You are currently browsing the archives for March, 2009.
The Human Rights Campaign represents a grassroots force of more than 700,000 members and supporters nationwide. As the largest national gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization, HRC envisions an America where GLBT people are ensured of their basic equal rights, and can be open, honest and safe at home, at work and in the community.
Click on the pic to learn more and donate.
Just describing this picture sounds like the beginning to an old-timey joke: “Two straight guys are riding on a Vespa…”
Rating: 9 out of 10
For years we’ve had movies showing female best friends whose relationships are rich, fulfilling and often surprisingly lacking in naked pillow fights, but nonetheless still satisfying. In the past few years though a trend has emerged, the “bro-mance” flick, a platonic romance genre where the two main characters are guys just trying to figure out how to express themselves inside the civil war-era social norms of daily society. Women have forever been not only allowed, but encouraged to wear their emotions on their sleeves, but men have been told since birth to “suck it up” or “act like a man”, which is somewhere defined as “stoic, rigid and bearing the emotional capacity of a petrified tree”. Now those walls are starting to break down and Hollywood is riding that wave of acceptance. Pineapple Express is another example of these male-bonding, Hallmark-shifting scenarios, but here on the “Vespa of manliness” this film powers through to say what it needs to say in a meaningful way while being distractingly funny.
I Love You, Man is the story of Peter Klaven (Paul Rudd) who is pleasantly happy with his life for good reason. He has a great job as a real estate agent, on the verge of working his first big celebrity house sale for Lou Ferrigno and he’s hoping to parlay that money into an even bigger commercial land deal, which would secure not only his future, but that of his brand new, nearly perfect fiance, Zooey (Rashida Jones). With wedding plans being put together, a small fissure in his perfect plateau begins to open when it is pointed out to him, by his own family, that he has no real male friends and therefore no one to be his Best Man. Peter is forced to jump into the incredibly awkward male “friend dating” scene and along the way he stumbles across Sydney Fife (Jason Segel), a man who is still living the man-child life Peter never got to experience. Social regression ensues as Peter finds out what it means to have a male best friend, but it comes with the downside of finding himself stuck between being a child with Sydney and being an adult with Zooey.
Balancing the tone of a film like this is a tricky situation. It has to be spitfire funny on a moment-by-moment basis, yet still follow the beat structure of a typical romantic comedy, completely ignoring the fact that your two main characters are both men. Once you block out that fact from your mind, I Love You, Man is a wholly traditional fit in the romantic comedy field and works brilliantly. John Hamburg directed this with a pure-hearted sensibility and really let the scenes develop naturally. He stayed far away from preset notions of what should happen to make the movie funnier and just let the script and the actors play with the reality of what would happen in situations like this. Case and point, if you have a person in his mid-30′s who owns a decked out garage which he calls “The Man Cave”, that person would without a doubt have a jack-off station out in clear view. No doubt about it. Sometimes people forget that comedy relies just as much on honesty in storytelling as drama, possibly even more. As the classic saying goes, “It’s funny ’cause it’s true.”
Yet, no matter how honest the script may be written, the performers have to deliver in a big way and Paul Rudd and Jason Segel did not disappoint. Right now you can’t find another actor like Paul Rudd. He is the king of the awkward everyman role and plays it with such tenacity and confidence that you have a hard time believing he isn’t exactly like that in real life. He also refuses to pull back from scenes other actors might approach in a more over-the-top comedy fashion. Rudd brings heart and class to even the most immature moments and that’s where his key to the kingdom lies. Accompanying Rudd on this yearning journey for friendship is Jason Segel, who plays the more outlandish and uncontrollable foil for Rudd’s straight arrow. Segel dives into his character unabashedly and manages to hold himself together even in the face of utter ridiculousness and embarrassment. He is quickly challenging the throne of Seth Rogen as the lovable schlub, which is made even more amusing by the fact both actors started together under the tutelage of R-rated comedy guru, Judd Apatow, back on the short lived TV show, Freaks and Geeks. Now more than ever, I’m convinced something was in the water back there on the craft service table that made everyone from that show incredibly talented and funny. (Wonder if they bottled any of it? Hmmm…)
Dancing in the wings of this two-man show is a whole slew of great actors. Jon Favreau and Jamie Pressly play a married couple that we all know too well, the ones who love to fight, love to make up and absolutely love each other in a fashion no one else understands. Rashida Jones, as Zooey, continues her stride towards epitomizing the perfect girlfriend, which she started when she appeared on The Office as Jim’s girlfriend, Karen. She’s witty, adorable and really shines in the deadpan comedy styles she’s chosen recently. I’m hoping it all continues well for her as she co-stars with Amy Poehler in the upcoming show, Parks and Recreation (made by the same producers of The Office). As many people have already said in other online reviews, the only downside you can scratch and claw to find is the painfully tiny amount of Andy Samberg, who plays Rudd’s gay younger brother, who is in turn much more masculine. Samberg is leading the new wave of young, out-of-the-box comedians and the more of him you include in your projects, the more successful you are bound to be. I also appreciated J.K. Simmons who seemingly walked right off the set of Juno, where he played her dad, and onto this one, where he plays the dad once again. I guess if you do something well, keep on truckin’.
Recommendation: The audience I saw this with was a packed house and I missed a good handful of lines of dialogue because people, including myself, were laughing too loud and too long. The combo of Rudd and Segel is just too good to miss. Even though the movie might seem immature at times, there is heart and honesty in there that I think many people, male and female, will relate to.
Guess I’m starting the flame war then?
Rating: 7 out of 10
The eternal question of any adaptation is, “Should it be done?” Fanboys and critics all over the world continually debate over whether a movie version of a book or graphic novel is a necessary step in the creative process. Will it bring anything new to the story? Is it even allowed to? Will it bring more fans to the work of the original author or will it backfire and cause old school fans to flip their collective lid? When treading into the world of comic book and graphic novel adaptations it is an especially thin line and most studios find themselves in a very pretty, but gilded cage. How much of the original material do they have to keep and how big of a blow-back from the fanboys can they withstand? Add to those normal worries the fact that in this case they are dealing with a piece of original content hailed as “the most celebrated graphic novel of all time“. Yeah, no pressure here. Lucky for Warner Brothers they happen to stumble upon a relatively new up-and-comer, Zack Snyder, who combined with his hyper-stylish visuals, also happened to be a long-time devotee of the original work. Dying to finally film the movie some said could never be done, the deal with the devil was made and the twenty-five year wait came to a close.
I’ve been racking my brain on how to really approach reviewing this film because clocking in at just under three hours, there is a wealth of things to hit, both good and bad. I decided to create a laundry list of items which merit mention and let you just check them off as you scroll on by:
- Zack Snyder: Leaving extremely bloody footprints through the box office with his CGI wonder-slaughter, 300, Snyder truly is the R-rated world’s golden boy. Yet truth be told, he was hired for Watchmen before 300 ever hit the theaters and he won the job purely on his pitch and unshakable loyalty to the property. Unfortunately, this also became his greatest downfall in the creative process. The movie comes off as a picture-in-picture moving version of the graphic novel, almost as if he brought in the book, dropped in front of the Director of Photography and the screenwriters and said, “Here are your storyboards. Do that.” Sure, this makes for an extremely faithful rendition, but it also makes it inherently uninteresting. He let his love for the book and his fear of fanboy retribution sway him from making the necessary changes in the story and visuals to create a more cohesive and enjoyable film. There is a distinct difference between the consumer experience when reading a graphic novel and seeing a movie and Snyder could have done that much better if he remembered which one he was working for.
- Jackie Earle Haley: Welcome to the performance of the year (at least thus far). Haley takes on the role of Rorshach, a sociopath with wildly violent tendencies, but he only uses them against bad people, so it’s totally fine. Working against any actor brave enough to play this part is the nearly constant presence of the identifying inkblot mask of Rorshach, constantly changing, keeping the onlooker off-balance and uncomfortable. Hugo Weaving found himself with similar barriers in his run as V in V for Vendetta and he also found some way to emote and intrigue from behind the lifeless mask. In Watchmen, Haley is terrifying, intimidating and pointedly driven throughout the film and somehow manages to become even more so during the small time when his mask is actually removed. A particular unmasked scene in the jailhouse is hands down the best and most rewarding scene in the film. I’ll boldly compare his effect on lifting this movie into respectability and enjoyment to the effect of Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight. Haley won’t be as revered or remembered by the majority of the cinematic community for this in comparison to Ledger, but without him, Watchmen would have crumbled under the sheer weight of its own scope and depth.
- Dr. Manhattan’s Wang: A picture perfect case of choosing intellectual reasoning over creatively intelligent choices. Snyder made the decision to follow along with the book and have Dr. Manhattan naked for most of the film, so in every scene where he faces the camera and is being shot below the waist, there’s his glowing blue appendage dangling for everyone to see, but for some reason Snyder neglected the fact that in the book Dr. Manhattan is cleverly blocked in virtually every frame when facing out. Now I’m no prude or in any realm of questioning my sexuality, but it’s impossible to not be knocked out of the moment every time it appears. The main reason for that is American audiences are nowhere near as used to seeing that on film as other countries, mostly in Europe. Snyder chose to once again satisfy the small fraction of the fanboy audience instead of recognizing the majority of people who will just find it silly and patently distracting. Almost every review I have seen and commentary from people the moment they walk out of the theater has started the same way, “Well, there’s a lot of blue penis.” Sorry, but if that’s the first thing people are saying coming out of this supposedly legendary story, you have failed in a major way. This also hurts what otherwise would have been a great performance by Billy Crudup, who did nearly the entire film in a motion capture suit. He really delivered on the emotionless void that Dr. Manhattan suffers through due to his ability to control anything he wants, down to its very atoms. One small shred of rational thought in costuming this character would have changed everything and improved the overall experience immensely.
- Tone vs. Style: The graphic novel was acclaimed from the moment it rolled off the press for many reasons, one of which was that it took on a superhero-style storyline without the superhero-style slickness. It is a raw, dark and dank story with colors and tones to match, with the grimy feel of streets filled with the worst and loneliest of human kind. Snyder made a very brave effort to replicate this, but in the world of mega-million dollar studio pictures, getting something with a dirty face out to the public is equal a single contestant running every American Gladiator event back-to-back. What we see in the theater is a type of combination of grit and gloss, seedy and slick, poetic and polished. Snyder walked a very tight tripwire between the two: one to satisfy the fans and the other to satisfy the studio, which in the end leaves the movie a bit imbalanced. It jumps from muted earth tones to reflective latex outfits in the blink of an eye with no hint of a visual segue. Both tones are enjoyable for different reasons, but I think the movie could have been served that much better by a more subtle blending of the two.
- The Ensemble Cast: Snyder made a good choice by not trying to lure in huge A-list actors here. Their presence would have only distracted from the content of the story and overwhelmed the already tenuous balance of personality over presence. I’ve already raved about the spectacular effort of Jackie Earle Haley as Rorshach and touched on Billy Crudup’s valiant stroke at overcoming the distraction of his own genitalia, but the rest of the cast was a bit of a mixed bag. Jeffery Dean Morgan tackled the sadistic and grizzled character of The Comedian, who in a certain respect is part of the tag-team catalyst of the story, along with Rorshach. Morgan really plays the part well, just egging the audience into a seething hatred of his presence, but he suffers just a touch from under-explanation. Even with the weight of all the flashbacks in the beginning, Morgan feels slightly one-dimensional, though that single dimension is played with vigor and flair. Malin Akerman slips into the skin tight suit of Silk Spectre II (the original Spectre, her mom, being played in a handful of scenes by Carla Gugino). Once again the part was portrayed well, but suffers even worse under-development. Where Malin actually succeeds is not while donning the latex fantasy of teenage boys the world over, but during her scenes as the normal, non-ass kicking Laurie Jupiter. Her tenderness and need for that same emotion in return is what pulls her through this epic tale. Patrick Wilson also has a better time playing his daytime persona of Dan Dreiberg versus his ridiculously clad Nite Owl II persona. Wilson captures the weakness and self-loathing of a man who feels he should be above the desire to run around as a costumed vigilante and fight for justice, but once he gives into that addiction his Nite Owl persona feels less than authentic. In the realm of the costumed vigilantes the only total miscue is the casting of Matthew Goode as Ozymandias. What should have come off as suave assuredness and blatant cockiness instead rang more like intellectual smugness wrapped in a fairly effeminate blanket. Basically, the actor playing Ozymandias should have been bigger and more manly. Throughout the film he never delivered the emotional threat or physical intimidation he needed to and by the time the credits roll the character just feels void instead of reluctantly classified as a hero.
One last note, I can’t even begin to fathom how someone wraps their head around having $150 million dollars to plays with while making a film, but Snyder needed to go back, grab some of the budget from flame effects and three-dimensional titles and toss it back at the hair and makeup department. Ranging from Akerman’s wig to the shoddy aging effects on Carla Gugino, the overall makeup efforts on the film were laughable. The one thought running through my head while watching some of those terrible examples was, “Did they get the same makeup people from The Reader?” (You should be imbuing here that I thought Kate Winslet’s aging effects were equally terrible. Oh, I checked, they were totally different makeup crews. There goes that theory.)
Recommendation: Even with all my nit-picky bitching over certain elements, Snyder proved all the naysayers wrong. They all railed for years that Watchmen could never be made as a movie and Snyder did just that. I’m just not sure it was the best one that could have been made. Even so, I enjoyed it and plan on seeing it once more to help clarify my feelings for it (this time in IMAX) and in that vein I can easily say this is one film everyone should go see and make up their own minds. There is a lot to chew on, so don’t fill up at the concession stand.
Should it be mentioned that neither of the fighters in the silhouette are in the movie? Nah…that’d be silly.
Rating: 3 out of 10
Video game adaptations have always had a hard and belabored road to the silver screen. The creative vision it takes to transform something from a playable game into a captivating and enjoyable story is chock full of pitfalls. First off, you find yourself dealing with the legions of video game fanatics who play these games religiously and feel the control on the joystick also issues them control over every facet of the character. So, pleasing them can be a particularly sticky task. Next you find out that many video games really don’t have a particularly interesting storyline, which means some writer clawing and scratching at the door to Hollywood has to earn his big break by taking on an adaptation, or re-imagining, that very few others would touch with a ten-foot fountain pen. Lastly, the studio has to try and balance the idea of making the movie enjoyable while still including enough reference to the game itself so they can use the title and character rights. Tack all that together and you’ve set yourself up for one hell of a struggle, and I didn’t even mention casting it! Yet, in the end the studios are happy to jump into the joystick-controlled quagmire because they are banking on the pre-made audience to show up and support their well-played games. Unfortunately, that only works when the game the movie is based on is still popular.
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is loosely, very loosely, based on the 1987 Capcom arcade fighting game. In the original game there were eight players you could choose from who resided in various countries and you fought your way around the world tournament style until everyone, including the final boss, was defeated. In this updated movie version, M. Bison (the original final boss) is a crime lord who runs a rapidly expanding syndicate taking over massive amounts of waterfront property in Bangkok. He kidnaps Chun-Li’s father to use his political connections and Chun-Li vows to take revenge and save him. Along the way she meets Gen, an old sage who once was a partner and fellow criminal alongside Bison, but has since turned his effort to helping people instead of hurting them. He teaches her to focus her energies and discover the secret to defeating Bison when the time comes. Running parallel to Chun-Li’s story is a rough and rugged Interpol agent who has been chasing Bison for most of his career and with the help of his new, vivacious partner in the Chinese gangland police force, he vows this is where the chase ends.
Now, brace yourselves, because this is where the niceties and political movie speak comes to a crashing halt.
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is terrible. It is a prime example of a studio and creative team reaching way beyond their abilities and trying to force the movie into a category it doesn’t belong (that being “good films”). They attempted to create a story out of a game where there really was none and build it into a possible franchise, but God help us if we get one of these for each character in the game. Other than the names the movie had virtually nothing to do with the game and only references it in the most trivial of ways. Street Fighter was a fighting game and for some insane reason they decided to make a movie with very few fight scenes, one of which, the highly anticipated battle between Chun-Li and Vega (barely acted by Taboo from the band Black Eyed Peas) only lasted thirty seconds and underwhelmed in an unimaginable fashion. Most of the first half is spent building up Chun-Li’s past and why her dad gets kidnapped, but all we needed to see was her kicking ass from the moment the lights go down. I never thought I would ever write these words, but here you go: this movie could have learned a lot from Dead or Alive (which didn’t even get a theatrical release). DoA never tried to be more than a video game movie and they respected the silliness and ridiculous nature of what they were trying to adapt. (Phew, I need a nap. Uttering that statement left me winded.)
On a lucky few occasions you might be able to power your way out of terrible writing and terrible directing with the power of strong actors, but Street Fighter chose in the realm of casting to continue its tradition with all things terrible. Kristen Kruek became an instant star and teenage fantasy of young and old men alike across the nation when she appeared in the TV show, Smallville. Capitalizing on her mixed heritage, she definitely has the look to pay Chun-Li in a Hollywood adaptation, but unfortunately all she has is the looks. In the time since she was a headliner on Smallville, where she is now mainly a cameo on random episodes, Kristen has not improved her skills to the level of headlining a feature film, even one as minimally dramatic as this. Right behind her in the sense of being cast on pure physicality is Neil McDonough, who plays the villainous crime lord M. Bison. He has been cashing checks based on his bad guy stare for years, but here it just felt overplayed, underwhelming and just, plain silly. Briefly showing a touch of inspired choices, Michael Clarke Duncan appears as Balrog and holds it down quite well, even if the Balrog in the game was nothing like him. Also, Moon Bloodgood, who briefly appeared last year in the short-lived TV show, Journeyman, plays the local gangland cop in charge of cleaning up the chaos Bison has brought to her city. Her character is completely unnecessary to the film and routinely just fodder for her partner’s bad pick-up lines, but she at seems to have the sense of the level of quality and tone the film was looking for. Last on the good side of things is Robin Shou, who plays the wise, mystical mentor, Gen. He is no stranger to the video game adaptation having starred as Liu Kang in the Mortal Kombat films, which are another pair of films the makers of Street Fighter could have taken some cues from. In all of this mess, this time I have gone against the grain and saved the worst for last, Chris Klein. Let me first say that I respect actors who know their type and play to it, while also holding respect for other actors who try to push their boundaries of skill. Chris Klein used to reside in the former group, playing the down home, clean-cut, high school quarterback type who just gosh darnit couldn’t seem to catch a break, but the mentally deficient casting agent somehow looked at him and thought he would be perfect as a grizzled Interpol agent with a penchant for bad one-liners and a total aversion to showering. Every scene with Chris reeked of a community theater impression of Colin Farrell ala Miami Vice (and even Farrell didn’t pull that off very well).
Recommendation: For the sake of clarifying why I gave this film any points at all; one point for Bloodgood, Duncan and Shou combined, one point for the film makers actually allowing people to die (which doesn’t often happen in these PG-13 versions), and one last point for giving me a big screen to watch Kristen Kruek on, who still remains quite cute, even after all this time. For those who might be wondering how this ranks up against the 1994 Street Fighter film starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, which was front-to-back a true black hole of quality, amazingly enough, they almost cancel each other out.
DandyID
Facebook
Twitter