Author: mfordfeeney

#140RVW

The last Boston film to be predominantly shot outside of Boston, hopefully for a long time. Classic Scorsese, but with a real plot for once.

What’s more:

Scorsese always does really well with character study films, but this may be the most story-driven of all of his movies. And it makes this one of his most enjoyable. Despite the length, there is an energy to The Departed that keeps it moving along wonderfully.

For starters, this may be the best source material he’s ever had to work with. Originally made in Hong Kong as the film “Infernal Affairs”, relatively new screenwriter William Monahan adapted the story and was rewarded with an Academy Award for his work. The dialogue is so perfect – this is the sound of Boston tough guys.

The story of Boston’s most famous gangster, Whitey Bulger, is overlaid on what was already a great crime tale: the cops want to take down gangster Frank Costello and both sides employ undercover operatives. The filmmakers wisely realize that what is most fascinating about this tale is not the crime – it’s the development of these parallel characters, mirroring each other as they progress through an increasingly dangerous series of events.

All the acting is excellent, of course, but Leonardo DiCaprio really stands out. His story is arguably the most interesting, but it is a testament to the actor that he is able to wrest attention away from such a heavyweight as Nicholson and his Costello character. Reportedly DiCaprio shied away from any award promotion for his performance as he didn’t want to take away from any of his co-stars. Pretty stand-up if so, but it certainly cost him a Best Actor win.

As his counterpart, Matt Damon is his usual solid self. No knock on Damon at all. He’s a great actor and he’s great here – just nothing new here. Vera Farmiga is an excellent addition to the cast; nice to see a (relative) newcomer among these familiar faces. Although hers is one of the less believable Boston accents.

Thelma Schoonmaker received a well-deserved Oscar for editing; the movie absolutely hums with energy and the many characters and scenes work together to keep the excitement level high.

Every good filmmaker deserves a chance to craft a great thriller. It’s really interesting to see how different artists approach the genre. It’s one of the reasons I tend to like remakes; they don’t need to be improvements on the original, just new interpretations. In classical music it’s called variations on a theme. Like anything else, the key is having a really solid story to work off; then let’s see what you can do. For this one, Scorsese puts on his game face and nets Best Picture…

Poster:

Trailer:

Bechdel Test:

Fail

Main Cast	Leonardo DiCaprio Billy, Matt Damon Colin Sullivan, Jack Nicholson Frank Costello, Mark Wahlberg Dignam
Rating	R
Release Date	Fri 06 Oct 2006 UTC
Director	Martin Scorsese
Genres	Crime, Drama, Thriller
Plot	An undercover state cop who has infiltrated an Irish gang and a mole in the police force working for the same mob race to track down and identify each other before being exposed to the enemy, after both sides realize their outfit has a rat.
Poster
Runtime	151
Tagline	Lies. Betrayal. Sacrifice. How far will you take it?
Writers	William Monahan (screenplay), Alan Mak (2002 screenplay Mou gaan dou) …
Year	2006

#140RVW

Complicated tale of religious conflict in Lebanon recalls Lysistrata. Very good but not totally satisfying; bit scattered & inconsistent…

What’s more:

Where Do We Go Now? opens with an arresting scene of female mourners moving in rhythm to visit the graves of the young men of their Lebanese village. It is absolutely striking and sets the tone for an ambitious and mostly excellent film focusing on the impact of religious strife on a small village.

The Muslim & Christian people of this village have learned to live together, but the religious divide is always present and ready to swallow all. No one in the village has been unaffected by the fighting outside their borders and their tenuous peace is threatened when new conflicts stir up old resentments. Channeling their inner Lysistrata, the women of the town resort to increasingly crafty ways to keep the fighting from their homes.

Director, actress and co-screenwriter Nadine Labaki has put together some great elements for a movie here. Possibly more than one movie. In fact, that’s really the problem. The movie is kind of a mess.

While there are excellent pieces here – an empathetic view, great humor, strong emotions – the result is not greater than the sum of its parts. It’s all a bit muddled. The overall tone is one of humor as the women show their resourcefulness and humanity. But there are equal moments of such crushing pain and loss. It’s challenging, and that’s a good thing, but the different tones are hard to square and the final mix is a bit confused.

Additionally, there really are too many balls in the air. Plot points can be hard to follow and are not always resolved satisfactorily. In the end, it feels like the filmmakers bit off more than they could chew.

But it’s a good film. I am very glad I watched it. I enjoyed the humor of these wonderful women and I was ripped apart by their suffering. I just wish it hadn’t been in the same 2 hours…

One last thing; the version I watched had English subtitles, which is fine, and English overdubbed dialogue, which is not. It was awful. I prefer to hear the actors in their own language – I don’t mind reading. It was very distracting when the spoken English did not match the subtitles (nearly always) and the quality of the voiceovers was poor. So try to find a dvd with the spoken language in the original Arabic.

Poster:

Trailer:

Bechdel Test:

Pass

Main Cast	Claude Baz Moussawbaa Takla, Leyla Hakim (as Layla Hakim) Afaf, Nadine Labaki Amale, Yvonne Maalouf Yvonne
Rating	PG-13
Release Date	Wed 14 Sep 2011 UTC
Director	Nadine Labaki
Genres	Comedy, Drama
Plot	A group of Lebanese women try to ease religious tensions between Christians and Muslims in their village.
Poster
Runtime	110
Tagline
Writers	Thomas Bidegain (collaboration), Nadine Labaki
Year	2011

140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW

This may actually be Bill Murray’s best comedy (not as part of an ensemble, anyway). Ridiculously funny & quotable; never really gets old…

Spoiler-free Movie Review of Groundhog Day:

At the time, this seemed like a minor success. It was pretty good, but then Bill Murray had just had a fairly great run of funny movies. In the five years leading up to Groundhog Day, Murray starred in Scrooged, Ghostbusters 2, Quick Change and What About Bob. He was on quite a roll.

So while this looked pretty good, the buzz around it was quite minimal. I remember hearing a number of people saying they disliked it. And on the face of it, it didn’t seem the greatest idea for a movie.

But the simplicity of the concept is the entire beauty of the film; man forced to relive life until he gets it right. How perfect is that? It could, and has, worked as a story concept since time began. From that platform, you can explore so many ideas. You can play it straight, be ridiculous, get deep, go dark, all in the same story.

In retrospect, Groundhog Day holds up better than a lot of his comedies, probably because of this underlying theme. It seems to resonate with people. “What would you do with all the time in the world?” The main character goes through an arc that is entirely believable. As you watch the movie you realize that this is probably exactly what you would do with a million lives; you’d fool around for a while, do whatever you wanted, start to tire of the ennui, become depressed over the inability to move on, then start to find peace with it.

Murray’s frequent on-screen partner Harold Ramis is behind the camera on this one. (He previously directed Murray in Caddyshack). My only real quibble with the movie is that it is very dark and lives in this dreary bluish palette. It’s clearly intentional; the movie looks like what February feels like. But it’s not pleasing to look at.

But it’s very well constructed. Good supporting cast. The movie hums along a great pace, and they play the passage of time in such a way that it never gets, um, repetitive…wait…let me try that again…

Poster:

Trailer:

Bechdel Test:

Pass

The Representation Test Score: C (4 pts)

(http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)

 

Main Cast	Bill Murray Phil, Andie MacDowell Rita, Chris Elliott Larry, Stephen Tobolowsky Ned
Rating	PG
Release Date	Fri 12 Feb 1993 UTC
Director	Harold Ramis
Genres	Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Plot	A weatherman finds himself living the same day over and over again.
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Runtime	101
Tagline	He’s having the worst day of his life… over, and over…
Writers	Danny Rubin (screenplay) and, Harold Ramis (screenplay) …
Year	1993

#140RVW

Story of Madchester music scene is an entertaining tale. Usual sex, drugs & English pop story made interesting through breaking 4th wall…

What’s more:

Knowledge about, or even appreciation of the Manchester pop scene isn’t required to enjoy this movie. Which is a good thing, since I am at best indifferent to Joy Division, New Order, Happy Mondays, etc.

The main thing that distinguishes this movie from the usual sex, drugs and rock & roll tale is the way it breaks the fourth wall, with Steve Coogan’s protagonist Tony Wilson frequently speaking directly to the audience, fully aware that his story is being told in film form. It’s certainly not the first instance of this approach, but it works really well for the story, fitting the subject matter and making the movie something more than its script.

Without knowing more about the actual events depicted, I can’t comment on how accurate the film is, although it makes no claims to be entirely factual. The story moves along fairly well, although it’s slightly longer than it is fascinating.

The acting is really good. Steve Coogan has really made a career for himself as a pretentious ass. I hope it’s simply typecasting and not his actual personality. He plays it VERY believably.

Lots of British character actors turn up, making for a fun bit of “Oh, hey, thats…”. Tons of cameos by the real players in this tale, including the real Tony Wilson.

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Trailer:

Bechdel Test:

Main Cast	Steve Coogan Tony Wilson, Lennie James Alan Erasmus, John Thomson Charles, Paul Popplewell Paul Ryder
Rating	R
Release Date	Fri 05 Apr 2002 UTC
Director	Michael Winterbottom
Genres	Biography, Comedy, Drama, Music
Plot	In 1976, Tony Wilson sets up Factory Records and brings Manchester’s music to the world.
Poster
Runtime	117
Tagline	The unbelievably true story of one man, one movement, the music and madness that was Manchester.
Writers	Frank Cottrell Boyce (screenplay)
Year	2002

#140RVW

Jesus this movie is violent. How did it ever get released? Verhoeven begins assault on American audiences. What did we ever do to the Dutch?

What’s more:

There’s a myth that movies can be “so bad it’s good”. This is complete nonsense. Bad movies are bad. Movies can be so preposterous or terribly made that you watch with the same morbid fascination that causes you to leer at car wrecks. (See “Plan 9 from Outer Space”, “Highlander 2”) Movies can also be deliberately cheesy or over the top that you are invited to laugh along. (See “Snakes on a Plane”, “Sharknado”) But these ARE bad movies. I don’t care if the filmmaker is in on the joke; they’re lousy. But I understand the appeal, and am guilty of enjoying watching them sometimes.

And then there’s Paul Verhoeven. I presume he’s trying to make movies of the latter variety – he’s always got deliberate absurdist humor of what I assume is supposed to be the social commentary variety. But he either can’t commit to making intentionally ridiculous satire or he truly does think he’s making good movies – and is legendarily bad at it.

Robocop is a very bad movie. I remember it well from when I last saw it as a teenager. I have no idea how I saw it, as I was definitely underage, and this thing is a hard R. Probably one of those VHS rentals that were so popular in the late 80’s. I think I probably liked it at the time. The gratuitous violence and nudity of Verhoeven’s “films” has a built-in audience with teenaged males. But, wow, does this age poorly.

I try not to criticize movies for effects looking dated; that comes with the territory, and today’s great special effects often look cheesy tomorrow. So although some of these effects are just plain terrible (the mattes probably looked like crap on release day), I recognize that some were quite timely and can appreciate the skill involved.

The production design, however, is another matter. Including a Ford Taurus as the car of the future just because it was new at the time must be one of the most short-sighted choices of all time. To be fair, time is hard on everyone. Dated choices aside, though, most of the design just looks silly and always did. Even by 80’s standards, this is a very bad looking film. Glossy in spots, everything else looks like Pittsburgh. For all the futuristic themes, it’s a very pedestrian future.

And nothing can excuse the painful dialogue, acting and plot points. If you haven’t seen this in years and still have fond memories, I encourage you not to re-watch. Just keep telling yourself it was awesome and that the remake looks stupid and they never should have messed with perfection. Because sometimes it’s better to remember these things as they were.

There’s a good story in here somewhere, but Verhoeven wasn’t the person to go looking for it. The remake can only be an improvement.

Poster:

Trailer:

Bechdel Test:

Fail

Main Cast	Peter Weller Officer Alex J. Murphy/RoboCop, Nancy Allen Officer Anne Lewis, Dan O’Herlihy (as Daniel O’Herlihy) The Old Man, Ronny Cox Dick Jones
Rating	Unrated
Release Date	Fri 17 Jul 1987 UTC
Director	Paul Verhoeven
Genres	Action, Crime, Sci-Fi
Plot	In a dystopic and crime-ridden Detroit, a terminally wounded cop returns to the force as a powerful cyborg haunted by submerged memories.
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Runtime	103
Tagline	Part man. Part machine. All cop. The future of law enforcement.
Writers	Edward Neumeier (written by) &, Michael Miner (written by)
Year	1987