Miami Vice: Elisa already reviewed it, but I am going to have to disagree with her. Michael Mann should not be criticized for failing to play up his marquee stars and the cheesy 80s TV source material - to the contrary this movie is a success precisely because it does not cater to campy pop-culture and Ironic Hollywood casting.
Let's face it- there are a million movies out there that have super-action-hero celebrities jumping off of exploding speedboats and dodging Uzi fire, delivering cheesy one-liners and defeating the Russian terrorist drug dealers single-handed. Some of them are good, some are not so good- but this is not one of those movies at all. Michal Mann was involved in the original Miami Vice television show back in the day. He has a history with the characters and the subject matter that allows him to jump in and re-visit them, only this time with a seriousness, a budget, a special-effects team, an R-rating, and a depth that 80s TV would not afford him. It is a very cool concept and the reverse of what we have become used to. They took a familiar concept and instead of making a joke out of it and building the plot around in-jokes or parody (see: Starskey & Hutch, Dukes of Hazzard, etc.) they take the ideas seriously and build a complex, adult story around it. It's nice to see how it stands up with a sincere treatment, much more satisfying then the other remakes (though anything with Vaughn and/or Stiller is going to be enjoyable for different reasons.
Marie Antoinette: This movie was OK. We owed it to Sofia to see what she could do here. It was an interesting interpretation of the historical figure infused with her own personal experience and modern teen girl celebrity pop culture undertones. I think the movie suffered somewhat because it lacked the strong lead acting talent that Lost in Translation had. Sofia seems to love setting the scenes up and then stepping back and letting us look at them. I noticed the same thing from Jared Hess in Nacho Libre. There seemed to be some storytelling missing and a little too much of a director in love with their own set design. It is still a movie, guys, we do need something to happen here.
There's nothing else to say because Elisa has already written the definitive essey response to watching Marie Antoinette, and I love her for it.
Transamerica: Where Breakfast on Pluto was a little unsettling and depressing but infused by a Neil Jordan / Cillian Murphy quirky sort of heart, this movie was just unsettling and depressing. Instead of a fun, outgoing, flamboyant transvestite we get a weird, antisocial and kinda creepy pre-op transsexual. I suppose it was a good performance by Felicity Huffman but it's hard to tell with the crazy voice and the weak story (uh-oh, looks like your whole carefully constructed world is about to come crashing down during a cross-country road trip with your estranged son during which you will learn a lot about each other but even more about yourselves!) In the end,the story felt too contrived and the characters, too bullshit. I never really cared about anyone in the film, so it was just 100 minutes of unpleasant with a few interesting scenes. Final judgment: Overrated. If you want to hand out Oscars for that shit, give one to my wing-man Cillian.
Syriana: Even more confusing and convoluted then Traffic. I had high hopes for this movie but We (Elisa) kept putting it off. I don't know if it would have benefited from being seen at the height of the Clooney resurgence but by the time we got around to this one it almost felt like a chore. If they had a point to make they lost it. Clooney is a CIA man and there is no loyalty in that business, plus he gets into some shady shit and gets screwed over. There is some behind-the-scenes backstabbing in a Middle Eastern Royal family, but ultimately the US is going to get what they want regardless. Matt Damon's innocent eyes are opened to the harsh reality of oil exporting, and his kid is needlessly killed off by the plot machine. Big Oil mergers skirt government regulation with back room dealings and corporate greed from Chris Cooper, and when the Feds catch up to them a patsy takes the fall. OK, we get it, but can you make it a little more entertaining when you give it to us? See, when I get to Fast Food Nation you might appreciate the fact that at least the story was clear, concise, somewhat entertaining, and not nearly as contrived as Syriana.
We also went back and watched Larry Clark's Another Day in Paradise, which was decent, a little different from Clark's usual nihilistic teen-centric soft-core depress-fest. It was more of a crime picture with a mentor/apprentice angle (and there were worthless drugged up teens having sex and making horrible decisions, but what did you expect?)
Then we went back and saw Lost Highway thanks to IFC (since David Lynch is a bitch and won't release it on DVD.) There are some great scenes in that movie which is why I wanted to see it again, but there really is nothing holding it together (and those scenes really aren't that great). It was nostalgia for Nine Inch Nails and the late high school/ early college years when this sort of moody art film thing was cool.
The upcoming Grindhouse inspired an Desperado and Dusk 'Till Dawn movie night, and I had forgotten how great those movies were- especially Desperado, which I hadn't seen in years and years. QT and RR are national treasures, and no one can do what they do better.
We saw most of Dead Alive and all of Evil Ed because I inexplicably went on some B-movie horror gross out flick kick. Both were somewhat disturbing and unpleasant, we'll have to chalk that up to a 'what the hell was I thinking.'
I didn't mean to be too negative here, I know it seems like I am ripping everything. There were many other movies we watched and some that I really liked but I want to give them their own review (if I can). Stay tuned...
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