In time for the Oscars, reviews of most of the movies I saw in 2010 Part VI
Repo Men (2010) **
Jude Law, Forest Whitaker, and Leiv Schreiber are affable in this well-meaning but forgettable SF satire / adventure. Jude and Forest have two of the best laughs in the movies. Jude tips back his head, just a little, and his laugh comes out so suddenly, so honestly, and with such gleeful British posh-school poncey-ness. Forest's laugh, on the other hand, maintains eye contact, and can be so threatening and so mirthless. As for Leiv Schreiber, he's probably the funniest one in the movie simply because he's so absurdly serious and oblivious to when anyone else is being funny.
These three very game actors do what can be done with a middling chase-through-a-dystopian-not-so-distant-future movie. The maguffin is that they're "repo men," who repossess artificial organs whose recipients haven't paid for them. That means leaving them to die. The implications are interesting, and there are some funny-gruesome scenes of the men at work (especially the laughing). But the chases don't add up to much. There's also a hallway hammer-gun-knife-fistfight clearly influenced by the hallway throwdown in "Oldboy." It's effective and good for a laugh, but it highlights how much more effective the single take and tracking shot in "Oldboy" is.
The Wolfman (2010) **1/2 or ***
Directed by Joe Johnston + co-written by Andrew Kevin Walker
Not bad. The script co-written by Andrew Kevin Walker ("Seven") works well on a thematic level, although I can't remember why because I saw "The Wolfman" at the same time as so many other movies. It has something Oedipal to do with how the greatest danger posed by Darwin isn't that he dethroned God from ruler of the universe, but that men descended from animals and not made in the image of God gives us license to be as purely self-interested as a wild beast. This reaches its pinnacle in the film's climax when the wolfman turns against its own offspring just to stay alive (whether turning against one's young is as bad or worse than an animal depends on the animal).
I like the production design, with its drafty, gloomy mansions, Victorian costumes, and the effects use to painfully transform the man into the beast. These are stock characters, but the performances are strong. Benicio Del Toro is naturally odd enough that you believe he's the scion of a cursed aristocratic family; Huge Weaving's detective is delightfully stiff-upper lip; Emily Blunt is convincing as the aggrieved fiancée of Del Toro's late brother; and Sir Anthony Hopkins eats this shit up. I love how unfazed Sir Tony is when he relates how one of his son's was devoured by a beast ("these things happen when you're family is cursed," he seems to imply).
The direction by workmanlike director Joe Johnston ("Jurassic Park III") has some neat touches clearly influenced by Francis Ford Coppola's "Dracula," including match cuts and Hans Zimmer's score. But for the most part, Johnston is, well, workmanlike, in a modern, big-budget way. And that's why I'm reluctant to give "The Wolfman" an unqualified recommendation. I must sound like an old man, always complaining about how I want my movies slower and to soak up locations and faces more.
My wife and I rented "The Wolfman" on DVD and started out watching the Extended Cut. It got a little slow after a while, so we switched to the Theatrical Cut for the last half. The last half of the movie zinged along. The next day I watched the first half over again, this time using the Theatrical Cut. Some parts were stronger, some parts were weaker. I like the pre-title wolf attack in the Theatrical Cut better because it doesn't show nearly as much of the monster.
But I like the introduction of Benicio Del Toro and Emily Blunt in the Extended Cut better. In the Theatrical Cut, Emily summons Benicio to the old family estate with a letter. This is efficient, but it means the movie proper (after the title) starts with a montage, voiceover, and Benicio's first dialogue being in a hastily-edited scene with his father on the stairs in his house. The Extended Cut begins with Emily meeting Benicio backstage after one of his performances. This is a slower start, but its biggest benefit is that we get to take a long look at two of our leads before the movie starts. A good look at those faces gives a movie a more stable beginning. Think the opening of "A Clockwork Orange."
Copyright © 2011 by Peter Kovic
Movie Review Archive.
Jude Law, Forest Whitaker, and Leiv Schreiber are affable in this well-meaning but forgettable SF satire / adventure. Jude and Forest have two of the best laughs in the movies. Jude tips back his head, just a little, and his laugh comes out so suddenly, so honestly, and with such gleeful British posh-school poncey-ness. Forest's laugh, on the other hand, maintains eye contact, and can be so threatening and so mirthless. As for Leiv Schreiber, he's probably the funniest one in the movie simply because he's so absurdly serious and oblivious to when anyone else is being funny.
These three very game actors do what can be done with a middling chase-through-a-dystopian-not-so-distant-future movie. The maguffin is that they're "repo men," who repossess artificial organs whose recipients haven't paid for them. That means leaving them to die. The implications are interesting, and there are some funny-gruesome scenes of the men at work (especially the laughing). But the chases don't add up to much. There's also a hallway hammer-gun-knife-fistfight clearly influenced by the hallway throwdown in "Oldboy." It's effective and good for a laugh, but it highlights how much more effective the single take and tracking shot in "Oldboy" is.
The Wolfman (2010) **1/2 or ***
Directed by Joe Johnston + co-written by Andrew Kevin Walker
Not bad. The script co-written by Andrew Kevin Walker ("Seven") works well on a thematic level, although I can't remember why because I saw "The Wolfman" at the same time as so many other movies. It has something Oedipal to do with how the greatest danger posed by Darwin isn't that he dethroned God from ruler of the universe, but that men descended from animals and not made in the image of God gives us license to be as purely self-interested as a wild beast. This reaches its pinnacle in the film's climax when the wolfman turns against its own offspring just to stay alive (whether turning against one's young is as bad or worse than an animal depends on the animal).
I like the production design, with its drafty, gloomy mansions, Victorian costumes, and the effects use to painfully transform the man into the beast. These are stock characters, but the performances are strong. Benicio Del Toro is naturally odd enough that you believe he's the scion of a cursed aristocratic family; Huge Weaving's detective is delightfully stiff-upper lip; Emily Blunt is convincing as the aggrieved fiancée of Del Toro's late brother; and Sir Anthony Hopkins eats this shit up. I love how unfazed Sir Tony is when he relates how one of his son's was devoured by a beast ("these things happen when you're family is cursed," he seems to imply).
The direction by workmanlike director Joe Johnston ("Jurassic Park III") has some neat touches clearly influenced by Francis Ford Coppola's "Dracula," including match cuts and Hans Zimmer's score. But for the most part, Johnston is, well, workmanlike, in a modern, big-budget way. And that's why I'm reluctant to give "The Wolfman" an unqualified recommendation. I must sound like an old man, always complaining about how I want my movies slower and to soak up locations and faces more.
My wife and I rented "The Wolfman" on DVD and started out watching the Extended Cut. It got a little slow after a while, so we switched to the Theatrical Cut for the last half. The last half of the movie zinged along. The next day I watched the first half over again, this time using the Theatrical Cut. Some parts were stronger, some parts were weaker. I like the pre-title wolf attack in the Theatrical Cut better because it doesn't show nearly as much of the monster.
But I like the introduction of Benicio Del Toro and Emily Blunt in the Extended Cut better. In the Theatrical Cut, Emily summons Benicio to the old family estate with a letter. This is efficient, but it means the movie proper (after the title) starts with a montage, voiceover, and Benicio's first dialogue being in a hastily-edited scene with his father on the stairs in his house. The Extended Cut begins with Emily meeting Benicio backstage after one of his performances. This is a slower start, but its biggest benefit is that we get to take a long look at two of our leads before the movie starts. A good look at those faces gives a movie a more stable beginning. Think the opening of "A Clockwork Orange."
Copyright © 2011 by Peter Kovic
Movie Review Archive.