay their vacation due to the disappearance of Nora’s hound dog brother-in-law. Nora enlists her exhausted husband to investigate the case which quickly devolves into a good old fashioned murder mystery.
There is a reason there were 7 entries in the ‘Thin Man’ series. That reason being that Powell and Loy rank in the top-10 comedy duos in the history of film. Their deadpan banter, ability to consume more gin that seems humanly possible, and their yin/yang-esque compatibility when it comes to solving mysteries make these films forever watchable. They seemingly have a perfect relationship, able to forever crack-wise at one another, knowing that only affection lies beneath the remarks.
Underneath the comedic witticisms lies an excellent murder mystery in which Nick aids (or rather leads) the police in an attempt to discover who is behind a sting of murders surrounding his mentally fragile sister-in-law. Also starring a young Jimmy Stewart as the lovelorn David, ‘After The Thin Man’ offers up premiere acting as a side dish to its comedy/mystery stylings.
Summary: The origin for many jokes found in today’s comedies,
The ‘Thin Man’ films are as delightful as they are well rounded. These movies, especially ‘After The Thin Man’,
are films both aficionados and casual enthusiasts alike should see.
Trailer for 'After The Thin Man'
Attack the Block (2011) - 4 Stars
The projects of London can be a very dangerous place. At any time you might run into hoodlums, drug dealers, killers or thieves. But what happens when something worse comes around? Can the locals set aside differences to make sure the block doesn't fall?
The story centers on a local gang, headed by Moses (John Boyega) who must join together with other tenants of their towering project to fend off an alien attack. These people include a former victim, a slumming college student and a badass drug dealer named Hi-Hatz, who controls the tower. The aliens, who resemble black bears with glowing blue teeth, want something from the block and they’re not leaving ‘till they get it.
Above all, the film is fun, exposing the local gang as simply children who have been raised in a hardscrabble world and have evolved accordingly. There is much humor in this, playing off of adolescent relationships, duties to parents and juxtaposing a precocious involvement in criminal acts with an inability to understand even young adult responsibilities. Nick Frost plays Ron, a subservient drug dealer to the menacing Hi-Hatz (Jumayn Hunter) and offers excellent comedic relief as essentially a stoned do-nothing throughout the film. The actors are well cast, with the gang populated by relative unknown child actors, all ably speaking the specific brand of London slang that is fascinatingly unintelligible to American audiences.
While the story and dialogue is somewhat clunky, it is also undeniably watchable, something Executive Producer Edgar Wright is able to bring to so many of his films.
Summary: The definition of entertainment without pretense. It is a smaller film, so it may be a while before it hits a theater near you, but when it does, it’s the perfect movie for a night out with the group.
Trailer For 'Attack the Block'
