Review: The Mechanic

Urban: Jason Statham takes this film in a contemplative direction in the style of the recent film The American. The result is a film full of action, that nevertheless hits some strong and subtle notes.

Simon West (Con Air) directs this remake of the 1972 Charles Bronson film about an elite assassin (Jason Statham) working for a high class cabal as he teaches his trade to an apprentice (Ben Foster) who has a connection to one of his previous victims.

The Mechanic rises above the typical fare, and the typical Jason Statham film, by taking a little extra time to fill out the story and show us the details.

It's that simple.

Without a steady hand to guide it this film could have easily entered the realm of The Transporter, the only difference being the subject matter glossed over before Statham started crushing skulls and the addition of a buddy storyline. Instead, Statham's character, Arthur Bishop, really steps onto the screen and channels some inner Charles Bronson as he deals with one of the most common employment issues when working for an assassin cabal - that they always feel the need to terminate their employees? (Mr. and Mrs. Smith, the Bourne Trilogy, Wanted). This happens in two ways:

First, the buddy story that is depicted on the screen actually plays out. By that, I simply mean to say that it has a trajectory. The last buddy film that I can remember was The Other Guys with Will Ferrell and Marky Mark, but that one simply served as a vehicle for both of those actors to act silly. Here, we get to see a fully developed bond, complete with the weaknesses and areas of mistrust you might expect from a relationship thrown together like this.

Second, the details of the film are really allowed to show through. I guess, this is probably my way of saying that I noticed the details here, and I liked them. The Schubert playing on vinyl, the classic porsche, the house on the bayou - most importantly, the detailed planning of the assassinations - this is not Cranked, or Death Race, but a story about the kind of characters that I want to know about. It's also probably why the film didn't produce at the box office the way Statham's recent films have, despite the fact that this one has plenty of action.

The primary thing that I want to say about this movie is that I really enjoyed it, but that I also had very low standards for what to expect from it. This happened because I couldn't help but compare this film with the last 8 years of Jason Statham films and find a whole lot more in this one than in all of the others. Slate television critic Troy Patterson says that "Statham isn't pretentious enough to try to elevate any movie, but rather that he celebrates the 'B-Movieness' of the roles that he choose", but I happen to agree more with Julia Turner on the same cultural gabfest when she mentions Statham's ability to bring humor to a role that would other wise not seem very funny. I think that in this film, that humor fits in with the rest of the storyline and along with the details and pacing (think of this one as a poor man's The American) combine to create a pleasant film.



Urban: Recommended

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Review: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

Urban: Another Oliver Stone piece about the recent past, the acting is good, the directing misses the mark, and the story is good, but simply too long.



Oliver Stone returns to his seminal character, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), in order to trace the events involved in the recession of 2008. As Gekko emerges from prison he attempts to re-unite with his daughter and rebuild his financial empire in a land where many of the old rules don't apply.

Urban: This is a pretty good film. Whatever else I may say, this is something that you should watch, and should enjoy/think about. The events and themes that tell the story behind the 2008 recession are fully on display in all their tawdry glory.

At the same time, this film really misses the mark by attempting to make the story fuller. While this may seem odd, most Stone films tend to be preachy. In this one, Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf) is the same character as Bud Fox in the original Wall Street, in the same way that he is also Chris Taylor from Platoon. In Stone's moral universe, everyone has two father figures as options. In this film, Gordon Gekko competes with Bretton James (Josh Brolin) as the right to guide Moore (and by metaphorical extension the American public) out of the recession. Taking time to develop both of these options moves the viewer to highs and lows, but mostly includes lows (just like the economy) because both options are pretty lousy.

Instead of developing the downward spiral to its fullest extent, Stone attempts to build a story of hope (Obama?) into this film. However, from the vantage point of the viewer, this story isn't finished and to many, the hope that may have reached it's epoch when things were still at their darkest during the 2008 presidential election hasn't delivered relief for very many. Stone went too far with this story considering the recent history of this event. Having Gekko reform, return the money to the green power initiative, and letting Moore reunite with his fiance; as well as allowing justice to have it's way with James just wraps things up way too neatly for anyone to feel good about this happy ending.

Artistically, this film has some good moments. The shots that occur organically within the storyline - the busy trading floor, Miss Moore showing a gaudy (empty) mini-mansion, the deathly seriousness of the major banks around the table negotiating for their lives, and Gekko lording over his empire sitting behind his massive desk with hands folded. These shots are well-put together and effectively communicate the mood of the film and please us by meeting our expectations. The film does a decent job of maintaining continuity by showing the peaks and valleys of the market imposed upon the New York City skyline. It also comes close to achieving symmetry by including two different instances of voice-over from LaBouef that do a tremendous job of explaining the larger consequences of entire groups playing out the morality play by our characters.

In another way though, Stone tries to go beyond our expectations by adding a number of stylish shots that all disappoint. Of these overreaches, very few compare to the miss-step in the opening credits when the look at the New York City streets attempts to climb a building and enter a board-room meeting. The CGI is apparent and looks very amateurish. Throughout the film, small attempts to do things like this really mar the finish of what would have been a pretty decent looking movie. The most unforgivable offense though, is extending the movie beyond the final voiceover from LaBeouf. This second instance occurs right after Gekko has turned back to the dark side, betraying his friends and family, and perfectly hits the tone of our nation at the time. Instead, Stone fits poor form onto poor content when he tries to give this sad story a happy ending.

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Review: The Social Network

Urban: The Zeitgeist that everyone remembers, told in a smart way and directed with all of the momentousness that it deserves.

Urban: He's not a bad guy. Even though this film literally has to tell us this, it's still hard to walk away from this movie feeling this way. It's probably because it is largely based upon The Accidental Billionaires, a book told from the perspective of Eduardo Saverin, the Facebook founder who was pushed out of the business by Mark Zukcerberg. Despite this, writer Aaron Sorkin and Director David Fincher do an excellent job of creating the most realized film of recent memory. By this I simply mean to say that the film manages to avoid any reference to any other film/cultural epoch/war story. It doesn't stand for anything but itself, which (and I liked these films): W., The Hurt Locker, Avatar, all were unable to do, as they were somehow all pulled into larger stories within political/social groups.

In order to do so, the film focuses on it's self referential qualities. In many ways, the term "friend", with all of the connotations that it carries within Facebook, is the prism through which any, and especially this, social network must be viewed. The beauty of the term on the website and within this film is that it carries no distinction; between frenemy and best friend or being used as a verb or an adjective.

A friend is a person that you know, that you don't necessarily keep in touch with regularly due to the presiding social strata (Winklevoss Twins). A friend could also be someone you have a crush on, no matter how destructive of an influence that they are (Sean Parker, Christy Lee) A friend, as the movie also shows us, can be a person with whom you have serious disagreements (Eduardo Saverin). Nowhere is this rendered more artfully than in the courtroom deposition sequences, when Saverin and Zuckerberg speak to each other through their lawyers even though they are sitting across the table from one another - their lawyers are functioning as their facebook wall - they are communicating, but not on the level that they are capable of attaining.

Even further, the film's attention to detail with regard to these issues can also be seen in the amount of parallels that the story contains. This is apparent not only in some of the symmetrical life experiences that Saverin and Zuckerberg face, but also within the way that each storyline that is produced is completed within the course of the film. I know that some reviews noted that the crew racing scene in England seemed to be 'extra', but I contend that this scene functioned beautifully to construct the logical completion of the Sean Parker upward arc within the film, while also tying up the plot-line regarding the Winklevi.

As a sort of an aside, the Trent Reznor score really punctuates the film without ever taking away from it. He might have a future in the music business.

When viewed in total, the film was a complete success at telling a momentous story in a beautiful way. For doing so, the film will become a future classic.

Urban: Strongly Recommended

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Review: Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D

Urban: For zombie movies, you're better off with Zombieland. For video game movies, better off with Prince of Persia.

Urban: This is the fourth in the series of Resident Evil films and the first that I have seen from beginning to end since the original. I did see parts of the third film, and thought that it handled the desert wasteland of a zombie apocalypse at least as well as any other zombie/apocalypse film (I think that Book of Eli and Terminator: Salvation both used the same gas station set).

This film does everything that it can to take advantage of the 3D stylings, which don't look bad at all, but which definitely are featured at the expense of the story, which is unintelligible. Having not seen the other films, I felt as lost as I did watching the original. All that I could deduce was that although earth was barren except for zombies and precious few holdouts, a gigantic corporation continued to house thousands of employees and test products underground. Why do they continue to test chemical weapons? There is no one to fight anymore! To add to this mistery, after apparently being injected with a serum that neutralizes the deadly "T virus" Milla Jovovich should lose her ability to be an outstanding zombie killer. Nonetheless, she is able to survive a deadly helicopter crash immediately after. Even though it occurs in the first 15 minutes of the film, this incident is not mentioned again for the rest of the film.

Once you get past these inexcusable story elements, what remains is your basic zombie movie, filmed in 3D, and Ali Larter. It's amazing how far those elements go with viewers these days when they are done well.

Urban: Not recommended.

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Scarface-Abbreviated

URBAN: Brian De Palma presents a film with more cultural currency than real scinematic excellence. An important film for understanding the times.

This film is the definition of eneven to me. It contains some of the most intense scenes (despite not having any particularly outstanding shots) while also containing some long stretches of downtime. The scene where Tony meets the first drug dealers that culminates in the chainsaw killing is completely breathtaking. The part where the guy gets thrown out of the chopper is the same way. The end is another example of this. However, the rest is kind of spacey. The scenes of them talking at the beach and the odd stuff with his sister are barely memorable. Unfortunately, this film has become intertwined with the first big GTA game, Vice City.

Very memorable. Better than a lot of people give it credit for. It's just not quite the achievement that the game was.

URBAN: Recommended

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Notorious

URBAN: If you want to know the man, you would be better off watching his VH1 special.

Notorious tells the story of Notorious B.I.G., Chris Wallace from childhood to his untimely death at the age of 25.

URBAN: The thing that was interesting to me about this film really had nothing to with what was caught on camera. The real story was simply: considering that both Biggie Smalls and Tupac have both had VH1 Behind The Music specials based upon their death, that this one made it to the big screen first. Seriously, I don't mean to recreate the East Coast-West Coast, Bad Boy-Death Row feud, but I think that it is pretty much universally accepted that Tupac was the better artist, and certainly possessed a more interesting story.

This film does not compare favorably to the other music biographies that have appeared recently-Ray, Walk The Line, etc. It's not necessarily that the subject matter has anything less to offer, but the method of telling the story here is lacking. Early on, the voice-over narrative does a decent job of explaining Biggie's motivations which allow the viewer to understand the action that he/she sees. Biggie wants to make money, but he also has enough respect for his mother that he wants to keep his extracurricular activity from her. As the film draws on, the motivations often lack explanation, and the viewer gets bogged down in the contradictions that the filmmaker depicts, but have no cause or relation to the major events of the story.

For example, the film depicts a young Chris writing rhymes and dealing drugs, the drugs are explained by the voice-over, but the rhyming,,,, just a throwaway line about how it made him feel better to write rhymes while he was in jail. While I would assume that rhymes would go on to become a big part of his life, the film really doesn't help me out here. Despite the fact that it is a biography, the film basically holds the audience at arms length.

In the second half of the film, this tactic really insults the intelligence of the viewer. This film would have us believe that the feud that laid Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I,G in their graves began over a perceived jumping outside an apartment in Brooklyn. While undoubtedly, this would be a big deal, but it is never understood why, Tupac believed that Biggie was behind this incident. It goes even further after an affront by Tupac to Biggie in front of a music awards show, the voice-over confides, “ We should have gotten together somewhere and sorted this shit out, but it was too late for that.”

Why?

You see, everyone who has watched Tupac's Behind The Music knows that there was more going on than that.

In closing, this film fails because it refuses to deliver the depth of details. The voice-over is confusing, as it would have the viewer believe that this is Biggie telling us his story. But it depicts a lot of bad behavior he never apologizes for, and tells the story of a great lyricist without every getting close to the subject matter that inspired his greatest work—mortality.

URBAN: Not Recommended

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The Hangover

URBAN: I thought it was going to be stupid and sophomoric, but like Zach Galifianakis's character in the film, it's so sincere in doing these things that I couldn't help but like it.

The one and only destination for bachelor parties is put on display in this comedy that is equal parts Dude, Where's My Car, and American Wedding, but easily ten times better than both put together.

URBAN: The Hangover, one of the funniest movies of 2009, grabs the attention of moviegoers for no other reason than its setting. The premise is so simple, yet funny, that it can't help but strike the imagination of viewers. It holds that attention with outrageous details and excellent comedic performance by newcomer Zach Galifianakis.

Besides being one of the funniest movies of the year, for my money, it is also one of the hardest working. By this I mean that it stretches everything it has for maximum effect. Take the cast for example. With the exception of the guy who used to be the nerdy co-worker of Jennifer Garner or Alias (Bradley Cooper), none of three leads have much experience. Of the other two, one is a guy who used to do reporting on the Daily Show (Ed Helms) and the other is relatively unknown (Galifianakis). The mix works though because the star is really the story that unfolds in reverse. That, and it's loaded with impressive cameos that are worked for a lot of great, comedic scenes. Heather Graham, Mike Tyson, the doctor from Knocked Up (Ken Jeong), they all make the most of their chances to shine and also have the added benefit of moving the story along nicely.

One of the most underrated things about this film is the little piano song that Ed Helm's character plays while the guys wait for the tiger to go to sleep. It perfectly fits the surreal feeling of the film.

The main issue that I had with the film is rather silly: they really didn't mine all of the humorous material from that night. At the end of the film, when the men involved look at the pictures on the camera, it is clear that many other shenanigans occurred that would have made great comedy. I know it is a weak argument, but after seeing that reel of film over the credits, I really wanted to see a fight between the dentist and Wayne Newton.

URBAN: Recommended

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Flashback Fridays: Tropic Thunder

URBAN: Consistently very funny throughout.

A comedy dream-team makes this the funniest movie of 2008.

URBAN:
I was worried that this would be another Stiller-esque type of comedy, which, like Will Ferrel's films, all start to look the same after a while. This film does contain the typical amount of Stiller posing, but for the first time, it seems like it makes sense.

The story revolves around a group of prima donna actors taken to Southeast Asia to shoot a film about the Vietnam Conflict. They soon realize that their situation is simultaneously both more fake; The writer of the war memoir is a faker, and also more real; Real drug lords are attempting to kill them.

Along the way all of the actors have a chance to exercise the inner demons that are mainly results of the actors trying to internalize the psyches of the characters they play.

With the exception of Matthew McConaughey, all of the lead actors have their chance to give the audience some laughs. As it turns out, the real star of the film, and the only real hero, is Jay Baruchel. Stepping out of his roles as a nerd/slacker in Apatow comedies, it becomes apparent early on that he is the only functional person in the cast of the original Vietnam story. Tom Cruise, stepping away from the serious stuff, is heavily made-up, attempting to portray a Jewish studio exec. the result is highly entertaining. His dancing, while not exactly what we saw in Risky Business, is one of the highlights.

The film is unbelievably crass and politically incorrect. These facts all work to add to the humor, which is extremely sophomoric. Despite, this, it seems to be a real winner.

I can't tell you that this is a great movie. It doesn't have any deeper meaning, there is no message, it isn't as smart as the Apatow comedies,,,, its just really funny. If you want to laugh, give this film a look

URBAN: recommended

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Flashback Fridays- X-Files: I Want To Believe

URBAN:As a huge fan of the X-Files television series, I highly anticipated the release of this film and hoped that it would at least attempt to tie up the loose ends of the show's mytharc. Instead of this, was something that I clearly recognized, and in the end will appreciate more.

The film doesn't deal with aliens. It doesn't deal with freaks. What it sacrificed in curb appeal is more than made up for with an outstanding story with tons of characters that the viewer will instantly recognize. The result, is a very engaging story about belief and the consequences thereof.

URBAN:
The primary plot revolves around Mulder and Scully as they try move on with their lives after their FBI careers are over. Scully is a doctor at a Catholic Hospital and Mulder is a,,,, I don't really know. After an FBI agent shows up missing and a former priest/pedophile claims that he has psychic premonitions regarding the event, the FBI calls in a subject matter expert to help them out. The case and the gruesome oddities that accompany it have little to do with the central themes of the story.

The central theme of the story is the issue of belief. As I described in an earlier post about the X-Files, while the show is full of oddities, the central theme has to do with matters inherently important to Pragmatism, experience and how we can know.

This film is no different. Without ever being explicit, the film focuses upon Scully's Catholic Faith. Her story has two focuses. On one hand she has to deal with the treatment of one of her patients, a young boy with an incurable disease. On the other hand, she feels incorrigible about the former priest, betrayed by his acts, and unwilling to accept the validity of his visions.

The result is familiar in one sense. As in the television series, Mulder is the believer, and Scully is the pessimist. In this case the situation shifts on a deeper level. Scully's faith does not allow her to believe that a pedophile who has done so much wrong to her faith can be forgiven and used by God in a meaningful way. Mulder doubts that he and Scully can have a romantic relationship and that the FBI can be trusted after his previous working relationship fades.

X-Files has always forced us to ask ourselves whether or not our experience can be trusted when it violates our inclinations. This film goes even farther in calling into question the experiences that support our inclinations.

Visually, it looked like a Chris Carter effort. I primarily recognized the masterful suspense built with the camera work and the falling effects. Rather than show a dummy fall off a building Carter has always preferred to show a closeup of the victim against a computer generated background. In the dark, no one makes a quick pan look spookier.

The film wasn't perfect. I am certain that many fans wanted a mytharc completion/addition. I don't think that the timing was right for these efforts. I am also aware of many other iconic stories that have tried to do the same thing recently that failed miserably (Star Wars is the first that comes to mind). I was pleased that the film chose to deliver on a philosophical level before it attempts an easy answer and swift and neat completion.

URBAN: Recommended

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District 9

URBAN: District 9 is one of those films that comes along once and a while that has no star power, no stunning effects, but still manages to catch the imagination of viewers.

Directed by Neil Blomkamp and famously, produced by Peter Jackson, this film may be advertised as a contemporary sci-fi discussion of race politics in South Africa, but becomes much more in the time allotted.

URBAN: This film was very much unlike what I was expecting. Shot almost entirely in documentary format, it manages to entertain, disgust, and enlighten at once. It does so by focusing its story, bit-by-bit, until the discomforting end is tightly in focus.

The story begins with the given, an alien race has made contact above the city of Johannesburg in South Africa. The aliens must be cut out of their spaceship, and are given a home in a type of slum within the city. The race that remains is clearly not the leadership of the species. They lack direction, and quickly become a pax upon the city, and the focus of angry villagers who reject their crime and lifestyle. The aliens are officially managed by a large development corporation, but in reality, are run by a human gang-lord who meets out discipline and food with the same iron grip. His true aim, is to control the weaponry that the aliens have brought with them, which can only be fired by alien DNA.

The story is turned upside down, when the aliens are evicted from their home and given another slum, further from the city (to appease the citizens). It is during this sequence that two key events happen. First, one of the multinational corporation workers is infected by alien technology. As a result of this the viewers become aware that large multinational-corporations are not unlike ruthless gang-lords in their quest to control the alien weaponry.

These events continue to build, as Blomkamp does his best attempt at combining Kafka's Metamorphosis and the meta-arch from the X-files.

There were only two issues that I had with this film. The first was that the aliens were virtually indistinguishable. This wasn't so much of an issue once the film had found its focus, but it was impossible to realize that the characters from the junkyard scene were the same ones that were to become important later by sight alone. It seemed like another documentary style focus on a particular.

The second issue was that the battle scene that lasted for the last 20 minutes was a little too over the top for me. The fight scenes take advantage of the character disputes that are built upon at the beginning of the film, but they last too long and focus too much on the characters that the viewer can't necessarily relate to. These scenes are ultimately only redeemed by faux-news footage of the battles that contextualizes the violence in a modern and relevant setting for the audience.

It's a shame that the battle becomes the center-piece though. The compelling story here is that through all of this the viewer is made to feel empathy towards aliens that do not speak English and are often quite disgusting. The tale also incorporates many interesting and moving social motives that are integrated well by playing up the advertising and public service element that documentary and faux-news coverage often entail. By matching this form to the content Neil Blomkamp delivers a winner, and one of the most unlooked-for money-makers of the summer.

URBAN: Recommended

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Post Grad

URBAN: Sentimental and undisciplined. The focus is missing completely.

A timely attempt to make light of the economic situation by focusing on the tale of a young woman who is unable to find a job after graduating from college.

URBAN:
While I can understand the need to address the current economic factors that go into this film, I feel that it would be irresponsible to review it without mentioning that the current state of the economy is only felt in the advertisement for this film.

Alexis Bledel is cute enough, but seems to have a huge problem depicting pain. Even in her obligatory, 'I'm sorry' message, she seems to be inescapably peppy. That really tells the story of this entire film. Michael Keaton overacts terribly. The writing is garbage. And the parts about the family hijinx are totally out of place for a film that is supposed to be about the failures of our society.

Of course, I understand why they added the stuff about the family. The film clocked in at only 84 minutes. Without those scenes, it would have been around 60-70.

The film does try to be something more than just garbage, by pointing out the importance of relationships to help one get through tough times, but the ultimate message that being unable to find employment is something that we can all giggle at is one that I find reprehensible. Not to mention,,, completely unrealistic.

To compare, there was a film in the not-so-recent past that did manage to make us desperately laugh at a pretty desperate financial situation. Fun With Dick and Jane, which premiered after the Enron and Worldbank fiascoes, was able to take a terrible situation and make some comedic hay out of it. It did so by providing an outlet,,, a scapegoat. The viewer could laugh (nervously at least) at the bank robbing antics of the characters, because they were forced into their situation. A clear and unwavering finger was pointed at the individuals who were responsible. This film does nothing of the sort.

There was one reference that I feel obliged to mention. In the one humorous scene, the song being played from the 64 Impala that the guys are driving (pouring one out for the deceased) is the same song featured to much greater effect on Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Amores Perros.

URBAN: Not Recommended

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500 Days of Summer

URBAN: Very Charming and whitty for this type of film. Features the soundtrack too much.

Marc Webb delivers a film that is touching, artistic, and funny by turns. Hard to get out of your mind for many reasons.

URBAN: While I have mentioned in reviews before that I appreciate the Apatow committment to realism,,, in all of its gory detail, it is interesting to note that the characters in those films nearly always complete the relationship, even if they do so in imperfect ways.

This film goes in a different direction, veering away from the realism in its portrayal of relationship, but ultimately, it finds its way there by denying the viewer what he/she has come to expect from romantic comedies.

500 Days of Summer deals with the relationship of the title character (a lovely Zooey Deschanel) and the leading everyman (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). The film portrays there relationship, not in linear style, but by jumping back and forth between the days that their relationship contains,,,, all 500 of them.

To break up the act of breaking up the ebb and flow of this relationship, the director puts his best foot forward. The post-coital morning after routine and the references to The Graduate (both verbal and visual) stand out, but the film took a turn for the amazing when it transformed into a 45 second salute to the heroes of cinema. In one sequence, the character, in the pain of breakup, dreams himself into the great films of Godard (in New Wave style) and Bergman (from The 7 Seals). They throw the story into a realm usually not reserved for romantic comedies. To be honest, these films seriously reminded me Woody Allen at his best as a director of romantic comedy. Besides the obvious Annie Hall comparison, I think that there is a direct correlation between this and one of my personal favorites, the underrated Play It Again, Sam which displays an imperfect relationship in a non-linear sequence, that also makes great reference to films of the past, both emotionally, and to provide interpretation for character motive.

Also, did I mention it is only 1 1/2 hours long?

The only real area where there were shortcomings was in the reliance on the soundtrack. I honestly noticed this from the opening credits, which really only serve as an excuse to play some great music. The overflow of great music dominates the film in ways that could have been played out more subtlely without a score. The best example of this is to compare the use of score to the narration that the film contains. The narration in this film adds to the film, to help the viewer understand the action, but never enough that one feels the narration is essential or that the action is less for not having it around constantly. I felt that the scene in day 500 really needed music after hearing it constantly punctuate and color most of the other important parts of the film.

This film is filled with clever allusion and artistry in the way that it portrays the story. The issue with the music is a problem of abundance, rather than scarcity, and should not take away from a film that is probably the best romantic comedy of the year.

URBAN: Recommended

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Summer Review- Based on my preview

Despite my expectations, this actually ended up being a pretty good summer for cinema.

The Good

Public Enemies: What I expected. Could have used some more focus on a unified story, but easily one that holds up. Not a long term success, but easily entertaining. I actually think that Steven Cronenberg would have been awesome on this project.

Funny People: Less than expected

The Bad

Terminator: Salvation: I liked this one more than most of the critics. Not perfect, but it wasn't bad, plus, it easily opens the doors for more in this series.
The Ugly

GI Joe: Terrible. Nevertheless, it was terrible enough that most people enjoyed themselves while attending.


Inglourious Basterds: What can I say? I expected a lot, but not this. Really a strong piece of work.

Aside from those, the blockbusters were a remarkable letdown. Transformers II and Wolverine were the two worst abominations of a summer that included the usual suspects of lackluster romantic comedies and weak horror franchises.

The summer of 2009 was a good one for film because the intrigue that District 9 brought, the show that Star Trek put on, and the art the Inglourious Basterds rudely put on display.

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Flashback Friday-Hellboy II: The Golden Army

URBAN:The result was a film with great stylings but consistently lacked in one area that undermined the entire film.

From visionary director Guillermo Del Toro comes the second istallation of the Hellboy franchise.

URBAN:
Director Guillermo Del Toro's characters lit up the screen. The odd looking characters added a magical element to the proceedings. Aside from the title character, the other creatures are marvelous to behold, each in their own way. I especially liked the Angel of Death. He looked like one of the Seraphim described in Revelations 4. Completely stunning.

The story was character driven and most of the plot details arise from the particular individual psychologies of the characters. The primary issue is at hand is the return of the Elven Prince to reclaim the pieces of the crown, that upon reunion, will render control of the unstoppable Golden Army.

The most spectacular part of the film occurred only two minutes into the film, while the professor tells a young Hellboy a bedtime story. The story of the creation of the Golden Army. The story is Tolkein-like, but the visuals used to tell the story were unique to that section. To tell the story, Del Toro uses animation in an effort that is easily the best part of the film.

There was some stuff that I didn't like.

Despite the name, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, The Golden Army actually took up very little screen time. The plot dealt primarily with the characters gaining control of the pieces of the crown in order to control the army. Considering the title, I would have hoped that more time would have spent with this destructive force. It also would have been cool to see some symmetry by having Nuada see the destruction that the army causes and call them off the same way that the original Elven King did.

The young Hellboy in New Mexico looks like a joke.

The most outstanding negative that I took note of was the sets. They looked fake, obviously generated in a studio. The Troll Market and the government domicile where Hellboy lives were the two most egregious examples. In relation to the outstanding characters, I couldn't help but feel that the disparity of these factors lent the film an unevenness.

Also, the film clearly has some level of desire to be an explanation of mythology, yet is clearly more of an action/superhero movie.

I don't know how to summarize my thoughts on the film. I enjoyed it. I wouldn't mind seeing it again down the road. I loved a few small parts, especially the opening bedtime story. Overall, the pacing was slow and the action didn't always serve a purpose. The visuals were good, but the sets were bad. In a day when superhero movies come every other week, this one is unique enough to stand out, but not singularly better than some of the recent performances, namely Ironman and The Dark Knight.

URBAN: Recommended

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Flashback Friday- Forgetting Sarah Marshall

URBAN: Funny, emotionally and literally naked, but still a great romantic comedy in the Apatow tradition.

Judd Apatow produced, this fillm contains all of those characteristics. It also stars Jason Segel in a perfect role for him.

URBAN:
Forgetting Sarah Marshall takes on the shape of the characteristic Apatow film almost immediately. Jason Segel, playing Peter Bretter teases us by shaking his junk just off the camera, but the tease doesn’t last long. Full frontal male nudity is horrifying, but also hilarious considering the situation the audience views. In a very key way, this early scene provides a critical method of interpreting the film. Nicholas Stoller, the director, provides the usual approach from an Apatow produced film. He doesn’t tease us much. Everything that you want to see as a movie-goer you get to see. This same principle is at work on the characters and the storyline as well. The heart of this story is found in examining how the characters and the viewers deal with getting what they want.

For example, the main character, as a viewer, we want to see him succeed and get back together with his ex-girlfriend. He does. We also want to see him make it with his new girl. He does. We want to see his Dracula rock opera. It’s all there. We definitely want to see the hot chick from That 70’s Show naked. We do. The strangest thing of all is that at once we want there to be a happy ending, while at the same time we want the relationships and ending to be realistically flawed, the way we see them in reality. All of this is in the film.

The serio-comic style of these films is reminiscent of Woody Allen. Forgetting Sarah Marshall, like Knocked Up, Superbad, and The 40 Year Old Virgin does not conform to stereotypes. It’s very raunchy, very funny, and very good. Its victories are only temporary and partial. This could have been a horrible serious film, or even worse, a lackluster romantic comedy if this same storyline was handled by anyone else. The blend of serious, comic, fantasy and reality I feel is best described near the end of the film when Segel’s character describes the success of his rock opera by saying, “Someone told me it was comedy and that opened things up.”

Apatow’s blend of serious/comic opens up a lot of life’s mysteries. While the other films mentioned above are marvelous in the way they are able to bring the story to the level of social commentary (especially Knocked Up). This story keeps its focus lower, but still manages a great bit of critical commentary about the current state of television by poking fun at crime dramas like CSI. More importantly he says a lot about relationships. As always, there is quite a bit about male bonding. The primary message about dating relationships is incomplete. As is usually the case when trying to portray abstractions like this, you can’t say it, you have to show it. And this film shows the story very well.

URBAN: Recommended

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Son of Rambow

URBAN: A touching film full of youthful imagination.

In this British film two boys come together despite their family situations to create a brilliantly unique film.

URBAN: This film is vastly superior to Be Kind Rewind, another 2008 film release with similar content, if for no other reason than it is set in the proper time period.

As much as I can't believe that director Jennings was able to pull these performances out of so many child actors, the basis for this outstanding production is simply the art of imagination.

Will fills his notebooks and his Bible (he belongs to a strict Christian sect, more on that later) with sketches and drawings that illustrate a lively life of the mind. After his captive viewing of the Rambo movie, First Blood, his lively imagination gives birth to an amazing interpretation that he aptly titles- "Son of Rambow"

His content is given form by his bullying and troublemaking best friend Lee. Lee uses his older brother's camera while supplying the direction for the inspiration along with the technical know-how.

You see, Will belongs to an extremely conservative sect of a denomination known as the Plymouth Brethren. He isn't allowed to watch any television, even if it is only a documentary in his 5th grade class. His cohort Lee is from the other side of the tracks. While he may be considered wealthy, his parents have almost no participation in his life. His older brother pays him almost no attention, even though his brother's friends constantly bully the younger Lee.

The tension between these two and their families as they attempt to make this film between classes. The other source of tension comes from the other kids at the prep school that the two go to. French exchange students have arrived and the coolest one of them all sees the possibilities and attempts to become involved in the filming as a star actor.

Will is startstruck. Lee is jealous. It almost all falls apart. What results is one of the most moving portrayals of friendship, family, and creation that I have seen in quite a while. It isn't a perfect film, but its depiction of the creation of imperfect film comes awfully close.

URBAN: Recommended

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The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard

URBAN: A story with really funny characters. The attempt at making a story kind of gets in the way.

Jeremy Piven heads up a great cast of funny people in a film from the people who brought you Talladega Nights and Step Brothers.

If you want to see a funny and crude comedy in the same vein as Old School, Anchorman, and The Hangover, then this will be a great film for you for two reasons-

A: Most of the jokes from the previews occur in the first 10 minutes (there is plenty of other funny stuff).

B: There are as many strip club visits as there are great cameos.

This is a conventional film in many ways. It places a character with a set of odd quirks in a unique profession. After the audience has observed the character interacting in his profession a crisis in introduced which separates the character from his profession. You can probably guess what happens from there.

Within this conventional storyline the film is able to hit on a number of jokes and well placed references to other works. Ving Rhames character has a great crack when referring to a scene from Total Recall, and Piven as Don Ready can't help but remind me of Ari Gold when he refers to his female co-worker as "Babs". The one time I even noticed the camera work is during the climactic sale and does an excellent job of depicting the isolation that car buyers sometimes refer to as they are drawn into the persuasive powers of a salesman. Of course, I'm definitely setting the bar low. Aside from clever allusion, avoiding obvious goofs is about all you can ask for in a formula film like this.

At the end of the day, if you are looking for laughs, you will get them from this film. It is full of the politically incorrect and perverse, and manages to do so without really having any redeeming characteristics. In that way it is kind of like the "Used Car Blowout" people that it depicts. Whatever you leave with won't be with you for very long, but you feel like you got your money's worth.

URBAN: Recommended, but only for the few reasons listed above.

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GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra

URBAN: Completely over the top. Not quality, but somewhat entertaining.

Stephen Sommers directs this loud, wild, and fast paced battle that never ends.

URBAN: Unlike some of the other ridiculous action films of this summer, Transformers-with its soldiers engaged in the war on terror in Iraq and Wolverine-with its references to the Vietnam Conflict, this film makes no attempt to claim it has a connection with the real world. For that, it is almost refreshing, especially since this film is so ridiculously over-the-top.

The characters are the most obvious lack of real world connection. All of the characters are amazingly able to survive the calamities that befall the myriad of stooges on both sides of the conflict. One of them is able to leap over flying vehicles and another can avoid death even after he ejects from an airplane that has escaped the earth's atmosphere.

Weaponry also plays a part in identifying this world from the real one. Here, there is a type of funnel force field weapon that sounds like a weapon fired by the Geonosis characters on Star Wars: Battlefront. As you might expect, there are also multiple jets and tunneling machines that confound the imagination. Most confounding of all, is the underwater base that Cobra uses. Actually, the most confounding thing is the physics that exist during the battle around the sea base. People are afraid of ice sinking and crushing the base. Subs hit by rockets spin off as if they were in space. It really does seem like another planet.

Also, I know that several other reviews have mentioned the sound level being a little extreme. I know this sounds like an old person thing to say, but the sound levels were ridiculously loud. While I would like to think this was some sort of rookie mistake, Per Hallberg and Karen Baker, the credited sound editors, have both won academy awards for work in action/war films before. Hopefully, this isn't a signal of things to come.

The story is bare there,, and the flashbacks intended to explain it are even worse. I was laughing out loud at many of these, especially the ones of young storm shadow, who is the same kid who plays the drug lord on Tropic Thunder.

Most infuriating about this film-the characters aren't American. GI Joe is no longer the Real American Hero, although all of the characters still speak English.

Despite this long list of what is wrong with the film, I would still say it is better than Wolverine: Origins and Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen. It manages to do so by completely ignoring reality and focusing on creating a world of superheroes that fight against each other with James Bond technology and change identity with the ease of Mission Impossible face masks. With pure action and awesomeness such as this,,, you know that they would set themselves up well for a sequel.

I guess that if you lower your expectations, this film would be alright. I just imagined that this story would be able to convey so much more.

URBAN: Not Recommended

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Flashback Friday-3:10 to Yuma

Infamous Outlaw Ben Wade and his vicious gang of thieves and murderers have plagued the Southern Railroad. When Wade is captured, Civil War veteran Dan Evans volunteers to deliver him alive to the "3:10 to Yuma," a train that will take the killer to trial. But with Wade's outfit on their trail-and dangers at every turn-the mission soon becomes a violent, impossible journey toward each man's destiny.--------from the back of the DVD case.

URBAN:
While it was really great to see a shoot'em up in the classical western form, several glaring flaws in the plot and character development really took away from what could have been a film that re-introduces the genre as a vehicle for great acting performances, film auteurism, and box office sucess. For the purposes of this review, the original 3:10 To Yuma from 1957 will be ignored in order judge this film.

To begin, the film looks really good. The sets, costumes, and backgrounds of Arizona canyons look absolutely real. I for one, would have played up the scenery with more wide shots of the surrounding nature in order to give more perspective regardingIf the relationships of important parts of the film (Dan Evan's ranch to the town of Bigsby, How the pass through Apache territory would save time, how far from the hotel to the railroad).

The relationship between Wade (Russel Crowe) and Dan Evans (Christian Bale) along with several members of his family is sufficiently interesting to keep one's attention throughout the entirety of the film. The two go round after round examining each other's reasons for making the choices that they have made; Wade for becoming a murderer and stagecoach robber, Evans for accepting $200 to become a part of the posse that takes Wade to the train that will take him to prison. If the film had been made up entirely of this relationship, punctuated with running gun battles, the film would have been much improved. By the way, the gun battles involved are typical western fare, and yet, quite exciting, especially when the stagecoach defends itself with a gatling gun. In this same vein, the film was at its best for only a few seconds. (spoiler warning) These were the moments when Wade shoots members of his own outfit. They are totally unexpected, and the camera focuses on the violence for just a second longer than the viewer expects. These scenes really make the film.

On the other hand, the plot really doesn't do a lot of justice to this kind of story and these kinds of actors. Four flaws, which deal primarily with the plot of the film, really bring this film down. First, I have no idea why the Hollanders burn down Dan Evans's barn. If they wanted him off the land so badly, there were a number of more subtle things that they could have done in order to necessitate his departure. Second, as much as I am for gratuitous sex and violence, some of it within this film takes away from the story. Wade's tryst with Emmy Nelson serves only to provide the filmmakers an excuse for why he was caught. After shooting one of his gang members for "weakness" it doesn't make any sense for him to be caught for an even more blatant discretion. Along the lines of gratuitous violence, Bryan Mcelroy (Peter Fonda) has no real function other than to be hit, shot, kicked, and then thrown over a cliff, without the downshot depicting the dead man at the bottom which we have all come to know and love. You could also throw the entire sections involving the Apache Indians into this category of unnecessary. Finally, at the end of the film, Ben changes his character completely, deciding to board the train, only to communicate that it is no real sacrifice to do so. This change, like the previously mentioned portions, does not have sufficient reason. The filmmakers here do not provide the necessary foreshadowing necessary in order to portray changes of this type. For this reason, the lack of evidence on all fronts, the film fails to become a great film, though it is quite entertaining at times.

URBAN: Recommended

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Funny People-Revisited

URBAN:
You might have noticed that for a couple of months there hasn't been as much back and forth on this site. Here's an attempt to fix that.

Chase Francl has given his Five Favorite Films on this site, and here is a chance to see what he thinks about a recent film. If you want to compare it to my thoughts on the film click here.



FRANCL:
I really didn’t know what to make of this movie. It felt like it couldn’t decide whether to be a comedy, romance, drama, or buddy movie, so it ultimately succeeded at being none of these things. It had no identity.

I caught myself looking at my watch with about 20 minutes to go, not so much out of boredom, but because I just couldn’t figure out where it was headed. It was actually building up to be a good movie about friendship, but then there was the one-hour romantic interlude that was relevant, but somehow didn’t quite fit. To me, this movie fell somewhere between a biography (where you expect some stuff that doesn’t adhere to a true story-telling mold) and a buddy movie.

The movie also wasn’t as funny as I’d expected. It struck me that throughout the film, there wasn’t a single moment that the entire audience burst out with laughter. I certainly enjoyed parts of it, but it wasn’t memorable stuff, and it didn’t have those lines that are going to carry it into posterity. The swearing also became so tiresome that it lost the comedic effect that a well-placed curse can sometimes bring.

I actually liked the cameos, even that of Eminem. Maybe if they had let him direct the movie, they would’ve taken his suggestion and found an ending that really worked.

The movie did have plenty of upside, though. Going in, I honestly thought there was no way Sandler could effectively play the terminal illness card, and instead he played it to perfection. He and Rogen also played off each other well, and Rogen’s character was one of the more endearing I’ve seen this year. It was truly enjoyable watching him evolve from beginning to end.

It’s always interesting to see how characters handle an impending death. Sandler certainly makes you feel the emotion of it, but we were cheated out of the breadth of what it really brings. Sure there’s going to be a long list of “what if’s” and some fear when you know you’re probably going to die, but I don’t think they mined this as deeply as they could have. I wanted to see more of the intrapsychic material.

The supporting characters were marginal at best. Jonah Hill steals the show when he’s on screen, and Eric Bana’s fleeting character is wildly entertaining, albeit a little unbelievable.

In the end, I thought seeing Sandler and Rogen on screen together was enough to barely salvage the movie. It becomes apparent early on that this isn’t going to be your typical comedy, so once you shift your mindset to that, there are some really enjoyable parts. I wouldn’t recommend this movie to the casual moviegoer, but it fills a niche.

FRANCL: Not recommended.

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