Bonus Talk on #TDKTrilogy

Sometimes, when editing, you have to leave out some good parts. The second episode of MovieBoozer's The Big Pitcher was cut from 50 minutes to around 20 minutes. For those interested in hearing some more of the Batman conversation with OogieRah, enjoy these excised moments:

Solo Thoughts Episode 3

Watched "Batman Forever" and "Iron Sky" yesterday. Didn't care for either of them.

Review: "The Unspeakable Act"

Earlier this year, I was asked to watch "Mirror Mirror". There was a scene in that movie where Armie Hammer's character is given a puppy love potion, which turns him into a devoted and even obsessive love slave for the queen. When separated from her, all he does is cry and demand to be near her again. Snow White is able to break the spell with a kiss, and all becomes well again.

Jackie Kimball's situation involves no potions, but she is certainly under a spell. In "The Unspeakable Act", we witness a very difficult period of time for her. See, she's in love with her brother Matthew. Now, he doesn't share her feelings, but remains close to her anyways. Most family members would probably be uncomfortable with this knowledge, but Matthew seems to understand that it's all rather harmless.

She meets his girlfriend with a smile and a friendly conversation, but dismisses her as soon as Matthew breaks the relationship off. She sometimes smokes, but when Matthew recommends they quit, she obeys immediately (though she does smoke a little pot later). She accepts answers and advice from him with little to no counter. She even picks his college as her first choice for higher education.

Now, this dependence is a bit unhealthy, but is it really any different than most first love's for teenage girls? The belief that the first love is the only love, that you can't live without the other, etc. She even glows in certain scenes when with her brother. When her therapist asks Jackie is she shares similar feelings for her other brother, she dismisses that idea as disgusting. In her mind, Matthew is more of a lifelong friend than a sibling.

These therapy sessions may provide some answers as to why she acts the way she does, but the movie isn't really concerned with this, and neither am I; WHO is Jackie is more important than WHY is Jackie. She is a very powerful character with a personality that is both naive and wise; always analyzing herself and others, but still stubbornly holding on to her own hangup. She's my favorite teenage girl in a movie since the lead in "Juno".

In the end, this is no fairy tale; a kiss won't break the magic that possesses her. This case of puppy love may never quite be understood (even by her) or even something that she fully gets over - who forgets their first love? - but I have a feeling that she'll be ok. There are lots of fish in the sea, and lots of seas in the world; once she moves out, she'll understand.

4/5 *'s

Review: "Southland Tales"

[The original script] was more about making fun of Hollywood. But now it's about, I hope, creating a piece of science fiction that's about a really important problem we're facing, about civil liberties and homeland security and needing to sustain both those things and balance them.

a tapestry of ideas all related to some of the biggest issues that I think we're facing right now . . . alternative fuel or the increasing obsession with celebrity and how celebrity now intertwines with politics.

[Southland Tales] will only be a musical in a post-modern sense of the word in that it is a hybrid of several genres. There will be some dancing and singing, but it will be incorporated into the story in very logical scenarios as well as fantasy dream environments.

                                                                                               - Richard Kelly

The director of "Donnie Darko" certainly can't be called someone with a lack of vision. But, what exactly are his eyes trained on? And, is he seeing the world through a kaleidoscope?

Southland Tales (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When I first read the synopsis for "Southland Tales", I got really excited with what could've potentially been the best comedy since "Dr. Strangelove". Basically, the epicenter of the end of days is Hollywood and our hero is an amnesiac action star trying to get a screenplay that he co wrote with a porn star made. This could've been SO much fun.

Instead, what I (and the studio) got was the equivalent of witnessing a first year film student burning money in a trashcan for over 2 hours.

I should note that even though I own this movie on DVD, I am not re watching it for this review. Instead, I'll be going on memory - sad, frustrated, disappointed memory:

A few years after a nuclear attack on Texas, the U.S. has become a full blown police state, keeping it's citizens under constant surveillance. Yet, this invasion of privacy is unable to track the most famous movie star in the world (who walks around in broad daylight), who has been shacked up with a porn star, who has ties with an underground organization bent on overthrowing the government, who also has vague ties with a mad scientist that has created a new energy, which may also be responsible for a rip in the fabric of space time, which threatens to...

...convolute everything. Man, was it hard to sit through this. Kelly crafted such an awesome story in "Donnie Darko", I thought he could pull it off in his second time out. That film - though with a smaller budget - similarly dealt with very unique personalities part of a larger story. Both stories are about mysterious situations and how the characters weave in and out of them. But, where DD succeeded, ST failed miserably. It lacked a certain focus, and seemed to confuse ambiguity with brilliance.

You know the phrase "your eyes are bigger than your stomach" in reference to a kid who can't finish his meal? That sums up this production. The ambitions are grand - taking on such political and even religious themes - but it's handled as if it'll just work itself out in the end. With a budget under $20 million and some higher profile stars to deal with, I suspect that Kelly was too busy carrying everything on his shoulders, that he let some important things fall to the wayside. What a shame.

This is the only explanation that makes sense to me. His feature after this one was "The Box", which was pretty entertaining and weird. And "Domino" - which he only wrote - was constructed very well despite it's big story. So, Kelly is certainly capable of excellent work, he just was in over his head a bit.

I've read in interviews that he's quite proud of "Southland Tales". No, for real. Hopefully, it's because he learned something from the experience. If not, then he's just lying to us and himself.

This review was requested by a friend on my blog's facebook page (look to the right of this page). If you have anything you'd like me to watch and criticize, feel free to suggest something. And if Richard Kelly happens to be reading this, please take no offense - I honestly can't wait for your next movie.

1/5 *'s

Review: "Wrecked"

Wrecked (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Do you remember the end of the movie "Snake Eyes", and the condition of Nicolas Cage's character? He was limping, bruised, bleeding and a bit hysterical (of course). Wasn't that cool? Now, imagine that a near unknown independent feature comes along, with little to no dialogue, just one main setting, and an actor that has to START the movie from where Cage ended the one listed above. Oh, and the actor is Adrien Brody. How much would that rock?

Luckily, someone already imagined it. In "Wrecked", Adrien Brody plays a man with no name, who wakes up in a crashed car in a forest. A few dead bodies surround the area, making him the only known survivor. His leg is broken and trapped, his face is cut up and heavily bruised and he is scared shitless. Remember, this is the beginning of the film.

Throughout the next 90 minutes, we witness Brody (who I explained in an earlier post is a sex symbol) cry, piss on himself, hallucinate, crawl through the woods and make friends with a dog. Slowly, through flashbacks and some evidence on the ground, we get the idea that he was somehow involved in a bank robbery - but he has more pressing matters to deal with; finding help and staying sane.

As an oscar winner, Brody ought to be choosing cushy roles - the kind that guarantee large paydays and maybe critical acclaim. Instead, he fucks a genetic hybrid ("Splice"), kills alien hunters ("Predators"), portrays Salvador Dali ("Midnight in Paris") and stars as Psycho Ed ("High School"). When he picks a role, it must be because it sounds fun.

And, you know what, watching Brody grunt for an entire movie IS fun.

Holding this movie back are the flashbacks and the ending. It would've been much better to have seen Adrien not remember ANYTHING, and just watch his character struggle with a broken/infected leg, trying to survive another day. Instead, we find out exactly how he ended up in the accident, what the hallucinations meant and that it was all some weird PSA for seat belts.

What was the point of all of this? *Spoilers* Brody was a hostage who caused the accident to get away from the robbers, and the hallucination was his wife, who we thought was a representation of guilt or something (which he shoots at one point). Was this just about survival? A guy loots the car at one point, and is later found dead in a cave - what happened and what did that mean?

I think this was all just an excuse to watch Adrien Brody do a mix of "127 Hours" and "Cast Away", minus the dialogue and hope. A new genre called Brody-sploitation has been created, and for that, I thank the filmmakers. Oh, and Adrien Brody, of course.

3/5 *'s