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Markark
Reviews
Burlesque (2010)
Bad movie with split personality
This is a lousy movie with some of the worst, most utterly hackneyed writing in the history of movies, but what makes it stand out as particularly ill-conceived is that the story is Rocky/"Hey kids, let's do a show," while the production numbers are faux Bob Fosse. Consequently, the numbers have nothing to do with the story, or vice versa. Started badly when the heroine gave her buddy at the bar money to buy a bike for the buddy's kid, then ran down one cliché to another till it ended 4 or 5 hours later.
Cher and Aguilara sang well, but this isn't MTV, and as a movie it was awful.
Becoming Jane (2007)
Worst movie ever made?
I know this is not actually the worst movie ever made, but in context, it is the worst movie I have seen in a long time. A pale, feeble imitation of Shakespeare in Love, only no Tom Stoppard script. If you want to make a movie of a Jane Austen book, there are six of them and they are great. If you want to make the next in line of the 1,000,000 lame brained romantic comedies, well, fire up the assembly line. But why make a movie that looks like a Jane Austen book/movie, is marketed like a movie from a Jane Ausent book, but has the hack dialog of an assembly line romantic comedy? This was brought home to me just before I left, in a dance scene that looks like a dance scene from Pride and Prejudice, but is scripted like a TV sitcom. As the actors were mouthing their witless clunky conversation, I kept playing in my head the original words and wondering why on earth anyone would bother with this nonsense. Another example, and a particularly execrable one, of people making a movie that seems to deliberately remove everything that made the book worthwhile. This isn't' about failing to adhere to the details of Austen's life. Who cares about that? It's about using Ausen like a brand name, like charging people to see a color-by-number Mona Lisa. You wonder, don't they know, or don't they care? Yuck, yuck, yuck.
Intolerable Cruelty (2003)
Best of all Coens?
I love the Coen Brothers, and I think this may be my favorite of all. I thought it was a magic screwball comedy with a heart of ice, and with sparkling performances out of everybody from Clooney and Zeta Jones to the guy who played Wheezey Joe. And I laughed and laughed. In fact, I wanted to see it again as soon as it was over.
Juana la Loca (2001)
Pretty piffle
What a silly movie. While it looks nice, it doesn't make a lot of sense. On the one hand, the film suggests that Juana's "madness" was that she was just a woman ahead of her time. On the other hand, she has an obsession that is right out of the worst Victorian novel of the wronged woman, and that does seem a sort of mental problem, like Miss Havesham in a castle. This movie is what Elizabeth would have been if Elizabeth had not been able to get past Essex's sexual attraction.
Lilo & Stitch (2002)
Fabulous
I though Disney was kind of in a rut with its recent features. In fact, I'm not even sure whether I've seen the last couple. But this one was completely new, and wonderful. The animation was compelling, but much more interesting to me was the story, which was about the anger, and the resultant acting out, of two children deprived of their parents. Of course, there are aliens and a monster that gets tamed, battles and lots of jokes, but the subtext was about coming to grips with loss and grief. What a change for animation where you expect a little adventure, maybe a little boy meets girl. Great story, wonderfully well told.
Moulin Rouge! (2001)
A noble failure
I loved Strictly Ballroom and Romeo and Juliet, so I was rooting for this one going in. Where all the technical hoohaw and the music carried those movies along, here I thought the got in the way. It was like a 2 hour music video, and who can love that. Particularly at the beginning, the action was so frenetic that nothing seemed to stick. The movie slowed down as it wound down, which let at least a couple of the characters come through to a degree, and there were lots of very clever, very funny, bits, but I never felt drawn in to the story. My wife said it reminded her of Coppolla's Dracula, and I think that is true. Unfortunately, Dracula was a clear confirmation that Coppolla had lost sight of what was great about his movies and had become infatuated with the technical side. All that technical brilliance can really make a story come alive, but it cannot substitute for a story. Hope this was just a slight lurch off the true path for Luhrman.
Wonder Boys (2000)
Slow motion comedy
This was a very funny movie, only everything was so slow you chuckle more than laugh out loud. I agreed with Roger Ebert that it was like a screwball comedy at a different pace. But I liked it a lot. I guess if your married to Ms. Zeta Jones you can look like a bum and not have it hurt your image.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
Best of a great lot
I liked this movie best of all the Coen brothers movies, and I think more than anything it was the soundtrack, which seemed to carry the characters, as well as us, through the story. Plus, it takes place in that Coen brothers world that seems like reality, except nobody in it is like anybody you ever met. Delmar is the key.
Side Show (1931)
More Charles Butterworth
This is not a distinguished or interesting movie, but Charles Butterworth is always worth seeing. He seems to be doing some deadpan vaudeville routine all the time, and I guess you would either think it's funny or you don't, and I do. Plus, the hat gags, especially the one with an elephant and his keeper, are good.
Romeo + Juliet (1996)
Good time
I thought this was a good damn time at the movie. Put it with Strictly Ballroom, and ya got two good damn times at the movies. There are lots of ways to do Shakespeare, and this one had a good beat and was easy to dance to. So they couldnt read the lines. They looked fabulous, the music was terrific, it was exciting, and the story cant be beat. On to Macbeth.
High Fidelity (2000)
Top 5 soundtrack movie
Top 5 Chicago movie with top 5 soundtrack. Thoroughly enjoyable movie about what jerks men are, but there is hope if they have the right music and woman to help them come to grips with real life. Terrific cast, superbly executed.
Topsy-Turvy (1999)
Movie about a topsy turvy world
One thing about the Mike Leigh movies I have seen is that you cant really tell from the performances who they are about -- all the characters here, from Gilbert and Sullivan to the boy who makes stage calls seem like real people, with real lives. The movie is about a web of relationships, not a main character. It is also a topsy turvy world -- Gilbert and Sullivan seem to toss of these lighthearted entertainments, but in truth, they and all the other characters struggle with great tragedies and challenges. As the film winds down, one thinks it is another story of pulling together a hit, like Shakespeare in Love, or countless backstage dramas, however well done. But in the closing scenes we are reminded that not only the Mikado, but this comforting illusion are fiction. Movies like this (and American Beauty, for example) are more like books than they are like much of the fluff in popular movies.
Zulu (1964)
Terrific movie
I have liked this movie since I saw it as a kid on late night TV. Baker and Caine are great, Color Sergeant Bourne is a classic, Hook is a hoot (though the real Hook was a teetotaler, so is libeled), and all the cast is finely realized. Even the Zulus, who dont say a word, have majesty. Plus the singing attack at the end is thrilling. I like this movie so much, I almost bought one of the rifles when I saw it on sale at a pawn shop.
The Hot Rock (1972)
Pretty good, though I never heard of it
I had never heard of this movie til I saw it one night on AMC, but it has an outstanding cast, great New York scenes, and a perfect early 1970's feel, gritty but not seriously ominous. Plus, Zero Mostel seems to have stepped in from a different movie, if not a different universe, and adds a nice surreal touch to the last half. I would say it was one of the better caper movies, and one of the better New York movies.
American Beauty (1999)
Terrific
This is one of the 10 best movies I have ever seen. It is the whole package -- story, characters, acting, photography. One of those magic films like Citizen Kane or the first two Godfathers that make the movies worthwhile.