Let's be honest here--probably six months from now I will have forgotten I saw this ( and I only saw it because I was chaperoning a school trip and didn't want to have to endure "Get Hard"), but I am a sucker for heist films and this does have some clever moments, particularly a set-piece at the Super Bowl featuring the much-underrated B.D. Wong. In addition, Will Smith does indeed have some acting chops, and he and Margot Robbie do have chemistry. I did see the end coming from a million miles away, though, which is always a bummer with heist movies, the good one's having one last twist, Props to Gerald McCrenay, though, such a go-to slime ball.
Reviews
4 Reviews
Beauty and the Beast
(1946)
Film Magic
18 April 2015
This really is an astonishing film, especially when one considers what a shambles the French film industry was in in 1946. What fascinates me most is that the special effects that suffuse the picture, archaic by our current standards, by the very nature of their DIY quality, gives the film a sort of insane dream logic that is ultimately irresistible. Add to this the almost- balletic presentational acting style adopted by the cast, and it is clear that we have entered the realm of the unconscious where fairy tales most comfortably reside. The Beast's makeup is also pretty damn-astonishing considering the era. Finally, I recommend watching this with the soundtrack to the Phillip Glass opera based on the film for added effect.
High and Low
(1963)
Gritty 60's Japan
1 March 2015
I have long been convinced that the best film adaptations are when filmmakers take pulpy works--The Godfather, Jaws, etc.--and invest them with greater meaning. Exhibit A could certainly be this Kurosawa classic, based on Ed McBain's "King's Ransom", which takes a rather straightforward police procedural and transforms it into a powerful examination of moral culpability and the toxic effects of poverty. What I like most about this film--besides the gorgeous wide-angle compositions--is the deliberateness of it; Kurasowa never rushes as he follows the police tracking their quarry, a refreshing change of pace from the frenetic quality of so many movies today.
Mother Night
(1996)
A nice try
18 February 2015
Given the track-record for adaptations of Vonnegut novels, I was pleasantly surprised at how faithful this film is to the original source material (with one glaring and near-fatal exception near the end). It is also handsomely-made and features fine performances from everyone involved, especially Nick Nolte. The problem is that the tone is all wrong. The power of Vonnegut's novel is its black humor, which is completely lacking here; in the novel, Howard W. Campbell's story, despite being rooted in WWII and the Holocaust, is a farce that ultimately brims over with moral outrage; here is it more of a arty tragedy.
Tell Your Friends