Sucker Punch

It's been a while since I've posted about a movie. The reasons surround a trip to Cuba and a few busy weeks at work. In that time I've seen a few fairly good movies. Some from last year such as Of Gods and Men and a few from this year which were various levels of decent. Nothing really worth posting about, however.

Out came the first real must see movie of 2011, Sucker Punch. It was visionary director Zack Snyder's follow up to The Watchmen. For me, Zack Snyder is a visionary only in the sense that he presumably has vision in one or both of his eyes. Nevertheless, the reviews intrigued me so I wanted to give it a whirl - plus it gave me a chance to check out the Ultraavx theatre at the Toronto Scotiabank Theatre.

First and foremost, the theatre. It is very loud, the screen is very big (although a little smaller than IMAX, although perhaps bigger than AMC IMAX) and very clear, and the seats are comfortable and recline slightly. If you have the opportunity, it is probably worth the extra 3 bucks. That, of course, assumes that a seeing a normal movie in theatres is worth 12 dollars to you, but I digress.

The opening of Sucker Punch is a little background to Baby Doll's life, which highlights the reason why she ends up in a mental institution in the first place. It is both aurally and visually stimulating as well as very well paced. It was a stunning start and had me hotly anticipating the rest of the movie.

It almost immediately fell off the rails. Without getting into too many details, the characters introduced in the mental institution are basically cyphers with the possible exception of Abbie Cornish's character Sweet Pea (it's obvious early on that she is the narrator). Motivations are generally non-existance and any realizations the characters come to throughout the movie come out of nowhere.

During the movie, Baby Doll uses her incredible gift of dance to arrest males to allow her cohorts to follow through with various aspects of her plan to escape. During these scenes, Baby Doll provides us with dream sequences to make the mundane task of stealing things like a meaningless lighter interesting. Unfortunately for most of the movie there aren't any stakes. Also, the dream sequences have all the CGI of a poor videogame so it's not particularly interesting to watch - for me anyhow.

All of this, combined with the lack of any real narrative, made the movie pretty boring, actually - which was pretty disappointing to be honest. I have more quibbles with the plot, the character arcs, and the stupid nature of the plan the girl came up with, but this should be enough to dissuade the collective you from seeing it. It isn't a spectacularly bad movie, just a bit disappointing, kind of boring, with nothing very important to say (even if it thinks that it does).

The girls are pretty though...

Marketing

I was having a conversation with my roommate about Public Relations and who's responsibility it is in relation to the life of a movie. That got me thinking. How powerful is marketing, and how great of an effect does it have in how big of an audience a movie has.

A little background, I have a Bachelor of Commerce (also went to film school, but that is neither hither nor yon) where I majored in marketing. I know all of the buzz words and I know the math involved with market research, but I'm not really clear on it's effect?

It clearly has some effect. Take a movie like The Hangover. It doesn't have any recognizable stars (Bradley Cooper wasn't the name that he is now, Zack was still a highly respected but little known stand-up comedian, and Ed Helms was the dude from The Daily Show). Yet somehow it made 44 million opening weekend. I have no research on hand to back this up, but Marketing seems like it would have the GREATEST effect on opening weekend. Sure, the movie was good, but who knew it at that point? It went on to make serious bank at the box office because it was funny, but that was a heck of a head start and really got the word of mouth off with a bang.

The thing is, it was rolled out at Colleges and Universities. Did THAT word of mouth create buzz and boost the opening weekend? Marketing reaches more people easier, but is it really effective? What would happen if a distribution company put 50 million in marketing toward Winters Bone, and cut a kick-ass (if misleading) trailer to boot? Does it pull in 30 or 40 million opening weekend?

I suppose if I knew the answer to this I'd be a very rich man. I am, however, starting to wonder what effect marketing has if studios are constantly relying in known quantities to boost box office dollars. Any idiot can market a new iteration of Spiderman. All you need is a big billboard and a couple prime time TV spots and you get a quick 80 million. After this, the movie largely relies on the quality of the movie and word of mouth. Sure a few dollars of marketing would help keep the movie on the mind of the public, but that really is minimal.

Movies like Inception have known actors and directors that can sell a movie. I think the real case study is something like The Hangover. I'm very interested in the answer if someone has one!

The Last Three Days

If memory serves, there is a reasonably shitty movie by this name. This posting is literally about my last three days. A period in which I saw three movies:

Just Go With it
Dogtooth
Hall Pass
Four Lions
Drive Angry 3D
Incendies

I'm not going to waste a whole lot of time reviewing these movies, but I will give my brief thoughts on them; Just Go With It may be one of the most predictable movies I've ever seen. It is a movie with almost zero redeeming features. There isn't even any redeeming characters.

I really only saw this movie to balance out what I anticipated to be a doozie in Dogtooth - a movie I planned to watch later that day. It's really hard to believe the two movies are even the same art form? Dogtooth is about a mother and father who keep their children completely isolated from the outside world. They are their soul providers of everything from Information to Sex (relax, they pay someone else to do it). It's an allegory for what it's like to live in a country like North Korea. It's also, as you might expect, a criticism of it. The children live innocent lives and accept it as they aren't really harmed physically in any way because they don't know any better. Things only start to go wrong when the eldest daughter sees a movie from the outside world. It's well worth watching. Going any further risks ruining the movie.

The movies are so stark in their comparison that it really both fills you full of hope and depresses you. When something as limp dicked as Just Go with It gets made it depresses me a little that I am not a heavy hitter in hollywood and that crap like this gets made based solely on a few stars without an exec. even reading a script (clearly). On the other hand, a movie as dark and twisted as Dogtooth gets made and I realize that all you need in this industry is a well told story and you stands a chance (how's that for a secretly arrogant statement!).

Four Lions - Funny but a little fat needs to be cut. It's about four borderline mentally handicapped muslim extremists try to plan a bombing in London. Things go wrong - and funny. If this is on Netflix or some other provider give it a watch. It's worth it.

Hall Pass - it had it's funny moments but there were no surprises. At least the characters are somewhat likeable. Rent the thing or wait for it on cable.

Drive Angry - It had some of the shittiest dialogue ever committed to film. The thing is, they said it with such confidence that I have to believe they know what they are doing. There is lots of violence, the dialogue is so bad it's funny, and there is a lot of action that is just plain ridiculous. There also isn't much to the script. It IS however a spectacle so I'd see this one in theatre if possible. Only if you are interested in this type of movie, it's not going to change any minds.

Incendies - The mother of a grown set of twins dies and leaves the mystery of her past life in Lebanon for her children to figure out. It is both tragic and sweet with some of the best cinematography I've seen all year. See it if you can.

On the way to see Drive Angry today, I saw this weird guy on the bus. I've seen the guy around and he is one of those weird for being weird types. I've seen him wearing a dress although he's not a cross-dresser. This was in the middle of July, so hallowe'en is out of the question. He seems like the nerdy type of kid one meets in University that goes to extremes just to reinvent himself because high school was miserable for him. I don't begrudge him this, in fact I wish him well.

Today he had a ladies trench coat covering a set of slacks wrapped up in socks to his knees carrying a leather backpack from the early nineties and a ladies shoulder bag. I don't know why he bothers me so much. Sure, it's a chore to look at aesthetically, but he isn't the only person that was tough for me to look at yesterday. He wasn't impolite, he didn't smell, nothing. The fact that I was bothered by him bothers me a little bit? Is it that I'm jealous that I would never have the stones to wear something like that? Maybe it's that I've always been a little bothered by people who try to use their wardrobe as a way to express their personality? Maybe I just think he's trying to hard? Perhaps that I've always thought that looking nice for your fellow humans is important as it shows you have respect for them.

It's probably some lame answer like it's a combination of all of them. Oh well, not everything has a funny and succinct conclusion I guess.

The Eagle & Biutiful

Over the last few days I saw two movies that definitely exist on both ends of the spectrum. Biutiful is the most recent depression-inducing feature from Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. He is a master filmmaker with incredible talent, but if one is looking for an uplifting film, he is not the director for you. I loved Biutiful. Javier Bardem proves once again why he is the greatest living actor. He can tell you more with a single expression than Channing Tatum will in his entire movie career.

Javier Bardem plays a criminal who was basically dealt a shit sandwich for a life. He has a terrible brother - his only family, is married a terrible woman and deals with nefarious characters for a living with no respect for humanity. He also has terminal cancer. His one bright spot is his children of whom he has full custody (which should instantly tell you the quality of his mother, considering he's a criminal). To tell you much more is to ruin the movie, but I will say that this was easily my favorite performance of the last few years. It's also simply a well-told story of a man coming to terms with his life as it comes to an end.

The Eagle is the story of a Roman Centurion who searches for the lost symbol of his father’s battalion. This will be a quick review. This movie is terribly scripted and terribly acted with fairly cliché music. The cinematography is all right but I wasn't a big fan of how the battle scenes are shot, as they were a touch hard to follow, that was simply a function of a small budget I'd wager. Don't waste your time.

Cedar Rapids

Last night after work, I caught Cedar Rapids at the Varsity. It seemed like just a one off comedy winter release that was destined to suck, but the reviews had been pretty good and I like the cast involved so I gave it a shot! It was an extremely funny movie.

That, in and of itself, isn't enough to sell a movie because I laughed during Cop Out and that movie was a piece of shit. Detestable characters and no plot to speak of. Cedar Rapids really had remarkable character work which surprised me. Tim Lippe plays an incredibly naive but quite competent insurance salesman who, due to a tragedy, is sent to represent the firm he works for at a conference in Cedar Rapids.

There he meets Dean Ziegler (John C Reilly), an outsider who initially comes off as a perfect caricature of a salesman. He turns out to be incredibly well rounded and complex character who Tim Lippe comes to rely upon. Reilly is quickly becoming my favorite comic actor. I'm not sure he can support a movie on his own, but he is terrific as a number 2.

Aside from Ed Helms straddling the line of believability at times, it's a remarkably good movie with a nice heart. It's something Judd Apatow would have been proud to make.

Before I go, I should mention that last night night I caught the series finale of Friday Night Lights. It will go down in history as the greatest sports television show ever on television and nobody watched. I tried my hardest to get people to watch, but I was unsuccessful as it seems the Football aspect was too much to get over. Now I'm going to have to deal with people telling me how they 'discovered this wonderful show' in five years much like they did with Arrested Development. If these douche-bags would watch the damn show when it's on, maybe we get more than 1 full season and 4 half seasons?

A mission for all of you! Community is a great show and is currently at risk. WATCH THE FUCKING THING AND TURN OFF AMERICAN FUCKING IDOL!!!

Sanctum (and a few other random thoughts)

I saw Sanctum last night in the AMC IMAX theatre at Yonge and Dundas in Toronto (which is nowhere near the size of the Scotiabank IMAX, but whatever). This is a pretty easy review to write; everything is terrible except the cinematography. The acting is terrible, highlighted by Ioan Gruffudd who seems completely incapable of an honest emotion. In his defense, he was given absolutely no help from the script (and presumably the director). The music sounded like it was a derivative of Avatar and there wasn't a character to be cared about.

The reason to see this movie is the cinematography and the 3D. This should be a lesson to studios everywhere; FILMING A MOVIE IN 3D IS BETTER THAN POST CONVERSION. That's enough on Sanctum. If there is an IMAX theatre around, see it if you're bored, but otherwise don't bother...and based on the numbers, you aren't!

Earlier in the day, I was walking through the Eaton Centre and I saw a young man wearing a baseball cap sitting back on his head cocked to the side and rotated 20 or 25 degrees. My immediate thought is that I hate that guy. I know it's a snap judgement but I feel confident that the guy is a douche. This is the type of thing people do who have no actual personality so they create one with an idiotic fashion statement - much like the 40 year old losers who wear Ed Hardy T-Shirts.

This brings me to another point: Every once in a while, some celebrity will wax all philosophical about how 'it takes too much energy to hate someone'. That's complete bullshit. It took me all of 20 seconds to come to that conclusion and I didn't think about it again until I posted this blog (this was a topic I planned to cover). During my typing it, it occurred to me that 'yep, definitely hated that guy'. Guess what! I probably won't even think about the guy again in my entire life - that is until I see him entering a tattoo shop looking to work on his personality.

Top 10 of 2010

As the month of January winds to a close, all of the films that backed there way into 2010 Oscar consideration by releasing themselves in one theatre for one week in late December are now out! This works out well for a first [real] post as it should give you a pretty good insight into the movies I like.

As you'll see by my list, 2010 seemed to be propped up by well established directors that we know very well. It does fill me full of hope, however, that directors like Matthew Vaughn (a little bit of a veteran, I grant you) and David Michod made my list. This bodes well for the future as people like Peter Weir don't direct things every year. Good movies have to come from somewhere and therefore new directors need to make there way to the fore. Michod definitely did that with Animal Kingdom. Who will it be in 2011 I wonder...

Firstly, however, a final look at the top 10 (or 13, or even 15) movies of 2010.

1. The Social Network (David Fincher)

2. True Grit (The Coen Brothers)

It was a tough choice to choose between these two. From cinematography, to pacing, to writing, to rewatchability the movies were a dead heat for me. The Social Network won out with it's depth, however. The irony just drips from this film, and I'm a sucker for that. True Grit had terrific performances and a great score I've listened to about a dozen times at this point but when it comes down to it, it was just a very well crafted genre exercise (much like Millers Crossing). Still, a solid number 2.

3. Inception (Chris Nolan)

This one gets high marks for it's degree of difficulty more than anything else. I've seen the movie 3 or 4 times now and it never gets old. It's missing a little something in the heart department but I loved the score, the editing was great, the production design was out of this world and the script was impeccably well crafted.

4. Blue Valentine (Derek Cianfrance)

A beautifully acted and depressing look at the end of a relationship. Movies like this tend to ramp up the drama to the point of unbelievability. I'm not sure where this movie goes without the performances, but performances are part of the movie and it's a beautiful movie.

5. 127 Hours (Danny Boyle)

I'm a little bit surprised I liked this as much as I did. I was put off a bit by some of the family stuff that was wedged into the movie, but still a very enjoyable movie with a must see performance.

6. The Way Back (Peter Weir)

It's a brutal movie, no two ways about it, but the brutality helps shine light on the ordeal the characters went through. Jim Sturgess was great and Colin Farrell was Russian! The cinematogaphy was beautiful and the soundtrack was as well.

7. Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky)

It ain't subtle, but that ain't Aronofsky's style. It's just a terrific thriller with a very raw performance by Natalie Portman. Rewatchability hurt this one, not sure I want to see it again as good as it was!

8. Animal Kingdom (David Michod)

It's an Australian movie about a crime family written by one of the worst and most inappropriate mothers ever put to film. A boy whose mother has just committed suicide is thrust in the middle and must navigate through it.

9. The Town (Ben Affleck)

10. Kick-Ass (Matthew Vaughn)

These ones are well made movies I'll watch again and again. The strobe scene in Kick-Ass is worth the price of admission alone. As far as The Town is concerned, I just love a good heist movie.

Honorable Mentions:

Another Year (Mike Leigh)

Carlos (Olivier Assayas)

Top 3 Docs:

Exit Through the Gift Shop (Banksy)

Restrepo (Tim Hetherington & Sebastian Junger)

Client 9 (Alex Gibney)

I separated the docs because I always find it tough to compare fictional movies with docs - so I didn't. Exit through the gift shop is one of the better movies out there that cuts to the heart of what art is. Also, it's fun! Restrepo is one of the better looks at what it is to be a soldier in one of the most dangerous places on the planet. For someone who has no idea what that's like, it's a terrific look into that world. Lastly, Client 9 takes a look at the last days of Eliot Spitzer and why he left office. It does a great job at shining a light on the hypocrisy of the whole situation.

2010 was a great year and here's hoping I get to see at least a few good movies before fucking November!!