Public Frenemies

I found this film fascinating and boring. Riveting and droll. So much of it was contradictory that I could never really get into it. It's a shame that my experience was immediately ruined by the HD look of the film, but it was. I'm used to my gangster movies glamorizing the titular character and portraying him exactly how the audience is supposed to feel about him. Of course, movies today are much more complicated than the rise and fall of Edward G. Robinson in Little Caesar but the look of the film attempted to make it feel contemporary as if these people could be living among us. Michael Mann makes a bold choice here but not one I would make. If you are going to make a movie about the C.I.A. versus the gangsters of yesteryear, make it the ultimate gangster movie about these "enemies." Have the ultimate Heat-like cat and mouse game that you are so well known for. Instead, we get only one real showdown between Bale and Depp (though riveting it may be). The rest of the time we attempt to get insight into the minds of both Purvis and Dillinger as well as the relationship of Dillinger and Billie and come up empty handed.

The beginning especially bored me. After being thrown off by the image I found the first couple of bank robberies underwhelming. Perhaps the lack of suspense in these banks was meant to show how easy it was to be a bank robber back then. Either way, there was no thrill to watching these men rob these banks and then supposedly act like heroes for the rest of the country. Depp is customarily smug in his role and is never asked to stray too far away from what he knows. And I'm glad Bale didn't feel the need to overdo it in a movie that requires little of him as well. No matter what he does, I will always be a Christian Bale fan. Billy Crudup is hilarious as J. Edgar and provided some lift to the movie upon his appearance.

The movie finally shifts into gear towards the middle at which point I realize that I only care for the action sequences in the film. If this is the fault of it being a gangster movie or the fault of the film itself I don't know. The shootout in the forest was awesome as was the climactic moment when Dillinger gets shot. My main fault with the film is the relationship between Dillinger and Billie, which the movie kind of hinged upon. Depp and Cotillard (when I could understand her) had no chemistry and then their relationship is so thinly drawn that when dude goes to visit her in prison after Dillinger dies I contemplated walking out because I didn't care. Everything about this film pushes me away at an emotional level and then tries to pull me back in with the way it looks and is shot. Another contradiction.

Grade: C+

2009 Marlon Welles Awards Nominee:

Best "Best Moment of the Film": Dillinger takes a stroll through the office assigned to him

Summer So Far

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

The formula that I determined from Iron Man for a good superhero movie was a balance of good story with good action sequences. Because after all, the only thing people want from summer movies is mindless entertainment. Wolverine, in this case, succeeds completely in the mindless department. The first thing I thought about when I walked out of the theater was how bad I felt for Gavin Hood. After really touching me with the conventional yet still emotionally resonant Tsotsi, he proceeded to completely ruin his career with his Hollywood fare so far.

This film was poorly written, poorly executed and actually bored me at times. Deadpool was woefully underused as was Sabretooth. Hugh Jackman did his part but when the screenplay is so terrible to begin with, there is no way to recover. That final battle sequence looked contrived and bored me to death. Admittedly, my expectations were terrible which, coupled with my relative indifference for the first three movies, made my experience with this movie all the more miserable. I was pretty much just looking for all of the film's flaws unfortunately. And boy did the film deliver in that department.

Grade: D

2009 Marlon Welles Awards Nominee:

Most Ridiculous Moment: Boy Wolverine's dramatic(?) "NOOOO!"


Star Trek

I mean, there is very little I can say about this movie. It made me a fan of the show. I'm actually planning on revisiting the original tv show just to make the film all the more enjoyable. However, I must admit: I wasn't blown away. I saw it opening night in IMAX and enjoyed myself but thought it was only light fare. Which really confuses me. Have my summer expectations been so hardened by the nihilistic stylings of The Dark Knight? Perhaps. More realistically, I think the lack of eminent danger was the real deal breaker for me. I never really got a sense that the characters were ever in danger. This coupled with the failure of the villain as anything more than an angry, funny running man prevented the film from being truly great for me. However, the film is still good fun and reaffirms my belief that J.J. Abrams can do no wrong.

Grade: B+

2009 Marlon Welles Awards Nominee:

Best Scene Stealer: Simon Pegg's take on Scotty
Best Trailer
Best "Best Moment of the Film": The action sequence with Kirk and Sulu stopping the laser is incredible in IMAX.

Terminator: Salvation

I don't really agree with the critics on this one. I've been trying my best to avoid all critic's opinions of a movie until I see it this summer. When I went to Rotten Tomatoes to check on the score for this film, I was expecting a 60%, maybe 50. However, a 33%? Worse than Angels and Demons? Nay I say.

Sure the script is treacherous at the end. There are many cheesy parts but I think this was loads better than T3 even with the digitally altered Arny making an appearance. To be honest, the week preceding my viewing of this film included seeing T2 and T3 in their entirety for the first time. For the sake of avoiding another entry, Terminator 2 is probably the best action movie I have ever seen. Such depth and dense themes coupled with absolute fantastic action sequences equals brilliance.

Knowing this, Salvation obviously comes short. However, I like the idea of a brand new Terminator franchise. Essentially, the film would do better to avoid the label of Terminator since it is fundamentally a different movie. The weathered and drab look of the film is fantastic as well as the acting. I don't care what people say about Christian Bale, the script didn't ask for a dynamic and marvelous performance so Bale gave what he gives best: intensity. Overall, the ending really sucked but I enjoyed most parts of the film and I look forward to seeing the next film in the franchise. On a side note, movies Salvation reminded me of: the giant machines=War of the Worlds, the tiny arm machines=Transformers, the scene in the white room at Skynet=Mission Impossible.

Grade: B-

2009 Marlon Welles Awards Nominee:

Most Surprising Moment: You're gonna kill John Connor? Oh right.
Most Ridiculous Moment: "Tell them I'll be back."
Best Trailer

Top 10 Characters in Cinema History

I've noticed this particular topic floating around the blog-o-sphere (I'm still figuring this stuff out) but I think it's pretty cool to reflect on my favorite characters for one of my first posts. I think this is quite difficult but not because of the many characters I can think of. Usually, a movie can be broadly placed into categories of plot driven and character driven films for myself and thus, my favorites tend to be the plot driven ones. However, as evidenced by my current picture, I do have an affinity for a character or two. I'm going to list them as I think of them so don't take the order too seriously.

My 10 Favorite Movie Characters

Harry Lime
I recently watched what now is securely in my top 5 movies of all time and the scene where we first see Harry Lime's face is still of one of the most epic and significant looks I've ever experienced. Me being one obsessed with the music that accompanies any movie, the zither that plays right when Joseph Cotten sees the care free Welles (at his devilishly best) basically raises my emotions with each twinge of those strings and solidifies his perfect casting in the film.

I'm reminded also of Peter Bogdonavich's statement about how Harry Lime is the perfect type of showy character. Despite not being in the movie for the first half, everyone talks about him and the audience walks out of the theater talking only about the guy who played Harry Lime despite not seeing him much. It sounds better on the DVD introduction I promise.

Colonel Walter E. Kurtz

Now for the other part of my fictional person Marlon Welles (see URL), this movie still remains a complete mystery in my mind about its significance (thus making it one of my favorites) but Brando does such a fantastic job of epitomizing the shit hole that Martin Sheen has stumbled upon that Kurtz deserves to be on this list.

Generally, I group Orson Welles and Marlon Brando together based on their explosion onto the movie scene and their seeming disappearance and disgrace from stardom later in their careers. Both were ahead of their time and, after a brief revival later in their careers, could not survive in the money making machine that is Hollywood due to their unruly attitudes and, in my opinion, profound genius that no one else could understand (grant it, showing up to an already troubled movie set overweight and with a shaved head may not have been a good idea; especially when you have to face off against Francis Ford Coppola). In any case, true genius is never understood until it is too late and also comes as a result of wild card decisions.

Jules Winnfield

I really have nothing to say about Samuel L. I'm still envisioning a scenario where he would have portrayed Dumbledore on screen in the Harry Potter movies. I mean, how awesome would that be? "I'm Albus L. Dumbledore! Wingardium leviosa motha fucka!!!"

note: No word yet on why the most powerful wizard in the world is only trying to lift someone up.





Detective Barton Keyes from Double Indemnity

Boy can Edward G. Robinson throw out a line. I'm still in the process of discovering the amazingness of Robinson in multiple gangster movies but it is his role in this staple of film noir where I always remember his lack of a light for his cigarettes. I always find that people have trouble accepting film noir because of how dark they can be and how there is no one to root for. In this one though, anyone can root for Detective Keyes if Fred MacMurray or Barabara Stanwyk is not their cup of tea. Simply put, I love this character and Eddie G. in general (I hope no one ever discovers these nicknames and gets mad. That's just how I pretend to be friends with these people).



Harry Powell from The Night of the Hunter

I'm still recovering from the shock of this film. I watched another Mitchum film about two weeks after seeing this and was terrified any second that he would snap out of his hero role and hunt someone down for money. I guess it doesn't help that I saw this movie alone, at 1AM and that I happened to be expecting a fun movie about children. Damn me and my lack of research before seeing a movie. I have to stop typing now because his eyes are creeping me out to the left of this.





Daniel Plainview
No, seriously, Robert Mitchum is creepy. Though this is very recent, my friends and I have already sufficiently tried to immitate him much more than most movie characters (except Albus L. Dumbledore of course). The genuine lengths that Daniel Day disappears into this role is impressive in itself but then you add to it the depth of Paul Thomas Anderson's visually and emotionally stunning film and you have something quite unique (aided of course by Johnny Greenwoood's haunting score). I really could go on and on about this movie but "there's an ocean of oil" to explore further.

Note: I realize that made no sense whatsoever.




Norma Desmond

I really am not doing justice to the female characters of cinema and Norma Desmond really is quite creepy and memorable. The epitome of the femme fatale, it's amazing just how far Gloria Swanson takes this character to almost complete caricature but then manages to bring her back to life in several key scenes of the movie. I laugh and cringe every time she lifts up her cigarette holder to her mouth and manage to further scare myself into submition every time she opens her eyes wide and intimidates even every living soul in that room. Man is that picture creepy or what!






Ferris Bueller

An inspiration. A reason to lament the career of Matthew Broderick. And just pure fun. Nobody can ever replicate the ease to which Ferris strolls about town, knows everyone, lightly brushes away the love everyone throws at him and simply lives the dream all of us wish we could have.
Simply put, he's a righteous dude.

Patrick Bateman from American Psycho

These last few are getting quite tough. I'm tempted to levitate towards a Role Models reference or perhaps a Dr. Strangelove cameo but really nothing gets better than an axe wielding chainsaw throwing psychopath. Simply put, every second of screen time that Christian Bale shreds is just all that more extreme and all the more vexing in the grand scheme of this bizarre film. No matter how many cinematographers he gets mad at, I will forever covet this character. I have to go return some videotapes now.

Ron Burgundy

I quite realize that these just get sillier as we go along but this is one of my favorite movies to just watch any time of day or year. I can quote perhaps every good line from this film (which is quite impressive since I HATE quoting movies, mostly because I'm bad at remembering things). What makes Ron Burgundy even greater is just how much funnier he seems now then four years ago. Perhaps like milk, he gets better with time. Wait, what? Milk was a bad choice!



Now that effectively took away an hour from my life. I think I'll just limit one post per day from now on. I would force five other bloggers to do this but I don't really know anyone else. I like this list. Let's stick with it.