Movies Watched The Week of 5/24 - 5/30

Hello gang.  We are back.  It’s a pretty solid week here, although it peaked early on in the week.  And while there’s nothing bad, there’s a bitter disappointment in there.  It’s a shame.  But there’s one legend doing great work inside, an icon changing things up, and a unduly hated blockbuster.  Give it a read and see what happened.  Or not.  I don’t care man.  It’s been a long week.

Darkman (May 24th, 2015)

Director: Sam Raimi

Starring: Liam Neeson, Frances McDormand, Colin Friels, and Larry Drake

The first Liam Neeson action flick, and it’s probably the best.  It’s got more style and energy to it than anything he’s done in this Taken phase of his career (The Grey notwithstanding).  And in a time where Sam Raimi is undervalued and not doing great work, it’s a nice reminded to see that he was a unique voice in cinema for a while before Hollywood knocked that out of his system.  This is a comic book movie that isn’t even based on a comic book, right in line with Batman 89 in visuals and score (thanks Danny Elfman) and in some ways tone, but this is all Raimi and thankfully not Burton.  Liam Neeson is a scientist working on a synthetic skin for burn patients when he is attacked and left for dead thanks to his lawyer girlfriend shaking the hornets nest.  And of course, he uses his fake skin to create masks and his newfound ability to not really feel pain with a heightened strength to get revenge.  It’s all done with the Loony Tunes inspired insanity he perfected in Evil Dead II, brought to the less demonic comic book world.  Neeson is great as the tortured, rage filled Darkman. He acquits himself well to the genre.  McDormand does well enough, not getting enough screentime to really make a dent in this fast and quick movie.  The villains are kinda forgettable but that’s fine. Raimi is the star of the show, setting up great and hilarious set pieces that use the masks gimmick to full effect with all his crazy visual tics on display. It’s a fun ride that stands above the iconic Batman.  Wish Raimi could harness this energy again to something not Spider-Man related, but at least we got this. 

Rating: 9/10

Cowboys and Aliens (May 26th, 2015)
Director: Jon Favreau
Starring: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, and Sam Rockwell

Yeah, fuck it.  I like this movie.  Sorry, not sorry.  It’s not great, but it isn’t plagued with the problems Lindelof deals in in the cinematic world.  Questions aren’t answered and the ending isn’t a clusterfuck of stupidity.  It’s a simple western with aliens as the bad guys instead of injuns or some shit.  Craig plays an amnesiac who wakes up in the desert without any idea how/why with some strange contraption on his wrist.  When he ambles into a nearby town, he is discovered to be a notorious outlaw and is arrested.  Before being trucked out to a city for justice, Ford shows up as the man he wronged to get frontier justice.  But the aliens attack and kidnap their people, sending these men on a journey across the land to find their peoples.  It’s a western and it manages to be pretty lowkey for the most part.  That may be the problem for most, it’s humble approach.  The initial invasion is bigger than a western action scene, but it’s pretty low scale for a sci fi extravaganza. Favreau directs the hell out of it, the visuals perfectly capturing the vibe of a western.  The aliens themselves are decently rendered little bastards.  Craig is good as the stoic badass with the little hints of humor throughout, a good man with no name esque performance.  Ford is awake in his performance, always a good thing. He’s playing a mean, corrupt bastard of a man who has a decent journey through the film.  It’s not a masterwork but it is nowhere near The Long Ranger or John Carter in terms of cinematic messes.  It’s a fun ride and doesn’t deserve the beating it got.

Rating: 8/10

Shaft (May 29th, 2015)
Director: John Singleton
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Christian Bale, Jeffrey Wright, and Richard Roundtree

John Singleton should stick to genre movies.  Having recently seen Higher Learning and rewatching Boyz N The Hood, his message movies are so blunt and unsubtle and way too heavy handed.  R Rated versions of after school specials with amateurish production.  But after growing in the technical side, he can take a good genre script and shoot it pretty well. This movie here is not a masterpiece or even a great movie by any stretch.  It feels choppy and cut up with reshoots thanks to busy body studio heads and producers.  It’s plot isn’t convoluted so much as harried and unmomentous.  But it’s got a good style, feeling like a modern (for 2000) version of a genre movie with the charisma of Sam Jackson keeping this all watchable.  Sam doing much of the work.  But the cast he gets is really good, a far cry from the amateurish acting he traded in before.  And he shoots the action pretty well.  It’s fun mainly, especially when Richard Roundtree gets to interact with Sam.  Because this isn’t a remake.  It’s a sequel, and Roundtree reprises the role of Shaft.  So that’s fun.  And the villains, while not threatening in the least, are fun to watch.  Bale is great as a more outwardly douchey/unappealing version of Patrick Bateman and Jeffrey Wright is pretty good as the overly ambitious drug dealer.  It’s not a perfect movie and it isn’t as good as Four Brothers, but it’s a solid entry from a man who wasted too much time trying to be Spike Lee. 

Rating: 8/10

Wet Hot American Summer (May 30th, 2015)
Director: David Wain
Starring: Michael Showalter, Janeane Garofolo, Paul Rudd, and Christopher Meloni

There’s a lot of people in here that I like and who went on to go to do alot of good things.  And this is by no stretch a horrible movie.  But it’s kinda not good.  It’s really not that funny.  It’s rickety and too silly and doesn’t feel like anyone put thought into the movie/jokes.  This feels like a big improv sketch show with a lot of bad sketches.  I like the idea of what they’re trying to do, but this doesn’t come off as funny or subversive as Sleepaway Camp and that didn’t mean to be.  But there is a scene where Christopher Meloni talks to a can of soup that is voiced by H Jon Benjamin, so it can’t be completely worthless.  It has it’s moments but they are spread way too far apart and don’t hit the mark high enough. 

Rating: 7/10







Top Movies

1. Darkman
2. Cowboys and Aliens
3. Shaft
4. Wet Hot American Summer

- Tom Lorenzo