Apparently the original draft for this script was a lot more historically accurate - it's based on the Abscam scandal of the late 70s/early 80s which I admit I'd never heard about before - but then David O. Russell got his hands on it and he fictionalised things and shook it up.
Was it the right decision? I haven't read the original so I couldn't say. Certainly this could have done with a bit (actually make that a lot) of trimming and sharper focused; a lot of the scenes felt improvised, which may have been creatively satisfying but often makes for repetitive dialogue.
But it's got plenty of colour and character - I was never sure of where it was going or what it was doing, which occasionally irritated but on the whole was a positive. The cast throw themselves into it - every dress Amy Adams wore lacked a bra (whose choice was that, I wonder?), Christian Bale got past his fake gut and hairpiece to find unlikely humanity in a con man, Bradley Cooper had energy and spunk as the FBI agent, Jeremy Remmer was perhaps the most likeable character in the whole story, and Jennifer Lawrence was amazingly good (if, as in Silver Linings Playbook, she felt too young)
Overlong, overpraised but good fun with some excellent actors and costumes.
Friday, December 20, 2013
Movie review - "This is Forty" (2012) ****
A follow up to Knocked Up was not as popular despite a similarly strong cast and script full of observant moments. Yes it's long but so was Knocked Up. I think the relative lack of popularity stemmed from two things: stories about turning forty aren't as inherent appealing as ones about falling pregnant (the latter is the start of a new chapter, the former is a mid point next stop death); and secondly, Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd can't carry a film as stars. I admit that's a harsh, personal judgement - both are very talented, capable actors, likeable and all that... but they're not stars. They're not Jason Segel or Kristen Wiig or Seth Rogen or even Katherine Heigl and it hurts in a film on which so much is dependent on these two.
Compounding the problems are the two Apatow kids as the Mann/Rudd children. They were weak in Funny People too - the elder daughter more so than the younger - and that problem is repeated. They are okay, but they're not exceptional, and character driven comedies like these need exceptional casting.
This becomes more obvious when the lead four actors engage with the superb support cast: Segel, Albert Brooks (some brilliant work as a funny very reluctant late in life father), John Lithgow, Rob Smigel, Melissa McCarthy (again, brilliant), Lena Durham and even Megan Fox who is really funny. When the lead four characters engage with them is when this really comes alive. Even with them it's still pretty good - full of honesty and warmth and funny observations (husbands sneaking off to the toilet to get alone time, partners fantasizing about killing each other in a loving way).
Compounding the problems are the two Apatow kids as the Mann/Rudd children. They were weak in Funny People too - the elder daughter more so than the younger - and that problem is repeated. They are okay, but they're not exceptional, and character driven comedies like these need exceptional casting.
This becomes more obvious when the lead four actors engage with the superb support cast: Segel, Albert Brooks (some brilliant work as a funny very reluctant late in life father), John Lithgow, Rob Smigel, Melissa McCarthy (again, brilliant), Lena Durham and even Megan Fox who is really funny. When the lead four characters engage with them is when this really comes alive. Even with them it's still pretty good - full of honesty and warmth and funny observations (husbands sneaking off to the toilet to get alone time, partners fantasizing about killing each other in a loving way).
Friday, December 13, 2013
Movie review - "Sleepaway Camp" (1983) * (warning: spoilers)
Teen slasher films of the early 80s were an often indistinguishable bunch but this one, while it has the most basic of basic ideas (someone runs around a summer camp killing off kids and counsellors one by one) this manages to be special by virtue of sheer insanity.
The plot focuses around young Angela, survivor of a hilarious family boating accident when young who grows up under the charge of what seems like a female impersonator. She goes to stay at summer camp where she is picked on by many of the kids there - who subsequently wind up dead. Most of the victims are played by actors who seem to be really young, which is actually a bit upsetting - but you're more likely to be distracted by the bad acting, porn movie moustaches (one painted on) and Village people haircuts, skin tight shorts, comments about women being flat chested and having no pubic hair, a camp owner who refuses to believe anything is wrong no matter how many corpses show up.
There's also a lot of gender/sexual politics with two kids being traumatised at the sight of their father in bed with another man, and a woman raising a boy to be a girl, and a Crying Game type ending. So you have to give it some points for at least imagination. Also one or two deaths are different (killing with bees while on the toilet... although they could have gone under the door, and being stabbed and sliced in the back).
A random note - if this film was made now it would probably breach all sorts of child porn rules because I'm pretty sure it depicts sex acts for under sixteens.
The plot focuses around young Angela, survivor of a hilarious family boating accident when young who grows up under the charge of what seems like a female impersonator. She goes to stay at summer camp where she is picked on by many of the kids there - who subsequently wind up dead. Most of the victims are played by actors who seem to be really young, which is actually a bit upsetting - but you're more likely to be distracted by the bad acting, porn movie moustaches (one painted on) and Village people haircuts, skin tight shorts, comments about women being flat chested and having no pubic hair, a camp owner who refuses to believe anything is wrong no matter how many corpses show up.
There's also a lot of gender/sexual politics with two kids being traumatised at the sight of their father in bed with another man, and a woman raising a boy to be a girl, and a Crying Game type ending. So you have to give it some points for at least imagination. Also one or two deaths are different (killing with bees while on the toilet... although they could have gone under the door, and being stabbed and sliced in the back).
A random note - if this film was made now it would probably breach all sorts of child porn rules because I'm pretty sure it depicts sex acts for under sixteens.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Movie review - "The Bling Ring" (2013) **
Sofia Coppola is a talented director but not much of a writer and she fumbles what should have been sure fire material for her. This tale of vapid young things in LA robbing the houses of rich, famous vapid young things has plenty of neat touches but makes all its points in the first ten minutes then repeats them incessantly: they're shallow, inspired by a shallow society with shallow parents; there are lots of designer clothes, and endless dancing in nightclubs and taking selfies and putting things on Facebook.
This sort of repetitive story telling is more forgiveable if there is decent characterisation to compensate but it was hard to tell the girls apart - one seemed to be the ringleader, one was Emma Watson, one had a boyfriend (only one... it's a remarkably sexless film for all the racy posing), one was a gay boy, one was young. There's not much more - just selfies and dancing and being shallow.
The break in sequences are very unsuspenseful, which I guess was the point (the real life criminals just sort of rocked up and broke in, succeeding via audacity and their targets' stupidity more than anything else) but there's a lot of these sequences and having a lot of unsuspenseful sequences doesn't add up to anything much. Ditto such seemingly sure fire material as the cops closing in.
It looks great - Coppola's films always have a strong design and costume component - and the music suits it and the cast all look their parts at least. But this got on my nerves.
This sort of repetitive story telling is more forgiveable if there is decent characterisation to compensate but it was hard to tell the girls apart - one seemed to be the ringleader, one was Emma Watson, one had a boyfriend (only one... it's a remarkably sexless film for all the racy posing), one was a gay boy, one was young. There's not much more - just selfies and dancing and being shallow.
The break in sequences are very unsuspenseful, which I guess was the point (the real life criminals just sort of rocked up and broke in, succeeding via audacity and their targets' stupidity more than anything else) but there's a lot of these sequences and having a lot of unsuspenseful sequences doesn't add up to anything much. Ditto such seemingly sure fire material as the cops closing in.
It looks great - Coppola's films always have a strong design and costume component - and the music suits it and the cast all look their parts at least. But this got on my nerves.
Movie review - "Fair Game" (1995) *
Another film I saw after the enthusiastic endorsement of the team at How Did This Get Made? and it didn't disappoint. Eventually, that is... at first I thought they were being too mean, and this wasn't that bad. Cindy Crawford was in over her head but she was pretty, looked good and was giving it a go - she had too much dialogue, and bad dialogue at that, but she was trying, and was willing to offer up a bit of partial nudity to make the punters happy. And there's no reason why a story about a bunch of baddies trying to kill her and a hunky cop trying to stop them couldn't have worked on a cheesy level.
The terrible script is far more to blame than Crawford why this doesn't work - there's no real reason for the baddies to kill Crawford, especially not to go to such incredible, expensive lengths; the baddies have an incredible ability of technology except when it's needed for plot; the good guys are unbelievably stupid (eg using credit cards when there are people out to kill them); the baddies spend most of the film trying to kill Crawford then they decide to hold her hostage for no good reason. None of it makes sense.
There's also terrible wise-cracky dialogue, unfunny comedy scenes, hammy Russian henchmen, Steven Berkoff sleep walking through his villain role (he's nowhere near as good as he is in Octopussy or Beverly Hills Cop), a hilarious explosion where Crawford is blown off her balcony. Billy Baldwin is likeable in the lead - it's not his fault this is a turkey (apart from accepting the role) and some of the action is decent enough.
The terrible script is far more to blame than Crawford why this doesn't work - there's no real reason for the baddies to kill Crawford, especially not to go to such incredible, expensive lengths; the baddies have an incredible ability of technology except when it's needed for plot; the good guys are unbelievably stupid (eg using credit cards when there are people out to kill them); the baddies spend most of the film trying to kill Crawford then they decide to hold her hostage for no good reason. None of it makes sense.
There's also terrible wise-cracky dialogue, unfunny comedy scenes, hammy Russian henchmen, Steven Berkoff sleep walking through his villain role (he's nowhere near as good as he is in Octopussy or Beverly Hills Cop), a hilarious explosion where Crawford is blown off her balcony. Billy Baldwin is likeable in the lead - it's not his fault this is a turkey (apart from accepting the role) and some of the action is decent enough.
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Movie review - "Gilda" (1946) ****
If you want to check out Rita Hayworth in her prime, this is the movie to see - all glorious red hair (although this is black and white), cascading over revealed shoulders, slinky gowns, sensual dialogue, singing 'Put the Blame on Mame' while flinging a glove into the crowd, dancing with married men, driving all men ga-ga.
It's sort of a film noir with Gilda (Hayworth) as kind of a femme fetale - but she's allowed to live at the end, to go off into the sunset with Glenn Ford. Really though it's a more mixed up relationship melodrama with a mystery-in-the-third-world-as-depicted-in-a-Hollywood-studio-film background - the film it reminded me most of was the last third of Gone with the Wind, the bit where Scarlett and Rhett's marriage dissolves into bitterness and mutual loathing.
This has added sexual complications not present in GWTW though: because it's a really weird love triangle. Rich George Macready seems to pick up handsome dissolute gambler Glenn Ford on the Buenos Aires waterfront and then hires him to work in his casino; the two become close but then Macready marries Rita Hayworth who used to have a thing with Ford back in the day.
Some merry shenanigans ensue, with much talk about the power of hate being as strong as love, and Ford getting jealous of Hayworth over Macready, and then getting jealous over other men panting over Hayworth and Macready trying to assure Ford nothing has to change, and then Ford and Hayworth hooking up but he doesn't want to do anything out of "loyalty" to Macready.
There's a PhD or two in all the subtext - including the fact that Ford's character isn't terribly sympathetic (he tortures Hayworth constantly, even after they think Macready is dead and he marries Hayworth he keeps her at arm's length). Hayworth isn't exactly an angel either - clearly a woman with a shady past, she delights in teasing and tormenting Ford. So while Macready is the ostensible villain he's actually quite sympathetic - he genuinely loves Hayworth and treats her well, and even though he does kill his business partners they are Nazis... standing up to them is a good thing. (The subplot involves a cartel to control the world's supply of tungsten, which comes across as silly as it sounds... any other substance I think they would have been fine - diamonds, coal, uranium - but tungsten...)
Macready gives an excellent performance, as does Ford - I associate Ford with Einsenhower Era leading men, but he does very well as a handsome, brooding, sadistic drifter. And Hayworth is terrific. Structurally the film suffers towards the end and the climax is silly; it feels like the sort of movie that was rewritten a lot and has a sense at times of being made up as it goes along, but still... a classic in a way.
It's sort of a film noir with Gilda (Hayworth) as kind of a femme fetale - but she's allowed to live at the end, to go off into the sunset with Glenn Ford. Really though it's a more mixed up relationship melodrama with a mystery-in-the-third-world-as-depicted-in-a-Hollywood-studio-film background - the film it reminded me most of was the last third of Gone with the Wind, the bit where Scarlett and Rhett's marriage dissolves into bitterness and mutual loathing.
This has added sexual complications not present in GWTW though: because it's a really weird love triangle. Rich George Macready seems to pick up handsome dissolute gambler Glenn Ford on the Buenos Aires waterfront and then hires him to work in his casino; the two become close but then Macready marries Rita Hayworth who used to have a thing with Ford back in the day.
Some merry shenanigans ensue, with much talk about the power of hate being as strong as love, and Ford getting jealous of Hayworth over Macready, and then getting jealous over other men panting over Hayworth and Macready trying to assure Ford nothing has to change, and then Ford and Hayworth hooking up but he doesn't want to do anything out of "loyalty" to Macready.
There's a PhD or two in all the subtext - including the fact that Ford's character isn't terribly sympathetic (he tortures Hayworth constantly, even after they think Macready is dead and he marries Hayworth he keeps her at arm's length). Hayworth isn't exactly an angel either - clearly a woman with a shady past, she delights in teasing and tormenting Ford. So while Macready is the ostensible villain he's actually quite sympathetic - he genuinely loves Hayworth and treats her well, and even though he does kill his business partners they are Nazis... standing up to them is a good thing. (The subplot involves a cartel to control the world's supply of tungsten, which comes across as silly as it sounds... any other substance I think they would have been fine - diamonds, coal, uranium - but tungsten...)
Macready gives an excellent performance, as does Ford - I associate Ford with Einsenhower Era leading men, but he does very well as a handsome, brooding, sadistic drifter. And Hayworth is terrific. Structurally the film suffers towards the end and the climax is silly; it feels like the sort of movie that was rewritten a lot and has a sense at times of being made up as it goes along, but still... a classic in a way.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Movie review - "Crank: High Voltage" (2009) ***
I saw this after it hearing about it on How Did This Get Made? It's the sort of the movie that either you go with or you don't, and if you go with it you get sick of it or you don't. I went with it but got sick of it after a while - too relentless, too much "here's another crazy sequence we can throw in there" without much development... which I know was the point, but still...
Jason Statham provides a surprisingly strong center to the mayhem - I actually don't know why I say "surprising" this guy obviously is the real deal by now - and Amy Smart is likeable as the love interest, but the movie is stolen by Bai Ling as a crazy prostitute. Fun cameos from people like Ron Jeremy and Gerri Halliwell. It looks terrific and there's plenty of imagination and flair on display.
Jason Statham provides a surprisingly strong center to the mayhem - I actually don't know why I say "surprising" this guy obviously is the real deal by now - and Amy Smart is likeable as the love interest, but the movie is stolen by Bai Ling as a crazy prostitute. Fun cameos from people like Ron Jeremy and Gerri Halliwell. It looks terrific and there's plenty of imagination and flair on display.
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