Movie Reviews

Yet again I've been negligent about reviewing films. Some films recently in theaters.

Dark Shadows - I never watched the original soap opera, but if I had, apparently I would have gotten a lot of plot references in this Tim Burton/Johnny Depp version. Without that, this film was just a mess. A few hundred years ago Depp lost his love, became a vampire and pissed off a witch (Eva Green) who buried him. He wakes in the 70s, finds his descendants still living in the family's mansion though they are now on hard times in the small town's fish industry. Green heads the rival and currently successful company. So there's a kooky family, cast well (Michelle Pfeiffer, Helena Bonham Carter, Jackie Earle Haley, Chloë Grace Moretz, and Jonny Lee Miller, but they are given almost nothing to do. This film is filled with plot points but not much plot. In almost 2 hours lots happened but mostly in montages. There's a big long party scene that basically does nothing to advance anything. The only character the film explores at all is Depp and he's mostly just shown as a fish out of water in the 70s. Some of that is very funny and I really enjoyed the music but this film never figures out its tone. It isn't a comedy as there isn't enough of it but as a drama it's pointless without characters or a plot of significance. I think the last Tim Burton film I really liked was Batman. Mars Attacks and Big Fish had some redeeming qualities and I'm not sorry I saw Sweeney Todd, but I think I have to give up on him.

Moonrise Kingdom - is from another director with a signature style, Wes Anderson. I really liked the Fantastic Mr. Fox and think animation really suits him, but otherwise I'm tired of the same basic film over and over again. My theory is you like the first few films you see of his and then the rest less and less. The first I saw was Rushmore and I really liked that. Moonrise Kingdom is about a pair of tweens who run away together on a small New England island and then the search for them. Sam (Jared Gilman) runs away from his scout troop so scout leader Edward Norton must find him. Suzy (Kara Hayward) meets up with Sam after running away from her parents, Bill Murray and Frances McDormand.They have a strained relationship and she's having an affair with the police chief Bruce Willis. I really enjoyed the quirkiness and the wonder for the 45 minutes or so, but after that it wore on me. Anderson has his actors speak in a controlled or mannered way. It's not emotionless at all but it's a very matter-of-fact delivery. By the end I just didn't care about any of the individuals, their predominant characteristic was their oddness and they would remain odd at the end of film so I was just waiting for it to end. Still a lot of people really loved this film and if I had been able to connect with the characters just a little more I probably would have too.

Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - I'm surprised but I really enjoyed this film. It reminded me of Love Actually, a British film following a lot of characters all going through similar experiences that's just fun. In this case it's retirees figuring out the next stage in their lives that for one reason or another all move to a hotel in India that's far more rundown than it's described in the brochure. This is a dream cast: Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy , Penelope Wilton; and each brings a humanity and a genuineness to their character that sucks you into the film and makes the two hours go by quickly. This is the kind of film I could have seen with my mother and we would have both really enjoyed.

Beast of the Southern WIld - This was the darling of Sundance and Cannes this year and gets a limited release next week. It's so far my favorite film of the year. Hushpuppy is a 6 year-old girl living in "the bathtub" which we're told is on "the other side of the levee" in New Orleans in abject poverty with her alcoholic father and a handful of neighbors. Then a Katrina like event occurs. Sounds great right? What's remarkable is that it's told from Hushpuppy's point of view (she narrates it) and is captures a childlike sense of wonder and adventure. She just accepts that what she sees (both real and imagined) is part of the world she's in and she has to figure out how to navigate it. Where the Wild Things Are made me feel like a 9 year-old, this is a little more grounded and doesn't quite do that, but it did let me see the world through a 6 year-old's eyes. It's a remarkable piece of filmmaking.

Prometheus - This is Ridley Scott's much anticipated Alien prequel and I went in knowing as little as I possibly could. There's a lot about this movie to love; it's gorgeous, it's goes big, it has some wonderful sequences and sets, and Michael Fassbender is great. There's sadly one big thing that ruined it for me, all the humans are stupid. The opening scene is a little out there, but it had me. I wasn't at all expecting anything like that and it reeled me and I thought that at the time and wondered where this film would go. It goes to some familiar territory but that's not all bad, but about halfway through I realized that I just kept being annoyed that everything these characters did was dumb. I kept hearing an adult with a child in an expensive store just saying over and over "don't touch that". But it wasn't in a squirmy horror movie kind of way, like when everyone screams at Lila Crane to not go down to the basement in Psycho. She had reason to do that and the audience had reason to fear it. In Prometheus, characters do one thing after another that no reasonable person would do. And that is really odd, because that didn't at all happen in Alien. The story is a little vague but that didn't bother me at all, the stupidity did. I'm really torn on this because the film is so well crafted and there are a few scenes that I'm sure will become iconic, but there's a lot to hate too. I walked out thinking one or two stars (out of five) and find myself now thinking three and possibly four and having to remind myself that it's really one or two. On balance it's probably worth seeing and the 3D was subtle and immersive. Prometheus did make me want to rewatch Lawrence of Arabia and that's certainly worthwhile.

I've seen a few older films recently too:

Larry Crowne - Tom Hanks co-wrote, directed and starred with Julia Roberts in this standard romantic comedy from last year. And I mean standard in the worst possible way. This film is completely bland. Everyone (but Roberts) is nice and all the strangers are nice and friendly and helpful and happy and scooter-riding and one-dimensional. Roberts is also one dimensional but that dimension is bitter. Guess how it ends. It's not funny and the characters are so weak it's not romantic so it's a very bad romantic comedy. Avoid it.

Everything Must Go - is that rare serious Will Ferrell film that's surprisingly good. Ferrell is Nick Halsey, an alcoholic that loses everything, his job and his wife. He comes home to find all his possessions on the lawn and the door locked. Drunk and depressed he decides to stay there. Fortunately it's in Phoenix so the weather is good. He meets a few neighbors, particularly a chubby teen and a pregnant newlywed and hangs around. This isn't a comedy and the film meanders a bit, well a lot, but it has good performances and real characters with real troubles. The film doesn't present cliches but the ending doesn't live up to the promise.

Super 8 - I saw this last summer under less than ideal conditions and reviewed it. I watched it again on cable and found my opinion didn't change. I liked the kids a little better the second time around, but these are shells of characters with ridiculous action scenes. J.J. Abrams was trying to make an homage to his idol Steven Spielberg. But even Spielberg hasn't been able to recreate the magic he achieved in the seventies and eighties.

Rififi - I pretty regularly scan the TiVo for interesting movies. In this case I came across a four star suspense crime thriller from 1955 that I had never heard of. Record. It's a black and white French film with an American director, Jules Dassin. He's most known for The Naked City, Night and the City and Topkapi. This is a heist film, where a small group of crooks break into a jewelry store. It's famous for the 20 minute sequence of the heist itself. It's wordless and tense and I think the first instance of this heist staple. The ending scene was even more tense and pretty unusual and I think I liked it more. As a film, everything works well, characters, plot, suspense. Apparently there were a rash of crimes following this that copied the techniques shown in the film. Sadly that's one place where it shows its age. The criminals are up against state of the art security in 1955 but it's nothing compared to what is common now. It was much easier to steal then. I'd love to see a remake, updated for today.