Tuesday, May 29, 2018

2009 Capsule Reviews

Inglourious Basterds
rating: *****
review: To my mind, the point where Tarantino stopped screwing around being cool and instead just plunged into making a great movie, built around Christoph Waltz's startling, breakthrough performance.

(500) Days of Summer
rating: *****
review: Rewrote the rules of movie romance, an updated When Harry Met Sally...staring the unique talents of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel.  This is what La La Land was chasing almost a decade later.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
rating: *****
review: Heath Ledger's last movie, a role he didn't get to complete, but how Terry Gilliam solved that is just one of the ways this became his best and most breathtaking cinematic achievement.

Star Trek
rating: ****
review: The most complete Star Trek movie experience to that point, possibly even since.

Watchmen
rating: ****
review: Zack Snyder gambled that after Dark Knight audiences were ready for a mature superhero movie.  This was his first attempt, and it improves on its famous comic book source material.

The Proposal
rating: ****
review: Sandra Bullock finds her first huge success in years playing totally against type, and letting Ryan Reynolds needle her the entire movie over it.

The Hurt Locker
rating: ****
review: Kathryn Bigelow gambles on Jeremy Renner to sell the first great Iraq War movie, and is hugely rewarded.

Moon
rating: ****
review: Duncan Jones and Sam Rockwell start the ball rolling that would lead to Gravity, Interstellar, The Martian, and Arrival.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
rating: ****
review: The sixth Harry Potter movie bets that you're totally invested.  Most dramatic moments are Dumbledore risking everything for one of the horcruxes, and then his death at the end of the movie.  Really, this is the Dumbledore entry.

The Time Traveler's Wife
rating: ****
review: Funny enough, Rachel McAdams later makes another time travel movie, About Time.  In this one, she romances Eric Bana, who keeps popping up randomly in her life.  The book is truly transcendent.  The movie is close enough to be well worth savoring, too.

Bronson
rating: ****
review: After years of chasing after a defining role, Tom Hardy finds one, and now he's been chasing its legacy ever since.

Red Cliff
rating: ****
review: John Woo's big Chinese epic.

Funny People
rating: ****
review: My favorite Adam Sandler movie, kind of channels Warren Zevon's death beautifully.

Terminator Salvation
rating: ****
review: This is one of those movies that got overshadowed by production matters, that incident where Christian Bale loses his kit.  The movie itself is a totally fresh look at the franchise, with Sam Worthington turning in his first notable performance as a kind of prototype Terminator.  The result is the Blade Runner of Terminator movies.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
rating: ****
review: Surprisingly entertaining thanks to Channing Tatum and Sienna Miller anchoring the more cartoonish elements around them.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt whiffs as Cobra Commander.

Crazy Heart
rating: ****
review: Jeff Bridges settles into the grizzled version of his social deviant archetype.

State of Play
rating: ****
review: Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck in a rousing political thriller.

The Pink Panther 2
rating: ****
review: Not as surprising as its predecessor, but as a fan of the series I still wildly appreciate Steve Martin's contributions.

The Hangover
rating: ****
review: One of the iconic comedies of the modern era.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine
rating: ****
review: It's been typical to say Hugh Jackman struggled to find a worthy Wolverine solo vehicle, but this first attempt is already up to the task, recruiting the always-charismatic Liev Schreiber to play opposite him.  Really hard to not appreciate that.  Forget about Ryan Reynolds' first Deadpool.  That's just an excuse everyone likes to use. 

Angels & Demons
rating: ****
review: The second Hanks/Howard Robert Langdon movie is not the revelation the first one was, but recruiting Ewan McGregor was smart, and the movie later helped inspire the inspired ending of The Dark Knight Rises.

Killshot
rating: ****
review: Great ensemble, underrated entry in the Mickey Rourke comeback tour.

Two Lovers
rating: ****
review: Devastating romance between Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow.

A Perfect Getaway
rating: ****
review: Breezy ensemble thriller with a great cast.

Avatar
rating: ****
review: Immersive new vision of a blockbuster epic.

Fast and Furious
rating: ****
review: The unlikely fourth in the series, and the first in a hugely successful revival that eventually weaves the first three into a working tapestry unrivaled in cinematic history.

The Soloist
rating: ****
review: Moving social drama featuring Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx.

Fantastic Mr. Fox
rating: ****
review: Wes Anderson at his most fun.

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
rating: ***
review: Serviceable look back at this franchise's origins, a tad overestimating how epic it seemed.

The Slammin' Salmon
rating: ***
review: A scaled back comedy from Broken Lizard.

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
rating: ***
review: Nicolas Cage in a kind of remake that allows him to do his world-weary version of Nicolas Cage.

Land of the Lost
rating: ***
review: Will Ferrell gets to have a lot of fun in this remake.  Kind of the template for Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, minus the strong supporting cast.

Zombieland
rating: ***
review: Cult style zombie comedy.  Best part is the hilarious Bill Murray cameo.

Up in the Air
rating: ***
review: George Clooney in his groove, waiting for a movie to find itself around him.

Where the Wild Things Are
rating: ***
review: Really, really should've been transcendent.  Instead it's just ambitious.

Taken
rating: ***
review: I don't know if the other two movies in the series have a story that's truly worthy of the instantly iconic Liam Neeson performance.  Maybe someday I'll find out.

Invictus
rating: ***
review: Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela.  I think it's kind of a waste to pin the first big Mandela movie on a rugby story.

Pirate Radio
rating: ***
review: Good screwball material, excellent cast.

Everybody's Fine
rating: ***
review: Robert De Niro as a dad who disappointed his kids, and trying to make right with them.  Worthwhile material.

The Men Who Stare at Goats
rating: ***
review: I'm not sure the movie totally nails that its insane events are based on a true story.  So instead have fun with that great cast!

Race to Witch Mountain
rating: ***
review: Dwayne Johnson beginning to figure out that if he's a tough guy in the movie, the movie around him has to make that idea rewarding.

He's Just Not That Into You
rating: ***
review: Great cast!

District 9
rating: ***
review: Great story.  Nothing in it is as fantastic as Sharlto Copley.

The Princess and the Frog
rating: ***
review: Vaguely racist but classic Disney princess flick.

Surrogates
rating: ***
review: Bruce Willis is ultimately too grim to sell this as a sci-fi adventure.

The Blind Side
rating: ***
review: Nothing in this is as great as Sandra Bullock is in it.

Me and Orson Welles
rating: ***
review: Orson Welles ought to always pop.  Otherwise, what's the point of having Orson Welles?

Carriers
rating: ***
review: Chris Pine in a dramatic version of Zombieland.

Ninja Assassin
rating: ***
review: Fun to watch.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
rating: ***
review: Totally zany animated flick.

Paul Blart: Mall Cop
rating: ***
review: The best thing about this is also the most curious thing about it, that it's sold entirely on how pathetic Kevin James is.  Someone assumed his Hitch appearance was his movie template.

The Ugly Truth
rating: ***
review: This is the Gerard Butler movie where he's a male chauvinist.  Basically Gerard Butler is completely responsible for the state of male-female relations.

I Love You, Man
rating: ***
review: Paul Rudd and Jason Segel are best friends.  Kind of!  I wonder if this wouldn't have been better with Will Ferrell in Segel's role.  Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg!

Coraline
rating: ***
review: Creepy Neil Gaiman story.  Probably would've been better live action.

Couples Retreat
rating: ***
review: Seems like this ensemble comedy would've worked better with more focus.

2012
rating: **
review: Pretty standard, generic catastrophe flick.

Sherlock Holmes
rating: **
review: I think it was a huge mistake to cast Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes and Jude Law as Watson.  Should've been flip-flopped.

The Fourth Kind
rating: **
review: Would've been creepier if the suspension of disbelief weren't intrinsic to its appeal.

Duplicity
rating: **
review: Julia Roberts and Clive Owen maybe aren't the right actors for this sort of thing.

Law Abiding Citizen
rating: **
review: Gerard Butler totally overpowers this one.  Hilarious, given he's just gotten himself in a spot where people are noticing him at all.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon
rating: **
review: Huge boost with Jacob, but this is an anemic saga.

Planet 51
rating: **
review: Home nails the alien animated flick six years later.

Push
rating: **
review: Chris Evans still hasn't quite found his big superhero role.  But it's coming!

Saturday, May 26, 2018

Looper (2012)

rating: ****

the story: A mob hitman in the future is involved in a scheme involving time travel.

what it's all about: This is likely the movie that got Rian Johnson the Star Wars gig, and you can see The Last Jedi in that ending...!

Looper was originally known as the movie where Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the younger Bruce Willis, or Bruce Willis plays the older Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  Either way, they play the same character.  It's a couple decades in the future.  But three decades after that, time travel is now possible.  But the only people who use it, because of all the regulations, are the mob.  And they use it mainly to dispose of bodies.  They have hitmen in the past who kill the victims.  "Looper" is the term given to these hitmen because eventually they "close the loop," kill their own future self, sent to the past with final payment.  So they live the next thirty years and then get sent back to the past, to be killed by themselves. 

Yeah.  But being the mob, it's not a good thing if you don't do it.  We get a dramatic example of this with Paul Dano.  Paul Dano is the kind of actor that if he's going full Paul Dano, it's best in small doses.  Most famously, he was the second lead of There Will Be Blood.  To my mind, this was the cause of the horrible unbalance in that movie, because there could only be so much Paul Dano.  He's got the same kind of part in Cowboys & Aliens, 12 Years a Slave...Really, he can never really do the Paul Dano thing and have a decent-size role.

Anyway, so there's not a lot of Paul Dano in it, and that's just as well.  This was supposed to be one of Gordon-Levitt's leading man mainstream establishing roles, but I think the idea of the movie was too complicated.  Besides the hitman looping thing, there's also a kid who grows up to be the guy who "closes all the loops," and he's got a wicked case of telekinesis.  For some people, more than one gimmick is one gimmick too many.  I'd suggest, in a world where time travel is possible, it's likely that the laws of nature have altered enough so that anything's possible.  Maybe a cleverer movie would've explained that, maybe even tied in the existence of telekinesis with time travel.  Maybe it's not really necessary.  Maybe explaining the concept of looping is enough explanation.  Audiences hate explanations more than they hate more than one gimmick.

But if you don't have a problem with any of that, the story is pretty simple, and it's about the cycle of violence, and how to end it.  That's what Gordon-Levitt's character ultimately has to do.  He and his future self, Bruce Willis, are at odds about how to solve the problem of the guy who "closes all the loops."  Because in Gordon-Levitt's time, the guy is just a kid, and his mom is Emily Blunt, and Gordon-Levitt kind of becomes...involved in this little family unit.  He's lost his objectivity.  He probably lost it the minute Bruce Willis showed up, honestly.  (It's okay that he struggled with it over Paul Dano.) 

Apparently Deadpool 2 has the same sort of dilemma, that paradox of essentially killing Hitler when he was a kid.  When you phrase it like that, the audience is always going to side with killing Hitler.  But they don't make movies about killing Hitler as a kid.  I guess that's why there's stuff like Inglourious Basterds.  Gordon-Levitt's solution is to open the loop.  He realizes Bruce Willis trying to kill the kid is what created the guy who "closes all the loops."  So he shoots himself and Bruce Willis no longer exists, and the kid doesn't become the guy who "closes all the loops."  History goes in another direction.

The Last Jedi is all about opting for different results.  This angered a lot of Star Wars fans, as they were pretty committed to the idea of Star Wars being recognizable (even while, paradoxically, complaining that these new movies keep revisiting old territory).  Saying that there is a different way to solve the galaxy's problems...Well, anyway, that's what Last Jedi is about, and that's the philosophy of Looper.  That's Rian Johnson.  He also gave us Brick, a different kind of noir mystery, set in high school.  Dude loves the unexpected.

Ah, also showing up in the movie are Piper Perabo (small role, mostly nude), Garrett Dillahunt (perennially underappreciated, likely because of his name), and Jeff Daniels, who gets to play the mob boss.  He doesn't need to do much mob business, onscreen, to be taken seriously.  That dude is seriously underappreciated.

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

rating: ****

the story: Han Solo emerges from the ship-building grind of life on Corellia to become an intergalactic outlaw.

what it's all about: Incredibly, there seems to be a lot of discontent among Star Wars fans for a Han Solo origin movie.  It's franchise fatigue.  It happens to every franchise.  If this is how you feel about Solo, move along.  Move along.

In the new era of Star Wars movies, where George Lucas is no longer the guiding hand of the saga and there are movies that don't directly continue the saga...this might just be the first one capable of establishing it own legacy.  Maybe not right away.  Let pesky fans attempt to spoil it.  Give it time.  Pesky fans can't spoil the fun forever.  This is the second "anthology" movie of the franchise.  The first one, Rogue One, I thought was a horrible disaster.  Fans didn't.  They loved it.  I thought it came to all the wrong conclusions about what Star Wars is all about, and was lazy about...everything.  If that was what Star Wars was going to be for a new generation, I shuddered for the future.  But Solo makes things right.

There's a lot to unpack here.

One of the things Solo does is nudge what's at the heart of Star Wars, whether or not George Lucas envisioned it as a response to Vietnam.  That's one of the things Rogue One most misunderstood.  It mistakenly correlated opposition to Vietnam with...tacit approval of terrorism in the Middle East.  It really did.  Solo handles it very differently.  At one point Han has actually become a recruit of the Empire, and he finds himself in the latest in a series of campaigns he can't begin to comprehend, and he asks aloud what their objective is.  In the post-Vietnam era, that's warfare.  After WWII settled the last of the major international conflicts, the Cold War made it impossible for countries of comparable development to even consider engaging in open combat.  The threat of nuclear assault made it unthinkable.  Europe found itself depleted of real influence, and that left the US, the Soviets/Russia, and whoever wanted to be considered emerging powers, and this was usually determined with the achievement of nuclear weapons or the ambition to attain them.  If a country didn't have them?  So that's what Vietnam was, what Afghanistan was, what Iraq was.  It was different warfare.  Incomprehensible, to most perspectives.  Han doesn't really say it's unjustifiable.  Actually, he ends up with a group of thieves who are doing pretty much the same sort of thing as the Empire, just on a much smaller scale.  The Rebellion isn't depicted as terrorists, but as intermediaries interested in stopping the random exploitation of others.  I personally interpret that to take at least some of the edge off comparisons between the US and the Empire, whether or not you ever realized they were there.  And I see it as a direct response to Rogue One

Anyway, to return back to purely movie matters, Solo also is heavily engaged in reclaiming, well, Han Solo.  Everyone's Han Solo these days.  Tony Stark is Han Solo.  Peter Quill is Han Solo.  James T. Kirk is Han Solo.  Even Jack Sparrow is Han Solo.  So it only seems fitting that Han Solo gets to be Han Solo again.  We last saw him in The Force Awakens, the first of the new sequels, getting killed by his own son.  After the events of Return of the Jedi, Han seems to have backslid into the kind of life he had before A New Hope.  That, and the whole being-killed-by-his-own-son thing, kind of put a damper on him, and Star Wars in general.  Solo kind of explains what happened, how that could've happened, and it once and for explains what makes Han Solo, well, Han Solo, and what separates him from everyone else who wants to be Han Solo.

Han had a girl back home.  Han had to leave the girl behind.  Han eventually reunites with the girl.  Happy ending?  The girl doesn't die!  But no, that's not how the movie ends.  The movie ends with them deciding to go separate ways.  Along with everything else that happens to him during the course of Solo, Han seems to decide forming long-term attachments is probably always going to be difficult.  Chewie is different.  Chewie sticks around, it seems, because they both know if Chewie ever wanted to leave, he can.  At one point Han does say goodbye to Chewie in what he seems to think of as a permanent kind of way, but in pretty short order Chewie's back at his side.  The movie is really about Han's relationship with a mentor figure who does everything he can to give Han a cynical outlook.  By the time we catch up with Han again in A New Hope, that cynical outlook has taken a firm hold of his thought process, but by the end of Solo he doesn't have it yet.  Despite everything he experiences he's much closer to being the good guy he ultimately proves to be. 

But we're given every indication that refusing to be called a good guy, at the end of Solo, is what leads to that cynical outlook, refusing to accept that he can depend on others.  Losing the girl is that first chink.  Forget being betrayed by the mentor.  That's nothing! 

The movie otherwise presents itself as the modern era version of Han Solo.  Everyone who's attempted to be Han Solo, that's what this movie consciously evokes.  He gets a Guardians of the Galaxy crew around him, including a mouthy CGI guy (voiced by Jon Favreau).  Alden Ehrenreich gets to give his own performance.  Unlike Rogue One's horribly botched Tarkin, he isn't asked to imitate someone else.  Harrison Ford is Harrison Ford.  Instead, Ehrenreich feels a lot more like Chris Pine.  True, he's not much like Tony Stark or Jack Sparrow, but that's a good thing.  Those were much bigger departures from the archetype, took it places Han Solo ultimately never went.  They permanently rogues.  Han ultimately isn't. 

Emilia Clarke gets another shot at striking big in another franchise (she's the face of Game of Thrones; she didn't really replace anyone's idea of Sarah Connor in Terminator Genisys) as Han's girl.  Paul Bettany is her boss, Woody Harrelson is Han's mentor.  Thandie Newton shows up, but it's hard to recognize her.  Donald Glover plays Lando Calrissian.  I love Glover, but he seems to have chosen to underplay the part.  Lando's droid plays up that unspoken aspect of Star Wars lore, the subservient nature of droids.  Ironically or not it gets plugged into the Millennium Falcon and pretty much forgotten.  Lando and Han's scenes seem inspired by Maverick.

I'll always be a Star Wars fan.  I love the original trilogy.  I love the prequels.  I love what the sequels have done so far.  I hated Rogue One.  I think Solo sums up, with one movie, what Star Wars is all about (minus the Force).  I love how it explains the famous Kessel Run.  Genius.  That alone makes the whole experience worth it.

Iron Man (2008)

rating: ***

the story: Tony Stark is Iron Man.

what it's all about: I've never found Iron Man to be a particularly good movie.  It opened the same year as The Dark Knight, which to my mind was a great movie.  And of course it gave birth to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), which eventually became the only superhero movie franchise(s) anyone really took seriously.  I liked Iron Man 2 a great deal, but the first one?  I never felt particularly compelled to watch it again, and in fact it took me ten years (yesterday) to do so again, and my impression of it didn't at all change.  This is odd for a number of reasons.  One isn't really that it took me so long to rewatch it, but that I really didn't feel like doing so for so long.  Instant desire to rewatch was something I had for Dark Knight.  I couldn't get enough of Dark Knight.  I like superhero movies.  I like superheroes in general.  Yeah, I'm a DC guy.  By this I mean I tend to like DC superheroes and DC storytelling.  It's not just the superheroes but the storytelling, too.  Marvel doesn't often think of its superheroes in the same way DC does.  At the movies, there's really just Logan and the two Amazing Spider-Man movies.  Then there's stuff like the cartoonish logic of Bryan Singer's first two X-Men, Sam Raimi's first two Spider-Man flicks.  Ironically by the third one, which looked the most cartoonish, he finally went somewhere real.  So of course fans hated it.

Fans loved Iron Man instantly.  Visually it already looked timeless.  It still looks timeless.  The look of the armor matches up exactly in credibility with what you see in Avengers: Infinity War, ten years later.  That's pretty good.  It looks totally different than anything superhero movies had done before.  That was what made Raimi's Spider-Man pop, what made audiences "believe a man can fly" in 1978.  In that sense, of course the MCU took over the popular imagination.  It did something no one had seen before, and that always hooks the masses. 

But in terms of storytelling...It's awful.  Just...awful.

Tony Stark is sold as a tech genius.  Great!  Fantastic!  In 2008, Steve Jobs was a cultural icon!  Totally legit!  But...Tony Stark isn't sold as a Steve Jobs tech genius.  He's sold as...a weapons manufacturer.  And that's all he's known for.  And...when he says he won't make weapons again...that's it.  He's apparently done.  Forever.  And yet...We see his private lab, and he's got robots working for him.  He's got J.A.R.V.I.S., the virtual assistant who would later merge with the android Vision.  The rest of the world?  Doesn't have those robots.  Doesn't have J.A.R.V.I.S.  I think Siri wasn't a thing yet, in 2008.  Alexa wasn't a thing.  And of course, Tony famously keeps Iron Man to himself. 

Logistically this is idiotic.  In every single sense.  It only makes sense if you're trying to explain how Iron Man happens.  But in the real world, Iron Man makes no sense.  At all.  So you have to either accept the insanity of it or you can't.  And you see how idiotic the whole plot is.

Even as a weapons manufacturer, taking away everything else, Tony Stark makes no sense as a huge celebrity, appearing on every major magazine cover, as depicted in the film.  Weapons manufacturers aren't celebrities.  Name one.  The only "name" weapons developer I can think of is Oppenheimer, and he was never celebrated like this.  When Iron Man 2 shows a vintage video of Tony Stark's dad, it's clearly a pastiche of...Walt Disney.  Hilarious, considering the first two Iron Man movies were distributed by...Paramount.

But even the conceit of Tony being captured in the midst of a weapons demonstration...in the field of engagement...That's stupid.  I'm really sure that would never happen.  And then he gets captured.  And he's got shrapnel in his chest, so the bad guys...have the ability to give him tech that needs to be inserted onto/into his chest.  That can also be modified to power a suit of armor he makes.  Because.

This is the sort of nitpicking fans routinely give movies and/or TV shows they hate.  Usually, I try really hard not to do it, because nitpicking usually is even more idiotic than what these fans are attempting to portray as idiotic.  It's insipid.  It's a poor way to analyze something.  In this instance, though, these were problems I noticed immediately.  I don't normally instantly have these sorts of problems.  I hate how Singer uses Professor X as a macguffin in the first two X-Men movies.  Both times the exact same way.  It's lazy storytelling, something that needs to happen in order to move the story along because no one bothered to think the story through.  In other words, I'm not talking about nitpicking at all (mindlessly being annoyed by story elements while attempting to portray yourself as smarter than the people who developed them), but bad storytelling.  I always hate bad storytelling. 

And Iron Man is, again, beyond anything else, bad storytelling. 

The worst thing?  Even as it completely rejuvenates Robert Downey Jr.'s career, making him far more popular and relevant than he's ever been...Iron Man completely wastes and trashes Jeff Bridges in the process.  How does that even happen???  And you can sort of tell that it motivated him to seek better material, as suddenly he went into a whole career renaissance (Crazy Heart, True Grit, Hell or High Water) with material that was nothing like his lifeless role in Iron Man, the grizzled iconoclast Tony Stark only wishes he'll become, the culmination of everything Bridges had done before.

And Terrence Howard?  Marvel has Terrence Howard, and...nope.  Not in Iron Man 2.  How does that even happen???  Faran Tahir, who would turn up as a Starfleet captain in the 2009 Star Trek reboot, lamented playing a terrorist in Iron Man.  Do you think he ever changed his mind?  In Iron Man 3 they change the whole idea of Tahir's role, giving the lead-up to the Mandarin to a sham played by Ben Kingsley.  They try and pretend real terrorists were never a part of the story.  Yeah!

Gwyneth Paltrow plays Pepper Potts, the Tony Stark assistant who in 2018 would probably be cheering on #MeToo, but instead becomes a slow-burning love interest, who puts up with all of Tony's antics...because.  They never even try to develop her character, not in Iron Man, not in any other appearance.  Clark Gregg, in his first appearance as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Phil Coulson, is mostly asked to dance around the joke of what S.H.I.E.L.D. actually stands for aside from a very elaborate excuse for an acronym.  Leslie Bibb plays a hot chick who's also a reporter for Vanity Fair, which is one of those inexplicable magazines smitten with weapons manufacturer Tony Stark.

Really, it's only Downey Jr. and Bettany who appear fully-formed and presentable for future appearances.  Good solid foundation, sure, but...

We learn late in the movie that Bridges' character was in cahoots with Tahir all along, that he set up Tony to die, as he did his father, to kill the golden goose, because...That part is never really made clear.  It would make sense if it were because either Stark had figured out what he was doing, but...Yeah.  Not in this movie.  Not in any movie.  He just likes to do away with tech geniuses, I guess.  The movie goes out of its way to prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that not only is Tony the only person capable of creating the tech he does, but that Bridges' character isn't even in the conversation.  In the era of Steve Jobs?  Bill Gates?  Steve Wozniak???

The funny thing about all this is that 2011's Green Lantern actually borrows a lot of Iron Man's story elements, and does them better, and fans insist to this day that it's a badly made movie, full of plot holes.  Really???  In the interests of full disclosure, Green Lantern is based on a DC superhero, and so you can call bias if you like, but for me it's still storytelling.  Green Lantern has great storytelling.  Iron Man doesn't.

So Iron Man 2 follows it with infinitely better storytelling.  Fans disagree.  But the insanely popular MCU happens anyway.  I can't possibly be upset about that.  There's still good material that results from it, the Captain America movies notably. 

I'd hope that in the years to come, anyone looking to revisit the whole thing recognizes the first one in the sequence for what it is: a ridiculous mess. 

Monday, May 14, 2018

2008 Capsule Reviews

The Dark Knight
rating: *****
review: Best known for Heath Ledger's iconic Joker, this may yet prove to be the definitive superhero story of its era.

The Fall
rating: *****
review: Tarsem's brilliantly imagined, and visualized, portrait of a suicidal stuntman and the little girl who saves his life.

In Bruges
rating: ****
review: Colin Farrell has found his most universal acclaim as a hitman struggling with the accidental killing of a child.  It may help that it features his most brash performance since his breakthrough, Tigerland.

Hancock
rating: ****
review: Come for Will Smith's degenerate superhero, stay for the unexpected twist.

Cassandra's Dream
rating: ****
review: I prefer to think of this Woody Allen flick as Colin Farrell's answer to In Bruges, as a guy tortured by a decision he made.

Che
rating: ****
review: Regardless of what you think about his legacy, this is a brilliant depiction of Che's activities, perhaps the essential film from Soderbergh and Benicio Del Toro.

W.
rating: ****
review: Oliver Stone presents a fascinatingly sympathetic portrait of the second-most recent controversial Republican president.  Between this and Nixon, can we expect a Trump biopic in the years to come?

Pride & Glory
rating: ****
review: Gavin O'Connor, Joe Carnahan, Edward Norton, and Colin Farrell collide.  A can't-miss combination of talents.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall
rating: ****
review: Between Jason Segal's career-altering puppetry (which led directly to a revival of The Muppets) and Russell Brand's ideal role (as pompous rock star Aldous Snow, who was later featured in his own movie, Get Him to the Greek), this one rises well above the typical raunch comedy template.

Yes Man
rating: ****
review: Jim Carrey's increasingly gimmicked-oriented comedies might have begun to feel too obvious, but it's certainly worth the nonsense to enjoy, well, the nonsense, as well as Zooey Deschanel increasingly sneaking herself into a side music career.

Seven Pounds
rating: ****
review: One of Will Smith's signature dramatic performances.

The Happening
rating: ****
review: M. Night Shyamalan's most pure experience, a totally inexplicable event that can only be experienced, his ultimate rebellion against the twist ending backlash.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
review: ****
review: An incredibly tough act for Brad Pitt to follow, the culmination of the career he sought to avoid (that moment when he's back in his handsome prime) and the one he actively pursued for years (without having to come up with a weird character, because the role is inherently weird).

Doomsday
review: ****
review: Mad Max without Mad Max.

The Wrestler
review: ****
review: Even though it mostly botches what professional wrestling is actually like behind the façade, it still finds the beating heart behind it.

The Other Boleyn Girl
rating: ****
review: Ambition truly becomes nightmare; the ultimate Natalie Portman experience (no swans needed, black or otherwise).

Body of Lies
rating: ****
review: Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio clash (or, reunite nearly fifteen years after The Quick and the Dead).

Cloverfield
rating: ****
review: Found-footage saga about a Godzilla event that effectively uses the format.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
rating: ****
review: I'm no Indy connoisseur, but I enjoyed this later follow-up.  The more iconic the storytelling (as in The Last Crusade), the better I like this pulp hero.

Frost/Nixon
rating: ****
review: Post-resignation, everyone wanted a "gotcha" moment from Nixon.  This is the story of the closest anyone ever came.

Burn After Reading
rating: ****
review: Hilarious and alarming tale of a lot of idiots.

Quantum of Solace
rating: ****
review: Before the sensation of Daniel Craig's Bond had sunk in, his second outing was allowed to exist at the same level as the first, and few have yet appreciated that fact.

Step Brothers
rating: ****
review: The combination of Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly always creates something special; if you can make it through their ridiculous shenanigans, you'll be happy for their happy ending.

The Love Guru
rating: ***
review: Mike Myers comes up with another great character, but there's not really much of a story to tell around him.

Smart People
rating: ***
review: A lot of great actors are depressed.

Vantage Point
rating: ***
review: A kind of wasted opportunity to spotlight a bunch of interesting actors.

Dr. Seuss's Horton Hears a Who!
rating: ***
review: Jim Carrey is at last reduced to a cartoon, but strangely it's one of his most subdued performances.

Get Smart
rating: ***
review: Steve Carell essentially replicates his Office persona with another TV show remake, this time on the big screen.

Iron Man
rating: ***
review: Movie that launched a juggernaut.  Relatively humble origins.  I always compared Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark to Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow.  These solo movies are really why the fourth and fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movies were such huge mistakes, because that outsize personality needs equally interesting surroundings.

Leatherheads
rating: ***
review: George Clooney in one of his more blatant attempts to mine his Old Hollywood appeal.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army
rating: ***
review: Later remade as Thor: The Dark World.

Revolutionary Road
rating: ***
review: Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio reunite under considerably more subdued happenings.

Bottle Shock
rating: ***
review: The most compelling thing about this one is Chris Pine just before Kirk.

Charlie Bartlett
rating: ***
review: The late Anton Yelchin in an early spotlight.

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People
rating: ***
review: Personally, I love Simon Pegg as a leading man, but I think for most other movie fans, the title of this movie is fairly accurate.

Hamlet 2
rating: ***
review: Steve Coogan is crazy enough to stage that play. 

Meet Dave
rating: ***
review: Eddie Murphy beginning to concede that audiences aren't really showing up for his act anymore.

21
rating: ***
review: Jim Sturgess in his bid for casual fans.

Tropic Thunder
rating: ***
review: This parody of '80s action flicks has a gonzo Robert Downey Jr. performance going for it, and a highly overrated Tom Cruise supporting role.

Run Fat Boy Run
rating: ***
review: Honestly, the best thing about Simon Pegg roles is that he's really the only actor who could pull them off.

Speed Racer
rating: ***
review: A lot of times, when filmmakers are trying to reclaim past popularity they try to do variations of what used to work.  That's what the Wachowskis have been doing since the Matrix sequels cool interest in the original.  This is a glossy pastiche of a semblance of the original mystique.

Valkyrie
rating: ***
review: Tom Cruise was ramping up his comeback at the time, and thought this big dramatic we-almost-killed-Hitler flick would help out.  Didn't really.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
rating: **
review: What if you replace the Egyptian mummy thing with a Chinese mummy thing?  Turns out it's a recipe for irrelevance.

WALL-E
rating: **
review: This was a short stretched awkwardly into a feature-length film.  Nothing more, nothing less.

Slumdog Millionaire
rating: **
review: An embarrassing attempt to legitimize a colonial view of India.

Romulus, My Father
rating: **
review: Low-key Eric Bana drama.

Babylon A.D.
rating: **
review: Vin Diesel attempting another big franchise.  He has yet to learn that they always happen by accident, for him, and never by design.

RockNRolla
rating: **
review: I'd watch this again for the Tom Hardy supporting role, but otherwise British gangster movies aren't generally my thing.

Last Chance Harvey
rating: **
review: Dustin Hoffman went through this whole period where he didn't seem relevant anymore, and the harder he tried the worse he failed.  This was one of his better efforts.

Twilight
rating: **
review: Obviously the movies, and the books, were a huge success, but there's very little life in this first entry.  Heh.

The Spirit
rating: **
review: Frank Miller reengineers the Will Eisner strip into a movie much like the Robert Rodriquez movies based on his Sin City comics.  Probably mostly of interest to diehards of those movies.

Deception
rating: **
review: Wants to be edgy drama, but...one of Hugh Jackman's true misfires.

88 Minutes
rating: **
review: Huge fan of Neal McDonough, but it's a shame his best bid for a breakout movie role was this unbalanced Al Pacino flick.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars
rating: **
review: Star Wars so horribly lack perspective that they legitimately claim the TV material that followed this is better than the prequels.

Australia
rating: **
review: Another relative misfire in casting for Hugh Jackman.

Jumper
rating: **
review: Bid to jumpstart Hayden Christensen's popular career post-Star Wars falls short.

The Incredible Hulk
rating: **
review: Total waste of Edward Norton in the second of two Hulk movies that blow up the monster size and have no idea what to do with it.  If you're trying to recreate King Kong rather than Frankenstein?  Find a tall building.

Wanted
rating: *
review: Far too smug.

Boarding Gate
rating: *
review: Asia Argento in a European action flick.

Superhero Movie
rating: *
review: Ha!  They made this parody far too early!  But actually a pretty good Spider-Man movie, all considered.

Funny Games
rating: *
review: Dreadful European horror.

Thursday, May 3, 2018

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

rating: ****

the story: A depressed man learns his ex deleted all her memories of their relationship, and so he resolves to do the same.

what it's all about: Jim Carrey is one of my favorite actors, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one of his most critically acclaimed films.  So why have I struggled with it for fourteen years?

Carrey became famous after making films like Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, and Dumb & Dumber.  He transitioned into surrealist comedy with The Truman Show and Man on the Moon, although they could just as easily be described as existentialist.  Eternal Sunshine was the next evolution from that, and he was never able to go further than that, with the closest being The Number 23, where he played someone with memory issues and an identity crisis.  Again, all this because he became uniquely suited to embodying characters well beyond the societal norm, in a mostly humorous fashion. 

Eternal Sunshine presents itself as something of a riddle.  Mindful viewers will know that we begin actually at the end, and then rewind back to the circumstances that immediately preceded it (my summary), and then dive into his memories as they're being erased.  Carrey begins to outrun the erasure, which provides the most amusing elements of the movie.  But ultimately he can't, and his memory is wiped, and...he meets Kate Winslet, again, for the first time, just as we see in the beginning. 

The whole thing becomes a meditation on the stresses of a relationship, and what will or will not, given a few variables, be deal-breakers.  It's kind of (500) Days of Summer before (500) Days of Summer, with a more hopeful, if ambiguous, ending.

So why have I so long had a nagging problem with it?  Well, for one the Jim Carrey who shows up in it, for long stretches at a time, isn't a familiar Jim Carrey at all.  It's not that he's unidentifiable, but that he's so low-key it can be difficult to remember why he was cast.  And then the sequences where he does resemble Jim Carrey...seem out of place. 

Basically, is this a movie that's weird for the sake of being weird?

It feels like someone's idea of what happens if we turn Truman Show up a notch.  Carrey experiences the erasures as if he knows they're happening, and comments on them, and even interacts with the technicians, to a certain extent, while they're working on him.  All this makes for fascinating viewing, but it can also feel artificial, a movie rather than an experience, and yet the whole point of seeing what amounts to an idea of the "real" Carrey, the one who doesn't need to perform all the time, contradicts this.  Charlie Kaufman, the screenwriter known for this kind of material, at least showed restraint previously.  Nicolas Cage talks with himself, Kaufman's imaginary twin brother, throughout Adaptation.  Most of Being John Malkovich is spent with the people using John as a glorified puppet.  The lines are too blurred in Eternal Sunshine

That's not to say the individual elements don't work in and of themselves.  The technicians are played by Tom Wilkinson, who leads the team, Mark Ruffalo, Kirsten Dunst, and Elijah Wood.  These are all reliable actors; only Wood is playing against type, which is something he was desperately pursuing in the years following Lord of the Rings.  But he still feels natural.  We learn, eventually, that Dunst once had an affair with Wilkinson, but her memories of it were erased.  Like Ozymandias's supposed brilliant plan in Watchmen, the effects of the erasures aren't as binding as they seem.  If you're attracted to someone, you're attracted to someone. 

The object lesson is the ability to cope rather than hide from heartbreak.  Wilkinson's wife comes closest, briefly though we see her, exasperated though she is, breaking the news to Dunst.  At least she doesn't try to hide from it.  She's the most rational person in the whole movie. 

In the end, I suppose, this is the kind of story that can't have proper resolution, and so it's the ideas that are supposed to be its effect.  It leaves one unsettled because life is messy.  In that regard it's as successful a movie as there ever was.

But darn it, it's still weird not to be satisfied, from a movie starring Jim Carrey.  This is the guy who made a modern Frank Capra (The Majestic).  He may not be downright sappy, but he usually has more concrete things to say, even when exploring the life of a different Kaufman (Andy), who may or may not have faked his own death as his last and greatest prank on the world. 

Oh well, there can always be exceptions.

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

2007 Capsule Reviews

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
rating: *****
review: One of my all-time favorite movies, Brad Pitt's most unexpected role in a career that to that point had been made of unexpected roles, taking on a quintessential American rebel, with masterful direction from Andrew Dominik and trademark narration from Hugh Ross.

American Gangster
rating: ****
review: I love when two major movie stars collide, which is what happens here between Denzel Washington (the eponymous gangster) and Russell Crowe (who takes on the challenge of bringing him down).  This is Ridley Scott in another of his genre deconstructions.

Ratatouille
rating: ****
review: As close to a true artistic masterpiece as Pixar has gotten, culminating in a divine meditation from Peter O'Toole, the likes of which will probably never be heard again in an animated film.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
rating: ****
review: The final showdown between Dumbledore and Voldemort ought to be considered a master class of fantasy dueling, the most rewarding element of this fifth film in the series.

Gone Baby Gone
rating: ****
review: Ben Affleck began a career revival by directing this Dennis Lehane mystery, starring his brother Casey in one of his defining roles (along with the eponymous Robert Ford above).

Smokin' Aces
rating: ****
review: A truly rollicking experience from Joe Carnahan featuring a bevy of great character performances from the likes of Ben Affleck (yes), Chris Pine, Ryan Reynolds, and even Jeremy Piven as the nominal (and eponymous) lead character.

Across the Universe
rating: ****
review: A visionary exploration of the Beatles catalog with exquisitely reinterpreted arrangements.

No Country for Old Men
rating: ****
review: The Coens go subdued, Josh Brolin solidifies his ascent to A-level, and Javier Bardem delivers an iconic performance as the relentless Anton Chigurh.

The Simpsons Movie
rating: ****
review: It may not feature the delirious music of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, but this is a perfect representation of the secret heart at the center of The Simpsons.

3:10 to Yuma
rating: ****
review: Crowe does another epic team-up, this time as the villain to Christian Bale's would-be hero in this modern Western.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
rating: ****
review: It may lack the sheer panache of Dead Man's Chest, but this is a worthy, otherworldly conclusion to the original Pirates trilogy.

The Lookout
rating: ****
review: Joseph Gordon-Levitt's true breakout performance after the splashy attention-getting style of Brick.

I'm Not There
rating: ****
review: Several big names play Bob Dylan in this extrapolation of his legend, including Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale, and Heath Ledger.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age
rating: ****
review: Cate Blanchett's Elizabeth duology reaches epic proportions, the very rare historic drama featuring a woman at the heart of action.

Hot Fuzz
rating: ****
review: Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost, the team behind Shaun of the Dead, return in a kind of British Western.

Lucky You
rating: ****
review: Eric Bana bringing humanity to the traditional gambling narrative.

The Number 23
rating: ****
review: Jim Carrey in a mind-bending drama that allows him to lose himself in the narrative rather than stand out in front of it.

Spider-Man 3
rating: ****
review: The traditionally maligned final Sam Raimi/Tobey Maguire/Kirsten Dunst Spider-Man flick is actually narratively its strongest, thanks to at least one of its villains, Thomas Haden Church's Sandman.

Grindhouse
rating: ****
review: A film each from Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Taratino, who both let loose for rollicking adventures.

Charlie Wilson's War
rating: ****
review: Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks explore the mess of the Middle East, from well before 9/11.

Lions for Lambs
rating: ****
review: An ensemble cast including Tom Cruise takes an immersive look at the post-9/11 intellectual landscape.

Juno
rating: ****
review: Ellen Page's perfect role, as a sardonic teen struggling to reconcile her life after becoming pregnant.

The Mist
rating: ****
review: An overlooked horror spectacle from Frank Darabont, once again adapting Stephen King.

In the Valley of Elah
rating: ****
review: Tommy Lee Jones laments the state of the United States post-9/11.

National Treasure: Book of Secrets
rating: ****
review: Arguably better than its predecessor, kind of hard to understand why Nicolas Cage hasn't gotten to make another one.

300
rating: ****
review: Instantly iconic visual spectacle from Zack Snyder and Gerard Butler, from the Frank Miller graphic novel.

Enchanted
rating: ****
review: Thoroughly enchanting live action update of the traditional Disney princess narrative, starring the only actor who could pull it off, Amy Adams.

There Will Be Blood
rating: ***
review: Unbalanced visionary work from Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Day-Lewis.

The Hunting Party
rating: ***
review: Fascinating, subdued journey with Richard Gere and Terrence Howard.

Rescue Dawn
rating: ***
review: Harrowing tale of survival from Christian Bale.

Fred Claus
rating: ***
review: Novel Santa tale from Vince Vaughn and Paul Giamatti.

Ocean's Thirteen
rating: ***
review: Breezy final adventure from Danny Ocean's crew.

The Game Plan
rating: ***
review: Goofy family comedy from Dwayne Johnson.

We Own the Night
rating: ***
review: Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, and Eva Mendes in a gritty crime drama.

Michael Clayton
rating: ***
review: George Clooney begins to find his stride as a leading man.

Music and Lyrics
rating: ***
review: Charming romantic comedy from Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant.

I Am Legend
rating: ***
review: Minimalist survival experience with Will Smith.

Shoot 'Em Up
rating: ***
review: Clive Owen delightfully parodies his own Children of Men.

Freedom Writers
rating: ***
review: Hilary Swank as an inspirational teacher with Patrick Dempsey playing against McDreamy type as her naysaying husband.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
rating: ***
review: Tim Burton and Johnny Depp finding out if their acts work in musical form.

Beowulf
rating: ***
review: Motion-capture version with some sweet vocal performances from Ray Winstone (as the title character), Angelina Jolie, and Anthony Hopkins.

Ghost Rider
rating: ***
review: Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes and Sam Elliot interpret the Marvel superhero as a kind of modern Western.

License to Wed
rating: ***
review: Robin Williams as a live action supporting actor is clearly still having fun, and so is the kid trying desperately to be just like him.

Shrek the Third
rating: ***
review: The only real misfire in the Shrek series attempts to shift the narrative focus to King Arthur (as voiced by Justin Timberlake).  I always have a hard time remembering what happens in this one.

Bee Movie
rating: ***
review: Jerry Seinfeld disappointingly delivers a fairly traditional animated flick.  But still notable, as it's the only Seinfeld movie appearance to date.

Bucket List
rating: ***
review: Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman popularize the concept of the bucket list.

Alvin and the Chipmunks
rating: ***
review: Lively modern take on the animated critters.

The Bourne Ultimatum
rating: ***
review: The third in the series features Matt Damon learning his secret origin.

Martian Child
rating: ***
review: Charming variation on the classic Harvey narrative, with a kid.

Transformers
rating: ***
review: Bombastic opening salvo of Michael Bay's ultimate cinematic creation.

28 Weeks Later
rating: **
review: If the first one is more memorable, they clearly didn't learn why.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
rating: **
review: Serviceable second entry that chose to counterpoint a team that had already failed to fully connect with a lifeless addition.  But at least he's voiced by Laurence Fishburne, and Chris Evans still plays Johnny Storm.

Pathfinder: Legend of the Ghost Warrior
rating: **
review: Karl Urban is asked to anchor this relentless Viking/Native American horror flick.

The Last Legion
rating: **
review: Colin Firth leads an uninspired look back at the Roman Empire.

Blades of Glory
rating: **
review: A rare misfire from Will Ferrell.

Wild Hogs
rating: **
review:  Uncomfortable comedy that seems to come at the expense of John Travolta and Tim Allen.

Good Luck Chuck
rating: **
review: Dane Cook may be a fine standup comedian, but he's not really a leading man in movies.

The Golden Compass
rating: **
review: The Philip Pullman books may desperately want to be the atheist Chronicles of Narnia, but they haven't launched a successful adaptation.

TMNT
rating: **
review: This computer animated Ninja Turtles entry is pretty forgettable.

Fracture
rating: *
review: Ryan Gosling has been heavily pushed by critics for years, but this was an instance where I found the material to fail him.