This is the first of my reviews of recent movies I've caught on DVD.
I was actually willing to wait for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter on cable TV, but my wife actually bought the DVD, apparently mistaking it for Steven Spielberg's biopic Lincoln. Truth be told; I'm glad I saw this movie in all of its uncut, "R" rated glory, as it is a lot of fun.
ALVH is the story of the 16th president of the United States of America, and the only one to see it through a bloody civil war, but with a twist: since his youth he has hunted vampires, mainly using an ax.
The story begins in Lincoln's boyhood, in which he sees his mother attacked by a brutal plantation owner Jack Barts (Marton Csokas), which shortly thereafter results in her death. By the time he has grown into a young man (Benjamin Walker, who plays Lincoln throughout the rest of the film), he has sworn vengeance against Barton. His attempt on his life, however, fails for the simple reason that Barts is a vampire and not the easiest creature to kill. In fact, he almost kills Lincoln, who is saved by a mystery man named Henry Sturges (Dominic Cooper), who offers to mentor Lincoln in the art of vampire hunting, providing that he sets aside his personal quest for vengeance until Sturges says otherwise. Vampires, it seems, are everywhere, and in the course of his clandestine war on vampires, Lincoln learns that they pose a bigger threat to his country than he could ever have imagined.
I haven't had the pleasure of reading Seth Grahame-Smith's well-loved faux biography of Abraham Lincoln, but I definitely enjoyed this adaptation, and perhaps the fact that Grahame Smith helped adapt his own book for the screen helped preserve some of that fascinating revisionist sensibility for the screen. Of course, the plot (which was apparently tailor-fit for the film) is fairly easy to pick apart, but really, if the idea was simply to bring something new and quirky to the screen, I feel director Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted), producer Tim Burton, and all their collaborators have succeeded.
In any event, whether Grahame-Smith adapted himself well or not, Bekmambetov definitely brought his bag of tricks to this film, with his highly stylized take on vampires, who in the 3-D presentation of this film no doubt jumped right out at viewers. The Russian director's signature is all over the highly kinetic, rather well-choreographed action sequences, though one could argue there's a dab of Zack Synder in there as well. One thing that elevates this film over anything Bekmambetov has done before is the distinct atmosphere of the film, with light touches of sepia in the lighting and a warmth that evokes something very old yet well-preserved. I suspect he was able to achieve this effect with the help of veteran cinematographer Caleb Deschanel. Composer Henry Jackman also contributes to the "olde America" atmosphere with music which, while not particularly distinct, is easy on the ears just the same.
Of course, this truly outlandish concept would not really take off without a truly solid leading actor, and this film has it in relative newcomer Benjamin Walker. Walker comes across as a young Liam Neeson (and in fact played a younger version of Neeson's character in the 2004 film Kinsey) and given that, for the longest time, Neeson was an odds on favorite for the role of Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg's biopic Lincoln, the casting is quite propitious. He really throws himself into this role.
It's a pity this movie was not better received; its ending precludes the possibility of a sequel and it really feels like a rather uniquely entertaining piece of standalone pop-culture.
3.5/5
Monday, November 26, 2012
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Wreck-It Ralph
"Development hell" is Hollywood shorthand for a movie that, for various reasons, takes a long time to get made. It can be a bit of a misnomer, given that at times, the extended gestation period can actually benefit the movie's quality exponentially, whether it's because the filmmaking technology catches up to the writers' lofty visions, or whether it's because the general audience's sensibility has aligned itself with what the filmmakers put on the screen.
In the case of the recent animated film Wreck-It Ralph, which has apparently been in one form of development or another at Walt Disney studios since the 1980s, "development hell" has been anything but a four-letter word, considering that the film has opened to glowing reviews and box-office success.
WIR is the story of a video game villain, the title character, Ralph (John C. Reilly) who, after 30 years of being the bad guy is basically suffering an existential crisis. He inhabits a world where video games are basically interconnected worlds, and the characters, when they're not busy during the day living out the games, interact just like regular folk. Ralph even attends a support group for video game villains. Because of his status as a villain, Ralph is treated as something of an outsider in the game he inhabits, "Fix-It-Felix Jr.," while the game's hero, Felix (Jack McBrayer) is regularly feted by the rest of the game inhabitants. Longing to improve his lot in life, Ralph leaves his game and enters another, "Hero's Duty" looking to gain a medal (the prize of that game) and therefore acceptance. Things, however, do not turn out as Ralph plans, and through a series of events beyond his control he ends up in yet another game, the go-kart racing adventure Sugar Rush, where he meets Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) a young racer who, like Ralph, is a bit of an outsider in her game and who seeks to change her fate as well. Not only that, but events have been set in motion that threaten not only the Sugar Rush game, but every single game in the arcade. With the help of Vanellope, Felix and the tough-as-nails protagonist from "Hero's Duty," Sargeant Calhoun (Jane Lynch) Ralph will soon learn what it really means to be a hero.
Cartoon characters with existential crises have been done many times before (the Toy Story films, Ratatouille) as have films centered around the bad guys (Despicable Me, Megamind), but setting the story in a world of video games was a clever twist that opened up a lot of very interesting visual opportunities, which Disney exploited quite cleverly. First, there was the contrast between the old games and the new, and I chuckled at the 80s and 90s references to actual video games, as well as the fact that the "old" game characters were depicted with cruder graphics and animation than their much newer counterparts. Had this film been made when it was first conceived, the 1980s, apart from missing out on such cutting-edge animation technology, it would not have been able to cash in on the sense of nostalgia that pervades the film.
Second, and more significantly, the rendering of the video game landscapes, particularly in the case of "Hero's Duty" and "Sugar Rush" was nothing less than absolutely breathtaking. The "Hero's Duty" scenes are relatively, regrettably brief, but they hint at what a full-length movie based on gritty space combat games like "Starcraft" or "HALO" might look like. The "Sugar Rush" scenes, in contrast, take up a healthy chunk of the movie's running time, but are no less meticulously rendered. The highlights of these magnificent, candy-coated set pieces are, quite easily, the racing scenes, which to my mind are the race scenes that the makers of box-office bomb Speed Racer wish they could have put on the screen. Again, had this movie come out at around the time of the first Tron movie, the only movie of that era to feature video game characters as protagonists, it would most likely have suffered a similar fate at the box-office.
No matter how handsome the presentation, though, this film would not get very far without some good old-fashioned heart, and I'm happy to say that Wreck-It Ralph has plenty of that, along with a thoroughly likeable and even relatable protagonist in the eternally frustrated Ralph, who isn't unlike Tom Hanks' Woody from Toy Story or Craig T. Nelson's Bob Parr in The Incredibles in terms of some very human frailty.
It's not an absolutely perfect film; I wasn't too impressed with the fact that a lot of the banter between Vanellope and Ralph consisted of toilet gags done over and over, and there were some gaps in logic that felt a little jarring at some points. Such, I think, is the nature of creating a world that has its own set of rules, as was the case in the Toy Story films; too often the writers run afoul of their world's internal logic. Why, for example, don't Ralph and Felix have the same jerky movement as the rest of the characters in their game? Still, it's nothing as egregious as Buzz Lightyear believing himself to be alive and yet freezing whenever a human being shows up in the first Toy Story movie. This movie is a magnificent experience, and considering the eye-popping colors on display I'm glad I skipped the 3-D presentation; whatever the extra-dimension had to offer, it would not have been worth losing a bit of those wonderful colors!
Disney Animation has pulled off a bit of an anomaly this year; they've crafted a movie that has garnered better reviews than the product of their esteemed colleagues at Pixar!
4.5/5
In the case of the recent animated film Wreck-It Ralph, which has apparently been in one form of development or another at Walt Disney studios since the 1980s, "development hell" has been anything but a four-letter word, considering that the film has opened to glowing reviews and box-office success.
WIR is the story of a video game villain, the title character, Ralph (John C. Reilly) who, after 30 years of being the bad guy is basically suffering an existential crisis. He inhabits a world where video games are basically interconnected worlds, and the characters, when they're not busy during the day living out the games, interact just like regular folk. Ralph even attends a support group for video game villains. Because of his status as a villain, Ralph is treated as something of an outsider in the game he inhabits, "Fix-It-Felix Jr.," while the game's hero, Felix (Jack McBrayer) is regularly feted by the rest of the game inhabitants. Longing to improve his lot in life, Ralph leaves his game and enters another, "Hero's Duty" looking to gain a medal (the prize of that game) and therefore acceptance. Things, however, do not turn out as Ralph plans, and through a series of events beyond his control he ends up in yet another game, the go-kart racing adventure Sugar Rush, where he meets Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) a young racer who, like Ralph, is a bit of an outsider in her game and who seeks to change her fate as well. Not only that, but events have been set in motion that threaten not only the Sugar Rush game, but every single game in the arcade. With the help of Vanellope, Felix and the tough-as-nails protagonist from "Hero's Duty," Sargeant Calhoun (Jane Lynch) Ralph will soon learn what it really means to be a hero.
Cartoon characters with existential crises have been done many times before (the Toy Story films, Ratatouille) as have films centered around the bad guys (Despicable Me, Megamind), but setting the story in a world of video games was a clever twist that opened up a lot of very interesting visual opportunities, which Disney exploited quite cleverly. First, there was the contrast between the old games and the new, and I chuckled at the 80s and 90s references to actual video games, as well as the fact that the "old" game characters were depicted with cruder graphics and animation than their much newer counterparts. Had this film been made when it was first conceived, the 1980s, apart from missing out on such cutting-edge animation technology, it would not have been able to cash in on the sense of nostalgia that pervades the film.
Second, and more significantly, the rendering of the video game landscapes, particularly in the case of "Hero's Duty" and "Sugar Rush" was nothing less than absolutely breathtaking. The "Hero's Duty" scenes are relatively, regrettably brief, but they hint at what a full-length movie based on gritty space combat games like "Starcraft" or "HALO" might look like. The "Sugar Rush" scenes, in contrast, take up a healthy chunk of the movie's running time, but are no less meticulously rendered. The highlights of these magnificent, candy-coated set pieces are, quite easily, the racing scenes, which to my mind are the race scenes that the makers of box-office bomb Speed Racer wish they could have put on the screen. Again, had this movie come out at around the time of the first Tron movie, the only movie of that era to feature video game characters as protagonists, it would most likely have suffered a similar fate at the box-office.
No matter how handsome the presentation, though, this film would not get very far without some good old-fashioned heart, and I'm happy to say that Wreck-It Ralph has plenty of that, along with a thoroughly likeable and even relatable protagonist in the eternally frustrated Ralph, who isn't unlike Tom Hanks' Woody from Toy Story or Craig T. Nelson's Bob Parr in The Incredibles in terms of some very human frailty.
It's not an absolutely perfect film; I wasn't too impressed with the fact that a lot of the banter between Vanellope and Ralph consisted of toilet gags done over and over, and there were some gaps in logic that felt a little jarring at some points. Such, I think, is the nature of creating a world that has its own set of rules, as was the case in the Toy Story films; too often the writers run afoul of their world's internal logic. Why, for example, don't Ralph and Felix have the same jerky movement as the rest of the characters in their game? Still, it's nothing as egregious as Buzz Lightyear believing himself to be alive and yet freezing whenever a human being shows up in the first Toy Story movie. This movie is a magnificent experience, and considering the eye-popping colors on display I'm glad I skipped the 3-D presentation; whatever the extra-dimension had to offer, it would not have been worth losing a bit of those wonderful colors!
Disney Animation has pulled off a bit of an anomaly this year; they've crafted a movie that has garnered better reviews than the product of their esteemed colleagues at Pixar!
4.5/5
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
50 Years of Being Shaken, Not Stirred: A Review of Skyfall
In a world where film franchises generally rule the box-office roost, the James Bond franchise, which spans 23 films and 50 years, remains truly extraordinary. That it has managed to maintain its relevance despite radical changes in both technology and the global socio-political landscape, both of which were an integral aspect of the storytelling when the series was launched in 1962 with Dr. No, attests to the dogged efforts of second-generation Bond producer Barbara Broccoli to keep things fresh and to enlist the best talent available for the movies. To be sure, there have been a few creative blips in the franchise's half-century of existence, but with the latest installment, Skyfall reaping both critical accolades and box-office gold, Bond is arguably bigger and better than ever.
Skyfall begins, as all Bond films do, with an action-packed prologue, this one set in Istanbul. Bond (Daniel Craig) and fellow MI6 agent Eve (Naomie Harris) are out to recover a stolen list of undercover agents from Patrice, a very slippery freelance operative (Ola Rapace). The retrieval operation fails and as a result of a very marginal call by MI6 boss M (Judi Dench) to have Eve take a shot at the mercenary despite the fact that he and Bond are fighting tooth and nail atop a train, Bond ends up falling from the train and into a river, and thereafter presumed dead.
Months later, a mysterious attack is launched on MI6 headquarters which leaves eight agents dead, and M, who appears to be the target of the unknown enemy's ire, is then dragged over hot coals by the British government. A civilian official, Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes) is brought on board to basically help ease M into retirement and to help the government determine if, perhaps, the time has come to close down MI6 altogether.
Bond, very much alive, learns of the attack on MI6 and returns "from the grave" to active duty. A bit of shrapnel from a wound he got from Patrice, which turns out to be rather unique hardware, enables him to follow the mercenary to his latest job in Shanghai, but even after fighting him he is unable to learn for whom the mercenary stole the list of agents.
When three NATO agents are killed because their names as undercover agents were posted on the internet, it becomes clear that time is running out for Bond, M, and perhaps the entire British intelligence operation in general.
Director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, The Road to Perdition) shows a keen eye for wall-to-wall action, in addition to the cerebral drama on which he has built his career. His dramatic skill serves him in good stead here as well as he explores Bond's origins in a way no other filmmaker has done before and manages to come up with a story that is genuinely, tragically moving, even without going overboard on sentimentality. Craig basically inhabits Bond and Mendes brings out the very best from him. I've taken issues with Craig's performance as recently as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but ever since he assumed the mantle of Bond in 2006's Casino Royale, he has never been less than riveting in this role, and this, to my mind, is his best outing to date.
For me, though, the star of the show was Dame Judi Dench as M, who is central to the plot of the movie. There has been much talk about how Javier Bardem's cybersavvy antagonist Silva is one of the most uniquely compelling Bond villains of all time, and to be fair, his insane, effeminate and ultimately brutal antagonist is really something to behold in the time he's on the screen, but Dench owns the show as she portrays M under fire, fighting not only for her own life but the continued existence of the agency she leads. It's been over seven films and 17 years since Dench first took on the role, and she was the only actor from the franchise who took part in its reboot in 2006, and she's really stamped her authority on the character and has made hers a tough act to follow.
Mendes has crafted not only one of the best Bond films I've ever seen, but easily one of the most compelling action films of the year. His collaborators bring their very best to the feature as well, from cinematographer Roger Deakins' moody lighting to composer Thomas Newman's surprisingly vibrant score, including a few very cool riffs on Monty Norman's iconic James Bond theme.
While I can't claim to have seen all of the Bond films dating back to Sean Connery's movies, I can certainly recommend Skyfall as a thoroughly engaging action film, Bond or otherwise.
5/5
Skyfall begins, as all Bond films do, with an action-packed prologue, this one set in Istanbul. Bond (Daniel Craig) and fellow MI6 agent Eve (Naomie Harris) are out to recover a stolen list of undercover agents from Patrice, a very slippery freelance operative (Ola Rapace). The retrieval operation fails and as a result of a very marginal call by MI6 boss M (Judi Dench) to have Eve take a shot at the mercenary despite the fact that he and Bond are fighting tooth and nail atop a train, Bond ends up falling from the train and into a river, and thereafter presumed dead.
Months later, a mysterious attack is launched on MI6 headquarters which leaves eight agents dead, and M, who appears to be the target of the unknown enemy's ire, is then dragged over hot coals by the British government. A civilian official, Gareth Mallory (Ralph Fiennes) is brought on board to basically help ease M into retirement and to help the government determine if, perhaps, the time has come to close down MI6 altogether.
Bond, very much alive, learns of the attack on MI6 and returns "from the grave" to active duty. A bit of shrapnel from a wound he got from Patrice, which turns out to be rather unique hardware, enables him to follow the mercenary to his latest job in Shanghai, but even after fighting him he is unable to learn for whom the mercenary stole the list of agents.
When three NATO agents are killed because their names as undercover agents were posted on the internet, it becomes clear that time is running out for Bond, M, and perhaps the entire British intelligence operation in general.
Director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, The Road to Perdition) shows a keen eye for wall-to-wall action, in addition to the cerebral drama on which he has built his career. His dramatic skill serves him in good stead here as well as he explores Bond's origins in a way no other filmmaker has done before and manages to come up with a story that is genuinely, tragically moving, even without going overboard on sentimentality. Craig basically inhabits Bond and Mendes brings out the very best from him. I've taken issues with Craig's performance as recently as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but ever since he assumed the mantle of Bond in 2006's Casino Royale, he has never been less than riveting in this role, and this, to my mind, is his best outing to date.
For me, though, the star of the show was Dame Judi Dench as M, who is central to the plot of the movie. There has been much talk about how Javier Bardem's cybersavvy antagonist Silva is one of the most uniquely compelling Bond villains of all time, and to be fair, his insane, effeminate and ultimately brutal antagonist is really something to behold in the time he's on the screen, but Dench owns the show as she portrays M under fire, fighting not only for her own life but the continued existence of the agency she leads. It's been over seven films and 17 years since Dench first took on the role, and she was the only actor from the franchise who took part in its reboot in 2006, and she's really stamped her authority on the character and has made hers a tough act to follow.
Mendes has crafted not only one of the best Bond films I've ever seen, but easily one of the most compelling action films of the year. His collaborators bring their very best to the feature as well, from cinematographer Roger Deakins' moody lighting to composer Thomas Newman's surprisingly vibrant score, including a few very cool riffs on Monty Norman's iconic James Bond theme.
While I can't claim to have seen all of the Bond films dating back to Sean Connery's movies, I can certainly recommend Skyfall as a thoroughly engaging action film, Bond or otherwise.
5/5
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