Actors: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Austin O'Brien
Director: John McTiernan
Note: Spoilers Ahead
If action films are like eating Doritos - sometimes delicious, never nutritious - Last Action Hero is like reading the ingredients of Doritos - incomprehensible and depressing. This film is a solid deconstruction of the action genre and includes some excellent Naked Gun-style slapstick comedy and parody. The trouble is, it gets all this out of the way in the first 45 minutes or so, leaving a leaden 85 minutes for this film to try our patience as it heaps one bizarre sequence on another. The trouble with deconstructing an action film and then trying to have one is that what little tension action films generate is gone, and what's left is the intentionally bad and weird dialogue of an action film and action set pieces which no longer thrill or amuse. There was probably a good movie in here - although hiring Schwarzenegger and giving him reams of dialogue is going to be tough sledding even with a better script - but the film tries to get us to care about these characters while flashing a neon sign above them at all times that says 'These are characters in a movie, which is fake'. It doesn't work.
Sunday, April 5, 2015
The Giant Mechanical Man - 2012 - 2 Stars
Actors: Jenna Fischer, Chris Messina
Director: Lee Kirk
There's a strange intersection between indie film and sitcom comedy - as sitcoms get more sophisticated and indie film gets more conversational, the twain have met and know one another. This evolution has enabled indie films to generate more regular laughs, in the manner of a comedy, but has impacted characterization - sitcom-type characters carry far, far too much in this film.
This film has some very good performances and the writing is strong in places, but it relies on some worn out tropes. If we want to make food analogies, and who doesn't, the sauce was quite good but it could not cover up the taste and texture of the meat.
Director: Lee Kirk
There's a strange intersection between indie film and sitcom comedy - as sitcoms get more sophisticated and indie film gets more conversational, the twain have met and know one another. This evolution has enabled indie films to generate more regular laughs, in the manner of a comedy, but has impacted characterization - sitcom-type characters carry far, far too much in this film.
This film has some very good performances and the writing is strong in places, but it relies on some worn out tropes. If we want to make food analogies, and who doesn't, the sauce was quite good but it could not cover up the taste and texture of the meat.
Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Her - 2013 - 3½ Stars
Actors: Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson
Director: Spike Jonze
Note: Minor spoilers ahead
I will give her credit for this - it is not laughable. This premise could've very easily fallen apart and been a Hindenburg-sized disaster, except it'd be a Hindenburg you laugh at. So the film works on that level. And the film's dialogue writing is pretty excellent. Setting a film in the near-future is one of the trickiest things to do. Even more tricky is setting a film in the near-future while having it be about mundane day-to-day life - this movie is not really interested in the world around the movie (good thing, too, because that's almost certainly its largest weakness). It's a large story inside a small story inside a large story, and the performances carry the smallness of the story perfectly. Johansson does incredible voice work - rarely does voice work have to convey the range that she manages here.
Director: Spike Jonze
Note: Minor spoilers ahead
I will give her credit for this - it is not laughable. This premise could've very easily fallen apart and been a Hindenburg-sized disaster, except it'd be a Hindenburg you laugh at. So the film works on that level. And the film's dialogue writing is pretty excellent. Setting a film in the near-future is one of the trickiest things to do. Even more tricky is setting a film in the near-future while having it be about mundane day-to-day life - this movie is not really interested in the world around the movie (good thing, too, because that's almost certainly its largest weakness). It's a large story inside a small story inside a large story, and the performances carry the smallness of the story perfectly. Johansson does incredible voice work - rarely does voice work have to convey the range that she manages here.
Saturday, January 17, 2015
In A World... - 2013 - 3½ Stars
Actors: Lake Bell, Demetri Martin
Director: Lake Bell
There's a style of writing that I don't want to call 'sitcom writing' but I'm going to - it's the kind of writing where the person thinks that the script needs a laugh in a particular place. 'This needs a laugh'. And so you get people saying mildly funny things in exposition or everyone in the movie is just constantly quipping. It's what modern audiences are accustomed to. It unfortunately sounds awful to me if it's not done really well, and there's parts in here that are, and parts in here that aren't. Either way, I think this is a debut film, and it's a hell of a debut if so - plot contrivances and the sitcom style of writing aside, this movie reminded me of Woody Allen, but in a good way - it's an examination of a very small, very competitive place. I'm excited to see what's next.
Director: Lake Bell
There's a style of writing that I don't want to call 'sitcom writing' but I'm going to - it's the kind of writing where the person thinks that the script needs a laugh in a particular place. 'This needs a laugh'. And so you get people saying mildly funny things in exposition or everyone in the movie is just constantly quipping. It's what modern audiences are accustomed to. It unfortunately sounds awful to me if it's not done really well, and there's parts in here that are, and parts in here that aren't. Either way, I think this is a debut film, and it's a hell of a debut if so - plot contrivances and the sitcom style of writing aside, this movie reminded me of Woody Allen, but in a good way - it's an examination of a very small, very competitive place. I'm excited to see what's next.
Seven Psychopaths - 2012 - 3½ Stars
Actors: Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell
Director: Martin McDonagh
A friend of mine once did a brilliant deconstruction of the 'Writer's Block' genre of film - where a once-successful (and recently divorced) writer grapples with difficulty in coming up with new ideas but is brought out of his isolation by his friend who takes life as it comes and isn't so hung up on thinking about things. Not only was it a pitch-perfect satire, but it made me re-evaluate the entire genre - I hadn't realized it was something so formulaic. Martin McDonagh here blows up that genre in a very weird way, making a fun, watchable film that lacks the navel-gazing and mopery that normally marks the 'writing about writer' film. There's a good bit of wit and a lot of fun scenery chewing. And of course there's also Christopher Walken.
Director: Martin McDonagh
A friend of mine once did a brilliant deconstruction of the 'Writer's Block' genre of film - where a once-successful (and recently divorced) writer grapples with difficulty in coming up with new ideas but is brought out of his isolation by his friend who takes life as it comes and isn't so hung up on thinking about things. Not only was it a pitch-perfect satire, but it made me re-evaluate the entire genre - I hadn't realized it was something so formulaic. Martin McDonagh here blows up that genre in a very weird way, making a fun, watchable film that lacks the navel-gazing and mopery that normally marks the 'writing about writer' film. There's a good bit of wit and a lot of fun scenery chewing. And of course there's also Christopher Walken.
Monday, January 12, 2015
Inherent Vice - 2014 - 2 Stars
Actors: Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Thomas Pynchon is not my favorite author. People who like him always recommend reading a different book than the one I've read, but I think I've read enough to make my decision on him. Everything I found difficult about the novel of his I've read, I also found difficult about this adaptation. In addition to the various plot and character issues, there are aspects that simply don't translate to the screen (names!). The film seems like it's about to take off in the middle but quickly stops, the larger themes around the main character seem unexplored, and a lot of the gags simply don't work. Granted, I felt this way about The Big Lebowski (a definite cousin if not brother to this film), but that film has Walter Sobchak's loud insanity that steals the film whenever Goodman's on screen. This did not -- kudos to PTA for trying to adapt this, but it doesn't work for me.
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Thomas Pynchon is not my favorite author. People who like him always recommend reading a different book than the one I've read, but I think I've read enough to make my decision on him. Everything I found difficult about the novel of his I've read, I also found difficult about this adaptation. In addition to the various plot and character issues, there are aspects that simply don't translate to the screen (names!). The film seems like it's about to take off in the middle but quickly stops, the larger themes around the main character seem unexplored, and a lot of the gags simply don't work. Granted, I felt this way about The Big Lebowski (a definite cousin if not brother to this film), but that film has Walter Sobchak's loud insanity that steals the film whenever Goodman's on screen. This did not -- kudos to PTA for trying to adapt this, but it doesn't work for me.
Friday, December 26, 2014
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues - 2014 - 2 Stars
Actors: Will Ferrell, Steve Carell
Director: Adam McKay
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues is the It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad World for our generation - get a bunch of the era's funniest people together in a movie that is supposed to be 'funny' but is not. The film's humor lies mostly in recognition - 'I recognize that cameo!' 'I recognize that joke - it's from the previous movie!' I guess I shouldn't've expected different. The film also decides that Steve Carell's character needed more lines and more time on screen. It's not like this film lacks inventiveness - some of its new bits are inspired, absurd comedy. It's just dragged down by all the other stuff. The Ron Burgundy character's obliviousness barely survived one film, but here it reaches tedium.
Director: Adam McKay
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues is the It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad Mad World for our generation - get a bunch of the era's funniest people together in a movie that is supposed to be 'funny' but is not. The film's humor lies mostly in recognition - 'I recognize that cameo!' 'I recognize that joke - it's from the previous movie!' I guess I shouldn't've expected different. The film also decides that Steve Carell's character needed more lines and more time on screen. It's not like this film lacks inventiveness - some of its new bits are inspired, absurd comedy. It's just dragged down by all the other stuff. The Ron Burgundy character's obliviousness barely survived one film, but here it reaches tedium.
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