Thursday, July 29, 2010
Operation: Endgame (2010) 1/2
Operation Endgame sucks. I just want to get that out of the way. This film was supposed to be a sort of action parody of spy films, but it's just a horrible 80 minute mess that isn't funny, isn't interesting, and winds up being someone's pathetic excuse for a film. I could go over the plot, but why waste the time or energy in getting into it. What saddens me is that this film had the potential to at the very least be an average pot boiler comedy for actors to do before they did some real film work. What Operation: Endgame represents is a blight on their permanent records. This film is a god damn travesty that I wouldn't wish on anyone. You will be dumb struck by the sheer shitiness of the proceedings that unfold before you as you wonder "why the fuck was this movie made?" Why?
Poltergeist (1982) ****1/2
Poltergeist opens on a Sunday in your run of the mill suburb in California. It's one of those sub divisions where the houses all look alike and the neighborhood flows from one day into the next. We finally stop at the Freeling house with the typical '80's nuclear family: Steven (Craig T. Nelson) is the patriarch, driving the station wagon to and fro to bring home the bacon,his wife Diane (JoBeth Williams), trying to run a household with their three kids, teenage Dana (Dominique Dunne), Robbie (Oliver Robins), and Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke). This is suburbia at its finest.
But Steven Spielberg and Tobe Hooper aren't going to leave it that way. You see, weird things are going on. First Carol Anne talks with the television in the middle of the night. Should it be strange? Kids sleepwalk. Hell, I once hovered over my cousin in the dead of the night for no reason other than I didn't know I was doing it at the time. Next the chairs start to move by themselves, prompting more excitement than terror over this unique gift. It's a parlor trick, tried and true. The thing is that things deteriorate quickly to the point that an old tree outside tries to eat Robbie in a ruse for whatever spirit has infected this house to take Carol Anne to another dimension and use her has their guide into the "light". The remainder of the film revolves around bringing Carol Anne back to the cul de sac.
The question is does Poltergeist classify as a horror film. Or is it a thriller? Or is it social commentary? Maybe it's a hybrid of all those things. Maybe it isn't. The great thing about Poltergeist is that it uses a formula similar to Night of the Living Dead fifteen years before it. It takes the most typical and comfortable situation, this time being the families own home, and sends it plummeting into hell. The supermarket groceries and Star Wars toys are all set dressing as the family is dragged from suburban bliss to pure terror. Poltergeist achieves this desired effect. Your comfort zone is shattered. There is no safe place to go anymore. Hell has entered the front door and there's not a damn thing you can do about it.
But Steven Spielberg and Tobe Hooper aren't going to leave it that way. You see, weird things are going on. First Carol Anne talks with the television in the middle of the night. Should it be strange? Kids sleepwalk. Hell, I once hovered over my cousin in the dead of the night for no reason other than I didn't know I was doing it at the time. Next the chairs start to move by themselves, prompting more excitement than terror over this unique gift. It's a parlor trick, tried and true. The thing is that things deteriorate quickly to the point that an old tree outside tries to eat Robbie in a ruse for whatever spirit has infected this house to take Carol Anne to another dimension and use her has their guide into the "light". The remainder of the film revolves around bringing Carol Anne back to the cul de sac.
The question is does Poltergeist classify as a horror film. Or is it a thriller? Or is it social commentary? Maybe it's a hybrid of all those things. Maybe it isn't. The great thing about Poltergeist is that it uses a formula similar to Night of the Living Dead fifteen years before it. It takes the most typical and comfortable situation, this time being the families own home, and sends it plummeting into hell. The supermarket groceries and Star Wars toys are all set dressing as the family is dragged from suburban bliss to pure terror. Poltergeist achieves this desired effect. Your comfort zone is shattered. There is no safe place to go anymore. Hell has entered the front door and there's not a damn thing you can do about it.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Night Moves (1975) ****
Gene Hackman continued his run of following up The French Connection with Night Moves, a modern noir tale where there is more going on than what the surface shows us. Hackman plays Harry Moseby, a retired NFL player who works as a private investigator. He takes the jobs the big agencies don't want, for example an ex movie star (Janet Ward) is searching for her runaway daughter. Harry gets the job. The thing is that Harry's problems go beyond the case. His wife (Susan Clark) is fooling around on him, leaving him to his work and only his work. The case leads him to Florida where he finds teenage Delly (Melanie Griffith) and Paula (Jennifer Warren), an eccentric resident of the Keys who attracts the curiosity of Harry. It's in Florida that the case begins to go beyond a simple runaway.
Night Moves owes a debt to the old days, where the private dick was always in way over his head and love was never his strong suit. Hackman's portrayal is one of being coy to being naive. His life is a roller coaster of emotion that never gets back to the station to let on a new batch of people. This is Harry's ride until the very end and even as the credits roll you're just not sure how Harry is going to wind up- on his feet or in the ditch.
Though not as probing as Taxi Driver, Night Moves can be considered a prime example of mid-1970's film making. There's a feel about moves made between Kent State and Star Wars. The general feeling in films was that either A) No one could be a hero or B) The hero wins, but doesn't win. Aftereffects of Vietnam? Watergate? Who knows, but there is a general tone in this era that Night Moves is also stamped with, combining with the noir aspect of the pathetic detective helps this film be better than it could have been.
Night Moves owes a debt to the old days, where the private dick was always in way over his head and love was never his strong suit. Hackman's portrayal is one of being coy to being naive. His life is a roller coaster of emotion that never gets back to the station to let on a new batch of people. This is Harry's ride until the very end and even as the credits roll you're just not sure how Harry is going to wind up- on his feet or in the ditch.
Though not as probing as Taxi Driver, Night Moves can be considered a prime example of mid-1970's film making. There's a feel about moves made between Kent State and Star Wars. The general feeling in films was that either A) No one could be a hero or B) The hero wins, but doesn't win. Aftereffects of Vietnam? Watergate? Who knows, but there is a general tone in this era that Night Moves is also stamped with, combining with the noir aspect of the pathetic detective helps this film be better than it could have been.
Cop Out (2010) ***
There's that old movie cliche about "good cop-bad cop" where one partner is the nice guy, earning the trust of the suspect and being an all around nice guy. The other is an asshole. Cop Out takes that cliche and mixes it together with a bunch of other cliches to give a weird homage to 1980's cop/buddy movies.
Jimmy (Bruce Willis) is your typical cop movie first husband. What that means is that the second husband must be rich and able to do everything he can not because of his wallet. That is movie rule number one. Movie rule number two is that his partner Paul (Tracy Morgan) always wants to prove himself to Jimmy as a bad ass, but fails miserably, usually causing more harm than good. Things get bad when Jimmy and Paul are suspended, leading Jimmy to sell his fathers prized 1952 Topps baseball card to finance his daughter's wedding, meaning that his dad must have helped conceive Jimmy when said father was fourteen. In the process of getting it sold, Jimmy is robbed while Paul obsesses outside that his wife is diddling the neighbor. So the quest is on for the baseball card which just so happens ends up in the hands of the same drug dealer that Jimmy and Paul are trying to take down. Talk about a coincidence!
Directed by Kevin Smith but not written, so don't expect that witty Smith banter between actors. As I said earlier this is more a homage to 1980's films like 48 Hrs. and Fletch, going so far as bringing in Harold Faltermeyer to do the score. If you don't know who that is, Google it and you will then know why I even brought him up. Cop Out is an OK film if you go in without any real expectations. It's not horrible, but it's not earth shattering either. It's a good movie to see when you've seen everything else.
Jimmy (Bruce Willis) is your typical cop movie first husband. What that means is that the second husband must be rich and able to do everything he can not because of his wallet. That is movie rule number one. Movie rule number two is that his partner Paul (Tracy Morgan) always wants to prove himself to Jimmy as a bad ass, but fails miserably, usually causing more harm than good. Things get bad when Jimmy and Paul are suspended, leading Jimmy to sell his fathers prized 1952 Topps baseball card to finance his daughter's wedding, meaning that his dad must have helped conceive Jimmy when said father was fourteen. In the process of getting it sold, Jimmy is robbed while Paul obsesses outside that his wife is diddling the neighbor. So the quest is on for the baseball card which just so happens ends up in the hands of the same drug dealer that Jimmy and Paul are trying to take down. Talk about a coincidence!
Directed by Kevin Smith but not written, so don't expect that witty Smith banter between actors. As I said earlier this is more a homage to 1980's films like 48 Hrs. and Fletch, going so far as bringing in Harold Faltermeyer to do the score. If you don't know who that is, Google it and you will then know why I even brought him up. Cop Out is an OK film if you go in without any real expectations. It's not horrible, but it's not earth shattering either. It's a good movie to see when you've seen everything else.
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