John’s Movie Musings

I enjoy reading those random top 10 movie lists you find all over the internet.  They are a great place to mine hidden movie gems.  I still need to write the review, but I discovered The Wicker Man on the Top 10 Scenes of Brutal Violence Guaranteed to Make You Laugh.  There’s a list that commands a viewing of every movie on it, am I right?

I discovered Primal Fear on the Top 10 Best Endings or something like that.  The list had the usual suspects like The Sixth Sense and, um, The Usual Suspects, but there in the #2 spot sat Primal Fear, a movie I’d never heard of.  Into the Netflix queue it went.

Primal Fear came out in ‘96 and happens to be Edward Norton’s first movie.  Laura Linney also has a large part and she had only done Congo before this.  Today, that’s a pretty impressive cast, but back then it was just Richard Gere with a pair of nobodies.  Nonetheless, the acting is outstanding.  That’s a good thing since there’s no way this movie would have worked without it.

Obviously with a movie prized for its ending, I’m not going to say a word about it.  I was expecting a “great ending” so I called most of it before it happened, but that didn’t diminish my enjoyment. If you’re in the mood for a good suspense thriller, or just want to see a young Ed Norton, or Richard Gere looking like he always has for the past 30 years, then give this a go.

Grade: B+

Last year, Jeffrey Katzenberg declared that all Dreamworks animated movies would be made in 3D.  Monsters vs. Aliens was their first attempt, but I missed it.  I saw the trailer a bazillion times but never actually made it to the theater.  It’s finally out on DVD, though only bi-dimensional.

MvA was the first 3D movie I’ve seen in 2D.  I wasn’t expecting the experience to be any different than normal, but I noticed some directing decisions that don’t work without the added depth.  There were the obvious “gimmick” shots where things would be poking out of the screen.  Obviously, 2D directors never do that, and 3D directors should stop.  But there were also camera angles that just looked “off.”  It’s like the camera was focused on the depth of the scene rather than the characters in it.  I’ll have to see if I notice it in future films.

Now on to the story.  Short answer: it’s horrid.  With Kung Fu Panda, Dreamworks drifted from the pop-culture infused jokes that filled the Shreks to create a hilarious, original tale.  Monsters vs. Aliens has a few jokes, but all of them can be seen in the trailer.  What’s worse (and this really boggles my mind), the comedic timing of the trailer is better than the movie.  That means that in the months between the trailer and the movie, the editor made things worse.  How does that happen?  Better yet, why?

In another low point, Stephen Colbert plays the President.  You’d think that’s a recipe for hilarity, but the man is completely wasted on sleep inducing dialog.   Skip this and go rent Kung Fu Panda instead.

Grade: D

Where the Wild Things Are first appeared on my “Must See” list from a single shot in the trailer.  A wild thing and Max were sitting with their backs to the camera at sunset and I thought, “Yes!  This is exactly how this movie should look.”  I couldn’t remember much of the story – just that it was a favorite of mine (and every other kid) growing up – but that single shot perfectly encapsulated every loving memory I had retained.  I just wondered how they were going to make a full-length feature out of a 20-page kids book.

That look comes courtesy of Spike Jonze.  You may remember him from directing Being John Malkovich.  That knowledge really serves no purpose here.  I just ran through his IMDB page and found one movie I recognized.  Thought I’d share.  Anyway, Jonze teamed up with the Henson company to make the wild things.  Going with a muppet + CG combo worked perfectly.  It added a presence and weight that doesn’t quite come with full CG yet.  That’s hard to explain in words, but trust me when I say everything looks right.

Most of my time spent with morality plays comes from Asian cinema.  Scratch away the ninjas and kung fu and you’re mostly left with a child’s parable.  Simple stories with deep meanings.  Where the Wild Things Are follows the same pattern.  It’s a morality tale wrapped up in a child’s imagination.  It’s simple, easy to follow, yet so very real and applicable. As a man who sometimes wants to wants to fix other people instead of just loving them, this movie hit home.

Where the Wild Things Are is a great ride with fantastic cinematography.  Go see it.  Your heart will come out softer.

Grade: A

You may have heard Zombieland is a comedy.  You heard wrong.  Remember those PSAs from the 1950s that taught schoolkids to crouch under their desks in nuclear war?  Zombieland is like one of those for the inevitable zombie apocolypse.

Yes, inevitable.  Have you noticed zombie movies are all the rage these days?  You better.  Even the dead notice.  So if you’re unprepared in the not-so-far-away future, it’s your own fault.  Plenty of knowledge on the big screen these days.  In fact, I’d wager that when the dead start walking our streets, those who survive will have Zombieland as a field guide.

The last zombie comedy to grace our ocular sense was Shaun of the Dead.  That movie came to us from across the pond and really highlighted the differences between British and American movies.  Shaun of the Dead had heaps of dry British humor while Zombieland has guns.  Lots of big guns.  The humor is present in both, but I give the Better Movie Nod(tm) to Shaun of the Dead.

Don’t get me wrong, Zombieland is still worth checking out.  It’s greatest strength is that it never takes itself too seriously.  That makes the jokes all the more hilarious.  You’ll laugh.  Probably a lot.

Also note that there is a now famous cameo in the movie.  Stay after the credits for another great scene with him.

Grade: B-

Here’s a movie that went completely under my radar.  It came out in April this year and quickly disappeared (I had to look that up because I don’t remember it at all).  That’s a shame because it’s a pretty decent movie with a competent cast.  And yes, Ben Affleck is in it.

State of Play is your typical government conspiracy thriller.  They’re sort of like the cinematic equivalent of asparagus.  The stuff is usually good, but not something you can have two nights in a row.  It quickly becomes the most disgusting thing on earth.  Or maybe that’s just me.

So State of Play.  Yeah, it’s enjoyable.  Russell Crowe plays an old guard newspaper reporter who happens to be best friends with a sleazy congressman (Affleck).  Crowe teams up with a “blogger,” who works for the paper’s online division, to investigate things that don’t seem as they should.  Rachel McAdams plays the blogger and while she can only be described with words like “plucky” or “spunky,” the relationship between print and online is played out pretty well. I think that’s a first for Hollywood.

Obviously with conspiracy thrillers you’re going to get a few twists.  Most in State of Play work out great, but I had trouble connecting all the dots at the end.  I think it all works out logically, but the editor maybe cut out a few too many scenes while wrapping things up.  You might be left scratching your head at the end, but it’s a fun ride up until then.  Rent it.

Grade: B-

Fantastic Fest at the famed Alamo Drafthouse in Austin caters to a specific kind of movie geek.  There are a few mainstream movies, but most of them contain gore, zombies, ninjas, or boobs.  The festival is gaining in popularity, so this year contained more mainstream movies and several great indie films hoping to get a wide release.  I was here on business but I got a chance to see a few of the showings.  Surprisingly, I enjoyed just about all of them.

Rampage – An Uwe Boll film.  His resume is like an art gallery of crap.  Oddly enough, Rampage is his best film.  The plot followed a logical progression.  No characters randomly disappeared/appeared for no reason.  Instead, it’s a well told, yet incredibly disturbing tale of a man shooting up a small town.

As I’m sitting there watching this, I’m thinking, “Wow. This movie is from a director who has taken an unbelievable amount of internet hate.  And to answer all that, he writes a movie about a man shooting up everyone who wrongs him.”  I was checking the exits just in case.

In the Q&A after the movie, the lead actor made a comment that “some movies shouldn’t be made.  Probably including this one.”  Easily the most uncomfortable movie I’ve seen in a while.

Down Terrace – This movie comes out of the UK and is about a family involved in the drug trade trying set get things back in order after the father and son are released from prison.  It’s a black comedy, so imagine what The Godfather would be like if you laughed whenever someone died.  That’s probably a horrible description, but Down Terrrace won a Best Picture award at the festival.  It deserved it.

Sweet Karma – Here is a little indie revenge flick.  I usually like this genre only to see how directors handle the internal impacts revenge takes on a person.  Sweet Karma handles it very well and had a great ending.

Sweet Karma’s hero is a mute, Russian woman who travels to Toronto to rescue her sister out of the sex trade.  In an uncomfortable moment during the Q&A, the director was asked about the reasons for having a mute heroine.  In his response (with the actress sitting right next to him), he said that he knew he wanted to cast her for the part since he had done some model shoots together, but dialog “would introduce a dynamic we weren’t really prepared to deal with.”  Translation: when your pretty girl can’t act, make her mute.  Strangely enough, she won a Best Actress award at the festival – without a line of dialog.

Duress - I wasn’t really interested in seeing this until I saw the description.  It said something along the lines of, “I’ve seen a lot of thrillers and none of them are thrilling because they all follow the same formula.  Finally, here’s one that’s unique.”  I’m paraphrasing that, but it sold me enough to catch it and boy was I glad I did.  It’s a creepy, psychological thriller that wraps up all the loose ends it introduces along the way.  I love it when a movie does that, and I love it even more when I’m surprised in the ways it does.

Duress was released theatrically in Greece, so hopefully someone will pick it up for the US box office.  Second to Toy Story 1 & 2 3D, Duress was the best movie of the festival for me.  I’ll keep an eye out for it and if a studio picks it up, I’ll let ya know.