December 2007

God That’s Good!

  • Title: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
  • IMDb: link

“There’s a whole in the world like a great black pit, and the vermin of the world inhabit it, and its morals aren’t worth what a pin can spit, and it goes by the name of London.”

sweeney-todd-poster

When I heard Tim Burton was set to direct Sweeney Todd my initial response was to expect a great looking but overproduced and underwhelming film (like say Sleepy Hollow).  I was dead wrong.  In another director’s hands the bloody tale would have been cut, trimmed, and made to look nice enough to earn a PG-13 rating.  Burton however embraced the story of vengeance and loss and gives us a Sweeney Todd worthy of the name.  How good is Sweeney Todd? It’s arguably Tim Burton’s best film.

For those unfamiliar with the original story and the Broadway musical, the plot involves a young barber named Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp) whose wife Lucy (Laura Michelle Kelly) and infant daughter Johanna are taken from him by Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman).  Turpin steals the women for himself and sentences Barker and banishes him from London forever.  The film opens with the return of Barker years later under the new name of Sweeney Todd

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Charlie Wilson’s War

  • Title: Charlie Wilson’s War
  • IMDB: link

“You can teach them to type, but you can’t teach them to grow tits.”

charlie-wilsons-war-posterCharlie Wilson (Tom Hanks), a junior Congressman from a small district in Texas, did the impossible.  Not only did he spearhead the largest covert war in United States history, but he kept it a secret for years.

Wilson, a member of the Defense Appropriations subcommittee and the only Congressman from a district “who doesn’t want anything,” was in an unique position to change the world while nobody was looking.

After learning about the Afghan resistance against the Soviets, and being cajoled into providing more assistance by a powerful political contributor (Julia Roberts), Wilson with the help of his friends and CIA operative Gust Avrakotots (Philip Seymour Hoffman), over the course of the decade began increasing the money, weapons, and training being put into Afghanistan and began fighting a covert war which only a scant few even knew was taking place.  And we aren’t talking a small increase here; we’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars.

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Walk Hard

  • Title: Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
  • IMDB: link

“It ain’t easy to walk to the top of a mountain.  It’s a long hard walk, but I will walk hard.”

walk-hard-poster

The collaboration between Jake Kasdan and Judd Apatow is a perfect parody of recent overly serious and sentimental music biopics like Walk the Line and Ray which examine the entire life of an artist with all the skill and depth of a Behind the Music special.  The film follows Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly, who plays the character from the age of 14 to 71) who faces the tragic death of his brother to an unfortunate machete accident, the disapproval of his father (Raymond J. Barry), drugs, booze, and women, to become a legend.

Although it helps if you’ve seen the films this one parodies it’s not a necessity to get most of the jokes (though you will miss some of more subtle moments including specific shots and camera work).  Reilly is terrific in a role that let’s him prove just what a great dumbass he can play.  And, as he proved in A Prairie Home Companion (read that review), he can sing.  It’s a combination of the music and sharp unrelenting wit that transforms this film from the regular mass produced parodies like the Scary Movie franchises, and moves into the elite company with This Is Spinal Tap and Airplane.

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No Fool’s Gold Here

Just because National Treasure: Book of Secrets isn’t that great of a film doesn’t mean you shouldn’t see it.  It’s not a classic and I don’t know if I would even classify it as art; but it’s all sorts of fun in a season full of pretentious movies without any thrills.

National Treasure: Book of Secrets
3 Stars

Man, there are all sorts of conspiracy theories in this country.  I knew that.  What I didn’t know, until I saw National Treasure: Book of Secrets that is, is that apparently, they’re all a part of one giganto collective super conspiracy woven throughout all time, and conveniently packaged for edutainment (of course it’s a word!).  Okay, maybe not every claim in the movie, such as the real-life whereabouts   of the El Dorado, is based in fact; but the solid planting of fact throughout the film is what makes this movie so much fun – the idea that history can be just as exciting as Transformers, and anyone can be thrilled by the experience.

After discovering the founding father’s treasure in part one of the series, part two picks up with Nicolas Cage‘s character Ben Gates’, and that character’s father’s (Jon Voight), name being tarnished by that asshole Ed Harris.  By bogusly interpreting some historical evidence, his character hopes to trick Gates into finding – wait for it – a NATIONAL TREASURE.  And thus sets off the wild goose hunt that is another National Treasure flick.

Though it’s far off from the Best Of the Year lists that have started flooding the internets, it’s also a good distance off from being a bad movie.  The historical aspect of the film is a more than amusing- the mixture of fact and fiction is sweet to the taste, and the characters’ love of history is somehow charming.  The actors are having a good time, like Voight, Cage or the stereotypical sidekick character played by Justin Bartha.  The character could just as easily been played as that annoying tech geek that no one actually likes that shows up in most action movies; but Bartha nails every one of his wisecracks, and is perfectly charming.  The movie is just thrilling enough until the final act, when you’ll look down and realize the tension on the screen has you wringing your fingers, in giddy apprehension of the fate of the good guys.  Director Jon Turteltaub, a veteran of the first film, clearly knows what he’s doing here, and he’s not trying to do anything more than he has to.  From start to finish, he makes this a simple, family thriller whose only aim is to be fun, and maybe a little cool.  There’s no subtext (aside from a couple of off-handed remarks on the state of affairs in our State today,) and it’s not trying to change your mind either.  It’s just a fun time.

But don’t get too excited – there are some definite flaws.  The pacing is fast, to ensure that not even the youngest of audience members’ minds begin to wander onto any other pertinent topics like Santa, video games or how gross girls are.  Maybe that pace is a good thing for the second-graders out there, but it means the movie feels rushed to anyone with a mature attention span; and, for a movie that relies on facts that few know off the top of their head, it can be difficult to follow the story and the logic of the characters.

Men like Turteltaub deserve some credit.  Their movies aren’t going to win any awards; but their not in it for the recognition.  They’re not trying to revolutionize the medium of movies, they just want to give people a great way to waste two hours.  Well, Mr. Turteltaub, for what it’s worth, I was glad to let you waste my time.

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