This Week's Watches
It was an odd week, as I watched a jumble of different types of movies. Most were barely watchable, but then again, it's my own fault really as I continue to make terrible decisions when choosing what to watch...
Knight and Day (2010)
Starring: Cameron Diaz & Tom Cruise
Directed by: James Mangold
Rating: ★★
Knight and Day was meant to restore Tom Cruise as an action hero, but sadly for him, the movie was not very successful. The film itself is incredibly fast paced and very silly, with a lot of action sequences and car chases- it basically has everything that an action film should- but something about it just doesn’t work, and it’s hard to know what it is. There are laughably ridiculous moments that really push the boundaries of stupidity, most of them revolving around the induced drugging of the main characters used as a poorly constructed ellipsis to jump from one location to the next. Tom Cruise seems to be on autopilot- he tries just too hard to be likeable, and his character is forced down our throats as being this amazingly wonderful competent and sexy spy (who continuously drugs people). The directing is frenetic (almost like the cameraman is having a seizure) and even with the fast paced plot and the occasionally cool action set pieces, something about it is just plain... boring. But it’s not all bad: Cameron Diaz is the real star here, giving a solid and quirky performance, and overall, it isn’t the worst film you would ever see- it's coma inducing fun. I wanted to like it, because there are some really funny and exciting moments, but overall it mostly just falls flat and I just can’t quite put my finger on why.
You Again (2010)
Starring: Kristen Bell, Jamie Lee Curtis, Sigourney Weaver, Odette Yustman & Betty White
Directed by: Andy Fickman
Rating: ★★
I have to admit that I only watched this film because it stars Kristen Bell, and I have a thing for her. Admittedly, she is the best thing about this terribly slushy schmaltz fest, that and the bit when they go for a dancing lesson, which is actually laugh out loud funny (main due to Betty White). But other than that, this type of cheesy chick flick is the kind of film that I just can’t stand- because I really don’t like soppy life affirming ‘happy ever after’ movies- they just aren’t for me. But if you do like those types of films then you would love this! The main plot focuses on Marni (Bell), a girl who was bullied by a cheerleader called Joanna (Yustman), who is now grown up and discovers that her brother is going to marry said cheerleader. The first half starts off strongly, mainly because you want Marni to destroy Joanna’s life, so the film had good potential as a darkly staged black comedy, but ultimately becomes a classical Hollywood forgiveness themed pile of steaming Gouda. It’s kind of funny and enjoyable, but the ending is just so tacky and vomit inducing that I wanted to throw something at the screen and then pour bleach on my eyeballs to wash away the forced happiness. But if you love rom-coms (and yes, a romantic sub-plot is crow-barred in for absolutely no reason except to reaffirm the sexist idea that women can only be happy if they are in a relationship with a man) and want to put your own views of feminism back 60 years, then watch this film!
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Jay Baruchel, Alfred Molina & Teresa Palmer
Directed by: Jon Turteltaub
Rating: ★★★
This film was recommended to me by one of the avid readers of this blog (of which there are very few), who told me that it was a really good and fun film, and was much better than it appeared. It makes me happy to say that he was right- I thoroughly enjoyed watching this Disney live action fantasy! We all know that Nicolas Cage has made some really, really awful decisions for almost the entirety of his career, but this is one film that is actually good- he should be proud that he finally found a gem in amongst the piles of steaming horse sh*t. Although the main back story is told to us in an unnecessarily complicated three minute expository monologue, the rest of the film is well paced and crammed full of action packed CGI, likeable characters, fun magic and a clever storyline. Basically the whole thing concerns a very old magician called Balthazar (Cage) trying to find the one special magician who can be the new Merlin, and an opposing villainous magician (Molina) who is simultaneously trying to take over the world. Baruchel plays loveable loser (as he often does) Dave, who meets Balthazar and uses science alongside the magician’s magic. Science has never looked so cool. There are a few notable moments: one which involves a lot of confetti, Chinatown, and a dragon, and another that has several Tesslar coils ‘romancing’ someone. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice has to be one of the rare examples of an action orientated film in which the main love interested (played by Palmer) manages to be both useful and beautiful at the same time, actually helping rather than hindering the protagonist at a crucial moment of the finale! Perhaps Hollywood is ready for women to begin playing better roles in these types of films...? Perhaps not. Ultimately, for a movie based on the sequence in Fantasia with the sentient broomsticks, which is deliberately reconstructed half way through, this film ain’t bad at all.
The One (2001)
Starring: Jet Li, Jason Statham, Carla Gugino, Delroy Lindo & Jet Li
Directed by: James Wong
Rating: ★½
Oh dear, what a dreadful mess. The One has some terrible, terrible problems, not that anyone interested in watching Jet Li beat up himself would care to notice. The plot is weak, the acting poor, and overall, it’s just pretty stupid and boring. About ten minutes in, whilst watching a testosterone laden car chase, I found myself daydreaming: completely forgetting that I was even watching this. I found it hard to ‘get into’ the action: most of the time I was just bored because, to be honest, we have seen it all before anyway. The second half is much better than the first; if only for the ultimate fight between Jet Li and, you guessed it, Jet Li. It’s all about inter-dimensional travel and multiple universes, but the complicated plot doesn’t make it any more comprehensible or intelligent, in fact it does quite the opposite. Unless you have absolutely nothing better to do with your time, when choosing a movie to watch, this definitely isn't The One.
Pick Of The Week
The Social Network (2010)
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Armie Hammer & Justin Timberlake
Directed by: David Fincher
Rating: ★★★★
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| Mark Zuckerberg has a lot to ponder... |
Anyone who knows me knows that I have a soft spot for David Fincher. I think he is an excellent director, even though I can acknowledge that he has made some misfires in his career (and Alien 3 is definitely NOT one of them). But a film like The Social Network always makes me feel slightly ambivalent to viewing it, because when everyone says it's ‘the best film of the year’ and it's ‘amazing’ you can’t help but feel that it probably isn’t, because, after all, how many movies can live up to their own hype?
I must concede and say that yes, it is a great movie. It’s not ‘the best film of all time’ and I probably wouldn’t say it was the best film of last year, but it is a very interesting and fluid ‘poke’ at modern society and our technological global community (or whatever). And although I’m sure the plot plays with the entire notion of ‘truth’, it makes an enthralling and emotional story that sucks you in and spits you out. Centring on Mark Zuckerberg and the creation of Facebook, the film has many villans, including Zuckerberg, and one ‘victim’: Eduardo Saverin. But are they greedy and selfish because of the society they were raised in and the University they attend, or are they just ‘bad eggs’? Fincher pulls all the punches to make his opinion known, even though he does allow some pathos towards the main antagonists.
The Social Network has some great performances: Jesse Eisenberg is excellent at being socially awkward and hateable, and Andrew Garfield is piteous and pathetic as Zuckerberg’s ill-fated best friend. Once again, Justin Timberlake struggles to engage in human emotion, playing a role that should be detestable fairly weakly, proving that no matter how much money you throw at acting lessons, you just can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. True, he has greatly improved from his appalling past performances, but moving up the acting scale from ‘f-ing awful’ to ‘wooden’ is not really something to be commended for, especially when there are plenty of good actors out there queuing up for the opportunity to work. Perhaps he should just focus on his music.
All in all, The Social Network is an intriguing and involving drama that is well directed (I really enjoyed the ‘fast paced’ opening scene), well written and, on the whole, well acted, which, although probably has no baring on reality, manages to depict ‘real’ people in a ‘real’ way, because, and let's be honest here, we all know that real life is full of people who are mean spirited and horrible, and I’m glad that there are popular movies out there like this in which the main character is not just a ‘wonderful’ and ‘perfect’ hero.
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