Movies

The Definitive Superhero Movie Rankings

/ skoce / 7 Comments

Batman v Superman hits at the end of the month and Captain America Civil War about a month later, kicking off another summer filled with comic book and superhero movies. Big differences of opinion of the merits of some superhero movies, especially Man of Steel, gave me the desire to rank all of the superhero movies that have come out since X-Men changed the game some 16 years ago. After much time and thought, as well as some rewatching, I have crafted a definitive ranking of live action superhero movies. Rankings were chosen by an expert panel of one person and they are objectively correct.

(Note, despite calling it definitive, there are a handful of movies I have never seen. Movies like the Blade sequels, a Punisher movie and the Ghost Rider movies. They are really not worth considering.)

47: Fantastic 4 (2015) – Just a complete and utter misfire. It has a great cast and some scenes that are actually pretty good on their own, but that just makes how bad the rest of it is all the more disappointing.

46: Catwoman – This one misses the point of the character in just about every way possible. The only reason I put it above F4 is that at least this one hilariously bad instead of infuriatingly bad.

45: Amazing Spider-Man 2 – I wasn’t a fan of the first Amazing Spider-Man, and this one doubled down on all of that movies problems and added some new ones. It couldn’t wait to do the famous Gwen Stacy scene and then didn’t in such a clownishly terrible way that sapped it of all effect.

44: X-Men Origins: Wolverine – To be fair to this film, the comics have never really presented a coherent origin for Wolverine either. Of course, none of those had wolverines howling at the moon or the single worst interpretation of Deadpool possible.

43: Elektra – This movie has its heart in the right place, but it just wasn’t any good.

42: The Punisher – I watched this recently. It is bad and dumb, with a really unappealing combination of slapstick violence and ineffective attempts at real darkness.

41: X-Men: The Last Stand – I had to fight with myself to not put this movie much higher. It’s bad, really bad, but I still kind of love it anyway. Kelsey Grammar as Beast is a great casting choice. Too bad just about everything else is nonsense.

40: Hulk – This feels like a movie that tries desperately to distance itself from its comic origins in many ways, but doesn’t manage to get anywhere else interesting. Also, it’s got some dreadful special effects.

39: Amazing Spider-Man – Unnecessary. There is little this movie does that is better than Spider-Man did a decade before. It does have a wisecracking Spidey, but otherwise it is wholly inferior.

38: Daredevil – I really didn’t know how to rank this one, since there is a sizable gap between the theatrical and director’s cuts, but neither of them are particularly good.

37: Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer – If it weren’t for the super disappointing Galactus cloud and the still somewhat disappointing Dr. Doom, this would have ranked higher. Of course, I do have a soft spot for superhero movies that are actually fun and for kids.

36: X-Men Apocalypse – a complete mess, but largely entertaining.

35: Green Lantern – I, and nobody else, consider this a near miss. It reeks of too many cooks in the kitchen, but there are moments when it is everything I actually want from a GL movie. Too bad it features not one but two bad villains.

34: Fantastic 4 – It is cheesy and dumb, but it is enjoyable anyway. Not good by any stretch of the imagination, but largely inoffensive.

33: Deadpool – Many went gaga over this, but it is merely okay. The plot is the most basic of any superhero movie; all it has going for it are hit or miss jokes and an on point Ryan Reynolds, which actually counts for much.

32: The Incredible Hulk – It is just kind of scattered and dull. It improves on the first Hulk movie, but it is still the worst movie from Marvel Studios.

31: Iron Man 2 – This was the first big step in building the Marvel cinematic universe and it almost didn’t work. The central plot is undercooked while the film spends too much time trying to set up Avengers. Still, Robert Downey Jr. as Tony is never not entertaining.

30: X-Men – The one that started it all, or at least started this current string of superhero movies after they were all but buried. Despite a great cast, it hasn’t aged all that well.

29: Superman Returns – There are some parts of this movie that are just great, like when Superman saves the space plane, but it ties itself too closely to the original Superman and takes some odd turns aside from that.

28: Suicide Squad – A grimy, messy movie that does hold some glimmers of what could have been really good.  Some really entertaining performances buoy it just enough.

27: The Wolverine – Much better than the first pass, but it gets really silly in the last act. Still, I mostly liked it.

26: Watchmen – Ponderous and self-important, but not a bad adaptation of this much loved comic. I feel no need to ever see it again, but it wasn’t bad.

25: Hellboy – It spends a lot of time on an origin and introducing an every man character, but once things are up and going it shines.

24: Avengers Age of Ultron – Both bloated and completely empty. It is fun to see these characters together, but the second time lack the punch and the coherence of the first.

23: Spider-Man 3 – It gets goofy and seems to almost purposefully do Venom badly, but for all that it is a mess it is still rather enjoyable.

22: X-Men First Class – It falls apart completely in the last act, but before that First Class takes center stage, the stars and setting really make this movie go. It just can’t stick the landing.

21: Thor 2 – It feels a little like Marvel just going through the motions, but it is still a very entertaining film. It does completely was Eccelston as the villain.

20: Dr. Strange – Another Marvel origin movie.  Well made, but I found it somewhat unengaging; other than some kaleidoscopic scenery there wasn’t much here I hadn’t seen before.

19: Ant-Man – Shockingly good for how troubled its production was. It still feels the loss of Edgar Wright, but it is hard not to like Paul Rudd.

18: Man of Steel – This movie falters pretty dramatically at times, but the rest of it is rock solid. It may have the worst Pa Kent ever and a dreadful ending, but the rest is really damn good.

17: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – Note that this ranking if for the extended cut, the original cut would rank significantly lower.  It isn’t the best superhero movie I’ve seen, but it is the one I have thought about the most.

16: Batman Begins – Nolan’s first take on Batman is close to great, but it doesn’t quite get there. There is nothing really wrong with it, but it pales to what came after it.

15: Spider-Man – Sam Raimi’s initial effort is still the gold standard for origin stories. Some of the effects haven’t aged well and it still had to try to cover up its comics origins, but it remains a good film.

14: Iron Man 3 – This is just about the best movie that feels like it is largely just going through the motions. RDJ is endlessly charming, which is enough to buoy and otherwise pedestrian movie.

13: Avengers – I’ve got this ranked high, but probably not as high as some would expect. It does spectacle as well as any film, but there is little behind that spectacle.

12: Captain America: Civil War – It has one truly transcendent scene and just enough of nearly a dozen interesting characters to make up for how forced parts of its plot seem.

11: X-Men 2 – This improved on the first movie in just about every way. Better action, stronger story, less of just the Wolverine show. Still the best straightforward X-Men movie.

10: Captain America: The First Avenger – Like Thor and Guardians of Galaxy up the list, this sets the superhero movie in another setting, this time as a war movie. It works, largely thanks to Chris Evans as Cap.

9: X-Men Days of Future Past – This is much like First Class, but without the wasted class and disaster of a final act. Bringing back Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen was brilliant.

8: Thor – I really like this movie’s fantasy take on a superhero. The opening parts in Asgard are some of my favorite parts in any superhero movie and the stuff on Earth almost matches it.

7: Iron Man – Marvel’s first is still one of their best. It is the best rendition to date of an origin story, all of which are basically the same.

6: Spider-Man 2 – The first one was good, but this one had a lot more space to work with the origin dispensed with.

5: Hellboy 2: The Golden Army – It doesn’t need the origin story of the first movie, so it is free to do whatever Del Toro wants, which is crib from Miyazaki movies in a really satisfying way.

4: Guardians of the Galaxy – Superheroes by way of Star Wars that works better than it has any right to. It is just a charming delight.

3: The Dark Knight Rises – I know many would have this ranked lower, but it is just about perfect. It is not as tight as The Dark Knight, but it gets by on being completely, delightfully bonkers.

2: Captain America: The Winter Soldier – This manages to be a sequel to both the first Captain America movie and The Avengers and be better than the both of them.

1: The Dark Knight – This is the cliché answer, but I still think it is the right one. It really is just an excellent movie.

Streaming some DC Animated Movies

/ skoce / 7 Comments

Recently added to Netflix, or at least recently noticed by me, were a trio of animated movies based on DC comics. In the past these animated movies have been very good. They in large part retained the tone of the DC animated shows of the 90’s and early 00’s, but often retold stories based on some great comics. Most of the first dozen or so were very good. Things changed at about the same time that DC realized they could only sell movies with Batman or Justice League in the title. The three that appeared on Netflix, Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, Justice League War and Son of Batman, were collectively very disappointing. Some of the problem comes from adapting inferior material, but there is something missing from these movies.

Flashpoint the comic was already a strained read. It seemed to be a story that started as merely a big Flash story that morphed into a line-wide crossover that then became the story wherein DC buried the real DC Universe and gave birth to the Nu52. But the story itself was not responsible for that. It is just a not too unusual alternate reality story. While the movie makes a few improvements, including removing Zoom as the killer of Barry’s Mom, it doesn’t stand up to any sort of scrutiny. The Flashpoint Universe combines some genuinely interesting ideas, like the Superman test subject and Batman as Thomas Wayne, but the central conflict between Wonder Woman and Aquaman fails on every level in both versions of the story. It has to change the Amazons into murderous savages and makes Atlantis much more powerful and warlike than they were before. Also, it requires believing that Wonder Woman wouldn’t wipe the floor with Aquaman in a fight. The big problem is that all of these changes supposedly stem from Flash saving him Mom something like 20 years in the past. That just doesn’t work. Those are all story problems, the animation and character designs are likewise awkward. Things just don’t look good; it looks cheap and off model. On top of those complaints are the just absurd levels of violence. Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox takes a bad story and somehow makes it even worse.

Justice League War does the opposite; it takes a terrible story and greatly improves it. Still, that doesn’t actually make it any good. I still have complaints about the look of the movie, though it doesn’t look as cheap as Flashpoint. But it makes some effective changes to the original story, which is easily the worst thing Geoff Johns has ever written, which turns the story into something that is not completely embarrassing. Still, the biggest fault of the original is still there; in attempting to write the Justice League as young they end up coming off as unlikeable assholes. That characterization works for Green Lantern, but it doesn’t for Superman or Wonder Woman. It quickly becomes a showcase for superpowered violence with nothing of the story or characters worth caring about. The few moments of delight that exist are more than drowned out by the garish and the stupid.

If the first two movies were damned by their inferior source material, then the third should have bucked that trend. Son of Batman is based on the first part of Grant Morrison’s epic Batman arc and is easily the best of the three movies, but it still isn’t any more than simply good. The adaptation strays pretty far from the source, in events if not in the emotional context. Some of it would need to be elided from Morrison’s sprawling story, but losing large parts of the Batman family from the story really hurts it. Replacing Tim with Dick makes a certain amount of sense knowing what is coming next, but it mostly just shrinks the world. The bigger problem is how it opens with an action sequence with the League of Assassins that merely gives an extended and uninteresting fight scene and keeps Batman off the screen for an extended time. I don’t know that it looks much better than the others, this time adopting a style that I would call “straight up anime.” It works for the story. Actually, the more I think on it, the less I am disappointed with Son of Batman. It loses a lot in the adaptation, but that feels inevitable with the sort of story it is based one. Similar things happened with All-Star Superman, though that movie did a better job maintaining the heart of the original.

The problems with the first two do mostly lie at the feet of the material. Flashpoint and that Justice League stories are just not very good. No matter how much they work them up, they remain not very good. Son of Batman, though, highlights the greater problem. The Morrison Batman run strongly embraced the more fun or weird parts of Batman’s history, and the adaptation scrubs that out to realign it with the usual grim take on the character. The disappointment with Son of Batman is more mourning a missed opportunity. Together, these three movies sapped a good portion of my goodwill toward DC’s animated movies. It has been a long slow fall from the heights of the DC animated universe to these tepid New 52 adaptations and I’m no longer interested. It looks like they have a Justice League Vs Teen Titans movie coming up, which doesn’t appear to be based on any story I know and then they get to scrape the bottom of the barrel to do The Killing Joke. There was a time I was eager to see what new animated movie they had coming out, but now realize that I no longer care.

Justice League The Flashpoint Paradox **

Justice League War **

Son of Batman ***

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Review

/ skoce / 1 Comment

wtf

My expectations may have been too high going into Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Those high hopes came from how much I’ve enjoyed previous Tina Fey/Robert Carlock collaborations. 30 Rock is one of the all-time great TV comedies and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is easily the best Netflix Original show so far. The hopes of a movie of similar quality were enough to get me excited about the movie. In the end, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot disappointed, but only slightly. It is too funny to be really serious and too respectful to be as funny as it could have been. WFT is a mildly funny, somewhat thoughtful film that treads fairly familiar ground.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot stars Tina Fey as Kim Baker, a fictionalized version of Kim Barker upon whose memoir this movie is based, a news journalist who takes a job as a war correspondent in Afghanistan. As she spends a few years reporting on the war she grows more and more acclimatized to the strange reality of living in a foreign war zone, especially one that becomes somewhat forgotten with the Iraq War going on at the same time. She meets and befriends British reported Tanya Vanderpoel (Margot Robbie) and Scottish photographer Ian McKelpie (Martin Freeman) who share her experiences.

The movie doesn’t stay with any of its myriad ideas long enough to explore them fully. Kim deals with an ostentatiously corrupt official, played by Alfred Molina, but the film doesn’t really dig into him any more than that. The same goes for gruff marine General Holanek (Billy Bob Thornton) with whom Kim is embedded. When the film is flitting from focus to focus is captures some of the manic energy of 30 Rock but that doesn’t pair well with the more serious thoughtful scenes, making for an uneven experience. There are glimpses of a great film here, both an uproarious comedy and somber drama, but mostly the movie is just okay.

The strongest thread in the film is how it treats the warzone like an addiction. In order to continue to get her pieces on the air back in America, Kim has to keep getting closer and closer to the danger. They explicitly say she needs another hit. That, with the party atmosphere in the house where all the foreign correspondents stay, doesn’t seem too off base. Eventually, seeing the toll this life takes on a person she is forced to make a decision. That is definitely stronger than the romance between Kim and Ian, which almost works mostly thanks to Martin Freeman’s innate charm.

While it doesn’t quite succeed, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is still an entertaining movie. It is well intentioned, if a bit clumsy; it is competent. That is not the adjective that any film wants, competent, but it is more than many achieve.

***

What I Watched in February 2016

/ skoce / 1 Comment

Movies

Jane Eyre – This is a good adaptation of one of my favorite classic novels. Fassbender and Wasikowski give really good performances as the lead characters and it is moody without being completely oppressive. Like all adaptations, it is missing some things from the book that I love, but it is still a very good version of this story that retains the core. ****

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies – review here. **1/2

Hail, Caesar! – review here. ****1/2

Zoolander 2 – review here. **1/2

Snowpiercer – This is an amazing film. The world it presents is just so weird and awful that it is hard not to get caught up in the protagonists’ quest. It’s got some really great action scenes and Tilda Swinton is perfectly awful as the villain early in the film. You should see this movie. ****1/2

Man of Steel – I rewatched this because with Batman v Superman coming up people are letting fly remembering how shitty it was, which didn’t match my recollection. While I have some fundamental problems with this version of Superman, this is still a largely enjoyable movie. If it weren’t for the pointlessly destructive fight at the end and the worst possible Pa Kent, I would call it damn good. ***1/2

Deadpool – review here. **1/2

The Wolverine – This movie oscillates between being a somewhat thoughtful, interesting superhero adventure and the goddamned dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. It comes really close to being the Wolverine solo movie that everyone has wanted since the first X-Men movie, but the last big action scene is just painfully bad and stupid. The rest is too somber for a the campy action movie it is and too stupid for the mournful action drama it wants to be. I might be tickled to see Wolverine give himself open heart surgery while people swordfight on top of him, but it is really, really dumb. ***

The Punisher (2004) – It is a bloody, violent cartoon. It is set up much like a call back to revenge movies of the 70s and 80s, but it also has a lot of Western overtones. But it is just too stupid to really pull it off. The darkness of it is constantly offset by stupid one liners and clownish characters. Not much to recommend here. *1/2

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny – see review here.  ***

TV

Marco Polo – This show has a lot going for it, from a great concept to really high production levels, but it just isn’t that good. The protagonist doesn’t quite sell the emotion and the show takes way too long to establish its characters. It sort of meanders through some vaguely interesting scenarios without ever really giving anything any personal stakes. I think Netflix renewed it for a second season, I hope they work out some of the kinks.

Mad Men S7 Part 2 – If I didn’t know that everything I would want to write about this show has already been written I would try to examine this show in depth. It is worth it, but it has also been done and by better writers than me. This last batch of episodes is an odd yet oddly perfect ending to the show. It gives the characters an ending without actually making it an ending because life goes on. I like to think that Don has found some peace by the end of the series, after spending the whole show avoiding the lie that has defined his life. Great, great stuff.

Poirot S7-9 – This show gets a lot stronger when the episode length gets trimmed by about ten minutes here. It just feels snappier. I don’t know that I have much more to say about this show. Its good.

Broadchurch S1 – It plays out its mystery slowly, really letting the viewer come to know each character and formulate theories about who the killer is. Broadchurch succeeds more on the quality of its performers than anything else, though. It probably didn’t help my enjoyment that I saw the somewhat mediocre American remake first, but I liked this well enough that I’ll be back for what I’ve heard is the disappointing second series.

Fuller House – Terrible, corny schmaltz. It isn’t even on the level of the original series, which was never good but did occasionally provide some corny entertainment. This is incredibly badly, lazily written. The bones are here for a moderately good show and all the adult stars are capable, but the material and the children really let them down. Those with fond memories of the show should likely check out the first episode, but know that miserable half hour is the pinnacle of the series.

Supergirl – This show isn’t quite Flash good, but it is charming and Melissa Benoist is amazing. The first episode after the initial 13 order felt like a little bit of a realignment, which I think this show needs. It has a few too many characters that aren’t really connected.

The Flash – Hoo boy, this months’ worth of episodes were something else. While the Zoom story in this season is turning out to be an inferior retread of last season’s Reverse Flash, the individual episodes have been largely very good. Take the most recent one, where the Flash faced off with King Shark. It was amazing to see King Shark on TV, but it was also just another monster of the week episode. The Earth 2 episodes, though, were great. I can’t wait to see this one come down the home stretch.

Arrow – This is turning into a bounce back season after the disappointing last season, but it still isn’t on the level of The Flash. The Vixen episode was pretty good, but the quality of this season is going to hinge on how well the central arc with Damian Darhk is tied up by the end. I do have to say that the flashbacks have become incredibly pointless and disconnected from everything else. I hope they drop them entirely next season.

Agent Carter – I missed the last two episodes, but the rest of this mini-series has been excellent. I don’t know that I like it as much as Supergirl, but it is more focused and it is certainly better than Agents of SHIELD.

DC Legends of Tomorrow – This show is not good in any real sense. It provides remarkable action on a TV show budget and has a handful of performers who are just a blast to watch, but it doesn’t really feel like doing anything with all of its characters. It has lots of action and brings in an absolutely absurd number of great concepts, but a lot of the plotting feels like unfocused wheel spinning. Really, it is the TV equivalent of a middle of the road crossover event. While I acknowledge its flaws, I am still enjoying the crap out of this show. It is some great cheesey entertainment.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny

/ skoce / Leave a comment

cthdsod

Another sequel to a fifteen year old movie, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny is a pale shadow of the original. But the original was a pretty great movie, leaving a lot of space for this one to be a pretty good follow up. Again, it has to do with the sword Green Destiny and the attempts of various people to gain control of this powerful sword. The only returning character from the first movie is Michelle Yeoh’s Yu Shu Lien and the rest are new, though many of them have connections to characters from the first movie. Sword of Destiny lacks much of the previous film’s complexity, being a much more straightforward melodrama. The finely choreographed fights and some beautiful scenery help to buoy somewhat leaden dialogue. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny is weightless but attractive.

Released via Netflix on February 26th, Sword of Destiny continues the story of the Green Sword. After its protector dies, Yu Shu Lien comes to pay her respects to an old friend. While there, an attempt is made to steal the sword. Two thieves, Snow Vase and Wei-Fang, fight over the sword and end up captured. He is sent to a cage and she begs Shu Lien to train her. Finding out that the evil Hades Dai is after the sword, Shu Lien’s presumed dead, by the hand of Hades Dai no less, ex-lover Silent Wolf recruits a group of warriors to help protect the sword.

The story is melodrama and not especially deft melodrama, but it is reasonably effective. Sword of Destiny is at its worst when it is deliberately echoing the first film, since it can only suffer from direct comparison. However, it soars when it steps out of the first movies shadow. The scene where Silent Wolf goes looking for recruits is a highlight, playing out with a more comedic bent as it introduces a quintet of idiosyncratic martial arts masters. It turns into something like a riff on Seven Samurai. However, the repeated tale of thwarted love feels lacking. The same goes for the recitation of the younger protagonists’ tragic pasts. That Sword of Destiny coalesces into a more straightforward action story, while slightly disappointing, is to its benefit because it succeeds on those terms quite well.

Sword of Destiny smartly keeps the action coming quickly, spacing out some of the limp drama with very well-choreographed fights. The aforementioned recruitment scene is a highlight, as is a three way fight on a frozen lake that sees all combatants sliding around on the ice. Again, I don’t know that the fights are quite as good as the first movie (I can’t say for sure because it’s been a decade since I’ve seen it), they are all highly entertaining.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny seems stuck in a miserable place. It likely only got made because of its connection to the highly successful Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but what is most damaging to this movie is the inevitable comparisons to the easily superior original. It will be judged against that movie and be found wanting. Judged on its own merits, it is still not spectacular, but it is a fun, lightweight movie. I don’t know, I know it is an inferior movie, but I am having a hard time separating that fact from how much I actually enjoyed watching this.

***

Zoolander 2

/ skoce / 1 Comment

zoolander2

Comedy sequels are by rule pretty unnecessary; Zoolander 2, a comedy sequel that comes 15 years after the original might be the most unnecessary of all. Ignoring the question of why, Zoolander 2 isn’t an unenjoyable movie. Stiller and Wilson are a solid comedy duo and there is a significant uptick in energy when Will Ferrell’s Mugatu reappears. The whole thing ends up feeling drawn a little thin. There are some good jokes, and some good call backs to jokes from the original, but eventually the callbacks and the overused cameos overwhelm everything else. Zoolander 2 has just enough life to it to not be the complete waste that it seemed almost inevitable that it would be.

The plot, such as it is, is about Zoolander and Hansel stepping back into the limelight after more than a decade away; both sent away by the same disaster that helped reset the status quo from the first movie’s happy ending. After some initial awkwardness the two blatantly state their character motivations to each other and team up. They are soon joined by Valentina, a member of Interpol’s fashion police, who helps the duo get to the bottom of who is killing the world’s most beautiful pop-stars.

The films kind of putters along, making jokes about how Derek and Hansel are stupid and shallow and old, until it gets to the third act and Mugatu is revealed as the mastermind behind everything. Which of course he was. After that it has a stronger sense of purpose as it builds to its climax. Ferrell’s Mugatu has a much stronger presence than the other villains, who were still playing coy about their allegiance.

What good jokes the movie have end up buried underneath way too many celebrity cameo’s that amount to little more than moments of look who it is. The ones that work are actually worked into the plot, like the bits with Justin Bieber, Sting and Billy Zane. There is a sense of diminishing returns, as each comes out to less surprise and less purpose as the movie goes along. That is strange against the somewhat understated jokes in the movie. Near the halfway mark they meet Sting who imparts on them some important information. It is a deliberate call back to a similar scene with David Duchovny from the first movie, but it is also closing the mystery of who is Hansel’s father. Hansel has been looking for his father and it has been made very clear that it is Sting. In the scene he is disguised as a priest, so Father Sting waits with anticipation for Hansel to realize that he is his father. He doesn’t and movie just lets it go for the moment.

Zoolander 2 is a movie without a purpose. Most of its good material was used in the first film, all the jokes it could make about the ridiculousness of the fashion industry and celebrity and Zoolander’s stupidity have been made. All that is left is a trio of characters in Zoolander, Hansel and Mugatu who have just enough life in them carry viewers out of the theater with a grin on their face.

**1/2

Hail, Caesar! Review

/ skoce / 3 Comments

hcmp

The Coen Brothers’ movies tend to share a certain nihilism. Even in the comedies tend to be rather bleak affairs. Hail, Caesar! might be the brightest, sunniest affair they have ever produced, but in the end it still shares that nihilism. The characters in this film do not face as dire of consequences as the characters in many of the Coen’s movies, but their efforts still produce the same results. In the end, nothing the characters do matters.

Hail, Caesar! lets the Coen’s riff on all varieties of classic cinema. It stars Josh Brolin as Eddie Mannix, a fictional version of a real person, who works a fixer for Capitol Pictures. The movie follows him for roughly a day as he tries to keep the production going of all the movies in production for the studio. Their big picture is a bloated biblical epic also title Hail, Caesar. The star of that movie, played by George Clooney, is kidnapped by communists calling themselves the Future. While Eddie tries to keep his stars disappearance under wraps, he also has to deal with emergencies with other films. There is an aquatic musical which has to deal with the fact that its star, the wholesome imaged Scarlett Johansen, is pregnant out of wedlock. There is a dinner party drama where the singing cowboy star is having trouble adapting to a new role. He’s also got a pair of twin reporters, played by Tilda Swinton, snooping around. And he’s got a job offer in another industry.

Most of this just exists to let the filmmakers toy with some kinds of movies that they could never actually make. While there is a strong central thread that ties it all together, most of these bits exist in their own little universes. Cameos and bit parts abound. It is fun to see Hobie Doyle, former rodeo stuntman, try to play an aristocrat. It is just as fun to watch him do lasso tricks are inappropriate times and play a singing cowboy.

Unlike most other Coen films, there isn’t much darkness here. There is a ransom, but kidnap victim never seems to be in much danger. The biggest danger to most is that their shameful secrets will get out. The villains are more intellectual and ineffectual than actually dangerous. But ever with its fairly low stakes premise, it still holds that essential nihilism. No matter what anyone does, nothing changes. This is the best case scenario in the Coens film: everything goes back to the way it was. Really, for all intents and purposes the good guys win, but if it can even be called a victory it is a hollow one.

This is not a weighty film, though; it is just a comedy that is not stupid. It is funny. Hail, Caesar! will have attentive viewers in stitches for most of its run time. Sometimes it is just for the absurdity of the situation; sometimes it is because characters have funny accents. So many actors give great performances, so many little jokes and bits land, it really leaves you wanting more. By the time it circles back around to where it started I was ready to take the ride again.

****1/2

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

/ skoce / 2 Comments

ppz

Despite my general disdain for zombies, I had some hopes of enjoying this film. While shambling corpses do little to interest me, classic literature does and I found that zombies tend to be tolerable in a comedy setting. Look at Shaun of the Dead; I could give two craps about the classic zombie movies it’s riffing on, but the comedy kept me more than entertained. Pride and Prejudice is at its heart a comedy. Yes, Elizabeth Bennet deals with some very serious issues, but foibles of those around her are exaggerated to comic proportions. With a title like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies there is really no place to go but to comedy. This makes it a shame that this movie resists that call so much.

It still has plenty of comic elements, and those elements tend to be its best. Matt Smith plays Mr. Collins as obsequious to the extreme. He almost feels as though he has come from a different, much better version of this movie to lighten things up. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet act much as they do in the book, the lack of change works for a pair of already comedic characters. Unfortunately, the real fault lies with Darcy, who is played as charmlessly serious. While it isn’t a bad interpretation of the character, it doesn’t feel right for this movie. Lily James is better than this film deserves as Elizabeth, which works for her as the center of the film. Still Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is too serious for a movie as patently silly as it is.

It does add some competent fight scenes to the mix, but it doles them out at odd times. Some changes to the book are inevitable in any adaptation, but this movie stick to the book oddly closely at times while going completely off the rails at others. The best one is at the ball at the beginning, with all five Bennet sisters showing their competence at zombie killing. The movie seems as though it is setting up some sort of point about the differences in where the upper crust learned their fighting styles, either in Japan or China, but that is dropped about the midway point. Many of the other fights are either too short or shot in too close to have much of an effect. Still, the battle between Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth during his first proposal is excellent, allowing them to show their emotions with more than just dialogue. The great shame is that the film builds to a big climax and them barely lets either character do anything during it. All the pieces are there, much time was spent showing how competent of fighters they are, but the last big fight is not so big and not much of a fight.

Other than that, the film is just littered with ideas that dropped almost as soon as they are mentioned. There is something about the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse to lead the zombies against the humans, but not much comes of it. There is the whole Chinese or Japanese training segment. Lady Catherine de Bourgh looks fearsome in a couple of scenes, but she doesn’t even fight in the one scene it is all but necessary that she do so. Some zombies are able to avoid eating humans by never having consumed human brains, but no one other than Elizabeth seems to care. The whole thing seems half-baked and just reeks of squandered opportunity.

I didn’t hate the movie, though. There was just enough there to enjoy that made it sting all the more how fleeting those enjoyable moments are. This could have been an excellent, schlocky mash-up, but instead it is a tepid mixture of ill-fitting parts. Maybe they did need to go for the extra gore and the “R” rating; that may have helped. The real problem is that it had too many ideas and wasn’t smart enough to sift the good ones from the bad.

**1/2

What I Watched in Jan ‘16

/ skoce / Leave a comment

Movies

Star Wars The Force Awakens – see review here. ****1/2

The Revenant – see review here. ****1/2

The Hateful Eight – see review here. *****

The Ladykillers – This is not a Coens’ movie that gets a lot of attention. After watching it, I would say that it doesn’t really deserve much attention. It isn’t bad, but it is slight. There just isn’t a lot here. It’s a well-executed farce, with JK Simmons and Marlon Wayans, of all people, giving really good performances. Fun, but forgettable. ***1/2

Shawshank Redemption – Yeah, it’s great. I don’t have a lot to say. *****

Hot Rod – I am not always a fan of Andy Samberg, but he is really great here. This movie kind of meanders around and loses momentum at times, but it has a lot of really funny people and some really funny scenes. This is a great movie to watch on a lazy Saturday afternoon. You don’t really have to pay attention and each little bit is entertaining on its own. A solid little comedy. ****

Galaxy Quest – Alan Rickman’s passing made me want to revisit my favorite of his films. This Star Trek pastiche is simply great. It is that oddly prevalent mixed up take on the Magnificent Seven with actors taking the place of the fighters, like A Bug’s Life or The Three Amigos. Galaxy Quest might be the best executed of those, and Rickman’s utter contempt for everything with his old TV role is one of the highlights. This is just a great comedy. ****1/2

The Four Falls of Buffalo – I love 30 for 30. The tale of these Buffalo Bills, the best team to never win the Super Bowl, is kind of heartbreaking. This is pretty well made, since they got most of the big players in to talk about it. To come that close that many times and not come away with a victory is crushing. ***

Pride and Prejudice – This 2005 adaptation of Austen’s novel is really good. It is solidly acted all around and as true to the source as a two hour version of a novel can be. Kiera Knightley is just about as Elizabeth, with the right amount of satisfaction in her witty retorts. It also establishes a sense of scene and time that goes beyond what would be expected. Really, there are some great shots and settings in this film. ****

Paprika – This was recommended to me in a list of the 50 best animated films decided by people voting in their personal top 25. This was one that made the list that I had never seen, so I picked up the Blu-ray on the cheap. It is really good, kind of like Inception (which I have to assume took at least some inspiration from this) without the need to be tethered the reality of having to be filmed. It is also lacking Inception’s explanations. The whole movie is just sort of strange and simply dropped on the viewer. Paprika is excellent. The English dub does not have the most natural translation, but point gets across. Also, some of the sequences are perfectly mind bending. I think some of the character work is either lacking or was lost in translation, but other than that I really liked this movie. ****1/2

TV

Detectorists – For a show that never goes too far in any direction, this turned out to be a complete delight. Andy and Lance are detectorists, guys who spend their free time with metal detectors. Their devotion to their hobby can be a little pathetic at times, but they know that. The show flits from being mildly pleasant to somewhat uncomfortable at times, never being a complete delight or a total drag. The show doesn’t want to beat its protagonists down completely, but it also isn’t going to have them realize all of their dreams. It ends up feeling real, mostly on the back of some strong writing and performances. I can’t wait to see the second series.

Making a Murderer – This is pretty chilling. A great, entertaining documentary. It didn’t convince me one way or the other about Steven Avery’s guilt, but it did leave me questioning the idea of fairness in our justice system. It is rather chilling how they lied to and railroaded the younger of the accused. The whole thing illustrates how the justice system is not after justice, but after a conviction. Really, it is just really well-made.

Poirot Series 5 & 6 – I need to be more considered when writing about this. It is still good, if dry. It is very slow paced, letting the mysteries unfold in their own time. It is a big change from current TV and takes a little getting used to. It also switched from hour long episodes to episodes that are nearly two hours long, which is just a little too long. Still, Suchet does a great job in the title role and they are largely well acted and made. I am going to stick with it until the end.

Galavant – God, I love this show. I hope that we get more of it. I missed about half the episodes when they aired; catching them later on Hulu, but this show is still just delightful. It is lightweight, but it is also thoroughly enjoyable. I don’t really have very much to add, other than hope for a DVD release.

Always Sunny Season 10 – This show somehow keeps getting better and better. This season got really dark at times, in the best possible way. The stars have honed their characters into increasingly deranged collections of neuroses. They react to the situations they are put in in natural and hilarious and awful. That is pretty much this show in a nutshell: hilarious and awful. Just really great stuff.

The Spoils Before Dying – I really liked the sheer goofiness of The Spoils of Babylon and this follow up is more of the same. The same sort of overblown artiness and complete incompetence is on display, along with some wonderfully off performances. It is just so absurd and ridiculous. It can be a lot to take all at once, but it is mostly delightful. Some of Will Ferrell’s episode opening and closing rants by Eric Jonrush were misses, though. The good ones are some of the best parts of the show, but the others are sadly not funny or interesting.

Parks and Rec Season 7 – I thought the end of season 6 was a fitting ending to this show. While I wasn’t going to say no to more Parks and Rec, I really felt like the show had already gone out on a high note. Season 7, though, proved me wrong. This was the perfect ending to the show. It was a well-deserved victory lap for one of the best shows of this last decade. A show as consistently upbeat as this one needed an ending that was equally upbeat.

Super Hero TV Shows: With only a few weeks of shows, I don’t have much to say about the panoply of superhero shows currently airing. I will say that the Flash is still great; it feels like they are building some good stuff here. Supergirl is really coming into its own, with Martian Manhunter really being the perfect mentor and ally for Kara and Cat Grant is getting more focused. Agent Carter came back this year with some great episodes and Arrow has largely recovered from the scattered third season.

The Revenant Review

/ skoce / 2 Comments

therev

My thoughts following watching The Revenant, a film directed by Alejandro G. Inarritu (Birdman) and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, was that it was an altogether excellent film and I hope never to see it again. Much like The Hateful Eight, The Revenant is a near three hour long western that is frequently brutal and often bleak.  Where the former film goes for stylized and exaggerated violence, The Revenant uses chilling realism to tell its story. It is singularly effective, gut wrenchingly hard to look away from and almost impossible to look at again once it is over.

It is based on the true story of Hugh Glass, a trapper working with the US Army who in 1820 gets mauled by a bear.  His companions drag him as far as they can, but in the end leave him in the care of a few men, including his son, who are supposed to watch him until he dies. After one of the men, Fitzgerald, kills his son and leaves Glass for dead, he treks across the wilds of Dakotas to get revenge.  Many of the details are have been altered, or changed outright, but the bear attack and trek through the wilderness are true to life.  I was warned beforehand that the bear mauling scene was brutal, and it is, but it is followed by numerous scenes that are equally hard to watch.  Glass goes through hell in his quest, and no one else gets off easy.  Each act of bloody violence compounds on the one before it, exhausting the viewer is its sheer ugly spectacle.

In sharp contrast to the ugly violence perpetrated by the men in this film is the incomparable beauty of the setting. Offsetting the scenes of blood in this film are vast panoramas that display the beauty of Northern Great Plains. It shows different sorts of fauna, along with the rivers, forests and mountains that awe viewers in between scenes full of blood and violence.  The two are so different it is almost as though they are from two different films.

DiCaprio has gotten a lot of attention for his performance, but equally striking is the performance of Hardy.  Hardy plays the villain that is almost comically in his complete lack of redeeming characteristics, but Hardy makes him seem real. Right from the start, when the Native Americans start attacking the trapping crew, he is more concerned with the pelts and his payday than getting anyone else out alive.  He follows that up with a racist speech, an attempted murder and several actual murders. There are shades of grey with everyone else, from Bridger, the young man convinced to leave Glass to die, to the Native Americans on the warpath looking for their Chiefs kidnapped daughter, but Hardy’s Fitzgerald is a monster.  

It all comes together into a film that is equal parts beautiful and ugly. For the most part it sticks to its simple story other than from some ill-advised detours into magical native mysticism.  I found the violence sickening, and it wore on me as the film went on.  The Revenant is a film that feels every minute of its long run time.  Still, it is an experience that shouldn’t be missed.  It is also an experience that maybe shouldn’t be repeated.

****