Sorry for the lack of posts. Been very busy with writing and some personal stuff (which thankfully is outside the scope of this blog). Loads of back-posting to come. That said...
There are some directors who keep making the same movie over and over again, with diminishing results. Wes Anderson and M. Night Shymalan come to mind. Guy Ritchie is another. I loved LOCK STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS and really enjoyed SNATCH (mostly because of Brad Pitt’s crazy accent).
SPOILERS, LIKE BAD TEETH, ABOUND
ROCK’N’ROLLA is yet another crazy caper film with a cast of dozens. Only this film has serious flaws in it. One, the voiceover from Archy (and from other characters later in the film) often just describes what’s going on onscreen. This is the worst use of voiceover ever; if we’re seeing something, we don’t need to hear about it too. Voiceover should add something – a hint of irony, a lie, some character details.
Next, Ritchie sucks all the tension out of the story with some truly odd choices. Like SNATCH and LSATSB, he paints his lead characters into a corner – they owe $2m to Tom Wilkinson’s sleazy gangster. But they immediately get out of their situation by robbing a Russian billionaire's accountants of $7m; in perhaps the easiest robbery of all time. This is a really dumb choice for the story – without that threat hanging over their heads, there’s nothing at stake. Even odder, the Russian doesn’t seem that mad that he was ripped off. He doesn’t do anything about it until the second time he’s robbed. So without the threat of imminent death for our heroes, the only thing attempting to drive the story is Tom Wilkinson trying to recover the Russian’s lucky painting from his drugged-out stepson.
There are too many characters and we’re not invested in any of them. Gerard Butler and Idris Elba are fine, but there’s no reason we’re rooting for them. There’s also Jeremy Piven and Ludacris, playing managers/club owners who are going to lose business if they don’t track down the junkie. But that’s not something that makes us care about them; they’re two more people in a cast of dozens; does it really matter if they take a hit because their club gets shut down? It’s only until very late in the film that their lives become at stake.
Finally, there are some weak character moments that feel completely out of place. Would a ruthless Russian billionaire really let himself be robbed of $7m without any repercussions? Wouldn’t he at least try to find out who stole from him? Perhaps he’d ask Tom Wilkinson for help? And when the Russian turns on Tom Wilkinson – whom we know is insanely vindictive – wouldn’t Wilkinson try to have the man hurt or killed in return?
In order for these types of character-driven, plot-twisting heist films to work, we have to care about the characters and believe that what they’re doing comes out of who they are. ROCK’N’ROLLA fails on both counts, leaving us with a music video instead of a film – all flash, no substance.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
DEATH RACE - Ben Franklin's Third Certainty in Life
DEATH RACE is a film that delivers exactly what you’d expect. If you’ve seen the trailers, you’ve basically seen the film.
SPOILERS PEELING OUT BELOW
It’s a solid genre effort, with some good chase scenes and a lot of creative violence. Unfortunately, it doesn’t provide any surprises. What you expect to occur in the story happens in every single beat – from the frame-up that lands our hero in prison and the Death Race to the double-crosses and the eventual team-up with his chief rival.
While it’s a competent film, a little more imagination could’ve resulted in something we haven’t seen before, something that would take the film out of mediocre territory.
One thing I would’ve done is to delay Jason Statham discovering who set him up until later in the story. The audience knows he’s been set up – clearly he didn’t kill his wife; he’s the good guy. And having him try to find the culprit is good. But it should be more of a struggle, not something so blatantly obvious as the henchman giving the same finger-gun gesture after he kills the wife and in prison. Statham should have a few dead ends before he finds the guy, and then it’s a further revelation that he was sent by the warden (right now, it’s also blatantly obvious the warden sent him; the guy’s a prisoner).
But even for all its predictability, it wasn’t the worst film I’ve seen in a while.
SPOILERS PEELING OUT BELOW
It’s a solid genre effort, with some good chase scenes and a lot of creative violence. Unfortunately, it doesn’t provide any surprises. What you expect to occur in the story happens in every single beat – from the frame-up that lands our hero in prison and the Death Race to the double-crosses and the eventual team-up with his chief rival.
While it’s a competent film, a little more imagination could’ve resulted in something we haven’t seen before, something that would take the film out of mediocre territory.
One thing I would’ve done is to delay Jason Statham discovering who set him up until later in the story. The audience knows he’s been set up – clearly he didn’t kill his wife; he’s the good guy. And having him try to find the culprit is good. But it should be more of a struggle, not something so blatantly obvious as the henchman giving the same finger-gun gesture after he kills the wife and in prison. Statham should have a few dead ends before he finds the guy, and then it’s a further revelation that he was sent by the warden (right now, it’s also blatantly obvious the warden sent him; the guy’s a prisoner).
But even for all its predictability, it wasn’t the worst film I’ve seen in a while.
Tropic Blunder
TROPIC THUNDER was the most buzzed-about comedy of the summer. So I was very much looking forward to seeing it.
Once again, we have another sloppily-plotted comedy. Fortunately, it’s funny, so the humor carries the weak plot. But with a little more attention to the characters and the plot, the script and film could have been much stronger.
SPOILERS
We’re introduced to a cast of mostly bratty actors and a rapper. Because they’re all more or less self-absorbed jerks, it’s hard to find anyone to root for. Script gives us Jay Baruchel’s rookie actor, but he’s barely defined so we don’t particularly care about him. Making him more of a focal point would help the audience care about what happens to these guys; otherwise, we’re waiting to see what befalls an insanely dedicated method actor; a clueless action star; a junkie; and a closeted rapper.
The movie also never makes us feel like any of the characters are in danger. One major mistake is the way in which Steve Coogan’s director character is killed. He steps on a landmine and explodes, which is a funny beat. But it doesn’t serve the story. It would have been easy to have the Laotian drug dealers stealthily shoot him with an RPG. This accomplishes the same exploding gag and still allows Ben Stiller’s Tug to idiotically assume Coogan’s playing a joke on him to enhance the realism of the shoot; it also sets up that the drug dealers are a threat. I would’ve also had one or two more disposable good guys who could get shot and killed in the course of the action to up the stakes. When we’re watching the climactic rescue and there are 100+ armed drug farmers facing off against five actors with blanks and nobody’s dying, it’s a little ridiculous.
The big rescue also falls flat in terms of motivation and believability. There’s no reason for any of the characters to risk their necks to save Tug; most of them are wholly selfish and all of them are grossly unsuited to the task. A better and more plausible way to achieve the rescue would be to give Jay Baruchel’s character a big, rousing speech about how they have to go help their brother actor. All of the other characters ignore him. Jack Black, in the throes of heroin addiction, begins a solo raid on the bad guy camp to score drugs. Everyone else thinks he’s being heroic. Then Robert Downey, Jr., still locked in his Black sergeant character, goes in after Black. And everyone else follows suit. By the time they realize Black was just looking to get high, it’s too late and they’re already committed.
A final note is that the tone of the film veers around a lot, from satire (with Tom Cruise’s studio chief and the fake trailers that open the film) to buddy comedy to near-action at the end. If the movie picked one of these, it could have been stronger. But since it made a fortune anyway, I doubt anyone really cares.
Once again, we have another sloppily-plotted comedy. Fortunately, it’s funny, so the humor carries the weak plot. But with a little more attention to the characters and the plot, the script and film could have been much stronger.
SPOILERS
We’re introduced to a cast of mostly bratty actors and a rapper. Because they’re all more or less self-absorbed jerks, it’s hard to find anyone to root for. Script gives us Jay Baruchel’s rookie actor, but he’s barely defined so we don’t particularly care about him. Making him more of a focal point would help the audience care about what happens to these guys; otherwise, we’re waiting to see what befalls an insanely dedicated method actor; a clueless action star; a junkie; and a closeted rapper.
The movie also never makes us feel like any of the characters are in danger. One major mistake is the way in which Steve Coogan’s director character is killed. He steps on a landmine and explodes, which is a funny beat. But it doesn’t serve the story. It would have been easy to have the Laotian drug dealers stealthily shoot him with an RPG. This accomplishes the same exploding gag and still allows Ben Stiller’s Tug to idiotically assume Coogan’s playing a joke on him to enhance the realism of the shoot; it also sets up that the drug dealers are a threat. I would’ve also had one or two more disposable good guys who could get shot and killed in the course of the action to up the stakes. When we’re watching the climactic rescue and there are 100+ armed drug farmers facing off against five actors with blanks and nobody’s dying, it’s a little ridiculous.
The big rescue also falls flat in terms of motivation and believability. There’s no reason for any of the characters to risk their necks to save Tug; most of them are wholly selfish and all of them are grossly unsuited to the task. A better and more plausible way to achieve the rescue would be to give Jay Baruchel’s character a big, rousing speech about how they have to go help their brother actor. All of the other characters ignore him. Jack Black, in the throes of heroin addiction, begins a solo raid on the bad guy camp to score drugs. Everyone else thinks he’s being heroic. Then Robert Downey, Jr., still locked in his Black sergeant character, goes in after Black. And everyone else follows suit. By the time they realize Black was just looking to get high, it’s too late and they’re already committed.
A final note is that the tone of the film veers around a lot, from satire (with Tom Cruise’s studio chief and the fake trailers that open the film) to buddy comedy to near-action at the end. If the movie picked one of these, it could have been stronger. But since it made a fortune anyway, I doubt anyone really cares.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
AMERICAN TEEN – The Documentary Is All Growns Up
While not a narrative feature, AMERICAN TEEN can provide a lot of insight into what to do right to feature writers.
SPOILER TANTRUM
The film follows a group of high school seniors as they navigate their way through their last year of high school and the beginnings of adulthood. Each kid has one issue – Hannah trying to find her place as an alternakid with big aspirations in a close-minded, small town, Colin hoping to land a basketball scholarship so he can go to school, Megan wrestling with getting into Notre Dame like the rest of her family, or Jake trying to get a girlfriend. By focusing on one storyline per kid, the film has a chance to develop a character arc – for example, Hannah getting dumped, dating a popular kid, and deciding to move away to San Francisco over her parent’s objections – for each of the major characters. It also chooses a wide variety of different social strata to pick the characters from, from the most popular kids in school to an attractive weirdo to a friendless loner.
There are some moments of real humor as well, made even more funny by the fact that they’re unscripted. These come out in interesting places, like when Jake gets dumped, and help leaven the pathos a bit.
Ultimately, the film feels so universal because if you weren’t one of these kids in high school, you knew them. And in retrospect, you’ve gone through all of the things these kids are going through, things that felt so important at the time but you later realized weren’t so pressing.
Watching the film, I realized that I still do and feel a lot of the same ways that these kids do. I may have grown up, gotten a job and my own place, but emotionally, my life hasn’t changed that much since high school. Only I get laid a lot more.
SPOILER TANTRUM
The film follows a group of high school seniors as they navigate their way through their last year of high school and the beginnings of adulthood. Each kid has one issue – Hannah trying to find her place as an alternakid with big aspirations in a close-minded, small town, Colin hoping to land a basketball scholarship so he can go to school, Megan wrestling with getting into Notre Dame like the rest of her family, or Jake trying to get a girlfriend. By focusing on one storyline per kid, the film has a chance to develop a character arc – for example, Hannah getting dumped, dating a popular kid, and deciding to move away to San Francisco over her parent’s objections – for each of the major characters. It also chooses a wide variety of different social strata to pick the characters from, from the most popular kids in school to an attractive weirdo to a friendless loner.
There are some moments of real humor as well, made even more funny by the fact that they’re unscripted. These come out in interesting places, like when Jake gets dumped, and help leaven the pathos a bit.
Ultimately, the film feels so universal because if you weren’t one of these kids in high school, you knew them. And in retrospect, you’ve gone through all of the things these kids are going through, things that felt so important at the time but you later realized weren’t so pressing.
Watching the film, I realized that I still do and feel a lot of the same ways that these kids do. I may have grown up, gotten a job and my own place, but emotionally, my life hasn’t changed that much since high school. Only I get laid a lot more.
PINEAPPLE EXPRESS - Character Development Up in Smoke
Comedies have it easier than almost any other kind of movie – if they’re funny, that’s really all that matters. While some of my favorite comedies are well-written (IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, PHILADELPHIA STORY, GROUNDHOG DAY, and TOOTSIE come to mind), others (CADDYSHACK, NATIONAL LAMPOON’S VACTION, etc.) are not.
A BONGLOAD FULL OF SPOILERS BELOW…
PINEAPPLE EXPRESS has a lot going for it. It features two likeable leads and is consistently funny. Even though half the movie is watching guys getting stoned and hanging out, it’s very enjoyable.
It could have been an even better movie with a little more focus on the story and the characters however. The biggest flaw is that all of the friendship material that comes about at the climax of the film (Dale realizing he’s been a dick and that Saul is his best friend) is great stuff. Unfortunately, it’s not set up at all that his character weakness is not having any friends. So it comes out of nowhere and ultimately doesn’t amount to much. And it would have been very easy to integrate this setup in the existing structure of the film. When Dale goes to pick his high school girlfriend up and bumps into the creepy teacher played by Joe Lotruglio – that’s a missed opportunity. The creepy teacher could have gone to high school with Dale. And instead of just telling him to leave and being off-putting, he could have said something like “Oh, I see you’re still a stoner loser with no friends. That’s why you’re out trolling the high schools for chicks.” Not only would this have gotten across that Dale doesn’t have any friends, but it would’ve amped the tension up in the scene.
Saul doesn’t have much of a character arc either. Rogen and Goldberg could’ve given him something – perhaps building on his dream of becoming a civil engineer and having it where he goes back to school after all the events unfold.
The bad guys are similarly underdeveloped. While Craig Robinson and Kevin Corrigan have some meat to their relationship, Rosie Perez and Gary Cole are almost cardboard cutouts in terms of character depth.
And I don’t care how funny and charming Dale Denton is – there’s no way that someone who looks like Seth Rogen and who isn’t Seth Rogen with his fame and millions of dollars would be dating a hot high school senior.
A BONGLOAD FULL OF SPOILERS BELOW…
PINEAPPLE EXPRESS has a lot going for it. It features two likeable leads and is consistently funny. Even though half the movie is watching guys getting stoned and hanging out, it’s very enjoyable.
It could have been an even better movie with a little more focus on the story and the characters however. The biggest flaw is that all of the friendship material that comes about at the climax of the film (Dale realizing he’s been a dick and that Saul is his best friend) is great stuff. Unfortunately, it’s not set up at all that his character weakness is not having any friends. So it comes out of nowhere and ultimately doesn’t amount to much. And it would have been very easy to integrate this setup in the existing structure of the film. When Dale goes to pick his high school girlfriend up and bumps into the creepy teacher played by Joe Lotruglio – that’s a missed opportunity. The creepy teacher could have gone to high school with Dale. And instead of just telling him to leave and being off-putting, he could have said something like “Oh, I see you’re still a stoner loser with no friends. That’s why you’re out trolling the high schools for chicks.” Not only would this have gotten across that Dale doesn’t have any friends, but it would’ve amped the tension up in the scene.
Saul doesn’t have much of a character arc either. Rogen and Goldberg could’ve given him something – perhaps building on his dream of becoming a civil engineer and having it where he goes back to school after all the events unfold.
The bad guys are similarly underdeveloped. While Craig Robinson and Kevin Corrigan have some meat to their relationship, Rosie Perez and Gary Cole are almost cardboard cutouts in terms of character depth.
And I don’t care how funny and charming Dale Denton is – there’s no way that someone who looks like Seth Rogen and who isn’t Seth Rogen with his fame and millions of dollars would be dating a hot high school senior.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Comic Collection
As a fillm/sci-fi/fantasy dork, I have over the years amassed a giant comic and graphic novel collection. Which is now mostly taking up space in my brain and my home.
So, this is incredibly off-topic, but I will refer any interested readers to my Craigslist posting:
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/clt/784188242.html
Someone, please -- take these off my hands.
So, this is incredibly off-topic, but I will refer any interested readers to my Craigslist posting:
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/clt/784188242.html
Someone, please -- take these off my hands.
Monday, August 4, 2008
THE MUMMY 3: THIRD TIME’S EVEN MORE MEDIOCRE
I didn’t like the first MUMMY film and hated the second. So of course, I saw TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR opening weekend.
It has the same goofy tone as the rest of the MUMMY films. It also has the same weak plotting.
SPOILERS 3: TOMB OF A LAME SCRIPT
There are numerous times our hero and heroine are rescued by other people – by their son and his potential girlfriend in a museum; twice by Yetis (that are called by the girlfriend, beat up some soldiers for them, and shield them from an avalanche), one time by Michelle Yeoh’s magic fountain, once by an army of good undead guys, and once by John Hannah dropping the world’s most ineffective bomb on a car.
In order for an action adventure movie to be engaging, our hero has to face off against a villain who constantly backs him into a corner. And when all seems lost, our hero defies the odds and gets himself out of it. This makes him seem clever and effective. Having Rick and Evy constantly get into jams and other people then rescue them makes them seem weak and stupid. It's also unsatisfying to watch. We want to see Neo fight and defeat Agent Smith on his own, not have some CGI Abominable Snowman show up and bail his ass out.
Arcwise, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar give us a little of two things and not enough of either. Brendan Fraser and Maria Bello are married and bored because they promised each other not to adventure. And Brendan’s been a distant father to his son who desperately seeks his approval. Done right, the first arc gives us MR. AND MRS. SMITH, a great film about a couple whose marriage had gone stale because they lied to each other and how once they know the truth, it becomes exciting again. In M3, we don’t get anything of the sort other than some weak comedy about the two of them trying to have sex in the beginning and it not happening. As far as the father-son-arc, this all comes about through dialogue and doesn’t add up to much. A better way to have gone with it is to show O’Connell junior at the beginning, taking some crazy risks because he wants to make a name for himself and get out from under the shadow of his parents. Later in the film, Rick and Evy can save him from trouble and try to keep him safe. Then he sneaks out, getting in trouble trying to save the day on his own. By the end of the film, they’re all working together to beat the enemy.
The script also suffers from major logic problems. It feels like a few disconnected things that were thrown together. Rick and Evy happen to have a magical doohickey that can revive the Dragon Emperor; then the guy comes back as a terra cotta mummy for some reason; then he needs to find Shangri-La and get to its magical fountain to revive himself and become immortal; except there’s a cursed dagger that can kill him anyway (which means he’s not immortal), etc. It got muddled and confusing.
Making matters worse, he raised his terra cotta army – which if they reach the Great Wall would be unstoppable; but they’re not unstoppable before then, you can beat them by hitting them with a shovel. So that’s not very fearsome. Do they suddenly become non-crappy when they cross the wall?
And then after the DE is partially defeated, his army of lawn ornaments in ruins, for some reason he goes inside his old tomb and starts swirling mini-planets around. The movie never explains why he’s doing this or what the danger is. Without an army, he’s not that scary anymore. And he’s defeated by Brendan Fraser stabbing him with the magic knife, which is rather anticlimactic (and unrealistic) after we witness the DE turn into a dragon, a monster, and kill about a million zombies with his bare hands and magic.
There’s also some really weak humor, including two bits involving a yak. Sadly, the screening I attended was almost sold out (thanks to dopes like me), so I’m sure a fourth installment is on the way.
It has the same goofy tone as the rest of the MUMMY films. It also has the same weak plotting.
SPOILERS 3: TOMB OF A LAME SCRIPT
There are numerous times our hero and heroine are rescued by other people – by their son and his potential girlfriend in a museum; twice by Yetis (that are called by the girlfriend, beat up some soldiers for them, and shield them from an avalanche), one time by Michelle Yeoh’s magic fountain, once by an army of good undead guys, and once by John Hannah dropping the world’s most ineffective bomb on a car.
In order for an action adventure movie to be engaging, our hero has to face off against a villain who constantly backs him into a corner. And when all seems lost, our hero defies the odds and gets himself out of it. This makes him seem clever and effective. Having Rick and Evy constantly get into jams and other people then rescue them makes them seem weak and stupid. It's also unsatisfying to watch. We want to see Neo fight and defeat Agent Smith on his own, not have some CGI Abominable Snowman show up and bail his ass out.
Arcwise, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar give us a little of two things and not enough of either. Brendan Fraser and Maria Bello are married and bored because they promised each other not to adventure. And Brendan’s been a distant father to his son who desperately seeks his approval. Done right, the first arc gives us MR. AND MRS. SMITH, a great film about a couple whose marriage had gone stale because they lied to each other and how once they know the truth, it becomes exciting again. In M3, we don’t get anything of the sort other than some weak comedy about the two of them trying to have sex in the beginning and it not happening. As far as the father-son-arc, this all comes about through dialogue and doesn’t add up to much. A better way to have gone with it is to show O’Connell junior at the beginning, taking some crazy risks because he wants to make a name for himself and get out from under the shadow of his parents. Later in the film, Rick and Evy can save him from trouble and try to keep him safe. Then he sneaks out, getting in trouble trying to save the day on his own. By the end of the film, they’re all working together to beat the enemy.
The script also suffers from major logic problems. It feels like a few disconnected things that were thrown together. Rick and Evy happen to have a magical doohickey that can revive the Dragon Emperor; then the guy comes back as a terra cotta mummy for some reason; then he needs to find Shangri-La and get to its magical fountain to revive himself and become immortal; except there’s a cursed dagger that can kill him anyway (which means he’s not immortal), etc. It got muddled and confusing.
Making matters worse, he raised his terra cotta army – which if they reach the Great Wall would be unstoppable; but they’re not unstoppable before then, you can beat them by hitting them with a shovel. So that’s not very fearsome. Do they suddenly become non-crappy when they cross the wall?
And then after the DE is partially defeated, his army of lawn ornaments in ruins, for some reason he goes inside his old tomb and starts swirling mini-planets around. The movie never explains why he’s doing this or what the danger is. Without an army, he’s not that scary anymore. And he’s defeated by Brendan Fraser stabbing him with the magic knife, which is rather anticlimactic (and unrealistic) after we witness the DE turn into a dragon, a monster, and kill about a million zombies with his bare hands and magic.
There’s also some really weak humor, including two bits involving a yak. Sadly, the screening I attended was almost sold out (thanks to dopes like me), so I’m sure a fourth installment is on the way.
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