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The Wire (2002)
Possibly the Most Important Show in Television History
Taken at face value, David Simon and Ed Burn's The Wire can be any number of things: a police procedural, a slice of life, a modern day epic. Moving beyond these surface elements, The Wire is revealed as a frightfully honest, even scathing take on contemporary North American society.
As Detective Lester Freamon (Clarke Peters) remarks, "all the pieces matter." It's impossible to reduce this show's quality and impact to any singular element. The writing is of course great, even among the recent "comeback" that scripted television has made, but the show is further fleshed out by varied and nuanced performances, minimalist cinematography and the occasionally sublime knowledge that what is depicted on screen differs relatively little from the reality that is Baltimore.
The Plan (2009)
A mixed bag, more informative than fulfilling.
I'm a more lenient Battlestar fan than most. I for one loved the final season and I might as well be labeled a freak for enjoying "Daybreak" as much as I do--which is, to say, a lot--but I like what I like. That said, The Plan bordered on disappointment, but thankfully did not cross that unfortunate barrier.
I could be blunt and call it a glorified clip show but that doesn't do it much justice. While Jane Espenson and Edward James Olmos have focused too much on needless exposition, featuring clips that any BSG completionist would be already familiar with, the story elements they have included are beyond satisfying. I was confused to see the Cylon's overturn the year-long truce at the end of the 2nd season and the explanation offered here not only ties up a loose end but gives great insight as to the mindset of everybody's favourite genocidal maniac, John Cavi--if only one particular copy.
When the titular plan is finally revealed--not even a half an hour into the proceedings--it comes as no surprise to anyone who's watched the first two seasons. But, to her credit, Espenson does better by the emphasizing the complications in such a strategy, as emphasized by Rick Worthy's performance as a Simon copy hidden within the fleet. I always felt that the Simon model was underplayed during the series proper, and here it's nice to see some complexity introduced to the character--again, even if it's only with one copy.
The Plan is definitely a completionist's item, rather than something to appreciate in and of itself. But where it doesn't stumble it satisfies.
1408 (2007)
What lies in the the silence of the next few moments? 1408 lets us anticipate.
Mike Enslin (John Cusack) is a jaded man, probably because he's dedicated a good portion of the past few years searching for any sign of life beyond the mortal coil. He travels across the country, spending single nights in the time at every possible haunted site in America, looking for signs of the paranormal and finding nothing. At his latest book signing, the worn-out writing admits that his lack of contact with ghosts and ghouls he's long hoped for has invoked skepticism in him.
Yet he is summoned to the Dolphin Hotel in New York City in a manner reminiscent of Pandora's Box: a postcard is sent to him from the hotel, warning him not to enter a certain room 1408. Of course, this is implied as much more an invitation than anything else. His curiosity piqued, Mike Enslin makes his way to NYC to find out just what is going on with room #1408.
The past decade has seen many horror films categorised into either "exploitive," "contrived" or "unoriginal," the latter category defined by the veritable slew of remakes that has dominated the horror movie industry. As of 2007, I have seen only three such remakes that would qualify as great movies in my eyes: Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead (2004), Marcus Nispel's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) and Jonathan Liebesman's prequel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006). 1408 is not a remake or prequel by any means, but an adaptation of one of Stephen King's short stories. Another novella of his, "Secret Window, Secret Garden," provided the basis for the excellent Johnny Depp thriller Secret Window in 2004 and proved that the horror genre can survive without gratuitous blood and gore, and with immersive characters as well.
1408 follows suit, invoking a style of horror much more comparable to Stanley Kubrick's semi-adaptation of King's The Shining (1980) than anything like Saw. We learn from hotel manager Gerald Olin (played snarkily by Samuel L. Jackson) that there has been a total of 56 deaths, natural and unnatural, in room #1408, the building's only haunted site. Against Olin's wishes (and with the man's brandy in hand), Mike Enslin decides to spend the night, expecting more of the same that he's encountered along the way.
What starts off with simple drafts of wind and mysterious mints manifesting on pillows between shots becomes a literal house of horror for Enslin as window's shut without warning, his key breaks off in the lock, and The Carpenters' "We've Only Just Begun" blasts on the clock radio, signifying that Mike has only 60 minutes left to live in 1408.
The remaining portion of the movie is a wonderful combination of suspense, visual horror, and an insight into what drives Mike Enslin to do his (until now) unrewarding work. This film makes some of the greatest use of silence in a film since Ridley Scott's Alien, and more than ten seconds without music on the soundtrack would leave me thinking that something was about to pop up. When the sound is going, the surround sound system makes the most of its potential. Most notably, we learn about Enslin, his estranged wife, and the daughter they lost to terminal disease, and how her early death lead him to search for her in some way.
While the suspense in 1408 certainly stands out, it is totally and completely a story about human loss and letting go of your loved ones. Mike Enslin's struggle with his daughter's death is just as, if not more fascinating than the horrible room he spends the vast majority of the movie trapped in. You feel for him, and desperately want him to come to terms with the issues in his life and escape.
One of the best movies of 2007, by far, and I wait for it eagerly to hit shelves on DVD. Mr. King should be proud his short work has turned into something so well made.
Superbad (2007)
Amazingly funny and surprisingly honest.
I like "smart" comedy, if you know what I mean. And, as a fan of that type of comedy, I know that it's an improper label. Most people think "smart" comedy is pretentious, dry, and over your head. Not so. The real "smart" comedy is the ability to send a decent message despite the texture (ie. sexuality; profanity, and basic vulgarity). By this criteria, anything from Clerks to The Life Aquatic to The 40-Year-Old Virgin could be considered smart. Superbad should be, as well.
Jonah Hill and Michael Cera (who got his experience playing this awkward style of character on Arrested Development) exemplify the idea of a comedic duo in their roles as two Grade 12 students looking for booze and love. While their repertoire may not have been as extensive as David Spade's and Chris Farley when they pulled off Tommy Boy, Hill and Cera converse so well on screen that you forget you're watching actors do their paying work. Their conversations, especially in the early part of the film, seem as genuine as any obscene chat you've had with any buddy of yours in the hall. Christopher Mintz-Plasse, as the extraordinarily geeky yet paradoxically cool Fogell (a.k.a. McLovin) plays uncomfortable as well as any self-conscious high school nerd, notably in the good portion of the movie when he's joyriding with police officers Michaels and Slater (screenwriter Seth Rogen and rising SNL superstar Bill Hader), who steal the movie in regards to their out-of-code behaviour and personalities. Hader owns a particular scene in a bar where, increasingly intoxicated, he explains to the simultaneously scared and wondrous Fogell why one should never pick up women in bars. Their forceful comments during the climactic party-crashing are enough to earn their way into IMDb quote books for good.
As noted in the opening paragraph, though, Superbad has a message. Evan's encounter with his drunken crush at the final party provides a firm moral dilemma not usually encountered in your average teen sex comedy, and Seth's drunkenly confessed insecurities hit home for more than a few of us. More than anything else, the film's epilogue reinforces the knowledge every high schooler should realise: not all friendships can last beyond graduation. Hard to believe this was written by students all the way back in Grade 9.
See it, and stay for the first half of the credits. I will not reveal why.
AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004)
An Underrated Movie that Lives Up to the Franchises that Spawned It
Alien vs. Predator has been given crap by avid fans of both the Alien and Predator franchises ever since Fox gave the go for Paul Anderson to direct it. As bad as people say he is, Anderson is no where down to the level where Uwe Boll is, but that's another story. Although his interpretation of Resident Evil was bad in my eyes, I gave Paul the run of the doubt and sat down to watch AvP the day it came out.
The beginning of this movie kind of reminded me of how Jurassic Park opened, with the main characters being gathered by an old man who's head of a company. However, this isn't any run in the park with the raptors. Underneath a small island off the coast of Antarctica, a pyramid has been discovered.
Lance Henriksen plays Charles Bishop Weyland, the head of Weyland Industries (providing two nods to the Alien series: Henriksen played the android Bishop in the second Alien movie, Aliens, and Weyland-Yutani was the evil company who always wanted their mittens on an Alien), has assembled a group of scientists, oil drillers and mercenaries to stake the claim. Sanaa Lanthan is Alexa Woods, a mountaineer and environmentalist requested to guide the team. Raoul Bova is Sebastian de Rosa, an archaeologist. They and others make their way to the pyramid, where someone, namely the Predators orbiting Earth above, have already tunneled to. From then on, the crap hits the fan.
The pacing in AvP is excellent for a movie of its short length (100 mins). Nothing drags on, and lighting and sound are used to their highest potential. CGI is not overly used, just for some long or fast motion shots where it's required. In other words, almost every shot of the monsters you see is a man in a suit. And good suits at that. Tom Woodruff Jr., the man in the Alien suit since the equally underrated Alien3, plays all the Aliens, specifically Grid, a heavily cut-up Alien with a sadistic edge to it (providing a throwback to the interstellar psychopath of the first Alien movie). Ian Whyte honours the late Kevin Peter Hall, who played the Predator in both Alien movies, as Scar, a young extraterrestrial hunter trying to ascend the ranks of its people.
Overall, AvP does not get the respect it deserves. Fans bash it for not being as scary, but that's not really giving the film credit. The Alien series ran out of scares after Alien3, with the unneeded fourth installment, Alien: Resurrection. The Predator movies provided me with more of a "Wow" factor than any fear in particular. With this in mind, Anderson capitalized on the action, proved in a particularly excellent sequence where the pre-scarred Grid takes on one of Scar's hunting buddies. Anderson has made a great movie, which although not as scary as the Alien Quadrilogy, still holds a bright candle up to.
See AvP. It grows on you . . . or at least impregnates you with an Alien fetus. Sorry.
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Tarantino's First Film, and an awesome one at that.
Quentin Tarantino is a genius. He is able to take the violence, the obscene, a well-thought of plot, and humour, and mix them together to make a wonderful film. The first of these films he made was Resevoir Dogs.
RD takes place in Los Angeles in 1992. A crime-boss named Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney) and his son, 'Nice Guy' Eddie Cabot (Chris Penn), have gathered together six experienced crooks to pull off a diamond heist. Under Joe's orders, they are not to reveal their names to each other. From then on, they're known as Mr. White (Harvey Keitel), Mr. Orange (Tim Roth), Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), Mr. Blue (Eddie Bunker) and Mr. Brown (Tarantino himself). Everything is planned out perfectly, but when the heist takes place, alarms unexpectedly go off, and everything goes to Hell. Police arrive, Brown and Blue are killed, and the survivors get separated, leaving White with a shot and severly bleeding Orange. White brings his wounded partner to a warehouse, where Pink arrives, and eventually Blonde shows up as well. Pink theorizes that the heist was too well-thought out to fail, and that one of the six men was an undercover cop, who informed the rest of the police. Suspicions grow, leading to the Mexican Standoff climax between White, Joe and Eddie. Overall, Resevoir Dogs put Tarantino on the map as a great director and storywriter. Each character develops his own personal attitude. White and Orange form a father-son relationship, respectively. Pink is cocky and paranoid, Blonde is calm, sadistic, and truly a psycho, this showing in the vomit-inducing cop torturing scene. I rate this film 10/10, for it's non-linear style and a plot as well-developed as the diamond robbery.