I watch movies every week and then write down my thoughts. Read my previous reviews!
My rating is simple, Watch It, It Depends, Skip it.
 |
| Everest -Surprisingly engaging. |
Watch Everest
Written by: William Nicholson and Simon Beaufoy (screenplay)
Directed by: Baltasar Kormákur
Starring: Jason Clarke, Ang Sherpa Phula, Thomas Wright, John Hawkes, Michael Kelly, Josh Brolin, Kiera Knightly, Sam Worthington, Jake Gyllenhaal, Robin Wright,
Rated: PG-13
Plot:
As you might guess, this is a hiking expedition up Mt. Everest based on the events of the Mt. Everest disaster of May 10, 1996, one of the deadliest days on Everest.
Verdict:
This is engaging start to finish, and the mountain setting always provides impressive scenery. It's like watching a busy highway knowing a pile up is imminent. Despite knowing what will happen, you can't turn away from the impending tragedy. I was locked in for this ride the entire way.
Watch it.
Review:
I assumed a lot of the natural settings were CGI, but many scenes were filmed on location at the Mt. Everest base camp. Other scenes were filmed at the Alps in Italy and Iceland. The Hillary step and Camp 4 were shot on a sound stage, but refrigerator trucks were used to bring temperatures to freezing.
 |
| Everest -See that little dot of a person? They don't make it. |
The first few scenes educated you on how dangerous the ascent can be. The death zone is the top three-thousand feet of Mt. Everest and any 26,247 feet where there isn't enough oxygen for humans to breathe. Your body is literally dying because humans aren't meant to be that high. This zone is where most deaths occur. With the lack of oxygen, people can go crazy and hallucinate.
The trick, as the movie tells us, is to make it up and back before dying. This movie violate my pet peeve of showing the first scene and then cutting to a scene six weeks earlier. I understand opening with an exciting scene, and at least this movie didn't have the gall to show us one of the final scenes and then cut back. The first scene was near the beginning of the movie.
I get wanting to scale a big mountain and to do something so few people ever do, but this is like training wheels or piggy backing. Rob Hall (Jason Clarke) is taking people up the mountain that shouldn't be on the mountain. At least the movie did address this later with another guide chiding him for that very thing.
Throughout the movie I was more interested in what would than what is happening. The first half is all set up, establishing the dangers of climbing and even an intense scene where Josh Brolin's character almost plummets to his death. The visuals are great, and it does a good job of locating the characters. I never felt lost or wondered where the hikers were. There are many movies with a much smaller scope that can't located characters in the world at all, leaving me wondering, "Where are they?"
Gyllenhaal provides a nice turn in a small role. He often picks intriguing roles that don't always seem geared to just making money. Gyllenhaal's character tells Hall, "If you can't get up there by yourself you don't belong on the mountain." He then accuses Hall of hand holding too much. Hall may be the best hand holder, but the mountain is dangerous. We know Hall is taking people that don't belong. Other climbers are turning back, but Hall wants to keep going. This is a business for him, and you wonder if he was too cavalier just to bolster his business. He told his clients his job is not to get them to the top, but to get them down. Is that true?
While the movie is enjoyable, it's a waiting game. When is it going to happen, when does the disaster start? It's a slow burn. Every time they push forward you know it's a mistake. They're trying to beat the storm, and we know it won't happen. Though, it was part bad luck to have a storm of that magnitude. The last quarter is everything for which we've been morbidly waiting. People are freezing to death, falling off the summit, the storm hits, and help is not on the way.
This is a movie that could lean towards strong emotional manipulation, but it never does that. The fact that everyone can hear Hall's radio transmissions and they know he'll die on the summit was actually under utilized.
Brolin's character looks like something out of a horror movie. He makes it back to camp despite other climbers assuming he was dead. This was the one part that stretched my suspension of disbelief. I don't know how he had the energy to make it back, but that did actually happen.
Watching this, I wonder how Sir Edmund Hillary was the first to climb the mountain. Hundreds of people have died on this mountain and people are still dying. The ascent is littered with dead bodies. Modern climbers have ropes staked into the mountain, ladders traversing crevasses, and oxygen bottles to help them breathe. How did Hillary do it the first time with none of those advantages?
 |
| Angels with Dirty Faces - An amazing story and an even better ending. |
Watch Angels with Dirty Faces
Written by: John Wexley and Warren Duff (screen play), Rowland Brown (from a story by), Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur (uncredited)
Directed by: Michael Curtiz
Starring: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, George Bancroft
Rated: --
Plot:
Childhood friends choose different life paths, one a gangster and the other a priest.
Verdict:
It's in the vein of the classic '30s gangster films, bolstered by a great story. The misdeeds of Rocky's youth shape his future and his friend Jerry who becomes a priest. While Rocky is a criminal, he isn't a bad guy. The ending is amazing.
Watch it.
Review:
A simple twist of fate changes everything. Jerry could run faster than Rocky and avoided getting arrested for stealing as a kid. If Rocky could have run faster, would he have grown up to be a priest and Jerry the criminal?
I always find older movies hard to watch due to the lack of establishing shots, the straight forward editing, and over dramatic acting. Despite the style, this is a solid story that overcomes my issues with older movies.
Rocky is out of jail and wanting the money promised him by his lawyer Frazier. That was their deal for Rocky going to jail.
The bad guys that do bad things, Frazier and Keefer, are contrasted with Rocky who is a good guy that does bad things. Frazier and Keefer plan murders to protect their interests, Rocky murders in retaliation to save his friend Jerry's life.
Rocky's childhood friend Jerry is trying to teach the children he mentors values and steer them away from a life like Rocky's. Jerry pleads with Rocky to set an example. The kids are impressed with Rocky's lifestyle, and they want to be like him. Jerry knows how that ends. He knows he'll never reach the kids like Rocky can. Jerry walks the line of helping the kids that have a future or protecting his friend.
The ending is amazing, leaving you wondering what happened. Jerry asks Rocky to beg for mercy on the way to the electric chair, to do something shameful. If he's brave on the way to the chair, it just bolsters the kids desire to be a tough guy like him. Rocky refuses. Sometimes it's the guys playing tough that are scared, but we don't want to think that's Rocky.
On the way to the chair Rocky begs for mercy, and he begs for his life. Was he putting on a show or was it real? Is this another simple twist of fate, or a deliberate choice by Rocky to steer the kids that look up to him?
The movie lets you argue either way, and at the same time, it lets us keep Rocky as the tough hero. He refused to sacrifice his dignity, but then he began begging only after he saw the chair. Rocky was tough, but when his fate became real, he wanted out. The movie gives me the excuse that Rocky was doing it for the kids, but I don't buy it. While I don't want to think that Rocky was scared, I don't think any less of him.
The boys' hero Rocky, isn't a hero. He's a coward No longer do they aspire to be like Rocky, and thus no longer do they aspire to commit crimes. Rocky sacrificed his reputation to help the kids.
A lot of this movie is what Rocky did. What did Jerry do? He left Rocky to be arrested when they were kids, and that could be the same thing that compelled him to be a priest, his remorse. While he asked Rocky to sacrifice his reputation, which is a big deal to Rocky, Jerry wasn't sacrificing anything. While that's true, Jerry was never going to get through to the kids. Rocky was the cool Uncle Jessie that kids wanted to emulate and Jerry was the nebbish Bob Saget.
 |
| The Ox-Bow Incident - A crime has been committed and somebody has to pay. |
Watch The Ox-Bow Incident
Written by: Lamar Trotti (written for the screen by), Walter Van Tilburg Clark (from the novel by)
Directed by: William A. Wellman
Starring: Henry Fonda, Dana Andrews, Mary Beth Hughes
Rated: --
Plot:
A posse is divided on how to carry out justice. Should the murderers get a trial or a lynching?
Verdict:
A powerful theme that resonates even today. How do you react to a crime and what form does justice take? It's a well acted and short movie with a brisk pace.
Watch it.
Review:
Western movies often focus on justice in an unlawful world. The sheriff is the one man to make the criminals answer for their crimes.
When a local farmer is shot and his cattle stolen, those eager to enforce justice form a posse. The sheriff it out of town and won't return in time to catch the transgressors. A judge allows the formation of the posses, but demands that the cattle rustlers be brought back to town for a trial. Some in the posse prefer a hanging straight away, but agree to the terms.
When the posse comes across three men who have the farmer's cattle, justice seems to be swift in arriving. It doesn't look good for the men in question, and they admit as much but plead for patience. Obviously they don't want any premature conclusions drawn despite possessing the farmer's cattle and pistol.
With the facts of the situation, the blood lust of many in the party drive them to call for a lynching right away, assuming the men are guilty. While the understanding was that the posse would bring the culprits back, the best of intentions often go awry.
When one of the detainees attempts an escape, he fails and the dead farmer's pistol is found in his possession. This seals the fate of the remaining two prisoners. A vote is taken and the majority of the posse wants to lynch the men. Despite protests, the lynching occurs.
Just after the lynching the sheriff rides up and states the farmer isn't dead and he has caught the real culprits who attacked the farmer.
 |
| Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans - What is this movie? |
Watch Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
Written by: William M. Finkelstein (screenplay)
Directed by: Werner Herzog
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Russell M. Haeuser, Val Kilmer, Xzibit, Fairuza Balk, Michael Shannon
Rated: R
Plot:
Terence McDonagh is a cop with drug and gambling problems trying to solve a crime in post-Katrina New Orleans. He's willing to compromise to get drugs and arrests. He'll even beat up old ladies.
Verdict:
This should be a good movie, but somehow it falls into so bad it's good. That or it's just bad. There is a disconnect between the story and the main character. Cage plays McDonagh much like all of his characters, as some kind of cartoon.
Skip it.
Review:
Despite the similarities to Harvey Keitel's Bad Lieutenant (1992), Herzog claimed this was not a remake and he had never heard of the original movie or director Abel Ferrara.
It's difficult to take Nicolas Cage seriously at this point in his career. A drug addled crazy person is in his wheelhouse as a caricature, not as a believable protagonist. Cage plays a bad cop. A cop that's bad at his job and breaks the law, every law. This is a drug fueled romp of a movie that would be perfect for Cage if it skewed farther to comedy. It's easy to buy Cage as deranged, it's more difficult to believe he's a cop.
Cage truly seems like he's on something, which plays to the character but is also theatrical and silly. The movie tries to imagine every crime a cop could commit and shoehorns it into the movie. How did Cage even find the star of the Louisiana college football team? He then black mails the player into throwing a game so he can pay off his gambling debts. This movie has dirty cops, drug dealers, bookies, prostitutes. They throw everything in.
Why does Cages have a big revolver sticking out of the top of his pants for almost the entire movie? Does he not have a holster? How does he sit down?
He's trying to solve a crime, but at the same time will do anything to get drugs for himself and his girlfriend. At one point bad guys threaten to shoot a dog he found. In many movies, shooting the dog is unforgivable. Cage claims he doesn't care, and this is one of the few movies where I actually believe the character. Also, no one shoots a dog. Despite all of his issues, this cop does want to solve the crime. Well he wants to clear the case. as long as any bad guy is locked up for the murders he is okay with that.
I understand the movie is trying to get into Cage's character's crack addled mind but those sequences make the movie goofy, not atmospheric. There is a hand held camera alligator point of view sequence that looks terrible. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) did the atmospheric drug romp really well, this does not.
There is a silver spoon subplot with Cage and his girlfriend that makes as little sense as this sentence. This is such a strange movie due to the mismatch of the serious tone of the plot and the unintentionally comedic execution. Cage isn't the only weak link, the directing caters to crazy Cage.
The ending, well the first ending, shows Cage and his family clean and doing well after Cage's promotion to Captain. It betrayed the entire movie, until in the next scene we realize Cage isn't clean. He meets the person he saved near the beginning who wants to help Cage turn his life around.
No comments :
Post a Comment