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chigekko
Reviews
The Black Donnellys (2007)
NBC are you stupid?
I was habituated to the time slot and, although disappointed when they put Studio 60 on hiatus, I kind of understood why. Studio 60 was great when it was good but had (has) a lot of spotty points that just don't work. So I tuned into The Black Donnellys out of habit more than a genuine interest in the show.
By the first twenty minutes, I knew I was into something good.
NBC pulled the plug, unceremoniously and without grace, on the show after only a few episodes. Fortunately, they made the episodes in the can for the rest of its short season available online and I was able to finish out the season and it only makes me more certain of this fact: NBC is the stupidest network on the air today.
Donnellys was set up to fail to begin with. It was a mid-season replacement for a faltering show that was overly-infatuated with its own self and only gave the new show five or six weeks before they killed it.
The Donnellys is ... was ... could have been ... NBC's Sopranos but it doesn't look like they had a clue about what they had. Frankly, it was better than the Sopranos, I think, and I hope they either revive it or, HDNET picks it up for more episodes, or, best yet, HBO buys the series and really lets it cut loose. HBO--now that's a network that knows how to produce, and support, a series.
NBC ... if you're listening ... put the Donnellys on the air in a good timeslot and give it the support it deserves. It was the best, most mature, best-produced and most well-written show you had.
On a side note: Haggis is one massively talented writer and storyteller. I'll watch/read/listen to anything he's got to offer from now on. Crash, Million Dollar Baby, Letters from Iwo Jima, The Black Donnellys ... geez. Awesome run of late.
Enough, even, to actually forgive the Texas Walker Ranger years!
Vacancy (2007)
not so good, really
Full of shock value by way of competent directing, but this is a hollow picture. Predictable, unresolved and unexplained.
First ... why leave professionally-edited tapes in the room for the victims to get clued in to the scheme?
Second ... there are racks of tapes in Frank Whaley's room that suggest at least dozens of victims at this motel. How do so many people die at this hotel without being discovered? Hard to believe that Whaley and his gang could get away with so many murders without a single investigation. No way that so many people could vanish from that hotel room without someone knowing that was where they last were.
Third ... Luke Wilson finds the cameras in his room pretty early on in the film. Why leave them in place? Why didn't he wreck them? I sure as hell would have.
Fourth ... The cop car is disabled by cut wires under the hood, but when? How? The cop was only out of sight of his patrol car for a minute or less.
Fifth ... happy ending where neither of the main good guys dies. That's bullcrap.
Sixth ... the contrived divorce-because-the-happy-couple-lost-a-child subtheme has been done and done. And it was just a bizarre, unexamined part of this movie. Weird.
That's just me, though.
Babel (2006)
Uh ... not sure wtf ...
Holy cow ... I expected a lot from this movie. Got some. Didn't get it all, though and by a damn site.
The good: I've never seen a better performance from Brad Pitt. He was gone ... completely lost and absorbed in the role. Good for him. I'll become a Pitt fan again if he does another bunch of roles like this.
Rinko Kikuchi is awesome. Fearless and utterly believable. I will look forward to more work from her.
Adriana Barraza ... excellent as the nanny who makes a very unfortunate choice. Great stuff.
The Bad: The amazing and capable Cate Blanchett had no role in this film. Should have either saved a bunch of dough and cast an up and comer or, preferably, given her some meat to chew on in this role. C'mon.
The Point. What the hell was this movie really trying to say? I appreciated the skillful direction and extremely good to excellent acting and the believable script, but what, exactly, is Inarritu trying to say with this movie? I felt almost the exact same way after watching 21 Grams. Similarly outstanding acting and technically-superb film-making, full of angst, anger, despair and emotion, but what the hell are we talking about? I don't need a theme spoon-fed to me or a trite, happy, Hollywood ending, but both these films seem to reach for some sort of emotional impact that either doesn't come naturally or is too deliberately dark and vague to, actually, have the impact Inarritu was trying to achieve.
I dunno. I can say for sure that Inarritu is skilled ... an expert, really and his script is tight and excellently delivered by a great cast. But the overall impact is cold, distant and vague.
Do I like this film? I'm not so sure. Do I recommend seeing the movie? Yes.
--ML