Not to say that there aren't a couple of exciting things on the upcoming film slate: Gamer doesn't look to break any new ground, but it does follow a proud tradition of “Death Row Inmates in Game Shows” genre films including Running Man, The Condemned, and Death Race. I'm beginning to think this genre exists not as a cynical observation of our society by the film industry, but as advertising for a pretty cool idea.
The Tim Burton produced '9' could be fun as well, though Tim's films always feel a little flat to me, more style over substance. Still, they tend to be different enough that they still end up earning my matinee dollars. Aside from this, the summer ends with a decided whimper. Halloween 2 looks okay, but after the crap-fest of the first one, I think I'll pass.
Nothing really gets my pulse racing until October's first weekend, when A Serious Man is released. The Coen brothers are two of my favorites, and very consistent filmmakers, with a few exceptions. The premise is another of those that sounds meandering and plain, but the film benefits from one of the coolest trailers ever. Its got my money at least once. In fact, with that, The Road, and Where the Wild Things Are, October looks to be a good month. September, why you gotta suck?
Its a good month to go back through your DVD watch piles, or maybe finish up a video game or two.
In the meantime, here's what I took in this week:
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
A title with not one but two words, neither of which are recognized by my spell-check. Neat.
I'd like to say 'if you like QT movies, you know you'll like this one', but Tarantino's style has changed quite a bit in recent years. Not that he's even really directed that many movies, mind you. Tarantino had directed, in their entirety, seven movies. I know, only seven? And that's counting Kill Bill as two films. His name seems to get around a lot, mostly from producing shows, or directing segments in other films, like Four Room and Sin City.
Though considering Reservoir Dogs was his first feature, that's a hell of a track record. With the exception of perhaps Death Proof (part of Grindhouse), all of his films are critical and commercial successes, and Death Proof does has its fans.
The split comes between Jackie Brown and Kill Bill. I think I'll forever regard Kill Bill as QT's transition movie. Initially, everything Tarantino did had a huge amount of energy to it. Sure, he had a lot of dialogue and establishing shots and the niche music, all those elements were there and lingered on briefly, but there was action and violence in everything he touched. Every second of it. Even the films he helped produce, like Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn was a frenzy of boobs and blood.
Kill Bill was the turning point. Given his dynamite track record, the studios let QT do whatever he wanted with his film, and what came out of it was this tremendous, self-indulgent film, so long it was split in two, that somehow also ended up as a tremendous piece of action cinema. But while Kill Bill 1 seemed true to form, Kill Bill 2, and the two movies when taken as a whole, mark the change. The energy is gone. The tone shifts from constant, frantic energy to slow building tension, a stronger focus on dialogue and mood.
If Kill Bill 2's drastic change in pace from its predecessor wasn't proof enough, one only has to look to Death Proof, an almost painfully slow-moving film that, despite the premise of the Grindhouse label, refuses to not develop all of its characters into three dimensional beings through tremendous blocks of coffee-shop banter. The end of the film is a marvel to behold. I'm not a fan of the tedium of the character intros. But it does showcase QT's new meticulous brand of characterization, and a type of shot-building lifted from old European maestros.
This style is maintained in Inglorious Basterds. (You see how long this review's intro was? Now that's a parallel!) The movie consists of five chapters, each one building towards an explosive conclusion. If the ending of the movie is dynamite, then each scene is the slow sizzle of a spark down the fuse. Tension mounts and mounts and mounts in every moment. I can't help but feel that some people will miss it.
This isn't like Tarantino's old work. This is no Pulp Fiction. I can't help but think that many of his fans are looking for another frenetic rush of drugs and guns or samurai action like the old days. But take chapter one, for example. A farmer in the fields of Nazi-occupied France. A small troop of Nazi soldiers comes to his door. His daughters run inside, worried. The man himself obviously wears worry on his brow, but plays it cool. The Nazi commander comes to the man, greets him casually, and takes him inside and...they talk. For a solid twenty minutes, it seems, they talk. They smoke pipes. They drink milk. Each of the farmer's three daughters are introduced individually, and talked about. Then several Jewish families from the area are talked about in great detail. Hell, its halfway through this scene before the first laugh is even given to the audience.
There will be many who miss the tension in this scene until it slaps them in the face. Many will miss the nuance of the performers' expressions, and the circular patterns in the dialogue that broadcast from so far away what is going to happen in this scene. Is there a Jewish family hidden under the floor? Yes. And the only way this scene can end is explosively. But there's no movement, there's no action, there's no Basterds. Really, this movie could have been called Inglourious Guys Who Are In About Half the Movie.
But is it a little bit genius? Oh hell yes. For those with a bit of patience, this slow-burning fuse culminates in a fury of blood, fire, and violence. The audience will laugh, and wince, and have reason to cheer, but so much focus in placed on the mounting tension of dialogue... I don't want to say its over peoples' heads, but I don't think its what they expect. Still, its a damn good movie, and it will take you by surprise, especially in that aforementioned climax.
As fun as he is in this movie, Brad Pitt is not the star, at least not for me. A standing ovation for Christoph Waltz, who plays Hans Landa, probably my favorite villain of the year. At various points in this film, Landa is suave, sinister, hilarious, and genius. His dialogue is insidious and delivered perfectly in four languages, and in all those scenes where the coals are lit for a slow burn, it is almost always Landa who ignites them. There isn't a single scene this man doesn't steal, and I hope to see Waltz in many more films.
Solid work from Tarantino all around. I do find myself hoping he doesn't indulge so far as to make more Death Proofs though. There is a line that can be crossed.
FRIGHTENERS (1996)
District 9 inspired me to go back and watch the Director's cut of this film. I'm glad to have that cut of the movie to get all the cut scenes and stories behind them... but this version is weaker than the theatrical. More time used getting to know secondary ghost characters really did deserve to end up on the cutting room floor.
Still, its a fun movie overall, worth checking out if you haven't. As much as I enjoyed its mix of horror and humor (very similar to District 9 in respect to tone, if you did enjoy that one) something has always been missing from this film, something that made it seem just a little off. I wasn't inspired to buy it until I got it for $5 if that tells you anything. Listening to commentary, it seems that, aside from tremendous cuts made by the MPAA censorship board, the film also suffered from its time-frame. The studio wanted it done fast, and Jackson didn't want to lose that studio cash, so the movie wasn't even written when it was being filmed.
Its makes me wonder how often that happens in Hollywood. Every day, Jackson and his wife would write, and review the script, and have the cast and crew help them add jokes and find continuity errors that they had to fill.
Somehow, the film came out okay, something worthy of a good Halloween romp that's a little funny, and a little scary. Historic, in film terms, as this is the film that launched WETA, and gave Jackson the green-light to make the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Michael J Fox and Jeffery Combs are both great in this one, to boot.
I miss Fox being on screen. I'm watching some Family Ties after this...
FIST OF THE NORTH STAR (1984) (TV)
At long last, I'm getting around to watching the complete animated epic from which one of my favorite anime features is drawn. Thank you Hulu.com for hosting the entire series, completely free. Their anime selection is growing nicely, if you need to go get a fix.
This series is 25 years old (27 if you count the manga), an amazing fact. Its still going in Japan, as far as side stories being written and animated. You know you've hit the jackpot, creatively, when you've made a character that can walk through the desert doing the same thing every week for 25 years, and people never seem to get tired of watching him do it. I know I don't. Buronson, the author, has basically had one story to tell, and told it a thousand times over, and in doing so has made a living and a legacy for himself.
As if that wasn't crazy enough, its based on Mad Max with Chinese philosophy added for seasoning. Based on someone else's creation? Buronson, you mad genius. As it so happens, I love Mad Max too, so I guess that's part of the attraction.
For those who aren't aware of this masterpiece, it takes place in Post-Apocalyptic Earth, where guns and most advanced weapons are a thing of the past, and the fist is now the strongest weapon. A martial artist, Kenshiro, wanders the land in search of his kidnapped fiancee, Yuria, while trying to restore peace with his deadly Kung-Fu. The gimmick? His martial art uses pressure points to blow peoples' heads apart, amongst other grisly abilities.
More recent renditions of this tale have shown Buronson to be more interested now in the philosophical points brought about by a blasted-hearth landscape, and the notion of healing the world through violence. There's depth to it. This original series is, so far (I'm at episode 37) distinctly lacking that. Ken wanders around from place to place, nigh invincible, beating the shit out of everything remotely evil. And there's plenty of evil to go around. Rape-happy biker punks seem to out-number normal people 100-1, and no matter how many Ken slaughters, there are always more to go around. Some of them havThe '86 movie e razor-blade mohawks or other such bizarre fighting techniques. And of course, all of this is set to an awesome 80's funk orchestra.
Its a lot of fun to watch, I dig post-apocalypse stories anyway, but it makes me wish there were a 'perfect' version of this story. The series is full of completely cheesy moments and a lot of meandering story arcs. is incredible, except for the completely crappy ending, a typical anime fault of coming out before the comic series was complete, and not wanting to give away the ending. New versions of the story are pretty decent, but lacking in the frenzied pace and visual creativity of the original.
All of the versions are worth watching for something (except for the terrible US live action version. Chris Penn, really?), so I guess you just have to watch all of its forms and pick the story elements you like from each and mix them together. In my head, I've compiled a truly awesome epic.
SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS (1941)
I wish I could say more about this movie. Its old. Its charming.
Sullivan, a director, wants to make a drama about the plight of depression era suffering. He poses as a homeless man, travels about, and in an odd twist, gets arrested for assaulting a rail-worker with a rock. Along the way, there's a comedy of errors, and a love story.
Its about what you would expect, but that's by no means bad. There's a lot of great dialogue delivered at break-neck pace, as was the style of the time, and a lot of optimistic naivety that is pretty endearing. If nothing else, Veronica Lake is pretty much adorable as The Girl.
Its just cute. If you like old-timey movies, its a good pick-up, though it can't come close to the with or romance of classics like Philadelphia Story
Two hour of my life widdled away writing all of this, but yours is now more enriched for it. Go find these flicks and benefit yourself further.
No comments:
Post a Comment