Change Your Image
michaelplewa
Reviews
Moon (2009)
They Don't Make 'Em Like This Anymore
Moon is a surprise for the Summer of 2009 which has already included a 3D Ice Age, a second Transformers and pretty much a never-ending series of underwhelming, boring movies. Bearing more similarity to the bigger, gaudier Star Trek, Moon is the rare movie that makes you think. Unfortunately, you will find yourself, occasionally, outsmarting the filmmakers and their choices. But man oh man, does this movie ever have about 80% pure cinematic and narrative genius. Though the trailer spoils many of the film's surprises, you'll still find yourself, hopefully, sitting in a theater watching this tightly crafted, contained yet unclaustrophobic thriller to the satisfyingly upbeat ending.
But it's main missteps, in my humble opine, were it's confused half-step toward gritty realism AND white-washed futurism. The moonbase of the film is both believably grungy but unnecessarily futuristicky, like the set-designer really battled for some whammo props and sets while the director fought to dress everything down a notch. If you come looking for an Alien-esquire truly working-class worksite, you're half there. Unfortunately, many of the architectural embellishments in the base are also inspired by the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars. So the result is a bit muddled.
Secondly, the trailer is a bit of a tease in that it promises a smarter, more psychologically compelling story than it can deliver. I wanted more isolation, agony and dread - what I got was a too-neat reveal of the conspiracy of Sam Rockwell's bosses, but then the movie pulled back again, like it didn't want to give away too much (even though it already had.) Again, it felt like somebody (the writer or director or somebody) didn't want to make a choice and left the film feeling a bit muddled.
But that brings me to the film's saving grace. Sam Rockwell. He MUST WIN the Oscar this year for this is a truly mesmerizing feat of acting. All these criticisms, these problems I have with the film, they can only be considered after watching because I was completely on-board due to Sam's total commitment to the characters (eeh, spoiler!) he created. How any Oscar voter could miss this as the best performance of the year (so far) is beyond me.
Pride & Prejudice (2005)
Misses the satirical point
Watching the oh-so-British-television production from 1995 having just read the book was an exercise in frustrating artistic restraint. Everything is too-bright; gauzy pastels overburden the frame. And many of the performances suggest most of the cast was incapable of more than recitation of Austen's words. In other words, I didn't like it - though admittedly the leads are good. Well, then I saw this version.
This version is overwrought and underthought. High school students are taught that this story is supposed to be a satire. The filmmakers here, apparently, missed all of that. They read this is a terrifyingly grim psychological thriller and went overboard on the post-production re-touching to make it look more like "Lord of the Rings" and less like the countryside of England romanticized by Austen herself.
Sorry, I'm all for artistic license but this movie completely misses the nuance and humor of the original text, not to mention most if not of all of the emotional beats. It's a long book and honestly it should have been a long movie. Praise of the "Robert Altman" quality of the film is foolish - major moments of dialogue are spoken over not only by nearby inconsequential characters but also the shoddy music mix in the final cut.
And the camera work is subpar, at times resembling a TV-movie with it's showy zooms, long takes and lack of interesting angles. It's all shoulder-height perspectives and sun-drenched backlighting.
In the words of my high school English teachers and the l33t - FAIL.
Fool's Gold (2008)
Uh...Who Would Think It'd Be This Violent?
So I thought, hey, why not see this - mindless date movie with attractive leads and exotic locales, right? Lots of underwater footage, beachy locations, sexy but not too sexy - no big deal, right? Wow. The writers REALLY don't get what a romantic comedy is supposed to be at all. They also, it should be noted, have no idea how to write a filmable script.
There are far too many scenes of characters sharing expository dialogue (which is fine if it happens once, maybe twice) to help the lesser minds in the audience catch up. But the plot is so needlessly convoluted that after the overdrawn setup is finally explained these hacks manage to make you 1) still not understand what the hell is going on and 2) not care anymore.
Boredom sets in early as numerous subplots are cast aside for a handful of overplayed ones. The "in debt to gangsters" plot, the "stern but benevolent father figure" plot and the always exciting "come on, it's obvious you two are still in love" plot.
Some side notes: too many people are killed, shot or mortally maimed by geysering tide waters. Seriously, I can handle Rambo but not in this movie. Also, the climactic plane crash played for laughs in the trailer? It's played for heavy, heavy suspense and drama in the movie. Tone deaf writing and direction.
The cast, it should be noted, with the exception of one terribly written part that sadly would humiliate any actor, comes off alright by the credits - you can't fault their professional devotion to the craft, even if it is in service of such crappy amateur material like this script.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
Who Knew They Could Pull This Off?!
"On Her Majesty's Secret Service" was supposed to come earlier. It was supposed to star Connery. It doesn't. That's the only, only problem with the movie. Sure, it's a big one, but there are so many, many reasons to enjoy this despite that flaw. And by "You Only Live Twice," Connery was kind of phoning it in anyway, wasn't he? So you have George Lazenby, who actually isn't as bad as film historians claim. Sure, his lines are at times garbled (no doubt by his accent as much as by the insistence on finishing the film on time.) This movie is a non-stop action ride with many, many thrills. It's moody, it's a true Bond picture. You'll love it. It keeps surprising you, delighting you. You'd never think a stunt sequence can get better and then it does. The script is fast-moving and ingenious.
There's a lot of winter sports, and I don't doubt the Winter Olympics as a whole owe much of their limited success to this movie.
The Darjeeling Limited (2007)
A rusty film that's at times very affecting
I first came to know of Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson with their debut "Bottle Rocket." It's a great "little film that could" and a great showcase for Owen Wilson's deadpan buffoonery. It also set Wilson up to be a star.
When "Rushmore" was released a couple years later, I was the only person belly-laughing in a half-full theater in Evanston, IL (the ones by Ryan Field and Mustard's Last Stand - they may be closed by now, I don't know.) I recall insisting I had seen a movie of amazing import and it has remained a favorite ever since. I guess you could call "The Royal Tenenbaums" Anderson's first attempt to wrangle control from Wilson and it shows in Anderson's increasingly fussy directing style - this style served the slacker comedy of "Bottle Rocket" well as it did the more indulgent art direction of "Rushmore" - a legitimate masterpiece. But the fussiness on-screen in "Tenenbaums" also scared me away from the Wilson-free scripted "The Life Aquatic" and my own instincts were confirmed by other Anderson fans.
So it was with some hesitance that I finally saw "The Darjeeling Limited" which can most directly link somewhere between the lost, free-associative world of "Bottle Rocket" and the stagy, East Coast-y world of "Tenenbaums." It's a looser film than Tenenbaums and yet seems more emotionally stifled. I longed for one of the cast's wonderfully deadpanned characters to just break down and weep for all their obvious emotional trauma. What I would have preferred to see achieved in a meaningful scene (even a short one, like Ben Stiller's final, heartbreaking line in Tenenbaums - "I've had a rough year, Dad") was instead finished with stagy and obvious symbolism.
I've loved Anderson's films for their war on intellectual snobbery and mass stupidity alike. But it seems that war is more Wilson's than Anderson's in the end. Even in Darjeeling, which Wilson is not credited as writing, he still delivers some of the best lines that illustrate the struggle between inner intelligence and connecting with other people. His character takes it upon himself to carry the emotional load for his younger brothers abandoned by their mother.
I hope Wilson goes back to the page for their next collaboration - their best efforts have all been linked somehow to his input as much as Anderson's. It appears their personal relationship isn't fractured and yet they haven't written a script since "Tenenbaums" and Anderson appears to be setting off for more ambitious-appearing films, like the Roald Dahl adaptation "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" which will no-doubt be yet another showcase for his fastidious mise-en-scene. Let's hope after that exercise in art direction, he'll yearn for Wilson's earthy charm and the two will write another masterpiece on par with Rushmore.
The Thing (1982)
A Milestone
This is a note-perfect film, from beginning to end. From the snowy, desolation of the Research Outpost to the gloriously realized special effects, there isn't one moment of misstep in this whole film. Sublime casting and a truly satisfying ending cement this film as one of the greatest ever made.
You will be on the edge of your seat during the "petry dish" test scene. Giving more away would be too much a spoiler. You did see it parodied on South Park (perhaps) last night, but in the context of this paranoic film, it's the best scene of many outstanding scenes.
I've had the pleasure of seeing the 50's original on the big screen. John Carpenter purportedly idolizes Howard Hawks, but he surpasses his hero with this "remake." The 1950's version is something special, a time-capsule treasure of Hollywood's yesteryear - Carpenter's The Thing is the essential telling of the story.
Enjoy for all the years to come. It will leave you in chills.
Aspen Extreme (1993)
Cool Movie When I Grew Up
We got cable finally when I was ten or eleven and I must have watched this movie with my little sister twenty times. I recall first seeing Teri Polo in this film, and look how she turned out. Also, Peter Berg, an accomplished film director now. His Dexter Rutecki, though probably a poorly written part, was always resonant with me.
Then there was the rival instructor with the accent. Wasn't he in Spandau Ballet? Ah, memories. It gets certain moods right, like being in a Mountain town at the end of ski season. There's great footage of skiing and the story is probably crappy now, but it was enthralling enough for me when I was 11.
Children of Men (2006)
Ultimately Disappointing
What a premise! What painstaking execution and set design! What a bunch of script problems! This is the kind of film that demands a satisfying 3rd act and ending. It eventually comes up just a little short. At the beginning of the film, it is clear above all else, youth is the ultimate commodity. A newborn baby, it would be assumed, would be the miracle of miracles for all of humanity.
Why, then, must so many characters be so wrongheaded about how to handle this? You have the government, who (never explicitly but are assumed) would discredit the mother and seize the infant as its own scientific property (and in this desperate hour, the Big problem is?) You have the radicals fighting for situational (and ultimately fleeting) freedoms of dignity. And then the vulgarians who always populate a post-apocalyptic story. You know, the ones who are so bent on survival at the lowest order that they are constantly laughing and easily fooled when the promise of money or food is dangled before them.
Unfortunately, Children of Men populates itself with too many characters from other post-apocalyptic stories and only successfully covers this up when the camera accomplishes what must have been the impossible. I give much respect and admiration to the crew capable of executing some exceedingly complicated and exciting long-takes. However, a 3rd act shootout provides a glaring reminder of the presence of the camera and its documentary-like hand-held omnipresence that it more disrupts than enhances the film's statement.
In final appraisal, this film had so very much going for it but ultimately comes up short where it should have been fixed months (if not years) ago. The script has an unsatisfying and ultimately tedious and anti-climactic ending. Pity. It was really something to behold until then.
Unforgiven (1992)
Perfection
Much is made of this film's ending. All praise it is due. However, the film is a sumptuous feast of larger-than-life tragedy by one of cinema's all time masters; Mr. Clint Eastwood. He's earned his spot in the Director's Hall of Fame since, but few films will ever achieve the perfection displayed on-screen in UNFORGIVEN. Reviewers, critics and fans describe the film as haunting and it certainly is. Eastwood and Broyles have crafted a Western that might have officially ended the genre, but if only by so masterfully stating its purpose.
As the years have gone by since I've seen this film and appreciated it more and more, I have increasingly grown aware of its timeless significance. Plainly put; it is due all the hyperbole in the English language. You'll wonder, perhaps, whether any film can be that good. This one is.
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
What's Better Than This?
There are so few films, contemporary or Golden Age, so rich with morality and spiritualism as this film. Sure, it's based in Christian ideology, particularly Clarence's angelic status; but more than that, it's the journey of a man at the edge of the abyss, seeing his soul and his life, and making up his own mind. It's the ultimate challenge and the ultimate reward.
A lot of people criticize Frank Capra films for their cornball style and antiquated FDR leftwing-ery. However, no film better illustrates the basic tenets of human decency and value than this film. Its a perennial favorite at Christmas not only for its holiday-timed narrative, but its affirmation of the inviolable essence of friends and family. George Bailey, in his darkest hour, retreats joyously to the family and friends he at times was convinced had stifled his lifelong ambitions.
Some films stay with you for your entire life - this is one of them.
You Can't Take It with You (1938)
Did We All See The Same Movie?
What, and I mean, WHAT the heck happens at the end there? You have got to be kidding me! I can't believe this won Best Picture, let alone being held up as a classic still today.
Edward Arnold's moral reversal is telegraphed so far in advance you swat your forehead in amazement at how unsophisticated audiences must have been back then. And then his old rival literally haunting him before closing the big deal? And then the guy dies! The perpetuation of "money can't buy happiness" is so tritely bludgeoned into our heads (the audience) you wonder whether there was ever any room for nuance.
I really enjoyed the way this movie starts. In fact, I thought I was waiting for another Hollywood screwball classic, only with a little more heart and a little less slapstick to go around. Jimmy Stewart and Jean Arthur are a total delight, their chemistry is absolutely authentic and invigorating. It's when old man Barrymore keeps peppering this over-salted ham of a movie with his optimism and joie de vivre that you want to jam a fork in a toaster just to make the brow beating end.
Some films are dated so poorly you can barely stomach them. The house staff is a particularly ugly reminder of black stereotypes perpetuated in Hollywood. I noticed after a while that neither of the two black actors spoke a line of dialogue without a white actor in the frame.
Some of the shortcomings of this film are the dated message, for which you really can't blame it. But the real problem is the 3rd act nosedive. It spends the first two acts building a mannered, satiric social comedy only to see it literally blown sky high in exchange for maudlin monologues about harmonicas and the little people.
I've heard of Capra-corn, but come on. What did this beat to win Best Picture? Errol Flynn's Robin Hood and Renoir's Grand Illusion! This should be taught in film school as the classic example of how not to end a movie. Shame, it had so much going for it for the first two thirds.
The Departed (2006)
Stay until the credits roll, fans of the original
Sometimes you see a movie in which everybody is so thrilled to be putting on this show, that their sheer joy in entertaining you explodes from the screen and burrows into the audience's collective imagination. You can tell that these actors, these filmmakers, everybody involved in this production, you can tell they were busting at the seams with excitement. Nobody was ashamed of their influences here; Jack Nicholson's character is a giddy rebirth of Johnny Friendly from ON THE WATERFRONT, oozing menace and self-entitlement. William Monahan takes Siu Fai Mak's excellent script and bumps up the humor, the tragedy...yeah, and a whole lot of Boston slang.
There's a sheen of Hollywood artifice that some might decry but that I think contributes to the thrill of the show; after all, we know all these guys are playing make-believe anyway, right? Who cares if a soundstage in New York is subbing for a bachelor loft with a view of a Boston landmark? Point is, this movie has so much going for it, even what it doesn't have going for it works for it anyway.
Fans of the Hong Kong original will immediately note the difference in endings, and I'm still deliberating this one. !!!! SPOILER !!!! Damon getting popped in the end is, supposedly, the "right" thing. However, it means that his lover betrayed him, or did she? See, what ambiguity it robs from the original's ending it adds in a new shade.
Does this mark the return of Scorcese? It certainly is a very good sign, if it is a sign, of things to come. I for one hope this isn't the last kind of this film he does. He knows how to make these toughs work on screen...it's a rare gift.
Crank (2006)
Like spinners with spinners
The baroque MTV editing and sound effects only enhance the "higher than high" concept. I've seen DOA (the 50's version, which is no subtle thriller, though in a completely different way), SPEED and RUN LOLA RUN, all of which contribute to CRANK's mileu (spelling?) You see the trailer and you want speed, fun and explosions (there aren't many I can remember). What you get is a stylish thriller with plenty of adrenaline thrills all its own. The sex scene is a high mark for the writing team here. Statham exclaims, "I'm Alive" to a cheering crowd enjoying the spectacle. You know why he's excited, you know why they're excited, and you know that in some ways it's all the same thing. It's too bad a movie so devoted to the thrill of living has so much killing. I know you can't poison a guy who sells insurance and then expect him to go nutso-Matrix on your minions, you have to do it to a total badass. It just seems on final reflection (yeah, that applies here), there's a missed opportunity. However, if you blink you'll miss it, and that's why I'll watch this movie again and again.
Idiocracy (2006)
This is the beginning of a marketing mystery
There's no other word for it...Fox dumped this out, with NO marketing of any kind. Nobody in the country, other than those who have been looking forward to this film, know anything about it. All the red flags have flown. It has to be a mess, it can't be anywhere near as good as Office Space, right? Wrong. Though Office Space it ain't, this film definitely has satirical bite and wit. It's a misfire on certain levels, but who's to blame is left to mystery.
Based on what is currently showing in theatres, I can say IDIOCRACY is a good movie. It's funny, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny. It's effective, sometimes ingenious. What it isn't as far as I can tell, is finished. We will see something come of this film again, whether it's an extended cut or reshoots. Alone it can be hilarious. It's ballsy at times.
Leaving the theatre, looking around at the mall, I was surrounded by advertisements and billboards, commercialism and stupidity. It's not quite as damning a dystopia as 1984, but this movie paints an ugly future for our culture. And there doesn't seem to be much anybody can do about it. Anyway, go see this if you can and try to find out what happened that it was so specifically buried.
The Descent (2005)
A Nice Piece of Original Horror Storytelling
I write this in August of 2006, and unless this movie is total fluke, I anticipate to hear more of Neil Marshall. Good reviews and a nearby theater with decent parking lured me out to THE DESCENT and I'm glad I saw it. Despite an opening that too heavily resembled FINAL DESTINATION and it's offspring, this movie picks up a completely original concept and runs away with it. If you've seen the trailers or read most of the reviews, you already know it involved both getting stranded in a cave and monsters. What you can't anticipate is that it also bothers to invest in its characters enough to evoke something more like ALIEN and less like, well, anything less well done.
I've heard the British ending is more ambiguous than the American one. From what I've read (I'll spare you the spoiler) it's not so much ambiguous as it is unfinished. The American ending is more definitive, a much needed feature to a film so thrilling. When you're gasping for breath, you want to know it's all over, finally.
I walked out with my friends and we agreed (1) we had no interest in spelunking and that (2) picking apart certain logical fallacies in this movie was folly. Sit down, scare it up, and walk away thrilled, and yes, perplexed. There's a twist at the end, but it's not a "who lives and who dies" kind of twist. It's a bigger, moral dilemma, and an interesting choice for a genre so content with killing whomever it likes.
World Trade Center (2006)
Terrifying and moving account of the day we'll never forget
I didn't want to see this movie. It seemed too self-serious and "important" in its marketing. It made it look like a movie where the men go off and do brave things, and get put in mortal peril, and then they cut away to the wives at home grieving. I had forgotten that this was based on a true story, and when the film had finished, I remembered the news story about it.
So, since it is a true story and reminds you of such before the film starts, you'll find yourself giving leeway to it's sometimes melodramatic moments. There's something in knowing this was based on completely true events that lends the capital "A" acting more license. And that's the triumph of this movie. The acting is, almost entirely, beyond most of its cast. There's moments where only knowing that this actually happened makes it believable. Nicolas Cage is probably at his worst, while this is something of a triumph for Michael Pena. However, you buy into their world so thoroughly, and that is mostly due to the remarkable and terrifying "hell on earth" that falls upon them. Cutting back to the grieving wives is surprisingly poignant, and the film does this often. Maria Bello is particularly compelling, though it may be she had a more interesting role to play than Maggie Gyllenhal.
You'll ask yourself if this movie trivializes the events of 9/11. You'll be tempted to, but you won't, because all of a sudden you'll remember how you felt on that day, and there's a reliving it all over again.
Oliver Stone is famous for his conspiracy theories (or at least he is in the common press.) World Trade Center presents a thoughtful and compelling conspiracy theory all it's own...Common human decency was the undercurrent of 9/11, not insurmountable evil. You remember after the dust settled and the shock wore off, you appreciated your public servant's a lot more. You'll remember why there were wreaths placed by strangers at the NYPD and FDNY. These men exceeded their training and their orders to do something they knew was right. These weren't superheroes, just the embodiment of what lies in each of us, even those of us who are many times selfish and cruel. Stone's theory is that despite all the misery, murder and mayhem of 9/11, common human decency won out. It's a tender reminder from a brutal scar on our common history that we can be as fierce and violent as we can be heroic and kind. Any film that makes you feel that good after you remember how bad you once felt is doing something right.
Cocktail (1988)
Watchable waste of time
This is the perfect midnight movie, the one that comes on right before bed and you can't turn it off. It's stupid, and the melodramatic vignettes at the end are laughable to say the least, but you can't help rooting for Tom Cruise who plays an earnest and eager business school student trying to make a fast buck the honest way. Cocktail invents a world of bartending that I've never seen replicated in real life or in any other film; these bartenders, you see, are rockstars of liquor, and they have crowds coming to see them sling rum. The theatrics of working in a fast-paced bar only gain so much ground, however, when the film makes an unexpected turn. You think you're watching two superstars ride their talent to bar-tending glory, but then the script veers hilariously off course and way longer into the future than an emotional journey this small deserves. We know that Tom Cruise has to come to accept success on his own terms and not define it strictly by money, but it takes him what seems like two years to figure this out. Being into your career is one thing, but this guy flips his switch so many times you can't peg what's his real MO. Bryan Brown, borrowed from his grueling acting in FX and FX2: The Deadly Art of Illusion, lends the film it's real charm, and whenever he's off screen Cruise can barely do his "acting" enough to keep you interested. But try not to find out what happens at the end if you start watching this movie. You won't be able to stop. Elizabeth Shue was never hotter than in this movie, and never dowdier by the time the credits rolled.
The Skulls (2000)
Perfectly competent teeny thriller
Mix schlocky but hilarious Hollywood hack dialogue with equally schlocky but hilarious Hollywood hack plotting, and you get a potent 1-2 sucker punch to your intellect...I call it...THE SKULLS. A delightfully silly movie, it moves briskly through semi-serious conflicts and silly conspiracies, and all with the the intelligence of your average CBS movie of the week. But it has a sense of momentum that you can't escape, and soon your on a ride that combines equal parts laughs and smiles, nothing too grim, but a (for what it is) fanatical devotion to its own plot devices. The maguffin of the Skulls society is their rule book, a device that comes to charming use late in the movie. William Peterson's senator reminds Joshua Jackson repeatedly that every conflict, every ordeal, can be solved within the rule book...and indeed within the world of the Skulls, this book does hold all the answers. Dropping hints here and there as to how it'll all end, the movie has a charming level of mystery, no more sinister or thrilling than The Da Vinci Code, but thankfully much less serious in its handling.
One of my favorite scenes is one of the stupidest. The chosen boys are given a grand reception with the many distinguished alumni on a remote island that at times resembles Alcatraz and Hogwarts School for Wizards. The boys are given expensive diving watches (an obvious product placement) and then dressed in tuxedos where they shake hands and shift uncomfortably in their cumberbunds...until the director inexplicably cranks out Creed onto the soundtrack ("Can You Take Me Higher" no less!) and then this huge door opens and out walk whatever waif models were hot in 2000. And they strut out as if on a runway, no sense of acting in any of their faces, and it's pure schlock...and I love it!
Rob Cohen went on to XXX and then tanked with Stealth, but this shows what people in Hollywood saw in the guy. The film is fun, never too heavy, and perfectly suited for a fall evening with your none-too-intellectual school friends OR consumed in 12 minute intervals on TNT. It's plotted swiftly and compellingly enough to justify its running time...another honor not bestowed on The Da Vinci Code. Basically, it's perfectly mindless, harmless fun, with a better than average cast who seem to revel in the camp of it all. Enjoy when you got nothing better to do.