So I probably shouldn't have done this, since I knew it wouldn't work, but at the last second I hopped on the bandwagon to see 300 again, Saturday night. Out of the eight of us that went to see it, Kyle and I were the only ones too young to get in, so instead we saw MUSIC & LYRICS. Basically the other end of the Man Spectrum, especially considering it was a chick flick that another guy and I saw, and he actually had women's clothing in his possession (it's a long story, involving stripping).
And yeah, it was a pretty frikkin' sweet movie. Hugh Grant is one charming motherfucker. B
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
300
**Written for my school paper**
“This. Is. SPARTUHHHHHHHHH!”On the one hand, director Zack Snyder's newest film, 300, is the most mind-bogglingly awesome thing basically ever made. On the other hand, it's a terrific film, a visually arresting work of art. How does one approach a movie like this?
Ever since the trailer debuted for this film last summer, attached to SUPERMAN RETURNS, the buzz has been huge. If this was anything like graphic novelist Frank Miller's first film adaptation, 2005's SIN CITY, we were in for a hell of a good time at the movies, filled with blood, stylized action, and gaudy visuals. If the trailers were any indication, 300 would also be filled with warrior characters who YELLED. ALL. OF. THEIR. LINES. LIKE. THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS. All signs pointed to 300 being a pretty awesome movie.
The buzz has paid off. Nearly $71 million worth of tickets were sold over opening weekend, and those lucky customers got to witness the first 'event movie' of 2007. After mediocrity like WILD HOGS, NORBIT, and GHOST RIDER has dominated the first two months of the box office, people poured into a movie that stood out in the crowd: a film of such artistic purity and adapted so closely to its source (which is a terrific book, by the way), and so much unfiltered, bloody, and stylized butt-kicking, it had to be seen to be believed.
The film chronicles the account of King Leonidas, leader of the Greek city-state of Sparta, who led 300 of his soldiers to battle against the invading army—1 million strong, the legend goes— of Persian King Xerxes. They were 300 men who made a final stand, perhaps THE final stand, against this extraordinary army, taking down more than 25,000 of them (that's 80 Persians for every Spartan, if you're counting), and were defeated only after being betrayed by a rat. The Battle of Thermopylae is one of the greatest war stories in history, and visionists Frank Miller and Zack Snyder have made a film that is just about as awesome. Similar to SIN CITY, the movie was filmed entirely on a green screen, producing eye-popping visuals, mostly sandy tones of tan with the intense red of blood.
As King Leonidas, Gerard Butler gives a frighteningly intense performance. Butler spent eight months getting into character, most notably chiseling a six-pack and growing the most awesome beard ever. As Leonidas, Butler gives a strong, surprisingly complex performance for such a thinly written part. He wonders whether or not sacrificing 300 men is worth anything, even though Spartan law has always said that 'death on the battlefield is the most glorious thing a man can ever achieve'. He leads his men with pride, fearlessness, and ferocity. The battle scenes reflect this, and although there are many throughout the film, they do not get repetitive or boring for a second. This is a compliment to Snyder, who gives this film such an amazing look.
If you see any movie this spring, make it 300. Because seriously, this is pretty much the greatest thing since the invention of life.
Best Movie Ever
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
ZODIAC
"I like killing people because man is the most dangerous animal of all."
If asked who my five favorite directors were, I would probably throw David Fincher's name on the list, even though he has only made a handful of films. Why? He has made two of my absolute most favorite films, in SE7EN and FIGHT CLUB (I consider the latter to be the best movie of the 1990s). ZODIAC, his newest film, is sort of a mix of the dead-serious tone of SE7EN and the playful, anarchist tone of FIGHT CLUB. While it isn't as good as either of the aforementioned duo, it's a terrific film on its own.
Chronicling the on-again, off-again serial killer's (who called himself Zodiac) reign over the greater San Francisco area from the 1970s to the early 1980s, Fincher's film is possibly the most epic, ambitious crime procedural ever. Forget the carnage and violent pornography shows such as CSI display every week, ZODIAC shows the long-lasting effects of the murders, not the bloody details of them. Especially involved in the case is San Francisco Chronicle cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), SFPD Inspectors David Toschi and William Armstrong (Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards), and San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Paul Avery (Robert Downey Jr.). Over the course of more than a decade, the world changes around them, but their lives becomes more and more devoted to the Zodiac killings. Gyllenhaal is the stand-out in the cast, the character who really takes over the third act of the film. He played Robert Graysmith as an eccentric, lovable loser of a guy, who is constantly ridiculed, and even badgered, over his involvement in the case. Gyllenhaal plays him with a lot of life, and brilliantly shows the futility Graysmith feels as the Zodiac killer becomes less and less a public story, but the dominating force in his own life.
As he has shown with SE7EN and FIGHT CLUB, and now ZODIAC, Fincher knows how to create atmospheres in which violence and crime corrupts and consumes people. As Paul Avery succumbs to alcoholism and the cops practically begin beating themselves over the head, knowing who the killer is in their gut but not being able to prove it, the film takes on a subtley dark tone. Cinematographer Harris Savides knows that less is more (he is the auteur behind ELEPHANT), and his washed-out look of the 70s is authentic, sprawling, and the attention to detail is obvious. As the film progresses further and further into the psyches of its main characters, the film's look becomes darker and darker, but you have to pay attention to notice.
If ZODIAC has any fault, it is that it's twenty minutes too long. There may be a point to the enormous runtime (about 170 minutes), as the Zodiac file was open from 1974 to 2004, but the film could use some judicious editing. Some middle stretches are unneeded, neither deepening character arcs or showing anything new. This is an ambitious film though, covering an entire decade (how many CSI episodes can claim that?) and telling a terrific story filled with authentic characters who actually have arcs and the audience feels for. It's also David Fincher's best film since, well, FIGHT CLUB.
A-
Saturday, March 03, 2007
The Best of 2006, Pt IV
05. Bryan Singer's SUPERMAN RETURNS 
I don't know how Bryan Singer did it. Even if you disliked the film, you have to hand it to Singer. He took what is maybe the biggest project in film history, and, in my opinion, hit the ball out of the park. This is head and shoulders above the original SUPERMAN, which I believe is a good movie but no masterpiece. This is. Brandon Routh is great as the hero who comes back to a different Earth than the one he left five years ago. Though the people on Earth (most inconveniently Lois Lane) don't necessarily want Superman, they need him. SUPERMAN RETURNS is brilliant entertainment. It presents The Man in the Tights as a deeper, more emotionally hardened man than he has ever been on film, and as much as I hate the phrase, it really is a 'wonder to behold'.
04. Darren Aronofsky's THE FOUNTAIN
Look, you either loved THE FOUNTAIN, or you hated it. It was either miraculous or pretentious. I wrote in my review of THE FOUNTAIN that this was the closest I had to a religious experience in a theater this year. This is still true. While flawed in certain areas, most notably in its editing and middle ‘plot line’, Aronofsky has crafted a masterpiece. Dave White wrote “it brings the crazy”, and that’s for damn sure. As the three story lines come together in an orgasmic final twenty minutes, I realized how breathtaking it all was. The two stars, Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz, give powerfully emotional performances, especially Jackman, who has never been better, and the transcendent love story is beautifully told across 1,000 years. The score, set designs, and camera work are all topnotch, and when it hits you, THE FOUNTAIN hits you as hard as any movie this year.
03. Paul Greengrass's UNITED 93
The most soberingly affecting movie of the year doesn’t exploit the tragedy of 9/11 or try to artificially pull at our heartstrings. It is a masterpiece of cinema vérité, with talented director Paul Greengrass opting for the most natural, true-to-life feel possible. First-time actors and some of the people who actually lived through the Day of Hell are used to authentically re-create the ‘flight that fought back” and the FAA crew on the ground who witnessed it all in horror. Greengrass knows he doesn’t need any soap opera bullshit or contrived, cliché-driven characters to tell his story. All the emotion we need for the movie has been permanently burned into our memories. It takes rare skill to re-create the worst day of many people’s lives accurately, and it’s even rarer to get a movie as affecting as UNITED 93.
02. Alfonso Cuarón's CHILDREN OF MEN
A blistering masterpiece. I don't cry at movies, but this is about as close as I've ever come to crying. I'm not usually left with my mouth completely open, eyes wide, and hands sore from clutching the arms of my chair, but several sequences in CHILDREN OF MEN did it to me. It boasts the single best scene of the year, maybe the last decade, which features an astonishingly, almost impossibly long take spanning over seven minutes without a single edit. The movie was virtually shut out at the Oscars (other than Cinematography, which it will easily grab, and a pair of technical nods), but it deserved a lot more publicity (NORBIT topped it's entire American gross within three days) than it got. Director Alfonso Cuarón and D.P. Emmanuel Lubezki have created the most sweeping, haunting future world in the history of film, in my opinion, in which the world has gone to shit in the wake of women being infertile for eighteen years. England is the only country that has 'soldiered on', but Clive Owen's Theo says 'who cares?' His character is deep and turns out to have one of the most affecting character arcs in recent memory by the end of the film, as he goes from loser to savior as he transports the world's first pregnant women in nearly two decades (played beautifully by Claire-Hope Ashitey, who was completely shut out, awards-wise in my opinion) to safety. A godsend of a film.
01. Martin Scorsese's THE DEPARTED
Several adjectives could describe THE DEPARTED. Dark. Brooding. Hilarious. Heartfelt. Emotional. Powerful. Awesome. Genius. Artistic culmination. Intense. Extraordinarily-acted. Extra-ordinarily directed. Extraordinarily-written (it's pretty damn extraordinary). Maybe the best word is simple, 'perfect'.
Unquestionably the best film of 2006. I’ve seen it four times in theater, and I would just as soon see it four more times. It is also director Martin Scorsese’s best film in my opinion. A blistering, riveting, darkly hilarious masterwork, THE DEPARTED is a great tale of megalomanicality about cops and gangsters in Boston. Jack Nicholson is the loose cannon crime boss, with his fingers deep into everything that goes on in the town. Leo DiCaprio and Matt Damon play two sides of the same coin as a cop who infiltrates Nicholson’s crime syndicate and a gangster who infiltrates the cops. This is the best and most emotionally challenging work of DiCaprio and Damon’s careers, and Nicholson has a lot of fun in one of his deepest, most twisted performances in his illustrious career, as the crime boss who has everything but still wants more, no matter what the cost. Mark Wahlberg, Vera Farminga, Martin Sheen, and Alec Baldwin are all solid as well in the film that deserves to end Martin Scorsese’s thirty-five year quest for those elusive Best Director and Best Picture Oscars.
I don't know how Bryan Singer did it. Even if you disliked the film, you have to hand it to Singer. He took what is maybe the biggest project in film history, and, in my opinion, hit the ball out of the park. This is head and shoulders above the original SUPERMAN, which I believe is a good movie but no masterpiece. This is. Brandon Routh is great as the hero who comes back to a different Earth than the one he left five years ago. Though the people on Earth (most inconveniently Lois Lane) don't necessarily want Superman, they need him. SUPERMAN RETURNS is brilliant entertainment. It presents The Man in the Tights as a deeper, more emotionally hardened man than he has ever been on film, and as much as I hate the phrase, it really is a 'wonder to behold'.
04. Darren Aronofsky's THE FOUNTAIN
Look, you either loved THE FOUNTAIN, or you hated it. It was either miraculous or pretentious. I wrote in my review of THE FOUNTAIN that this was the closest I had to a religious experience in a theater this year. This is still true. While flawed in certain areas, most notably in its editing and middle ‘plot line’, Aronofsky has crafted a masterpiece. Dave White wrote “it brings the crazy”, and that’s for damn sure. As the three story lines come together in an orgasmic final twenty minutes, I realized how breathtaking it all was. The two stars, Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz, give powerfully emotional performances, especially Jackman, who has never been better, and the transcendent love story is beautifully told across 1,000 years. The score, set designs, and camera work are all topnotch, and when it hits you, THE FOUNTAIN hits you as hard as any movie this year.
03. Paul Greengrass's UNITED 93
The most soberingly affecting movie of the year doesn’t exploit the tragedy of 9/11 or try to artificially pull at our heartstrings. It is a masterpiece of cinema vérité, with talented director Paul Greengrass opting for the most natural, true-to-life feel possible. First-time actors and some of the people who actually lived through the Day of Hell are used to authentically re-create the ‘flight that fought back” and the FAA crew on the ground who witnessed it all in horror. Greengrass knows he doesn’t need any soap opera bullshit or contrived, cliché-driven characters to tell his story. All the emotion we need for the movie has been permanently burned into our memories. It takes rare skill to re-create the worst day of many people’s lives accurately, and it’s even rarer to get a movie as affecting as UNITED 93.
And the true-blue masterpieces that I believe are going to last the longest with me...
02. Alfonso Cuarón's CHILDREN OF MEN
A blistering masterpiece. I don't cry at movies, but this is about as close as I've ever come to crying. I'm not usually left with my mouth completely open, eyes wide, and hands sore from clutching the arms of my chair, but several sequences in CHILDREN OF MEN did it to me. It boasts the single best scene of the year, maybe the last decade, which features an astonishingly, almost impossibly long take spanning over seven minutes without a single edit. The movie was virtually shut out at the Oscars (other than Cinematography, which it will easily grab, and a pair of technical nods), but it deserved a lot more publicity (NORBIT topped it's entire American gross within three days) than it got. Director Alfonso Cuarón and D.P. Emmanuel Lubezki have created the most sweeping, haunting future world in the history of film, in my opinion, in which the world has gone to shit in the wake of women being infertile for eighteen years. England is the only country that has 'soldiered on', but Clive Owen's Theo says 'who cares?' His character is deep and turns out to have one of the most affecting character arcs in recent memory by the end of the film, as he goes from loser to savior as he transports the world's first pregnant women in nearly two decades (played beautifully by Claire-Hope Ashitey, who was completely shut out, awards-wise in my opinion) to safety. A godsend of a film.
01. Martin Scorsese's THE DEPARTED
Several adjectives could describe THE DEPARTED. Dark. Brooding. Hilarious. Heartfelt. Emotional. Powerful. Awesome. Genius. Artistic culmination. Intense. Extraordinarily-acted. Extra-ordinarily directed. Extraordinarily-written (it's pretty damn extraordinary). Maybe the best word is simple, 'perfect'.
Unquestionably the best film of 2006. I’ve seen it four times in theater, and I would just as soon see it four more times. It is also director Martin Scorsese’s best film in my opinion. A blistering, riveting, darkly hilarious masterwork, THE DEPARTED is a great tale of megalomanicality about cops and gangsters in Boston. Jack Nicholson is the loose cannon crime boss, with his fingers deep into everything that goes on in the town. Leo DiCaprio and Matt Damon play two sides of the same coin as a cop who infiltrates Nicholson’s crime syndicate and a gangster who infiltrates the cops. This is the best and most emotionally challenging work of DiCaprio and Damon’s careers, and Nicholson has a lot of fun in one of his deepest, most twisted performances in his illustrious career, as the crime boss who has everything but still wants more, no matter what the cost. Mark Wahlberg, Vera Farminga, Martin Sheen, and Alec Baldwin are all solid as well in the film that deserves to end Martin Scorsese’s thirty-five year quest for those elusive Best Director and Best Picture Oscars.
PS- I did all the pics for the list. Feel free to oggle/comment/praise.
Friday, March 02, 2007
SUPERMAN
"Look, up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman!"What makes SUPERMAN still easy to relate with thirty years after the film's release and almost seventy since the first comic, is the ideals of Superman. He is the ultimate hero, weakened by neither greed, nor ambition, nor evil, but a non-human element (it starts with a 'k', people). He stands for 'truth, justice, and the American way', glorious symbols that hold up no matter what the current climate in the world is. Christopher Reeves reflects the thought process of maybe the greatest superhero, in a performance that transcends Superman's ideals.
Matching Reeves eye-to-eye is Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor. He brings camp, intelligence and subdued energy to a role that requires all of these elements. Margot Kidder is Lois Lane, the sassy journalist Superman and Clark Kent fall for. Jor-El, Superman's father, is played famously and elegantly by Marlon Brando, in one of the most expensive (something to the tune of $225,000 per minute of screen time) supporting roles ever. All of the performances deliver what is needed from the characters.
This is a superbly entertaining film. It is certainly flawed, and the special effects that held audiences in awe back in the days of the late 1970s haven't held up as well as those of 1977's STAR WARS (which is an almost infinitely better film, in my opinion), and the plot really goes off the rails by the end (mostly Luthor's plot to destroy the world), but these are easy faults to forgive. With so many superhero films these days searching to de-mystify and darken the identify of their characters, it is refreshing to see a classic film, the one that started them all, glorifying its hero.
B+
The Best of 2006, Pt III
10. Robert De Niro's THE GOOD SHEPHERD
I loved THE GOOD SHEPHERD, maybe because it's exactly how I like my coffee and my women: cold and bitter. It's slow, dark, and extremely calculating in how it unfolds, and all of this is done by sophomore director Bobby D's more-experienced-than-you'd-think hand. Matt Damon is better here than he has ever been, and his shelf of terrific performances is quickly growing, with impressive turns in GOOD WILL HUNTING, THE DEPARTED, GERRY, and THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY all under his belt. Why he didn't get more acclaim for this gritty, implosive piece of acting is beyond me. As his morals quickly deteriorate and the line separating right and wrong becomes increasingly blurred, he can only look on in horror as his family and what he believes to be friends' lives are all turned inside out. I know they're really apples and oranges, but you can see how THE GODFATHER PART II influenced De Niro while he was making this, as the story unfolds slowly and beautifully. And dare I say, this is the better film? Just my opinion.09. Richard Linklater's A SCANNER DARKLY
Total total total total total total providence. A trippy, transcendent trip down the rabbit hole of drugs and addiction in the not-so-distant world of Los Angeles. Keanu Reeves and Robert Downey Jr. give their best performances to date as a couple of strung-out addicts who bum around all day, all the while addicted to Substance D, which over 20% of America is hooked on. Reeves is Bob Arctor, an undercover cop who succumbs to the evil he is trying to rid the street of while maybe, or maybe not, falling in love with the dealer (an underused Winona Ryder) he is infiltrating. A sense of melancholia permeates throughout the film, and though I had to watch the last twenty minutes or so twice, it really hits home when you figure it out. It's a kind of rotoscopic tragedy in a way. If you liked this, I really recommend director Richard Linklater's 2001 film WAKING LIFE, which also featured the animated technique. "Mind-blowing stuff".08. Todd Field's LITTLE CHILDREN
It's funny. It's intense. It's dramatic. It's erotic. It's gleeful. It has two Oscar-nominated performances (and out of the bunch they're in, Winslet and Haley both deserve to win), and the script earned an Oscar nod (which it deserved). Why isn't everyone talking about LITTLE CHILDREN? It's better than Todd Field's IN THE BEDROOM, which was a damn fine film itself; deeper and more watchable. Kate Winslet and Patrick Wilson are two bored housewives who begin an adulterous affair, finding a long-eluding pulse in their lives that opens their hearts to opportunities they thought they would never again feel once confined in the prison of marriage. Just across the neighborhood, though, is Jackie Earle Haley's former child-molester, who just wants to make peace with his demons. The tension rises with every minute as more is at stake for the characters. The thing is though, we don't know more is at stake for them. Only at the end does everything resolve. That's the sign of a good director: an audience being completely under a spell by the unfolding story.07. Michael Mann's MIAMI VICE
God, I love the backstory. No one was happy with Michael Mann during MIAMI VICE's production. He travelled across continents, into dangerous locales, and used the campy 80s show title and his artistic clout to make his movie. It's not an action movie, though there is action. It's a character study, and a meditation on how the constant grind of life on the edge affects two cops, Rico Tubbs (Jamie Foxx-the coolest cat in Hollywood) and Sonny Crockett (Colin Farrel). It's a $180-million drama, and the final product wasn't what executives (or many critics or audiences, apparently) wanted or expected. This isn't the 80s show, it's a whole nother monster. When you can read between its lines and see the underlying messages and the character interaction (it's there, I promise), MIAMI VICE is a fantastic film.06. Larry Charles's BORAT! CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKE BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN
You have no heard of BORAT moviefilm? Your vagine must hand like sleeve of wizard, like my wife, who 15 years. It funny. Raunchy. BORAT is very nice. Now go fucking see it.Thursday, March 01, 2007
The Best Of 2006, Pt II
15. Robert Altman's A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION 
Ah, Robert Altman. You were a brilliant artist. You once said "in movies there is no end other than death. A movie can end with a wedding, but what it doesn't show is the divorce, than brutal murder of the unfaithful husband by the jealous ex-wife two months later. The only end is death." He satirized that in THE PLAYER, and he said it solemnly (but still teaming with life) in NASHVILLE. A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION was his final film, based on the radio show that I've grown up listening to every Saturday night. Of course, like most Altman films, it isn't really about the synopsis, but about something deeper and more common among us all. As the radio show "A Prairie Home Companion" is about to play its final broadcast, the crew reflects about the good times and the bad, life, and death. Altman was always an actor's director, and the cast is pretty impressive here: Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Kline, Virginia Madsen, Meryl Streep, Lindsay Lohan (not a dumb teenager or a slut, but a real solid character!), Maya Rudolph, and Altman's favorite actor to work with: Lily Tomlin. A gem of a film.
Ah, Robert Altman. You were a brilliant artist. You once said "in movies there is no end other than death. A movie can end with a wedding, but what it doesn't show is the divorce, than brutal murder of the unfaithful husband by the jealous ex-wife two months later. The only end is death." He satirized that in THE PLAYER, and he said it solemnly (but still teaming with life) in NASHVILLE. A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION was his final film, based on the radio show that I've grown up listening to every Saturday night. Of course, like most Altman films, it isn't really about the synopsis, but about something deeper and more common among us all. As the radio show "A Prairie Home Companion" is about to play its final broadcast, the crew reflects about the good times and the bad, life, and death. Altman was always an actor's director, and the cast is pretty impressive here: Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Kline, Virginia Madsen, Meryl Streep, Lindsay Lohan (not a dumb teenager or a slut, but a real solid character!), Maya Rudolph, and Altman's favorite actor to work with: Lily Tomlin. A gem of a film.14. Rian Johnson's BRICK
A brilliant noir film. I don't even like noir in general (Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, etc. etc.), so this is really my favorite noir film when I think about it. I remember when Joseph Gordon-Leavitt was just a little kid alongside Danny Glover in ANGELS IN THE OUTFIELD (which was the first live-action movie I ever saw in theaters, when I was four years old). He's a man now. This thing is white-hot, a script that seemed to drop from heaven right into rookie director Rian Johnson's lap. It's just so fucking cool. From the hard-boiled lines to the playful ones, BRICK knows how to take itself seriously but not too seriously, and somehow ends up not being a complete parody of itself, which it could have been without changing a single word in the script. And yes, the Vice Principal is SHAFT. "Cool" is the only word for this film.13. John Lasseter's CARS
Blah blah blah this is Pixar's weakest story and their worst movie so far. Haters be damned. Any movie that has Larry the Cable Guy that isn't the film equivalence of an abortion is pretty much a mini-masterpiece to start out with. I saw this one twice in theaters (once at the drive-thru, hey hey), and I loved it. It starts out cheesy, but man, once it gets going it really doesn't stop. Not as fast-paced as THE INCREDIBLES, and it doesn't have the memorable characters that the TOY STORY films have, but if this was the first CGI film, it would be considered as landmark and as brilliant a film as TOY STORY is today. And yeah, it's purty.12. Christopher Nolan's THE PRESTIGE
I've got to say that I was skeptical going into this. The trailer didn't blow me away, and it looked like a transition project for Chris Nolan and Christian Bale between they're BATMAN films. The final package was something else though, an intricately written and well-acted film that ensnared me. We all know the story: Batman and Wolverine are actually dueling magicians in turn of the (19th) century London, whose partnership turns to rivalry, which turns to maniacal, homicidal lunacy. The twist wasn't completely shocking, but it was still a riveting journey into a dark realm of the human heart that everyone has. Nolan is four-for-four, if you're counting.11. The Hippy Couples' LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
The little indy hit that could, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE's cuteness factor is pretty undeniable. Although I'm glad it didn't win Best Picture over another movie I enjoyed a bit (it's a crime flick that will show up later on the list), it deserved its nomination. The script was reportedly bought for over $8 million, and I can see why. As good as the performances were (Alan Arkin got an Oscar and he was only the third best male in the movie, in my opinion), these parts were all written well and fully fleshed out. Abigail Breslin is especially good as the innocence; the glue that keeps the family somewhat sane as a road trip to the Little Miss Sunshine Pageant quickly turns into something of a trip down the rabbit hole, and a metaphor for the American obsession for self-improvement and never reflecting on all you have.The Shotcaller Gives You The Best of 06, Pt I
Honorable Mentions (in five words)
Davis Guggenheim’s AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH: Al Gore is not dead.
GQ presents...Martin Campbell’s CASINO ROYALE: Testicular torture is fun again.
"You WILL admire my Hitler moustache, dammit!"Neil Marshal’s THE DESCENT: Piss your pants-level scary.
"I eat kids for fun."Gabriele Muccino’s THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS: Hits harder than
you'd think.
$55 million movie.James McTigue’s V FOR VENDETTA: Masked men do it better.
"I'm this big. Seriously."The Shotcaller's Favorite TRAILER TRASH!
15. ROCKY BALBOA
I really don’t understand why more people didn’t see
this. It’s ROCKY for God’s sake! As soon as the Bill
Conti theme kicked in, all memories of ROCKY V should
have been forgotten. The trailer isn’t lying when it
says that this is the most inspirational character of
our time. Awesome trailer.
14. WORLD TRADE CENTER
Not the greatest movie (and certainly not up there
with UNITED 93), but this trailer hit pretty hard.
The music cues at just the right time, and the imagery
is resounding. Hearing ‘We never prepared for
something this size’ still shakes me.
13. BORAT! CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKE BENEFIT
GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN
The cleanest bits from the raunchiest movie ever are
still prety damn funny. Everyone could tell from the
get-go that this movie was going to be something
original at least, but I bet Sacha Baron Cohen didn’t
know he had the most talked-about film of the year in
his hands. Add in his show-stealing turn in TALLADEGA
NIGHTS, and he quite a nice year at the movies.
12. X-MEN: THE LAST STAND
Do you remember when cybernerds across the net went
ape-shit for this trailer? X2 was a bona fide
masterpiece in many comic book fans eyes, and it
looked like Brett Ratner wasn’t going to screw up
Bryan Singer’s terrific beginning to the series.
Seeing the Golden Gate Bridge being ripped apart,
hearing some awesome dialogue, and watching the X-Men
come in to the picture in slow motion while the
bassline boomed made for a pretty badass trailer. The
movie? Eh, not so much.
11. THE FOUNTAIN
Look, you either loved this movie or you hated it. It’s
either pretentious or extraordinary, depending on how
you look at it. There’s almost no question though
that it was shot beautifully, as majestically as any
movie in a long time (seriously, why the fuck
wasn’t this at least nominated for Best
Cinematography), and the trailer had much of the
extraordinary imagery that I saw in theaters three
times. I’ve written that it was as close to a
religious experience I had in a movie theater this
year, and I mean it. When Tom reaches epiphany or
enlightenment or Xenu or whatever you want to call it,
I pretty much had an orgasm.
10. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III
An intense trailer. Seeing Philip Seymour Hoffman,
basically my favorite type-cast gay actor, play the
most venomously juicy villain of the year, and give
Tom Cruise a big “Fuck You Hard” while being strapped
to a chair and interrogated set up the fact that the
movie was pretty awesome, once you can get away from
Cruise’s off-screen personality. And that explosion
that threw Ethan Hunt into the car on the bridge is
basically the coolest thing, like, ever.
09. LITTLE CHILDREN
A child says she will make something beautiful for her
mother. A woman says that ‘it’s about the refusal to
accept a life of unhappiness’. An adulterous affair
unfolds. All the while a train approaches in the
distance. The intensity rises, without showing off
too much of the film. An exceptionally well-made
trailer.
08. SMOKIN’ ACES
Seriously, this is basically heroin on film.
Frenetic, fast-cut editing, furious action, deranged
hitmen (and women), and a strung-out Jeremy Piven all
add up to make a conglomoration of awesome. The film
came out yesterday, and sadly I think I’m going to be
forced to wait for DVD to see it, but SMOKIN’ ACES
looks A-L-I-V-E (even if it’s another PULP FICTION
knockoff).
07. SUPERMAN RETURNS
Many people were turned off by this trailer. I was
too, initially. It’s slow, without action or
explosions, and only teases the fact that Superman is
back in action. But this was a godly superhero film,
a majestic labor of love from Bryan Singer about how
the world really does need Superman. This trailer is
quite the teaser (even if it wasn’t what many people
were looking for).
06. THE BLACK DAHLIA
I still haven’t seen THE BLACK DAHLIA, but I’d look
to. Regardless of the bad reviews (which De Palma’s
FEMME FATALE got in 2002, but I still loved), the
gorgeous cinematography and throw-back to yesteryear
when young cops could wear suspenders and hats, looks
great. Maybe the film will suck, but the trailer
oozes cool, and I’m going to see it eventually,
despite the bad press. Isn’t that what a trailer
should do, after all? Sell you on a movie that has
everything else going against it?
05. MIAMI VICE
This is another movie that people either got, or they
didn’t. Michael Mann’s criminally underappreciated
godsend of a crime flick is rough on the edges and
even rougher at its heart, but man is it good-looking.
The film oozes masculinity and danger in a business
that quickly devours people, and the trailer was as
good a glimpse into the film as it could be without
the real violence. Jay-Z’s synthesized beat, the
bassline, and the low-angle shots all add up to quite
an awesome two-and-a-half minutes.
04. SPIDER-MAN 3
Basically the Second Coming, this trailer hit every
right note. The effects, the initial shock of the
black suit, and Peter Parker’s tortured soul are all
conveyed superbly here, and this teaser basically made
the first week of July worth living. A Godsend of a
teaser. Here’s hoping the film can somehow be as
great.
03. 300
Unlike SMOKIN' ACES, which I called heroin on film, this is
actual heroin. Sure, it’s completely over the top
and suggests that all the characters will do is SHOUT. LIKE.
THIS. FOR. THE. WHOLE. MOVIEEEEEEEEE. But hey,
wouldn’t that be great? I’m hoping sophomore director
Zack Snyder dares to break the clichés and go with the
Nine Inch Nails soundtrack and the overly-stylized
visuals instead of the orchestra and the realistic-looking
armies (a la TROY and ALEXANDER) storming the beaches.
We'll be in for one hell of a night when this opens.
02.THE DEPARTED
This was another trailer that grew on me. When I first saw it,
I was a Scorsese virgin really, with only The Aviator under my
belt. Since then he has grown on me like he has to almost
everyone else in the film community. His ability to mix music
with the right scenes is incomparable, and the lines that
I thought didn't really work in the trailer do, once I had seen
the movie. The music, the opening shot of Jack, and the kick-ass
shots throughout the trailer make it one of the best of the year.
01. CASINO ROYALE
We come to it at last. Everyone knew CASINO ROYALE
was going to be something special after this masterpiece of a
trailer. A blonde Bond? No problem. A black-and-white
opening sequence? Bring it on. No Aston Martin? Whatever.
The silliness and stupidity of the last few Brosnan Bond movies
were erased with this trailer, which featured a more down to
earth, human Bond and no invisible cars being chased by a
laser beam from space. And the music is just incredible. The
score booms at the right time, directly in line with the action of
the trailer. As Daniel Craig (who is right up there with Sean
Connery as the best Bond ever) gives up his heart to a woman
and 'sheds his armor', only to lose her, the music hits its peak,
and we finally hear the iconic score kick in. I have to say that
as good as CASINO ROYALE was, the trailer was even better.
15. ROCKY BALBOA
I really don’t understand why more people didn’t see
this. It’s ROCKY for God’s sake! As soon as the Bill
Conti theme kicked in, all memories of ROCKY V should
have been forgotten. The trailer isn’t lying when it
says that this is the most inspirational character of
our time. Awesome trailer.
14. WORLD TRADE CENTER
Not the greatest movie (and certainly not up there
with UNITED 93), but this trailer hit pretty hard.
The music cues at just the right time, and the imagery
is resounding. Hearing ‘We never prepared for
something this size’ still shakes me.
13. BORAT! CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKE BENEFIT
GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN
The cleanest bits from the raunchiest movie ever are
still prety damn funny. Everyone could tell from the
get-go that this movie was going to be something
original at least, but I bet Sacha Baron Cohen didn’t
know he had the most talked-about film of the year in
his hands. Add in his show-stealing turn in TALLADEGA
NIGHTS, and he quite a nice year at the movies.
12. X-MEN: THE LAST STAND
Do you remember when cybernerds across the net went
ape-shit for this trailer? X2 was a bona fide
masterpiece in many comic book fans eyes, and it
looked like Brett Ratner wasn’t going to screw up
Bryan Singer’s terrific beginning to the series.
Seeing the Golden Gate Bridge being ripped apart,
hearing some awesome dialogue, and watching the X-Men
come in to the picture in slow motion while the
bassline boomed made for a pretty badass trailer. The
movie? Eh, not so much.
11. THE FOUNTAIN
Look, you either loved this movie or you hated it. It’s
either pretentious or extraordinary, depending on how
you look at it. There’s almost no question though
that it was shot beautifully, as majestically as any
movie in a long time (seriously, why the fuck
wasn’t this at least nominated for Best
Cinematography), and the trailer had much of the
extraordinary imagery that I saw in theaters three
times. I’ve written that it was as close to a
religious experience I had in a movie theater this
year, and I mean it. When Tom reaches epiphany or
enlightenment or Xenu or whatever you want to call it,
I pretty much had an orgasm.
10. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III
An intense trailer. Seeing Philip Seymour Hoffman,
basically my favorite type-cast gay actor, play the
most venomously juicy villain of the year, and give
Tom Cruise a big “Fuck You Hard” while being strapped
to a chair and interrogated set up the fact that the
movie was pretty awesome, once you can get away from
Cruise’s off-screen personality. And that explosion
that threw Ethan Hunt into the car on the bridge is
basically the coolest thing, like, ever.
09. LITTLE CHILDREN
A child says she will make something beautiful for her
mother. A woman says that ‘it’s about the refusal to
accept a life of unhappiness’. An adulterous affair
unfolds. All the while a train approaches in the
distance. The intensity rises, without showing off
too much of the film. An exceptionally well-made
trailer.
08. SMOKIN’ ACES
Seriously, this is basically heroin on film.
Frenetic, fast-cut editing, furious action, deranged
hitmen (and women), and a strung-out Jeremy Piven all
add up to make a conglomoration of awesome. The film
came out yesterday, and sadly I think I’m going to be
forced to wait for DVD to see it, but SMOKIN’ ACES
looks A-L-I-V-E (even if it’s another PULP FICTION
knockoff).
07. SUPERMAN RETURNS
Many people were turned off by this trailer. I was
too, initially. It’s slow, without action or
explosions, and only teases the fact that Superman is
back in action. But this was a godly superhero film,
a majestic labor of love from Bryan Singer about how
the world really does need Superman. This trailer is
quite the teaser (even if it wasn’t what many people
were looking for).
06. THE BLACK DAHLIA
I still haven’t seen THE BLACK DAHLIA, but I’d look
to. Regardless of the bad reviews (which De Palma’s
FEMME FATALE got in 2002, but I still loved), the
gorgeous cinematography and throw-back to yesteryear
when young cops could wear suspenders and hats, looks
great. Maybe the film will suck, but the trailer
oozes cool, and I’m going to see it eventually,
despite the bad press. Isn’t that what a trailer
should do, after all? Sell you on a movie that has
everything else going against it?
05. MIAMI VICE
This is another movie that people either got, or they
didn’t. Michael Mann’s criminally underappreciated
godsend of a crime flick is rough on the edges and
even rougher at its heart, but man is it good-looking.
The film oozes masculinity and danger in a business
that quickly devours people, and the trailer was as
good a glimpse into the film as it could be without
the real violence. Jay-Z’s synthesized beat, the
bassline, and the low-angle shots all add up to quite
an awesome two-and-a-half minutes.
04. SPIDER-MAN 3
Basically the Second Coming, this trailer hit every
right note. The effects, the initial shock of the
black suit, and Peter Parker’s tortured soul are all
conveyed superbly here, and this teaser basically made
the first week of July worth living. A Godsend of a
teaser. Here’s hoping the film can somehow be as
great.
03. 300
Unlike SMOKIN' ACES, which I called heroin on film, this is
actual heroin. Sure, it’s completely over the top
and suggests that all the characters will do is SHOUT. LIKE.
THIS. FOR. THE. WHOLE. MOVIEEEEEEEEE. But hey,
wouldn’t that be great? I’m hoping sophomore director
Zack Snyder dares to break the clichés and go with the
Nine Inch Nails soundtrack and the overly-stylized
visuals instead of the orchestra and the realistic-looking
armies (a la TROY and ALEXANDER) storming the beaches.
We'll be in for one hell of a night when this opens.
02.THE DEPARTED
This was another trailer that grew on me. When I first saw it,
I was a Scorsese virgin really, with only The Aviator under my
belt. Since then he has grown on me like he has to almost
everyone else in the film community. His ability to mix music
with the right scenes is incomparable, and the lines that
I thought didn't really work in the trailer do, once I had seen
the movie. The music, the opening shot of Jack, and the kick-ass
shots throughout the trailer make it one of the best of the year.
01. CASINO ROYALE
We come to it at last. Everyone knew CASINO ROYALE
was going to be something special after this masterpiece of a
trailer. A blonde Bond? No problem. A black-and-white
opening sequence? Bring it on. No Aston Martin? Whatever.
The silliness and stupidity of the last few Brosnan Bond movies
were erased with this trailer, which featured a more down to
earth, human Bond and no invisible cars being chased by a
laser beam from space. And the music is just incredible. The
score booms at the right time, directly in line with the action of
the trailer. As Daniel Craig (who is right up there with Sean
Connery as the best Bond ever) gives up his heart to a woman
and 'sheds his armor', only to lose her, the music hits its peak,
and we finally hear the iconic score kick in. I have to say that
as good as CASINO ROYALE was, the trailer was even better.
FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS
"Guess what! We're not heroes. Seriously. Definitely not anything even remotely considered heroes."In maybe his most ambitious project ever, Clint Eastwood has sadly only made Just Another War Movie; A nice, blubbery blowjob for Oscar. It is the American portion of his two-part Iwo Jima saga, entitled FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS. It is his dullest film, bland to the extreme, with boring performances, ugly cinematography, and a witless script by the biggest (and most popular) hack in Hollywood, Paul Haggis (who was nominated for an Academy Award this year for the third straight year).
FLAGS stars Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford, and Adam Beach as real-life soldiers John Bradley, Rene Gagnon, and Ira Hayes, who were part of the flag raising at Iwo Jima, and were the only three soldiers to survive the Iwo Jima campaign among the eight involved in the raising of the flag. They are recruited by the U.S. government to parade around the country and get everyone to buy war bonds, because as one government agent says, 'the war will be over in a month otherwise'.
This is where the monotony sets in. While the film starts out intriguing and does boast a nice beach invasion of the island that temporarily thrills (not SAVING PRIVATE RYAN caliber, mind you, but it's a passable sequence), its energy dies quickly. The soldiers are 'haunted' and such by what happened during the course of battle, and they hate that the government is exploited them to get a buck. 'The real heroes of Iwo Jima are dead on that island', they say. And man, do they say it. Over and over and over and over again. Hayes, an Indian-American, succumbs to alcoholism, and by the end of their journey, Bradley and Gagnon are basically acting as his crutches. The performances they give are certainly as wooden as crutches. Especially coming after his devastating masterpiece MILLION DOLLAR BABY, which was highlighted by his, Hilary Swank's, and Morgan Freeman's truly haunting pieces of acting, Eastwood doesn't get anything interesting or thoughtful out of his actors this time around.
To go along with it's sullen, prestigious, washed-away cinematography, which really misses the ball here, the script flat out sucks. As displayed in his (Oscar-winning, of course) screenplay
for CRASH last year, Paul Haggis has apparently never heard of subtlety. Apparently, to him subtlety is Bradford being served an ice cream, shaped like the flag raising, and then seeing strawberry jelly poured on it. Get it? It represents blood! And then of course, there is the obligatory transition back to the battlefield where it is exhibitied, for about the thirtieth time, that the real heroes of Iwo Jima are dead on the island? Got it yet? The real heroes of Iwo Jima are dead on that island. If you need more explanation on the real heroes of Iwo Jima being dead on the island, drop me an e-mail, I'd be happy to explain.
C-
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