Change Your Image
atman987
Reviews
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
Joel and Ethan, I want my money back
It is hard to believe the same guys who made "No Country for Old Men" and "Fargo," and several other of the greatest things to touch celluloid could be responsible for this. They should be at the height of their abilities, not misfiring so badly.
This is a movie about a jerk, and not in the Steve Martin sense. Davis isn't an anti-hero who does things you secretly wish you could do or has some justification that allows you to understand--if not sympathize--with his behavior. He does not remind you of your quirky friend or relative that is hard to take sometimes but has qualities that make his company tolerable. No, Davis is someone you want to see beat down in the hardest possible way. When you learn early in the film that Davis's partner offed himself, I started to think: I don't blame him. I would too if I had to spend time with this guy. Then I remembered I had paid for the privilege of doing so. At least I enjoyed my popcorn.
Movies where there is no compelling plot are called "character studies." This isn't even that. It is like "Men Behaving Badly," that goes on too long. Davis's performances and music are not even the best in the film, so you can't call him brilliant but flawed. Just moderately talented but unlikable.
90% of the screenplay consists of the words f**k, s**t, and a**h*l*. I'm not a prude about foul language, but its just lazy writing if this is the meat of your dialog rather than the spice.
What makes it worse is that the early 60's folk scene is such an interesting time with incredible characters and stories. Why didn't they make a film about Mulligan's character? That might have been worth watching.
The American (2010)
Did no one else think this?
I haven't read every review, so my apologies if someone else pointed this out. But it seems to me that everyone who saw this movie didn't get the fact that The American aka "Jack" is a metaphor for America itself--or at least American foreign policy, or perhaps more specifically: how the rest of the world sees the American government's actions in the world.
Here you have a guy running around in countries not his own. He sells guns and deals in death. His priorities are terribly skewed: he cares about an endangered insect, but doesn't hesitate to take the life of an innocent and mark it up to collateral damage in his personal quest for security.
He has a special forces tattoo on his shoulder. Maybe once he fought to defend freedom, but now has slain so many dragons that he's become the dragon.
He doesn't trust the people he does business with. His only friends are whores, because he can buy them. When offered genuine friendship, he is suspicious. He takes pains to observe and reveal the shortcomings of others to satisfy himself that everyone is faulty.
He has nightmares about what he's doing, but it doesn't stop him. But it has made him paranoid, seeing enemies on every corner, always looking over his shoulder, obsessed with security and secrecy.
Don't flame me, by the way. This is a movie review, not a political screed.
Land of the Giants (1968)
Cheesy sci-fi or Cold War Metaphor?
Having watched the whole run, it strikes me that Land of the Giants is really an elaborate Cold War metaphor. The giants themselves are like the old Soviet Empire during its heyday. At first blush they seem imposing, intimidating, seemingly impossible to overcome. Yet the giants are also clumsy and slow. Their society is like an old Marxist republic: dull, repressed, technologically backward; its denizens sullen if not malevolent. The giants are unwieldy and inefficient, like the bureaucracy of the state itself. The American "little people," thwart them time and again with Yankee ingenuity, creativity, and teamwork.
The passengers and crew of the Spindrift are a disparate group with characteristics of "western decadence," (e.g., a rich, arrogant capitalist, a spoiled, shallow socialite, an opportunistic con artist.) Yet reflecting the ideal of American democracy, everyone pulls together when it counts, though perhaps after heated--and sometimes violent--debate.
On the downside, the show often seems to be "Land of the Giant Plot-holes." At a twelfth size, the little people often seem to traverse the city impossibly fast. The Spindrift lights flash day and night, inviting investigation from any passerby. The idea of camouflage doesn't seem to occur to the little people. Maybe a canary yellow blouse and a fire engine red jumpsuit aren't the best fashion choices for avoiding notice. They're constantly hunting for food because grocery stores are hard to break into, yet they have little trouble in pharmacies when there's a need for medicine.
I'll pass no judgment on the special effects; they were the best that TV could produce at the time, and many times hold up pretty well. However, the novelty of giant props like pencils and telephones wears off after a bit. The little people are forever climbing up and down the same table legs, ducking under the same doors, hiding against the same street curbs. It seems in retrospect that whole episodes could have been devoted to the problems of basic survival at a small size. How do they cross a small stream that to little people appears a mighty river? How do they deal with a nearby ant-hill? Instead, the plots are often fantastical and surreal, stretching the belief factor in a show that is pushing that envelope in the premise already.
On the upside, the cast is a pretty good set of actors. Kurt Kaszner seems to have the most fun, and his brilliant panache at playing Fitzhugh is the only thing that makes that character tolerable. Don Matheson gets to have the next most fun as hot-headed Mark Wilson. Matheson shows great aplomb at spewing the techno-babble required of the character. It's also good to see an engineer who isn't portrayed as an awkward nerd. Kudos also to Gary Conaway for his understated hand with Captain Burton. Conaway looks like he came out of the same TV leading man factory that produced Robert Conrad and Christopher George. But I think Conaway was the better actor and it's a wonder he didn't have a more notable career.
The women are good but horribly underwritten. Heather Young as Betty does get to show off her dancing and singing talents in the marionette episode. Otherwise, the character seems a template for a bland future soccer mom. One gets the impression that being a stewardess was just a prelude to catching a handsome pilot and having babies. The writers should have written her as a trained nurse, so at least they could involve her more for medical necessity. Deanna Lund gets to hint at Valerie's inner vixen, but never fully show it. This is a shame; they should have played it up, making her a foil for the dominant Burton and Wilson.
This show is ripe for a reboot/revival. It would be cool to see the Sci-Fi Channel tackle Land of the Giants in the same way they did Battlestar: Galactica.