Monday, December 20, 2004
MOVIES! MOVIES! MOVIES!
Well, I've got a lot of catching up to do. Since the last time I posted (when the hell was that?) I've seen a bunch of flicks I should probably say a few things about. Some in the theaters, and some on video/cable. So let's dive into the bucket and see what comes up.
Well, I could begin with SEED OF CHUCKY, but I already wrote all about that for the last CINEMA KNIFE FIGHT (if you don't read the horror newsletter HELLNOTES, then you're probably missing the monthly horror movie column by me and Michael Arruda. So why not subscribe already??). The fun thing about this one was I saw it on a rainy Tuesday night at the neighborhood theater. The guy only charged me $2.50 for some bizarre reason and I had the theater all to myself. I love when that happens.
CLOSER - In his new movie, Mike Nichols, the venerable director of such classics as The Graduate and Carnal Knowledge, journeys into Neil LaBute territory (although LaBute, the director of such films as Your Friends and Neighbors and The Company of Men would have thought up a much more brutal ending). CLOSER is about two couples - Dan and Alice (Jude Law and Natalie Portman) and Anna and Larry (Julia Roberts and Clive Owen) - and betrayal. Law takes up with Roberts before and during her marriage to Owen, and Portman is left out in the cold. People who know me know I usually can't stand Julia Roberts (the only movie I ever found her likable in at all was Pretty Woman, a movie I avoided for fuckin years and when I finally saw it, I guess I could understand Roberts' appeal - then. Now, she seems more like a preening diva than a real actress) - but she's actually okay in CLOSER. Jude Law plays the kind of vain but vulnerable pretty boy he's cornered the market on lately. Portman, fresh off of her excellent turn in Zach Braff's GARDEN STATE, plays a stipper (although we never get to see any flesh!) who is betrayed by Law.And Owen chews the movie up and spits it out in the most impressive performance of all. As the spurned and vengeful Larry, he turns in one of the best performances of the year. In fact, I'd go so far as to say CLOSER is one of the best movies of the year. With Julie Roberts in the cast. Imagine that!
THE LAST SAMURAI - another movie I avoided at first, because it sounded like another lame Tom Cruise vehicle. But I was wrong. Caught this one on cable, and THE LAST SAMURAI is a decent flick, and Cruise does a great job as Nathan Algren, a Civil War solider sent to Japan to train the new Emperor's army against the final samurai warriors. The Emperor loves Western ways and wants to drag Japan kicking and screaming into the modern world. The samurais want to keep the old traditions. Sounds like the current state of America. But the samurais actually have a sense of honor and discipline to be admired. In battle, Algren is captured by the samurais, and comes to know their leader, Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe, in an Oscar-worthy role) and comes to learn their ways, and to prefer them to his own. This isn't the first time Cruise has turned in a solid performance, I still think he was terrific in Eyes Wide Shut and Magnolia (and pretty decent in Minority Report, too). And this is definitely a movie worth checking out.
THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST - Let me make a confession here. I did not see Mel Gibson's PASSION for any religious reasons. I saw it out of curiosity about the much ballyhooed violence. I kept hearing it was "two hours of Christ being tortured" and frankly felt it was time I saw it for myself. Don't believe the hype. The first hour is exposition - a story we've heard a hundred times before - as we see Christ being arrested and then brought before the Pharises, then the Romans. When Pilate refuses to punish him, Christ is brought before Herod, and then brought back to Pilate, who finally gets so sick of the situation, he feels he has to do something appease the masses. So he has Christ flogged. This brings us to the one truly violent scene in the film, where Christ is brutally flogged for what seems like 20 minutes. First by whips, then by something that looks like a cat o'nine tales with fishhooks on it. The two floggers have great big smiles on their faces as they beat Jesus to a bloody pulp. Then when the people don't think even this is enough (even choosing the release of mass murderer Barabbas over Christ) Pilate has no choice but to put Jesus to death by crucifixion. The rest of the movie features a bloody Jesus carrying his cross (along with a bystander forced to help him by the Romans)to his final dying place. As you can tell, except for a little more blood than usual, this is the same old Jesus story that's been filmed about 10 times before. Nothing really new here and we know the ending from the start, so there are no real surprises. It's nicely filmed and the acting is good (despite the fact that everyone speaks in ancient languages). But I didn't really see much about this movie to make it worth recommending. And I'm talking here simply as a moviegoer. If you see this for religious reasons, that's another kettle of fish entirely. But as a movie, I wasn't impressed. Well, except for that flogging scene. So there you have it. Now decide whether you want to see it.
And finally, to the movie I saw most recently, HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS. This is sort of a sequel to Zhang Yimou's summer hit HERO, except this time there's no Jet Li. This time we're a little later in China's history as the government forces which are keeping China united come up against a rebel army called the House of Flying Daggers. The beautiful Ziyi Zhang (also in Hero and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) has the lead here as Mei, a blind dancer who is also an enemy agent. She comes up against Chinese cops Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and his superioer Leo (Andy Lau). Jin goes undercover to gain Mei's trust, hoping she will lead him to the new leader of the Flying Daggers. Along the way he comes across soldiers who don't know he's undercover, and who he has to kill - something which weights upon his conscience. Before the film is done, we find out about some plot twists and relationships between the main characters we weren't previously aware of. I'd actually heard the House of Flying Daggers was even better than Hero, but that's not the case at all. Like Hero, HOUSE has some very beautiful imagery, and some amazingly choreographed fight scenes. But Hero's story was much better - dealing with the history of a country and many layers of heroism and deceipt. In comparison, Flying Daggers' storyline seems trivial - focusing more on a love triangle than on the fate of nations.
Well, that's the movie round-up for now. With the end of the year approaching, I'll be posting my third annual BEST MOVIES OF THE YEAR column in a couple of weeks. And there's a lot to choose from this time around.
Until next time, Happy Holidays to everyone and let's hope 2005 turns out to be a kick ass year.
Infernally Yours,
LLS
