Ep. 2, MRwOS (Movie Reviews with Original Songs) - Dune, Part 2/ In Your Blue Eyes

 

If you liked Dune, Part 1, you'll LOVE Dune, Part 2!

Comic Book Stuff...

So, I used to be a huge comic book buff (I suppose I still am, but I can't quite afford the habit anymore). Check out this episode of the Rocky Mountain Geek Tank to hear me wax rhapsodically about them.

P.S. - I wrote the theme song for the show...

What's Wrong With Cinematic Comedy?

So, I went to see Office Christmas Party. I really like all the actors involved, and the basic premise sounded cool, but it ended up being just another mildly amusing film comedy. It had some good energy at times, but it never really got as bawdy or as outrageous as would've been nice. It was fun without really being funny.

But it got me thinking-- what's wrong with big screen comedies, anyway? On television you have sitcoms that go through season long arcs being absolutely hilarious, while 90 minute movies can't seem to make it through the third act without some hokey car chase or criminal hijinks that turn the film into a thriller for some reason. You'd think all those great TV joke writers would have screenplays lying around, but the good stuff doesn't seem to be making it to the silver screen.

I don't mean to say there aren't good film comedies out there, but they're often good for reasons other than their humor. This is especially true of indie comedies, which are really more light-hearted dramas. I loved Hello, My Name Is Doris and liked and respected Don't Think Twice, but I don't recall guffawing. I guess most animated films are technically comedies, and many of them are excellent, but more for their whimsical storytelling than for how funny they are. And, of course, when you do get a "good" comedy, it's often because they throw so many jokes at you that at least some have to hit, if only because it's a statistical certainty (this is the situation with most Will Ferrell films).

What bothers me is that we're actually going through a comedy renaissance right now. Louie, BoJack Horseman, Broad City, Rick and Morty, People of Earth, You're the Worst-- all of these sitcoms are funnier than any film comedy I can think of from the last few years. We also have a host of podcasts, talk shows and sketch comedy programs floating around that are consistently laugh-out-loud funny. Why is the movie industry lagging behind?

I'm open to being convinced I'm wrong on this. If you know of any gut-bustingly funny film comedies from the last five years, please post them in the comments section.

Short Movie Reviews (In which I reluctantly admit that Ethan Hawke and Kate Beckinsale do some great work)

I've never been a big Ethan Hawke fan. Maybe it's his public persona, or maybe it's the roles he chooses, but I've always avoided seeing his films. But, like Tom Cruise with blockbusters, he's become an actor I reluctantly associate with high quality indie films. A short list of more-than-excellent films he's been in: Predestination, The Purge, Sinister, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, and, of course, Dead Poet's Society. I may have my reservations about him, but some great directors do not, most notably Richard Linklater. Linklater and Hawke have teamed up for seven films, by my count, and most of them have been amazing.

Probably their best collaboration has been the Before Sunrise series, which details the repeat encounters between Jesse and Celine (Hawke and Julie Delpy, respectively), each separated by nine years. I've seen these in completely the wrong order. I started with the most recent one Before Midnight (2013), which completely bowled me over-- despite the movie being just one long conversation, it was mesmerizing. So I decided to check out the original film, Before Sunrise (1995), which I was a little disappointed by. It's the same structure, but the discussion topics felt a lot more juvenile... but juvenile in exactly the way I was at that age. If I had watched that film when it first came out, I probably would've fallen in love with it. So, this week I finally finished the trilogy and watched the middle film, Before Sunset (2004), which I found to be nearly as brilliant as Before Midnight. I like dialogue, but I think a lot of films over do it, or try too hard to be clever, but this series manages to capture the charm and poetry of an inspired conversation-- the type you have with a new lover or a best friend, the kind that you never want to stop. I can't wait for the 2022 sequel, Before Noon/Dawn/Twilight/Tea Time/Whatever...

But Ethan Hawke's stamp of quality goes beyond Linklater films. He stars with Greta Gerwig and Julianne Moore in the lovably quirky Maggie's Plan (2015) about a young woman who poaches another woman's husband, then schemes to give him back. This is more your typical indie comedy, with quirky-rather-than-funny characters and plot contrivances, but Gerwig is always charming, Moore is very fun with a French accent, and Hawke is always best when he's playing a cad.

Gerwig is an indie film darling and has been associated with several great directors, too. One of them is Whit Stillman, who is one of the best writer-directors of dialogue in the business. His last film, Damsels in Distress (starring Gerwig) was a bit of a disappointment, but he's back in top form with Love & Friendship (2016), an adaptation of Jane Austen's novella, Lady Susan. Kate Beckinsale stars as Lady Susan and gives a riveting performance as a scheming society woman. Nothing I've seen her do before suggested she could be this nimble and convincing with dense dialogue (not even her previous collaboration with Stillman, The Last Days of Disco), but she whips out the words with gusto. The film is quick witted and cutting and I thoroughly enjoyed it-- probably the most fun I've ever had watching Jane Austen on screen.

88th Academy Awards: Dave's Breakdown and Picks

The most prestigious awards in filmdom will be handed out Sunday night. I didn't get to see as many of the nominated films as I would have liked, but I did manage to see all eight Best Picture contenders (not among them is my favorite film from 2015, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl). Below I give a detailed ranking of the Best Picture nominees, along with my picks for some of the other major categories (my favorites will be bolded in italics and nominees from films which I failed to see will have a strike-through). 

Best Picture: 

Spotlight - Some films get nominated not because they're especially well done, but because they touch on important topics. This year Spotlight is that film. It's competently directed and the acting is solid, but it doesn't even stand out as a great entry in its own genre.

The Martian - I love the trend of hard sci-fi films becoming blockbusters, and The Martian was a very entertaining film. The film was inspiring, but not really awe-inspiring, and hardly ground-breaking. Plus, the previously nominated Gravity was a much better film, and it didn't win.

Bridge of Spies - Stephen Spielberg and Tom Hanks teamed up to prove that they're the Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart of their generation. While I appreciated the sure hands of the Hollywood veterans, there was probably a bit too much schmaltz for it to be the best picture of the year.

Room - Room had great performances, sophisticated direction and touched on an important issue. The biggest knock against it is that it's in no way an entertaining film. If it's not too depressing to win an Oscar, it's indie sensibilities are enough to sink it.

The Big Short - In some ways, this is the artiest film of the bunch. The story is disjointed, non-linear, it breaks the 4th wall several times, and it also aims to inform its audience. It's like a documentary with very entertaining dramatizations littered throughout. I greatly admired The Big Short, and I think it's an important film, but it's too far outside of the Oscar norm to get the statue.

Brooklyn - What makes Brooklyn great is also what makes it an Oscar loser. It's completely lacking in flash or melodrama. The acting is focused and restrained. The most entertaining scenes take place during discussions at dinner tables. It feels like a real story about real people, with all the twists and turns that real life musters. It's a near flawless film, but it doesn't demand attention, and that's why it won't win the award.

Mad Max: Fury Road - Yes, it's a post-apocalyptic chase movie, but make no mistake-- this is a brilliant film that will stand the test of time. No other film looked better last year, and no other film had such brutally efficient storytelling. It even had a focus on women's rights, which created quite a stir when it was released last summer. It would probably win if not for the fact that it's a post-apocalyptic chase movie...

The Revenant - No director has ever had two films win back-to-back Best Picture awards, but I think it's going to happen this year. Birdman was a pretty artsy film to win the award in 2015, and Alejandro Inarritu's follow-up is in the same vein. There are several scenes in the film that will wow the audience, and it succeeds both on technical and dramatic merits. Unlike Fury Road, The Revenant is a slow and ponderous with punctuated scenes of great intensity; despite some very violent moments, it is full of beautiful and poetic imagery. Of the nominees, it's probably touches on the fewest socially important topics, but somehow it feels more important than all of them. It may not be the best film of the year, but it's pretty damn good, and worthy of being an Oscar winner.

Best Director: Aside from Tom McCarthy, I think all the nominees in this category did brilliant jobs. Still, I suspect the Academy will reward Inarritu as Director along with Best Picture.

Alejandro G. Inarritu (The Revenant)

Adam McKay (The Big Short)

George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road)

Lenny Abrahamson (Room)

Tom McCarthy (Spotlight)

Best Actor: I didn't see some of the performances in this category, but I was completely charmed by Bryan Cranston's portrayal of Dalton Trumbo during the Hollywood blacklist era. Matt Damon was great in the most Matt Damon role ever, but his performance didn't go beyond that. And, honestly, I don't think DiCaprio should get an Oscar for breathing heavily for 3 hours.

Bryan Cranston (Trumbo)

Matt Damon (The Martian)

Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant)

Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs)

Eddie Redmayne (The Danish Girl)

Best Actress: I saw even fewer performances in this category, but I'd love to see Saoirse Ronan win for a subtle, nuanced performance in a category that can over-celebrate flashy roles.

Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn)

Brie Larson (Room)

Cate Blanchett (Carol)

Jennifer Lawrence (Joy)

Charlotte Rampling (45 Years)

Best Supporting Actor: Sylvestor Stallone was great in Creed, but if he wins it's for nostalgia only-- everybody else in this category was better than him. Christian Bale was overly mannered and Mark Ruffalo was nothing special. Mark Rylance did an exceptional job in the Bridge of Spies, but I really think the Tom Hardy should win-- his performance in The Revenant was so casually amazing, it's one of the reasons it deserves to win Best Picture.

Tom Hardy (The Revenant)

Christian Bale (The Big Short)

Mark Ruffalo (Spotlight)

Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies)

Sylvester Stallone (Creed)

Best Original Screenplay: Bridge of Spies had really great dialogue, and a tight structure. The other scripts had great concepts, but didn't seem as well executed.

Bridge of Spies 

Ex Machina

Inside Out

Spotlight

Straight Outta Compton

Best Adapted Screenplay: If there was ever a film that felt like it came from a book, it's Brooklyn. The other nominees were wonderful, but Brooklyn's script was perfect.

Brooklyn

The Big Short

The Martian

Room

Carol

Best Production Design: The production design in Fury Road was just awe-inspiring. Its post-apocalyptic world was fully realized and believable, and it made the film.

Mad Max: Fury Road

Bridge of Spies

The Martian

The Revenant

The Danish Girl

Best Film Editing: The Revenant deserves praise for its hide-the-cuts approach to filmmaking, but everything that made The Big Short work was how it was edited. 

The Big Short

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Revenant

Spotlight

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best Visual Effects: Some of the effects in Ex Machina and The Martian looked cheap to me, and some in The Force Awakens were too damn cartoony. Fury Road probably has better visual effects throughout the film, but nothing beats the bear attack in The Revenant.

The Revenant

Ex Machina

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Martian

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

How Winning An Oscar Affects An Actor's Career

I thought this was a very interesting article about how winning an Oscar affects the quality of the films an actor makes afterward. Who's the Oscar winner that disappoints you most?
And The Award For Worst Career After An Oscar Goes To...

Oscar, Baby!!!

This morning they announced the nominees for the 2016 Academy Awards! Considering how few films I saw this year (compared to other years), I'm surprised that there are only two Best Picture nominees that I've missed so far: "The Big Short" and "Room". My goal every year is the see all the Best Picture nominees before the nominations come out, but since they've expanded the category, I've had a hard time doing it. But I should be able to get them in before the ceremony on February 28th.

I'll reserve making listing my picks until I've seen those last two films, but what do you think? Do you have any films or actors you're pulling for? Let me know in the comments section.

My Favorite Films of 2014

Happy New Year!

Most years I see well over a hundred films, but in 2014 I saw only about fifty.  Part of this was due to a tighter budget, but the biggest issue was that my local movie theater was torn down, making it a lengthy drive just to get to a mainstream theater.  There's no proper art theater in the area, so I didn't have access to many indie or foreign films unless I made a gas-busting trip to Denver.  I am one of the lucky few to still have a video rental place in the neighborhood, which allowed me to pick up the slack somewhat, even though their selection is rather dismal.

But I somehow still managed to see a lot of great films, at least enough to fill a year end Top 10 list... albeit with a few more blockbusters than usual.

Top 10 Films Released in 2014

1) Chef - John Favreau's best film is a fun and heartfelt father-son road trip that'll leave you craving a Cuban sandwich.

2) Guardians of the Galaxy - It made the 13 year old boy in me laugh, cry and cheer.  For several weeks during the summer, this was the only movie I was willing to see.

3) Captain America: The Winter Soldier - Whether or not you like Superheroes, this movie was an exercise in tight, efficient storytelling.  Genre filmmaking at its best.

4) Nightcrawler - Jake Gyllenhaal plays my favorite sociopath of 2014 in this creepy film about our thirst for sensationalism.

5) Calvary - What good is a priest when no one respects the Catholic Church?  I don't know the answer, but this film asks the question in a powerful and entertaining way.

6) Tim's Vermeer - How did Vermeer paint his masterpieces?  I still don't know, but in trying to find out, this film makes the case that its protagonist is just as brilliant as the Dutch artist.

7) The Grand Budapest Hotel - The most Wes-Andersony Wes Anderson film yet!

8) Gone Girl - The best non-Hitchcock Hitchcock film since Raimi's A Simple Plan.

9) Locke - Watching Tom Hardy make phone calls in his car has never been so riveting.

10) Edge of Tomorrow - Another example of extremely tight storytelling; Tom Cruise successfully brings video game plot structure to Hollywood.

***

Top 5 Films Seen In But Not Released in 2014

1) John Dies at the End - Gotta love them metaphysical, horror-comedies.

2) Under the Skin - Get inside the head of a space alien exploiting Earthlings here.

3) Definitely, Maybe - Maybe the best rom-com puzzle picture I've ever seen.

4) Bad Words - This movie is rude so I don't have to be.

5) Byzantium - Neil Jordan's best vampire film since Interview With The Vampire.

Ultron: Legacy

Marvel recently released the official synopsis to next year's super sequel, Avengers: Age of Ultron.  In the film, Tony Stark accidentally creates Ultron, an artificial intelligence bent on destroying mankind!

I liked C-3PO better in yellow.

I'd like to point out that this is not the first -tron problem that Tony Stark has dealt with.  In the first Iron Man film, Obadiah Stane tries to steal the Iron Man technology and take over Stark Industries.  Pretty straight forward, until you consider the actor cast as Obadiah Stane: Jeff Bridges.

"I just want my Creedence tapes, man..."

In 1982, Jeff Bridges starred in a science fiction film called Tron.  In it, Bridges plays Flynn, a genius software engineer who had some successful video games stolen by a character named Dillinger, who ended up becoming CEO of a major tech company whereas Flynn lost his job.  In the process of hacking Dillinger's files to prove he created the video games, Flynn gets turned into a computer program where he meets another program that bears the likeness of Dillinger, and that goes by the name of Sark.

Hmm... Dillinger is Sark and "Sark" is "Stark" without the "t" and Jeff Bridges tries to steal intellectual property from both Sark and Stark-- coincidence?  I think not!  After doing some careful research involving deep, spiritual meditation and a strict diet of chocolate peanut-butter ice cream, I can now reveal the true connection between Tron and Iron Man.

First, it's important to clarify the characters at play here:

Kevin Flynn = Obadiah Stane 

Ed Dillinger/Sark = Howard Stark (Tony Stark's father)

If you ignore facial hair, this all makes perfect sense.

When they were younger, there was some dispute between Flynn/Stane and the elder Dillinger/Stark, and Tron is Flynn/Stane's version of that conflict.  Flynn/Stane believed that he hadn't received enough credit for his innovations, sabotaged Dillinger/Stark's computer system, and then took over the company.

But here's the catch.  Even in Tron, with a very biased portrayal of Dillinger/Stark, has him being a bit of a genius-- after all, he creates the Master Control Program (MCP), a form of artificial intelligence that threatens to take over the computer systems on both sides of the Cold War.  Even if it was an accident, Dillinger/Stark created something that was more advanced than anything that had come before.  Plus, his company had developed a way to transport physical objects directly into a computer program-- also crazy ingenious.  Maybe Dillinger/Stark didn't create some popular video games, but he created technology that was actually much more significant.

All the circuits are made out of cotton candy, too.

At the end of Tron, we see Flynn/Stane taking over the company after unveiling evidence of Dillinger/Stark's IP theft.  But I think this is more the Flynn/Stane fever dream being presented.  The real story is that Flynn/Stane, recognizing Dillinger/Stark's inventive genius and value to the company, opted to use the evidence to blackmail Dillinger/Stark.  Dillinger/Stark remained the titular head of the company, while Flynn/Stane became the operative head of the company, pulling strings behind the scenes.

One of these two men isn't smiling.

But Flynn/Stane's plan unraveled once Dillinger/Stark died in a car crash.  Instead of being given control of the company, Flynn/Stane is passed over in favor of the young Tony Stark, who's even more ingenious than his father.  After repeated face palms that ultimately leave him bald, Flynn/Stane, having now lost his leverage, starts plotting the demise of Tony Stark... which leads us to the events of Iron Man.

Their slacks are sewn together in this picture.

But wait-- there's more!  In Iron Man 2, Ivan Vanko claims that Howard Stark stole credit for his invention, the arc reactor.  Though Nick Fury disputes that claim, saying daddy Stark co-invented it, it provides evidence to the idea that Dillinger/Stark is a dirty, thieving bastard, even if he's ingenious in his own right.

He also stole Vanko's clothes.

Anyway, now that we know what's happening in the upcoming Avengers sequel, it's become clear how the Tron roots continue.  After the events of the first Avengers movie, Stark has been looking to create an artificial intelligence to help protect the world from alien invasion or whatever.  Having delved into his father's past, he must have found evidence of the MCP that got out of control.  Being the cocky bastard that he is, Stark decides to fix the MCP by mixing it with the Tron program that had helped deactivate it previously, and he uses that AI to control his new army of robot protectors.  But the MCP can't be suppressed so easily and co-opts the Tron program, turning itself into Ultron, the machine willing to kill humanity in order to save it!

The future will be worn with sensible shoes.

So, okay, Tron had an official sequel in 2010 with Tron: Legacy, but it was a load of crap.  I'm much more interested in watching the continuing real Tron sequel in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Excelsior!