The Cinematic Experience of Forizzer

I’m pitting my least anticipated franchise “blockbuster” against my most anticipated franchise blockbuster. It’s sad how they compare.

Dragonball Evolution (James Wong, 2009)

A film I only watched to make fun of happened to be one of the most entertaining films I’ve seen so far this year. The story – although inaccurate to the original storyline (which I care nothing for) – chronicles the growth of Goku (Justin Chatwin); from an immature, self-absorbed adolescent into a passionate man who is strong both in will and in an ancient fighting art form. Along with a rag tag group of unusual pals in Bulma (Emmy Rossum) and Yamcha (Joon Park) the trio sets off to find the other dragonballs in an attempt to stop Lord Piccolo (James Marsters) from achieving an overwhelming power.

What makes this film so good is that it doesn’t ever take itself seriously. I mean, bar the climactic fight and the surprisingly (somewhat) menacing scenes of Piccalo speaking of his plans to his follower, it is a carefree and pleasant film. It understands that its content isn’t supposed to be taken seriously and that its characters aren’t meant to be anything special – and because of this it oozes charisma. From the staggeringly hot Emmy Rossum in a role bound full of mischief, to Joon Park giving the single most irritating (and therefore humorous) Korean impression of a typical American, to Justin Chatwin’s solid lead performance that is perhaps the most natural for any film alike; enjoyable and at ease. Plus Ken Watanabe is a bunch of fun and how can you not love a fun loving Watanabe?

What causes this film to succeed where Transformers does not is that it thrives on audience participation. There is a fairly well thought out singular plot; regulated plot devices that cause a formulaic story pattern and very simple characters that you can laugh with and/or at. It isn’t a big budget film, so it has to do other things to engage the audience – this is where the humor lays. Although it isn’t the funniest or the most interesting film ever, it does pace itself well and not exaggerate any scenes. Even the climactic fight is only about 5 minutes long. Comradery, new love and a desire for a soul at peace is what the film is all about. It isn’t profound, but it is simple fun. See it with little expectations like I did and you’re sure to at least enjoy yourself. [6/10]

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Michael Bay, 2009)
Alright, so you know the Michael Bay drill: explosions, comic relief (what for? I don’t know) and more explosions.

What causes the film failure is that it really, really takes itself too seriously. The first film was more reckless and more enjoyable because of it – sure, it had serious moments and did take itself seriously when ‘teaching’ about finding yourself, but that was basically it. The action wasn’t relentless, but it was entertaining. From the well placed bits of humor to the big fight scenes, it was a solid feature. This holds some similarities, but it truly exploits the successes of the ‘07 feature.

For example, Megan Fox – a fresh, sexy face for audiences to enjoy. Alright, she was used well in the first, but in this Bay exploits the character beyond hot into dull. Almost every line of dialogue that comes out of her characters mouth is redundant and boring. And how many times did Bay slow down the film to show her boobs jiggle? Like 10? Anyways, that’s one example. Another would be the humor; the masturbation scene in the first – along with the not-so-witty, but still funny one liners – really cut some built-up boredom through overlong scenes. This just has them coming at you from every direction and at least half of them miss.

Like the first, this follows the duel storylines of Sam (Shia LaBeouf) and the American reserves, headed by Captain Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and Sergeant Epps (Tyrese Gibson – this brings me to a small issue; his character in the first was an intense guy… now he’s just wise-ass typical black stereotype). So you get both parallel perspectives on the crisis and its flavored and varied (it isn’t, but whatever, just go with it). So there’s a comedy film about going off to college for the first 30 minutes, followed by an uneasy somewhat actiony and sneaky story about robots that follows… followed by fights between robots, as well as Sam, his main squeeze Mikaela (MEGAN FOX?!) and Leo (Ramon Rodriguez).

The film has a bunch of flare in terms of action, but it also contains a bunch of annoyance. Frantic camera movement that adds nothing to the scene and is only inconvenient for the viewer to experience (ie. even in scenes of two person dialouge the camera has to circulate the two characters at an illness inducing rate), as well as cuts in the fight scenes to show the obviously concerned and bedazzled expressions from the main characters cause for abrupt disruption that being scared just prior to orgasm – you lose momentum, finally build back up and boo… you get scared again. It’s a vicious and unhealthy cycle.

Plotholes also plague the movie, but I care not for plotholes in such movies – I just take them for empty entertainment. This film had me partially engaged and partially turned off to what was going on. I expected at least the same amount of pleasure from this as from Transformers, but I didn’t receive it. I don’t “not” recommend it… I just suggest you keep your mind open to the film and not have any expectations for it – maybe you’ll like it more. [5/10]

Here are some thoughts on three films I’ve seen as of late. I’ll review them in order:

The first is Confession a 1937 film by the unmentioned and unknown director Joe May. Starring Kay Francis and Basil Rathbone, the story opens on a young girl named Lisa (Jane Bryan) saying goodbye to her mother as she leaves for vacation. She and her friend receive an unusual letter from Michael Michailow (Basil Rathbone) to come see him at one of his concerts – these young women don’t know Michael. So they go and during the concert Michael lays eyes on Lisa – he “knew” she’d come. Lisa’s friend has to be home by 10 leaving Lisa alone with Michael after the concert; a shy, young Lisa and an aggressive and seductive old Michael cause for some of the most awkward romanticism you’ll ever see. Lisa feels increasingly uncomfortable and is convinced by Michael to see him one last time before he leaves for another tour.

Structured beautifully, after the opening third of the film Michael gets shot by a deranged woman at a nightclub the night before he’s set to leave – it turns out the first 30 minutes were Lisa telling her story of her and Michael to a court; the deranged woman on trial. Lisa’s character is basically unheard of apart from one or two small scenes later on and she takes a backseat to Vera (Kay Francis) and her story that is told behind closed doors. There is a twist in the story that smacks the film into perspective and had me literally speaking to myself going “Holy f-ck”. It’s by far the best twist I’ve seen on film; but perhaps that is just due to me not knowing anything about the plot before hand.

The cast is great and headed by one of the finest leading performances I’ve seen in Kay Francis. The pacing is elegant; the direction is subtle; the story is fascinating and the ending is thrilling. One of the greatest films I’ve seen and I urge anyone that’s a fan of classic cinema to seek this out immediately. [9/10]

The second film I’ve seen as of late is Tiger Shark. Coincidentally, I was putting early cinema film references in my latest screenplay – a homage to prohibition gangster films – and I decided to use this film, a film I’d not seen. A few days later it happened to pop up on TCM and it seemed like too eerie a coincidence to pass up.

Tiger Shark is a 1932 film by Howard Hawks and it stars Edward G. Robinson and Zita Johann. The story is simple and consists primarily on the lives of fisherman – most notably one fisherman by the name of Mike Mascarenhas (Edward G. Robinson) a self-absorbed, arrogant, yet genuine Portuguese man with a hook for a hand! He rambles endlessly about the most mundane of things and feels too similar a person to be a fictional character; a tribute to the skill of Mr. Robinson.

Aboard the vessel he is the captain of, there are major health issues; primarily ones that preserve your life and keep you from dying. The fishermen and their main goals are to fish, obviously. But in shark infested waters, there are many instances where the large fish pull you in and for the few seconds you lay in wait for help, you lose a limb. In one case, a man dies and Mike decides to go to inform his daughter Quita (Zita Johann) and care for her. Not because he’s noble, but because she’s quite pretty and he’s quite lonely. This sparks a typical romance and after a little while they get married. Soon after she realizes she isn’t in love with him, but rather one of his shipmates and closest friends in Pipes (Richard Arlen). Pipes wants no part of an affair because he’s indebted to Mike for saving him and losing a hand in doing so – she doesn’t care either way.

The story ends is typical from beginning to end with a pretty good ending that achieves what it wants the viewer to feel; Mike never once changes throughout the course of the film and it’s very nice to see consistency in such a character. Robinson was excellent and knocked the film up 1 mark with his best performance yet. I’d recommend it to fans of Edward G. Robinson or a light and short romantic films from the heyday. [7/10]

The latest film I’ve seen is The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. Having seen the 2009 version based on the novel by John Godey, I figured I may as well give the one with the superior acting and superior reviews a go.

Like you probably know because of recent trailers, the story consists of a subway man – in the Scott version, a subway dispatcher; in this, a subway policeman – by the name of Zachary Garber (Walter Matthau) trying to plea with a man who has hijacked the subway Pelham 123 with three co-conspirators. They demand a large amount of money – in the ‘09 version there is a hidden motive; in this it’s straightforward and less ironic due to recent circumstances in the real world’s financial situation – and the four men, led by Mr. Blue (Robert Shaw). Unlike the new version, this is all about business – there is no chummy, fate pondering dialogue, it is simply all about business.

What I liked most about this version in contrast to the ‘09 version were the characters. They were all real people: from the two main characters begin completely straightforward and putting forth very ‘manly’ auras to the subway patrons who are completely scared and not bound to do anything stupid or unconventional… everyone is just an honest person. Caricatures and unreasonable circumstances are not ever a problem with this film which put it miles about the most recent version.

The performances are very good: the determined and collected performance by Walter Matthau blends beautifully with the relentless and sardonic performance by Robert Shaw.

All in all, the film is very entertaining and structured very well. It has one of my favourite final acts in film history and the final scene seals that statement. If you disliked the version that just came out don’t hesitate to watch this film to restore your faith in the story! [8/10]

Is my new favourite actress. And it’s good too, because I’ve only seen two of her four nominated performances, meaning it’ll only get better. She sealed it last night with The Lady Eve. After seeing a slew of her films in the past month (The Lady Eve, Forbidden, Clash by Night, The Miracle Woman and Ball of Fire) on top of the several others I’d seen prior, I can now confidently say that she is the best actress I’ve seen on film. Sure, Bette Davis was offered the more juicy characters, and sure Katharine Hepburn was able to diversify herself with different projects (all of them result in her playing a posh character, it seems…), but Stanwyck did the best she could with the characters she was given.

Whether it be the frail, insecure faux sister in The Miracle Woman – falling in love with a blind and sincere man through the trickiest of circumstances or it be a Hitchcockian performance full of freight and poise in Sorry, Wrong Number she did it all. Though you wouldn’t expect it from her, she’s also hilarious! Though she plays the less comedic and bumbling characters in most of her comedies, her cynicism and sarcasm do wonders for the films layers of comedy. Her chemistry with the closeted and nimbly spoken Gary Cooper in Ball of Fire is some of the most delightful comedic romance on film.

So here’s to Stanwyck – a woman of flare, passion and underneath it all, a joker!

THE HANGOVER
starring: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms & Zach Galifianakis

Todd Phillips is a fair comedy director – bringing in laugh after laugh with Road Trip, Old School, Starsky + Hutch & School for Scoundrels. However, The Hangover is by far his best work to date – combining what succeeded in all those films into one smushed comedy. Not “the comedy of the year” by any means, and I’m sure it’ll lose it’s initial appeal on rewatches, but as a singular viewing it is a treat. A nifty concept that relies on post-drunk behavior as opposed to drunk behavior, it’s intelligent and honest. There are plenty of surprises to be had and it is certainly a funny movie. On the flip side, there are some parts that don’t work so well – they seem cheap and imitative, but you laugh at them anyways because of the prior laughs that you had. There are some violent scenes which come at you from nowhere and some rather crude scenes too. These are more or less the high points because in a frantic comedy, the less down to Earth the better. Zach Galifianakis is by far the best of the cast; he brings his deadpan and self-mocking humor from his stand-up and it translates to the screen beautifully. If not for him, the film would’ve been an average film at best.

All in all, a fun movie that I recommend based solely on the fact that there’s nothing all that humorous out right now (well, I haven’t seen Land of the Lost but I’m pretty sure it won’t be that funny) and it’s generally a good time. A low 7/10 and somewhat worthy of the packed crowd I saw it with. Oh yeah, and make sure to stay in your seats for the sweet montage during the credits. I saw some people dash for the doors right when they figured it was over, but man… they definitely saved the best for last with this one.