Change Your Image
mjstoil-1
Reviews
Battle: Los Angeles (2011)
Remember that name: Jonathon Liebesman
For decades, Ed Wood has been the standard for the worst director in movie history. On the basis of this film, we may have have a candidate for a replacement. After all, the late Ed Wood (Bride of the Monster, Plan Nine From Outer Space, etc.) was never trusted with a significant budget for his laughable works. Liebesman, in contrast, has been granted ever-increasing budgets and therefore has been able to waste millions of dollars. Other reviewers have mentioned the incredibly sloppy camera-work and film school-level editing that made very expensive CGI and Technicolor look like great-uncle Fred's drunken exercises with a Super 8 home video. Other reviewers have mentioned the consistently amateurish performances elicited from normally competent actors. What isn't appreciated is that the total result is so tedious and confusing that Battle Los Angeles actually achieved the impossible: a loud, annoying spectacle that actually put people in the theater to sleep. Knowing that Mr. Liebesman has been given directorial responsibility for the sequel to another waste of time--the remake of Clash of the Titans--should serve as warning that any product of this filmmaker is likely to a disaster of epic proportions.
Season of the Witch (2011)
Much better than expected
I came into the theater expecting a cheesy horror film with which to waste my time while my wife saw another film that I had already seen and disliked. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised. Rather than a horror film, this was closer to the well-remembered 1980s Rutger Hauer film Ladyhawke: an action fantasy set during the Medieval period. Performances were complex and competent--especially those of Claire Foy and Nicolas Cage, the story held interest, and the technical work by a mostly Hungarian crew was very impressive. Happily, gore and sexual content are very restrained--I suspect we'll be seeing this one in airplanes a lot. My major issues are that the theology is a big cockeyed and the CGI at the end was unnecessary, distracting, and not up to current Hollywood standards. Let's have more like this, simply for their entertainment value (and no more Final Destinations!!!).
Date Night (2010)
Return to Screwball Comedy
One puzzling thing about some young reviewers is that they don't "get" screwball comedy. They recognize that a terrible, gross parody like "Meet the Spartans" is supposed to be silly, but they complain that the characters in a film like "Date Night" act dumb and are unrealistic. Well, they're right. Wealthy heiresses should be incensed at Katherine Hepburn's portrayal of a débutante in "Bringing Up Baby," veterinarians should still be protesting Groucho Marx's performance as Dr. Hackenbush in "A Day At The Races," and academic musicologists should burn Ryan O'Neil in effigy for "What's Up Doc." The rest of us can laugh at the clever lines and the intelligently absurd situations in such films...and in Date Night. A couples intervention at gunpoint for two low-life thieves? A flustered ex-CIA Special Operative whose evening of sexual athletics is repeatedly interrupted? A husband and wife who entertain themselves at restaurants by making up dialog for the other diners? Its fun, even for people like this reviewer who previously found Steve Carrell to be as enjoyable as a double portion of cold Cream-of-Wheat.
Clash of the Titans (2010)
Its Kraken...not Cracken; but its still awful
First, let's get the good stuff out of the way. Liam Neeson is lots of fun displaying his talent in a bit part as Zeus in this Computer-Generated Image (CGI) fest. Ralph Fiennes is somewhat less entertaining as the underworld lord Hades, in a portrayal that seems to borrow a lot from Ron Moody's Fagen in the musical Oliver! The Kraken, a sea creature described by Norwegian fishermen probably based on sightings of giant squid, is transformed into something out of H.P. Lovecraft and is at least inventive. The Medusa in this update is a clever combination of the seductive and the horrifying. Unfortunately, to get to these bits, the viewer has to wade through a tiresome "quest" plot, struggle to make sense out of badly-edited CGI combat, and suffer through endless stoic scowling by Sam Worthington. The heroic part of this version of Clash of the Titans was the effort to keep awake. Sure, the old Harryhausen version is limited to stop-motion special effects and a woefully miscast Harry Hamlin as Perseus, but it was thoroughly entertaining, cleverly written, and had a engrossing plot (and Judi Bowker as Andromeda was a turn-on). My suggestion: watch the original for fun and rent this one if you have insomnia.
K-20: Kaijin nijû mensô den (2008)
Enjoyable film and interesting social document
I've watched this film twice on flights to Japan and enjoyed it on two levels. First, by itself, it is a rousing fun action film--superior to most of the US adaptations from graphic novels. The combination of the CGI vistas with realistic local sets works extremely well: you are reminded that you are in an art deco-influenced alternative reality but the immediate surroundings of squalor in the poverty-stricken lower class sections of the city and opulence in the wealthy neighborhoods are entirely plausible. The action and the fights are great and integrated entirely into the plot, and the performances are solid. The only difficulty is that the identity of the villainous K-20 (and, yes, he IS a villain) is probably too easy to guess, while the hero seems at times too dense.
The second level of enjoyment is how the film contributes to an understanding of Japanese culture. The mixed admiration and dislike for the wealthy artistocratic class who dominated Japan during the early 20th century strongly emerges from the film. The depiction of how Japanese people would react to a spectacular, mysterious criminal was also interesting. I could write more, but perhaps someone should try a serious academic analysis. The bottom line is that its fun to watch--much more fun than The Hulk or V--and, at the same time, it is a uniquely Japanese take on the whole vigilante against an unjust society theme. It is definitely NOT a Japanese "imitation" of anything.
Bye Bye Braverman (1968)
Funny eulogy for a time and place
This is on my list of Ten Most Underrated Films of All Time. It is also both heart-rending and funny. Its heart-rending because it is a souvenir of a time and place gone by that captures the moment perfectly, in much the same way as Secaucus Seven did for a somewhat younger generation. Additionally, like Return of the Secaucus Seven, it is filled with marvelous performances--reminding people why George Segal was considered a very promising talent--and its script and pacing make it very, very funny. For people who have raised on Seinfeld, Bye Bye Braverman is a much more accurate depiction of how bright, normal people in New York can be funny, tragic, and a delight to watch. And all of this from a plot that consists of, "So, how do we get to the funeral from here?"