Sin City: A Dame To Kill For

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For - Dirs. Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller (2014)

"Sin City is where you go in with your eyes open or you don't come out at all."

You have to hand it to Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller for their dogged determination in sequelizing Sin City. Nine years later, the much-anticipated Sin City: A Dame to Kill For finally arrived in theaters to a tepid response. The movie came just shy of pulling in $40 million worldwide, a fraction of the $158 million earned by its predecessor. Perhaps, too much time has passed.

The original Sin City stood head and shoulders above other Hollywood releases with its hyper-stylized representation of film noir, stark black and white accentuated by splashes of color. Rodriguez also changed the way we thought of adapting comic books by slavishly remaining faithful to Miller's artwork. Pages from the comics were kept on set to utilize as storyboards. Now the look of Sin City isn't as fresh with perfume commercials appropriating the visuals. Miller certainly didn't help matters with his abysmal attempt at a feature film version of Will Eisner's Spirit. As for Rodriguez, Grindhouse was a fun experiment that deserved a larger audience, but Shorts, Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, and Machete Kills didn't set the world on fire.

A Dame to Kill For begins with "Just Another Saturday Night," in which the nigh-invulnerable bruiser Marv (Mickey Rourke) tries to piece together a hazy evening that involved frat boys lighting hobos on fire.

The best and most substantial story is "A Dame to Kill For" starring Dwight McCarthy (Josh Brolin), a man trying to put his violent past behind him. Everything falls apart when he is reunited with former lover Ava Lord (Eva Green). Against his better judgment, Dwight agrees to save Ava from an abusive marriage with the wealthy Damian Lord (Marton Csokas). Of course, Dwight should have known better than to believe anything coming from those luscious lips.

The second Sin City also features two original stories. In "The Long Bad Night," a cocky gambler named Johnny (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) enters into a high stakes poker game against the powerful Senator Roark (Powers Boothe) and might lose more than just his money. Finally, there's "Nancy's Last Dance," which continues the story from "The Yellow Bastard." Nancy Callahan (Jessica Alba) is still haunted by the death of her protector John Hartigan (Bruce Willis), who sacrificed his life to protect her from the grasp of Sen. Roark. Now, Nancy is a little unhinged and prepares nearly every waking moment to seek revenge against the untouchable politico.

If you enjoyed the style over substance approach of the first movie, then you'll probably dig A Dame to Kill For since you get more of the same. Rodriguez and Miller seamlessly blend live-action with computer animation in a dynamic fashion to craft the world of Sin City. There's some great imagery here, such as deadly little Miho firing a bow & arrow against a full moon or Roark surrounded by stacks of poker chips that resemble skyscrapers. After a while, it gets tiring, especially when the stories are so repetitive. We get decapitations galore and an endless stream of hard boiled narration. And the women of Sin City wind up being strippers, prostitutes or chopped into pieces by sadistic killers.

The filmmakers try harder this time around to integrate the various stories in the sequel and use the strip club, Kadie's Saloon, as a hub. It doesn't really work nor does it enhance the experience. It can be confusing as well since time means nothing. "Long Bad Night" and "Nancy's Last Dance" take place after the events of the previous picture, but "Dame to Kill For" is a prequel. Keep in mind; these new stories aren't by the Frank Miller who gave us acclaimed runs on Batman and Daredevil. This is the new Frank Miller behind the laughable All-Star Batman & Robin and the atrocious Holy Terror. This is a Frank Miller who thought it would be a fantastic idea for Nancy to disfigure her own face for the sole purpose of getting Marv to help her on a mission of vengeance. Heaven forbid a female character do something on her own.

Marv is a constant in each segment and the big bruiser brought a lot of dark humor in "The Hard Goodbye." However, he's now become a glorified attack dog that they sic on any henchmen in sight. So it makes absolutely no sense why Nancy doesn't just ask him to kill a bunch of dudes for her.

Rosario Dawson as the machine gun toting dominatrix Gail is back along with Jaime King as twin sexpots Goldie and Wendy, and Bruce Willis as the world's most laconic ghost. Dennis Haysbert takes over the role of Manute from the late-Michael Clarke Duncan while Jamie Chung replaces Devon Aoki as the silent assassin Miho. Among the newcomers are Juno Temple, Christopher Lloyd, Ray Liotta, Lady Gaga, Christopher Meloni, Jeremy Piven, and Stacy Keach underneath grotesque make-up that makes him look like a rejected Dick Tracy villain.

None of them hold a candle to Eva Green, who relishes in the role of the femme fatale to end all femme fatales. This is the very definition of sultry and seductive. Green deserves a special award for Best Performances in Unnecessary Frank Miller sequels. She was also the highlight of 300: Rise of an Empire as warrior woman Artemisia. Josh Brolin equates himself well with the gruff and lurid prose as Dwight when he had his old face. It does hurt the tale that Clive Owen was unable to return as Dwight after the reconstructive surgery.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For feels like a quick cash grab that was slapped together, except it came nine years later when the irons have long been cold. It's gratuitously crude and violent without any creative spark.

Rating: ** (*****)

Guardians of the Galaxy

Guardians of the Galaxy - Dir. James Gunn (2014)

"They call themselves the Guardians of the Galaxy."
"What a bunch of a-holes."

When Edgar Wright famously departed as director of Ant-Man, the fanboy nation decried Marvel Studios for no longer being willing to take risks. After all, their entire cinematic universe was built on a risk. Iron Man was not a character in the mainstream consciousness. Jon Favreau had no experience in directing big-budget action features. Finally, Robert Downey Jr. had his own baggage and was not considered a bankable star. Yet, Iron Man performed well beyond expectations and allowed Marvel to grow into a juggernaut with The Avengers quickly becoming one of the highest grossing films of all time. If Guardians of the Galaxy is any indication, Marvel is clearly willing to roll the dice and gamble big.

The Guardians first appeared in 1969 as a team of superheroes gathered from across the galaxy and living in the 31^st century. In 2008, writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning revamped the Guardians with a completely different line-up of characters that had faded into obscurity. They have since become a cornerstone of Marvel's cosmic universe. The property is even less known to the general public and the movie features no huge stars in leading roles. Then, you've got writer/director James Gunn, a filmmaker who cut his teeth on the low-budget schlock of Troma Pictures. Somehow, it all came together and Guardians of the Galaxy has gone on to become one of the biggest hits of the year.

Guardians of the Galaxy opens in 1988 as a despondent boy named Peter Quill watches his mother succumb to cancer. As he runs out of the hospital, a spaceship whisks him away to the farthest reaches of outer space. Flash forward to an adult Quill (Chris Pratt), who now calls himself Star-Lord and survives as a thief. On the planet of Morag, Quill attempts to steal an orb before being caught by Korath the Pursuer (Djimon Hounsou), a henchman in the employ of Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace). Turns out, the orb is an Infinity Stone, a gem of immense power, which Ronan wants to use to wipe out his mortal enemies, the Xandarians.

Quill just wants to sell it to a fence on Xandar Prime and has now knowledge of the orb's true nature or how everybody in the quadrant wants it. His former comrades, the Ravagers, want it for the cash value. Gamora (Zoe Saldana) sees the orb as her chance to escape the clutches of her adopted father Thanos (Josh Brolin), the Mad Titan responsible for the Chitauri invasion of Earth. As Quill and Gamora tussle over the orb, a pair of bounty hunters is looking to cash in on the handsome reward on Star-Lord. These bounty hunters just happen to be Rocket (Bradley Cooper), a talking bipedal raccoon, and Groot (Vin Diesel), a tree-like being who can only speak three words, "I am Groot."

If the story sounds familiar, it's not déjà vu. Guardians is almost identical to the plot of Thor: The Dark World and shares many elements with previous Marvel movies. There's a big bad who gets his hands on an Infinity Stone and threatens to wipe out an entire civilization. The good guys must defeat him and place the Infinity Stone in the safe hands of a third party. While it's a necessary evil to plant the seeds that will inevitably lead to The Infinity Gauntlet, you do wish Marvel would shake things up a bit.

Guardians surmounts its shortcomings thanks to a wealth of compelling characters. Oddly enough, the two best characters are the ones that were completely fabricated through special effects. Indeed, Rocket and Groot represent the heart of the movie. Bradley Cooper truly gives one of his best performances ever as Rocket, an adorable bundle of fur, anger, and sarcasm. Rocket provides plenty of comic relief, but there's tragedy to the character when he briefly alludes to the twisted experiments that brought him into being. Vin Diesel gets the most mileage out of repeating the same three words again and again. His voice work is eerily reminiscent of The Iron Giant, which isn't a surprise given that there's child-like innocence to both the Giant and Groot. Even Drax the Destroyer has a lovable naiveté with his unwavering quest for vengeance and his inability to grasp metaphors. Then, you have a star making turn (no pun intended) from Chris Pratt as Star-Lord, a scoundrel cut from the same cloth as Han Solo. Pratt is pure charm and his comedic timing is right on the mark.

Not every character gets their chance to shine. Gamora and Nebula have an interesting relationship, but neither character is given the enough screen time. We meet Gamora in one scene, and then she's already turned against Thanos in the next. Much like Malekith, Ronan is a one-note villain. While Lee Pace does a terrific job chewing the scenery, his acting is almost inconsequential when he's buried behind layers of make-up. It is a shame that actors like Glenn Close, Benicio Del Toro, John C. Reilly, and Djimon Hounsou weren't given more to do, but the fact that Marvel is able to get thespians of that caliber for bit roles is incredible.

Credit goes to Marvel for not handcuffing their chosen director. If anyone is familiar with Gunn's filmography, you'll know he has a penchant for gruesome imagery and off-kilter humor. Obviously, some of that was reined in. Still, Gunn brings a healthy helping of comedy to weave Guardians into a lighthearted adventure. Though his action set pieces may not be mind-blowing, Gunn still manages to direct some memorable sequences, such as Nebula resetting her broken bones, the Nova Corps forming an energy net, and Groot lighting the way with luminescent spores.

Adding another unique dimension to Guardians is an eclectic soundtrack of pop tunes from the 70's and 80's, everything from Motown ("Ain't No Mountain High Enough") to punk rock ("Cherry Bomb"). "Hooked on a Feeling," which was a major component of the trailers, undercuts the brutality displayed when Quill is beaten by prison guards. David Bowie's "Moonage Daydream" is effectively played as the Guardians arrive at a mining operation inside the immense head of an ancient cosmic being. After the heartbreaking prologue, Gunn cuts to an adult Quill as he retrieves the Orb (shades of Raiders of the Lost Ark) while joyously dancing to Redbone's "Come and Get Your Love."

Guardians of the Galaxy is easily one of the best blockbusters of the year and one of the best offerings from Marvel Studios. It ranks right up there with Iron Man and The Avengers.

Rating: **** (*****)

Gangster Squad

Gangster Squad - Dir. Ruben Fleischer (2013)

In its heyday, Universal Studios was known for classic monster films like Dracula, Frankenstein, and The Wolf Man. On the other hand, Warner Brothers was renowned for violent gangster flicks that turned actors such as James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson into screen legends. Gangster Squad will hardly be ranked alongside Public Enemy, Little Caesar, or the original Scarface.

Gangster Squad is loosely based on a series of articles published by the L.A. Times and written by Paul Lieberman. "Tales from the Gangster Squad" was about a covert unit of the LAPD that waged war against organized crime. One of their primary targets was Mickey Cohen, a Jewish prizefighter who arrived on the west coast as hired muscle for Bugsy Siegel. The seedy underworld of Hollywood past was previously brought to life in L.A. Confidential. Indeed, Gangster Squad borrows heavily from the works of James Ellroy and The Untouchables.

Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) has brutally risen through the criminal underworld to control all of the drugs, gambling, and prostitution in Los Angeles. Corruption throughout the LAPD and local government has enabled Cohen's operations. The embattled Chief of Police Bill Parker (Nick Nolte) tasks Sgt. John O'Mara (Josh Brolin), a decorated WWII veteran, with assembling his own task force to combat Cohen. They are given carte blanche to dismantle Cohen's empire without the need for warrants or arrests. The roster for O'Mara's squad includes: Sgt. Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), a suave ladies' man; Coleman Harris (Anthony Mackie), a black beat cop with a mastery of the switchblade; surveillance expert Conwell Keeler (Giovanni Ribisi); Max Kennard (Robert Patrick), a mustachioed gunslinger; and earnest rookie Navidad Ramirez (Michael Pena). Things are complicated when Wooters romances Cohen's girlfriend and etiquette tutor, Grace Faraday (Emma Stone).

Gangster Squad is a visually stunning picture. Production designer Maher Ahmad has faithfully recreated a bygone era of Los Angeles full of fedoras, trenchcoats, sporty roadsters, and Tommy guns. It's all exquisitely lit with an accentuated color palette thanks to cinematographer Dion Beebe. Director Ruben Fleischer made a stylish debut with Zombieland and continues his trend for energetic action sequences with plenty of shootouts, explosions, chaotic brawls, and a car chase where potato masher grenades are lobbed about. One of the best staged scenes involves the squad breaking into Cohen's nightclub to burn his dirty money while Carmen Miranda sings on stage. One scene that didn't make the cut featured gangsters opening fire on a packed audience inside Grauman's Chinese Theater. The movie was delayed from its original September release following the tragedy in Aurora and the sequence was replaced with a shootout in Chinatown, which was no less bloody. Make no mistake; Gangster Squad is a violent film. Bodies are riddled with bullets, a trio of goons is burned alive, innocent bystanders routinely die, and one man is ripped in half after being tied to two cars.

Fleischer isn't afraid to reference other films in an obvious manner. The movie opens with Penn's Cohen quoting Bela Lugosi in Dracula. Later, a character is shot and falls face first into a swimming pool ala Sunset Boulevard. Fleischer even throws in a staircase gunfight during the climax as a nod to The Untouchables recreation of the Odessa Steps from Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin. Anthony Mackie flings his knife in a similar fashion to James Coburn in The Magnificent Seven. While Untouchables and Magnificent Seven were certainly an influence, there's also a heavy dose of Dick Tracy throughout Gangster Squad. Josh Brolin's square-jawed hero looks an awful lot like Chester Gould's iconic detective with the humorless stoicism of Joe Friday from Dragnet. Then, there's Sean Penn who bears no resemblance to the real Cohen and appears to have stepped right out of a comic strip. The make-up work turns him into a caricature and Penn plays it accordingly. He's a snarling beast chewing through every scene. Penn gets his Cagney moment when he shouts, "Here comes Santy Claus," while latching onto a Tommy gun during a Christmas shootout.

The hammy acting and relentless violence distracts from the fact that the hackneyed plot. The screenplay by Will Beall, a former LAPD officer, is rife with clichés and one-dimensional characters. Brolin's O'Mara is one of the worst leaders in cinematic history. As Wooters states, "You're a bull in a China shop, Sarge, but we follow you in anyways." That doesn't say much for O'Mara or his charges. He blindly leaps into the fray and can definitely be blamed for much of the film's collateral damage. In a nice twist, it is O'Mara's wife (Mireille Enos) who selects the members of his squad though she's never given more to do other than worry about her husband. The squad themselves aren't given any distinct personalities. Meanwhile, Gosling is so laidback cool that it almost borders on self-parody, especially when he's effortlessly flicking his Zippo lighter. He has some great scenes with Emma Stone who might as well be Jessica Rabbit's younger, slinkier sister.

Gangster Squad is a pure exercise in style over substance. This is L.A. Confidential dumbed down and turned into an R-rated, live-action cartoon.

Rating: ** ½ (*****)

Men in Black III

Men in Black III - Dir. Barry Sonnenfeld (2012)

The Avengers has been an unstoppable juggernaut since its release on May 4^th. There was only one super-powered being capable of knocking Marvel's magnum opus off its box office perch and that would be Will Smith. The former Fresh Prince is a guaranteed draw though I'm sure everyone would like to forget about Wild Wild West. But, Smith hasn't starred in a film since 2008's overwrought Seven Pounds and it's been a decade since the forgettable Men in Black II. Smith and Tommy Lee Jones slip comfortably back into the suits and sunglasses for a $55 million Memorial Day opening.

An intergalactic biker assassin named Boris the Animal (Jemaine Clement) has escaped from a maximum security prison on the Moon. Agent K (Jones) was the one who not only apprehended Boris, but blew off his left arm back in 1969. K also thwarted an invasion by Boris's people, the Boglodites, which lead to their extinction. Boris plans to travel back in time and prevent all this from happening. Agent J (Smith) literally jumps back to the 60's by leaping off the Chrysler Building to team up with the younger K (Josh Brolin).

Men in Black III was making headlines within the industry for the all the wrong reasons. The script by Etan Cohen (Tropic Thunder) went through multiple drafts by David Koepp and Jeff Nathanson, both of whom went uncredited. This is nothing new for a big budget blockbuster, but going into production without a completed screenplay is a rarity. With only the first act set in stone, MIB3 went into production in the fall of 2010 to take advantage of lucrative NY tax breaks that were feared to expire by the end of the year. A scheduled two month break was stretched to three as the rewrite process dragged on while some crew members continued to be paid. All told the budget was rumored to have ballooned to $300 million.

After viewing Men in Black III, it is clear the beleaguered writing process took its toll on the threequel, which is rife with plot holes. The fact that J still remembers the proper timeline is glanced over with a single line. Yet, it's never explained how J is with MIB since the man who recruited him no longer exists or why the aliens waited forty years to invade the Earth. MIB3 rehashes the fish out of water story from the previous installments as J deals the culture shock of the 60's. Don't expect any deep contemplation about Vietnam or political turmoil. Race relations are dealt with in an amusing sequence where J is pulled over by a pair of prejudiced cops. J is also befuddled by the primitive technology employed by the department back in the day. The 60's section is where the film shines thanks to the retro-futuristic production design by Bo Welch and the practical effects by make-up wizard Rick Baker, who was obviously inspired by the drive-in classics of the yesteryear. But, inconsistency raises its ugly head once more. The MIB are hampered by portable neuralizers attached to cumbersome battery packs and clunky looking jetpacks. Yet, they utilize gyroscopic monocycles that resemble the 'It' from South Park that would still be considered high tech in the future. While K's stoic demeanor has been an accepted personality trait, the filmmakers saw a ridiculous need to explain how he became this way. Never mind that K had lighthearted moments in the other pictures. Thus, the film builds to a final denouement that makes little sense.

One of the reasons the original Men in Black succeeded was the chemistry between the smart alecky Will Smith and the straight laced Tommy Lee Jones. Here, Jones is reduced to an extended cameo with the bulk of the picture shouldered by Josh Brolin, who does an uncanny impersonation of No Country for Old Men co-star. Brolin's vocal mimicry is so good you'd swear they dubbed Jones's voice over his. Bill Hader brings a much needed breath of fresh air as Andy Warhol, who happens to be an undercover MIB agent. A spinoff featuring the adventures of K and W in the seventies would have been more interesting than what we actually get. Will Smith is in full quippy Will Smith mode even if some of his humor ("I got no problem pimp slapping the shiznit out of Andy Warhol.") is as outdated as the vintage MIB gadgets. My goodness, he doesn't even sing a goofy theme song.  Luckily, the movie has a strong villain in Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords. It helps that speaks like Tim Curry and looks like "Macho Man" Randy Savage. Michael Stuhlbarg is also a great addition to the franchise as a nebbish extraterrestrial with the unique ability to see all possible timelines.

The perfect sequel should feel like a necessary continuation of the series along with whetting the appetite for further films. Men in Black III didn't need to be made and didn't make me clamor for Men in Black IV. If you can look past a plot rife with clichés and plot holes, you'll find an acceptable piece of popcorn entertainment. The demographic that will enjoy Men in Black III the most will likely be the kids who weren't even born when the first picture hit the screens.

Rating: ** ½ (*****)

True Grit

True Grit - Dirs. The Coen Brothers (2010)

From the Duke to the Dude, the Coen Brothers put their own indelible stamp on the Western in this latest adaptation of the 1968 novel, True Grit, by Charles Portis. Portis's book was previously brought to the screen a year after publication in a film directed by Henry Hathaway with John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn, a surly, one-eyed U.S. Marshal. It was a role that earned Wayne his one and only Oscar.

The Coens' remake goes back to the source material to create a darker film, but one that is not nearly as nihilistic as their previous works like No Country For Old Men, Burn After Reading, and A Serious Man. While Hathaway's film was set in the Colorado Rockies during autumn, the Coens take their story back to the frontiers of Arkansas (though it was shot in New Mexico and Texas) during the cold winter. The Coens' long-time D.P. Roger Deakins skillfully manages to capture the desolation and loneliness of this world. The only way to describe Deakins' cinematography would be beautiful bleakness. It is a harsh world that young Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) finds herself.

Mattie arrives in the town of Ft. Smith to collect the body of her father, who was murdered by a drifter in his employ named Tom Cheney (Josh Brolin). Only 14 years of age, Mattie carries herself with more confidence, and intelligence than most of the adults she encounters. Mattie will need all the stern maturity she can muster as she embarks on a startling rite of passage. By the end of her first day in Ft. Smith, Mattie witnesses the hanging of three men and spends the night in the undertaker's parlor amidst the company of some newly arrived corpses. The next morning, Mattie sets about finding a lawman with "grit" to hunt down Cheney and bring him to justice. To do this, Mattie seeks out the meanest, orneriest cuss around. She finds him in Reuben "Rooster" Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) with a patch over his right eye (the opposite of Wayne) and a belly full of whiskey.

Cogburn reluctantly accepts the job to find Cheney who is hiding out in Indian Territory with a band of outlaws led by "Lucky" Ned Pepper (Barry Pepper). However, he draws the line when it comes to young Mattie accompanying him on the quest. Undeterred, Mattie follows to ensure the deed is done joined by another tagalong in LaBeouf (Matt Damon), a Texas Ranger who has hunted Cheney for months for the murder of a senator.

True Grit isn't an outright revisionist film as it is a twist on classic Western iconography. It is grimier and, yes, grittier where the lush visuals of Monument Valley disappear in favor of barren country landscapes and dead trees. The heroes' journey is dotted with the surreal touches that are par for the course in a Coen Brothers film, such as an encounter with a hanging body and a frontiersman in a bearskin. As portrayed by Bridges, Rooster Cogburn gives a whole new meaning to the term grizzled. Yes, Wayne did play him as something of a past-his-prime drunk, but he never lost the trademark swagger that made him a movie legend. With a gruff growl to his voice, Bridges isn't afraid to make his Cogburn look foolish from time to time. He doesn't get the grand entrance like Wayne in Stagecoach or Charles Bronson in Once Upon a Time in the West. The first time we meet Cogburn, his voice bellows from inside an outhouse as he tends to "prior business." But, damn if Cogburn still doesn't look badass with the reins in his mouth riding into a gun blazing showdown with the bad guys ("Fill your hands, you son of a bitch.")

Not to be outdone is Matt Damon, an upgrade from the inexplicable casting of the "Rhinestone Cowboy" crooner, Glen Campbell. Damon's LaBeouf (or as he pronounces it, Le Beef) is a bit of a Southern dandy, clad in jangling spurs and a fringed jacket. A play on the virtuous white hats, LaBeouf is overly sensitive to the jabs of his companions at his overinflated opinion of himself. So too is Brolin's Cheney an atypical black hat. He's more of a coward and a whiner than he is the frighteningly skillful gunhand in the vein of Jack Palance in Shane or Michael Biehn in Tombstone. At one point, an exasperated Cheney pathetically mopes and mutters to himself, "Everything is against me."

Therein lies another uniquely Coen touch to True Grit, the dialogue. Many lines are lifted directly out of the original novel and Portis's idiosyncratic lines feel as if they come right out of Joel and Ethan's playbook. In their vision of the Old West, nobody uses contractions.

True Grit is a rare confluence of talent where the acting, the writing, and the direction all come together to create a fantastic film. Yet, none of that would mean anything if the central role of Mattie Ross was improperly cast. Where Hathaway went with an older actress in the then 20-year old Kim Darby, the Coens discovered 13-year old newcomer Hailee Steinfeld. To use a well-worn cliché, Steinfeld is a revelation, able to convey poise beyond her years. She also displays the same gift of gab possessed by other Coen-created protagonists. Her unwavering logic and firm grasp of language enable her to verbally emasculate a horse trader, who has underestimated this pre-pubescent customer. Mattie's thrust upon adulthood is symbolized when she sheds her schoolmarm black dress and dons her late-father's coat and hat, both of which are two sizes too big for her. Yet, she never sheds her tightly braided pigtails thus maintaining an innocence about her.

Joel & Ethan Coen return to form with a rousing crowd pleaser in True Grit. This is one of the best films of 2010.

Rating: **** (*****)

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger - Dir. Woody Allen (2010)

"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." - William Shakespeare, Macbeth.

Woody Allen's latest picture opens with a reworking of that same Shakespearean quote. Knowing Allen, the irony was most definitely not lost on him. You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger is full of sound and fury, but ultimately amounts to nothing.

Tall Dark Stranger features an ensemble of A-list actors who likely signed on so they can finally say they starred in a Woody Allen movie. The glue that holds the cast together is Gemma Jones as Helena, who has just suffered a devastating divorce from her long-time husband, Alfie (Anthony Hopkins). In her despair, Helena seeks guidance from a dime store fortune teller named Cristal (Pauline Collins). Helena's daughter, Sally (Naomi Watts), knows Cristal is an obvious fraud, but any comfort mother finds is good enough. Alfie, meanwhile, has fallen for a ditzy blond named Charmaine (Lucy Punch), who is a third of his age and works as a call girl.

Sally's marriage is also on the rocks. Her husband and Allen analogue, Roy (Josh Brolin), had a hit novel and struggles to write a follow up. He is forced to work as a limo driver to pay bills. Roy finds his spirits lifted by the beautiful Dia (Freida Pinto), who lives in an adjacent apartment building. Sally gets a new job as the assistant to a successful art dealer played by Antonio Banderas. Of course, she is smitten by him because he's Antonio freakin' Banderas. Allen's screenplay bobs and weaves through the multiple relationships as fickle lovers make their ultimate decisions about who to be with. Eventually, nearly everyone is miserable with their choices in life. Then, just when you think the movie is about to really get going, it abruptly ends as if Allen finally fizzled out and decided to just go home.

Though it's a drama with light comic overtones, Tall Dark Stranger is all about pessimism. However, Allen never reaches the farcical levels of fatalism that the Coen Brothers achieved in A Serious Man. All Allen manages to achieve is a middling sense of cynicism. Gone are the films full of wit and insightful observations about love and life. This is a film that seems cobbled together from a recycling bin left overflowing by refuse from the cutting room floor. These are stock characters wandering about in a London rendered completely indistinct by a director seemingly content to coast on his reputation.

At 75, Allen continues to plug away with a new film released each year. Perhaps, his prolific body of work is its own worst enemy. Anything new of Allen's will immediately be compared to classics such as Annie Hall or Hannah and Her Sisters. Alas, his recent movies will always fall short. Aside from Match Point, none of his new stuff has been particularly spellbinding. Even passable fare like Vicky Christina Barcelona couldn't live up to the expectations that come from the name Woody Allen. If it had been directed by someone else, it might have been more highly regarded. No such arguments will occur with You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, it would have been bad no matter who was behind the camera.

Rating: * ½ (*****)

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps - Dir. Oliver Stone (2010)

"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works."

Michael Douglas famously uttered those words in Oliver Stone's 1987 picture, Wall Street. The film served as an indictment of the excess that came to mark the era of Reagan and New Coke. Douglas earned an Oscar for his portrayal of corporate raider, Gordon Gekko, who became the epitome of yuppy capitalist culture gone wrong. The Faustian tale saw Gekko as the devil on the shoulder of young Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) as he's seduced by the dark side. Released two months after the stock market crash of '87, Wall Street was eerily prophetic and, over twenty years later, remains so. Unfortunately, they either didn't listen or got the message wrong.

"Greed is good," was meant to be a warning. Instead, it became a rallying call. Aspiring stock brokers cited Gordon Gekko as their inspiration. In Boiler Room, a group of hotshot traders recite whole lines of dialogue from Wall Street as if they were holy scripture. Now, the economy is in the worst shape it's been since the Great Depression. What better time for the return of Gordon Gekko?

The long-gestating sequel, Money Never Sleeps, opens in 2001 as Gekko is released from prison after an eight year sentence for securities fraud. The scene in which Gekko is given his paraphernalia is played as both comical and poetically fitting. He's handed a "gold money clip with no money in it" and a ridiculously oversized mobile phone. The penthouse predator who once spouted, "Lunch is for wimps," is reduced to a joke without a pot to piss in or a ride.

Flash forward to 2008 and we are at the nascent of the current economic collapse. Jacob Moore (Shia LaBeouf) is a stock trader with an interest in alternative energy. He also happens to be engaged to Gekko's estranged daughter, Winnie (Carey Mulligan), a blogger for a liberal news website. Winnie hasn't spoken to her father in years and blames him for the suicide of her brother. The destinies of Gekko and the younger generation are intertwined following the suicide of Jacob's boss, Louis Zabel (Frank Langella).

A mentor and father figure to Jacob, Zabel saw his company (a composite of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers) ruined due to false rumors of insolvency spread by Bretton James (Josh Brolin) of the rival Churchill Schwartz. He's a new breed of boardroom bastard, the kind who proudly displays a copy of Goya's gruesome "Saturn Devouring His Children" in his office. Zabel is forced to sell out for pennies on the dime then steps in front of a subway train. In a classic character moment, Gekko responds with quiet respect. At least, Zabel had the "balls to commit suicide." Gekko offers a trade. He will assist in Jacob's revenge scheme against Bretton James in exchange for reuniting him with Winnie.

Money Never Sleeps is a slickly made film thanks to cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (21 Grams, Brokeback Mountain) who makes New York City and Manhattan come alive. Stone (the son of a stockbroker) and screenwriters Allan Loeb (who once worked at the Chicago Board of Trade) and Stephen Schiff haven't created an in-depth expose of economic collapse. It is merely the backdrop for a more intimate story. However, the filmmakers can't help but diverge from the central plot to lecture the audience and utilize the sledgehammer of plot.

The movie really drags when breaks out a large chunks of exposition as LaBeouf explains fusion, complete with an animated graphics to really drive it home. Later, Stone matches a Dow Jones line chart with the New York City skyline, threatening to turn his film into a glorified Powerpoint presentation. The symbolism is heavy handed with talks about bubbles bursting and a child blowing bubbles in Central Park. Susan Sarandon is cast as Jacob's mother, a real estate agent who looks like a castaway from The Real Housewives of New Jersey. Her subplot feels shoehorned in simply for Stone to comment on the crash of the housing market.

What strengthens Money Never Sleeps is the sparkling dialogue by Loeb and Schiff and an incredibly game cast. Michael Douglas slips right into the skin of Gordon Gekko and is absolutely magnetic from the get-go. His teeth have been dulled, but he remains just as sharp. Even a slightly domesticated Gekko is still cooler than anybody else. It's easy to see why he became an inspiration rather than a cautionary figure. Gekko is at his most vulnerable when delivering a heartfelt speech about his wayward boy. The moment bleeds into real life as it mirrors Douglas and the drug problems of his own son, Cameron.

As Winnie Gekko, Carey Mulligan is the heart of the film and she's the second best actor in it. LaBeouf could have been the weak link, but surrounded by actors like Douglas, Mulligan, Frank Langella, and Josh Brolin, he manages to step it up. Special notice should be given to the 94-year old Eli Wallach as a grizzled partner at Churchill who was old enough to have lived through the Depression.

Charlie Sheen makes a quick cameo as Bud Fox who has become extremely Charlie Sheen-like over the years.

Rating: ** ½

Jonah Hex

Jonah Hex - Dir. Jimmy Hayward (2010)


Comic book movies are now a staple of the summer blockbuster season. This modern age of the comic book film can be traced back to an unlikely source in Blade. For decades, Marvel had attempted to turn their characters into successful feature films. Yet, all they had to show for it are a pair of awful direct-to-video movies based on Captain America and the Punisher and a Roger Corman-directed Fantastic Four that was never even released. With top properties like Spider-Man and the X-Men languishing in development hell, it was an unknown vampire slayer that broke through for Marvel and set the stage for Iron Man and others.

In recent years, Marvel’s main competitor, DC Comics, has had massive success with its rebooted Batman franchise. However, Superman Returns was a failure and they’ve struggled to get other A-list characters like Wonder Woman and the Flash off the ground while Green Lantern finally hits screens next year. It only makes sense for DC to exploit its lesser known characters or creator-owned properties to fill the void. And along rides Jonah Hex.

Hex was created by John Albano and Tony DeZuniga and first appeared in 1971 in All-Star Western #10. Set in the Old West, Hex was a bounty hunter with half his face hideously scarred. He was sold into slavery to the Apache as a child and fought for the Confederacy in adulthood. Later, he was revamped with a supernatural bent as part of DC’s Vertigo imprint. The movie version combines a little bit of both, but is a very loose adaptation of the character.

Josh Brolin stars as Jonah Hex; a Civil War veteran who surrendered to the Union inadvertantly resulting in the death of his best friend Jeb Turnbull (an uncredited Jeffrey Dean Morgan). In revenge, Jeb’s father, Quentin Turnbull (John Malkovich) forces Hex to watch helplessly while his wife and son are murdered. Left for dead with his face branded, Hex is saved by Indians and the ordeal leaves him the power to temporarily speak with the dead.

Since then, the disfigured anti-hero has made his mark as a renowned bounty hunter and gunfighter of exceptional skill. Meanwhile, Turnbull has become a terrorist striking out against the American government. He steals a massive supergun, dubbed the ‘Nation Killer,’ in order to destroy Washington during the country’s centennial celebration.

Jonah Hex endured a problematic journey into the theaters. The script was originally written by Neveldine & Taylor, the team behind the Crank films and Gamer, who were also attached to direct. Brolin signed onto the project supposedly because he loved its atrociousness. The pair left the project and was eventually replaced by the oddball choice of Jimmy Hayward whose only previous experience was the animated Horton Hears a Who. The project saw last minute reshoots under the supervision of Francis Lawrence (Constantine, I Am Legend) and a massive retooling of the plot.

What’s left is a complete mess that is barely 80 minutes long, not counting the credits. Jonah Hex is like two fractured films hastily duct taped together. There is a strange battle on a metaphysical plain between Hex and Turnbull that was once set to be the climax of the movie. Instead, it’s clumsily and confusingly intercut with two major sequences of the final product. The mystical elements are excised and in their place we find ludicrous weaponry like saddle-mounted Gatling guns, dynamite launching crossbows, and a monstrous cannon powered by glowing orange orbs invented by Eli Whitney, the creator of the cotton gin. No, really.

Some of the cast seem to realize what a colossal turd they’re in and play along. Brolin tries to rise above it all as the gravelly voiced Hex while Michael Fassbender goes over-the-top as a knife-wielding Irish henchman. Megan Fox also appears as a tough hooker with a lilting Southern accent and an impossibly thin hourglass waist. She seriously looks like she’ll snap in half at any second. For some reason, Fox almost always appears in close-ups with soft lighting no matter what the situation. Will Arnett is woefully miscast as a straight-laced Union officer while Michael Shannon pops in for one and only one scene as the ringleader of an underground fight club. Both actors are victims of the reshoots and slapdash editing.

Jonah Hex never purports to be anything more than a low-grade B-movie. Some might be able to enjoy it on a ‘so bad, it’s good’ level, but not me. Jonah Hex makes no attempt to remain faithful to the source material. It’s a shame really as the character had the potential to star in a Leone-style Spaghetti Western. The movie isn’t so much A Fistful of Dollars as it is Wild Wild West. In the pantheon of DC adaptations, it ranks at the bottom of the pile alongside Catwoman and Steel.

Rating: * ½

Milk

Milk - Dir. Gus Van Sant (2008)

"My name is Harvey Milk and I want to recruit you."

Auteur Gus Van Sant has bounced back and forth from the arthouse to the multiplex. He’s probably best known by mainstream audiences for the Oscar-winning Good Will Hunting or the ill-conceived shot-for-shot remake of Psycho. He’s spent the last several years making films of a more avant-garde nature (Elephant, Gerry, Paranoid Park). Now, Van Sant has found some middle ground with his biopic of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay individual elected to public office. Milk is a rather conventional film that transcends its by-the-numbers narrative trappings thanks to an exceptional cast led by Sean Penn.

Penn might be a humorless killjoy in real life, but he’s an amazing actor. Here, he throws himself into the role. He’s created a three-dimensional character without simply relying on the mannered impersonation that a less-talented actor would have given. Dustin Lance Black’s script doesn’t bother to get into Harvey Milk’s childhood or family background. He wisely skips ahead to Milk at 40 who has a mid-life crisis or revelation. Milk transforms from a Wall Street banker and Goldwater Republican to a long-haired hippie. Moving to SF, he opens a camera shop and becomes known as the Mayor of Castro Street. Though Milk gains unlikely supporters in the teamsters union, he ultimately loses his initial three campaigns before becoming city supervisor. Milk shrewdly finds a way to relate to a wide demographic of voters (not just the gay community) by promising to clean up dog poop. Throughout all this, Penn captures the real Milk’s charm, disarming wit, and determination (as evidenced in the Oscar-winning documentary, The Times of Harvey Milk).

Josh Brolin gives yet another amazing performance as fellow supervisor Dan White who would go on to assassinate both Milk and Mayor George Moscone. Brolin is perfect as the straight-laced White, an ex-cop and firefighter. He’s a man not unsettled by Milk’s sexuality, but by Milk’s sudden rise in power and notoriety, a rise that should have been his. And there might have been a little more to it as Milk speculated, "He might be one of us."

Milk’s release couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time. Milk organized gay activists against Prop 6 which called for the firing of all gay teachers in the public school system as well as their supporters. The measure was championed by singer Anita Bryant (who appears only in archival footage) and played upon the fears for their children’s safety. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Rating: *** 1/2

W.

W. - Dir. Oliver Stone (2008)

The always controversial Oliver Stone courts more of the same with the first biopic focusing on a sitting president. In a similar fashion to Nixon, Stone takes a not-so-beloved figure and breaks him down into a sympathetic light. W. isn’t the hatchet job most believed it would be. Stone’s Dubya certainly isn’t an eloquent man, but he’s far from the greedy warmonger many liberals paint him out to be. He’s a man desperate to get out of the shadow of a far more successful, far more renowned father. A man born of privilege who still enjoys burgers, beer, and Cheetos. A simple man overwhelmed and ill-equipped to handle the position of power he finds himself in. The whole film hinges on Josh Brolin whose superb performance could have easily slipped onto the level of a bad SNL sketch. It’s hard to imagine anyone else in the role, especially Stone’s first choice, Christian Bale, who actually spent months studying “Bushy” to hone his take.

Stone paints a far less favorable picture of Bush’s inner circle. The actors may not capture the look of their real-life counterparts, they capture their essence. Condoleezza Rice is a sycophant parroting everything the President says. Rumsfeld is full of self-assurance and arrogance even past the point when its proven Iraq has no WMDs. Even worse is Dick Cheney. In the film’s most over-the-top moment, the Vice-President steps up to the plate in the war room, extorting the importance of oil and the building of an American empire. ”There is no exit strategy. We stay. Nobody will fuck with us.” It’s a sequence more fitting for a James Bond villain, yet may not stray too far from the truth. It is Cheney and Karl Rove who pull the strings of the gullible and easily swayed Dubya. Only Colin Powell is shown in any sort of positive light as the circle’s sole voice of conscience.

Is it a perfect film? Definitely not. The weakest moments of the picture come from Stone’s usual flourishes into the metaphysical. The main narrative is framed around a fantasy of Bush in an empty Arlington Park which never gels with the rest of the film. Obviously, much of the film should be taken with a grain of salt. It’ll be interesting to see what audience W. finds. Liberals may be disappointed by the lack of Bush bashing while conservatives won’t bother with what they think will be more of the same from bleeding heart Hollywood types.

Rating: ***