Movies Watched The Week of 7/5 - 7/11

Hello ladies and jerks, we are back at the game and holy shit was it a busy week.  This feels like the first week since my departure from my other website writing gig that I’ve used the time to watch some flicks.  And they run the gamut of cinema.  Got some toons, art house flicks, horror, crime and indie.  And the gamut is run through in terms of quality too.  Luckily nothing was too bad, or bad at all.  Everything has something worth while in it.  So give it a go, reading what a ridiculous week I had in movie watching.

Wings of Desire (July 5th, 2015)

Director: Wim Wenders

Starring: Bruno Ganz, Otto Sander, Solveig Dommartin, and Peter Falk

I was a big fan of Paris, Texas.  It was the first Wenders movie I’d seen and got me stoked to see some other work from the man.  So it’s a bit disappointing that this movie didn’t do it for me.  It’s not awful by any stretch.  And hell, the last act of the movie had me nice and hooked.  But the first 2/3rds of the movie didn’t do it for me, feeling way too drawn out.  It was making a point and made it earlier than it seemed to realize.  We follow an angel played by Ganz as he watches over humanity and sees that while it seems like they are miserable and always fretting, he realizes he is missing a whole lot because he can’t feel anything.  His life is one of observations, not of action.  This comes to his mind when he falls for an acrobat at a circus.  And that story is something I could really dig on, especially that he films all the angel pov stuff in black and white, and the human pov stuff in color.  But it spends way too much time watching humanity and musing on life, that it just didn’t do it for me as a whole.  I can see why many would dig it though, so if an artful musing on life is something in your wheelhouse, give it a go.  If not, Wenders has at least one movie on his list that’s better than this.

Rating: 7/10

Green Lantern: First Flight (July 6th, 2015)
Director: Lauren Montgomery
Starring: Christopher Meloni, Victor Garber, Michael Madsen, and Olivia D'Abo

While not a bad movie by any stretch, this is the lowest point for the DC Animated movies.  Which is saying something, because the weakest aspect of this movie is that it is far too short.  The Green Lantern mythos is vast and filled with crazy ideas, imagery and rules that could have filled a much longer movie.  But being an earlier in the run animated movie, this is short and to the point.  It’s like a cliff notes version of the Corps.  This is not the definitive version, so don’t get your hopes up too much.  It also streamlines.simplifies the color spectrum that makes up the rings, lessening the scale of the Sinestro Corps War that this is essentially an adaptation of.  But despite the simplification of the material, it still makes for an energetic and fun comic book flick.  The cast is all solid.  The DC movies would get better talent for the roles, so this feels more like a first draft for the cast but they’re still pretty good.  For me, I liked the story because it felt like the DC version of Training Day, with Hal being the Ethan Hawke role and Sinestro being the Denzel role.  So that’s cool for me.  But like I said earlier, it’s too short and coulda used some pacing work with the story.  It lacks the impact it could have had.  But in the end, it works well enough.

Rating: 8/10

The Town That Dreaded Sundown (July 7th, 2015)
Director: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
Starring: Addison Timlin, Travis Tope, Spencer Treat Clark, and Gary Cole

If you’ve seen Scream or just have an interest in horror movies, you’ve heard of the original movie with this title.  The title itself is just great, a totally evocative name for a horror flick.  And while the movie itself isn’t a masterpiece, it’s a solid and unique little movie.  So when the news of a remake came along, it was met with a bit of a shrug.  Now having come out, the most surprising thing is that it isn’t a remake.  This movie feels less like Psycho and more like a more meta version of Scream.  In this movie, The Town That Dreaded Sundown is a movie that exists, but is based on fact.  The town of Texarkana is sort of haunted by the killings and the movie, but celebrates it too.  But when a copycat starts to wreak havoc, it’s up to the two police departments and a victim to figure out the decades long horror show.  Right off the bat, the main difference between the two movies is that this one is more in the slasher genre, with a final girl and all.  The procedural elements are less focused on, despite a more detailed look at the ideas of two departments being involved.  Despite the appearance of Gary Cole, Denis O’Hare and Veronica Cartwright, this isn’t as filled with character actors.  It’s slicker than the original, which sets it apart.  Both are also fiendishly clever, with this one more outwardly clever.  It plays upon the original while forging it’s own path.  Rejon shows a real visual flair that works within the story, not overwhelming it.  The kills are nice and brutal, with one taken right from the original, so it’s silliness is inherent to it’s quasi remake status.  I’d say it falls apart a little bit with the reveal, as it’s kinda too easy and quick.  But even within that, there’s some nice ambiguity to it and a fun little kill in it.  It’s not as ambiguous as the original, where the killer was never caught.  But it’s still there.  The main weakness in this is the teen story, of a girl with some trauma being forced into this story to overcome her past.  It’s a less successful version of the Sidney arc in Scream.  Really, this whole thing screams of, erm, Scream.  For me, this is a cool little flick that’s a nice update of a slasher movie, different than the majority of those remakes from years back (minus the Friday The 13th remake, which too wasn’t a remake).  This is more for horror fans, as it doesn’t elevate the genre and plays within it’s genre.  It’s fun and interesting, so that’s good enough for me in this horror landscape. 

Rating: 8/10

The Friends of Eddie Coyle (July 8th, 2015)
Director: Peter Yates
Starring: Robert Mitchum, Peter Boyle, Richard Jordan, and Steven Keats

Oh man, you gotta love 70s crime flicks.  They are just so dirty and real man, feeling lived in and dangerous.  Based off the highly esteemed crime novel by George Higgins (touted by Elmore Leonard as the best crime book ever), the movie is just as great as the book.  Mitchum is the titular character, a small time hood that does grunt work for the Irish mob.  Having recently been busted for a stolen goods beef, he is set to be sentenced for a few years soon.  So he has to look around at the other low level hoods he hangs with to see who is juicy enough to give up to the law for his freedom.  What sets this movie apart from other crime flicks is that it is not sexy at all and really does focus on low level guys just struggling to get by.  A lot of talk of guys feeling each other out and trying to get by.  Mitchum is a real schlub, not a movie star performance at all.  You can see the weariness in his shoulders, the desperation in his eyes.  There’s only two acts of violence in the movie really, and they are quick and to the point.  The dialogue is great, like a more realistic Leonard prose.  These aren’t super smart guys and they don’t really quip.  But there’s a poetry to the mediocrity of these guys lives.  Visually, you can see the grit and grime of Boston, feel the seediness on your skin.  This is just a great flick, an undervalued crime flick from the 70s that has gone on to inspire many a crime writer.  An absolute masterpiece. 

Rating: 10/10

Maggie (July 9th, 2015)
Director: Henry Hobson
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenneger, Abigail Breslin, Joely Richardson, and Doug Griffin

So, Arnold Schwarzenneger is a hell of an actor.  Who woulda ever thought this would be a statement that would be something not full of shit or ironical snarky bullshit? But it’s true.  This isn’t some Daniel Day-Lewis type acting.  It’s still Arnold, he hasn’t transformed completely.  But this is something totally different from the man.  He isn’t putting on a badass persona.  This isn’t a sexy role, something with iconic poses and quippy one liners.  It isn’t even particularly violent.  Here, Arnold is playing an old man with a sadness overwhelming him at the tragedy about to befall him.  His daughter has been infected and has only two weeks to live.  He watches her slowly rot away and lose herself, physically and emotionally.  The pain is palpable. Now, this may sound like an AIDS movie or some type of cancer flick.  Nope.  It’s a zombie movie.  The girl is infected with the zombie virus.  In this world, it takes a few weeks to kick in.  And Arnold has two weeks to spend with her, and decide what to do.  Let the government handle her disposal or handle it himself.  It’s a really melancholy movie.  This isn’t a Romero movie or something unashamedly ripping off the mans world (ahemWalkingDeadahem).  This one isn’t about a social issue like Romeros movies, or just a simple everything is miserable bent like Walking Dead.  This is a down on the street level view of the horrors of watching someone you love wither and die, showing a human scale look at the plague.  Arnold is, again, great as the father.  And Abigail Breslin is great as the daughter, going through the process of accepting her eventual demise.  It’s really about them, and they knock it out the park.  Now, this is sadly not as good as it could have been.  It’s a little too typically indie, slow and not really filled with enough events to feel like a full movie.  So it doesn’t really hit the emotional highs that it could have.  The technical merits are good, successfully conveying the bleak and melancholic tone it aims for.  It’s a very grey movie, but it works.  The shots are gorgeous and it really helps out.  It’s just the script doesn’t work enough.  It’s really a shame, because this is an amazing feat for Arnold.  This should have been how he played the role in Total Recall, a normal schlub (despite his Austrian superhero physique and accent).  But much like Sabotage, this is a great performance in a less successful movie.  But because of that, this should be seen by any of his fans and even for those not too keen on the man.  It’s a hell of a role, and makes me really interested to see what he could do in the proposed King Conan movie.  And honestly, I’d love to see him in a movie with a legit talented director, like Joe Carnahan or Dennis Villeneuve. 

Rating: 7/10










Top Movies

1. The Friends of Eddie Coyle
2. The Town That Dreaded Sundown
3. Green Lantern: First Flight
4. Wings of Desire
5. Maggie

- Tom Lorenzo