Stoker: When Goode is Evil
Stoker is cruel, artful and fantastic. It tells a macabre story of a very creepy uncle and two women on the eve of a family death. Stoker will linger in your memory because it strays from the supernatural and instead focuses on people who can kill with little or no conscience.
The film has a southern gothic feel to it that builds an insular world full of dark moments and sudden death. It would be hard to recommend to a non-cinema buff because it is not easy to watch. I’d compare it to I Saw the Devil or Seven because of the stylish ways they capture evil on film. Directed by Park Chan-Wook (OldBoy) Stoker moves ahead at a deliberate pace that could only be created by a master of the genre. The script written by Wentworth Miller gives us a wonderful villain and several questionable characters that take us out of the world. For instance, why is every high school male mean and forceful?
The story centers around Nicole Kidman and Mia Wasikowska mourning the loss of their husband/father (played in flashbacks by Dermont Mulroney). One day a good looking man shows up and tells them he is uncle Charlie. Charlie is known to the family as the world traveling businessman who has little time for family. Mia notices something off about this charming man. His nice clothes and easy smile mask a murderously empty soul. What follows is a tension filled movie filled with stylish shots, fantastic acting and a dangerous pencil.
Matthew Goode owns this film as he walks a fine line of underacting and overacting. There is restraint in his mannerisms but you can tell by his smile and eyes that something is missing. He is the scariest of villains because he is pure evil. He could play a round of tennis then stuff somebody in a cooler and neither of those events would be greater in importance. Goode talked to details magazine and he talked about how he figured out his “eyes”:
I got the eyes a couple of days before we shot the film. We were in a steak restaurant. I kind of knew what I wanted to do, but I was still slightly unnerved, so I had a few whiskeys and was chatting with Park and having a lot of fun. There was a painting in the corner of this little steak restaurant in Nashville. I went over to it, and I was like, “That’s it.” It was this guy in a sort of 1920s outfit with a bow tie, and it was so odd. I brought it to Park, and he was like, “That’s Uncle Charlie.” And that was it. There was something in this guy’s eyes.
Stoker gives us a classic character and proves the Park Chan-wook is a master filmmaker who will be freaking us out for years to come.
Watch Stoker. Beware that is isn’t easy. However, it is a tough journey worth taking.
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Before Midnight: The Wonderful End of an Era
I was a young punk when I watched Before Sunrise on VHS in 1996. I knew nothing about world travel, first love or intriguing conversations (I was 14). However, Sunrise caught me off guard and I loved every second of Jesse and Celine as they navigated the streets of Vienna. Then, in 2004 I watched Before Sunset in an empty theater and the movie blew me away. I was a 22 year old who drank too much beer, lifted copious amounts of weights and could probably have been defined as a “bruh.” For some reason these two moves involving two generations Xer’s talking had a lasting impact on a guy who grew up in a small town and loved partying. They were intellectual, romantic and extremely well made. I became a huge fan of both actors and I’ve read both of Ethan Hawke’s books (Hottest State, Ash Wednesday),watched Julie Delpy’s (2 Days in Paris, 2 Days in New York) series and suffered through various odd projects (An American Werewolf in Paris, Hottest state movie). I even had this poster on my college apartment wall.
I love Before Sunrise so much my fiancee surprised me with this wonderful typography she did while getting her graduate degree.
Thanks Meg
Before Midnight is a wonderful way to end the Celine and Jesse era. It is nine years later and they are romantically together and parents to some very cute twins. They argue, wax poetic and wonder where the time has gone. The movie starts with Hawke sending his son onto a plane to head back to Chicago where the kid lives with his mom. They are finishing up a six week vacation in Greece and it is rightfully bittersweet. What follows is a night of wonderful conversations, fights and scenery.
I don’t want to give away too many clues as to where the conversations take them but know the feeling out process and superficial discussions are gone. The two have been together for nine years which allows them to be comfortable and annoyed at each other. They have a deep love for each other but both are stubborn individuals whom are pulling at opposite directions while being firmly tied to each other. What follows are discussions in cars, discussions at dinner, discussions while walking and discussions in hotel rooms.
I was in constant amazement at the long takes and amount of dialogue that Hawke and Delpy had to learn. Together, they are a well oiled machine that feel natural on camera and make you believe in their relationship. It will be a huge disappointment if the entire crew (Delpy, Hawke, Linklater) are not nominated for Oscars. The three have given us a twenty year romance that has been critically and universally adored (97.6% critical and 90% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes). If you haven’t watched these films yet I highly recommend you rent or buy them, turn off your cell phones and bask in the glory of two smart people as they navigate love, loss and growing up.
Watch Before Midnight. Appreciate the 20 year romance. Wonder if Hawke will ever get rid of the facial hair.
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MY CALL: What if Charlie’s Angels was raunchy, trashy and rated a hard-R a la Tarantino? Well, you’d probably get this funny, tasteless and breastacular exploitation film which walks a fine line between an erotic clothes-on video shoot and a slapstick crime caper that makes every effort to be bad in the spirit of fun. IF YOU LIKE THIS WATCH: Boys Against Girls (2013) and Kill Bill (2003, 2004), I guess. But, from modern-day movies, some Tokyo Shock movies are more similar to this than even the raunchy classics that Bitch Slap honors.
America Olivo
Writer/director Rick Jacobson is no stranger to over-the-top, scantily clad tough girls and cleavage. He’s directed many episodes of Hercules, Xena, Baywatch and two seasons of Spartacus, and he knows how to deliver. He can’t aim a camera at one of his leading ladies without starting at her fun parts. As tasteless as that sounds, Jacobson has crafted a modern, clever throwback to exploitation classics, dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century.
We have three female leads… The air-headed Trixie (Julia Voth), red-headed Hel (Erin Cummings; Dollhouse, Spartacus: War of the Damned) and the over-medicated hothead Camero (America Olivo; No One Lives, Maniac, Friday the 13th) are three breasty bitches with attitude who are in over their head for $200 million in diamonds. Clearly borrowing from Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction (1994), the story jumps from present day to flashbacks, not presented in chronological order, which serve to explain some things in the wake of the confusion while slowly pulling the veil on what’s really going on along with some red herrings. This approach is articulate, but it’s hard to notice when the view of this cleverness is obscured by so many in-your-face, sweaty boobs.
America Olivo
These girls talk a big game, are way too tough to be credible (because credible is what they were after in making this film, right?), and give us a mix raunchy girl-on-girl humor with silly spy skills.
Julia Voth
This mix of female empowerment and exploitation features bullets to the balls, exit wound sprays from the head, threats of genital mutilation, stripper dance routines, comical drug use, a glowing vagina, very weirdly creative (or just drug-induced) analogies involving two-dicked dogs and getting people wet, crotch punches, death yo-yos, sopping wet catfights, women touching themselves, small children saying “salty balls”, a pig-tailed lesbian Asian in a schoolgirl outfit, loads of heaving and fondling, bitches hogtying other bitches with chains, bitches lighting other bitches on fire, bitches exploding other bitches in cars, bitches choking other bitches out, REALLY BIG guns, a female crotch bite (first ever on film?), the longest and most ridiculous catfight ever, and so much more.
The highlight of this director’s skills include a split screen girl-on-girl makeout session complete with trancy film-editing transitions. Jacobson also keeps things classy by showing us strikingly few bare nipples…however we do get rough finger-banging, insinuated lesbian oral sex, and more wet breast shots than Piranha 3D (2010) and Piranha 3DD (2012) combined.
Julia Voth
The level of crazy corny action, fake acrobatics, cartoonish green-screen work (very Sin City graphic novel-y), utterly tasteless voluptuan montages with sleazy scoring, catfights with metal-scoring, and D-quality slo-mo special effects should provoke uncontrollable laughter.
Kevin Sorbo (Hercules, Xena, Meet the Spartans) makes a cameo appearance as Mr. Phoenix and Lucy Lawless (Xena, Hercules, Spartacus, Battlestar Galactica) as Mother Superior. Sorbo gets the better cameo by far! You can find him in the worst action finale ever.
America Olivo
A few of my favorite quotes (not perfectly quoted, by the way) include…
“I’m going to tear your show tits asunder.”
“Let’s slip off to some small Micronesian island.”
“So you’re a super spy masquerading as a sex toy tycoon?”
Julia Voth
You should know based on the DVD cover whether or not this movie is for you. It may not be “my style,” but it was certainly for me.
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World War Z: Zombie Apocalypse Done Right
I read World War Z on a much delayed plane to Scotland in 2006 and I really enjoyed the experience. It was fun, inventive and came out of nowhere. When I heard Brad Pitt signed on to produce and star in the movie my curiosity was piqued. How could they pull off the multiple viewpoints and huge moments? The answer is, they didn’t. It would have been impossible and very expensive. I never could have predicted this but I really enjoyed World War Z. In a day and age where most actions films involve conflicted superheroes destroying cities (Avengers, Batman, Man of Steel, Iron Man, Spiderman, Star Trek) or The Rock sweating (FF6, GI Joe 2, Snitch) it was nice to watch a human named Jerry travel the globe while surrounded by interesting character actors, angry undead and real stakes. WWZ was fun, tense and refreshing for a film about a zombie apocalypse. There was a call back to the Zombie Survival Guide too.
World War Z had everything going against it. The film suffered through reshoots, rewrites, delays, insanely fast zombies and an odd choice for director. However, it is the most pleasant surprise of the summer. What could have easily have been soul crushing is now tense, smart and lots of fun. Brad Pitt carries himself stoically while chaos reigns around him. Also, the character actors around him James Badge Dale, David Morse, Peter Capaldi, Ruth Negga, Moritz Bleibtreu are all very interesting and add gravitas to a film about fast undead people biting humans.
World War Z is the story of a man named Jerry who travels from Philadelphia, South Korea, Jerusalem and Wales looking for a cure/source to the plague. Along the way he survives fast zombies, massive walls being overrun and plane crashes to find a cure. The movie has a nice progression, feels confident in it’s execution and is refreshing in how human it is. I’ve grown tired of superheroes punching each other through buildings so when movies like Fast and Furious 6 and World War Z come along I really appreciate them. Also, at first I disliked the look of the zombie hordes climbing over each other but when it happened I was invested and totally bought into it.
Brad Pitt is believable as a former UN investigator who gets tasked to find the cure in order for his family to be safe. What I love is the odds are incredibly stacked against him but he always keeps moving and finds ways to survive despite having thousands of angry undead chasing him. Pitt would have done just fine alongside Iko Uwais or Karl Urban in The Raid or Dredd (watch and you will understand). The movie builds an effective sense of dread in the opening Philadelphia moments and grows into a globe-trotting search for a cure. It is a lean, mean and an incredibly fun machine that is surprisingly well reviewed (70% Rt).
The finale which was written by Drew Goddard and Damon Lindelof is a highlight of the film. Pitt has found himself in a research facility in Wales and has figured out how to give humanity hope. The problem is that he has to travel through Hall B. An incident occurred while studying the disease and now it is loaded with 80 angry infected scientists. So, they lock the doors behind him and he has to travel through the claustrophobic halls in order to get where he needs to be. The finale is loaded with cool actors, intelligent motivations and a lot of jaw clicking.
World War z is smart, tense and surprising well made. It made it through its tough production and became a cohesive and entertaining film. Watch it. Like it. Read the book. Appreciate the Pitt.
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This Is the End: A 10 Year Reunion of Sorts
This is the End is like The Expendables except these famous young comedians have no problem making fun of themselves. The all-star cast of Apatow acolytes roast themselves as the world burns around them. The movie could have been a lazy showcase but instead features some huge laughs involving capri suns, horny demons and masturbation etiquette. This Is the End feels like the ten year reunion from when these guys got their first big breaks. They’ve occasionally worked together, gone their own way and are now back under one roof in a very uncomfortable spot.
Shakespeare it ain’t but it does have a comfortable comedic flow due to the familiarity of the actors and commitment to their roles. It has been fun watching this crew navigate Hollywood since the early 2000’s. The six actors have all had highs (127 Hours, Million Dollar Baby, Hot Rod, Tropic Thunder, Goon, Pineapples Express, Moneyball, 21 Jump Street, Knocked Up, Superbad, All the Real Girls, 50/50), Lows (Annapolis, Green Hornet, Guilt Trip, Your Highness, Babysitter, Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Peeples) and everything in between (She’s out of My League, Hot Tub Time Machine, Observe and Report, Oz, Land of the Lost).
The idea for the film came from the 2007 short film that Rogen and Baruchel made called Jay and Seth Versus the Apocalypse. The short provided a groundwork for Rogen and co-writer Adam Goldberg to write This is the End. The plot of the the film centers around Jay Baruchel visiting his close friend Seth Rogen for a weekend of weed, video games and good times. However, Rogen convinces Jay to go to a huge house party at James Franco’s lavish new mansion. What follows is the rapture, Michael Cera getting impaled and a whole lot of self discovery amongst the six as they realize they are not good people.
The actors have no problem lampooning themselves as selfish, petty and passive aggressive. I loved the moment when Craig Robinson calls out uber negative Jay Baruchel by saying “I bet you hate movies that are universally loved.” Of course, we find out Jay hates Forrest Gump. Also, Jonah Hill opens up a prayer with “It’s Jonah Hill, from Moneyball.” While the world is burning they form alliances, argue about masturbating on porno magazines and let all forms of pettiness fly. However, as in a lot of their films there is a sweetness permeating through the smoke haze. Craig Robinson comes across as the nicest dude ever, Franc0 absolutely loves Rogen and McBride may be homicidal but is sorta misunderstood. Together, they endure water shortages, a misunderstanding with Emma Watson and sharing a delicious Mars candy bar.
I dug this film because it walked a tight rope. Sometimes creators think that putting funny people together is enough to get a laugh. However, you can tell that care was taken to create likable characters and some genuinely tense moments. They’ve made unlikable characters redeemable and built some comedic set pieces that provide laughs throughout. The movie also has a charming DIY feel that creates claustrophobia amidst the shenanigans. There is something at stake for these guys and it isn’t just an excuse to put them in a room and let them riff about “sinkhole De Mayo.”
Watch This Is the End. Enjoy the reunion. Look forward to This Is the End Again in 10 years.
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Jack the Giant Slayer: A Refreshing Blast of Nice
Jack the Giant Slayer is a breath of fresh air. The characters are nice, the actors are having fun and the movie has a straightforward cheeky vibe that keeps a smile on your face. My fiancée and I enjoyed every minute of the film because it wasn’t burdened by anti heroes, origin stories, self-important monologues and weighty issues. I have no problem with any of those factors and many movies featuring them (Thor, The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Captain America) I own and love to watch. However, sometimes it is nice to watch a film where characters listen to each other while they battle giants. We’ve become so accustomed to the whiny princesses, poor peasants, evil knights and cheeky sidekicks that we expect every film to feature them. However, Jack strays away from these character traits and is all the more likable for it.
Jack is the story of beanstalks, angry giants and Ewan McGregor’s hair. The movie creates likable characters who are refreshingly nice. The story has a predictable vibe with unpredictable characters who listen to each other and look out for best interests. The problems amongst the main characters are not caused by selfishness, entitlement or jealousy. Once the stalk gets growing and giants start forming the characters act rationally, cheekily and bravely. They are smart people dealing with a giant problem. Also, not only are there magic beans but there is magic hair. McGregor’s hair goes from perfect, wet, disheveled and back to perfect without any hair wax or primping.
This may sound odd considering CGI giants are battling knights but the action is surprisingly believable. When a man runs at a giant the man gets stomped. It adds a neat wildcard to the film. Do you remember the Matthew McConaughey, Gerard Butler and Christian Bale classic Reign of Fire? There is a seemingly epic scene where McC jumps off a tower to attack a dragon. You think he might chop it’s head off or land a death-blow but the opposite happens. McC jumps and the dragon effortlessly eats the muscled man. It is anti-climatic and pretty awesome. The giants are the same in this film. Sure they are dumb but there is no way a man could kill them without large arrows, fire or a bee’s nest placed inside their helmet which forces them to stumble off a cliff. Characters get squished unceremoniously in Jack and I like that.
Jack the Giant Slayer had a long road to hit the cinema. It went through year-long post-production delays, multiple rewrites and several directors. However, the final product turned out better than expected. It is a lean squishing machine that director Bryan Singer (X-Men, Superman Returns) explains like this:
It’s a very traditional fairytale, probably the most traditional thing I’ve ever done. But it’ll also be a fun twist on the notion of how these tales are told… Fairytales are often borne of socio-political commentary and translated into stories for children. But what if they were based on something that really happened?.. What if we look back at the story that inspired the story that you read to your kids? That’s kind of what this movie’s about.
Jack the Giant Slayer is pure popcorn entertainment. There are no anti-heroes, emotional depths are not plumbed and it features too many giant farts. However, It is nice not to have the huge speeches, predictable beats and angry father/daughter subplots. Just enjoy yourself when watching this film. It is meant for adults and kids who enjoy seeing pigs surrounded by dough (Literal pig in a blanket). It is an unpretentious film that simply wanted to tell a nice story and entertain kids. I totally recommend this to anybody looking for a breezy time featuring wonderful actors and Bill Nighy as a two-headed giant.
Watch Jack the Giant Slayer. Appreciate that is doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel and instead features a giant throwing a huge cart wheel at a castle.
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The Man of Steel: When Big Themes Meet Empty Action
The Man of Steel is another addition to the loud summer blockbuster tradition. It takes an incredibly popular character, adds a tons of importance and features little character development. The movie is a visual cornucopia full of empty calories and property destruction. The number one takeaway is that Russell Crowe is the only human alive who looks more comfortable riding a flying lizard then he is playing an everyday bloke. Also, Kevin Costner needs to act around corn more often.
I really wanted to like Man of Steel but found myself caring more about the property destruction. The CGI heavy fight scenes reminded me of what Iron Man 3 was trying to avoid after learning the computer blob brawls didn’t work in the first two. Superman battles CGI baddies in full space gear while giant claw arms spew from a mechanical spaceship. The excitement is non-existent because you know Superman will win and the CGI villains will fly around shakily and do nothing to engage or excite. Zach Snyder has taken a creative step back after Dawn of the Dead and 300 made him famous. You were invested in the characters as they battled zombies and boat loads of Persians. The violence was intense and stylish but you never forgot about character. His following films Watchmen and Sucker Punch looked amazing but never packed anything resembling an emotional punch or engaging narrative structure. Watching Sucker Punch had me worried about Superman because Snyder failed to make scantily clad women, good music, robots, Oscar Issac and huge battles entertaining.
The MoS cast is full of award winning thespians (Kevin Costner, Russel Crowe, Amy Adams, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne and most importantly Michael Shannon) who give it their all despite having little to do. Henry Cavill looks the part and deserves the tweets but he never makes an impression or is able to own Superman. Costner and Lane are wonderful together and Costner’s scenes carry the weight of the film. His insistence on making sure Clark is ready to introduce himself to the world is the central and most intriguing theme of the film. However, the self importance and suppossed familiarity in Superman characters left me cold and wanting more. I wanted more of Zod’s demented mission to save his race and Lois Lane’s researching skills. The themes in this film are really neat but become lost in the CGI punching.
I know a lot of people did not enjoy Superman Returns but I found several moments to be wonderful. For instance, the scene where Lex Luthor’s baddie and the kid play piano. The scene is a threatening moment that gives the henchman a memorable character moment and provides tension and levity. Also, the plane scene (which Iron Man 3 copied) is an exhilarating moment of man vs. machine that was not overblown by CGI. Also, Lane’s husband came to the rescue and added a neat vision of humans and Superman working together.
Wesley Morris of Grantland summed up why the first two Superman movies are so popular and endearing:
What made the first two Superman movies, in 1978 and 1981, work so well as entertainments was how they could scale the tone up or down. Richard Donner gave you a romantic screwball comedy — basically, His Girl Friday — that established the characters and made you care about them so that when, later, the comedy dissipates in the face of danger, you have a stake in the outcome. You want action to solve the drama and restore the lightness. Snyder doesn’t have that kind of classical smoothness.
There is nothing smooth about Man of Steel. There are three incredibly obvious Messiah references on top of camerawork so shaky it looks like they placed the camera on top of a large shake weight. Buildings crumble, people engage in huge acts of bravery and people are literally punched through city blocks (many times over). The problem is that while watching you care nothing for these characters. The flash back narrative and seriousness keep you from holding your breath. When Superman learns to fly it should be a triumphant moment of character engagement. However, you are treated to fantastic CGI and little else. There is a scene where Laurence Fishburne (looking much better than he did in Predators) is trying to free a trapped coworker from underneath a collapsed building. You are supposed to care about their plight but the script has done nothing to make them real so there are no real emotions. I never want to see anybody smooshed but I had zero at stake whether they made it out of the property destruction.
The scenes with Laurence reminded me (PROMETHEUS SPOILER ALERT) of Idris Elba’s death in Prometheus. He and two of his crew drive their ship into the alien ship as it is threatening to fly away to destroy earth. The moment should have had an Independence Day type bravado but instead ended with a loud explosions and a crunched Charlize Theron.
The Man of Steel tries something new and that should be applauded. However, they forgot to add tension and character to the violence. The result is a movie about big themes that only go kiddie pool deep because city blocks have to be destroyed.
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Bad Movie Tuesday: Movie 43 and Kitchen Sink Humor
Do you like poop on windshields, blood, incest, Leprechaun murder, vulgar language, horny animated cats, racial stereotypes, neck testicles and nudity? Well, if you enjoy most of these things you probably won’t enjoy this film. Movie 43 throws so many gross things at you it creates a cacophony of flatulence noises and a cavalcade of uninteresting short stories that make you depressed and worried about Kate Winslet’s career choices.
I get Movie 43. Put a bunch of A-list celebrities in compromising situations and hilarity ensues. However, the clips throw you headlong into nastiness so there is zero build up for the punch lines. You are supposed to feel bad for Kate Winslet and she sits across from Hugh Jackman while he is dumping his neck testicles into BBQ sauce. However, you don’t know the characters so there is zero reason to care. Remember when the Farrelly brothers created testicles jokes that worked? There’s Something About Mary features the Citizen Kane of genitalia jokes. The set up is that Ben Stiller has somehow landed the perfect 10 of a homecoming date. As he nervously waits for his beautiful date he goes to the bathroom and is caught off guard when he looks through the bathroom window and sees her changing. He has done nothing wrong aside from peeing in the wrong place at the wrong time. He quickly zips up his pants and gets his beans above his frank. What follows is gross out comedy with heart. There is no heart in Movie 43. It is a empty shell of gross thinking it is funny.
The critcal vitriol this film received was funnier than the movie. The movie critics dog piled (4% RT) the film and buried it beneath words like lazy, disgusting, aggressive stupidity, witless, awful, racist, cruel, misogynistic, disaster, depressing and a misfire of megalithic proportions. My favorite two quips were by Dave White of Movies.com and Elizabeth Weitzman of the New York Daily News.
To fully enjoy yourself from start to finish, it will help if you’ve got the sense of humor of a middle-school-aged sociopath…
As a film critic, I’ve seen nearly 4,000 movies over the last fifteen years. Right now, I can’t think of one worse than Movie 43.
The basic concept the creators were going for was zany situations are made funny when A-list actors are in them. This is almost guaranteed to not be funny. Before Chevy Chase was a spy or hanging from the Hoover Dam he was a passive aggressive everyday man who made us laugh in Vacation and Fletch. However, when he got famous the creativity left the building and they thought putting him in a movie was enough. Creativity was gone because it became Chevy Chase is Fletch as oppossed to Fletch featuring Chevy Chase. My favorite comedic actor had a similar dearth of comedic purgatory. The films Larger than Life and The Man Who Knew Too Little put him in zany situations that proved painfully unfunny. The poor guy was left working his butt off to make people laugh while he was wearing a silly hat. Producers thought Bill Murray wearing a silly hat would sell tickets. The silly hat did not sell tickets.
There is nothing interesting about the worlds of Movie 43. I find it interesting that the thing was made and that people thought it might be funny. I’d love to hear a commentary about the making of the movie and get inside the creators head. Hopefully, lessons are learned and people realize that skit classic Kentucky Fried Movie wasn’t a fluke. The best thing that come from this film is that more people discover Kentucky and appreciate skit comedy done right.
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Conflicted Superheroes in Film: A case study of the Man of Steel (2013) and past Supermen
Many comic book heroes have come and gone across the silver screen leaving either accolades (e.g., Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Iron Man, X-Men 2) or soul-crushing disappointment (e.g., Hulk, Cat Woman, Superman Returns, X-Men: Last Stand, The Green Lantern) in their wake. Often, success simply lies in the vision and execution of the writers and director.
The greatest success stories (and failures) accompany the greatest challenges: seriously conflicted heroes on their own. Tim Burton delivered a less conflicted Batman (1989), but replaced the more viciously somber aspects of his revenge-addled psyche with dark world-building and focused on his twisted Joker for his darker components. Quite the opposite, Christopher Nolan kept his setting more practical and unleashed the beast within Bruce Wayne in his series opener Batman Begins (2005). Two very different approaches employing different versions of Batman targeting different audiences…and both very successful.
Now, I in no way mean to belittle the fine work of Burton or the epic success of Nolan, but Batman isn’t that tough for audiences to swallow. He’s either a dark, witty, PG antihero (a la Burton) or an angry, revenge-driven bone-breaking machine on the verge of becoming a monster. Nolan provided fine character development, but it took little backstory outside of the main plot to do so convincingly. Also to Nolan’s advantage, showing an entire movie about Batman’s origin was a cool, doable idea. Such is not the case with Superman.
Superman’s origin is largely based in his childhood and adolescence–and it’s not a short explanation. Young Clark slowly discovered his powers, learned to control and focus them, kept them a secret at the expense of his own teen ego (perhaps the biggest hurdle!), and wrestled with his identity as the Kryptonian adopted son of the Kents. So, unless you’re a Smallville (2001-2011) fan, you’ve never seen a good backstory to justify the cinema-scale Superman. And, by the way, Smallville’s Jonathan Kent served as an amazing storytelling device, a lens through which we could contextualize Clark’s (Tom Welling) issues with love, trust and humanity.
Richard Donner’s Superman (1978; starring Christopher Reeve) was like the Diet Coke of Superman. Like Burton’s Batman, Superman’s conflict was underplayed while instead highlighting the gravity of an intense villain (Gene Hackman’s Lex Luthor). Now, Christopher Reeve gave us one Hell of wholesome, family-friendly Superman. And that’s a good thing.
But the goody-two-shoes superhero is afforded little credibility in the minds of adult superhero and action movie fans. Maybe Donner didn’t want to spend over 30 minutes presenting Clark’s youth in a time when the average blockbuster was a humble 90 minutes. Maybe he wanted to go wholesome; so showing us 10 minutes of baby Clark lifting tractors on the Kent farm with his “awww shucks” smile in front of his awestruck parents was all Donner needed to show us to demonstrate how good-natured his hero was. So I’m not pointing at a fault here. I’m just pointing out that justifying a wholesome character is much easier than it is for a deeply conflicted one. Tom Welling’s Smallville role captured all of the wholesome as well as some deep-seeded regret and resentment–of course, he had 217 episodes to do it. LOL
Fast forward through three more Christopher Reeve franchise movies by two more directors and we find more mature storylines that put Superman in more grave situations. But I’m still not sold on this franchise. I really never want to see these movies again. They just lack depth.
Perhaps trying to catch the coattails of the darker Batman Begins (2005), so followed Bryan Singer’s darker Superman Returns (2006). Now, while Doomsday never made an appearance in this movie, I thought it would have been better titled The Death of Superman. This box office failure came as shock after Singer’s conquests with X-Men (2000) and X2 (2003). So what went wrong? Let me count the ways…
Brandon Routh was a nobody and they gave him no good, memorable lines. Even after seeing the movie I was referring to “that guy who played the new Superman.” His performance carried no impact and the writing just exacerbated the situation. They went too dark and quiet. Routh hardly spoke and was a very distant Superman to whom we couldn’t relate? Why couldn’t I relate to him? No solid backstory to justify it and basically no character development. I could get into Kevin Spacey’s Lex Luthor and his ridiculous main squeeze, but that’s not the point here. The point is I just didn’t give a damn about a guy named Superman.
Most recently Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight Rises, Inception, The Prestige) and Zack Snyder (The Watchman, 300), two men who have championed dark protagonists, got together to finally give us a cinema Superman who has both a convincing backstory and deep inner conflict. They succeeded by doing what their predecessors did not. They gave us an elaborate background.
The first segment of the film feels like a completely separate movie of its own. For the first time on film, we see the turmoil on Krypton and the power struggle between Jor-El (Russell Crower; The Man with the Iron Fists, The Next Three Days) and General Zod (Michael Shannon; Premium Rush, Mud, Take Shelter), formerly friends, now enemies. Snyder shows off his worldcrafting vision with alien cityscapes complete with weird animals, social structure and spacecraft dogfights in the background. We even learn a great deal about Kal-El’s conception, its special significance and why Jor-El chose Earth for his son. Snyder took a few sentences from past Superman movies and gave us a mini-movie! And this is all before we transition to Earth…
The next segment of the movie is an elaborate storytelling of Clark’s relationship with his father, using his powers and his difficulty fitting in during his formative years. These scenes alternate with scenes of Clark (Henry Cavill; Immortals) in his late 20s and early 30s living a transient lifestyle as he moved from town to town and job to job. Even as an adult he struggles to control the urge to use his powers even for what he perceives to be the right reasons.
In fact, our Clark doesn’t even assume the role of Superman until he is 33 years old–when General Zod comes to Earth seeking him. This is when the Superman in Superman really gets into gear.
This slower, very developed and elaborate storytelling approach made for a long movie with slow points that received some criticism as “boring” from thrill-seeking fans. I would jump to Snyder and Nolan’s defense. While these scenes were not always exciting as watching our Man of Steel battle fellow super-strong baddies with high budget special effects, they were still every bit as emoting; truly capturing the mood of the film and the inner turmoil of Superman. So I call this a tremendous success!
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John’s Horror Corner: The Purge (2013), where social commentary meets intense violence.
MY CALL: An intense, surprisingly well-executed film depicting a dystopian future built on a foundation of an economy-fueling organized mayhem. Solid performances across the board! IF YOU LIKE THIS WATCH: Funny Games (2007), The Strangers (2008), Assault on Precinct 13 (2005).
The opening scenes introduce us to a dystopian futuristic America in which we have overcome staggering recessions, unemployment and crime rates. Everyone seems happy and at peace with the means that provide this thriving economy.
So what do they have to thank? The Purge. The Purge is a 12-hour period during which all crime is legal and all police, medical and emergency services are suspended. Radio and news casts bombard viewers with soma-popping Brave New World mantras about “unleashing the beast within” to “cleanse [or purge] our inherently violent nature.”
What’s most interesting about this society is that The Purge is embraced by most everyone. Sure, there are media debates on how The Purge “targets” the poor who can’t afford to defend themselves, but even the wealthy–with their armored home security systems–socialize, talk about what they’re doing during The Purge or “purge” together in hunting parties.
All of the pro-Purge political views are presented through an upper class filter–more specifically, the pro-Purge mindset of James Sandin (Ethan Hawke; Sinister, Daybreakers), a home security system salesman who lives in a ritzy neighborhood full of fake, well-to-do smiling neighbors. This year, instead of attending a party, James is spending a quiet purge with his wife Mary (Lena Headey; Game of Thrones, Dredd, The Cave, The Brothers Grimm), son Charlie (Max Burkholder; Martian Child) and daughter Zooey (Adelaide Kane; Donner Pass, Teen Wolf).
James’ family is less embracing of The Purge than the rest of the neighborhood but, for fear of death, they abide by the social standard but do not themselves partake. Catching more of our attention is James. His security system sales are booming, he’s boat shopping and he talks a big game about supporting The Purge but when he justifies its value or explains to his son why he has never felt the urge to purge there is more than a dash of a hesitation in his tone.
Things begin to go wrong for the Sandins when Max sympathizes with an injured man. He hears his cries for help on the surveillance system and disarms the security for long enough to let the man into the house for safety. Shortly thereafter, a group of over-educated young adults led by polite stranger with an intensely striking sense of rich kid entitlement demand that the Sandins release the injured victim into their lethal care as a Purge tribute.
The disturbingly masked strangers.
If the Sandins don’t, the strangers threaten to penetrate the security system and kill everyone. That’s what you get from the preview and I won’t give you any more except to say that things get interesting, intense, gory, fun (for violent film fans) and equal parts predictable and unpredictable.
I thought all of the actors did a fine job. Some may consider the polite stranger (Rhys Wakefield) to be pretty hammed up, but I thought his supervillainous, sociopathic and zealous mentality helped separate this strong film from the likes of The Strangers, which carried no social commentary or message whatsoever. As extreme as the premise may seem in The Purge, I must admit that it got me thinking. Not necessarily “agreeing,” but thinking.
I went into this movie excited because of the preview, but nervous as to how it would play out. In the end I feel that all of my positive expectations were met and none of the bad came to fruition. I was very pleased.
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