21 Grams

In a truly amazing display of style and grace, 21 Grams takes a story of tragedy and pain and really twists the knife when we discover how it’s all connected. This is indeed a tragedy as a man (Benicio Del Toro, Snatch) who has been given much, an opportunity to overcome the pain and sins of his father, to be a faithful father and husband, is the perpetrator of a tragic accident, and makes some bad choices. He ends up crashing and killing another man with two young daughters in towe. In the ensuing trial, he is given a 4 year sentence. When he gets out, his faith and character are ruined, and he goes to work in the oil rigs, abandoning his family and leaving the church far behind in another life.

Meanwhile, the man who was killed was an organ donor, and his heart is given to a man who desperately needs a transplant (Sean Penn, Mystic River). However, as inevitably happens, the world is connected at every point, and Penn goes in search of his donor, only to find the mans widow (Naomi Watts, I Heart Huckabees), embittered and scared. He falls for her, and in the process, they go in search of her husbands killer, kind of a strange, desperate vengence twist. The ending is so sad, and so bizarre.

The non-linear style is used very effectively, and the dialogue and acting are so impassioned and stark, there’s just no way you can’t feel the pressures and know the pain of all the characters involved. The color and frame have a cold metallic matrix-esque feel, as if to say "Life is hard, but 21 Grams shows it at its hardest" A 2 to be watched again.

Neo-sploitation

Quentin Tarantino is easily my favorite director, but that's something a lot of people would say. One of the themes in his constant stream of homage, is a nod to the exploitation films of the 70's, he's always incorporating elements from asian kung-fu flicks, blacksploitation, and in general, the more gritty, grindhouse style film of that era. While this was fairly unique to him, the work of his cohort, Robert Rodriguez in works like Machete, along other works like House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects and more recently Drive Angry and Hobo With a Shotgun, bring this bloody, graphic, overtly sexual, in your face, and incredibly absurd to a point that it is beginning to be it's own genre, though an obscure one.

Personally I like it a lot. I know some people will say I'm going to hell for that, but there's something strangely endearing about a horribly graphic, cheesy, overdone piece of crap that allows you to relax. People work too hard having opinions about entertainment.

I return to Bazan when it comes to how I read a film, I firmly believe that as a film plays itself out, you are hearing the voice of the director, and the directors of these exploitive cheeseballs are absurdist comedians with dark streaks. There is almost a sense in which they know, that the audience will fear to look on, but dare not look away. These are not flops, they are not supposed to be technical masterpieces. They are the stunts of the film genre, they are engineered car crashes. They are parodies of the idea of making a film that has any shred of authenticity, and for that I applaud them.

Source Code

This movie is basically Groundhog Day meets Quantum Leap, with a dash of The 6th Sense. But, unoriginality aside (maybe it has some homage factor, but, didn't really sense a tongue-in-cheek-ness to the most obvious scenes) I really liked it. And usually I am not even a fan of the quantum time-stream new reality theory motivated endings (Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, Back to the Future 2, Deja Vu) but for some reason I still really liked the movie even though it has a very "wish upon a star" ending.

Spoiler alert by the way.

But, I think the themes of redemption come in loud and clear through the voice of Cpt. Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhall, Donny Darko) who thematically asks "if you had a minute to live how would you use it." and routinely seeks validation and displays his flaws and needs. Which is good because he is a demonstrative MacGuyver type, who could easily come off as untouchable.

But he is confused and constrained throughout the movie. I have actually hated Gyllenhall in some of the other movies he's done, but, I think he pulls this off very well, and like most sci-fi scripts, there is a huge suspense-of-realism required. You have to give yourself to this one, or you won't like it. And in the end, there is a restoration of reailty that is very cathartic, and very satisfying. There is a clear distinction of rightness and wrongness, and yet the movie is able to go into ethical grey matters, as well, wrestling with the value of human life, the authenticity of human life, and the moral obligation of the individual to society vs. the priority of choice in moral individuality.

And a train blows up about a dozen times, and the effects are actually quite good, they never snap you out of the movies projection of reality, so there's some good eye-candy. The supporting cast is underplayed, I'm a big Vera Farmiga (Running Scared) fan, she comes off fairly flat and unappealing, even though her character, Cpt. Goodwin, wrestles the most tension at the end. There just weren't any other dimensions to any of the other characters, and so Cpt. Stevens is the only person we care about. Even the bad guy is pretty tame, underwhelming, and not very fun to hate.

All things considered, I give this a 2, but I would only want to watch it again with people that hadn't seen it yet.

Frank Miller's 300

          This is one of the goriest and most graphic movies I’ve ever seen. It’s still fabulous and well worth watching but it is an important fact that this movie will desensetize anyone instantly. This is also one of the biggest “fake movies” ever. It’s intentional, but still, in some ways this movie rivals Running Scared in its abuse of style superseding all of substance.

            The scene takes place in Sparta, where the warlords are itchy to defend themselves from the Persians, who must pass through a narrow and impassible straight, guarded by 300 Spartans. The million men of Persia soon begin to die, all the while the politicians of Sparta and Athens erode the support for the men, until it is all they can do to fight on. 300 against the world.

            The scenes are stylized after Frank miller (Writer, Sin City) who wrote a graphic novel about the battle of thermopoly, which is here depicted. The portrayal of the Arabs is a little unfair, they are all either cowardly and snidely, demoniac immortals, or Xerxes who is depicted as a 7 foot tall metrosexual. The immortal battles are stunning, the graphics render it as a separate universe of phantasm, but draw in the audience with the use of slow motion, camera angles, and all the other neat little style tricks.

            The plot is a little thin, but very lurid, just like most of Miller’s stuff. It’s pretty graphic intensive, but wlel worth the watch. Easy 2, but not on the same level as Sin City.

3000 Miles to Graceland

             A fun action movie and crazy twisting plot, this is a great flick for action lovers. Kurt Russell plays a criminal, convict and bad person who runs afoul of Cybil (Courtney Cox) and her son Jesse on the way to rob a casino. His partners include Thomas J Murphy (Kevin Costner), a psychotic douchebag, and general killer, who happens to think he is the son of Elvis. As well as three other no goods (Christian Slater and David Arquette join the team) and their Helicopter pilot, Jack (Howie Long).

            After they do the job, during the International Elvis festival, they escape and then things get complicated, as Murphy betrays everyone and kills them, aside from Russell who escapes and goes back for the money. Meanwhile Jesse has discovered the plot and Cybil begins to crave the much neeed money.

            Things get even more complicated as they all make their way toward a money launderer in Idaho, a short stop for Russell who is headed for his boat in Seattle. A twisting turning plot, this proves to be a visual tornado of crazy ideas woven together by the director and the beginning sequence of the Elvis festival is fantastic.

            Overall I’d give it a 2, because it is definitely worth seeing at least once, and there are a lot of good sequences that are entertaining.

I Spy

             This is a rather typical buddy comedy, but the comedians involved are both extremely funny. Owen Wilson and Eddie Murphy have an extremely good chemistry, and work off each other in a hilarious way. They have just the right amount of action and joking, and the plot, though quite thin, is held up long enough to be entertaining.

            Wilson is a secret agent who feels he is always getting shortchanged in the shadow of super secret agent Carlos, when he gets his first big assignment, he must partner with a high profile person in order to infilstrate his enemies circle. Eddie Murphy is as high profile as they come, as he is the best boxer in the world. And quite proud of it too.

            They reluctantly partner and work together and their mixed motivations and difference quickly become apparent, but in the end they work together for good. The sidelines and gizmos and bits are hilarious, and I laughed extremely hard. The jokes make you forget how stupid the plot is.

            This is a fun flick, and I give it a 2 just for the jokes. Yeah.

Amorres Perros

            This is a disturbing and fascinating look into three lives in Mexico, near Mexico city as far as I can tell. It’s  three different stories with textual intros and they all correspond to one event in time, and they all link the first and last scenes together. It’s drastic and hectic, and sort of ironic. This learned a lot from the Pulp Fiction.

            The first episode, octavio lusts after his sister in law, eventually sleeping with her and despising his foolish thief brother. Meanwhile he becomes involved in the dogfighting sector, and makes a lot of money, helping his sister-in-law financially, only to be left by her after having some of his friends beat up his brother.

            The second chapter follows the life of a model and her dog. She is engaged to a man who just left his wife and daughter, and then is involved in a serious car accident eventually having to have her leg amputated. She eventually gets him back, but she doesn’t know how to cope outside of her life.

            The third subject is a homeless felon who does hits for the local police. He is setup to execute a man’s brother, and then he turns the tables on both of them. He also attempts to help a badly injured dog get better.

            The title says it all (“Love’s a Bitch”) and draws out a great deal of pity and desperation of all the people involved. It’s masterful in it’s layout and the dialogue and acting is spot on, mostly because it’s in another language. 2. Watch this when you break up with someone.

Collateral

           Tom Cruise plays a most excellent role as hitman Vincent in this amazing action thriller. Jamie Foxx plays a cab driver who has never caught his break. He has big business plans and ideas, can’t cope with his ailing mother and has never truly connected with a woman. He is the man to get things done behind the wheel of a cab. He plays by the rules and takes life one passenger at a time.

            After meeting the girl of his dreams and demonstrating his smoothness, his next fair is Vincent. He coerces Foxx to shuttle him around all night, but shortly after their first stop, He realizes what business Vincent is taking care of and who’s old friends he’s visiting.

            Cruise is stellar in what I consider to be his best role of all time. Foxx dazzles as the cabbie who pulls smoothness out of every orifice as a man just trying to cope, and who finally snaps under the pressure.

            The portrayal of real people and character development through dialogue is amazing and endearing, considering the farfetched Mafioso surroundings, but it is done quite elegantly. The performances are worth watching more than once, particularly Cruise, who has finally broken the pretty boy mold in a dynamic role. A 2.

Coach Carter

           Samuel L. Jackson Movies will always get a 2, pretty much no matter what, I like his style so much, and the way he delivers the lines, and just his whole attitude toward acting. It’s phenomenal. I could listen to him talk for a while. He’s just that Good.

            Here he triumphs as Coach Ken Carter, a coach who steps into a losing inner city basketball program in hopes of not only turning the program around, but turning the boys themselves around, and shaping them and molding them to be the men of tomorrow. It’s rather similar to The Emperor’s Club, or Dead Poet Society, except rather then centering on history or philosophy, it centers on basketball and getting into college. The message itself is rather mediocre, a poorman’s Boyz in the Hood. And butchering of a Nelson Mandela quote summing up the theme particularly bothered me.

            But all in all, it is a showcase of the immense talent of the actors, Rob Brown and Samuel L Jackson as well as the kid who played Spanish in Old School all turn in dynamic performances.

            And of course the basketball action and flow is very realistic, and I liked it a great deal. A good movie to take a girl to.

He's a Pirate

The Pirates of the Caribbean Trilogy (now with a 4th film) is actually very very well crafted. I have to say that My initial experience was as follows: Loved the first one, saw it several times. Didn't really like the second, partly cause it seemed so different, and partly because it seemed so inconsistent. Could barely watch the third one and fell asleep while watching it on rental. BUT, I just watched all three in three consecutive nights, and I really loved them. Part of the issue is that 2 & really play as one movie (a la Kill Bill) and so the 4th one is really the third "adventure" of Jack Sparrow.

But the general character of the films really draws out the always double-speaking piracy theme. You never know who is on who's side, as evidenced by the constant flow of Mexican Standoffs. For a linear thinker, this might get complicated, since so many agendas become intermingled. It also has the feel of a retcon, because so little is explained in the first film. The two critical elements are Jack Sparrow and his Magic Compass. Everything seems to revolve around those, and everyones agenda runs through those two particular entities on the screen.

The characters are really amazing, and become more and more complex, particularly the character of Elizabeth Swan who develops the most over the three movies. The emphasis on deception actually becomes critical in the third movie and so there's a lot of truths, half-truths and non-truths to juggle.

The dialogue is perhaps the one element of the story that gets a bit tiresome, it's like they ran out of pirate gags to throw into the dialogue, so everything i rehashed jokes from the first film. The aesthetic of the films is also something that changes, but the CG is really quite enjoyable, and the elements of the Caribbean world really are amazing to watch. There's actually a lot of traditional film making in the 2nd and third films, which isn't a fast enough development for many viewers.

The film also dehumanizes death a bit too much, where the death of Sao Feng is the only actual moment where death is noticed and acknowledged. But there are many layers that develop over the three films and it's really a lot of fun to watch them develop.