Australia

Australia - Dir. Baz Luhrmann (2008)

Australia is a stirring epic that acts as a love letter to classic Hollywood and as a rallying point for national pride. At least, that’s what Mr. Lurhmann’s intentions were. Alas, his intentions far exceeded his talent as a storyteller. Ironically, the film is all about telling stories. Australia doesn’t have a hint of an original idea within its bloated two hour and forty minute runtime. Lurhmann attempts to meld new school CGI with old school Hollywood filmmaking, invoking David Lean and George Stevens. There’s even a John Ford shot that looks to be lifted right out of The Searchers.

The film begins as a romantic comedy with Nicole Kidman as the prim and proper Lady Ashley arriving in Australia to find her husband murdered and is forced to take over his ramshackle cattle farm. There, she meets the rough and rugged Drover played by People Magazine’s sexiest man of the year, Hugh Jackman. They hate each other instantly which, of course, means they’ll fall in love by the end of the first act. Lady Ashley also cares for a half-Aborigine/half-Caucasian boy who is in danger of being taken away to a Catholic-run orphanage. The purpose, to ”breed the black out of him.” Don’t forget the film’s villain, played by David Wenham (300, The Lord of the Rings), who does everything short of twirling a handlebar moustache. The movie turns into a Western where Lady Ashley and the Drover assemble a motley crew to herd the cattle into Darwin. Had Australia ended here; I’d be giving it a more glowing review.

The plot unfolds in an utterly predictable fashion and Kidman overacts a bit too much in the beginning, but the production is lavish and entertaining. Unfortunately, the film plods along into a war drama that’s as emotionally riveting as Pearl Harbor. Kidman is separated from those she loves as CGI planes bomb CGI buildings leading to big CGI explosions. The film attempts to bring to light the racial tensions that existed at the time, but tends to whitewash class and ethnic relations. It borders on condescension with its portrayal of Aboriginal mysticism.

Luhrmann hasn’t made a film since the garish musical Moulin Rouge due to developing Australia and, before that, a failed attempt at an Alexander the Great biopic. Directing-wise, Luhrmann hasn’t lost a step as he’s created a visually immaculate production. It’s a stunning picture at every level. The acting is good with Jackman in particular ably stepping into the Clark Gable role. But, the story isn’t there to back it up.

Rating: ** ½

The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight - Dir. Christopher Nolan (2008)


"How 'bout a magic trick?"

Am I allowed to call The Dark Knight, the Citizen Kane of comic book movies? Well, I don’t care because I am calling it that.

It's hard to even categorize the film as just a straight superhero movie. The tone and atmosphere is more in line with crime epics like Heat, The Departed, or The Untouchables. The opening bank robbery feels like a sequence taken directly from a Michael Mann movie. And with a runtime of over 2 and a half hours, The Dark Knight is the Bat-epic we've been waiting for. Christopher Nolan wastes no time in getting things started. We hit the ground running and Dark Knight grabs a firm hold of our short hairs and never lets up its grip.

While this may be a Batman movie, the true stealer of the show is The Joker. The greatest supervillain of all time is played to perfection by the late-Heath Ledger. To compare him to Alex DeLarge from A Clockwork Orange or Hannibal Lecter would be a gross understatement of the character. To compare him to Jack Nicholson would also be a disservice. Jack Nicholson's Joker was fun and instantly quotable. Yet, he was always just Jack Nicholson in white make-up doing Jack Nicholson shtick. Heath disappears into the role and not just because of costuming or make-up. His mannerisms and inflections ARE those of the Joker. Believe me, I was calling Oscar buzz long before anybody else. As soon as I heard that first Joker line in the original teaser last year, I knew Heath was going to do something special. I hope he gets some recognition during awards season and not just in a morbid posthumous way. If Johnny Depp can get an Oscar nomination for his fey Keith Richards act, Heath can get one for his Clown Prince of Crime.

Kudos as well to the writing team for crafting one of the most unique antagonists in cinematic history. Comic fans will see the influence from Alan Moore's The Killing Joke and Grant Morrison's Arkham Asylum. We don't get a repeat of Batman Begins. This is not The Joker Begins. There is no protracted origin sequence. No flashbacks, no exposition, no explanation of 'Why?' in regards to the Joker. He just IS. The Joker is not someone we can ever hope to understand. He's no mere mobster in search of money and power. He's no megalomaniac bent on world conquest. This Joker is a simple man who only wants to call the world on all its bullshit. He may not meticulously organize his evil plans, but he does come up with some incredibly twisted and innovative schemes. It is so fascinating to watch a villain who is several steps ahead of the heroes and has them completely outmatched.

Weaved into the tapestry is the rise and fall of Harvey Dent, the golden boy savior of Gotham City. Anybody with some familiarity with the Bat-Universe knows Dent's ultimate fate. At first, he is everything Batman cannot be only to become everything that Batman shouldn't be. Whereas the Joker is Batman's complete opposite in terms of order vs. chaos. Dent becomes Batman's opposite in the other extreme, corrupting his ideals about justice and meting out punishment with the flip of a coin. Both suffer tremendous tragedy, but Batman is driven by his tragedy while Dent succumbs to it. Eckhart gives a fine performance and his shared scenes with the Joker are some of the best in the film.

The best thing that Nolan has brought to his reinvigorated Bat-Franchise is the A-list cast. Many of them have returned for the sequel. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman are their usual dependable selves, bringing gravitas and a touch of humor to their scenes. Gary Oldman is that rare breed of actor that is a total chameleon. Like Heath, Oldman melts right into the role of Jim Gordon. Batman may be the title character and Joker may get all the attention, but Oldman’s Gordon is the heart of the film. Maggie Gyllenhaal is a definite upgrade from Katie Holmes. Of course, how can you ignore Christian Bale. He's the best Batman ever, even if his character doesn't get a chance to grow much in the sequel. Bale also does a great job with his foppish Bruce Wayne routine. The growling Bat-voice was overdone though, but that's the fault of post-production.

This being a blockbuster summer flick, I can't forget about the action sequences. The Hong Kong sequence is gorgeous and the finale is pure awesomeness. The car chase through the streets is another excellent set piece. The Bat-Pod is cool and used just right without ever coming off as a blatant excuse for a toy. My only beef would be some of the fight scenes as I'm not a fan of Nolan's quick cut editing. If a fight breaks out, I want to be able to see the fight and not just a series of close-ups of people's fists and feet.

Nolan and company have topped themselves creating that rare sequel that blows the original right out of the water. This is the best comic book adaptation ever and my pick for best film of 2008.

Rating: **** 1/2

Punisher: War Zone

Punisher: War Zone - Dir. Lexi Alexander (2008)

”Somebody has to punish the corrupt.”

Or maybe somebody should punish the folks who can’t seem to put together a good Punisher movie. Out of all the comic book characters there are, the Punisher should be one of the easiest to pull off. No superpowers, no goofy outfit, no crazy comic book science to explain, and no need for $200 million in special effects. Just one mean badass with a shitload of guns. War Zone follows in the tepid footsteps of the no-budget Dolph Lundgren version and the so-so Thomas Jane vehicle. Was the third time the charm? It’s leaps and bounds ahead of the previous versions, but pales in comparison to The Dark Knight and Iron Man in terms of 2008’s comic book adaptations. It has more in common with testosterone-fueled action flicks like Commando or Rambo.

War Zone takes the Punisher back to his roots, plopping him down into the seedy streets of New York City (though it was actually shot in Montreal). Dark, cold tones with neon highlights, a far cry from the sunny beaches of Tampa. His origin remains much closer to the source material and is briefly seen in flashbacks so we can get right into the action. This iteration of Frank Castle is the brooding, taciturn killing machine he needed to be. The man doesn’t even speak his first lines until about half an hour into the movie. Who has time for action hero one-liners when you’re hanging upside-down from a crystal chandelier pumping several hundred rounds of ammo into the bodies of hapless goombas? This is a Punisher who doesn’t bother with Machiavellian schemes involving fire hydrants. Not when he can punch his fist through someone’s face or stab a man through the eye with a chair leg. The violence is like an Itchy & Scratchy episode. The film also features the best use of a rocket launcher in cinematic history. This is a Punisher who really does some serious punishing.

Ray Stevenson fits the role of Frank Castle perfectly. He’s big, mean, and looks like he’s seen some serious shit. Stevenson is the Bradstreet Punisher come to life. Even Wayne Knight (“Newman…”) has some good scenes with Stevenson as the Punisher’s tech-guy, Micro. The rest of the cast doesn’t fare so well on the other hand. Dominic West (McNulty!) goes over over-the-top as Frank’s facially mangled arch-enemy, Jigsaw. West switches from narcissistic mob boss to cartoon character in a heartbeat, a combination of Jack Nicholson’s Joker with a Dick Tracy villain. The same goes for Doug Hutchison as Jigsaw’s cannibalistic brother, Loony Bin Jim, an original creation of screenwriter Nick Santora. Julie Benz (who I usually adore) plays the same damsel in distress role as she did in Rambo, but now with a poor New York accent. In fact, nearly everybody in the film has a bad stereotypical accent, be it Italian, New York, Russian, or Irish.

The film also spreads itself too thin by throwing in far too many characters. The filmmakers mined Garth Ennis’s seminal run on the Punisher MAX series to fill out the supporting cast. There’s sad sack NYPD detective Martin Soap, Paul Budiansky (another NYPD detective in the comics, now an FBI agent), black Irishman Maginty, and Russian gangsters the Bulats. Despite this being his film, the Punisher becomes marginalized too often in favor of characters that are essentially cannon fodder. As a fan of the MAX series, I felt a lot of great villains were wasted. Nicky Cavella is turned into an undercover FBI agent, his psychotic henchmen Ink & Pittsy are now comic relief toadies, and the Bulats (from one of the best Punisher stories ever) are barely a blip on the radar.

In their zeal to create a sympathetic lead, the filmmakers tend to humanize Frank a little too much. Despondent over accidentally killing an undercover officer, he contemplates giving up his alter-ego. After all, we've never seen that in a comic book movie.

In his review, Roger Ebert called War Zone “one of the best-made bad movies.” That hits the nail on the head. Punisher: War Zone is a film for those who are looking for an hour and a half of mindless violence. It’s a throwback to the 80’s style action film. Taken at that level, it works. Lexi Alexander, a German-born kickboxing champion, joins a tiny club of female action directors whose only other member I can think of is Kathryn Bigelow. Alexander handles the gun battles and fight scenes well without relying on the Bourne-style of quick edits and tight close-ups. A guilty pleasure all the way.

Rating: ***

Body of Lies

Body of Lies - Dir. Ridley Scott (2008)

Leonardo DiCaprio & Russell Crowe - 1, Terrorists - 0

In recent years, Hollywood has dealt with Post-9/11 America in films that were either overly didactic (Lions for Lambs, Rendition or politically tinged action flicks (The Kingdom. Body of Lies falls somewhere in the middle, tasting of that Bourne flavor, but going light on the action and the nauseating, shaky camera.

Adapted from the novel by William Monahan (The Departed, Body of Lies) is content to be a competently made production while failing to distinguish as a film that just has to be seen. All the earmarks of a modern spy thriller are present. The sky high satellite shots, intertitles with time & location, and double-crosses galore. A love story is tacked on because DiCaprio can’t possibly do the movie without a romantic interest. It does touch upon the unique tribulations of a Middle Eastern woman dating a Westerner, but adds nothing to the overall narrative.

Crowe puts on a fun performance along with an extra 40lbs. and a country fried accent for his role as DiCaprio’s superior. Mark Strong is the real star of the film as the head of Jordanian secret intelligence.

Rating: ** 1/2

Wanted

Wanted - Dir. Timur Bekmambetov (2008)

Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) is an office drone slaving away in a cubicle. His boss always yells at him and his girlfriend cheats on him with his best friend. His job is terrible, his life is terrible and he knows it. He just can´t or won´t do anything about it. If you couldn´t figure any of that out on your own, Wesley helpfully informs us through his Chuck Palahniuk-inspired narration. Wesley´s father ran out on him years ago and he´s never heard from him since. That is, until the sultry Fox (Angelina Jolie) drops into his life. She tells Wesley his father was one of the greatest assassins in the world and was just murdered on a rooftop. Wesley is inducted into a ancient order of killers known as The Fraternity who take their orders from the Loom of Fate which weaves the names of their targets into its cloth. "Kill one save a thousand," that´s their motto.

He meets the Fraternity´s leader, Sloan (Morgan Freeman), who helps Wesley realize his potential when he orders him to shoot the wings off a swarm of houseflies. Other members include The Gunsmith (Common), The Exterminator (Konstantin Khabensky), The Repairman (Marc Warren), and The Butcher (Dato Baktadze). I think The Baker and The Candlestick Maker are being saved for the sequel. Every member of the Fraternity has a heart that beats at extraordinary speeds giving them an adrenaline boost that allows them to perform superhuman feats. They can also curve the trajectories of their bullets. How? It´s all in the wrists.

Wesley´s assassin training consists of taking vicious beatings from his colleagues, shooting corpses strung up on meat hooks, and riding the roofs of Chicago´s elevated trains. The better to prepare him for the inevitable showdown against his father´s killer, a Fraternity turncoat named Cross (Thomas Kretschmann). That´s the plot in a nutshell. Sure, there are some twists and turns in the third act, but the story is incidental to the action. It´s as if the filmmakers came up with cool action sequences first and built the storyline around them. The first half of the film is Wesley´s training with the obligatory montage and a quick set of scenes following Wesley making his first kills. They might as well have just made Wanted entirely out of action montages set to Danny Elfman's pulse-pounding score.

The basic premise of the movie is completely ludicrous. We´re lead to believe that a small group of weavers a thousand years ago somehow discerned a secret code from the pattern in their cloth. How exactly did they do intel on their targets? They didn´t exactly have Google back then. And is the world of Wanted one without Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden? How does a secret society stay so secret when they´ve got members flying across skyscrapers, shooting it out in the middle of a crowded drug store, and evading swarms of police officers? While I´m all for, "It´s only a movie," but, come on, guys.

Director Timur Bekmambetov makes his American debut on Wanted after helming a pair of special effects blockbusters, Night Watch, and Day Watch, in his native Russia. Bekmambetov directs Wanted as if he were John Woo with A.D.D. after someone substituted his Ritalin for Jolt and Red Bull. Bekmambetov cribs heavily from The Matrix utilizing bullet time and making the simple act of a victim shot through the head an excruciatingly elaborate production. Bekmambetov dips into a deep bag of tricks to further spice things up. He uses freeze frames, slow motion, fast motion, zoom-ins, zoom-outs, fast forwards, and rewinds. Bullets strike each other in mid-shot and slick sports cars flip through the air like circus acrobats. Some moviegoers will be astonished at the eye candy while more conservative audience members will likely get a migraine. Throughout it all, Bekmambetov keeps a dark sense of humor. A man gets smashed in the face with the keyboard; the letters and a tooth break off to spell out an obscenity. A laser sighting dots a Hindi woman´s Bindi and a bullet is engraved with the word, "Goodbye."

As far as the acting goes, it´s better than you´d expect from a film like this. Much like Robert Downey Jr. and Edward Norton, James McAvoy appears to be an unlikely choice to anchor a big-budget comic book movie. Yet, he equates himself well though not as much as his contemporaries. McAvoy begins the film with the flabbergasted, deer in the headlights demeanor that you´d expect from the comic relief sidekick and not the action hero lead. But, the Scottish actor sports an almost flawless American accent and pulls off the transformation from nebbish pushover into buff killing machine. Angelina Jolie (she of the thick lips & spindly arms) plays up her image of steamy, sexpot as the tattooed, femme fatale Fox. She is everything a growing boy with raging hormones could want. The smoking hot, kick-ass fantasy girl you wished would drop into your life. When she kisses Wesley in front of his shrill ex-girlfriend, the guys in my theater cheered and hollered. And for those of you who thought they should have seen more when Ms. Jolie emerged from the water naked in Beowulf, you won´t be disappointed here.

Five years ago, I would have said it was impossible for an actor the caliber of Morgan Freeman to participate in such a profane and violent spectacle. Nowadays, the man seems content to appear in sentimental, crowd pleasers like The Bucket List and Evan Almighty, along with genre pictures like Wanted and the Batman franchise. As expected, he lends a bit of credibility to all the silliness and I did giggle like a schoolgirl when I heard Easy Reader curse up a Samuel L. Jackson storm. The filmmakers tried to throw the fanboys a bone with the casting of Terrence Stamp as the mysterious Pekwarsky. Like Freeman, Stamp brings a little extra gravitas to his miniscule part, but General Zod doesn´t get enough screen time and never makes anyone kneel before him.

Now, I switch into comic book geek mode. I pose the question, what is more preposterous? A hidden clan of assassins who take their orders from a giant sewing machine? Or a world where comic book super-villains actually exist and rule the world in secret after having defeated all the super-heroes in a massive war? The latter was the high concept premise of the original comic. Millar loosely based his creations on the rogues´ galleries of DC Comics to form an over-the-top, darkly humorous and nihilistic world.

Producers snatched up the rights before the first issue even came out and had the screenwriters behind 2 Fast 2 Furious and 3:10 To Yuma ditch the super-villain angle and go off in their own direction. I doubt Wanted would have benefited from a 100%, straight-on adaptation ala Sin City, but we´ve seen plenty of movies about assassins. The super-villain plot would have been more unique and given us far more outlandish characters compared to the dull, generic supporting cast of the film. Mr. X and the Repairman don´t compare to a poop monster made of the feces from the 666 most evil humans in history. Maybe mainstream audiences just weren´t ready for Johnny Two-Dicks, a mobster with an evil, talking penis. While I agree with toning down the sheer amorality of the comic, I believe the film lost some of the hook and the acerbic wit of the source material. We´ve had poor attempts at the post-modern comic book movie (Mystery Men, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Hancock), but I think Wanted could have been the one.

Films like Iron Man, Die Hard, and Terminator 2 have proven blockbuster action flicks can still be intelligent with heart and a sharp script. Wanted has no intelligence, heart or a sharp script. It is a loud, dumb action movie and sometimes that´s all I want. It might not be healthy, but I´ll pass on the filet mignon every once in a while for a Twinkie. Wanted is a Twinkie, a delicious, bloody, profane, bullet-riddled Twinkie. It´s a super-stylized, gun-toting guilty pleasure that´s not afraid to go for the hard R. It´s meant to attract the types of folks who love playing Grand Theft Auto. The action sequences were a helluva lot of fun and the movie appealed to my mentally deranged, inner child.

Rating: ***

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Dir. Dave Filoni (2008)


George Lucas captured lightning in a bottle with the original Star Wars trilogy, a franchise obsessively beloved by millions of fanboys (I’m one) for decades. New Star Wars is as beloved as New Coke and Crystal Clear Pepsi. The animated Clone Wars feature fits in between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith both in terms of continuity and quality. The plot is a needlessly complicated knot of storylines and is only there to service an endless string of action sequences. It’s a contrived and predictable mess with no reasons at all to become emotionally invested in any of the characters.

The action itself is simply empty noise and a relentless assault on senses too overwhelmed to comprehend what is actually happening on screen. The animation is as wooden as the awful dialogue. George Lucas, if you only knew the power of rewrites.

The Clone Wars version of Anakin shows no signs of eventually walking down the path of the Dark Side, but he’s still a better actor than Hayden Christensen. Younger Star Wars fans will be amazed by the eye candy, but this fanboy would rather be thrown into the Sarlacc Pit and slowly digested for over a thousand years.

Rating: * ½

Happy Thanksgiving!

Max Payne

Max Payne - Dir. John Moore (2008)

Wow…a video game movie that sucks. What. A. Fucking. Shock. Max Payne may not have been directed by Paul W.S. Anderson or Uwe Boll, but John Moore does nothing to distinguish himself from either hackmeister. Moore captures the atmosphere with a stylish, Sin City-esque setting, but lacks any emotional connection whatsoever. Ponderous allusions to Norse mythology and valkyries poorly attempt to add a more cerebral layer to what is a dumb action movie.

Perhaps, the film’s biggest downfall is the miscasting on nearly every level. Mark Wahlberg plugs into the stoic action roles well, but whose bright idea was it to cast Meg Griffin as a badass, Russian mafia assassin? Ludacris as an internal affairs investigator? Chris O’Donnell as…well, anybody? The paper-thin story, cardboard characters, and God awful dialogue could have been forgiven if it weren’t for the fact that Max Payne is an action movie almost devoid of any action.

The finale features some good Matrix-style shoot-em-up moments, but it’s too little, too late. An hour and a half of Mark Wahlberg talking to donkeys would have been infinitely more entertaining. "Say ‘hi’ to your mother for me, all right?"

Rating: *

Hancock

Hancock - Dir. Peter Berg (2008)


Once upon a time there was a script called Tonight, He Comes and it was hailed as one of the best screenplays ever written that had yet to be produced. The script was a serious drama about a lonely superhero that falls for an ordinary housewife. What the Hell happened to it? The story passed through the hands of several directors including Michael Mann, Tony Scott, and Jonathan Mostow. It must have passed through even more hands for us to receive this diluted, hodgepodge of missed opportunities and wasted potential. This poor attempt at a post-modern superhero film could have been the perfect antidote for the summer glut of comic book movies.

The movie makes an honest attempt to show the real world consequences of outrageous superheroic acts. Hancock abruptly stops a train and causes a massive accident. However, ten minutes later, he hurls a child high into the air, catches him, and the child walks off with some mental scarring, but no physical effects. As if, he wouldn't have broken nearly every bone in his body. The acting is fair. Will Smith is his usual affable self and it’s hard to hate the former Fresh Prince of Bel Air even when he’s trying hard to be an asshole. The same goes for Jason Bateman who plays basically the same character (the put-upon straight man) he did in Arrested Development. Charlize Theron is wasted in her tiny role as Bateman's wife.

The film switches from lowbrow comedy to a darker drama, but the two halves never mesh properly. The problem lies in shoving the genre conventions of a superhero movie into a picture that isn't supposed to be a superhero movie. The ending is anti-climatic and the third act revelation is contrived and nonsensical.

Rating: * 1/2

RocknRolla

RocknRolla - Dir. Guy Ritchie (2008)


The well may have run dry, but that hasn’t stopped Ritchie from dipping into it once more. Thrust yet again into the London underworld, we are introduced to an ensemble of ruthless gangsters and incompetent crooks. There’s an overly complicated real estate scam, stolen cash, a stolen painting, and the search for a drugged out rock star.

Ritchie has been reluctant to grow as a filmmaker ever since making his big splash on the Post-Tarantino cinematic landscape with Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. He’s essentially remade the same film three times. Then again, when he did try to stretch his directing muscles, he made the universally reviled Swept Away.

With RocknRolla, the former Mr. Madonna’s flaws show more and more. MTV style editing and fancy camera tricks act as feints for otherwise bland sequences. Ritchie stuffs his script with far too many subplots and characters in a vain attempt to bolster his page count. The only way to distinguish any of those characters is by arbitrarily goofy nicknames like One Two, Mumbles, and Johnny Quid. It won’t be by their well-rounded personalities since they have none.

To Ritchie’s credit, he still manages to collect a wealth of talented actors to play his cartoonish characters. Not all of them are properly utilized, the usually entertaining Jeremy Piven turns in a bland performance, for example. As one of the hottest accountants in the world, Thandie Newton displays a sexy cool that might be the closest we’ll ever get to a gangland Audrey Hepburn. I also enjoyed Mark Strong’s (also great in Body of Lies and Stardust) excellent turn as our narrator and the right-hand man of Lenny Cole played to perfection by Tom Wilkinson (”There’s no school like the old school.”).

Rating: **