Monday Morning Quarterback Part III
By BOP Staff
August 8, 2012
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Kim Hollis: Which movies have you seen lately? What are your thoughts?
Jason Barney: Through Netflix and Hulu we have watched a number of Civil War films, with this being the 150th anniversary. Re-watched North and South Books I and II, Gettysburg, Glory, God's and Generals. In my mind Gettysburg is a near classic film. I have watched certain scenes from it too many times to remember. I tend to enjoy the war pics, though. Great soundtrack to that one.
In the theaters, I most recently saw Ice Age with my son. He enjoyed it, and honestly, it wasn't that bad. I didn't walk away discovering the meaning of life, but Sam was entertained. Saw the Amazing Spider-Man. It was better than I thought it would be, but nothing special. I thought The Lizard was overdone, they didn't need to make him a big beast. He could have been creepier. Hope to see a film or two this week.
Edwin Davies: I took advantage of an offer a theater near me have where you can see any film at any time for half price in order to catch up on films I've been meaning to see: The Amazing Spider-Man, Magic Mike and Killer Joe.
I pretty much hated Spider-Man. I liked the two leads but found the storytelling to be leaden and dull, as if the film-makers felt like they were just going through the motions of telling the Spider-Man origin because they had to, rather than because they had a new take on it. The action was better handled than the character stuff, which veered wildly from moody and introspective to WACKY COMEDY ANTICS in a way that hurt both the drama and the humor of the film, and as such I found that I just didn't care about what was going on. It didn't help that The Lizard looked awful, but as is often the case with effects-heavy films, if you're complaining about the effects it's because the rest of the film isn't up to much.
Magic Mike was a lot of fun, even though I didn't really care about anything happening in it. I think that's largely Soderbergh's intention, though: he wanted to show what life is like for a male stripper in a pretty realistic way so he worked that into a pretty generic All About Eve plot with a standard romance. The world of the film was so well realised and the performances were so fun that it didn't matter that nothing in it seemed to be of any consequence.
Killer Joe is a deeply, deeply unpleasant film that I pretty much adored. It's not much more than a deep-fried spin on Double Indemnity, but that film is so amazing that even a copy of it is going to have to actively work to be terrible. I can see it putting people off, particularly once it gets into the ridiculously sleazy final third, but I really enjoyed watching a bunch of idiots bite off more than they can chew, then suffer the consequences.
I also watched the 1981 film Cutter's Way on DVD for the first time and it was every bit as great as I had been told. A murder mystery starring Jeff Bridges and John Heard, it's a really compelling and entertaining film that I get the feeling has been forgotten over the years, but I would really recommend it.
Kim Hollis: I didn't really think I'd care much about Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, but I found myself really enjoying it, mainly because the chemistry between Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt is quite wonderful. Kristin Scott Thomas has an amusing turn, too.
As far as The Dark Knight Rises, I found it to be the ideal capper to the trilogy. More of a sequel to Begins than The Dark Knight, the film has a number of excellent flourishes and pays attention to the details, which I appreciated a great deal. Bale is at his best here, and the cast members who surround him are top-notch, particularly Michael Caine, Gary Oldman and Tom Hardy. The movie has a few missteps, including what I believe to be poor sound mixing and a horribly written character played by Matthew Modine, but overall I think it is quite satisfying.
To Rome With Love is pure fluff, but it's amusing, harmless fluff. It was going to be tough for Woody Allen to follow up Midnight in Paris with anything comparable in quality, so I think he just took the approach that he'd have fun shooting a film in a picturesque location. I'd compare it to reading a "beach book."
I was surprised I enjoyed Man on a Ledge as much as I did given that I pretty much knew everything that would happen in the film thanks to the trailers. I just kind of went with it and accepted the movie's conceit. Sam Worthington isn't a great actor, but he may work better as an everyman like the one in this film rather than a demi-god like in the Titans movies.
Beasts of the Southern Wild is a movie I had been eagerly anticipating. I'm always drawn to the magic realism genre, and while it could have gone far overboard and gotten too precious, Beasts straddled that line between fantasy and reality quite nicely and was quite thought-provoking to boot. Quvenzhané Wallis is an amazing young actress. I found myself wondering how in the world the director was able to elicit such an inspiring performance from her. The movie is not upbeat, but it is uplifiting, if that makes sense.
Finally, Mirror Mirror is an utterly forgettable fairy tale adaptation that does absolutely nothing to set itself apart from the various other retellings that have taken place over the past year or two. Julia Roberts is mostly obnoxious, while Lily Collins and Armie Hammer (who I normally like) are super bland. I did enjoy the dwarfs, but overall the movie almost felt like a Summer Playhouse sort of thing rather than a big-budget production.
David Mumpower: I have vacillated on posting a review of The Dark Knight Rises. I'm squarely in the "Loved it!" camp. It plays as a pure sequel to Batman Begins, a movie I vastly prefer to the sloppier The Dark Knight. One of the key aspects of Batman Begins as a triumph is the presence of Liam Neeson, whose ascension in Taken was at least partially triggered by this role. Seeing that premise explored further was catnip to me. I had issues with the technical aspects of the film (Christian Bale chewed out the wrong soundboard guy) and a couple of my family members were undeniably bored to tears by the movie's length. I still think this is the type of high-minded fare we need in tentpole titles these days. In particular, the judge who sentenced the 1% was a chilling bit of social commentary.
Gone is a blueprint example of how I can enjoy an actress, Amanda Seyfried, and feel that she does all that she can with a role while still actively disliking the story as well as her role in it. Gone is intended to be a psychological drama with Hitchcock-ian undertones. Since there are only about eight people in the movie, however, there isn't much guesswork available. The story comes down to whether the protagonist is crazy or not and the resolution is a total letdown after 75 minutes of hype. This one is a definite pass.
Mirror Mirror is a live action version of a Shrek sequel and I don't mean that in a good way. If this had been the first recent fractured fairy tale, the genre would have died after one attempt. Hoodwinked tells a similar story better and with much more whimsy. I did enjoy Lily Collins' performance, though. She portrayed one of the Tuohys in The Blind Side. I think she has a future if this particular failure isn't dumped on her.
Act of Valor actively offended me. This is the worst kind of jingoism. Anybody without a flag on their helmet is a bad guy who deserves to be mercilessly slain. The simple fact that they were not Born in the USA (in the Springsteen vernacular) is justification enough for violence. I recognize that many of the performers in this are real life Navy SEALS but this is a brutal film even allowing for the amateurish nature. The voice-over work in particular is something a motivated eighth grader could do better on a home video. And for all the praise the action scenes merited, I found myself realizing that videogame design has come so far that it is indistinguishable from realistic battle sequences.
Man on a Ledge is like an average episode of Leverage. Since I happen to love Leverage and really anything involving heists, I mean this as a compliment. Yes, once we take away the film's central conceit about a potential jumper from a roof, it's just like any other heist story. This in no way changes the fact that the movie is at a minimum watchable. I quite enjoyed it but your mileage may vary. I felt there was a great deal of creativity in terms of organic conflict, something rare in modern cinema.
Beasts of the Southern Wild is a critical darling that did absolutely nothing for me. I was agitated by it more than anything else. There are no characters to invest in other than a misguided little girl and while I love her performance, that is nowhere near enough for me. Dwight Henry delivers a brave performance as Wink, the father. Like the men in Act of Valor, he is not an actor by trade but his understanding of Katrina's impact on the bayous of Louisiana is mesmerizing. Despite this, I was miserable the entire time I sat in the theater and could not wait for the movie to end. My wife had promised me another Whale Rider; Beasts of the Southern Wild is diametrically opposed in tenor.
To Rome with Love is nowhere near the level of last year's Woody Allen masterpiece, Midnight in Paris. Even so, I like that Allen is wandering around Europe, admiring all the architecture. If he wants to do several more themed city movies such as these, I am all for the idea. To Rome with Love is a sloppy affair with several low points. Still, when I recall the send-up of celebrity, done better in this movie than in Allen's own Celebrity, I laugh. And the singing in the shower bit leads to an illogical but hysterical conclusion. Overall, I enjoy To Rome with Love enough to recommend it.
Lockout is something of a first for Guy Pearce. He always portrays these precise, measured characters who are in control of their environment at all times. In Lockout, Pearce tries something altogether different and the result is mesmerizing. This movie is his Snake Plissken in Escape from New York, his Jack Burton in Big Trouble in Little China. This is Pearce playing a callous rogue who can quip with the best of them. I absolutely love the movie and consider this to be one of Pearce's most impressive acting gigs. After years of sameness, he really surprised me here.
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is a blueprint example of how a producer can win at romantic comedy simply through the casting. This premise, while novel, is not the least bit noteworthy. An uptight fisherman is tasked with the relocation of salmon to a hostile environment. That's it; that's the movie. With Emily Blunt and Ewan McGregor as the romantic leads and Amr Waked as the motivated Sheikh, there are three root-worthy characters in this movie. Throw in Kristen Scott Thomas in a role akin to In the Loop and suddenly a dull premise becomes an engrossing feature. I don't think this will wind up in my top 10 for the year because 2012 has been great thus far. It will be way up there, though.
I committed the cardinal sin of film criticism by having a specific expectation for Savages. All of the early conversation about the film said that it hearkened back to Oliver Stone's 1994 release, Natural Born Killers. That's a title I disliked due to its pointless violence. I expected more of the same from Savages. To my surprise, there are only a few such elements in the film. Otherwise, this is a Traffic-esque tale of how a woman becomes the leader of a powerful drug cartel. That's on the evil side. On the hero (or at least anti-hero) side, there is a fascinating story that could just as easily have been the basis of Wall Street 3. A pair of dynamic businessmen create a product everybody wants and so big business (or in this case a big drug cartel) tries to buy them out. They are reticent and everyone winds up in court. Okay, since it's not Wall Street 3, everyone winds up firing guns but the point remains. Savages is not the movie its reputation would indicate and I quite enjoyed it.
Max Braden: From the time we listed recents a month ago and I had seen Brave, I've since been to the theater twice: for The Dark Knight Rises, and Total Recall.
The Dark Knight Rises - The most immediate comment I have about this movie is that I *hated* the audio mix; the music drowned out important dialogue throughout the movie and for various characters. I nearly threw up my hands in the theater and I'll be yelling when it wins an Oscar for Sound Mixing. I was a little underwhelmed by Bane. The fights between Wayne and Ra's in the first Batman were better, and Hardy's physical power is demonstrated better in Warrior. I liked the other two Batmans more, but the ending was a bright spot in this one. I think in that aspect, it was better than The Avengers because the solution to TDKR required more complicated teamwork. Still, I'd say The Avengers was the more enjoyable movie.
Total Recall - It really annoyed me that there was a claim that "the only element from the previous Total Recall being reused is the three-boobed woman" and then you had line after line of the same dialogue. Although Beckinsale looked great in chase mode, there was no chemistry between Farrell and the women. The Fifth Element and I, Robot both had better futuristic car chases. And Schwarzenegger's version was just grander, more exciting, and more enjoyable.
Recently seen on video:
Loosies - Is a crime/romance movie starring Peter Facinelli (a Tom Cruise doppelganger) and Jaimie Alexander. It's decent, and they have good chemistry. Both actors are easy on the eyes and I've always thought that Facinelli is better than the level of movies or distribution he's been stuck in.
Big Miracle - About the 1980s international effort to rescue trapped whales. This is a completely play-it-safe-for-whole-family-viewing choice. It made me laugh when the Eskimos point out, "hey, this is part of nature and it happens all the time."
Cat Run - A Tarantinoesque heist starring Paz Vega, with Janet McTeer (who plays a brutal and proper assassin) and a couple of guys I didn't recognize. It has some sexy and funny moments. I'd recommend it for McTeer's performance.
Mother's Day - About a mother/sons crime group who take a house full of strangers hostage. The tone is like Texas Chainsaw Massacre with a touch of lightness thrown in (but really, it's almost torture porn) because the mother is Rebecca De Mornay, and she's super sweetly sadistic. DO NOT watch this with your mother.
Machine Gun Preacher - Based on a true story about Sam Childers, a Pennsylvania biker, come preacher, come African freedom fighter out to save the children, starring Gerard Butler, with Michelle Monaghan as his stay-at-home wife. Noble story, it just didn't grab me.
Mirror Mirror - On the one hand I like that the actors took a loose approach to this movie, which resulted in a fun, relaxed tone. I laughed a couple times at the dialogue (and the quick cut of "I need a second..." *cut to clock tick* "Okay..."). But on the other hand, the production felt so made for ABC Family Channel that it had no teeth, and I felt a little sorry for Julia Roberts. Still, an easy-going choice and one I'd make every time over frumpy Kristen Stewart and her version of Snow White.