In the most recent podcast, John and I decided to take a week off because we were less than impressed by the upcoming slate of films. What better time to take a much needed break? Then as fate would have it, I had probably the most prolific week of filmgoing I've had since I saw Gladiator 3 times in about a 24 hour span. Five films in seven days. Enough artificial movie butter is flowing through my veins now to choke an elephant, and I've got a small bottle of white cheddar popcorn topping in my coat pocket right now. Can't believe they charge 1.50 for it!
I'm keeping these short for sanity's sake.
Film #1: Synechdoche, NY
Sure, Trav, start with the easy film. Charlie Kaufman, writer of one of my favorite films Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind amongst many other head trips, decides to rack my brain once again. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Caden, a troubled theater director struggling to understand his own life. His wife has left him and taken their daughter with her. He's been diagnosed with a degenerative disease. And now he's been granted enough money to finally pursue his own play, so what's he do? He constructs a life size replica of New York and begins a play re-enacting his own life on a daily basis. This is as meta as any film I've ever seen, as Caden hires a man to play himself. Caden gets to watch his own life replayed before his own eyes, but will it actually change anything? Does it offer any unique perspective? I spent the better part of the last week trying to figure out every detail of this film. But I came to the realization that understanding for instance why Caden's girlfriend's house was always on fire wasn't important. The important thing is that it got me thinking and coming up with my own conclusions. Without having seen it a second time, I can say that Kauffman has created one of the most interesting films I've ever seen featuring one of the most compelling characters in recent memory. Great performances from Samantha Morton, Catherine Keener, and my girl Emily Watson round out what I would call a movie that everybody should atleast see once. I will hopefully see it a second time this week, and perhaps I'll do a full review of it then.
7/10
Film #2: Soul Men
I already did a full review on this one, so I'll just say it was a pretty good film filled with great music and some of Bernie Mac's strongest comedic work. A fitting end to a great career.
Film #3: Role Models
If I had Big Brothers like Paul Rudd & Sean William Scott, I'd be pretty fucked up too. From the guys who brought you The State and Wet Hot American Summer comes this film about two friends, both polar opposites, forced to mentor two young boys in lieu of going to prison. Paul Rudd plays Danny, a stick in the mud negativist who works as a pitch man for Minotaur Energy Drink. Scott plays Wheeler, and if his name isn't enough to let you know that he's the wild card of the duo, then how about his job title? Wheeler is the Minotaur. Danny finds himself paired up to mentor Augie Franks, played wonderfully by Superbad's Christopher Mintz-Plasse. Augie is a soldier in the Zantheon army. What is the Zantheon army? It's a fictional land created by Augie and his friends when they play LAIR, which is a form of Live Action Role Playing. He and his buddies dress up in full middle age attire, and do battle with plastic swords and shields. Wheeler is paired up with Ronnie, a foul mouthed kid who shows little respect to anybody except his own mother. Both Danny and Wheeler, who are both selfish in their own ways, come to learn more about themselves in their dealing with these two kids. Look ,we all knew there'd be some creamy emotional center to this film, and there is. Surprisingly none of it comes from Danny's relationship with his ex-girlfriend, played by Elizabeth Banks. I felt all of their scenes felt forced and non-esseential to the story. On the other hand, the relationship with Danny and Augie was the highlight of the film. Every scene involving Danny's forced LAIR adventures were genius. I even took somewhat of a liking to Sean William Scott in this , as he was considerably more restrained than usual. While I didn't quite buy everything between Wheeler and Ronnie, especially all this KISS nonsense, it didn't take me out of the film and I was actually interested in where they would end up. The usually dependable Jane Lynch pitches in some of the funniest lines of the movie. A solid comedy that will surprise some with it's emotional depth.
6/10
Film #4: My Name is Bruce
Why do I torture myself so? On a whim I went to check out Bruce Campbell's latest offering on the hopes that I'd be seeing an ironic look at the life of the D-List cult celebrity. Instead, what I was treated to was a fourth rate monster flick. Now look, I know who Bruce Campbell is. I know his films quite well. So no, I wasn't expecting Cloverfield or anything like that. I went into it thinking it would be Bruce Campbell being himself, looking at his life as this guy who everybody knows but not everybody knows why. Seeing his dealing with some of his more rabid fans, and things like that. Bruce does play himself in the movie, but it's a hyper-realized version of himself. It's like when Carl Weathers played himself on Arrested Development, only not funny. Bruce is kidnapped by a small town's citizens because they believe he can help them defeat Guan Dei, the evil Chinese god of bean curd. Yes. Bean curd. Why do they think he can defeat Guan Dei? Because one of the kids in town is a Bruce Campbell fanatic, and for some reason thinks his films are real. To be fair, there's some charm in the campy, cheap slaughter perpetrated by Guan Dei, but that's all I found entertaining in the least. If you're truly dying for some cheesy fun from ol' Brisco County himself, go rent Bubba Ho-Tep.
3/10
Film #5: Quantum of Solace
No. Just...no. This isn't Bond. Atleast not for me. One of my chief complaints about the Bond series since I've been watching them is that I never felt any personal stakes for Bond in any of his films. They always featured daliesque villains with goals of world domination. That gets old real quick. Ironically this film tried to give me what I wanted. It attempted to give Bond some personal interest in this mission by having him seeking revenge for the murder of a loved one. However they then spent the entire film having Bond chase after the most boring Bond villain ever, Dominic Greene. Really? I want to watch Bond go after a tree hugger? That's what I paid for? Greene is a member of Quantum, part of the "secret" global terrorist organization responsible for Vesper Lynd's death in the first film.
I've got so many beefs with this film, I hardly know where to begin. Like I said, Dominic Greene is a horrible villain. Even though he's played well enough by Matthieu Almanric, who was so good in The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, he's given nothing to do here. He's not threatening in the least, so it was obvious they shoehorned in The General in order to add some credibility to the threat. Not that it worked. The General did nothing, actually. I never got the feeling that Bond was in any real danger. Even when MI6 turned on him, they were completely incapable of slowing him down. It would've been nice to see Bond actually have to rely solely on his wits for awhile, but that didn't last.
Camille Montes: Worst Bond Chick Ever? Certainly she's hot, but they're all hot so that doesn't count anymore. There have been some rumblings from people disappointed that she's such a "tough" Bond girl, but you know what? I didn't see that at all. She was whiny as hell, and yeah she held her own on occasion but she's hardly the first Bond girl who could throw a punch. They were gonna do a Jinx spinoff, for Chrissakes! Camille was just boring. Not much to her personality, and really she wasn't all that sensuous. I much preferred Strawberry Fields, anyhow.
To me this felt like a very half conceived Bond film. It was like they had an idea, but no firm idea on how to execute it. They tacked on a lot of the usual Bond staples as if to appease the hardcore fan. The aforementioned Fields was there for about ten minutes as if to give Bond someone to sleep with. He never got nearly so close to Camille. Jeffrey Wright, who plays CIA Agent Felix Leiter, is totally wasted.
But my chief complaint comes with the handling of Bond himself. I know they are going back to the source material, and as such Bond is portrayed as more of a thuggish type. More prone to violence, a "blunt instrument" as he has been described. I appreciate the more grounded world that Bond inhabits now. Less fancy gadgets and so forth. But unfortunately I liked the more suave, chic Bond of recent years. Not to say that Daniel Craig has done a poor job because he's been fine for the type of Bond they want to portray now. In this film however Bond is basically a brutal killer, and that's not what I want to see. Sure he's angry, but when your deathcount becomes a running gag in the film, that's a problem. There was an attempt to revert him back to type at the end, but the damage might've been done. We'll see when the third installment hits in a couple years.
What saves this film from being a complete waste of time are the incredible action sequences. It starts with an erratic, explosive car chase through the city streets that really gets the blood pumping. A fight through a half constructed cathedral was particularly well shot as well. Craig is fantastic in the action sequences. That much can't be denied. I just wish he had better material to work with. All in all, I hope this was just a momentary blip and not a sign of things to come to future Bond films.
5/10
Ok, that's enough from me. I took a whopping one day away from movies to watch my pathetic Chicago Bears get routed. And now tonight it's back to what I love most. John and I will be checking out Darren Aronovsky's The Wrestler, so expect a review of that soon on the site and definitely in one of the upcoming podcasts. You HAVE been listening to the podcast, haven't you?
