The Long Good Friday

Published
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Chalupa
on May 24, 2009
in Crime, Drama, England, Mob, Mystery, Thriller and Uncategorized
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Bob Hoskins is an actor I have noticed in recent films the past 10 years.  He’s obviously somebody that is respected in the acting world.  Today I think I found out why - The Long Good Friday.

If you’re a fan of Guy Ritchie and his cockney gangster films, you have to watch this.  In this Hoskins plays a big-time gangster who is trying to capitalize on some prime real estate, but everything seems to be going wrong.  His friends and family are being targeted along with his businesses.  This is not looking good to the investors and the American mobsters are re-thinking their investment options.

I knew the film had to be good from the start because it had a catchy tune.  Movies these days seem to lack the kind of openings like this.  Then I realized both P.H. Moriarty (Hatchet Harry fromLock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) and Alan Ford (Brick Top from Snatch and Alan/Narrator from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) were in it.  Pretty soon I also started noticing phrases like, “This is like a bad night in Vietnam.” being very similar to “A minute ago this was the safest job in the world. Now it’s turning into a bad day in Bosnia.”  The similarities continue.  I would even suppose that both Moriarty and Ford took some inspiration for their parts in Ritchie’s films from Bob Hoskin’s portrayal of a gangster.

Seeing how great Guy Ritchie apparently thought of John Mackenzie, I’m now interested in seeing what else Mackenzie has directed.  Oh, and did I mention this is in the Criterion Collection? If you’re a fan of British film, you’re sure to recognize many actors from back in the day. Definitely worth renting!

Rating: ★★★★☆

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

Published
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Chalupa
on March 9, 2009
in Based on a book, Based on a true story, Comedy, Journalism and Romance
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Based off Toby Young’s book, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People is the story of a magazine editor from the UK coming to New York to work for a more successful company.  Sidney Young, played by Simon Pegg, definitely isn’t your classic “charming” Brit like a Colin Firth or a Hugh Grant.  He’s loud, crass and offensive.  He seems to have a knack for saying the wrong things at the wrong time and taking the party to a “whole notha level” and embarrassing himself to no end.

Clayton Harding, played by Jeff “The Dude” Bridges, started the magazine Sidney came from and we get the hint he might see a little of himself in Sidney.  He does a wonderful job playing the hard nosed boss who gives interesting advice and rarely passes up a chance to put his employees in their places.  Rounding out the cast are a lot of recognizable faces including: Gillian Anderson, Thandie Newton, Danny Huston, Miriam Margolyes, and Kirsten Dunst.

This is another one of those movies that received raves reviews from some and awful reviews from others.  While I wouldn’t say this movie is going to win any awards, it’s kind of like how Sydney describes Con Air as being the best film ever.  There are a lot of good elements, hilarious scenes, and it’s just plain fun to watch.  Pegg’s character is a bit grating and not very likable.  I think the film makers were banking on Pegg just being so likable that he would counter-act the character he was playing.  I think that might work if you’re already a fan of the guy and know some of his previous work.  Overall, Sidney doesn’t really have any epiphanies or have any major change.  He just is who he is.  Part of this is probably sticking to the original source material.

One aspect I really loved were the Lebowski references in the film.  Watching the “making of” featurette Jeff Bridges mentions being good friends with the director, Robert Weide.  At one point Sydney mistaking calls his landlord “Mrs. Lebowski” while mispronouncing her name.  In another scene Sydney calls his boss, played by Jeff Bridges, “dude” to which Harding replies, “I am not the dude.” It was also great seeing two actors, Chris Dowd and Katherine Parkinson, from a British show I just started watching, The IT Crowd.

This is definitely something to check out if you’re a fan of the actors in this.  I wouldn’t say  you absolutely have to rush out and rent it for tonight though.  I enjoyed this much more than Pegg’s last film I saw, Run Fatboy Run, and Bridges gets much more screen time than in Iron Man.  Be aware of the R-rating though.  After seeing Watchmen yesterday and watching a fanboy father bring in his three, under the age of 13, children in, I’ve once again become aware of the importance of not sitting children down in front of inappropriate material.

Rating: ★★★½☆

Tropic Thunder

Published
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Chalupa
on February 24, 2009
in Action, Adventure, Comedy, Film in film and War
. 0 Comments

Tropic Thunder was one of those controversial films that came out last year.  Even though the film itself wasn’t up for Oscars, Robert Downey Jr. was nominated for Best Supporting Actor and both Downey and Tom Cruise received Golden Globe Best Supporting Actor nominations.  I remember a guy at work talking about people protesting the “grossness” of the film and a particular offensive scene in which one of the characters talks about those with mental disabilities.  My first reaction was, “Wow, it must be pretty bad.”

Fast-forward months later when I actually sat down at home and watched the film.   While Downey was definitely funny as an Australian who went “blackface” for this role, Jack Black became almost too much for me and I think Danny McBride stole some of the funny thunder.  After everything was said and done I thought, “Wait, wasn’t this supposed to be really, really offensive?”

I think it’s because I watch a lot of movies and have been desensitized by films that most people don’t even know about.  Whenever I hear about something be sooooooo bad, it never really seems that bad at all to me.  Yes, I’ll agree that the speech given about playing a mentally disabled character wasn’t the most politically correct thing, but there is much worse out there.  Overall I thought the movie was funny, but not that great and definitely not worth all the hype it was getting.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist

Published
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Chalupa
on February 24, 2009
in Adolescence, Comedy, Drama, Music and Romance
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Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist is a movie I was really looking forward to.  Being a huge Arrested Development fan, I’ve always been on the lookout for Michael Cera and have really enjoyed his roles in Superbad and Juno.   Now there’s another movie starring Cera and it has something to do about music.  I know it came out a while ago, but I’m just now getting to it on my Netflix list.

While on the surface, the story of some teenagers (I’m pretty sure they’re supposed to be high school students) driving around all night trying to find where their elusive, favorite band is going to be playing in New York City might sound cool, I was a little disturbed by the sub plot.  You know, their seemingly alcoholic friend, Caroline (Ari Graynor) who is so drunk she has no idea where she is or what happened to her.  She was initially handed off to some friends of friends but then came to in the back of a van and “escaped” her kidnappers.  You see, she heard the other occupants in the van talking about a song and assumed she was about to be date-raped.  So while this funny, teen-romance comedy is taking place Nick (Michael Cera) and Norah (Kat Dennings from 40 Year Old Virgin) are also trying to find Caroline.  They’re essentially chasing her around town to all of her “favorite puking places” and eventually meet up with her by the end of the film.

I feel weird saying it, but I must be getting old.  I’ve never really been bothered by these more “sophisticated” teen comedies before, but this time I really just felt out of my element.  While there were some funny moments, the whole situation just seemed a little ridiculous.  Is this just because I’m not 17 years old anymore?

I was also expecting some awesome music to be had but I must have missed it or just had too high of expectations.  Has anyone else seen this flick?  I’d really like some feedback here.  Was I just not in the mood and need to give this a 2nd chance?

Rating: ★★½☆☆

Dollhouse

Published
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Chalupa
on February 13, 2009
in Drama, Sci-fi, TV and Thriller
. 0 Comments

I think this is the first time I’ve ever talked about a TV show on here.  We’ve tried to stick to movies.  Tonight I saw the first episode of Joss Whedon’s new TV series on Fox called Dollhouse.  This show is about a group of five men and women who are essentially blank slates.  They have personalities downloaded into them and are then contracted out to perform jobs.  It’s kind of like the ultimate temp agency mixed with some Matrix-style brain downloading.

Starring in this show is Eliza Dushku, playing the character of Echo.  We get to see her in action during the first episode, but not everything works out as planned.  We know there are four others working for this agency, but we haven’t been introduced to them yet. You’ll probably also recognize Tahmoh Penikett who played Helo on Battlestar Galactica and Olivia Williams who played Rosemary Cross, the teacher, on Rushmore.

If you’re not familiar with Joss Whedon, he’s the creator of shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly.  He’s well known for his science fiction and being a feminist.  I’m not talking about Rosie the Riveter here, I’m talking about a guy who respects women, writes great roles for them in his projects, and doesn’t treat them like eye candy.  This reputation of his has come under fire with this new project because it kind of fulfills one of those “ultimate male fantasies.”  You have women seen as things and not people.  While I have to agree with that at face value, I’m not ready to make a judgment yet.  I was definitely intrigued by this first episode and am planning on tuning in next week.

For more information visit Fox’s website (http://www.fox.com/dollhouse/) or Dollverse (http://www.dollverse.com/).

Rating: ★★★½☆

The Tracey Fragments

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 8, 2009
in Based on a book, Based on a novel, Drama, Dysfunctional, Family, High School, Narrated and Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

I must admit I added this to the queue because I saw that Ellen Page was in it.  And by in it, I mean she was once again the leading lady.  The first time I experienced a Page film was with Hard Candy so I was more than eager to see Juno.  She’s quite the amazing actress for her age.  The Tracey Fragments reminded me a lot of Pieces of April.  Both films are about a young girl/woman trying to make it on their own.  They have not so desirable families and are trying to work things out in their lives.  This film was even visually fragmented on screen.  There were often multiple camera shots and angles, of the same scene, being shown all at once.  Some were from different perspectives, some from a different vantage point, others just sped up or down.  It was kind of interesting and kind of hard to take it all in at the same time.  Almost like being visually overstimulated.

The timeline was a bit hard to follow.  I think the multiple camera shots helped with my confusion.  I had never seen something like this persist throughout a whole movie.  This kind of seemed like a gutsy, young director thing to do.  I checked out who did the directing and saw that Bruce McDonald did have 35 other projects to his name before this one.  So he’s definitely not a rookie.  A pretty interesting style.  The saving grace was the ending though.  Eventually everything came together and made a lot more sense.  In the end you realize what was real, what was imagined, and how all the fragments fit together.

This is definitely a sad story.  Tracey’s 9 year old brother has disappeared and she’s trying to find him.  She also happens to be a very unpopular 15 year old in high school.  I’m sure many of us can relate to that…trying to find our way in the world.

I could see a lot of people not being into this movie.  If you start watching it, please stick through to the end.  You won’t be sorry.  It totally redeems itself.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Grindhouse: Death Proof

Published
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Chalupa
on January 8, 2009
in Uncategorized
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This is the second installment I saw of Grindhouse and was directed by Quentin Tarantino.  See my review of Planet Terror if you need an intro to what the Grindhouse films are.

After seeing both of the Grindhouse films once, I’d have to say Death Proof was my favorite of the two.  Maybe it was just more of my style.  I’m not really into horror films anyways.  I’m also a huge fan of Tarantino and his films.  Just like some other heavily styled directors (Wes Anderson, the Coen Brothers, P.T. Anderson, Kevin Smith, Hitchcock, etc) you should be able to easily spot this as a Tarantino film if you’re familiar with his previous works.  It really seemed like Quentin was trying to create his own version of Smith’s Askewniverse.  Kevin Smith has his own little universe he has created amongst a series of movies in which characters, timelines, places, and situations float between the films.  Tarantino, and this might just be because of the order I saw them, reuses characters and places from Planet Terror.  He also reuses some actors/character from his previous films.  If you’ve seen Kill Bill, you’ll recognize the Texas sherrif and his son.

At first I thought this was a real ripoff and I complained to Liz about it.  When I had first heard about these two films being made, my understanding was they were going to make “crappy” movies nostalgic of their childhoods.  I felt like Rodriguez had stuck to the agreement and Tarantino cheated.  The quality of Death Proof just seemed much better than the first film I saw.  In reality, and I didn’t take the time to look anything up, I have no idea what the agreement was.  So that probably doesn’t matter, and, if Tarantino wants to reuse any of his stuff he has every right.

So Death Proof is about a movie stunt actor who has a “death proof” car.  It’s reinforced and has the fancy seat belts so he can do crazy things with his car and not be killed.  This “crazy” man with his crazy car also happens to be a bit of a serial killer.  He likes to stalk women, terrorize them on the road and kill them with his car.  We see Stuntman Mike, played by Kurt Russell, in two different situations terrorizing two different groups of women.  I won’t tell you what happens because that’s half the fun of watching.

I highly suggest watching Death Proof over Planet Terror if you need to pick between the two.  As usual there is some amazing music/soundtrack to go along with interesting scenes and scenarios.  Tarantino has a great knack for doing this.  I believe the radio station everyone is listening to is the same station from Resevoir Dogs.  I also love the fake trailer for Machete.  It stars Danny Trejo’s character from El Mariachi.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Grindhouse: Planet Terror

Published
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Chalupa
on January 8, 2009
in Action, Cult film, Horror, Sci-fi, Thriller and Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

This is the first of the Grindhouse films I saw.  If you’re not familiar with what I’m talking about, directors Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino decided to make a couple of B-movie flicks.  The first that I saw, Planet Terror, was directed by Rodriguez and is about a biological outbreak of sorts.

I think the coolest thing about these films is the style.  It looks like something out of the 1970s - the scratchy film, the sound, the commercials, the trailers, etc.  I really wish the fake trailers would be made into real movies.  There are even random bits of the films missing due to a missing reel.  Before this whole digital age, films used to arrive in several reels that were loaded and lined up.  If you’ve seen Fight Club, Tyler Durden talks about the “cigarette mark, ” that little circle in the upper right corner, showing when a new reel has started.  This is something I had never even noticed until it was Tyler brought it to my attention.  Anyways, the style is really cool and the films are shot present day, just in this old style.

Planet Terror is about a military group, I assume rogue, has their hands on some biological weapon.  In a botched sale the chemical is released and starts wrecking havoc on the surronding area.  The only people immune are the soldiers who were trying to buy the weapon in the first place.  They have these gas masks of sorts on and are breathing in some type of antidote.

There is of course a group of heros who are trying to fight off the affected/infected people and these crazed soldiers at the same time.  Being true to the B-genre, there are some nifty little elements like Cherry, played by Rose McGowan, loses her leg and ends up with a stump.  A stump with a machine gun attached.  This proves quite useful later on.  While this film is a bit ridiculous, it’s definitely fun and entertaining.  Liz walked in and said, “gross.”  She happened to catch a couple scenes where the effects of the mysterious chemical was being seen on several townsfolk.

If you’ve seen a Rodriguez or Tarantino film before, you’ll probably recognize a lot of the actors.  This is definitely an ensemble cast effort.  If you get bored in the middle, just stick through to the end.  I’m sure you’ll enjoy it at least a little bit.

Rating: ★★★½☆

City of Men

Published
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Chalupa
on January 8, 2009
in Based on TV Series, Brazil, Crime, Drama and Family
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City of Men is a sequel of sorts, based off a TV show, to City of God.  It takes place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and shows a peak into the lives of some young men living there.  The city is wrought with strife and gang wars.  This film illustrates some of the problems these children and young adults face just because of the color the their skin, where they live, who they’re related to, and what gang they belong to.  It also speaks a lot to fatherhood, or the lack thereof.

This story mainly consists of the relationship between two friends, Ace and Wallace.  They’re turning 18 and have come to the point in life where they’re finally grown up.  Ace already has a son and Wallace is in search of his biological father.  In the middle of everything, a gang war erupts putting these lifelong friends at odds.

I don’t feel like there’s much more I can say without giving away too much.  It’s a really great film and if you saw City of God, you need to see the follow up to the TV Series sequel.  I think there’s less violence in this film, but it’s just as powerful as the first.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Milk

Published
by
Chalupa
on January 7, 2009
in Assassination, Based on a true story, Biography, Drama, Ensemble Cast, Government, Politics and Uncategorized
. 0 Comments

Not having any idea who Harvey Milk was, other than what I had learned from the trailer, Milk was a very interesting look at the life of the first openly gay man to be elected to a major public office in the US.  Directed by Gus Van Sant, I knew this had to be at least a little good.  Then I noticed the amazing ensemble cast consisting of Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin, James Franco, Alison Pill, and Diego Luna.  Everyone did a great job.  I couldn’t really see a single character carrying the whole film with the exception of maybe Penn, but he was the central character.

Milk was a political activist in the 1970s who tried to rally the gay community on Castro street in San Francisco.  It was around this time that laws were being put into place giving employers, landlords, and communities the right to discriminate based on sexual preference.  This might sound a little crazy to you, but it was only about 50 years ago that the Civil Rights movement started in our nation.  I’ve heard some off-handed comments saying this movie is about “that gay guy.”  That’s only partially true.  I say this film is much more about civil rights than about gay rights.  Milk was someone who was able to rally people together of all races, religions and creeds.  This was even more evident after he was killed.

Don’t get mad cause I just gave the ending away.  This movie is about a real person, remember?  Penn was amazing.  I know there are a lot of you out there that just don’t like the guy, but he had an amazing performance in this one.  When people act, some mimic a person or character and others just melt into the person they are playing.  Sean Penn really melted into this one.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see him nominated for Best Actor on this one.

Also just saw Josh Brolin talking to James Lipton on The Actor’s Studio.  Brolin talked about auditioning for the part and working with Penn.  It was pretty interesting.  You should probably check it out if you get the chance.

Rating: ★★★★☆