Crash (2005) September 20, 2008
Posted by gproject in : Recently Viewed , add a commentDirected by: Paul Haggis
Crash is an issues film, and one that works very hard to stir its audience into post-screening conversation. Set over twenty-four hours in LA, writer-turned-director Paul Haggis’s foray into the political correctness nightmare of racial prejudice manages to stir up plenty of opinions, many of which hold their conclusions for debate on the ride home. Polarising opinions about its content aside though, there’s also a subtle drama worked into the seams that stops the movie from becoming just a random deconstruction of the stereotypes we consistently have pushed upon us, not least by Hollywood itself.
The story is of the multi-threaded variety, and concerns itself with an assortment of different ethnic groups, all living and working in modern day California. Two white cops, one a corrupted old hand, the other an optimistic freshman, have their racial tolerances pushed to the limit when the former abuses a black couple during a roadside check. Meanwhile, a district attorney and his wife are carjacked at gunpoint by two black men. The wife demands extra security but is suspicious of the Mexican locksmith hired to do the job. The locksmith, in turn, attempts to complete some work for a Persian storeowner, whose shop is later destroyed in a racial attack. Blaming the Mexican, the storeowner tries to take justice into his own hands.
A film that deals so singularly in the subject of race relations was always destined to draw criticism, and Crash was no exception. Sometimes praised for its honest and unrestrained portrayals, yet often derided for abridging the real issues, I think many people’s problem with the film lies in how it actually plays on the old stereotypes as much as it tries to refute them. For anyone who thought that the movie was too racially skewed, maybe you missed the point. It’s not a selection of concurrent stories that reflect life, but rather a selection of lives clouded by issues of ethnicity.
It is here that Haggis deals his toughest blows, with his righteous black characters who immediately turn out to be car thieves, his intolerant Persian shop owner, and his prejudiced white suburban woman. The film looks like a bleak excuse to propagate pigeonholing, but there’s more to it than that. The nicely pitched human struggles of Don Cheadle’s character and the harsh realisations of Ryan Phillippe’s supposedly straight-arrow cop, are both excellent accompaniments that help find truth amongst the turmoil. It is Michael Peña’s role, though, that forms the compassionate epicentre of the conflict, which results in a gasp-inducing finale.
The performances from a multi-talented star cast are, rather predictably, excellent. I’ve mentioned a few already, but add into the mix Thandie Newton, Terrence Howard, Sandra Bullock, Brendan Fraser, Ludacris, and Matt Dillon, all on the top of their game, and you’ve got a solid roster of talent. Dillon especially, has one of the film’s most interesting and conflicted characters - some will find him monstrous, while others may come away believing he is basically good. The trick played by both the writing and Dillon’s performance, is never forcing you to choose.
With such a long list of Hollywood names behind it, there are clearly plenty of people who believed in the film enough to help get it made (Cheadle even came on as producer). Much of this is down to the writing of Paul Haggis and his well handled reprising of the ‘interwoven stories’ narrative technique. He neatly builds his tales across the course of the film while dropping in racially reflective material that, in fairness, wavers from exemplary prejudice probing to slightly derivative typecasting. It would also be remiss not to mention that in his debut feature as director, Haggis handles the visuals and pacing with a great deal of attentiveness and care. The result is a film with fragmented stories, but where the cracks between them never show through.
As a general recommendation it can be a tough call, although the Academy apparently had no such trouble, handing Crash the Best Picture Oscar in 2005. For Haggis, this undoubtedly solidified the achievement, although that honour brought with it increased attention for his ‘controversial picture’ and its inherent opinion splitting. Personally, I don’t think it even needed this exposure - Crash is already a superb drama and an engaging film, even if you don’t agree with every minute of the content. It is hard to deny such emotive subject matter, but see it for the high quality performances, the adept storytelling structure, and most of all, for the thrill of debate.
Open Season (2006) September 15, 2008
Posted by gproject in : Recently Viewed , add a commentDirected by: Roger Allers & Jill Culton
Open Season falls into the unidentifiable glut of CG animation films that seem to pop in and out of our multiplexes whenever a school holiday rears its head. Notably, it is the kid-friendly animal adventure category, from which this movie also derives, that makes up a vast percentage of the market. Not to be outdone, Sony Pictures Animation pitch in with their effort, and along with its buddies Madagascar, The Wild and Barnyard, these anthropomorphic Stepford Wives gain another shallow member.
This time it’s the pairing of bear and deer that sets the hijinks in motion. Boog the bear (Martin Lawrence), the domesticated pet of a park ranger, meets Elliot the deer (Ashton Kutcher), a happy-go-lucky wild animal, when he saves Elliot from the hood of a hunter’s truck. Unfortunately, circumstances find Elliot and Boog trapped out in the woods alone, right at the start of hunting season. As Boog tries to make his way home again, he quickly realises that being a garage-living bear has left him unprepared to deal with the harshness of the great outdoors. Instead, he has to trust Elliot, his hapless companion, to help him.
The imdb.com trivia page for this movie whimsically remarks “Ashton Kutcher and Martin Lawrence never met during the making of the film”. And you know what? It really feels like it, too. Although this is quite a standard practice in the animation world, there are times when the voices gel and times when they don’t. This, for all its consistent efforts to make you think otherwise, is one of the latter. Maybe if Kutcher and Lawrence had actually been in the room together, one of them might have toned down their over exaggerated vocals, although I can’t credit all fault to the actors.
It certainly feels a little like the voices were chosen based on the ‘names’ rather than their appropriateness for the role. Debra Messing takes a slightly annoying part as the caring but misguided park ranger, yet it is Gary Sinise, playing the dastardly hunter Shaw, who really has to pantomime his act up. The moustache-twirling lunacy of the role makes for a villain who is about as threatening as the sock puppet theatre from which he is plucked. This on its own would be enough to sink the film, but Open Season plays it safe and ensures disappointment by ruining a few other key elements too.
Most notably, a story that starts out as brisk and energetic, but very quickly turns to rushed and then to “wait, what?” before the 86 minutes are up. It doesn’t really know if it’s coming or going as the creators struggle to squeeze in all the generic plot components that are essential to a buddy movie like this. You can’t go wrong with the standard ‘they hate each other, they like each other, they fall out, they make up’ structure, but the film never spends enough time making us care, while the final rallying stand against the oppressors (hunters, in this particular tale), is just an excuse to get everyone back together for a bit of good-humoured violence. Even the overarching story of Boog getting home is stretched by his obvious but unjustified choice during the conclusion.
I can’t really blame anyone for wanting to have a stab at this market, but after three and a half years in the making it’s just a shame to end up watching another weak contribution. Most of that time is set aside for the animation process of course, and in this movie the standard is pretty good – especially on the character models which fall somewhere between The Wild’s humanised reality and Madagascar’s wacky, angular caricatures. The script might give the kids some laughs but it offers very little to those outside of its demographic, and while the gags aren’t sparse by any means, the mismatched and sometimes overacted line readings don’t help get the best out of them.
At the point where the line-up of celebrity names became the only defining factor in telling these movies apart, we should have started exploring new directions. Some have tried [review] and even succeeded [review] in pushing the boundaries, so if we’re going to call open season on any strand of animation, let’s have it be this one - their unstoppable propagation is ruining the ecosystem.
Pineapple Express (2008) September 11, 2008
Posted by gproject in : Cinema, Recently Viewed , add a commentDirected by: David Gordon Green
Where stupidity and ineptitude meets underachieving and misguided, that’s where you’ll find the characters of a typical stoner comedy. Often concerning male friends who are usually on the run from, or to something, the whole genre can seem like a grab at an easy audience and even easier laughs. Pineapple Express changes little of the archetype, because it already has its biggest pulling factor built in: the failsafe comic teaming of producer Judd Apatow and star Seth Rogen. Two gentlemen for whom these are high times indeed.
Its story concerns two stoners: one a process server named Dale Denton, the other his lazy dealer named Saul Silver. Their relationship is one of mild acquaintance, until events conspire that Dale witnesses a murder by a cop and the biggest drug pusher in town – a guy who, according to Saul, is “crazy about murdering”. The two bumbling losers then try to go on the run, but are forever bumping into the wrong people, be it drug middle-man Red, or working thugs Budlofsky and Matherson. The one consistent link between them all: weed, specifically a potent strain that goes by the name of Pineapple Express.
Looking back on the comic legacy of this genre we find movies such as Up In Smoke, Dazed & Confused, and Half Baked, along with more recent additions like the Harold & Kumar films. All fairly safe tales of comic intent and, depending on where you stand, all successful in their own way. What the Apatow crew have added into the mix is a healthy dose of action, in order to make Pineapple Express unlike any stoner movie ever attempted. And it’s certainly present, although you may argue that their interpretation of ‘action’ seems to mean rough and tumble violence more than anything else.
So what we get is 111 minutes of fairly foul-mouthed comic banter, punctuated by moments of wild gunfire and no-holds-barred punch ups. It’s an odd mix, especially when done with such a strong intent on showing people getting injured, but apparently that’s exactly what the writers wanted. Superbad [review] writing team Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are behind the script, which sees our two protagonists bounce around Los Angeles with rather too little focus, bumping into other characters along the way before reaching the natural showdown conclusion. While the story is fairly simple, it’s not terribly engaging, and so it’s the moments between the moments that provide the film’s strongest laughs.
As always, there’s a heavy emphasis on improvisation, which the cast are presumably chosen based on their ability to participate in. Interestingly though, because of all the down time in Pineapple Express, I actually found the improv somewhat intrusive – a first for any of Apatow’s movies. 
Stripping the dialogue back might have made it seem less desperate, and while its true that most of the humour comes out of the random exchanges between characters, there are times when you want people to shut up and move on. It’s a difficult line to tread, but where these movies have succeeded before, this one pushes its ad-libs a little too hard.
Having said this, the cast itself is completely solid and play perfectly into their characters. Expect to see all the old Apatow faces, namely Seth Rogen as the hapless Dale Denton and James Franco as the drug dealing Saul Silver. While we get this kind of thing from Rogen all the time, it is Franco who particularly stands out here, taking a break from his more serous work to show that he still has the funny side that got him his job on Apatow’s Freaks & Geeks series eight years ago. Also worth mentioning is rising comic talent Danny McBride, who is part of the “he’s everywhere” contingent that also currently consists of Craig Robinson and Bill Hader – both of whom have parts in the movie.
It’s a strong comic cast, and their already existing friendships only make the on-screen relationships work even better. That’s maybe why it’s a surprise to see David Gordon Green in the director’s chair. Even though he has ties with some of the cast, this isn’t his typical job at all. As the director of All The Real Girls, Undertow and, most recently, Snow Angels, he is known for his drama more than his humour; he’s even been nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance twice. And yet, here he is, throwing himself into this stoner action / comedy combo with as much intent as ever. Unfortunately, intent doesn’t always equal results.
While he equips himself for the genre appropriately, shooting the comic stuff exactly as expected, there’s something lacking in the action sequences that shows up the holes in this supposedly kick-ass stoner flick. What hangs over the movie is the ghost of Hot Fuzz [review]; Edgar Wright’s action comedy that held its action in as high a regard as its humour. A scene in Pineapple Express which shows the rapid cocking of various guns looks lame in comparison to the Tony Scott-inspired visual aesthetic that Wright managed to adopt to do exactly the same thing.
That’s pretty much where this movie stands – as a fantastic idea that never quite lives up to expectations. Notably, the trailer for Pineapple Express was a superbly put together piece of editing that brings together the humour, the action, a great piece of music, and some of the best cinematography, in a way that never occurs in the final film. It’s still a fun movie and one that has so many gags that you’ll undoubtedly be laughing at some point, but maybe the film works best fulfilling the typical role of a stoner flick – as a secondary stimulus. One of the funniest scenes comes right at the end, as the main characters sit around and discuss the events as if it was a movie they just watched. That, I feel, is exactly how audiences will get the most enjoyment too.
Pineapple Express is on UK general release from September 12th.
The X Files: I Want to Believe (2008) September 7, 2008
Posted by gproject in : Cinema, Recently Viewed , add a commentDirected by: Chris Carter
Returning to a series as seminal as The X Files should bring with it a sense of purpose and meaning, yet this seemingly standalone instalment arrives as more a product of timing than anything else. Lead actors were willing, series creators were interested, Vancouver was open for business, and six years since the TV show ended had left a void that was, apparently, waiting to be filled. But without real impetus or reason, isn’t this just a supernatural thriller trading on the X Files name? Quite possibly, and yet there’s still something very watchable about it.
This particular ‘X-File’ takes place in rural Virginia, where women are mysteriously going missing on a regular basis. The only lead the FBI has is a disgraced priest, who claims to have psychic visions of the women. His supposed ability seems to herald results, but not without scepticism from those working on the case. And so, ex-paranormal agents Mulder and Scully are dragged back into the thick of an investigation, using their vast experience to find out one more time, if the truth is really out there.
What X Files mastermind Chris Carter has done here essentially boils down to a ‘Monster of the Week’ storyline with some extra time for Mulder and Scully to pontificate about their rather fragile relationship. On paper, it’s not the best outline for a feature-length return, 
yet its finished form is more entertaining than you might think. Firstly, the fantastical element of the story develops itself quite nicely, dropping question marks as it goes and instilling the plotline with a nice sense of mystery. It never feels ‘important’, like the best mythology episodes of the series, but Carter has no problem making throwaway content that holds your interest.
His script is a little ponderous at times and there are moments where inspiration seems lacking, especially during the conclusion which, in both story and thriller terms, is quite flat and comes as a bit of a disappointment. Yet there are some rewarding parts too - scenes that see Scully fight a cause outside of the investigation and have her battling her internal scepticism, are among the most effective. Where things eventually fall down is through the loose tying of its two storylines, and a role for Mulder that sees him do little outside of be his usual self.
It’s character issues like this that highlight the rather weak links between I Want To Believe and the rest of the X Files universe. In all honesty, this would have been a perfectly acceptable thriller even without the well-known characters and six-note whistle. We are told enough to understand that there is a history between the leads, and as only a casual watcher of the series, I had little problem catching up on the few past events that were mentioned. Sure, there are some sly references for fans to pick up, but shouldn’t a six-year wait hold more for The X Files most dedicated followers?
The biggest coup, of course, is the return of David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson in their career-defining roles as Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. Both have gone on to have solid careers, and I’ve especially enjoyed Duchovny’s performances in both the good and the mediocore. Each actor falls neatly back into character and there’s certainly a credibility to their relationship that exudes from years of working so closely. Holding the supporting roles are Amanda Peet as a trusting FBI agent, Xzibit as an untrusting FBI agent, and Billy Connolly as the visionary, paedophile priest (yes, you read that correctly).
I Want To Believe has struggled at the box office, maybe a little undeservingly so, but with no real draw for fans outside of a quick catch up with Mulder and Scully, it was never going to be enough to drag people back into theatres. Its biggest mistake comes down to the fact that it doesn’t escape the ‘extended episode’ accusation that is so easily attributable to feature films upgraded from TV shows. If there’s one saving grace, it’s the involvement of Chris Carter, who still has the ability to spin an interesting yarn, even though he’s the only one with the belief that his characters alone can hold the whole thing together.
RocknRolla (2008) September 3, 2008
Posted by gproject in : Cinema, Recently Viewed , add a commentDirected by: Guy Ritchie
If there is any working director who has experienced such a dramatic turning in the past few years, it’s British filmmaker Guy Ritchie. Exploding onto the international scene with his stylised London gangster flick Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, he was heralded as Britain’s biggest hope for a competing with Hollywood. But after jumping the follow-up hurdle successfully with Snatch, he took a beating for betraying his genre roots on Swept Away and then again for making the introspective bizarre-o-fest, Revolver. This time it’s back to London, back to the gangsters, back to the heists and back to the well. Like a lost child returning home, it’s good to see him safe and sound.
The film opens by introducing us to an underhand property deal gone wrong, which leaves a usually cocksure guy who goes by the nickname One Two, owing money to London’s most dangerous criminal, Lenny Cole. In a bid to earn what he owes, One Two starts doing jobs for the mysterious Stella, who just happens to be the accountant for Uri, a Russian mobster who has got his eyes on Lenny’s turf. Throw into the mix a miscreant rocker named Johnny Quid, a bunch of One Two’s mates (who together form ‘the Wild Bunch’), and a much-desired ‘lucky’ painting. It all adds up to war in the Capital – with everyone vying to get the upper hand.
RocknRolla is much closer to the Ritchie archetype laid out in Snatch and Lock Stock, which leads to easy and obvious comparisons with his earlier works. And why not? I don’t think there’s any doubting that this is an attempt to claw back the respect received by those films, and produce another enjoyable, knockabout London gangster flick for the fans. Just for the record, I really liked Lock Stock (after dismissing it originally and then catching it on DVD), and I enjoyed, but was less enthralled by, Snatch. It’s the unique character-based spin that makes Ritchie’s movies what they are though, and in that respect, RocknRolla succeeds ten-fold.
We are introduced to what seems like fifty different characters, all with distinct personalities and their own descriptive nicknames. Early on it can become a little overwhelming, especially as you’re trying to take in the voice-over back-story (typically Ritchie with its tales of dodgy dealings and a “you owe me money, son” setup), but as the film progresses, you gradually grow accustomed to the rogues gallery of characters. Importantly, it’s these people who drive interest in the back-and-forth storyline, which follows the classic interweaving tales structure from Lock Stock, and means that careful choice of acting talent is required throughout.
Luckily, the cast doesn’t disappoint. Gerard Butler is good as cheeky hard-man One Two, and it’s a welcome return after a couple of weaker loved-up roles in Nim’s Island and P.S. I Love You. Similarly well-suited is Tom Wilkinson, who follows up his Best Supporting actor nomination for Michael Clayton [review], by playing the respected Godfather figure, Lenny Cole. Then there’s support from a whole host of lesser involved, but equally as effective, supporting players, including Mark Strong, Idris Elba, Tom Hardy, Karel Roden, Matt King, Ludacris and Jeremy Piven. Thandie Newton provides the femme fatale element, but for me it is Toby Kebbell, playing rock star Johnny Quid, who steals the show with his whacked-out but educated deliveries.
The only person who could draw attention away from such a huge cast is Ritchie himself, and it’s likely that he will take most of the brunt for the success or failure of this film. As scriptwriter, he loads up the dialogue with as much regionalised dialect as he can find, and lets the gags flow thick and fast whenever the opportunity strikes. The actual story, on the other hand, feels a little like a Lock Stock throwback and never manages to tie all the threads together in a manner that satisfies like it did in ‘98. 
The ending, in particular, is a bit of a let down after all the build up, while the final twist is openly divulged about thirty seconds before the ‘reveal’ sequence plays out. This all holds the movie back a bit, along with some drawn out scenes that serve to slow down the pace of a film that often feels like it should be moving faster.
Where the picture breaks from its ten-year-old origins is in its editing and shot style. Ominously, the influence of Revolver rears its head, and we get a few odd ‘out of body’ moments mixed into the expected fast cutting, stylised atmosphere. It’s an infrequent occurrence though, and never takes on the navel-gazing, smarter-than-thou attitude from that messy previous feature. RocknRolla may well be proclaimed as a ‘return to form’ for a director who has seen both great success and strong derision in equal measure. A good job too, since Ritchie apparently plans a trilogy of stories with this film’s ‘Wild Bunch’. It’s certainly an entertaining couple of hours, and the best thing that Ritchie has done in eight years, but that still leaves it far from perfect. If you hated his early work then stay well away, but for everyone else, this is a partway return to the classic era, and I think you’ll agree that it’s nice to have him back. Safe, but sound.
RocknRolla is on UK general release from September 5th.
