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wizzballs
Reviews
Double Indemnity (1944)
Look it up in the dictionary.
To be honest, it's hard to know what to say about this film. It's been copied relentlessly, but it's hardly any less powerful for it.
Like all the best Hollywood movies of this period, it goes down like milk and whiskey, sweet and smooth, deceptively intoxicating.
The dialogue sparkles but never too much. The camera work and direction is flawless without ever once drawing attention away from the characters. Don't expect Hitchcockian symbolism or hints at fathomless intellectual depths, but the darkness that inhabits the characters is depicted in a few remarkably imaginative, yet vivid and immediate (stomach-turning, even) moments stomach-turning moments.
Wilder, his crew and the script-writers don't so much capture the enduring essence of Noir, as define it with unparalleled clarity. You are vicariously experiencing the greed, the violence, and ultimately the self-inflicted, self-gratifying terror and shame. In this version of Noir, it's a temporary state of mind, but the consequences are permanent and inescapable. Yet this is no 'crime-doesn't pay' morality tale'. The morality is so twisted by the end that it may not be immediately apparent to a modern viewer just how far gone the characters are. Tally up the moral score at a later date and you might be shocked just how dark a vision of humanity Hollywood was selling. There's no doubt in my mind that this echoed with a public that had been repeatedly shocked by war, degraded and desensitized. Having said that, there seems to be a small distinction drawn between crime of passion and cold blooded murder.
If there is a problem for the modern viewer it's probably that it's not all that easy to take George MacMurray seriously, but you probably will by the end.
X2 (2003)
Considerably less satisfying than the first
I saw the first X-Men film shortly after release. It didn't strike me particularly, and I found it easy to skip X2's theatrical release. By the time 3 had arrived on DVD, I was completely unmoved when a friend told me what a disaster it (3) was.
BUT. Having seen the positive reviews for X2, I sought out the first two movies on Blu-Ray. I found the original to be a very pleasant surprise, the situation and characters intriguing, the direction hit all the right notes. It had mood, panache and hinted at real substance. I found myself thinking 'Forget the special effects, there is real cinema here, maybe this sort of Hollywood picture has more to offer than some would have you believe'.
So I ventured into X2 in a positive frame of mind. Oh, how wrong I was.
The script is a monstrosity. The first half an hour sets up new developments for the characters, building on the good work of the first film. The other ninety minutes ruins them beyond repair. Each and every character starts off down an interesting path, then is hurriedly shunted off-screen so we can get down to some silly, unsatisfying action. Rogue falls in love, then err... nothing. Her boyfriend is subjected to a terrible rejection by his family, then err... nothing. In the end it's his friend (otherwise a complete waste of screen space) who reacts badly to nothing at all and runs off with the bad guys. Cyclops is just arbitrarily removed from the story only to arrive back on screen as a bad guy who, apropos of nothing, remembers he is a good guy in seconds flat.
McKellan and Stewart are a formidable double act, but McKellan's motives and methods seemed to be a series of straightforward contradictions that only served to expedite the narrative, and Stewart was emasculated and muted. Wolverine's situation is not intriguing, it's just the product of a terribly confused script.
The Evil Genius's son is yet another complete non-character that failed to evoke sympathy, pity, disgust, fear, intrigue, mystery, ANYTHING.
It's no surprise that his death was another 'no cause, no consequences, no significance to the characters or the movie-world, no audience feeling, in fact, lets not even show it, LETS GET BACK TO THE ACTION' moment.
The clichés and incongruences pile up on each other. It was almost ruined from the moment Xavier and Jean Gray turn up for a friendly visit to a jail off limits even to high-ranking government officials... this happens shortly after it has been established that Xavier is no friend of the government, even less a friend of the megalomaniac who runs said jail.
Countless other moments seem designed to disrupt any continued suspension of disbelief. Towards the end the abducted children suddenly appear back on-screen just in time to escape.
It saves the worst for last. Many have noted that the signposting of the ending is laughable and yet another extreme example of how to undermine any tension. Yet my personal favourite moment came with the deus-ex-teenager of Rogue arriving with the jet. It's a triumphant moment, right, you cared about this character once, she's not done anything for ages, ( and lets show you once again how little we care for her development by immediately showing her once again as a little girl who has lost the power of speech)... but wait, we're not quite there yet... just in case you don't get that it's A TRIUMPHANT ESCAPE... lets make it clear how triumphant and brilliant a moment this triumphant, brilliant escape is... let's make this particular jet engine emit the sound of a crowd cheering.
WOW.
Ratatouille (2007)
Pixar roll on.
Marvellous. The best thing is that Pixar are taking risks. Although the sentiment of the story is pure Americanism, the aesthetic of the film goes far beyond Disney-lite. If it lacks some of the darkness of The Incredibles, it reaffirms their artistic credentials in other, delightful ways. They are in danger of building a post-modern aesthetic that surpasses anything in the mainstream in it's attention to detail. Amelie is an obvious touchstone. It reminds me of an effort like 101 Dalmations, where Disney fused their own style with another brilliantly realised aesthetic, but this is a far tighter, sharper effort.
Just like a great chef, they are broadening the pallets of the customer, whilst totally satisfying their appetites. If the story was a little light, the moments were presented in a highly winning fashion. The effect is infectious and surprising.
You may indeed feel like a cynical critic who has been transported back to the purest sensations of his/her childhood.
Bravo!
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Asks a for a bit too much suspension of disbelief
An improvement on Raiders? Don't make me laugh. The over the top feel, the corny dialogue, the kiddy focus, the lack of dramatic context for the action and the weak and superficial attempt at mythology are all forgivable in a movie such as this.
What is harder to take is the appalling disrespect shown to Indian culture. As one reviewer here has noted, all Indians in this film are either demonic (i.e. soulless) bad guys or waiting for a westerner to save them. The only other use Spielberg finds Indian culture serves is to disgust us with entirely fabricated depictions of people eating monkey brains and beetles.
Kate Capshaw's character also deserves singling out, it seems that the only purpose women serve in this film is to be mothers to children (the women in the village), to complain when they break a nail, but mostly, to scream very loudly, and engage in sexual banter with the lead.
But hey, all of these are peripheral issues for what is an action movie.
What really bites is just how slipshod some of the direction, but especially the editing of some key action scenes were. The fight to save KC from being dropped into the lava makes absolutely no sense. If we look at it, Short-round in one cut must dispose of about 6 massive bad-guys AND wedge the pulley to account for what we are shown next. But we see NONE of this. We have to imagine it for ourselves, which is asking a lot, if you are over 10.
This kind of slipshod editing/direction occurs several times during the movie, and is really the reason why people say this movie is inferior to Raiders, and Last Crusade. It has nothing to do with any 'darker' feel to this picture compared to Raiders, which is something I personally just don't recognise. It's the quality of the action, editing and continuity that made Raiders in particular such a special action film. We can suspend our disbelief in many ways, but, if the action doesn't hold together cinematically (let alone create an illusion of material realism), the film fails.
Also to many modern eyes, some of the special (even basic ones) effects will appear remarkably crude, even accounting for the fact the film was made 25 odd years ago.
Luckily the film provides us at least one magic moment that reminds us what good action movies are all about. The chase on the mine cart is a simple idea that is brilliantly edited, humorous and exciting, and satisfying in almost every way an action sequence can be.
There are many other good moments in this film too, but this is the only one that isn't in some way spoilt by any of the reservations people have about this movie.