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The Village (2004)
Same old, same old
I went into Shyamalan's latest offering with a fair number of preconceived notions based on having seen his previous 'big three' of 'The Sixth Sense', 'Unbreakable', and 'Signs'. That is, I was expecting to see a twist, to jump in my chair once or twice, and to be treated to some wonderful cinematography. Shyamalan's 'The Village' fits that description exactly, except, unlike 'Signs' or 'The Sixth Sense' I wasn't left muttering 'wow' as the credits rolled. Instead I was shaking my head and wondering 'why?'
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Shyamalan's abilities as a director are wonderfully displayed in this film. The opening montage, detailing village life to a beautiful violin solo, set the scene better than any ten minute prologue could. In rapid succession we meet the key characters in the film, with the exception of Bryce Dallas Howard's Ivy, who is introduced a little later. We see Joaquin Phoenix being grim and thoughtful, we see William Hurt mourning the death of a friend's seven year old son, and we see Adrien Brody laughing irreverently at the aforementioned funeral. Straight away Shyamalan makes it clear who is who, and saves us the trouble of awkward introductions. For those who like the hard and fast style of 'The Sixth Sense', you're in for disappointment, however. Shyamalan goes back to the 'good old days', with the first third of the film surprisingly devoid of any suspense or fear. Rather, he takes the time to introduce his audience to the world in which the movie will take place- with only subtle allusions to 'those who we do not speak of'. By doing all of this, Shyamalan makes us care when the village is suddenly threatened. Too often directors throw us in at the deep end and expect us to care. Mel Gibson's 'The Passion of the Christ' springs to mind, here.
This first third is, surprisingly, quite gripping. You care when Sigourney Weaver tells her son, Joaquin about her past. You laugh (somewhat inappropriately) at the actions of a masterfully played mentally deficient character (Adrien Brody again proves his flexibility).
It is the final portion of the movie that leaves a somewhat bitter taste in my mouth. While there are moments that make you cringe or even leap a little, it all seems a little underplayed. Since we've all been there before, we're all waiting for that inevitable twist. Likewise, we're so used to his customary 'scares' that when they come, they feel just a little less scary than they were in his previous films. Maybe we're outgrowing his style, or maybe he's just running out of ways to have music build to a crescendo and then punctuate it with a loud sound.
There are some magical moments in the film, don't get me wrong, but they're few a far between- as Shyamalan tries in vain to keep too many characters, a setting the audience isn't used to (that of the early 19th century), and his own mythology together. When the twist comes, unfortunately, most of us had already got it. When it comes, you're left a little disappointed. It just felt as if Shyamalan was trying too damn hard to come up with something, and as quickly as you see it, he just forgets it ever happens.
If the film has a redeeming feature, it is the quality of the acting and the marvelous cinematography. Adrien Brody and Bryce Dallas Howard are show-stealing. While Brody plays a mentally deficient character with a remarkable blend of sincerity and humour, Howard's debut performance simply melts your heart. Joaquin Phoenix and William Hurt, however, deliver substandard performances for actors of their caliber. This is partially the fault of Shyamalan's script, but the entire time I struggled to figure out what emotion the two were trying to express. Sometimes it's obvious, but, and this is especially true in Hurt's case, sometimes it just seems like yelling for yelling's sake.
If you're expecting to be scared senseless, 'The Village' may prove a waste of time for you. Get some cash and rent the original 'Dawn of the Dead' or even 'Signs'. If you want to see some wonderful cinematics and some solid acting, go along, but don't expect to be blown out of your seats. 'The Village' is Shyamalan gradually taming the beast that is his writing, and, sadly, it is nowhere near as fearsome as those that went before. Worth a look, certainly, but in the end, it's not going to satisfy nearly as much as some of his earlier films did.
Girl Fever (2002)
Light Hearted and Sweet
Let's face it, no one will rent '100 Women' with the high hope that it's going to be an unforgettable and revolutionary look at love and comedy. If you want that- go out and rent something like Love, Actually or Intolerable Cruelty.
I saw '100 Women' before I saw its predecessor '100 Girls'. I seem to be in the minority when I say that I preferred this version. Whilst the storylines are similar, we're not forced to tolerate the smarmy overacting of of Jonathon Tucker. Whilst '100 Girls' does have a far better know cast, I find that it was more enjoyable to see a movie where you didn't associate the female cast with movies they'd previously done. Erin Bartlett is a relative unknown, and incredibly beautiful. Some of her scenes with Chad Donella are just plain sweet.
The real highlights of the movie are the philosophical discussions on women and masculinity held by Sam (Donella) and his disgusting cousin Holden (Steve Monroe). Viewers of the first movie will have heard it all before, but I found Monroe's grossness far more amusing and far less disturbing than James DeBello's.
That, and some of the downright sweet and romantic stuff that goes on, makes 100 Women a different, more intellectual look at an often overdone genre. Jennifer Morrison is wonderfully sweet, Donella delightfully screwed up, and every female characterisation provides a different view on the fairer sex. Maybe not a flattering one, but a view all the same.
Worth a look if you feel like being cheered up about love and life- but don't rent or buy it expecting to be forever changed. It's just a fun movie.
My Rank: 7 out of 10 stars
Super Troopers (2001)
A movie to get drunk to
Sheesh, if I have to read one more review of this movie that says 'it isn't realistic', I am going to go postal.
Right off the bat, I don't know why anyone would go into a movie called 'Super Troopers' and involving a comedy group called Broken Lizard and expect it to be a frank and realistic portrayal of the Vermont police service. Whilst the state police and highway patrol are both central agencies in the movie, they are portrayed more as college frats than as authority figures.
When I first saw this movie I was a little apprehensive, too often a comedy with a good preview is sadly little more than that- a good preview with eighty five minutes of crap packed around the good bits. Super Troopers starts a little slow, but it picks up, and soon you're laughing at every second or third scene. The thing that makes Super Troopers work as a comedy is the different levels and styles of comedy you see in it. While my sixteen year old brother is most amused by Fava's violent outbursts and crude language, I found more amusement in the witty quips of Ramathorne and the wonderful acting by Bryan Cox as a drunken highway patrol chief. His performance as a drunk is the finest I've ever seen in a movie. Reminded me of countless drunken nights at college.
Now, this film won't suit everyone, obviously. There are a lot of sexual allusions and a lot of foul language that may offend some people. But, for the most part, it's one of those movies that we need more of. It's innocent (in that it doesn't deal with any real issues), funny, and it has (I shudder at using the cliched expression) 'heart'. You can tell that all of Broken Lizard, as well as the other cast members, had an immense amount of fun filming the film. While the director and writer also plays a role, he doesn't pull a Tarantino and make himself out to be anything more special than the other cast members. That said, he is probably the strongest member of Broken Lizard when it comes to acting and line delivery.
The entire cast, down to the redneck cops and Ramathorne's live-in girlfriend are played well, but it is the 'Super Troopers' that really dominate the show.
See If You Liked: American Pie, Not Another Teen Movie, and Scary Movie. Strengths: Lots of different comedic styles, some classic one-liners ('Who wants a moustache ride' and 'You crapped on my heart' are both great). Weaknesses: Flimsy plot. But who really cares.
My Rating: 8 out of 10
Bad Boy (2002)
Another Swing and Miss Sex Comedy
The sex comedy is a dying breed of movie, kept alive be the
occassional success of movies such as the American Pie trilogy
and the faint memory of classics such as Nerds, Porkies, and
other 'coming of age' films.
Bad Boy (known as Dawg in Australia) has an interesting enough
premise. To inherit a million dollars womaniser Doug 'Dawg'
Munford must get apologies from twelve of his one night stands.
Doug (played by Denis Leary) is accompanied by Anne Lockheart
(Liz Hurley), who must witness these apologies for the inheritance
to be earned.
Ok, Liz Hurley looks good. She looks very good. In fact, let's take a
moment to reflect on just how good looking Liz Hurley is. Now, if
this movie was a porno, that'd be great- but it's not, it's a comedy
(or an attempt at one). Whilst drama may be seen as the 'true'
cinema, comedy takes a lot of ability to achieve, and Liz does not
have that ability. The movie would have been worse without Denis
Leary, who is at his usual sarcastic best, working as hard as he
can with a script completely devoid of any real wit.
Am I the only person in the world who finds it slightly unbelievable
that not one of his twelve 'conquests' is remotely normal. I know,
for comedic purposes it's funny that he's slept with twins, a
pornstar, a scary cat woman, and even a girl who has become a
man- but if you're going to stretch believability, it needs to be done
well. I didn't find myself laughing once during the movie, and that's
a mean feat.
So often someone decides to make a 'sex comedy' and thinks
that's all they need to do to make it funny. It's true, sex is a funny
act. It's also a big drawcard for a male audience (who we must
assume this chauvanistic piece was constructed for), but you
need to either have some funny situations or some funny
one-liners. This film had none of them.
See if you liked: Denis Leary. Liz Hurley. Strengths: Liz Hurley and a supporting cast of cute women Weaknesses: Lacks comedy. Liz Hurley's acting. My Rating: 2.5 out of 10
La vita è bella (1997)
Uplifting and heartbreaking
While some may complain that Life is Beautiful does not portray death camps in the appropriate level of detail or realism, the simple fact is: Life is Beautiful is not intending to be a faultlessly accurate portrayal of concentration camps in World War II Germany. It could also be pointed out that very few (if not none) contemporary movies can even come close to fully portraying the horrors endured by Jewish, Polish, and Gypsy people in such camps.
That said, the film itself needs to be addressed. Life is Beautiful follows one idealistic and offbeat Jewish man's life, love, and experiences when the Germans take he and his family. The central plotline is this man (played sensitively by Roberto Beninini, who also wrote and directed the movie) trying to keep his son alive and sane in the camp. In this way, the film sometimes reminded me of Hogan's Heroes, with a Jewish man in place of the American soldiers- with the Nazis being the butt of jokes and generally being outsmarted by Bennini.
But to say this piece is a fairy tale or a comedy far from the truth, while it is true that the movie never really approaches the real horror of a concentration camp- that is not to say that it is a happy movie. It is feel good, I'll give it that, but you will cry during the movie. Perhaps it is the fairytale quality that makes such loss all the more powerful, and when you consider a lot of this movie is focused around a confused and naive child, it is actually powerfully done. By 'glossing over' the horrors (as a child undoubtedly could), the inevitability of loss is made so much more painful.
This movie was, and still is, one of the finest movies I've had the pleasure of watching. The subtitles are a minor issue, but easily overlooked. Simply put, Life is Beautiful is one of the few emotionally driven movies to be acknowledged as real cinema in recent years.
See if you liked: Big Fish, The Devil's Arithmetic, The Green Mile. Strengths: Has the viewer's emotions on a string, excellent music. Weaknesses: Lacks realism and subtitles can be distracting,
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Stephen King's best adaptation
I was one of the many movie-goers who saw The Shawshank Redemption without being aware it was a Stephen King story, and so had the pleasure of seeing the movie without prior expectations.
The Shawshank Redemption is, without doubt, the finest conversion from book to film of a Stephen King story. Perhaps because 'Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption' (which can be found in the Different Seasons book) is short, and thus has less for the film makers to put on the screen.
Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins deliver faultless performances as a hardened criminal (Freeman) and a man pleading innocence (Robbins), and the supporting cast of criminals and guards does a brilliant job of creating a world full of repentent criminals, cruel wardens, and (without spoiling anything) 'less than friendly' cons.
What makes The Shawshank Redemption such a memorable movie is that it manages to create characters that the viewer loves, in a scenario and location where you'd never expect to find them. These characters, despite their faults, have you hoping for the best but fearing for the worst for the entirety of the movie. Fans of King will no doubt be familiar with the way he can create such characters, but the feat is rarely carried over onto the screen.
I like a movie that can stimulate emotion in me, and The Shawshank Redemption did that. There are things to laugh at, scenes to flinch away from (although nothing like American History X), and most importantly for the film, things that make you want to cry in a mixture of disbelief and shock.
A brilliant movie, and worthy of the Oscar nomination it got and probably should have won.
See if you liked: American History X, The Green Mile, Life is Beautiful. Strengths: Brilliant cast, excellent story-telling, King's usual attention to realism. Weaknesses: None. My Rating: 9.5 out of 10
Love in Limbo (1993)
An excellent coming of age film
I first saw Love in Limbo playing late on free to air TV about five years ago, and since then it's a movie I'll always remember warmly as one of those films you see and are forever influenced by.
For the uninitiated, Australian film has a long history of making off-beat comedies about lovable losers, and Love in Limbo is a sterling example of this. Whilst Russel Crowe is the only name actor in it (although these days he's all a movie needs), the rest of the Aussie cast is good- he still steals the show as a nervous, nerdy, virgin loser though.
The general premise is a lot like American Pie. A group of friends wanting to get laid and become men. As you'd expect, the entire movie focusses on this (with a sub-plot about the lead's mother and various other incidents), and is full of humorous situations that push it towards the inevitably sweet ending.
If you enjoyed American Pie, don't expect this to be the same- but expect the same conventions to make appearances. Love in Limbo isn't a gross out romantic comedy- but it definitely has its share of laughs, fist pumping moments when the good guy wins, and the situations every guy, Australian or otherwise, can relate to.
See it if you liked: American Pie, Almost Famous. Strengths: Good Aussie cast, easy to relate to, good perve value. Weaknesses: Predictable at points. My Rating: 8 out of 10