Henry Saw: Two Medieval Dramas - Black Death and Ironclad

One works pretty well...the other not so much...





Black Death:

A harsh and brutal little film that unfortunately is limited by both its budget and its premise. Despite strong work from Sean Bean and Carice van Houten, and a strong sense of setting, I was left dissapointed by this genre piece.

"In medieval England fallen under the shadow of the Black Death, a young monk called Osmund is charged in leading a fearsome knight, Ulric and his group of mercenaries to a remote marsh. Their quest is to hunt down a necromancer - someone able to bring the dead back to life. Torn between his love of God and the love of a young woman, Osmund discovers the necromancer, a mysterious beauty called Langiva. After Langiva reveals her Satanic identity and offers Osmund his hearts desire, the horror of his real journey begins." (Via IMDB)

Perhaps I was let down by Black Death because I was expecting a different sort of movie. Based upon its low profile and its set-up I assumed this was going to be a gritty little action film like The 13th Warrior or Centurion. Instead, there are really only two action scenes, both quite brief, and neither are that well done. Black Death is more about the battle of wills that takes place between the religious and devout knights and the pagan villagers. The film is hurt by the fact that the actor who plays the main character of Osmund (Eddie Redmayne) has no screen presence. The whole film relies on us caring about Osmund and his relationship with his lost love...and Redmayne is just not a compelling performer.

Black Death is not a bad movie, it just fails to register on any level, and I had almost forgotten all about it five minutes after I turned it off.

Grade: C

Best Scene: The first action scene which is surprisingly brutal.




Ironclad:

Here's an odd little picture. Starring a bunch of "that guys" (and Brian Cox), Ironclad is a compelling siege film that doesn't let its small budget get in the way of making an ambitious and fun movie. In fact, because writer/director Jonathan English couldn't make a movie on the same scale as Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven or John Woo's Red Cliff, Ironclad is a down and dirty action film that feels unique despite playing in the same sandbox as dozens of other movies.

Plot Summary: "It is the year 1215 and the rebel barons of England have forced their despised King John to put his royal seal to the Magna Carta, a noble, seminal document that upheld the rights of free-men. Yet within months of pledging himself to the great charter, the King reneged on his word and assembled a mercenary army on the south coast of England with the intention of bringing the barons and the country back under his tyrannical rule. Barring his way stood the mighty Rochester castle, a place that would become the symbol of the rebel's momentous struggle for justice and freedom." (Via IMDB)

Even though Ironclad claims to be based on a true story the version of history portrayed in the film is wildly inaccurate. I must admit that I don't really care; Ironclad set out to entertain, not educate, and it succeeds towards that goal. Ironclad basically follows the standard Seven Samurai model of a small band of heroes fighting against a much larger oppressive force. Our team of heroes include such actors as James Purefoy (Rome's Marc Antony) as the Templar Knight who anchors the defending force, Jason Flemyng (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) as a arrogant womanizer just looking out for money and a good fight, and Mackenzie Crook (UK's The Office) as a master of knife fighting. Leading this cobbled together crew is Brian Cox, who despite being perhaps too familiar a sight in these kind of movies, is always a welcome presence.

The most famous actor in Ironclad is probably the weirdest bit of casting: Paul Giamatti as a particularly nasty version of King John. Giamatti has played villains before (Big Fat Liar, Shoot Em Up) but it was still strange seeing him put on an English accent and ham it up as one of the most oft portrayed villains in cinematic history. Still, odd though it may be, Giamatti is quite good in the role and is particularly strong at delivering a sinister monologue near the end of the film.

Jonathan English manages to deliver several thrilling action scenes, and unlike many other similar films in this genre, gets us to care enough about each character that we feel it when they die. The one major part of the film that does not work is a forced romance between Purefoy and a married maiden who lives in the castle (played by Kate Mara).

Ironclad is hardly art, it's certainly a trashy version of history, but it is an enjoyable action film. If you view it with low expectations, and a willingness to laugh off the rather large plot holes and contrivances, I bet you will have a good time.

Grade: B-

Best Scene: The final confrontation between James Purefoy and the leader of the mercenary army.

Catching up on 2011 - Henry Saw: Bad Teacher and Horrible Bosses

As with most comedies I don't have that much to say about either film...


Bad Teacher:

"A comedy centered around a foul-mouthed, junior high teacher who, after being dumped by her sugar daddy, begins to woo a colleague -- a move that pits her against a well-loved teacher." (Via IMDB)

Bad Teacher had some moments that made me smile, very few that actually made me laugh out loud, and more than a couple that made me squirm in my seat. Cameron Diaz proves once again that she only really works when working in an out and out comedy while Justin Timberlake shows that he and his agent might need to be a bit more selective if he wants to break through as a movie star. The standout in the cast ended up being Lucy Punch who plays the goody-two-shoes teacher driven to near madness by Cameron Diaz.

When this ends up on HBO, and there's nothing better on, you may want to give it a shot. It's certainly not the worst comedy I've seen this year...but that's about as strong a recommendation as I'm willing to give.

Grade: C+

Best Scene: Cameron Diaz's conversation with a heartbroken student near the end of the film...one of the scenes that really did make me laugh out loud.


Horrible Bosses:

"Three friends (Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudeikis) conspire to murder their awful bosses (Colin Farrell, Jennifer Aniston, and Kevin Spacey) when they realize they are standing in the way of their happiness." (Via IMDB)

Horrible Bosses is fairly solid comedy but not an incredibly likable one. It has a really strong premise, which it basically mines successfully, and actually manages some clever plot twists that keep the story interesting throughout. The sad thing, at least for this audience member, is that I just find a great deal of the cast to be less than appealing performers. There are seven (!) moderate to big stars in the movie and I really only like two of them (Charlie Day and Colin Ferrell). Which is not to say that the other five are bad in the film. Everyone seems to be having a good time, which is an integral component of any good comedy, but I just did not find any other members of the cast to be particularly funny

Some of the jokes don't work, especially when they go for pure gross-out humor, but others are refreshingly dark and twisted. I especially appreciated Colin Farrell's reasons for firing some of his staff. The problem is that there is very little wit to be found in any of the other scenes. Most of the jokes, though often funny, are quite cheap and predictable. It makes for a film that is enjoyable the first time through but that doesn't make you care if you ever see it again. Which makes it perfect for something like a plane ride, but not exactly something you should feel the need to rush out and find. Still, I did like it, and that's better than I can say for most comedies this year.

Grade: B-

Best Scene: Colin Farrell telling Jason Sudeikis why he has to fire some of their employees...

Henry Saw: Two Documentaries focusing on beloved figures of the early 1990s...

American: The Bill Hicks Story and Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest


American: The Bill Hicks Story:

A fairly standard talking heads doc that recounts the life and death of one of the most respected comedians of all time. Through interviews with his friends, family, and a few of his fellow performers, we are told of Hicks' youth in Houston, Texas, his first forays into comedy when he was still in high school, his rise to fame in the United Kingdom, and then his tragic death due to cancer.

The strongest thing that American has going for it are the clips of Hicks doing his standup. While his story is interesting, and in some ways inspiring, what made him an icon was his material and not the narrative of his life. What's different about Bill Hicks is that he was not exactly laugh out loud hilarious. His comedy was just very sharp, and thought provoking, and in many ways he was more like a social critic than a comedian with standard "bits".

So even though American is just a few steps above what you might expect from a special on the Biography channel, it's subject is compelling enough to make it worth your time. So check out this film, especially if you are not familiar with Bill Hicks and his still relevant brand of humor.

Grade: C+




Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest:

When I learned that Michael Rapaport, an actor who has appeared in such films as Bamboozled, Deep Blue Sea, and The 6th Day, was directing this look at the founding and disintegration of one of my friend Ben's favorite rap groups...I did not have high hopes. Fair or not, I have always assumed that Mr. Rapaport was just as stupid as the characters he tends to play. Well, Beats Rhymes & Life is not exactly the best made or most focused documentary I've ever seen, in fact it really doesn't have a central definable narrative, but Rapaport's failure as a filmmaker ended up not hurting the film a great deal. That's because the men who made up A Tribe Called Quest (Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and Jarobi White) are all fascinating in different ways.

Whether it is watching Q-Tip demonstrate how he came up with the sound mixing for my favorite A Tribe Called Quest song "Can I Kick It", or how Phife Dawg failed to deal with his diabetes, or how calm and reasonable Ali Shaheed Muhammad is throughout, or just what a sweet dude Jarobi White is...the members of the group are what make this film so eminently watchable.

As someone who is not that knowledgeable about the history of rap I found the film to be both enlightening and frustrating. While I learned a great deal about how all these rappers came up together in the New York era, and changed the face of hip-hop, I also thought that Rapaport failed to put into context what made A Tribe Called Quest different from what had come before. I also thought he strangely ignored how the world of rap changed during the early-to-mid nineties and how that effected the group's popularity.

Whatever the shortcomings of the film-making I still found Beats Rhymes & Life to be a consistently engaging movie. While it was not the most academic examination of the group, it did give you a strong sense of their personality and their music. If you have any interest in A Tribe Called Quest, or even if you are a devoted connoisseur of their records, I think you will find a great deal to like about Beats Rhymes & Life. It's not exactly a very good movie...but it is certainly an entertaining one.

Grade: B

Catching up on 2011 - Henry Saw: Cracks

This was made in 2009 but only reached theaters earlier this year. I can understand why no one rushed to get this one out there...


Which is not to say that Cracks is a bad movie. It just fails to resonate and leaves one with the unsatisfying feeling that it was just a few rewrites away from being a really intriguing picture. Despite solid efforts from the cast, and an eerie tone that director Jordan Scott (daughter of Ridley) layers over the entire film, Cracks does not quite come together as a complete movie.

"Set in a strict elite boarding school in the 1930s, the story centers on a clique of girls who idolize their enigmatic swimming instructor, Miss G (Eva Green). When a beautiful Spanish girl named Fiamma Coronna (Valverde) arrives at the school, Miss G's focus is shifted away from the other girls. Di Radfield (Juno Temple) has a crush on Miss G, and is the firm favorite and ringleader of her group. It becomes a triangle: Miss G gets increasingly obsessed with Fiamma, Fiamma is disturbed by Miss G and also openly disgusted by the teacher's hypocrisies and deceptions, and Di is terribly jealous and makes Fiamma's life hell." (Via Wikipedia)



The two films one has to think of when watching Cracks are Heavenly Creatures and Picnic at Hanging Rock. Unfortunately, Jordan Scott's debut feature film lacks the intense passion of the former and the beguiling mystery of the latter. Cracks teases the audience into believing it is telling a nuanced story of deceit and jealousy but sadly unravels into pure melodrama that borders on farcical.

The fault does not lie with the actors. Eva Green is an absolutely captivating screen presence. Not only is she beautiful, but few actresses are as capable of playing a believably intelligent and seductive character as she is. We understand why all her students are so infatuated with her, beyond her inherent sexiness, and Green is even able to sell the sillier aspects of her character as the film progresses. Juno Temple is also effective as the ring leader of her circle of friends. Naive, but trying to act world weary, Temple has a history of playing these kind of characters (Atonement) but only because it is something she does quite well. The rest of the cast fills their roles suitably though Maria Valverde is perhaps slightly out of her league playing the girl that the whole film ends up revolving around.

I wanted to like this movie much more than I did. There just wasn't enough drama to be found in any of the subplots that Scott sets up in the first two-thirds, and then the grim final third ends up feeling awkward and forced rather than creepy or tragic. In the end, Cracks is not a film I can fully recommend. It's interesting, and the pieces are all there for a superior movie, but it never fully comes together.

Grade: C

Best Scene: When Fiamma shows us that Miss G may not have led the adventurous life she would have her girls believe...

Henry Saw: Monogomy and The Ledge

Two bad movies about relationships (among other things)...


The briefest of reviews for two movies that are barely worth our time-



Monogamy:

Let's let Wikipedia provide us with a plot synopsis:

"Monogamy, directed and co-written by Dana Adam Shapiro, is about the strained relationship of an engaged Brooklyn couple, Theo (Chris Messina) and Nat (Rashida Jones). Theo is bored with his job as a wedding photographer—the generic backgrounds, the artificial posing, the stilted newlyweds—so he develops an unconventional side business, called "Gumshoot," a service where clients hire him to stalk them with his camera. Becoming infatuated with one of his clients, a mystery woman who goes by the name Subgirl (Meital Dohan), Theo develops a voyeuristic obsession that forces him to confront uncomfortable truths about himself and his impending marriage."

To get right to the point, Monogamy is a dull and unimpressive film. The tone is completely flat and the movie never gets you remotely interested in Theo and Nat's relationship. Whether it is the brief look at their Brooklyn-hipster lives before Theo starts his Gumshoot service, or the strains that their relationship goes through after Theo becomes more interested in Subgirl than Nat, I never at one point cared what happened to these characters. Dana Adam Shapiro must have assumed that Rashida Jones' natural likability would carry the emotional weight of the film, but even her cute and charming self could not rescue this plodding and detached script.

What makes Monogamy even more frustrating is that the idea of the Gumshoot business is an intriguing one. Obviously playing with some of the same ideas that Hitchcock and De Palma were able to probe to great effect, Shapiro's version of the obsessed voyeur is completely lacking in thrills or subtlety. It doesn't help that his lead Chris Messina seems completely bored by his role. The whole thing plays like a student film, a boring one at that, where despite having a solid premise the director never figured out how to craft an engrossing film around that one idea.

I will say that one positive thing that stood out was the song that Rashida Jones sings multiple times throughout the film. Not only was it catchy, but it reinforced the themes of the movie without being heavy handed. I can also praise the performances from Messina and Jones in their climatic sequence towards the very end of the film. It is the best written scene in the film and the actors were clearly inspired to do their strongest work. Otherwise, Monogamy had nothing to offer this viewer.

Grade: C-

Best Scene: That climatic conversation between Nat and Theo...




The Ledge:

Let's let Wikipedia tell you what this movie's about:

"The movie opens with detective Hollis Lucetti, played by Terrence Howard, receiving the news from a doctor that he has been sterile his entire life. The film quickly switches to Gavin Nichols, an atheist played by Charlie Hunnam, standing on a ledge as if to jump. A small crowd forms below Gavin and Hollis responds to the emergency. The movie then recounts the story of Gavin and his love for Shana, his neighbor's wife played by Liv Tyler. When the neighbor, a fundamentalist Christian named Joe (Patrick Wilson), finds out that Gavin has been sleeping with his wife, he challenged Gavin to a battle of wills. This involved Gavin jumping off a building to prove his love for Shana, despite his disbelief in an afterlife."

Oy.

I said Monogamy felt like a student film...well The Ledge feels like it was written by a pretentious High School senior. It is basically a two hour long treatise on the flaws of fundamental Christianity. What's strange is that I basically agree with a lot of writer/director Matthew Chapman's opinions on the subject. It's just that his film is so poorly written, so ham-handed in its execution, and built around such a silly premise, that even I found myself frustrated and angry at the filmmakers.

The acting is incredibly stilted, like the actors felt awkward delivering the terrible dialogue, and the plot turns (I wouldn't go as far as to call them twists) are silly and completely forced. The direction also shows zero stylistic flourishes and The Ledge does not look any better than your average Law & Order: SVU episode. But it is the screenplay that is the most guilty offender here. The debates the characters have about religion show no nuance and the thriller aspects of the movie are even worse.

Just thinking about the movie is making me angry so I'm gonna end this review here. Don't see The Ledge, it's a mess of a movie, and it almost made me embarrassed to be an atheist.

Grade: D

Best Scene: Ugh...when Charlie Hunnam comforts a maid.

Catching up on 2011 - Henry Saw: The Conspirator

So this was a real stinker


The story of the Lincoln assassination, and the subsequent manhunt and trial that proceeded it, is one of the more intricate and fascinating stories in American history. Unfortunately, The Conspirator is just about the lamest and flattest telling of the tale you can imagine. Every aspect of this film, ranging from the script, to the production design, to the acting is woefully sub-par. There are numerous sequences in The Conspirator that barely rise above the level of the recreation scenes one might see sprinkled throughout a History Channel special. The fact that Robert Redford directed this movie, and it features numerous actors whose work I like and respect, makes the film just that more disappointing.

"In the wake of Abraham Lincoln's assassination, seven men and one woman are arrested and charged with conspiring to kill the President, the Vice-President, and the Secretary of State. The lone woman charged, Mary Surratt, 42, owns a boarding house where John Wilkes Booth and others met and planned the simultaneous attacks. Against the ominous back-drop of post-Civil War Washington, newly-minted lawyer, Frederick Aiken, a 28-year-old Union war-hero, reluctantly agrees to defend Surratt before a military tribunal. As the trial unfolds, Aiken realizes his client may be innocent and that she is being used as bait and hostage in order to capture the only conspirator to have escaped a massive manhunt, her own son." (Via IMDB)



If this was just a boring and spiritless movie that would be one thing. There have been a lot of dry period pieces before, and will be plenty more in the future, but The Conspirator is actually just kind of pathetic. To take such an interesting and pivotal episdoe in American history, and produce this...it almost boggles the mind. Redford fails to stage any interesting sequences, even the recreation of the three fold assassination attempts on Lincoln, Johnson, and Seward falls completely flat. The rest of the movie just exists as an opportunity for Redford to reveal his views about the abuse of power by the government and draw lame parallels to current political hot buttons (even in this the film feels dated by a few years).

The cast, though theoretically impressive, are all wasted and all look out of place. Kevin Kline is comically bad as a maniacal version of Edwin Stanton, Tom Wilkinson is given nothing to work with and just sort of sleep walks through his scenes, and only god knows what Justin Long is doing in this movie. The two leads, Robin Wright Penn as Mary Surratt herself, and James McAvoy as her lawyer Frederick Aiken, do their best but also fall far short. Penn is just dull in her underwritten and one dimensional role while McAvoy seems to be trying to use all his acting tricks to save the movie but his performance ends up feeling off-kilter and unfocused.



I'm always down for a solid and dramatic period piece, and sometimes even a mediocre and melodramatic one, but The Conspirator can't even live up to that low standard. It's a flat out bad movie, and it's pedigree just makes it all the worse.

Grade: D

Best Scene: The early scene showing McAvoy attending a party near the end of the war.

Henry Saw: Cars 2 and Rango

An unexpected delight and Pixar's first true failure...




Rango:

After the disasters that were the last two Pirates of the Caribbean films, I was not at all interested in seeing director Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp team up again. Even when Rango got some very positive reviews from critics I trust I thought it looked obnoxious and derivative. I was completely wrong. Rango is a wholly original, lovingly made, and totally unique romp. Filled with knowing humor and joyfully irreverent plot turns, Rango is one of the coolest movies to be released in 2011.

"From the director of 'The Pirates of the Caribbean' comes 'Rango,' featuring Johnny Depp in an original animated comedy-adventure that takes moviegoers for a hilarious and heartfelt walk in the Wild West. The story follows the comical, transformative journey of Rango (Depp), a sheltered chameleon living as an ordinary family pet, while facing a major identity crisis. After all, how high can you aim when your whole purpose in life is to blend in? When Rango accidentally winds up in the gritty, gun-slinging town of Dirt -- a lawless outpost populated by the desert's most wily and whimsical creatures -- the less-than-courageous lizard suddenly finds he stands out. Welcomed as the last hope the town has been waiting for, new Sheriff Rango is forced to play his new role to the hilt...until, in a blaze of action-packed situations and encounters with outrageous characters, Rango starts to become the hero he once only pretended to be." (Via Moviefone)

Rango plays as a love letter to both classic westerns and the surreal works of Terry Gilliam, Hunter S. Thompson, and Carlos Castaneda. It's a strange blend for a children's film, and I'm honestly not sure how much Verbinski cared about entertaining kids, but I personally really enjoyed his film. It looks like no other CGI film I've ever seen before, the animals and world are animated in an exaggerated but photo realistic manner, and Verbinski uses his blockbuster pedigree to craft some truly exciting action scenes.

Rango is also buoyed by Johnny Depp's best performance in years. Verbinski, taking a page out of Wes Anderson's book, filmed his actors acting out each scene and then had his animators use that footage to create the film. That technique works even better here than it did for Anderson's The Talented Mr. Fox. Rango really feels like a Johnny Depp character, but unlike his recent garish performances in Alice and Wonderland or the fourth Pirates film, has a sense of spirit and inspiration that those roles utterly lacked. The rest of the cast, which includes Isla Fisher, Bill Nighy, and Timothy Olyphant, are all perfectly utilized and you can tell the actors loved playing their parts.

Rango is a real pleasure. Anyone who enjoys spaghetti westerns, kooky and hip children's films, or the movie Chinatown (you'll know why when you watch it) should seek out Rango. There is a controlled chaos to the movie that I found completely engrossing. While the movie might be a little too long, and not all of the jokes hit their mark, I would still say that Rango is by far the best animated film of the year.

Which brings us to our next review...



Cars 2:

It was inevitable. We knew it was coming, and some of us predicted it would be this year, but it is still kind of sad. Eventually, Pixar was going to have to make a bad movie. In the history of cinema there have been few runs that can compare to what Pixar accomplished from 1995-20110. From Toy Story, to the The Incredibles, to Wall*E, to Toy Story 3, Pixar's films have been so exemplary that they have changed how American critics and audiences view and discuss animated films. And though there have been some Pixar movies I didn't connect with, both Ratatouille and Toy Story 2 are films whose charms escaped me, I still think they are both excellently made and worthy of all the praise they received. In fact, the only movie Pixar ever released that I would have described as sub-par was the original Cars, a movie I found boring and uninspired, but it was not without its admirable qualities.

Which brings us to Cars 2...which is a terrible film. An awful, obnoxious, and ugly movie. At least the first Cars was earnest and made with the very best of intentions. Cars 2 feels like a soulless product that was made with no creative burst behind it save a desire to make money. If it was made by any other studio it would be easier to dismiss, but Pixar has set the bar so high for itself that Cars 2 is an especially depressing experience.

"Star race car Lightning McQueen and his pal Mater head overseas to compete in the World Grand Prix race. But the road to the championship becomes rocky as Mater gets caught up in an intriguing adventure of his own: international espionage." (Via IMDB)

I really have very little to say about this movie. It is a disposable and irritating waste of time. None of the humor works, the awkward car puns are plentiful and painful, and the movie is centered around the annoying sidekick character of Mater (voiced by Larry the Cable Guy). The driving scenes are dull and predictable, the espionage plot is actually just hard to follow, and the movie's message is highly questionable. I really kind of despised Cars 2, something I never thought I would say about a Pixar film, but then again...I guess it was inevitable.

'Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away'

Let's hope Pixar can rally back next year with their first fairy tale picture Brave.


Rango: B+

Cars 2: D