Is it just me or do movies pretty much SUCK anymore? The best movie I've seen all year was Swedish, and the only one worth paying to see in a theater. Most of the time these days, I'm totally content to just wait for the DVD. Consequently, most of my movie viewing is done in the comfort of my own home.
I was, however, pleasantly surprised by Universal's new--and much delayed--version of The Wolfman, starring Benicio del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, and Emily Blunt. It's a beautiful film, and very reminiscent of the Lon Chaney classic from the same studio, albeit updated with a liberal splash of gore. The atmospheric direction by Joe Johnston (the director of the criminally under-appreciated The Rocketeer and the upcoming Captain America movie) perfectly recaptures the mood of the Universal classic. This film is a bit more ambitious, though, taking del Toro's Wolfman into the heart of Victorian London. Both del Toro and the modern make-up also harken back to the original, with del Toro's ugly handsomeness and laconic acting style very reminiscent of Chaney. It's certainly worth a look-see and it's a fun, relatively mindless movie.
From Paris with Love, starring John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers as CIA agents mixed up in something or other in Paris, is one of those movies that convinces me Lionsgate is just some giant money-laundering scheme. No studio exec in their right mind would have green-lighted such a hole-filled, nonsensical script, especially with these two stars attached. Why in the world does Carl Icahn lust after this studio, whose only hits are their yearly additions to the wretched and vile Saw franchise and an occasional Jason Statham actioneer?
Pirate Radio is from the same people who brought us Notting Hill, About A Boy, and Love, Actually. It's a fun, star filled movie about a pirate radio station broadcasting from offshore England in the 1960s, when radio was forbidden to play rock 'n roll. The star-laden cast includes Bill Nighy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Nick Frost, Emma Thompson, Kenneth Branagh, and the dual Rhys, Ifans and Darby. It's fun and captures that era in British history when the post-war generation tried to shake all the accumulated dust off a very dusty country mired in its own history and stodginess.
Edge of Darkness was billed as Mel Gibson's "comeback" film, his first acting job in a few years, years that were filled with trouble in the media and now legendary rants from the aging actor. It's based on a mid-1980s British TV mini-series, directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale). Campbell does the directing honors here, too, retelling the story of a (this time) Boston police detective whose daughter is killed before his very eyes. The immediate suspicion is the cop was the target but as Tom Craven (Gibson) investigates, it turns out his daughter was in with some eco-terrorists who were trying to bring down the company she worked for...a company filled with corruption and greed, and thus she was the real target. Gibson does a decent job (even with an annoying Boston accent) in this very dark thriller, but for Campbell it's no Casino Royale.
Crazy Heart won Jeff Bridges a much-deserved Best Actor Oscar. It's the story of legendary country singer, Bad Blake, down on his luck as alcohol and age take its toll. He's playing bowling alleys and small bars when we first meet him, haunted by the success of superstar Tommy Sweet (Colin Farrell), someone he mentored. Into his life comes a young journalist, Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal) who reawakens a lot of things in him. But when Tommy wants new songs from the old songwriter, it takes a giant fall until he can write again. Crazy Heart has a wide melancholy streak, a film trait that normally appeals greatly to me, but I kind of couldn't get into this film. Blake doesn't have a lot to like about him, and while Bridges does give a fine performance--he always does--I feel his Oscar was more a reward for a well-acted career as opposed to a star-making turn.
I had a free HBO weekend this week and watched Max Payne, a really awful movie based on a video game and starring Mark Wahlberg (or Matt Damon-light as I like to think of him) and Mila Kunis. Wahlberg can be a decent action star (if someone would come up with the proper vehicle for him) but Kunis is such a lightweight sit-com refugee I can't imagine anyone casting her in anything that even approaches drama or action. This is an awful film, but it sure is pretty to look at it at times, with its always snowing or raining New York City. In fact, if Frank Miller's movie of The Spirit looked half as good as this, it might have been worth watching. There's one scene of an old sedan pulling up on a warehouse pier with New York gleaming in the background that is pure Will Eisner. Otherwise, Max Payne is pure crap.
Don't work too hard, Gary, and remember to take a nap now and again, because naps are, for lack of a better word, good.
Posted by: Shell | July 02, 2010 at 08:29 AM