True Grit Teaser

The Coen Brothers. Retribution. This Christmas. Awesome.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

2 ½ stars Wall Street, the original Wall Street, is still the best movie about the business world I've ever seen. It came out in 1987, 1 year after Platoon won the Oscar for Best Picture, and Oliver Stone is still one of my top three favorite directors. Now 23 years later, we get a sequel.

Instead of Charlie Sheen as Bud Fox, there is Shia LaBeouf as Jacob Moore, a comer trader whose mentor played by Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon) has committed suicide as the investment firm he owned has gone under. Its legs were taken out by billionaire Bretton James played by Josh Brolin. Jacob is also dating Winnie Gekko, the estranged daughter of Gordon Gekko who was released from prison 7 years ago in 2001. The movie is set in 2008. Gordon is not the shark he was though and is barely getting by on a book he wrote in prison. Jacob meets him at a seminar and tells Gordon that he is engaged to his daughter.

These are the basic elements of this follow up, one that I was pretty excited about seeing, but unfortunately, and painfully, the movie is a letdown. More than anything, the movie lacks focus and the script (not written by Stone) is to blame. For example, Jacob wants to exert revenge on Brolin's character but then later goes to work for him. I'm not sure what his motivations and/or plans are in this. He seems desperate to get close to Gordon Gekko, but Gordon has no money, no power, no influence. He gives occasional advice but why is Jacob so interested in him, particularly since it jeopardizes his relationship with Winnie so dearly? The many storylines start and stop and there just isn't a clear plot to take us through the movie. Even the inclusion of the financial meltdown that happened in '08 seems added in lazily and Stone, who usually has a lot of strong things to say, doesn't seem to have much to say about it. Or at least it isn't said in a way that is clear and definitive.

A lot of the movie kind of went by me. There is a lot of talk about stocks and primes and sub-primes, but I wasn't really engaged in any of it. The first movie made the business world incredibly vital and exciting. I got why white boys around the world gave their lives to Wall Street. Here it seems more like an average office job with little stability. Even the money these guys are making doesn't seem like much of a big deal. This movie just doesn't have the teeth of the first one. It's not really about the ins and outs of business men and what makes them tick. It doesn't even seem all that insightful. Instead, it's a lot more about this young romance between Jacob and Winnie.

Carey Mulligan is a great actress, and good in the role, but the role itself is a weak and underwritten. She's running a non-profit charitable website but we don't see her passion about it. She's angry at her father but their scenes together really play out like scenes from the CW. Their heart to hearts ring very false and she has to spend a lot of the movie in tears. She actually has great chemistry with Shia, but again, why is this relationship such a big part of this movie? It undermines its credibility if you ask me. People may be bad in business and people lost their jobs and the economy is corrupt but young love will solve everything? I'm worried that this is the older, and perhaps softer Oliver Stone and that's not a good thing. I think it's the kind of idealistic sentimentality that happens to a lot of old people. I did bad things, the world is bad, I don't have any solid insight about life, just go for love. Also, the directing is sadly weak. Way too much slopppy steadicam and close-ups. There are a lot of strange awkward editing choices and for a director who has made so many stunning visual films, this one is pretty amateur. Lastly, the music is very bad, with songs written by former Talking Heads front man David Byrne. They do not set the proper tone and they make the film feel out of touch with the world today.

The actors are all good even if their characters aren't. Shia LaBeouf is better here than in any movie I've seen him in. It's his first adult role and he rises to the occasion. He really does feel like a guy from Wall Street and comes off as smart and intelligent. Josh Brolin is becoming a very strong presence onscreen and his masculinity is well suited for the part. Susan Sarandon is good as Jacob's mother but her subplot as a struggling realtor seems tacked on and inconsequential. Now what about Michael Douglas? This role defined his career, got him an Oscar, and is one of the great characters of cinema. Sadly Gordon Gekko is so down on his luck for so much of the film. He's beat up and old. I don't want to see Michael Jordan playing for the Wizards. I want to see him in his prime. And Gekko's motivations are so hidden from us that when they do finally emerge late in the film, I didn't care. The movie should've been much more about him and much less about the others. It's as if they made another Godfather movie, but the Godfather is some supporting character. People who love the first film and love his character are going to be disappointed.

Scorese and Stone. Two of my top three directors, and they both make disappointing films this year. The third favorite is David Fincher who ironically is coming out with The Social Network next week. I have high hopes, but we'll see. Just rent the original again. It's a classic. This is the sequel that probably shouldn't have been made.

Weekly Recap 9/24/10

DVDs Watched this Week:
The Good: Get Him to the Greek, Gone Baby Gone, State of Play, Battlestar Galactica Mini-Series, Body of Lies, more of The Office
The Bad: (untitled), Kingdom of Heaven, Casino Jack and the United States of Money
The Ugly: None

Trips to the Theater: The Town

Actors of the Week: Eva Green, Blake Lively, Russell Brand, Jonah Hill
Directors of the Week: Ben Affleck




TRAILERS/CLIPS of the Week:
Picture Me. How come there's never been a documentary on modeling before?

Sept 2010 Reviews 2 (Get Him to the Greek )

Get Him to the Greek 3 stars Forgetting Sarah Marshall is my favorite of the Apatow comedies and is one of my favorite comedies ever. I love that movie. I think I love it mostly because it is a full movie, with characters and a story I really cared about and was not just 90 minutes of jokes and improv. Some of the players are back again for a second go around including Russell Brand as British rocker Aldous Snow and the director Nicholas Stoller who also directed FSH. Jonah Hill is also back (he was in both movies) but he's playing a different character and not the hilarious sycophant he was in FSH.

First of all, the movie is funny. I laughed hard many times, oddly enough mostly at Sean Diddy Combs who plays a record mogul who is not Puff Daddy but Sergio, but is he playing a version of himself, but who knows. The team is too good not to create funny stuff. However, I think I've said this before, but I'm getting pretty tired of overly-improvised comedies. Characters go on and on with flowery metaphors and similes. Something is always like something else. I feel like a bird flapping its glorious wings and spreading its dew into the midst of the morning. I honestly don't think it's that hard to come up with that sort of stuff.

But mostly what it does is stop the story in its tracks. Everything screeches to a halt so that actors can say funny things that have nothing to do with anything. Movies are supposed to suspend your disbelief. We're supposed to care about what's going to happen and believe in the story we're seeing. Get Him to the Greek breezes by that a little too often. Why does Aaron (Jonah Hill) want to get Aldous to the Greek Theater so badly? He might lose his job, but there's no real jeopardy beyond that. Even his semi-break up that happens early on (with the sweeter than sweet Elisabeth Moss) doesn't have anything to do with the story. Things are just not set up well in the beginning. Aldous Snow's career is at a low point but do we really care that he can make a comeback? Aaron is a cubicle level employee at the record label but nothing's really wrong in his life beyond that. It's these basic screenwriting things that get glossed over in comedies. Who cares, let's just say silly things. I care.

That being said, the movie is still very funny and somehow captures a tone of warmth throughout, despite the hardcore partying and the unusual amount of vomiting. The characters aren't mean or hateful. On the contrary, they're actually quite likable. Even Aldous is not a complete narcissist and his growing friendship with Aaron is a nice one. Russell Brand is particularly special and his performance may seem just like he's playing himself but it is crafted. Also good is the usually very serious actress Rose Byrne (Damages, Sunshine) who plays his ex. She's sort of Lil Kim meets Lady Gaga. She's very, very funny.

Maybe I'll like it more the second time when I don't have to concentrate on frivolous things like story and plot and can enjoy just the jokes. In particular, there is a sequence involving the guys on absinthe and P.Diddy's floating head that really made me laugh. Also late in the movie someone gets hit by a car and I was dying. Definitely a good rental. But I'm glad I waited for DVD.

On a side note, Get Him to the Greek is a terrible title. Bad title, bad poster, bad trailer. There's a reason more people didn't go see it.

Frozen 2 stars The concept is both good and bad. Yes it would be scary to be stuck on a ski lift for 5 days as the ski resort is only open during the weekends and you were left there on Sunday night. Yes the cold and the height off the ground and all of those natural elements of the forest would be a terrifying situation to really have to go through. But we aren't going through it and we're stuck watching three pretty bad young actors on a ski lift for an hour and a half. They fight, they argue, one guy thinks he's funny, and the girl is always crying. It's very bad in this type of movie to want the people to just die already. And come on, it's just altogether pretty silly. It's someone's one clever movie idea and the cleverness wears off after 30 minutes and we're left with pretty poorly executed directing. Yet the movie is unsettling and any scene where someone's bone is exposed out of their body really makes me disgusted. I don't know why but that always grosses me out to no end. It actually happens in another movie on this list but I won't say which one. I don't know, if you're intrigued maybe you'll like it. I was mildly interested in seeing it and then very quickly couldn't take it anymore. Seriously, all three characters needed to die.

Solitary Man 3 stars Michael Douglas is a very good actor. Wonder Boys, Wall Street, The Game. He's particularly good when he has good things to say and Solitary Man if anything has a lot of good dialogue. He plays a car dealership owner who is running out of money and constantly chasing young women. He's very successful at it, even bagging an 18 year-old at some point during the movie, but he's pushing 60 and the guy who completely lives by charisma is starting to fade. His daughter (The Office's Jenna Fischer in a nice supporting role) parents him in a way, but he cannot seem to give up this way of living. The movie is a nice examination of this kind of middle aged man who does what he does because he is so afraid of death. He'll do anything to feel young and cannot allow himself to think about aging. The dialogue is in fact pretty good and was written by the screenwriters who wrote Rounders and Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience. Ultimately though, the movie is a little hollow. It knows this kind of guy and how he behaves but doesn't have much to say about him. I don't need a message but the movie's not deep enough for the writer/directors to remain so ambiguous about what they feel about him. Movie's shouldn't be objective. They should be subjective. A writer/director feels something and that is the point of view of the story and that's what the movie is lacking. Michael Douglas is pretty great though and with this and hopefully the Wall Street sequel, we'll be seeing a lot more of him.

Saidoweizu 3 stars I had heard about this Japanese remake of Alexander Payne's excellent movie Sideways a couple of years ago. Apparently more and more international countries are remaking American films. We do it all the time, why can't they. The Indian version of My Best Friend's Wedding was a huge hit. I hear there's going to be a Japanese version of Working Girl. Saidoweizu is still set in California wine country but the story is different enough that the movie kind of exists on its own. Michio Saito is the Paul Giamatti character and he is flying in from Tokyo to attend his friend's wedding. He used to live in the States during grad school but is now in Japan, struggling as a would be screenwriter. His friend Daisuke is the former TV star of Captain Ninja, a fake cheesy karate TV show that was popular among kids. They head up North but instead of just meeting women at the wineries, Michio knows a woman Mayuko who he used to tutor. His script is even about their relationship that never really happened. Mayuko is played by a wonderful actress who I never heard of named Kyoka Suzuki. She is very charming and lovely. I hope I find more movies that she is in. Also lovely is Rinko Kikuchi (Babel, The Brothers Bloom) who is always great but the character is a bit unfocused in this version. She's a cafe owner with a lot of energy but she's more of just a friend to Mayuko. Daisuke starts to see her even though he's getting married next weekend. Just like the original.

But the movie isn't the original and is a Japanese version. The behavior, the attitudes, and certainly the language is Japanese and that is actually very interesting to watch. Sideways wasn't a huge movie so it's not like they're remaking Inception. The characters in this version are Asian restrained and unwilling to be honest and emotional and it's a nice contrast to the American version. I don't know though if I would've liked it as much without the original. Comparing the two was part of the fun. Still, it was a nice bizarre experience.

HP and the Deathly Hallows: Part I - Full Trailer

Holy s--t.

The Town

4 stars With this and Gone Baby Gone, Ben Affleck is a real director. A lot of actors try to direct movies, and maybe they can eek out passable one, but The Town isn't just passable, it's very good.

Affleck is Doug MacRay, the head of a small heist crew who start the film right off with an intense as hell bank robbery in Charleston, Mass. Rebecca Hall (The Prestige, Frost/Nixon) is the bank manager Claire and for some reason they decide they need a hostage to get out and they take her along. They let her go, but discover that she lives 4 blocks away from them and suspicious that she might know anything, they decide to follow her. Affleck runs into her at a laundromat and she is obviously still shaken by the experience. He approaches her, asks if she's okay, and they start a relationship.

The Town is a movie about crime and shootouts and robberies, but it's even more about a place. The town is Charlestown (pronounced chalzten) and it's of course South Boston. It seems to be a city that time has no had impact on. I doubt Dougie is on Twitter. The townies are Boston through and through and Charlestown feels like a real rough place with real rough white people. And that is what really elevates the film beyond some of the familiar genre territory. Cops and robbers and the guy that wants to get out are common elements in movies, but the world that is created here is so specific that it all feels very real. The accents are real too. Honestly, I felt like some of the early scenes needed subtitles. Are we sure they're speaking English? Also, so many movies make heists seem too easy. We've had a lot of caper movies recently where anybody can steal anything, but the robberies in The Town are freaking scary. The crew might have masks and automatic weapons, but the BPD and the FBI are all over them, and Charlestown is not a big place. There aren't a lot of highways to make your getaway. Affleck does a great job directing the lean and mean action sequences, which are all packed with tons of tension. I honestly could not predict what was going to happen in any of them. I had sweaty palms often. The R rating is also refreshing.

At the same time, the film is a lot about the people in Doug's life. Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) is his main partner in the crew who is a violent, loose cannon with an old friendship with Doug. Their good acting just makes you believe that these guys have known each other for years. Doug's relationship with Claire is a sweet one with her being a middle class girl who helps out at a Boys and Girls Club while he is a blue collar guy who works as a construction worker during the day and sometimes attends AA meetings at night. Their romance is adult and very enjoyable. There's also Krista who has a relationship with Doug in that they sometimes sleep together and she desperately wants to be with him for real. I have to say Blake Lively is an absolute shock in an incredible performance. At no point do you doubt that she is Boston born and bred. It's not just the eyeliner and the accent, it's the thing that actors do where they become the people they're playing. Like Amy Ryan in Gone Baby Gone, 23 year-old Blake Lively should break out beyond Gossip Girl and she has the acting chops to so. Subtle and nuanced. It's a small role, but one of the best female performances of the year. Also strong is Mad Men's Jon Hamm as the head Fed after Dougie's crew. He's a solid, intelligent character and its great to see Hamm show his stuff in a big movie.

The star though is Affleck. He gives a hard, masculine performance, really unlike things we've seen him do. It's been a many years since Pearl Harbor, he's got some gray in his hair, and he seems much more mature and confident as an actor. Maybe it's true that the best roles for male actors happen in their late 30s-40s. There's a scene with him and Pete Postlethwaite (wonderful in a small cameo) in a flower shop in the middle of the film where he has very little dialogue but is completely drawing us in with the anger brewing underneath his face. It's really some fine acting that in and of itself is worth watching the movie for. As for his directing, I was thinking it might be a little sloppy visually but working with Paul Thomas Anderson's cinematographer Robert Elswit, the movie is very well shot. It's set in Boston, yet feels different from Gone Baby Gone. More than that though, it is this great tone he gets throughout the movie. The heists are happening but the Feds are closing in. And as the movie went on, I got so invested in Doug and Claire and this crew, and the stakes grew so much more dangerous. I mean I was genuinely worried about what might happen to them.

It's just really good drama and that doesn't happen much these days with a lot of cartoons and comic book movies. The only thing that knocks it down a half star is that the ending feels a little too neat. I won't say anything beyond that. Affleck has made a very good film and not to mention he also co-wrote it. I knew the movie was about 2 hours long and I checked the clock on my cell phone and saw that there was only about 30 minutes left. And I thought, oh no, I don't want the movie to end.

The Office: My Top 5 Episodes

Season 7 of The Office premieres next Thursday. It's the last season with Steve Carell which is extemely sad. I’ve been watching a lot of the old seasons on DVD and Blu-ray and wanted to share my Top 5.


1. The Return (Season 3, ep 13) This is an odd one to put on the list, particularly at the top of the list, as it is Part 2 of a two part episode. The first part is The Traveling Salesman where it ends with Dwight quitting Dunder Mifflin because he doesn’t want to reveal his relationship with Angela. Still one of the creepiest relationships in TV history. This second part begins with him working at Staples and Oscar returning from his vacation which the company paid for because Michael outed him at the beginning of the season. “Kids, sometimes it pays to be gay.” Andy is going to new lengths to annoy Michael with his friendship and Jim and Pam exact their revenge by hiding his cell phone in the ceiling. Andy responds with moderation by slamming his fist into the wall. "I think we broke his brain." The episode is packed with huge laughs, mostly surrounding Oscar’s welcome back fiesta which includes Meredith and Kevin wearing fake mustaches and sombreros, Swanson’s chimichangas, and "Mexican lemonade". Ryan putting the tilde over the "n" in lemonade made me roar. I also think it’s one of the warmest episodes of The Office with that little montage showing Dwight taking care of the office after hours and Michael admitting to Dwight that he made a big mistake letting him go. Jim said it best. “I miss Dwight. Congratulations Universe, you win.” Second best is Phyllis. "Dwight had a big personality and I have a big personality. And a lot times when two people like that get together, it can be explosive."


2. Niagara (Season 6, ep 4) Jim and Pam tie the knot in a big episode that exceeded all expectations. From top to bottom hilarious. Pam’s F-you throwing up in front of Dwight, those cans exploding behind Michael’s car, Kevin liking Oscar’s thick Chicano hair, Dwight’s 3 wolf t-shirt, Jim pushing Pam off the phone “No, let’s talk for a long time”, and Andy tearing his scrotum at the real Bernard throwdown. The YouTube wedding dance was a masterstroke and I fell on the floor when Dwight kicked bridesmaid Isabel in the face. Oh man was that funny. The episode was also a real surprise story-wise as I was assuming an all out embarrassing wedding for Jim and Pam but instead they got to have their real, very sweet wedding by themselves at the bottom of Niagara Falls. The episode is a celebration not only of their romance but of the entire show.

My original review of the episode: http://rolandchang.blogspot.com/2009/10/office-niagara.html



3. Women’s Appreciation (Season 3, ep 22) Phyllis (seriously one of my favorite characters) gets flashed in the parking lot which leads to a day of women’s appreciation. Michael starts it with putting his finger through the opening in his pants and ends it with breaking up with Jan for many reasons, including shrunken chesticles and her sometimes ignoring their safe word. "Foliage". LOL! All of the scenes with Michael and the women of the office at the mall are very funny. Angela admits she sometimes shops at a doll store for clothes and later Michael offers to buy her a fresh set of underwear. The guys spend the day hanging out in the women's bathroom which has a couch, magazines, and where Creed goes #2 while listening to an old school Walkman. Dwight also goes on the hunt for the flasher. Pam helped him out with an artist’s rendering. “Pam!” Her talking head from this episode is still my all time favorite.

“I don't often miss Roy. But I can tell you one thing, I wish someone flashed me when I was with Roy. Because that would have been the ass kicking of the year. Especially if it had been Jim. (she realizes what she said) He would not have wanted me to see Jim's... whoo, I am saying a lot of things.”


4. A Benihana Christmas (Season 3, ep 10) Yet another great Season 3 episode. Carol the realtor dumps Michael after he photoshops his face into an old family photo. “…Michael’s a bold guy. Is bold the right word?” He then goes with Andy, Jim, and Dwight to Benihana (aka Asian Hooters) to cheer up. In the office, Karen and Pam start a rival Christmas party and any episode where Angela gets it in the face is a great one. Michael marks his new girlfriend’s arm because he can’t tell the Asian waitresses apart, Kevin sings Alanis Morissette’s Oughta Know, he also says a line I still always quote “Then why are there two flyers?”, and Dwight is recruited by the CIA via Pam. That last image of him in that orange cap hurling his cell phone off the roof is my sister’s favorite. “Then why are there two flyers!”

5. Money (Season 4, ep 4) Michael is out of money, spending it on “things no person ever needs” like professional bass fishing equipment and a Core Blaster Extreme. He gets a second job as a telemarketer but sadly his Indian co-worker Vikram outsells him every night. At the same time, Jim and Pam spend a romantic night at Schrute Farms in the Irrigation room with cousin Mose shoveling manure and Dwight moaning all night, heartbroken after his break up with Angela. This was part of a bunch of hour long episodes that started the fourth season that were really fun. Dwight’s massive depression still makes me laugh (that moment in the stairwell when he reaches his hand out to Jim) and Michael and Oscar’s meeting about finances is pretty genius. “Michael this is a presentation tool.” “You’re a presentation tool!”



Honorable Mentions: Casino Night (Season 2 Finale), Cafe Disco (Season 5, ep 25), and Murder (Season 6, ep 9) One of the most fun with the entire office in Southern character. The episode contains maybe the funniest scene in the history of the show. Yes it's Oscar's falsetto Southern accent, which I have watched over 100 times.

What are some of your favorites?

Weekly Recap 9/17/10

DVDs Watched this Week:
The Good: Robin Hood, Saidoweizu, Sideways, Broken Trail, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, King Arthur, Se7en, The King of Kong, The Office Season 1
The Bad: The Square, The Brothers Bloom, Frozen
The Ugly: None

Trips to the Theater: None

Actors of the Week: Thomas Haden Church, Rinko Kikuchi, Keira Knightley
Directors of the Week: Alexander Payne, Seth Gordon




TRAILERS/CLIPS of the Week:
Unstoppable. Doesn't look very promising. But I have to see any Tony Scott film in the theater.

Robin Hood

Robin Hood 3 stars Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood got a bad rap when it came out in May. “Gladiator 2”, Russell Crowe being too old to play Robin Hood, two Australian leads in this very English story. Some movies just get bad buzz right when they’re first announced. I think people were unfair. I should say up front that I am not a fan of Gladiator and I think that despite some strong action scenes, the movie is terribly overrated. I also didn’t like Ridley Scott’s other knight and sword movie Kingdom of Heaven despite how gorgeous that film looked. That was around 2005 when people thought Orlando Bloom could be a leading man. No. This is Ridley’s third trip around the historical action epic and although it’s not a great film, I think it’s the best of the three.

Robin Hood starts at the end of the Crusades. King Richard The Lionheart is on his way back home with his army of which Robin Longstride(Russell Crowe) is an archer with his friends Will Scarlett, Alan A’Dayle, and Little John. An opportunity arises and he decides to leave the army, disillusioned by the plundering and massacres committed in order to replenish England’s war chest. He takes up the name of a dead nobleman Robert Lockesley and heads toward Nottingham.

With these sorts of massive scale movies, what it really comes down to is how much do you care. For all of the battle scenes, do you care about the people in them and do you care about what’s going to happen next. The reason I like this one is that I cared a lot about what was going to happen next. King Richard’s brother Prince John is a glorious a—hole. A peacock of a King who taxes his people to death and demands their loyalty. From the minute he arrives on screen, we hate him, and I cared about seeing him get his cummupence. All of England began to hate him and I was looking forward to what they might do to fight back. Maid Marion played by the best actress in the world Cate Blanchett is herself struggling to make ends meet in Nothingham. The cocky cock Sheriff plagues her with even more taxes and plenty of sexual innuendos. I cared a great deal about what was going to happen to her. Her romance with Robin is nicely old fashioned, chaste, and sweet. And although he’s not a very deep character, Robin Longstride is an honorable man trying to find something to fight for. It’s strange that the 45 year-old Crowe would be so intrigued by a character that is more of a young man trying to find himself. It’s a bit thin if you ask me. Yet I cared about his story and what might happen when he and Prince John came head to head. Even if his subplot about his father is a freaking snore. I still credit the screenplay for getting me invested in all of the goings on. It’s basic foundational writing.

Sadly what I think held people back was the lack of payoff when it came to the more movie parts of the movie . The action scenes are not great. The high speed slow motion archery is cool but there’s not enough things like that in the movie. In particular, the final battle seems awfully small and pales in comparison to the size and scope of the siege at the end of Kingdom of Heaven. It’s France vs. England and it should the heavyweight championship but it's not. Also the movie is severely hampered by its PG-13 rating. It takes the bite out of the battles and they don’t seem very ferocious. Ultimately there just isn’t enough cool action. We’ve seen bows and arrows and swords too many times at this point. We need something fresh and new to impress. I also wish the editing was a bit smoother. I always think the editing in Ridley’s films is a bit choppy and lacks rhythm.

Also mediocre are most of the supporting characters. Robin’s friends are a forgettable bunch and the actors playing Will Scarlett and Little John aren’t even British. People will probably remember Kevin Durand as Keamy from Season 4 of Lost. He’s Canadian though and really just a big guy, not much else. It hurts the movie that they aren’t very strong actors and lack personalities that pop. Even William Hurt seems a bit lost in the surroundings. You would think in a 2 hours and 25 minute film there would be more time for character moments but surprisingly there aren’t.

England itself has never looked more sumptuous. The green forests are beautifully shot by cinematographer John Mathieson and we really do feel transported back into that time. It feels like a cold, hard place to try to live in and we sympathize for the people of England all the more. One thing consistent with Ridley Scott films is that they are always photographed magnificently. I’m not always crazy about his compositions or camera movements, but the lighting is always outstanding. Blade Runner, American Gangster, Alien. The man is a shooter to his core.

Again, it’s a good movie, not a great one. I personally think it’s worth it just to see Cate riding a horse in chainmail. Crowe is on a bit of a downslide lately and he really needs a hit. He’s one of the few alpha alpha leading men out there and he needs to find some strong material to show his stuff. If you want to see it, see it. If you don’t, don’t. I wanted to see it and I liked it, especially on stunning Blu-ray. And yet, embarrassingly enough, I still like the Kevin Costner one better. Bryan Adams is smiling somewhere right now.

10 more thoughts about Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

(SPOILERS. If you haven't watched, absolutely do not read)

1. Having read all 6 volumes of the graphic novels, a lot of the movie is taken straight from the books. Bryan Lee O'Malley really created something special and Edgar Wright was smart enough to stick with it. The dialogue, the production design, even the framing. When Ramona is waiting for Scott on their first date, the shot is exactly as it is in volume 1. Also I don't know if it was Mary Winstead's choice or the director's but her chin down eyes looking up makes her look so much like comic book Ramona. Go buy the books, they are so enjoyable.

All of the great dialogue comes from them:
"Scott if your life had a face I would punch it."

"I have to go pee due to boredom."
and of course...
"He punched the highlights out of her hair!"

2. I think it's some of the best use of titles and fonts and animated graphics in a movie. The lightning bolts flying out as the band plays. How come that's never been done before? The wooshes and TV Batman exclamations during the fight scenes. And of course so much with video games. Gideon's health meter, Scott's 1-Up extra life, the 64 hit combo, and whatever dance ninja game they're playing being called back at the end battle. BAD!! BAD!! BAD!! Every time "VS." came up on screen I got revved up. K.O.!

3. The editing is spectacular. Particularly the opening 15 minutes which cover so much ground in so little time. We get to know Scott, his world, and all of the large number of characters in 15 minutes. That's an accomplishment. Clever transitions are bountiful including wipes and split screens and hard sound cuts from day to night. Again, what a great idea that's never really been done before. At least not as stylishly as it is here. Most of all, the movie makes use of all of the creative tools digital editing allows. Nothing was not tried. I'm very envious.

3. Shots are not repeated. In a normal movie, say two characters are talking to one another, it's usually cutting back and forth between the same shots during their conversation. I looked closely on my repeated viewings and shots aren't repeated. Edgar Wright talked a lot about how the panels aren't repeated in the books so why would camera angles? One shot is followed by a completely different one even during the same scene. Do you know how painfully difficult this is to do? You have to setup a new shot almost after every sentence, sometimes after every word.

4. The soundtrack is incredible. I've been listening to it for a month now. When they blast into that amazing opening title sequence I was pumped. We are Sex Bob-omb! 1-2-3-4! And the Metric song "Black Sheep" sung by Envy and Clash at Demonhead is phenomenal. What a perfectly edited scene with those dueling split screens. A lot of movies have tried so hard to use indie rock but it always seems forced. Like the music and the movie are two separate things. Here the music fits into everything that is happening in the movie. Seamless. Also hilarious. Ramooo-naaa. Oh my my. Ramoooooonaaa. "Can't wait to hear when it's finished." "Finished?"

5. How come no one has commented on the 8-Bit Universal Studios logo? I was dying.

6. I want to visit to Toronto. It seems like a special place for artists like Austin is. The story's so specific to the city and it's the only time I haven't been annoyed by people ending their sentences with "ay". Maybe the first cool movie about Canada? Apparently it's possible.

7. Drummer Kim Pine is my favorite character. More so from the books but really, she's too cool. I mean, who can pull off wearing a track jacket with a skirt. Her backstory with Scott is that they dated in high school (after he defeated the boys from Benvie Tech) and they broke up when she found out he was moving away. They met up again after college and formed the band. And in the books she mostly dates Asian guys. Her exes include Jason Kim and Simon Lee. Alison Pill is actually a very serious dramatic actress. It was an inspired casting choice.

8. The only kind of iffy part of the movie to me is the section with Todd and his Vegan powers. It's right there in book 3 but it's still pretty odd. The Vegan Police showing up and high-fiving feels like a different movie. And if you noticed, those guys are the only 2 adults in the entire film.

9. Could the battle between the Katayanagi Twins and Sex Bob-Omb have been any cooler? "They tore the roof off!" And I felt like jumping up from my seat when that gorilla monster came out to fight the twin dragons. I want to learn the bass and rock out like Scott Pilgrim.

10. Knives Chau. What an awesome name.


My original review http://rolandchang.blogspot.com/2010/08/scott-pilgrim-vs-world.html

Weekly Recap 9/10/10

DVDs Watched this Week:
The Good: Solitary Man, L'Appartemente, Mystery Train, Gross Pointe Blank, WhipIt, Road to Perdition, The Office Seasons 2-6

The Bad: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Snow Falling on Cedars

The Ugly: None

Trips to the Theater: Animal Kingdom

Actors of the Week: Youki Kudoh, Michael Douglas, Jacki Weaver
Directors of the Week: Drew Barrymore, George Armitage

TRAILERS/CLIPS of the Week:
I'm Still Here. Yikes.

Animal Kingdom

3 ½ stars The Australian film industry has produced an obscene amount of great actors. Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts, Geoffrey Rush, Heath Ledger, Eric Bana, the list goes on and on. The good directors like Peter Weir, George Miller, and Baz Luhrmann come over here as well, but honestly I can't think of a lot of great purely homegrown Australian films. Babe, Shine, and of course the Mad Max movies. I've seen a few ones that you've never heard of like Tenderness, The Hard Word, and Little Fish but none have stood out. I didn't even like The Proposition.

However, I have a feeling that things are changing and Animal Kingdom is a big step forward. It won the Jury Prize at Sundance last year. It's not a gangster film, it's not a cop movie, it's not even a thriller. It's a brooding drama about a small war between a family of criminals and the Melbourne police. They aren't a big family, they're not the Corleones. They're not even the Sopranos. They seem pretty middle class. Their houses are average and they're not driving around in nice cars.

The strange thing is we never get to see them in their prime, committing crimes. The movie begins right in the thick of things, with high school Joshua "J" Cody moving into one of their homes as his mother has just died of a heroine overdose. She was an outcast sister who wanted nothing to do with the family business. He has nowhere else to go and now he gets to spend time with his four uncles who sell drugs and specialize in armed robbery. The movie nicely is not about the thrill of the heist or about how fun it is to be a criminal. It's very truthful about the doom and dread they live under every day as the cops are all over them. The police aren't messing around and oddly enough, they are the scary people in the movie. They constantly have their foot on the family's throat, tailing them, surveilling them, and at times completely crossing the line of the law in order to get results. The Cody family is under siege and coming apart at the seams.

The family is made up of good actors like Joel Edgerton(King Arthur) and Ben Mendelsohn(Australia) who is surprisingly fearsome as the weak chinned eldest son. But the matriarch and freaking star of the movie is 63 year-old Jacki Weaver. Janine Cody isn't necessarily the head of the family but she gave birth to these men and she definitely has her say. She also has a bizarre oedipal relationship with them that is just noticeable enough to be disturbing. She's sweet and kind and sharp and cunning. She doesn't mind that her boys snort cocaine in front of her as long as everyone's having a good time. It's a knockout performance that stays in your head. The whole movie stuck in my head for a couple days afterward. It's not particularly well shot or edited but there is a palpable unsettling feeling of dread that permeates the entire film. There are also a couple scenes of serious suspense that made me want to cover my eyes. The movie really got under my skin. You want to do bad things for a living, then there are people who are going to come after you.

Guy Pearce is the head investigator Senior Sgt. Leckie and with that big mustache and even keeled way, he is seemingly a regular guy. But he's out for the hunt. Guy Pearce has always been one of those chameleon actors like Gary Oldman who slip in and out of roles. The Count of Monte Cristo, Memento, L.A. Confidential. It's great to hear him in his native accent giving a fine speech about the weak and the strong. The actual lead of the movie is J played by newcomer James Frecheville. J is not very bright, but not stupid either. He's a high school kid caught up in this mess. He's not weak or strong. He's in the middle of everything. It's a very interesting point of view to set the movie in. He doesn't want to be around them but he has nowhere else to go. And the collateral damage around him is costly.

The movie is not an action movie, it's a drama. It doesn't have car chases or shootouts, although the moments of violence are sudden and shocking. Like violence probably really is. I kept thinking about Shakespeare, not so much in the language but more in the concept of this family internally unraveling into tragedy. Can they trust each other? What will they do to save themselves? Who will survive? Who can survive? Animal Kingdom really is a perfect title.

It's gone from the theaters by now, but I hope you check it out on Blu-ray or DVD. It was a satisfying Labor Day at the movies. And please check out the great trailer. Air Supply was never so cool.

Sept 2010 Reviews 1 (Prince of Persia)

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time 2 stars Swords and sand once again put me to sleep. I had some hopes for Prince of Persia. The director Mike Newell has directed some great films including Four Weddings and a Funeral, Donnie Brasco, and my favorite Harry Potter movie The Goblet of Fire. That was in my top 10 of the decade.

It's all for nothing as Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is mediocre through and through. A surprisingly unexciting adventure that takes itself way too seriously with royal family infighting and a plot to takeover the throne of Persia. The biggest and most glaring mistake is the choice to make the Persians and apparently anyone from the Middle East in this movie British. I'm not kidding. Everyone is speaking in English accents, sometimes in what sounds like working class South London accents. Who made this choice? It's terrible. The actors themselves are all English too. Ben Kingsley, Alfred Molina, Gemma Arterton(talk about an English name), Toby Kebbell from RocknRolla, it feels like the whole cast is from the UK. The only non-Brit in the main cast is LA born Jake Gyllenhaal. It's so bad it's completely distracting and at no point did I feel like I was back in that time period. I felt like I was watching some big budget stage production made by the BBC.

For all of the money put into this ($200 million), the movie looks surprisingly low rent. The effects are poor and there's really no excuse for it. Even the shifts back in time seem so stiff and unreal. It's all unreal. The whole thing is such a bland costume epic. Horses and robes and lots of eyeliner for the men. The action is not good, mostly because of severely bad editing and for all of the press about free running in the film, it's all shown in cheap slow motion so it doesn't seem exciting, it just seems fake. I could almost see the wires attached to Prince Dastan's clothes. Jake Gyllenhaal is one of my favorite actors and he really tries hard in a underwritten role, with nothing good to say or do. He escapes embarrassment by just being a good actor. No other performance sticks out in the least. No other character does either. Gemma Arterton(Quantum of Solace) is underwhelming as the Princess and I don't really understand why she was cast. You need someone more exotic and frankly more beautiful. Their romance is okay, nothing special.

Bruckheimer wanted this to replace the Pirates series but it doesn't come close. There's little to no humor in the movie and very little charm. And I'm so f--king tired of clanging swords and men riding on horses. It's been done to death. Resurrected and then killed again. And of course the dialogue is unbearable. Thankfully most people agreed as it detonated at the box office this May. I think I might just skip this genre from now on. This had potential of being the first good movie based on a video game. It isn't and that feat has still never been achieved yet. And no, those awful Resident Evil movies don't count. I'd rather watch Aladdin again.


The Girl Who Played with Fire 3 stars Not as good as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo but that one is one of the best of the year. The second in the Millennium series follows Lisbeth Salander as she comes back to Sweden after a few trips in hiding to different countries, and much like The Bourne Supremacy, she comes back to find that she’s been accused of murder and is being hunted down. Mikael Blomkvist is now back as Editor of Millennium and he uses what means he can to help prove her innocence. The weakness of this sequel is the fact that Lisbeth and Mikael are separated for the entire film. The best part of that first movie was these two polar opposite characters joining together to solve a mystery. Him a middle-aged newspaper man. She a lesbian punk goddess with double nose rings and that dragon tattoo on her back. In this one, they're separately solving a mystery and it’s not as much fun. The mystery/case is unfortunately not as compelling as the one involving the Vanger family and I think a large reason is because of the director change from Niels Arden Oplev to Daniel Alfredson who directed this and the final movie The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. He’s not as stylish as Oplev and the movie lacks the visual beauty of the first. Still it’s a good movie that holds interest and any time spent with Lisbeth Salander is good time. I can’t wait for Fincher’s version. And I have to say it again, I hate the Swedish language. The Swedish Chef from the Muppets wasn't too far off. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo


Harry Brown 3 stars Sort of a British Gran Torino. Instead of Chinese gangbangers we get hardcore London cockney kids terrorizing old people in the neighborhood. Caine’s last friend is murdered by this gang and he lets loose on them. He’s a somewhat frail old army man who doesn’t talk about his experiences in the war, but he knows how to hold a knife. Caine is great in the role (of course) and the basic concept still works so well. We’re all scared of the hood. So a chance to strike back at those who scare us is bloody wish fulfillment. A torture scene with plastic cords being whipped on a guy’s thighs is particularly satisfying. The movie is just a genre piece though and isn’t necessarily deep or even that emotional. It’s a Charles Bronson movie with good actors like Caine and Emily Mortimer(Shutter Island). Be warned though, things get pretty intense and violent. Maybe that’s a good thing.




The Art of the Steal 3 stars Albert Barnes was a Philadelphia millionaire who started purchasing impressionist art around 1910. By the time he died, his collection was estimated at about $25 billion. Not million, billion. He hated museums, hated the Philadelphia elite, and he chose to house his paintings at the Barnes Foundation away from downtown. It was a small, private building, meant only for students to see. It wasn’t really open to the public. He never even wanted the paintings to be loaned out. The movie chronicles the years after he died where the control of this collection was fought over fiercely. Who is in charge, what they can do, and what the city ultimately did. The movie is about the art, but it is a lot about the fascinating ways people with power wielded their power with money and influence in hopes to gain control of this collection. It is a documentary with an agenda but it is utterly compelling and I think a great glimpse into city politics. Btw, I love impressionist paintings. Seurat, Cezanne, Van Gogh. That is my favorite period of art. Whenever I see Seurat’s La Grande Jatte at the Art Institute I always get the chills. I know and feel for what the movie is trying to say, but I still want to see these paintings with my own eyes.



Ghostbusters/Ghostbusters II 3 ½ stars I’m very happy these movies have not been remade but I have to say, they are ripe to be remade. The concept is so great. Dan Aykroyd came up with the idea in the early 80s and co-writer Harold Ramis and director Ivan Reitman found a way to combine the hardware and special effects of a sci-fi action movie with the incredible dry humor of Bill Murray. The movies are filled with hysterical lines from him. He really is one of the great comedy minds ever. My favorites include:

“You're gonna endanger us, you're gonna endanger our client. The nice lady who paid us in advance, before she became a dog.”

"Kitten, I think what I'm saying is that sometimes, s--t happens, someone has to deal with it, and who ya gonna call?”

His comments and asides make the movie for me. He also has great chemistry with Second City alumni Dan Aykroyd and the hilariously stiff Harold Ramis as Egon Spengler. Not to mention Sigourney Weaver who pops up as a love interest who becomes that demon dog Zuul. I forgot how sexy she was. And I really like Ernie Hudson as Winston Zedemore. He’s the average guy who just wants a steady paycheck. These aren’t action movies, they’re comedies that happen to have ghosts and spirits and big baddie Gozer who looks like Prince combined with Denise from The Cosby Show. They also have great gear, like the killer Proton Packs and Ecto-1 that looks like a huge hearse. I hadn’t seen either of the movies in years and I’m very glad I watched them again. Every ghost capture is so freaking great, when they lasso the ghost and suck him into the ghost trap. Still cool. I kind of hope they make #3, but only if they get the entire original cast. I think we forget how big Ghostbusters was back in 1984. That Ray Parker Jr. song was huge. Who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters!

Weekly Recap 9/3/10

DVDs Watched this Week:
The Good: The Girl Who Played with Fire, Harry Brown, The Art of the Steal, Star Trek, Funny People, Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters 2, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Paper, In Treatment Seasons 1-2
The Bad: Hot Fuzz, Cemetery Junction, Shaun of the Dead, Dan in Real Life
The Ugly: None

Trips to the Theater: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (3rd and 4th time)

Actors of the Week: Alison Pill, Mia Wasikowska, Bill Murray
Directors of the Week: Ivan Reitman, the directors of In Treatment



TRAILERS/CLIPS of the Week:
Mesrine: Public Enemy #1

How Many Times

How many times did you see it in the theater? Going to see a movie in the theater again either means your friends are dragging you or you really love the movie and maybe you're dragging them. I've gotten good at taking in a movie and remembering it very well after one viewing and I noticed I haven't been doing many repeat trips lately. However, in light of a recent addition to the 4x category, I wanted to explain.


2x. Movies I really like and admire the filmmaking. First time is just experiencing the movie. The second time is seeing what the director did. It also helps if they're not too long. I saw each of the LOTR movies only once in the theater.

3x. Mostly movies that are just a lot of fun/enjoyable to watch again. I notice that not many on this list are very deep.
Mission:Impossible
Titanic
The Matrix
Star Wars Ep 1: The Phantom Menace
Ocean's Eleven
Rush Hour 2
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Departed
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

4x. Love and admiration. And admittedly a little overboard. Usually I am the one taking friends to see it on trips 3 and 4. These movies mean a lot to me.
Moulin Rouge
Kill Bill Vol. 1
Before Sunset
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

5x. Too much.
Dumb and Dumber
This still has the top prize for most trips to the theater for no good reason. Why! But here are some reasons...
1st time - Wanted to go
2nd time - Can't remember
3rd time - Went with two guys and this was their movie. We laughed hard the whole time. Including the trailer for Billy Madison that played before it
4th time - Tried to recreate the 3rd experience. Did not
5th time - Dragged by youth group who wanted to see it at Morton Grove Theater for $1.75

10x. Insane and angry.
The trailer for The Bourne Identity
It was attached to everything that year. I couldn't escape it. I remember at one point it started, I got up from my seat, walked out of the theater, and came back after it was done.


Share some of your records!