Synopsis: An account of a family caught, with tens of thousands of strangers, in the mayhem of one of the worst natural catastrophes of our time.
Release Date: December 21, 2012
Thoughts: Director J.A. Bayona brought a beautiful touch to the Spanish chiller The Orphanage and with The Impossible it looks like his sensitive handling of difficult material wasn’t just a flash in the pan. While some may argue that a story about an affluent vacationing white family and their struggle to survive the 2004 Tsunami in Southeast Asia may be shortchanging the story of thousands of native people I think it’s worthwhile to look at the story being told. It seems to have a universal voice concerning survival and an overall message of cultures bonding together to hold on. I think the trailer is a bit too revealing so view it at your own risk – though the visuals are chilling to behold and the subject matter melancholy I’m betting Bayona has kept several turns secret.
Synopsis: The Griswalds win a vacation tour across Europe where the usual havoc ensues.
Stars: Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Dana Hill, Jason Lively, Eric Idle
Director: Amy Heckerling
Rated: PG-13
Running Length: 95 minutes
TMMM Score: (5/10)
Review: After National Lampoon’s Vacation was a commercial hit, Warner Brothers would have been foolish not to green lit a sequel on a hot commodity. So nearly two years to the day after the original was released, Chase and company were back with a second outing with the Griswold family as they travel (and destroy) several of Europe’s famed cities and landmarks. The result is an inferior sequel that hinges more on tacky gags than outright laughs and changes characters that had some semblance of normalcy into boneheads that define the term Ugly American.
Not everyone from the original Vacation decided to hop on board again. Yes, Chase and D’Angelo signed up as the head of the Griswold family but when Anthony Michael Hall decided to do Weird Science instead of European Vacation the decision was made to recast both Griswold children. Lively is a poor man’s Hall coming off more gangly and awkward than Hall could ever be. Hill actually is a better Audrey than Dana Barron because this time around Audrey has something to do…even if it’s obsessing over her boyfriend she left behind in America.
Chase does his best with material that he’s probably too good for. Instead of being a sort of hapless and harried dad, he’s an outright dunderhead. D’Angelo is the only holdover that didn’t have to alter her character much to accommodate the film’s shortcomings. Idle shows up in a uselessly rotten role as man that the Griswolds keeps running into…literally. How he moves from the UK to Paris to Rome is one of those comedic set-ups you just have to accept – or not.
The biggest loss I believe was director Harold Ramis who may have been too busy taking a role in Ghostbusters to take another spin the director’s chair. Heckerling was still enjoying the success of Fast Times at Ridgemont High and is an interesting, if incorrect, choice to helm this type of comedy. Hecklering seems to succeed with films that have a bit more of a subversive spin and the zaniness that these Vacation films require wasn’t her strong suit. I think the many (too many if you ask me) scenes that involve fantasy do work well but they seem to come from another picture that Heckerling was trying to make.
The blame can’t all fall on Heckerling because she didn’t have the best script to work with. John Hughes returned to write this sequel and I have to believe that at some point he left the project because there are elements so wacky and slapsticky and very un-Hughes like present. What made the original Vacation so entertaining is how the laughs come from situations we all could relate to. As the Griswolds travel overseas, the sense of tasteful humor seems like it was left behind at the ticketing gate.
There is a plethora of jokes to be made about European travel in the mid 80’s and most are mined for all they’re worth. Brits are nice even when they shouldn’t be! The French are rude even when they have no right to be! Germans drink beer! I mean, it’s all such basic level jokes that they really should work better than they already do. The moments that made me laugh, though, are the parts of the film that most resemble Vacation. These are the interactions between the Griswolds themselves…rather than the “comedy” that has them reacting to the foreign situations. Had the film focused on that more and used the European locales as scenery a more fulfilling movie would have emerged.
The film also reeks of last minute editing to get it into the state it’s in. It’s hard to believe with the nudity and language this netted a PG-13…one of the earlier films to receive the rating before its restrictions were better defined. You can tell that several F-Bombs were dubbed over to prevent it from getting an R. At one point the camera is pointed at Chase as he says “Oh F**K!” but the dialogue we hear it “Darn It!”…just another example of sloppy filmmaking. Let’s not even discuss how the family name is spelled Griwsald here but in every other Vacation film it’s Griswold.
Redemption came for Heckerling in 1989 when she directed the unexpected hit Look Who’s Talking, the same year that Hughes, Chase, and D’Angelo brought the Griswold’s back again in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. While this movie isn’t a total failure, it’s a sequel that doesn’t hold a candle to the original.
Synopsis: Eight years after Batman took the fall for Two Face’s crimes, a new terrorist leader, Bane, overwhelms Gotham’s finest, and the Dark Knight resurfaces to protect a city that has branded him an enemy.
Stars: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Marion, Cotillard, Morgan Freeman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman
Director: Christopher Nolan
Rated: PG-13
Running Length: 164 minutes
Random Crew Highlight: Facial Hair Maker ~ Carol F. Doran
TMMM Score: (9/10)
Review:
If crafting a successful sequel is akin to leaping tall buildings in a single bound for a filmmaker, delivering a top-notch third entry is like climbing Mt. Everest. With 2005’s Batman Begins and 2008’s The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan has spent the better part of the last decade in the mind of Bruce Wayne/Batman and the place he loves and calls home, Gotham City. In the first film, the city was under attack. In the second, the danger was directed to our titular character. The end of Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy sees the man and the city once again facing destruction…and this time there may be no happy ending.
Have no fear that I’ll spoil things for you as you continue this review. To divulge more than is necessary would be to rob the reader of experiencing the film in the theaters along with denying the viewer the opportunity to make their own discoveries. I realized about halfway through the nearly three hour running length that the previews thus far had only shown part of what is really going on in the film so even if you’re like me and have seen the trailer(s) countless times in the last year just know there is more in store for you.
In this third outing, all of the collective elements come together in service to the greater good (and bad) of Gotham City and the Caped Crusader. Nolan has pulled out all the stops and has asked his assembled team to do the same.
Opening with a spectacular stunt sequence (that I reviewed when it was shown in IMAX theaters in January), The Dark Knight Rises doesn’t so much hit the ground running as it does start off with a few warm-up laps. That pacing is OK because the running length and story arc provided by Nolan clearly has an endgame that can’t be guessed at immediately. Like the previous two films, this could easily have been a standalone Batman movie that doesn’t necessarily require previous knowledge to appreciate and enjoy.
Eight years after the events of The Dark Knight we find Bruce Wayne (Bale) living as a recluse similar to Howard Hughes in his later years. He’s given up the cowl due to the proceedings at the conclusion of the previous film and retreated back into his lonely existence. His is a solitary life, solitary even from Alfred (Caine) who we get the impression sees him less and less. When circumstances necessitate ‘The Batman’ don his suit again, it may be at the cost of more than just a few broken bones and spirits.
New characters for The Dark Knight Rises include Hathaway as Selina Kyle…a slinky cat burglar that is never called Catwoman outright but certainly looks the part. With a clever mask and sleek costume she’s overall no match for Michelle Pfeiffer’s seminal take on the character in Batman Returns. Still, Hathaway has checked her wide eyed, golly-gee, toothy, standard performance at the door and gotten in step quickly with the tone of Nolan’s material. I wasn’t convinced of her casting when it was originally announced but she’s acquitted herself nicely here with a well played performance.
Another character introduced is Miranda Tate given life by Cotillard in yet another spot-on bit of casting. Cotillard plays her cards pretty close to her chest as an entrepreneur that has a vested interest in the Wayne Corporation. Her participation for most of the movie is small but quite effective when she’s called upon later in the film.
While absolutely no match for Heath Ledger’s Joker, Hardy makes bad guy Bane appropriately rough and frightening. Ledger was so perfect because his character was an enigma that kept you off balance. Bane is the opposite…you know when he shows up that asses will be kicked in no uncertain terms. Here is a foe that you actually can believe could wipe out Batman with his bare fists. The problem I have (and have had since my original review of the prologue) is that the mouth device Bane wears coupled with Hardy’s thick-ish Brit accent makes much of Bane’s dialogue totally unintelligible. I caught more than I thought I would but I do have the feeling a few more viewings will be required to really get a handle on the material.
Oldman continues to be the center of the film with his valuable presence but it gets shared this time with Gordon-Levitt as an idealistic Gotham City cop that has more in common with our main character than it may appear. Gordon-Levitt is an actor that gets better with each role he takes on. Gone is the long-haired kid from a hit television show and present is an actor that Nolan is obviously quite inspired by. The evolution of his character in this one film only works because Gordon-Levitt and Nolan worked in tandem so well to give him blood and breath.
Freeman is less of a presence in this film but then again he has always been a sideline character that is called upon when needed. It’s not totally Freeman’s fault…it’s probably the casting of someone with his gravitas in an admittedly serviceably written role that makes you feel something is missing. Caine too has some great moments in this but his disappearance for much of the action in the last half of the film is one of a few quibbles I had with the film.
Speaking of quibbles, Caine’s absence and another moment involving him are just two of I’d say five problems I had with the movie that I won’t discuss here. They involve major plot points that I can’t give away but after you’ve seen it let’s talk and I’ll let you know a few creative choices I would have changed/removed that I felt kept the film from being the best of the trilogy (that still belongs to The Dark Knight).
Nolan’s knack for staging incredible and shiver inducing action sequences is still displayed in full force here. Having much of this play out over Hans Zimmer’s drum heavy score or without score at all were brilliant choices and only add to the gratitude I had for what Nolan has done for Batman over three strong pictures.
How it all ends is for you to discover but I will say that I can’t imagine someone leaving the theater not feeling satisfied/complete in some way. It may not be the ending you wanted, needed, predicted, or dreamed of (and I’m not saying it’s not!) but I get the overall sense that this was always where things were headed and Nolan kept his eyeline on the horizon to get to this finale without making sacrifices or concessions to his vision. It’s one of, if not the, best trilogies in film history right up there with The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars . On its own, The Dark Knight Rises is a film brimming with soul and strength…like Batman…like Bruce Wayne…like Gotham City itself. The legend may end…but it won’t be forgotten.
Synopsis: When Batman, Gordon and Harvey Dent launch an assault on the mob, they let the clown out of the box, the Joker, bent on turning Gotham on itself and bringing any heroes down to his level.
Stars: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman
Director: Christopher Nolan
Rated: PG-13
Running Length: 152 minutes
TMMM Score: (9/10)
Review:
The Facts:
Synopsis: Bruce Wayne loses his philanthropic parents to a senseless crime, and years later becomes the Batman to save the crime-ridden Gotham City on the verge of destruction by an ancient order.
Stars: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman
Director: Christopher Nolan
Rated: PG-13
Running Length: minutes
TMMM Score: (x/10)
Review:
The Facts:
Synopsis: When Batman, Gordon and Harvey Dent launch an assault on the mob, they let the clown out of the box, the Joker, bent on turning Gotham on itself and bringing any heroes down to his level.
Stars: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Heath Ledger, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman
Director: Christopher Nolan
Rated: PG-13
Running Length: minutes
TMMM Score: (9.5/10)
Review: In some ways, sequels to popular movies are tougher sells than one might think. Yes, you have a built in audience that you know will buy tickets on opening weekend – but the trick is to keep the word of mouth going in subsequent weeks to encourage new customers and repeat business. With the critical and commercial success of Batman Begins it was a no-brainer that a sequel was green lit and the original director (Nolan) was brought on board to oversee another Batman adventure. When tragedy struck at the end of principal photography it seemed like what was supposed to be a slam dunk now faced challenges.
Cleverly teased at the end of Batman Begins, the Joker is the main villain of The Dark Knight and what a villain he is. Ledger’s work here will go down in the annals of film history as one of the most haunted/haunting performances on screen, richly winning him a posthumous Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. It’s hard to imagine anyone else inhabiting the role so fully, so perfectly as Ledger. It’s a shame he died seven months before its release but his ghost doesn’t so much hover over the film but ground it better in reality. Death is something that hangs over all of us and the Joker’s freewheeling foreboding with mortality is palpable when you consider the actor playing him is gone.
Even if the passing of Ledger did overshadow the film as it prepared for release, the final product is so epic and wonderful that the tragedy does get compartmentalized to the side as you go on Nolan’s grand journey. Sequels are known for needing to be bigger and better and Nolan wisely focuses on better first and foremost.
One of the obvious betterments is Katie Holmes wisely declining to reprise her role as a love interest to Bale’s Batman/Bruce Wayne combo. She’s replaced by Gyllenhaal who gives the character what she was missing in the first film – a purpose. Holmes never locked in on where her part fit into the grand scheme of the Batman universe. Gyllenhaal’s a smart cookie and colors her take on Rachel with textures Holmes was incapable of. If Holmes was lost in the shuffle than Gyllenhaal has moments where she holds the deck. Nolan still doesn’t write for women very well but working with Gyllenhaal brings out some good work.
All of the other actors from the first film are back on board here and succeed by making the steps necessary to move their characters onward. Too often there is no furthering of character development in squeals due to lack of time between explosions but Nolan is more than happy to pause for moments that tell us the what’s underneath the masks we all wear. He’s smart enough to know that the plot twists he adds here would never work if we didn’t understand relationships that exist between our characters. Bale digs even deeper into his lower register to find Batman’s voice, Oldman’s Lt. Gordon continues to be a beacon of uprightness, Caine’s Alfred still cares, Freeman can do this type of role in his sleep, and Murphy returns in a nice cameo as Crane/Scarecrow. Eckhart is one of the more underrated actors of his generation and is the second bit of perfect casting as D.A. Harvey Dent who becomes a romantic adversary for Wayne and a potential adversary for Batman.
Ledger and Nolan created the Joker to be one of the scariest villains not featured in a horror film. When I first saw the movie, Ledger’s incessant lip smacking and slightly affected nature rubbed me the wrong way. Taking in the film again recently I did a 180 degree turn and saw just how brilliant his choices were. As memorable as Jack Nicholson was in Tim Burton’s take on Batman, he favored the comic side to the truly evil. Ledger’s make-up and overall appearance subconsciously disappear as the film progresses so much so that you don’t even notice the grotesque smudged make-up by the end. Not really explaining how he came to be is another brilliant move that makes the character all the more menacing – without reasons why he does what he does the audience is kept on the edge because you don’t know how far he’ll really go.
The action sequences in The Dark Knight still give me chills and are breathless examples of high concept filmmaking that simply can’t be duplicated. I can’t imagine anyone other than Nolan putting together the kind of visuals on display here and years later I feel the impressive set-pieces will be used as guides in how to make a modern and timeless action film.
The Dark Knight was one of the first films to feature scenes shot expressly for IMAX cameras. In utilizing this technology, I did feel there were two too many shots flying through skyscrapers and gazing down between buildings. I get that there was a need to capitalize on the technique but several of these shots seem little more than grandstanding…but it’s the most minor of quibbles in what is otherwise an amazing film, tech-wise.
When The Dark Knight was released, the Oscar field for Best Picture was still locked in with five nominees. It’s omission as a contender for Best Picture was the impetus for the Academy revising its policies and expanding the field for up to ten nominees. Had the field been wider at the time The Dark Knight would have (and should have) been a top pick for Best Picture. In case you need a reminder, this was the year that Slumdog Millionaire (yuck!) took the title over Frost/Nixon, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Reader, and Milk. In this company of arguably weak titles, the critical and audience favorite sequel to Batman Begins had a shot for Oscar’s top prize.
Like Batman Begins, The Dark Knight could easily have been a standalone movie. Yes, elements from the first film do play a part here but they are minor enough that it really wouldn’t matter. Batman Begins was a strong start to this franchise reboot and The Dark Knight improved in every way on an already solid first effort…and now with the release of The Dark Knight Rises the trilogy will be complete. How will it all end and will The Dark Knight Rises usurp its two predecessors?
Synopsis: Bruce Wayne loses his philanthropic parents to a senseless crime, and years later becomes the Batman to save the crime-ridden Gotham City on the verge of destruction by an ancient order.
Stars: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman
Director: Christopher Nolan
Rated: PG-13
Running Length: 140 minutes
TMMM Score: (8/10)
Review: Whenever a filmmaker wants to start or re-boot a franchise of a character in the popular culture they must first decide how they want to tell the important origin story. Do they stick to the book with the expected framework for a familiar character or do they break new ground with a revisionist vision of how a fabled figure came to be? Director Nolan may not have been an obvious choice to head up Warner Brothers mega budget restart of their Batman franchise but he was a wise one. Nolan had displayed highly cerebral work in his previous films and his exploration of how Bruce Wayne became Batman gets to the heart of the matter in a film that takes its time but still delivers the goods.
Of all the men considered for the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman, Bale is a brilliant casting decision in that he’s one of Hollywood’s rare actors that jumps into any role head first. He lets the character and process consume him so much that he totally disappears into the part. There’s a lot of mileage to cover in Batman Begins and Bale is more than up for the challenge of giving us a new take on Bruce Wayne. While I greatly enjoyed Michael Keaton’s somber take in the Batman of the 90’s, Bale takes it a step further and shows a lot of complexity in his take on the orphaned millionaire that will become the Dark Knight.
I struggle more with Batman Begins than I did its sequel because I’m not totally sold on our central baddie and his plot to destroy Gotham City. Nolan has created such an interesting take on the legend of Batman that it’s a bit of a bummer when behind it all is a bit of a muddled third act that clearly favors action sequences over the fleshing out of personal vendettas. Now that’s not to say the final 1/3 of the film is not smash-up entertaining because it so very much is – it’s just that everything that came before it was so sophisticated and deliberate that you can’t help but see a few extra cracks.
Nolan surrounds Bale with a male dominated cast of good guys and bad guys that feature some of the most respected actors in Hollywood. Caine makes for a wonderful Alfred who becomes a surrogate father to Bruce Wayne and even if I prefer Michael Gough’s stolid take in the previous films to Caine’s slightly convenient calming presence, Nolan’s devotion to making even the most sideline character have something important to say is admirable. Oldman cuts a nice take on Jim Gordon as does Freeman as an employee of Wayne Enterprises. Neeson had just started to really take ownership of his action man presence – even if his villain is one of the more boring in filmdom. The big thumbs down here is Holmes as the lone female in the boys club. Even without being in the presence of better actors, Holmes is totally out of her league here in a performance that can nicely be described as laughable.
The kick starter to Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy is overall a winner because it’s not a film that just exists to lay the groundwork for subsequent sequels. It’s a film that could (and does) stand on its own with high concept intentions and a solid delivery from most (not Holmes) involved.
Synopsis: An agoraphobic psychologist and a female detective must work together to take down a serial killer who copies serial killers from the past.
Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Holly Hunter, Dermot Mulroney, Harry Connick Jr., Will Patton
Director: Jon Amiel
Rated: R
Running Length: 123 minutes
TMMM Score: (7.5/10)
Review: The root of every good thriller comes down to its casting. True, you can cast a movie with A-List stars and still get F-List product (see Oceans 12) but if a director casts their movie well that’s sometimes half the battle. Director Amiel (Sommersby) nabbed two of the most interesting actresses for this thriller and in doing so he elevated what probably was a second-rate script into a meaty and twisty tale that still spooks and entertains nearly 20 years later.
For my money, Weaver is one of the most underappreciated appreciated actresses in the business. Yes, that’s a contradiction but for all the good notices she’s gets she’s never cracked that awards junket part of Hollywood and that’s a crime. Here she’s a psychologist suffering from agoraphobia after a terrifying encounter with a serial killer she helped put away (Connick Jr cast SO against type). Confined to her house, she plays video games and participates in chat rooms that are so dated looking (this was 1995 after all) that it seems she is communicating with a stone tablet. She also can’t resist listening to her police scanner, and in doing so begins to see a pattern of killings taking place around San Francisco.
On the other side of the law is Hunter as a veteran detective working these murders, eventually meeting up with Weaver who reluctantly agrees to help with the investigation. As both women dig deeper into the cryptic clues they realize too late that a game has been set into motion and they are now active participants.
Structurally, Copycat is like most other 90’s thrillers with its slow burn opening, twisty second act, and tidy finale. It’s not out to redefine the genre nor is it willing to step too far out of its comfort zone. Instead, the film plays into the strengths of both actresses and allows them ample time to flesh out their characters. What we end up with is a compact thriller full of eerie camera angles and gruesome murders. It’s not a spoiler to say that you learn the identity of the killer halfway through but it’s a necessary revelation to propel the movie forward. This also thankfully eliminates the dreaded red herrings that have sunk many a similar thriller.
Though the film may be slightly stuck in the 90’s (the aforementioned computer set-up and Weaver’s costumes that are from Ann Taylor’s 1994 collection) the pacing is very much in line with a thoughtful thriller we’re still seeing today. The supporting players (Mulroney, Patton, Connick Jr, and our killer who I will not identify) all take a backseat whenever our ladies are present..
I’ve held off on talking too much about Hunter because watching the film again I was struck by what a dynamite job she did with the role. I actually think her character was good enough to warrant a spin-off film and would love to have seen Hunter tackle the role again with the right team in place. Hunter was in a short-lived television series but could easily have parlayed this Copycat character into the small screen as well. Weaver’s arc probably ended here but she too could have moved forward with Hunter in another outing.
Amiel brings an off-kilter look to the film with hardly any angle being a straight shot. Everything is filmed slightly askew which instantly puts the audience off step. It’s a clever device that, when matched with Christopher Young’s score (which you’ve heard in about 1,000 previews since) creates a nice atmosphere. As it stands, Copycat still works as slick entertainment without having shed too many lives in the decades since it was originally released.
Synopsis: A male stripper teaches a younger performer how to party, pick up women, and make easy money.
Stars: Channing Tatum, Alex Pettyfer, Matthew McConaughey, Cody Horn, Joe Manganiello, Matt Bomer, Olivia Munn
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Rated: R
Running Length: 110 minutes
Random Crew Highlight: Chef ~ Paul Rathburn
TMMM Score: (2/10)
Review: In the heat of the summer we retreat to movie theaters for escapist entertainment – sometimes we laugh, sometimes we cry. We thrill to large scale action adventures that transport us to different dimensions (some in 3D!) The staple of summer popcorn films is the counterprogramming of studio films to balance out the weeks between movies like The Avengers, Prometheus, and The Dark Knight. In the final week of June there is calm before the storm of July and on June 29 two non-action effects extravaganzas are being released. One is People Like Us which I reviewed a few weeks ago and the other is Magic Mike, director Soderbergh’s latest experiment and Tatum’s fourth film released in 2012. The biggest trick that Magic Mike has up its sleeve is the sleight of hand the marketing department has pulled on audiences that will go into this thinking it’s a chick flick comedy full of naked buff men and romantic entanglements. Yes, skin is shown and things get tangled but it’s a dreary affair that’s not very fun and not very funny.
“Loosely” inspired by Tatum’s own pre-Hollywood life as a stripper, Magic Mike is a ginormous misfire that would be unwatchable were it not for a few inspired performances and Soderbergh’s hot glistening cinematography. (Why Soderbergh still relies on a pseudonym when he’s the cinematographer is a mystery).
Soderbergh is one of the most frustrating of directors operating in Hollywood today. The man has had some incredible peaks and awesomely awful valleys of his career and one must appreciate his willingness to fail in such a grand scale. His problem lies with his continued allegiance to inspiration from material that doesn’t belong on screen, which can create discord with the players and audience who can never really become one with the material.
Now I’m sure when Soderbergh and Tatum were sitting around between takes on Haywirethat Tatum’s story sounded like a cinematic bull’s-eye to the director. Stripper by night, struggling entrepreneur by day Tatum’s Mike supposedly has a heart of gold but it’s never revealed how he came to do what he does or why he seeks a start-up business loan from a bank when he’s literally rolling in sweaty greenbacks. In an overall storyline that stretches across the three months of a Florida summer, we follow Mike and his co-workers both on and offstage in various stages of undress.
Enter Adam (Pettyfer) who we learn has squandered away an athletic scholarship and has now taken up residence on the Tampa, FL couch of his sister (Horn). A chance meeting with Mike on a construction site and one night of bar hopping later Adam is awkwardly onstage at the XQuisite male dance revue run by Dallas (McConaughey). How Adam moves from outside to backstage to onstage is a cinematic contrivance you’d be blind to not see telegraphed out fairly early.
Now that has the makings of a decent movie, right. There’s humor to be mined, drama to be explored, and more than enough opportunity to give the audience what they want in terms of celebrity skin. Unfortunately, what we end up with is a movie that’s less Boogie Nights, Showgirls, and All About Eve than it is like a male version of Coyote Ugly (thanks to my +1 Brian Skellenger for reminded me of that B-Movie Classic). Going further, Magic Mike actually makes Coyote Ugly look like Gone With the Wind in terms of cinematic achievement.
Don’t get me wrong, the athletic frames and waxed chests of Tatum, Pettyfer, Bomer, Manganiello, and McConaughey are on full thong display but after a while the sight of yet another fuzzy rump had most of the audience yawning rather than squealing with delight. Still, with the exception of twelve pack abs of Maganiello the rest of the men start to blend together after a while and their stripping scenes are more montaged than anything else. It’s not remotely sexy or titillating which is what many will be plunking down their bills to see. Actually, the most effective moment is when McConaughey is teaching Pettyfer the basic rules of the bump and grind in a garishly mirrored workout studio and tiny biking shorts.
Speaking of McConaughey, much like Tom Cruise in Rock of Ages his performance is so over the top and crazy that I found myself applauding his efforts rather than knocking him points for it. If anything, he has the riskiest role in the movie and even if his character seems a bit underwritten he knows just how far to take the guy without losing us in the process. Cruise ultimately wins this showdown but McConnaughey steps up to the plate admirably and in much less clothes (if that’s possible)
The other standout is Horn as Pettyfer’s sister. While she struggles with some of the lighter material she’s a nice grounding presence when onscreen with her believable delivery and curiously charming looks. It’s unfortunate that she’s paired with Tatum and Pettyfer as screen partners but they should count themselves lucky she was there to save their scenes.
Pettyfer struggles both with an American accent and with a role that’s too sullen to be absorbing. I think I get what he was going for but instead of coming off as someone who is surprised that he can make money by doffing his kit, he appears aloof and not as part of the action as he should be. Bomer and Manganiello are glorified cameos as they don’t have much to do outside of the club scenes.
Tatum is the star of the show and any good will he’s built up this year with Haywire, The Vow, and 21 Jump Streetgets blown to smithereens in an egotistical and drab performance that I’m sure he thought was going to going to nab him some awards. Well, he may be looking at a Razzie Award for Worst Actor and he would definitely deserve it. He’s clearly the best dancer and the most comfortable onstage yet he’s strangely concealed thanks to the camera angles and other actors. Tatum labors hard with his dialogue but just sounds like he’s forgotten his lines half the time.
That brings me to the script which was “written” by Reid Carolin (who also shows up as Horn’s boyfriend) I put that in quotes because I find it hard to believe there was a script to the film at all. Nearly everything sounds like one long acting improv exercise put on by himbos that have never met or interacted with another human being before. You can tell it’s improv-ed because when in doubt the actors drop the “F” bomb to fill in words they can’t think of fast enough. Now I don’t have any problem with blue language when it’s called for but here it’s overused to the point of annoyance by a crew that can’t even say it with any conviction.
All of this mess is up on screen courtesy of Soderbergh and at this point in his career I feel like I want to give up on him. Where is the man that gave us sex…lies…and videotape? Or Out of Sight? Or Traffic? After a string of duds that were not fulfilling at all I think Soderbergh is losing his way as he delves deeper into his artistic mind. This film is an example of a movie that never should have happened or, if it had to happen, should have been structured and filmed differently.
Soderbergh has always been a brilliant cinematographer and that’s true here. His view of Florida by day stands in stark contrast to the hallucinatory nightlife he captures onscreen. It’s visually excellent but then those pesky actors have to start to talk and it all goes to pot. Music wise, this has one of the worst soundtracks ever. Quentin Tarantino Soderbergh is not, showing no flair for song choice and calling on really heinous remixes of familiar songs. It’s a nightmare to listen to.
I feel for the countless numbers of moviegoers that made plans around seeing this film over the weekend. They are in for a movie they didn’t sign up for and don’t deserve. If you do see this movie and do like it I want to hear about it – I really do! However, if all you can talk about is how hot the men are then save it because that bucket doesn’t hold water in my book.
Synopsis: A San Francisco psychiatrist is treating an alluring patient for traumatic memories. In order to find out more about her trauma, she suggests that he speak to her sister that he begins a torrid affair with. One murder and a tricky courtroom case later, the psychiatrist feels the next victim may be him.
Stars: Richard Gere, Kim Basinger, Uma Thurman, Eric Roberts
Director: Phil Joanou
Rated: R
Running Length: 124 minutes
TMMM Score: (4.5/10)
Review: 1992 was big year for the steamy psychological thriller. It’s the year that Basic Instinct arrived on the scene and changed the way Hollywood and audiences looked at sex in cinema, not to mention Sharon Stone’s underwear. Arriving about four weeks before Basic Instinct, Final Analysis was another potboiler that involved that most seductive of moving pairings…a handsome leading man and a blonde bombshell. Twenty years later, the second pairing of Gere and Basinger (after 1986’s No Mercy) hasn’t aged too well and its plot holes now seem like Grand Canyon caverns.
On paper, one could see the allure of this film from all parties. With a tantalizing script by the then-hot screenwriter Wesley Strick (who penned the Cape Fear remake) and boasting two leads that were considered A-List it’s no wonder that Warner Brothers sunk a lot of money into this modern film noir concerning a psychiatrist that gets dangerously close to two sisters. If the end product didn’t end up quite on the list of classic 90’s thrillers, it still made a decent take at the box office until Basic Instinct was released and wiped it off that map.
I remember seeing this in the theaters with my dad (Wednesday nights were our movie nights and I was taken to quite a lot of movies that were beyond my years…thanks Dad!) and enjoying the thriller elements and courtroom drama. Never one to turn away from a courtroom mystery, my twelve year old brain reacted strongly to the tawdry details and dramatic courtroom revelations. Watching it now the court scenes are laughably implausible and strictly by the numbers – how anyone could take these scenes seriously is the biggest mystery.
Over time, I think movie thrillers have evolved into needing some air of plausibility to them. Audiences are too smart now to simply go along with what’s onscreen because the film tells them to. We’ve been too conditioned to vote with our hearts and our options are so vast that we don’t have time to waste on films that don’t treat us like the (mostly) smart and (mostly) cultured people we’ve become. Final Analysis suffers most because what its characters do simply can’t be explained with any logic and the end result is a series of “C’mon!”s or “Are you kidding me?”s.
Gere portrays one of the worst psychiatrists in movie history as he leaps into bed with Basinger, the sister of his trouble patient (Thurman). The time it takes between these two meeting, having a cup of coffee, and then heading to bed together takes up about ten minutes of screentime. Ethics be damned, the movie asks us to believe that as good as a doc as Gere is, he’d throw it all away for a night with a beautiful lady. The Gere squint is by now the stuff of movie legend and here he plays every scene as if he’s staring directly into the sun.
Basinger fares a bit better in her role that requires her to reveal slowly exactly what her motivations are. Basinger has always been a hit-or-miss actress – for each solid performance she’s given (her Oscar-winning role in L.A. Confidential notwithstanding) she’s turned up in some big turkeys. Here she whispers about 97% of her lines and is loudly shouting the F-word the other 3%. She’s married to a real abusive slimeball (Roberts) and when he winds up clobbered to death by Basinger (the victim of ‘pathological intoxication’ – it’s explanation is a real howler) it’s up to Gere to help her out. No really…it’s ALL up to Gere as he gathers his friends and colleagues to her defense/legal team despite knowing her for all of one week.
Sadly sidelined for most of the film is Thurman in a role that unfortunately seems to be there to add another femme fatale to the mix. Thurman was still relatively new and her quiet performance is equal parts sad and spooky as the film goes on. As an audience member, you can see Basinger’s actor brain working but Thurman remains a mystery throughout. It’s the best performance in the movie of then-Hollywood heavyweights.
The thrust of the movie is a series of red herrings, lighthouses, and movie trickery that doesn’t hold water when compared to other movies of its time. Director Joanu brings a certain style to the film and gives it an old fashioned look; however trying to make it seem Hitchcock-esque is never a wise move because you’re inviting people to recall better works by the master of suspense. Aside from Thurman’s performance, the other impressive contribution is an excellent jazzy score by George Fenton – it’s nicely dramatic and adds a lot to the atmosphere of the movie.
As far as 90’s thrillers go, Final Analysis isn’t quite howling bad nor is it particularly good. It’s worth it to see Gere before he started taking himself too seriously, Basinger before she started to have plastic surgery, and Thurman in one of her early roles that showed the promise of what was to come. It’s either going to provide a taut thriller experience for you or give you some nice laughs at the improbability of it all.
Synopsis: A couple are haunted by a supernatural presence that is unleashed during a college experiment.
Release Date: August 24, 2012
Thoughts: Today’s preview is for a late summer horror film that hopes to snag audiences hungry for outright scares. The overlong trailer may wind up giving too much away and it’s a shame that it starts off as another found footage creeper which could send audiences the wrong message. I was a bit bored until the final shot that delivers a nice dose of goosebumps. Dark Castle Entertainment is producing this one and their success rate is about 50/50. I enjoyed the schlocky remakes of House on Haunted Hill and House of Wax and their original thriller Orphan provided superior thrills. On the other hand, I was decidedly non-plussed with The Reaping and Thir13een Ghosts. A huge horror fan, I can’t imagine I’ll pass this one up in the theaters but my expectation bar is at ground level.
Synopsis: A small town girl and a city boy meet on the Sunset Strip, while pursuing their Hollywood dreams.
Stars: Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Tom Cruise, Malin Akerman, Alec Baldwin, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Russell Brand, Mary J. Blige
Director: Adam Shankman
Rated: PG-13
Running Length: 123 minutes
Random Crew Highlight: Hey Man the Monkey ~ Mickey
TMMM Score: (5.5/10)
Review: We are, by nature, a visual society. In movies, we tend respond to images on the screen that move us to a certain feeling and at times can let that form our opinion of the movie we’re watching. While watching Rock of Ages, the big screen adaptation of an overnight Broadway sensation, I started to feel a little grumpy with what I was seeing. So I closed my eyes and suddenly I was I in a happier spot. On the scale of screen musicals this is absolutely no Xanadu but neither is it Chicago (or Hairspray, director Shankman’s previous effort). It’s a decidedly middle of the road affair that has the rare distinction at being more enjoyable to listen to than see…much like Glee.
Directing 2007’s Hairspray, Shankman effectively brought the characters to silver screen life while not rendering the stage version obsolete. I think that what Hairspray had going for it was a terrific package already in place, making it a hard product to screw up. With its rough edges and more adult slanting plot the Rock of Ages filmmakers faced a dilemma…do they move the Broadway show directly to film or do they fiddle with the established script to lure more stars to the project. I’ll give you one guess what route was taken and now I’ll tell you why it was a mistake.
Moving from a sold-out run Off Broadway, the Rock of Ages that still plays on the Great White Way and on tour never felt that stage bound to me. It had some rawness to it that, coupled with a smart set list and steel voiced performers, was nothing but a good time at the theater. Audiences were encouraged to drink up and enjoy themselves which made for a memorable evening.
The film version retains many of the characters from the stage show but jettisons the plot for something that just doesn’t measure up. Now instead of two lead characters and a motley bunch of supporting players you have A-list talent all jockeying for screen time and the result is an unexpectedly messy movie. Running a long two hours so much is shoehorned in that the film can’t possibly serve all of its stars well.
Or can it?
While I try to save the best for last I need to temper my previous paragraphs of grumpy gripes with a few lines of Hallelujah praise for the megawatt star that I originally thought would be the performance everyone would be laughing at. How wrong The MN Movie Man was. Yes, it’s true. Cruise is hands down the reason to see the movie. He not only walks away with the movie, he does so while singing quite well. It’s one of the most committed and vivid performances onscreen so far in 2012 and here’s hoping he’s remembered come awards season. He’s that good. What could have been a vanity role has been given flesh, blood, and a rockers scream (even if it was sweetened with Autotune as nearly everyone is in the movie) by Mr. Cruise and he deserves major kudos for setting the bar so very high. Every song he’s a part of and scene he’s in is memorable – so much so that when he’s not onscreen you feel the absence.
Cruise excels at these roles where a certain amount of self reflection is required. Like his performance in Tropic Thunder, this is a Cruise that is game for anything. That one of the screenwriters (Justin Therox) also wrote Tropic Thunder can’t be a coincidence. His performance of “Wanted, Dead or Alive” builds to a fever crescendo and he follows it up immediately with “I Want to Know What Love Is”, a duet with the equally game Akerman who was another stand out for me. So far in career she hasn’t been called to do more than look pretty and take her top off but it’s clear she knows her comedy. While some could look at her performance as being too easy she has genuine chemistry with Cruise in a newly created role of a Rolling Stone reporter.
Going down the line of performers proves to be a law of diminishing returns. While no one in the film sounds bad it’s the characters they create that may leave a bad taste in your mouth.
Zeta-Jones is a proven musical star and her “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” is sung full voiced and danced to perfection. At least, I’m assuming its perfection. Mia Michaels choreography has been sliced to pieces by a vigorous editor and it doesn’t help that for some reason Zeta-Jones’ big number is shown in tandem with a raunchy dalliance between her mayoral candidate husband and his aide. The husband is played by Bryan Cranston in one of the bigger ‘I’m doing it just for the money’ performances I’ve seen in some time.
Boneta and Hough are supposedly the main characters in Rock of Ages, much like they are on Broadway. With the star power surrounding them, the poor youngsters get lost pretty quickly…and it doesn’t help that both of their roles have been sanitized in the transition to screen. Hough, in particular, suffers the worst cuts. Sherrie onstage is a fresh off the bus innocent that gets sucked into the LA lifestyle. Sherrie onscreen is a rube that happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time which causes trouble for her budding romance with Boneta’s Drew.
As good as Blige looks and sings, her acting is pretty laughable. Here the star with the best voice is actually the worst actor which goes to show you how difficult the transition from singer to star can be. Rounding out our cast are Brand and Baldwin (the weakest singer even with electronic assistance) in totally forgettable roles that were so amusing onstage. A late in the mix revelation between the two men seems to have come from another film set entirely.
Special mention also needs to go to Mickey the baboon. If it’s true that Cruise specifically suggested the monkey be added to the film then Cruise is officially the smartest man in the room. Giamatti should be pretty upset that he’s out acted in not one, not two, but THREE scenes by Mickey.
One thing Rock of Ages loves is a montage. I counted no less than five montages in the film and nearly all of them involved Hough’s character. While she’s singing “Harden My Heart” she’s shown looking for a job and suffering the indignities of LA lifestyle…in the rain. Seriously…she’s in about four different outfits and it rains every time she’s walking the street. It’s only when she happens upon strip club owner Justice (Blige) that the rain stops as she enters a new world.
With its PG-13 rating, Hough works in a strip club where no one strips. Don’t get me wrong, there are ladies dancing (pole dancing like gymnasts) but nothing is remotely skeevy enough to make you feel sorry for anyone involved. There are two numbers in this strip club and again, the athletic choreography is lost thanks to hatchet editing that robs the viewer of seeing the full scale of dancing. It’s frustrating to say the least.
So…to the music side of things we shall go. Boasting 20+ classic 1980’s rock tunes (the film is set in 1987) there’s not really a bad one in the bunch. Unlike other jukebox musicals Rock of Ages doesn’t always try to make the song fit into what is happening on screen. It often does make sense but it’s not played for comic effect like Mamma Mia! with songs springing from heavily set up situations.
The biggest problem I had with the movie was some seriously sloppy filmmaking. It almost feels like seven different movies were shot with some crossover casting and someone just edited the movies together. There’s no real narrative to follow and random characters will show up and pick up plotlines long since forgotten. The whole Zeta-Jones/Cranston arc is a prime example of a major plot point that is only brought up when the movie feels like it. It makes for a very (sorry Catherine) bi-poplar experience and it also goes for the song to scene ratio. There will be twenty minute long stretches where eight songs will come back to back and then it’s all dialogue for a half hour. These jumps are jarring enough that I never fully relaxed into the world Rock of Ages was trying to take me to.
Ultimately, this proved a disappointing experience for me. However, the day after I screened the movie I received a copy of the soundtrack and my outlook became rosier again. Investing in the soundtrack is a wise choice and may supplant your need to see the film…even though you do owe it to yourself to see Cruise’s excellent work on the big screen. It’s not going to change the face of musicals nor does it signal the end of the singing A-list star..it’s a poorly made film with great songs, one amazing performance, a spattering of decent efforts, and a few laughable strike-outs.
