CV Rick's Reviews

Obsessions and Donkey Kong

Sugar and I watched The King of Kong last week.  It's a documentary about the guys who battled (yes, battled is the right word) to be recognized for the world record score on Donkey Kong.  It's a great movie because it'll keep you riveted to the disaster that is the main character's lives and how they are dominant and famous in only an isolated group.  Fame for Minutia - the American Way. 

We are a nation obsessed by Fame.  The entertainment and sports sections are more read than the front page.  The political races are only interesting when celebrities like Clinton and Obama clash. Britney Spears is a ratings juggernaut despite her debilitating pyschological defects.  Paris Hilton is also a marketing genius despite her inability to pass any math or grammar test in our public schools. Celebrity, fame, and notoriety drive more money and more effort than anything else in America.  Or so it seems.

The celebrity in the King of Kong is this one guy, Billy Mitchell, who held records in the classic video games, Donkey Kong and Centipede.  In 1999 Billy Mitchell performed a perfect game of Pac-Man, an unheard of act.  He's a self-promoter, a guru of hot sauce for the Chicken Wing industry and a restauranteer in Hollywood, Florida.  In this little circle of people who closely follow classic video game records, Billy is the most widely recognized person and he revels in his fame, flaunting it as if he were the Emperor of San Francisco. He's an ass.  He graces video arcades with his presence and phone calls as if they should be grateful and loyal just to know him. 

The movie is about upstart Steve Wiebe, an unlucky guy from Washington who'd never made his mark in any facet of his life despite working hard and with dedication.  He sought to make his mark in Donkey Kong and Billy Mitchell sought to thwart him. 

We are a nation obsessed by Fame.  The entertainment and sports sections are more read than the front page.  The political races are only interesting when celebrities like Clinton and Obama clash. Britney Spears is a ratings juggernaut despite her debilitating pyschological defects.  Paris Hilton is also a marketing genius despite her inability to pass any math or grammar test in our public schools. Celebrity, fame, and notoriety drive more money and more effort than anything else in America.  Or so it seems.

The celebrity in the King of Kong is this one guy, Billy Mitchell, who held records in the classic video games, Donkey Kong and Centipede.  In 1999 Billy Mitchell performed a perfect game of Pac-Man, an unheard of act.  He's a self-promoter, a guru of hot sauce for the Chicken Wing industry and a restauranteer in Hollywood, Florida.  In this little circle of people who closely follow classic video game records, Billy is the most widely recognized person and he revels in his fame, flaunting it as if he were the Emperor of San Francisco. He's an ass.  He graces video arcades with his presence and phone calls as if they should be grateful and loyal just to know him. 

The movie is about upstart Steve Wiebe, an unlucky guy from Washington who'd never made his mark in any facet of his life despite working hard and with dedication.  He sought to make his mark in Donkey Kong and Billy Mitchell sought to thwart him. 

I'll Be Quoting This Movie For Years

This film is quotable in the model of The Princess Bride, with one memorable line after another. 

Ken and Ray are hit men for a powerful criminal figure, Harry. Ken (Brendan Gleeson) is a kindly older gentleman while Ray (Colin Farrell) is a brash young man anxious to live all of life this minute.  After a botched hit in London, Harry (Ralph Fiennes) sends the two to the town of Bruges, Belgium.  For Ray, this is the worst spot on earth:

“If I'd grown up on a farm and was retarded, Bruges might impress me, but I didn't, so it doesn't.”

So while Ken tries to get Ray interested in sightseeing, ancient canals, historic cathedrals, and architecture, Ray is more interested in movie being filmed on location which features a midget and a beautiful blond.  The idea of keeping a low profile seems to escape the younger killer and keeping control over his partner is daunting for the aging killer.

This movie masks the underlying tragic story with hilarious comedy and the craftsmanship to give opposing emotions like that is masterful.  All the way through everything bad that can happen does, stacking the tension like a playing card castle.  You'll love Ken from the beginning and grow to love Ray by the end.  And at the ending, right at that final scene you'll realize that the filmmaker, Martin McDonagh wrote and directed a perfect concluding sequence.  If you ask me, it couldn't have ended any other way and been convincing.

I can't write anymore without giving something away.  Go see it, it'll make you happy and sad.

- CV Rick, February 2008

Live the Grindhouse Experience in its Fullest

Back when movies didn't make a statement, but instead exploited every adrenaline surge they could possibly muster, the Grindhouse cinemas churned out horrid gore, cliched characters, sexploitation for no purpose other than to objectify women, and complete unbelievability in drama. They were exactly what you expected and the theaters were noisy, smelly, and the equipment always faulty. This wasn't for your first-run movies or even for your Oscar Contenders held over for another month. This was back to back gratuitous adrenaline for those of stunted maturity.

From missing reels to stretched film to spots on the lens and burned sections, it really recreated everything one would expect out of a place where missing a 20 minute section had no effect on plot nuance. Besides that, this film was a veritable treasure of cameo appearances from every actor and actress that makes you say, "I know that dude, he was in . . . " or "I've seen that hot chick before." You know, all those actors that you know but don't know the names of, like that guy from Lost, Sayeed; or the guy who was the Hispanic undertaker on Six Feet Under. Amazingly well-cast, it looked like everyone was in it for the fun - the over-the-top ridiculousness of a gore-fest.

Comparing the two films, however, brings me to a bit of a deeper insight. Rodriguez wrote and directed Planet Terror, a movie about a biological weapons release that threatens destruction of the human race by turning everyone into flesh-eating zombies. Tarantino wrote and directed Death Proof about a stuntman turned serial killer who uses his car as a murder weapon. The both have their strengths, and they both belong in the double feature for different reasons. Planet Terror is soaked in blood and lacks nothing in gratuitous gunplay, down to Rose McGowan's leg amputation and machine gun prosthetic. There are no surprises in this film, it's exactly what the Grindhouse genre is all about, in fact so much so that I feared that this was a movie which would inspire a market flood of resurgent movies. Freddie Rodriguez as the gun toting hero was a colorful, but only hinted at, secret life. (he's the dude from Six Feet Under)

Tarantino's film was a psychological thriller as much as a grindhouse. He spends a lot of time setting up Kurt Russell's character, Stuntman Mike, and creating a semi-believable obsession and a reputation for the viewer as a bad-ass, but then blows the audience away was the expected turned unexpected, twisted and snapped around like a drama whip, finally ending in true Grindhouse form. Wow. It was my favorite of the two.

Not for the timid or squeamish. Not for the critic or the connoisseur. Perfect for the rest of us.

- CV Rick

A Good Guy Movie for Macho Men

The Boondock Saints is rich with symbolism and pop culture disdain, while making a statement that things have gotten out of control with a film that got out of control. The irony is steep, intention and not, throughout the film and the backstory.

Up front and center, I liked the movie. It ranks with the better films in a genre that arguably owes homage to Reservoir Dogs. The Tarantino elements are rich and clear, but not ripped off - a clear distinction for me. Duffy created a wild picture full of violence, but where he parted ways with Tarantino was in the significance of life in South Boston. These people are victimized by crime and shoddy policemanship and every day is an exercise in futility. Duffy brings to the screen the drama that answers the question, "what would you do about it?"

The brothers, two tough Irish kids have enough when assaulted and nearly killed by pissed off Russians. Something snaps inside them, something religious and right, something straight out of the worst war of heaven. They take this religion and make it a religion of violence, exacting revenge against the mob for injustices done to every Irish mother and daughter, son and father, throughout blue-collar Boston. It's not realistic, but it's realism, the dream that tough kids wanting to make a difference share throughout our violent society.

Where Duffy really makes his mark, however, is in the freedom of artistic excess he portrays. The FBI agent is gay and crossdresses. The funny man hates his mob bosses and tells particularly unfunny jokes. The cops are clowns, but not intentionally, it's just a system they don't think they can make a difference in. The gags aren't funny so much as ironic, like the brothers falling through a ceiling into a mob meeting, hanging upside down accidentally tangled in ropes, yet still succeed in their mission. Mission Impossible meets Hannah Barbara with an R-rating and blood splatter.

Irish Catholicism seeps through the pours of these brothers and this film, centering on cathedrals and confessionals, and a prayer that guides their murderous ways.

And shepherds we shall be
For Thee, my Lord, for Thee
Power hath descended forth from Thy hand
That our feet may swiftly carry out Thy command
So we shall flow a river forth to Thee
And teeming with souls shall it ever be
In nomine Patri, et Filii, et Spiriti Sancti

I only regret that Duffy destroyed the chances for this film to be legendary by biting the hand that feeds, so as to speak. He could've had it all, and it could've been to our benefit.

C'est La Vie.

- CV Rick

A Caricature of Bravery

 

Frank Miller's graphic novel come to life on the big screen doesn't live up to the promise of Sin City.

The art direction is phenomenal and the Spartans, led by King Leonidas (Gerard Butler), are imposing physical specimens of perfection - ripped abs, blazing scars, and piercing eyes. The scenes where the Spartans line up like models at a fitness photo shoot are imposing. The scenes of brilliantly choreographed combat are equally memorable, filling the screen with beautiful brutality, and images of desperate courage. It looked like the living comic book of a heroic tale when viewed without the story and when viewed in absence of the on-screen caricatures of the Persian Army.

That's where the problems begin. Reality, in this case, is more amazing than fiction. The movie pitted depravity against character by making modern moral judgments apply to ancient times. It presupposes that homosexuality and gender confusion is such a feared 'condition' that the audience will side with the Spartans who are free of its taint. When truth be told, the Spartans engaged in the deplorable acts of incest and pedophilia to an extent at least as great and perhaps greater than the Persians and that sexual identity wasn't part of the issues of battle during that time. Frank Miller rewrote history to make a modern-day bigoted comment in a completely inappropriate manner.

Why wouldn't the truth stand as banner to the bravery of the 300 of Thermopylae? The truth that the Persians as invaders needed to be stopped and the Hot Gate, a small pass from the beach into Sparta was the best defensible position is dramatic enough. There is no doubt that King Leonidas undertook one of the most inspired, brilliant, and courageous last stands in the history of warfare. There is no doubt that the Spartans were the most well-trained soldiers of the time.

Knowing these truths there was no perceivable reason, other than propaganda, to politicize the war so much. The council wasn't against Leonidas, the army hadn't stood down, the citizenry hadn't given up hope. He delayed the bulk of Xerxes forces long enough for the rest of the army to assemble, get into position and fight against the invaders. He stood his men in front of the juggernaut and laid down his and their lives for his people and his lands. He led by example and died with honor, not backstabbed by councilmen with agendas filling some imaginary role substitution Miller created to make an anti-peace statement deriding our own present-day Congress. The Persians were human and they didn't force any more slaves into their war than the Greeks conscripted on their own side. The Persians weren't transgendered freaks and demons. Dehumanization of one's enemy is a propagandist's trick, not used by great chroniclers of which Miller is not.

The individual historical inaccuracies are many - too many for this short review. The propaganda is thick and sickening, a movie made as a modern-day recruiting film, not a work of art or a worthy historical lesson, even dramatized as it could've been.

The Art Director should be given royalties, but the director and writer ought to be fired.

- CV Rick

The Speech that Changed America

Set amidst the backdrop of the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. gave the speech that changed the social dynamic of America.  I Have A Dream, he repeated between refrains of equality and social justice.  From that speech erupted a movement – his dream become their dream and now it's our dream and closer to reality than ever before.

I've heard the speech before, and I've read the speech, but seeing it in its setting was a challenge to our basic institutions.  It was a challenge to Lincoln himself.  A challenge in oration, a challenge in tone, and a challenge to change America more

Peter Jennings narrates the dvd and it incorporates raw footage from marches and protests and concludes with a tribute to the man, murdered for his beliefs.  Three hundred thousand people stood before Dr. King that Summer day in 1963 but that's only a fraction of a fraction of those who have been touched by his powerful cadence.  It's both poetry and sermon.  I'm better for having watched it.

- CV Rick, February 2008

Beautiful Gears, but Cogs in the Works

The hand-drawn artwork combined with CGI is simply stunning in this movie, it's a treat to the eyes.

The setting is 1800's England, in an alternative Steampunk past where machinery powered by steam has advanced civilization to a new age of reason - the promise of steam that if it would've maintained dominance in lieu of combustion, would've reinforced England's dominance. That's what steampunk is all about, after all, the investment that England made in infrastructure built for steam locked them into a future path that turned out to be weak and ill conceived in hindsight. It's a wonderful fantasy and when done well, it can be a rich alternate history. Tim Powers and Bruce Sterling create interesting Steampunk tales, and I can imagine if they'd written a story for Katsuhiro Otomo to direct, the combination would be magnificent. That said, the story just didn't work for me.

At first it was predictable, like stock parts off the fiction workshop shelf. A boy gets a powerful item of technology and has to fight his own father for the rights to assert his own will, his own ingenuity, and strike out on his own. There isn't enough background to allow the viewer to believe that this boy has the skills necessary to pull off his part in this story. There also isn't enough plot to sustain the believability of the entire story.

Bad guys are comical and wooden, good guys are stereotyped and predictable. If the movie hadn't been so pretty, I'd have given it a lower rating. Fortunately, with the volume off, it's a beautiful show.

- CV Rick

A Lesson for Everyone in This Brilliant Tale

At the root of a film is the story. It must be complete, it must mean something, and it must be told well. When the screen is beautiful, with stunning costumes, great camera shots, fantastic effects, and powerful actors, so much the better. But it still must have a story. Guillermo del Toro is a powerful storyteller and as writer and director of Pan's Labyrinth he's created a masterpiece of a movie.

It's a fairy tale, a fable, and in the greatest tradition of the hero's journey it follows the journey to its end. But more, because it's two stories in one - Fascist Spain in 1944 and the underworld home of Princess Moanna, destined to return when she completes three tasks. The storylines intertwine until fantasy and reality are inseparable in the young Ofelia's mind, and consequently in the viewer's minds as well. These two worlds are the only answer to the questions: What does a young girl have to make herself believe in order to accept the horrors of war, the crimes of her stepfather, and the horrible choices of her own beloved mother? What she does is create an elaborate story of heroism and play it out, pitting herself against her stepfather figuratively and directly. It's to this world that she turns for the challenge and the bravery to overcome her own fears.

How many of us create stories in which we're the hero? How many of us desire the strength in real life that we imagine for ourselves in fantasy? How many can use our own imaginations to exceed our physical and emotional limitations if only for a moment? That's what Ofelia does and that's the story that Guillermo del Toro tells.

It's a history of the Fascist domination of Spain and the bands of resistance that were hunted down and eliminated without mercy, without humanity. It's another viewpoint of World War II, when there weren't enough allies to help every injustice, and Spain was forgotten in the great push to crush Hitler. It's the direct view of an evil man, from the perspective of his own family - oh what hell one must endure. It's brutal, it's beautiful and even the brutality is stunning. It's a sad story told inside a tragedy wrapped in horror, but from that story emerges grand character, and the supreme lesson.

Even the imprisoned daughter of a tyrant can make small choices that change the world, even if that world is only her own.

- CV Rick

Underappreciated Film

This is not a movie for the passive fan. This is not a movie for someone looking for a no-brain 90 minute vegetative state on the couch. This is movie full of what ifs and one great performance by Robin Williams.

The premise is simple, Zoe implants record all of the things a person sees and hears in his life. After death, the family hires a Cutter to create a short film of memories summarizing that person's life. The film is about the best Cutter, Alan Hakman, played by Robin Williams. What makes him special is his ability to take some of the nastiest people, with some of the nastiest experiences and criminal acts and sanitize their lives so that their Rememory Ceremony is beautiful and expected. As he says, he's working for the living, not for the dead.

The Sci-Fi premise brings so many possibilities and issues that the film, while comprehensive, picks only a couple to concentrate on. It's a human story, so what we find is that Alan has his own horrible secret, his own terrible memory, and sanitizing other people's is a sort of therapy for him. But he must come to terms with this memory when he finds clues in record he's currently editing.

While reminiscent of themes in Strange Days, Final Cut has the feel of a Philip Dick story. Memory is a fluid thing, and what we remember isn't what might have really happened. So, these implants are a hot commodity for many reasons.

I can understand why the ending confuses some people and disappoints others, but for me it's a perfect conclusion for this story and an opening for these Zoe implants to grow well beyond their original purpose.

Robin Williams performance certainly didn't disappoint me - he's a great actor and this was a role where emotions rather than exciting action moved the plot and he went through a whole gammit of emotional change.

I didn't give it five stars because I thought some of the plot was cliche and that there was more opportunities to use the technology as a plot device and that opportunity was missed. I still highly recommend it.

- CV Rick