You'd think the shady but historically true Project MK-Ultra would make for a smashing political thriller, with its detestable CIA experiments of mind control via drugs and careful conditioning on the unsuspecting American population. Instead, Hollywood loosely appropriated it for a stoner comedy. And sadly, not the funniest imaginable. American Ultra fires more bullets than jokes.
At least the lead casting is a shot in the right direction. Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart have worked together before and it shows, as they have the right amount of chemistry to make a likeable couple of losers. From Eisenberg, we've come to expect a certain level of quality, especially when it concerns this type of character. Stewart's performance thus leaves more of an impression, since we still needed some convincing of her talents as a true actress. With her much praised serious role in Camp X-Ray recently behind her, we can safely say 2015 is the year she finally came into her own and left her Twilight stigma behind her. Still, it takes more than two good leads to make for a solid movie. A decent plot and the right balance between action and comedy, for instance. American Ultra doesn't have either.
Where the fun is concerned, the movie starts at least promising, and a few good laughs are to be had in the first act. However, the film increasingly opts for action over comedy, which makes for a rather dull and unfunny finale, where both the jokes and the necessary emotional investment in the main characters is lost in all the gun fights, knife fights, and fist fights. There's simply too much fighting as the movie progresses and most of it is excessively violent, but not in any ironic or tongue-in-cheek manner. It's just a bloody mess, as is the story, which also involves rival CIA agents fighting it out in a manner totally devoid of the intelligence the I in their agency is supposed to stand for. There's also room made for a few stereotype drug dealers and deranged super assassins, but none of it works on the levels the writers probably intended. Director Nima Nourizadeh, fresh off the allegedly culturally notable teen flick Project X, shows a little too clearly he has more affinity with destroying things and blowing stuff up than in making us care about it all.
Fortunately we still have RED to show us how a fun time can be had with CIA assassins being hunted by their own employer. However, a definitive movie about Project MK-Ultra is still very much lacking. If Hollywood does tackle the touchy subject again, I hope they make a more serious movie out of it. Mind control simply isn't funny, as American Ultra shows.
We are probably witnessing the rise of another gifted director here. Blomkamp is giving a capable talent the same chance he himself was once given by Peter Jackson, based on the similar tactic of making a short film to entice others to buy into the outlandish concept. And a rather ambitious concept it is. In just a few lines of text, space travel, exotic alien life, epic man-versus-nature battles and slave labour is introduced, and then the trailer itself hasn't even started yet. So please, make this film about people forced to hunt space whales. I just hope Robinson is on the side of the unfortunate creatures, as I absolutely do not consider actual whaling a noble endeavour. But then, if 'involuntary labour' is needed to harvest the 'exotic matter' from the animals in question, the whalers definitely aren't the good guys. At this point, a studio has already picked up the rights, and it's 20th Century Fox. Will they deliver the obviously large budget Robinson requires to make his picture? They have a bad track record when it comes to appreciating awesome science fiction concepts, so they definitely wouldn't have been my first pick. But hey, Robinson surely won't complain, since he has finally succeeded at snagging a studio and producers to make his movie. Speaking of which, there's a few similarities between this Leviathan and Don Lawrence's Storm, the latter which I always hoped would make it into a movie some day. Maybe Leviathan will still my need for a Storm flick, or maybe it only proves that if you sell your Sci-Fi concept the way Robinson did, you can eventually usher your dream into theaters after all.
I thought Tom Cruise had by now established the fact there are no impossible missions anymore, but apparently, I was wrong. So another totally outrageous mission is concocted to make Cruise once again play the Hollywood superstar. You know, the type that sees his name stamped on promotional material in a bigger format than the movie's actual title. The all-American hero that travels the globe to all manner of exotic locales the common American has never heard of (like Moscow or London), all the while kicking bad guys' butts, bedding insanely hot dames and shouting silly oneliners at every opportunity. Cruise still can't get enough of it. I for one, care little, but then I never did from the get-go. This time Cruise and his team hunt down a shady organization much like their own, their insidious doppelgänger as it were. Isn't that also the plot of the new 007 flick, Spectre? And isn't James Bond a more sophisticated and better loved take on Tom Cruise's character for that matter? Seems like we're hitting another one of those circumstances where two movies sharing an awfully similar concept see release with only a short interval between them (think A Bug's Life/Antz or Deep Impact/Armageddon). I know what team I'm betting for and it's not this one.
That picture freaks me out. What a sinister mug shot, the face of an evil, evil man no doubt. Not so long ago it had curly hair and was applied to the role of far more likeable characters. But now that dear little neurotic guy from the likes of Zombieland and To Rome with Love is playing the big leagues as a major villain based on comic book material. Eisenberg's Luthor will soon be seen harrassing various superheroes throughout the DC Cinematic Universe, starting with both Superman and Batman (a single hero won't do, of course). He'll basically be DC's answer to Tom Hiddleston's and Marvel's Loki, which is definitely a tough act to follow. As a megalomaniac captain of industry, Eisenberg will play the second next grandiose thing to a crazed Norse God. He'll probably do just fine, but I still won't care as much, considering I really am on Marvel's side. I've always considered DC's characters a little too larger than life, less easy to identify with as a regular guy. You'd think I'd find a megalomaniac captain of industry more easy to digest than a crazed Norse God than, but apparently it doesn't work that way. Just goes to show what a particular geek I am in my tastes. Well sorry. Mr. Eisenberg.
Speaking of my particular tastes, Dr. Who isn't one of them. I never really could get into it. So I've never seen Matt Smith in action, but if he's playing Dr. Who, then he must be the British sort, which means he'd do nicely in the Potterverse. Even though we're not talking Harry Potter here, casting an American in the lead role would be an act of blasphemy, as I'm sure Mrs. Rowling has made quite clear to the producers of the upcoming spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Plus, Matt Smith might make a nice change from Benedict Cumberbatch, who these days is considered the quintessential Englishman to cast in any rol pertaining to Brittania, good characters or bad. So yeah, throw Smith a bone and cast him as Newt Scamander. I'm sure he could effortlessly switch between silly aliens and robots to equally silly magical shenanigans and monstrous entities. 'Silly' not prohibiting a wonderful sense of adventure and enjoyment of course. Just serving a very British kind.
Another particularly European sense of adventure and enjoyment is found on the pages of Belgium's comic industry. And this one unfortunately has suffered from ruthless Americanization in recent years. Both Smurfs movies were strong examples of how not to adapt beloved comics (or cartoons for that matter) for modern Western audiences. Trading in a medieval European setting for contemporary New York was both insulting and painful to behold. So even though the American presence behind the cameras remains, a totally new kind of direction for this blue little franchise is nothing short of a good thing. Going fully animated also meets my approval, as it will prohibit actors not up to the task from sharing the screen with the delightful creatures we really care to see. Heck, if Gargamel wasn't such a recognizable foil to the Smurfs, I'd say go and make an all-Smurf movie without any human (or feline) characters, one hearkening back to the classic stories of old (as the director claims is his intention). I'm all for adapting the Smurführer story, though I think that one might be a little too controversial for Hollywood's taste. Same goes for the one about the disease spreading primitive Black Smurfs. Nevertheless, both of these concepts would make for movies ten times more compelling than the dreck released this past decade. I'm hopeful the studio means to honor their statement of indeed taking the Smurfs back to their roots and completely ignoring said damage, but I know better than to get my hopes up too high. At this time, my hope has reached a level of about three apples high. If the people behind this movie have any inkling what that means, it's an indication they're indeed on the right path.
I had hoped for this, so I'm glad the estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs isn't letting a second John Carter of Mars movie gestate for another 70 years. I was really disappointed Disney's John Carter flopped so hard at the boxoffice. Sure, it wasn't perfect, but it was a damn fun movie with great visuals and it had solid franchise potential. Maybe I liked it more than I should, but subject material like this - strange aliens, exotic alien worlds, sexy alien chicks, etc. - really is my cup of tea, always has been. Granted, the movie made its fair share of mistakes both in terms of development, narrative and marketing, but in my mind it truly deserved a better fate. And so ERB, Inc. thinks, too. The original books were groundbreaking, swashbuckling rollercoasters of adventure novels that have endured for many decades, so there must still be an audience for them somewhere. No harm in trying again, starting from scratch, maybe not spending such excessive amounts of money on them this time. I'm really hopeful the company can find a new partner, a studio that still feels there's room for old fashioned Sci-Fi adventures like these. At least this time they know what not to do to make it work. Though it would make sense for both the estate and the studio to wait a little longer, after Jupiter Ascending and Star Wars Episode VII have hit theaters, so they can see whether there's still an audience for grandiose space opera in the ERB tradition.
Seems like more of the same. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, as the first Woman in Black was quite a decent horror flick with its wonderfully creepy and moody period look. Trading in a late Victorian style for a WW II era visual look is not a bad thing. From a story point of view, it makes sense as to why people would allow kids to visit that horribly haunted house again. It seems a better place for children to be than a bombed-out London, any regular parent would think. City folks don't believe in countryside ghost stories after all. And not having Daniel Radcliffe as the protagonist is probably a good notion too. His post-Potter presence in the previous part tended to overshadow the movie as having its own identity. The Woman in Black is still commonly referred to as 'that spooky film featuring Harry Potter', and I don't think that does it any justice at all. Then again, the second installment stars Potter's Narcissa Malfoy, for those who weren't aware. Hopefully it doesn't mean the movie will soon be acknowledged as 'that spooky movie starring Draco's mum'. That is, if Angel of Death turns out as decent a scary movie (or more so) as its predecessor. Otherwise, I couldn't really care less anyway.
Another Steve Jobs biopic? There was one in theaters only a year ago. Than one, however, didn't win much favour with audience or critics with its rather bland and straightforward approach. Nor are its director and main star (Ashton Kutcher, if you recall) considered such bankable talents as Christian Bale and Danny Boyle. So yeah, why not make another? There's still plenty to tell about so inspiring and innovative a man, no doubt. Plus, there's better storytellers available, and Boyle sure is an intriguing choice. I don't mind Bale, though he tends to go a little too far in his acting, reminding you that you're not watching the character he plays, but that you're seeing Bale doing his extreme thing again. The script is in the capable hands of Aaron Sorkin, who seems to be in danger of being typecast as the screenwriter for penning biopics about important folks in the digital industry for hugely talented directors (he also did The Social Network, after all). You think we'll get multiple Bill Gates motion pictures when that Microsoft man logs out of this life? If so, Sorkin is likely to be Hollywood's go-to guy to pen a script about Gates' life.
Hopefully poor Jesse Eisenberg fully realized what he got himself into before signing on as Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Considering DC's overly ambitious plans for its own cinematic universe - clearly copying Marvel's designs, but still - it would be natural for a bad guy of Luthor's stature to appear in multiple DC movies soon. Luthor, after all, has his greedy conniving arms wrapped aroud a lot of shady businesses in the DC comics, and has had them there for decades. The movie version is expected to be just as busy controlling an evil empire, one that's not restricted to simply plaguing his nemesis Superman, but many of his fellow heroes as well. Right now the most apt comparable character available in the Marvel Cinematic Universe villain would be Loki, who also started out the archenemy of one but soon demanded a bigger piece of the superhero pie. Luthor is likely to do the same. Nevertheless, his skills would make him more of an evil Nick Fury, controlling strings of a lot of other baddies behind the scenes, as Fury does with good guys (or what he considers to be such, at least). In this case, it seems he's the guy responsible for forming the supervillain team called Suicide Squad, soon to give the Justice League a hard time. I wouldn't be surprised to see him, and thus Eisenberg, make regular appearances, both minor and major, in many upcoming DC movies. And I'm sure Eisenberg won't particularly mind, it just keeps him occupied while the pay checks keep coming in at a steady flow.
Autumn
continues to deliver a rather sad stream of unremarkable movies
wedged in-between a great summer and a hotly anticipated winter that
will conclude the otherwise excellent year of 2012 with a much
anticipated bang. The lack of appealing movies has kept me from going
to cinemas for a few weeks now, something I hope to remedy soon.
However, it's also caused me from revisiting this blog much too often
of late, and that's not what I intended. Thank heaven for Wednesday
nights though, since they offered me a solution! Running the show
every week at the local arthouse theater Provadja
provides for something to occupy my thoughts with so I can use my
experiences there in times of cinematic drought like these. The
downside is I'm watching these films from the projector's booth where
the movies' sound is being drowned by the noisy humming of the
machines, plus I occasionally leave the room to check on other
things, at which point I am likely to miss scenes of interest if not
importance to the overall picture. Therefore, I can't consciously
write an in-depth review of such films since I just didn't get to
fully appreciate the film as it was seen by the regular audiences and
I might have missed vital clues that upon closer inspection harbored
the filmmakers' intentions, which I would be likely to misinterpret.
However, I do get to see enough of these films to form a decent
opinion on the overall narrative (if any (eh, Holy
Motors!)), the general
direction and the actors' performances. That gives me at least
something to work with here. So which films did I get to project for
Provadja's clientele lately? Here's a few from the last month.
Et si
on vivait tous ensemble?
Rating:
***/*****, or 7/10
Stéphane
Robelin wrote and directed this socially engaged movie, released in
France a year earlier than it arrived in the Netherlands. This
thoughtful dramedy (drama with a comedic note to keep it from
becoming too much to bear) provides an intriguing solution to the
question what should be done with old people. Rather than stick them
all together in a retirement home, the seniors in this movie (played
compellingly by such notable actors as Jane Fonda, Geraldine Chaplin
and Pierre Richard) decide they might do better spending their last
days and defeating the isolation commonly associated with old age by
living in a small commune where they can just keep an eye on each
other instead of having to hire total strangers to do it for them. Of
course having five headstrong and short tempered elderly people
sharing the same house also isn't the best of ideas, as they soon
discover a level of intrigue and discord between them they had not
anticipated, which ultimately ends up in a revelation of some sordid
secrets from the past that might shatter their friendship.
Fortunately
they had the good sense to hire the young German ethnology student
Dirk (Daniel Brühl, Inglourious Basterds, Good Bye Lenin!)
to do the housekeeping in exchange for the opportunity to study the
elderly up close for his research. Dirk manages to keep the old folks
from falling out with each other entirely, indicating the younger
generation should still take good care of their predecessors, without
placing restrictions on their lives as is done in retirement homes.
The difference between the protagonists' life style and the situation
of their peers behind lock and key for their “own good” is
effectively made clear when one of their number falls ill and his
friends rescue him from the clutches of ruthlessly institutionalized
elderly care as they break him out of a shamefully prison like
facility. Of course growing old it's not all as depressing as this,
as Dirk finds out when one of the old ladies supplies him with ample
details on her sexual activities for his research, much to his
embarrassment (and ours!). Robelin's call for mutual understanding
between the old and the young is laudable, but the movie fails to
fully answer the question whether old people becoming each other's
room mates would truly be a workable solution. Age detrimentally
catches up with everybody after all, and as the movie perfectly
illustrates with the character of Dirk, the intervention and guidance
of the young remains vital, even though many seniors wouldn't want to
admit it. However, Robelin's suggestion we can and should do better
in our attempts to care for the elderly is decently underscored:
nobody would want to whither away in retirement homes, certainly not
without their dearest friends closeby.
This
movie was distributed in Holland under the shorter and simpler title
Tous Ensemble, while it was released accordingly as All
Together in most English speaking territories.
To
Rome with Love
Rating:
***/*****, or 6/10
Woody
Allen continues to pay homage to the great cities of the world and
this time directs his attention to Rome, where he has an ensemble
cast of noted actors play in four different stories set in the
Eternal City, though never overlapping one another.
First,
famed architect John (Alec Baldwin) revisits Rome where he supposedly
meets a young student of architecture Jack (Jesse Eisenberg) and
guides him in his ever complicated dealings with his girlfriend and
her friend Monica (Ellen Page, always a joy) who he quickly falls in
love with, despite his intentions not to. Question is, is John simply
reliving his Roman experiences of thirty years past and criticizing
what he should have thought about Monica then?
Second,
the young American Hayley (Alison Pill) and Italian Michelangelo
(Flavio Parenti) decide to get married, after which her parents
Phyllis and Jerry (Judy Davis and of course Woody Allen himself) fly
to Rome and meet his family, including his father Giancarlo, an
undertaker. Bored to death in retirement, Jerry overhears Giancarlo
singing operas in the shower and quickly plans to make a star out of
him, but since his talents only work in the shower, Jerry is forced
to make unorthodox decisions to allow his plans for fame and glory to
come to fruition.
Third,
newlyweds Milly (Alessandra Mastronardi) and Antonio (Alessandro
Tiberi) visit Rome on their honeymoon, but events swiftly separate
them, setting both of them on their own adventures as Antonio is
mistaken for somebody else by a prostitute (Penélope Cruz) after
which he applies her talents to ensure a good business deal goes
through as planned, while his new wife finds herself ensnared by a
famous Italian actor and is lured into a passionate affair, only to
be interrupted – and saved – by a robbery.
Fourth,
average Roman citizen Leopoldo (Roberto Benigni, love him or hate
him, as usual) lives a mundane life but all of a sudden finds himself
the centerpiece of attention for the media as he rises to full-fledged
but short-lived stardom for no reason whatsoever.
Utilizing
Rome's many fabulous settings to great effect, Allen's various
stories prove to be less compelling, driven by simple and predictable
plot twists. In the hands of a lesser director this would only spell
doom for the film, but in Allen's capable hands it at least results
in a cheerful viewing experience as the cast fully embraces and
enjoys their roles (and their pleasant stay in Rome no doubt). Still,
the quality of the four stories differs considerably, with the tale
of Milly and Antonio the film's high point as both characters are
swept off their feet by Rome's turbulent life offering them ample
opportunities for inappropriate passion, with the both of them
struggling to escape fate's ironic turn of events to return to their
true love. Aided by Penélope Cruz' joyful and memorable performance
as a hooker this story stands out the most, while at the other end of
the spectrum the tale of Jerry's attempt to bring Giancarlo's voice
to full on-stage recognition results in the predictable answer of
having him perform operas while showering, a resolution only
appreciable for those not familiar with Donald Duck comics. And while
the story of Leopoldo offers plenty of opportunities to critique the
Italian paparazzi media Allen forgoes this chance in favor of a
simple story of a normal man living his fifteen minutes of fame which
blows over as suddenly as it started, resulting in Benigni jumping
through the Roman streets with his pants pulled down in hopes of
recapturing his glory that so unexpectedly has come and gone. To
Rome with Love makes it clear Allen, who was offered to direct a
film in Rome with full financial support of local distributors, never
intended for this film to be more than the sum of its rather bland
parts, but it's a credit to his capabilities as a director and the
quality of his assembled cast the film at least succeeds in giving us
two hours of simple fun in the Roman sun. Accept it as Allen's way of
sending the world a postcard, from Rome, with love.
Lyrical,
at times witty and charming, but ultimately slow paced and
melodramatic coming-of-age drama about a teenager who finds himself a
summer job at a rather crappy amusement park filled with eccentric
employees, where he also meets his first love who's engaged in pretty
messed up relationships.
Starring:
Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds
