Archive for June, 2005
Be Cool, a sequel to the very funny Get Shorty, follows Chili Palmer (John Travolta) as he gets bored of the movie industry in Hollywood and decides to try his shylock tactics on the music business. He rescues a very talented singer, Linda Moon (Christina Milian), from the clutches of a wannabe “gangsta” named Raji (Vince Vaughn) and his gay actor/bodyguard (The Rock). He also gets tangled up in the Russian Mafia and a rap group called The WMD’s led by their manager, Sin LaSalle (Cedric the Entertainer).
Be Cool is not nearly as cool as Get Shorty, which had much better humor, edge, and coolness in it’s script and characters. I kept reading about the dance scene in this one between Uma Thurman and Travolta as if it was good, but I saw nothing good about it. They looked like they were forced to be dancing, if you could call it that. It was no where near as good as the scene they had in Pulp Fiction. It’s a shame because I got sucked into the trailer by seeing all the big names in this movie. I can’t say it was a horrible movie, because there were some funny parts and I really liked to hear Milian sing, but that’s about it.
June 26th, 2005
Closer (starring Julia Roberts as Anna, Jude Law as Dan, Clive Owen as Larry, and Natalie Portman as Alice) is the story of 2 couples (Anna/Larry, Alice/Dan) and how their lives are changed and effected by a love affair between a woman and man from each couple. It sounds confusing, but basically, Dan and Alice meet and fall in love, then Dan meets Anna and decides he’s fallen in love with her instead, but Anna won’t have him at first. Then, by fate, Dan meets Larry in a chat room and pretends to be Anna and gets Larry to come to an aquarium that Anna frequents. Larry shows up and meets Anna and falls in love. A year later, the two couples meet at a photography exhibit of Anna’s, where Dan once again professes his love to Anna, which she then accepts. After that, it’s a bumpy ride full of passion and betrayal.
Closer is an adapted screenplay written by the author of a stage play by the same name. This shows up in the screenplay and dialogue of the movie, which is a bad thing, in my opinion. I felt like I was watching a movie of a play - not because of the set or props - because of the dialogue spoken. On top of this, the words spoken between the characters are very explicit, which didn’t seem very realistic. I could see maybe one of the characters talking like that, but not all of them. Out of four people, at least one would be somewhat reserved and morally grounded, you would think. I will give it this, however: even though some of the speech is offensive, the conversations are striking and well acted. I’m not really sure why Clive Owen was nominated for and won awards for his performance, which I thought was the least of the 4 players. And since I’m used to seeing Julia Roberts as a sweetheart both on and off the screen, she seemed to be miscast and out of place. Criticism aside, I thought the acting overall was great, and the cinematography was also very nice.
June 23rd, 2005
The Aviator is a biopic about the early movie making career of the innovative, daring, and eccentric Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio), after he inherits his father’s fortune.
I initially gave The Aviator an 8, but after reading up on how the movie was made, talking to my wife, and just general reflection on it, I decided to change my rating. I still think Million Dollar Baby will top this one, but I think The Aviator will get 2nd place in my rankings. This movie is jam-packed with terrific acting. Cate Blanchet deserved her Oscar for her portrayal of Katherine Hepburn, one of Hughes’ love interests. I think Leonardo really got the shaft by not getting an Oscar and getting beat out by Jamie Foxx. Foxx didn’t have that much real acting to do, but he did one heck of a Ray Charles impression. DiCaprio does some much better acting in this movie, and I think that acting, not impressions, should be the yard stick by which an Oscar is measured. Anyway, the sheer production of this movie is just something to be inspired by. Lots of A-list actors, lots of custom design, huge sets and props, and an epic story.
June 22nd, 2005
National Treasure was blasted by many critics as a nonsensical, action-mystery wannabe. For the most part they are right, but this movie was just good ol’ plain fun to watch. To sum up the unusual plot, the movie follows Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage) as a man devoting his life to figuring out the family mystery that was told to him as a boy about the largest treasure in the world, how it was hidden by some of the founding fathers fo the U.S., and how his great great grandfather was given a single clue to find and protect it.
I won’t give away any more of the predictable story, but Ben does go on quite an adventure to find the treasure. It really follows the usual action flick formula: he has a sidekick, he meets a girl and falls in love with her, and he is met with many insurmountable obstacles and always seems to get past them. But that formula has been around for a reason, and when you add big production company money to it, you get a fun movie to watch.
June 20th, 2005
It’s now official: I’m a big Wes Anderson fan. I don’t think there were many times during this movie in which I wasn’t at least smiling or smirking. The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou is mostly a spoof of Jacques Cousteau, in which we follow Team Zissou to find the rare jaquar shark that ate one of its members and life-long friend of Steve Zissou, its captain.
Everything about this movie is very original and eccentric - from the screenplay, props, soundtrack, and everything in between. The cast, which is a list of powerhouse actors, were remarkable and funny. I think my favorite was Willem Dafoe as Klaus, one of Steve Zissou’s (Bill Murray) crew members. He has an undying friendship with Steve, even though the feelings aren’t reciprocated evenly. When Steve’s alleged long lost son, Ned (Owen Wilson), comes into the picture, he gets very jealous of Ned, which cracked me up. One of the treasures of the movie’s supporting cast was Pele, played by Seu Jorge. Between scenes, he plays really good acoustic versions of popular David Bowie songs in Portuguese. I didn’t know they were all Bowie until the end of the movie, but I knew I recognized the tunes to most and was able to spot Space Oddity.
I don’t want to give away any more, but it’s stuff like that for which you have to tip your hat to Wes Anderson. His movies aren’t for everyone, but if you like one of his previous ones (Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, Royal Tenenbaums), you’re bound to love Life Aquatic.
June 15th, 2005
Kevin Bacon stars as Walter in The Woodsman, a story about the struggle of a convicted pedophile returning to society after being in prison for 12 years. He deals with such issues as starting new relationships, mending broken ones, watching another pedophile prey on kids at a school across the street from his apartment, and coming to grips with his problem and his past.
This is, bar none, Kevin Bacon’s finest performance. However, I feel that this movie didn’t get as much viewing from potential Academy members because of it’s controversial nature. He has one of the creepiest scenes I’ve ever seen in a movie, that isn’t horror or thriller based. His demeanor is very mellow and shy during the whole movie, but in this scene where he meets a 12 year old for the second time, he tries to gain her trust and have her sit on his lap. He suddenly becomes more outgoing and friendly to do this, and it really creeped me out.
The movie as a whole, is also very good. I think it had a decent balance of making the audience sympathetic towards the character, but also showing his dark side so we don’t get a false sense of security about his kind. It was objective by displaying the obstacles a person like that might have to overcome both psychologically and in society.
June 4th, 2005