I didn't see The Cabin in the Woods, so I finally had to catch The Avengers, just to keep my Joss Whedon Continuing Education credits current.
Chases, explosions and city-demolishing action are lost on me, so I have no opinion about those, but I found the characters likable and appreciated the humorous dialogue.
There's not much to say about this romp. It was fun, not deep. So, I'll just point out things that left me with questions.
I was not familiar with Tom Hiddleston going in and I found him especially good as the villain Loki. He's the bad guy up against 6 superheroes, so we know he's going to lose very badly (but oddly enough they don't kill him, I suppose out of deference to his brother Thor) and he's often made a buffoon. The script lets him puff up his arrogance just to make the inevitable deflation fun, so it would be easy for him to come off as weak or ineffectual. But he's not. He's never really threatening, but the movie is as much a battle of wits (or witty) as it is a battle of brawn. On that score, the polished Loki can hold his own against the other 6.
I knew a fair amount about The Hulk's origin story from the old Bill Bixby television series, but I still don't understand how much control Bannon's brain has over the monster. I suppose it's clear that he will destroy anyone who is around when there are slim pickings, but it seems that if he has a crowd of victims to choose from, Hulk goes after the bad guys first and helps his allies. Plus, he's cerebral enough to understand Loki's archaic ramblings, grunting that Loki is a "puny giant," after humorously pounding the villain like a ragdoll, to quickly end a proud speech exalting the superiority of Gods.
Hulk seems to understand and make choices fairly well. How unbridled is this beast really? Sure, after quelling all of their enemies temporarily, Hulk hauls off and punches Thor for lack of anything better to do (which reminded me of a hilarious Buffy scene when Angel, soul intact, slugs Xander declaring, "that guy just bugs me."), but he also actually rescues Ironman and screams in frustration (or grief) when it seems that Stark is dead. He was definitely controlling his violence to some extent. I don't know if this means the writer cheated a bit or if Hulk is really more complex than I thought.
I was also surprised that Hulk doesn't just jump really high. He actually flies for all intent and purposes.
This was my first time seeing Cobie Smulders outside of How I Met Your Mother. She slimmed down for the role and is sporting a sleek, futuristic haircut. Though her role was small, it was substantive and her character survived, so there's hope she'll make the sequel. Nice going for her.
Captain America was frozen for 70 years, yet when he and Stark meet, he doesn't seem to be completely unaware of who Stark is and Stark knows him too. It's almost like they have a history (did they develop one in some movie that I missed?). Stark mentions that his father idolized Captain America, so maybe he only knows the man's legend, but it seemed like they had been rivals in the past. I better go watch the last Ironman movie, to see what is eluding me.
I think it's ridiculous that Pepper didn't pick up her cell phone when Tony was calling to say goodbye, right at the end of his suicide mission. She knows him and the chances he takes. She knows that he is just the type of person who would try to get a message to her even while hurtling towards death. It would be not be a time for her to let it go to voicemail.
I know nothing about the backstories for Hawkeye and The Black Widow and found myself wanting to know more about their relationship. So, that would be a spinoff movie that I'm up for.
During all of the fighting, we saw the K fall off of the giant STARK building. I loved the ending where all but one letter has been destroyed. The "A" remains for Avengers. Nice way to end with the title.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Saturday, July 7, 2012
The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
In most Comic Book hero movies you gave a 10 minute synopsis of the back history and then Krypton is forgotten altogether and Superman and Lex Luthor spend the next 90 minutes fighting to the death.
This time around, Spiderman's creation takes up a full hour of the movie. This film is even more beginny than Batman Begins was. We don't just see Peter Parker lose his uncle, we see the first goodbyes that shape his life, as his clandestine parents make a hasty departure, never to be seen again. Then, we enter John Hughes' territory and follow Peter's geeky travails in High School, where he's pummeled by the bully Flash and smitten by the caring Gwen. By the time he's actually bitten by the radioactive spider, we're more concerned with his feelings than with his new powers.
Even after he perfects the web-swinging and costume, the audience sees and hears, a boy in a mask, not the burgeoning legend. Superman never becomes a stately, deep-voiced hero in this film. Andrew Garfield is an engaging lead. Even though the actor is 28, he's credible as a teen, his shyly bowed head more believable than Spider-man's derring do.
Even before he got his spidey-senses, Peter was always a protector. Intervening when he saw schoolmates humiliated or misused, though he couldn't protect himself, much less others. He trespasses into a genetic testing facility and is bitten by a bionic spider more robot than insect. From there, his superhuman powers begin to emerge and humor ensues as he struggles to control, then perfect them.
At school, the newly invincible Peter puts the old bully Flash in his place. Curiously, he is scolded by his uncle for doing so. Ben asks if Flash is the same person who punched Peter. Peter says he is and Ben scolds that getting revenge on Flash must have made Peter feel proud. Well, what if it did? Why shouldn't revenge on a bully feel good. Ben may be worried that Peter has turned into a bully himself, but he never asked Peter why Flash hit him in the first place. It was because Peter wouldn't let Flash abuse others. He got beat up for doing right when he was a weakling and, after he gained super powers, he still didn't use them to dominate Flash until after Flash, again, terrorized a third person. Peter did not pick on Flash for self-gratification as Ben, unreasonably, assumes that he has.
Nothing in the boy's (mostly polite) behavior at home would have given Ben that impression of Peter. But I guess the plot won't get furthered unless Ben jumps to such conclusions. He lectures Peter until he feels alienated and falsely accused. Petulant Peter then fails to stop a robber at a convenience store and the free robber ultimately ends up shooting Uncle Ben. Focused on revenge, Peter anonymizes himself as Spider-man and becomes the city's vigilante, hunting down criminals.
It is Gwen's father, the police chief who makes Peter realize that in focusing on hurting the criminal, rather than helping the innocent, Super-man could, arguably, be causing more harm than good. Once his knowledge hits him, it's easy for Peter to choose saving a life over torturing the bad guy. But this is something that Peter already practicing in school with Flash, before he became part spider. Uncle Ben only wrongly accused him of doing less.
From there, Peter's attention turns to fighting a giant lizard, created by the man turned mad scientist who had once mentored both Peter and Gwen. In the end, with PG-13 rated ease, graditude, loyalty and a communal sense of good do as much to save the day as Spider-man. "Poor Peter Parker, all alone. No father, no mother, no uncle" the Lizard villain taunts. "He's not alone," Gwen's father responds, helping the ailing Peter to victory, before losing his own life.
Predictably, Gwen's father makes Peter promise to stay away from Gwen, for her safety, with his dying breath. Peter agrees and duly avoids the heart broken Gwen, who must face her father's funeral without him. However, sitting in a class room together, Peter murmurs to a wooden Gwen that the best promises are meant to be broken and we know the two won't stay apart for long.
So, the first chapter in this Spider-man reboot ends with our hero still in school, still learning, but with a promising future of sequels ahead of him. Hopefully, that promise is one that won't be broken.
Musings: I can't believe the director's name is truly Marc Webb? Tell me he changed it just for this movie!
This time around, Spiderman's creation takes up a full hour of the movie. This film is even more beginny than Batman Begins was. We don't just see Peter Parker lose his uncle, we see the first goodbyes that shape his life, as his clandestine parents make a hasty departure, never to be seen again. Then, we enter John Hughes' territory and follow Peter's geeky travails in High School, where he's pummeled by the bully Flash and smitten by the caring Gwen. By the time he's actually bitten by the radioactive spider, we're more concerned with his feelings than with his new powers.
Even after he perfects the web-swinging and costume, the audience sees and hears, a boy in a mask, not the burgeoning legend. Superman never becomes a stately, deep-voiced hero in this film. Andrew Garfield is an engaging lead. Even though the actor is 28, he's credible as a teen, his shyly bowed head more believable than Spider-man's derring do.
Even before he got his spidey-senses, Peter was always a protector. Intervening when he saw schoolmates humiliated or misused, though he couldn't protect himself, much less others. He trespasses into a genetic testing facility and is bitten by a bionic spider more robot than insect. From there, his superhuman powers begin to emerge and humor ensues as he struggles to control, then perfect them.
At school, the newly invincible Peter puts the old bully Flash in his place. Curiously, he is scolded by his uncle for doing so. Ben asks if Flash is the same person who punched Peter. Peter says he is and Ben scolds that getting revenge on Flash must have made Peter feel proud. Well, what if it did? Why shouldn't revenge on a bully feel good. Ben may be worried that Peter has turned into a bully himself, but he never asked Peter why Flash hit him in the first place. It was because Peter wouldn't let Flash abuse others. He got beat up for doing right when he was a weakling and, after he gained super powers, he still didn't use them to dominate Flash until after Flash, again, terrorized a third person. Peter did not pick on Flash for self-gratification as Ben, unreasonably, assumes that he has.
Nothing in the boy's (mostly polite) behavior at home would have given Ben that impression of Peter. But I guess the plot won't get furthered unless Ben jumps to such conclusions. He lectures Peter until he feels alienated and falsely accused. Petulant Peter then fails to stop a robber at a convenience store and the free robber ultimately ends up shooting Uncle Ben. Focused on revenge, Peter anonymizes himself as Spider-man and becomes the city's vigilante, hunting down criminals.
It is Gwen's father, the police chief who makes Peter realize that in focusing on hurting the criminal, rather than helping the innocent, Super-man could, arguably, be causing more harm than good. Once his knowledge hits him, it's easy for Peter to choose saving a life over torturing the bad guy. But this is something that Peter already practicing in school with Flash, before he became part spider. Uncle Ben only wrongly accused him of doing less.
From there, Peter's attention turns to fighting a giant lizard, created by the man turned mad scientist who had once mentored both Peter and Gwen. In the end, with PG-13 rated ease, graditude, loyalty and a communal sense of good do as much to save the day as Spider-man. "Poor Peter Parker, all alone. No father, no mother, no uncle" the Lizard villain taunts. "He's not alone," Gwen's father responds, helping the ailing Peter to victory, before losing his own life.
Predictably, Gwen's father makes Peter promise to stay away from Gwen, for her safety, with his dying breath. Peter agrees and duly avoids the heart broken Gwen, who must face her father's funeral without him. However, sitting in a class room together, Peter murmurs to a wooden Gwen that the best promises are meant to be broken and we know the two won't stay apart for long.
So, the first chapter in this Spider-man reboot ends with our hero still in school, still learning, but with a promising future of sequels ahead of him. Hopefully, that promise is one that won't be broken.
Musings: I can't believe the director's name is truly Marc Webb? Tell me he changed it just for this movie!
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
I can't believe this movie is considered a comedy classic. I barely laughed and I have no hopes that the sequel will be anything but pathetic. While I would never say that a Judd Apatow movie would be on my Top Ten list of things to watch in the first place, I found this one less entertaining than most.
The only things that got a chuckle were:
1. The group's rendition of Afternoon Delight -- and that's only because I like the song and, while the writers thought it was funny, I actually found the harmonies quite pleasant.
2. Ferrell's phone booth melt down over the (apparent) death of his dog at Jack Black's hands.
3. The news team brawl, with Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn Ben Stiller and Tim Robbins heading the other networks.
4. The news team photo shoot where Ron's old colleagues refused to look in the same direction that Veronica did for the photo, to show their solidarity with him. A small, but wacky moment.
Other than that, I found the movie one big snooze. Coming the year after Old School, if I'd seen it when it was new, I probably would have expected to like it as much, given the similar cast and I would have been quite disappointed.
Maybe it's the fact that it's supposed to be a period film and the whole idea of laughing simply at the contrast between our generation and the one before it seems, well, outdated and that eliminated 50% of the film's so called comedy for me. Ron Burgundy's red jacket and Veronica's skirt suit (with vest) just don't provide humor in and of themselves. So, if they set it in the past just so we could titter because people still used typewriters back then -- it wasn't really that funny.
The only things that got a chuckle were:
1. The group's rendition of Afternoon Delight -- and that's only because I like the song and, while the writers thought it was funny, I actually found the harmonies quite pleasant.
2. Ferrell's phone booth melt down over the (apparent) death of his dog at Jack Black's hands.
3. The news team brawl, with Luke Wilson, Vince Vaughn Ben Stiller and Tim Robbins heading the other networks.
4. The news team photo shoot where Ron's old colleagues refused to look in the same direction that Veronica did for the photo, to show their solidarity with him. A small, but wacky moment.
Other than that, I found the movie one big snooze. Coming the year after Old School, if I'd seen it when it was new, I probably would have expected to like it as much, given the similar cast and I would have been quite disappointed.
Maybe it's the fact that it's supposed to be a period film and the whole idea of laughing simply at the contrast between our generation and the one before it seems, well, outdated and that eliminated 50% of the film's so called comedy for me. Ron Burgundy's red jacket and Veronica's skirt suit (with vest) just don't provide humor in and of themselves. So, if they set it in the past just so we could titter because people still used typewriters back then -- it wasn't really that funny.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Men in Black 3 (2012)
Men in Black II fell so flat that I don't think anyone gave the third entry in the series much hope. The pessimism was compounded by the fact that long before the release there were rumors of trouble and delays on the set, friction between Will Smith and the producers and a bad script. However, none of that was apparent to me watching the film. It may not be blockbuster material, but there was nothing disappointing about the film.
The plot contains both action and sentiment and Will Smith's humor is always engaging. He is very similar, in look and manner, to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air and there's not much wrong with that. It's not new, but that makes it no less charming.
Of course, Agent J (Smith) has to go back in time to save the world, but one feels that the world is actually secondary. He's really going back to save his partner's (K's) life. He loves the man. He misses him -- even though they've only been apart a day. He doesn't want him erased from his life. The universe takes second place to that very basic affection between friends. At one point, after J does return to 1969 to meet and assist a young K in killing a bad guy, K asks J if J has a girlfriend in the future. J responds, "I've got you." It's just sarcasm, but this movie shows that it's true. These men aren't partners or friends. They are family. And it feels like it. They've worked together for 14 years and even though the audience has been with them for all of that time, we do feel as if we've been part of the journey which, as it turns out, began even earlier than we think.
We meet Agent O (Emma Thompson) and discover that she and K had feelings for each other. Why they never materialized into something deeper between 1969 and today remains a mystery. Maybe that's being saved for the sequel. But it's somehow sad, just as the wall between Emma and Anthony Hopkins' characters in Remains of the Day was sad. J marvels at the moments of lightness and warmth he glimpses in the young (29 years old) K and he keeps asking, "Man, what happened to you." Young K just laughs and says, "I don't know, it hasn't happened yet." And you laugh, but you also smart a little. Whatever happens you wish it would unhappen, because you don't want K to live the next 40 years so cut off from his feelings, so alone. It's how I felt after reading Young Goodman Brown in school. Why did Goodman ever have to have that dream? It cost him so much. It cost him his Faith -- in more ways than most. Well, here, J still has people who love him 40 years later, but not in the way they could have, if something hadn't happened to change him.
I liked the fact that the psychic's words made J (and us) think that the only way that K could live is if J, himself dies. He was willing to sacrifice himself to save the world -- and K. His fight scene at the top of the crane with the villain, Boris the Animal, strangely reminded me of Buffy The Vampire's The Gift episode. Buffy also had to fight on a crane and to make the decision to jump/fall to her own death to save her sister -- and the world. That's the fate J was facing when he took the plunge.
As for the ending, as soon as the black military officer who helped them in Cape Canaveral 1969 said that his own first born child was there to watch the moon launch, I knew immediately who the man must be. What I didn't understand is why his life and death was kept a secret from his son (J). The officer was not one of the "Men in Black". He did not work anonymously. His job was with NASA and he performed it openly as a ranking commander. He was not responsible for hiding the existence of aliens from the public. He died in the course of helping on a top secret mission and was present when K killed the villain that would have destroyed the world, but because the officer witnessed something secret and died in the process that didn't mean they had to "erase" his memory. Couldn't they have just staged an innocent reason for his death, say he had a car accident or died during rocket testing. Surely they could have gained the government's cooperation in creating a cover up and faking whatever paperwork needed to support it. Instead, they don't explain the man's death and disappearance at all and young J grows up thinking that his father walked out on him. He just left and never returned, from what J knows. Another tragedy.
I liked the movie. Likable familiar characters in a script that not only utilizes their history, but builds and expands it. Humor with pathos.
SIDE NOTES
Nice little walk on by Will Arnett and something being done by Emma Thompson in scenes where America gathered by their tv sets to watch the moon launch. I think Emma (in a wig) played several of the women sitting in front of the tv, but by the time I realized it was her, the short scenes were over. Reminds me of the Night at the Opera rumor that Papa Marx played an extra who waved at the passengers on the departing boat, but also played one of the passengers -- waving at the people (including himself) down below on the dock. Emma seems to have played at least two extras in MIB3 and I don't know what other "in" jokes I may have missed.
The man who gave J the time machine (inherited from his father) ran out of the time he needed to explain how traveling memory worked, but J wondered why he could remember K in the present day (after Boris went back in time and killed him) but no one else could. The Time Machine man said it was because J must have been there, back in 1969. It turned out that J was, but so was O. She was involved with K back in 1969. Why didn't she remember him. Maybe the man meant that J was actually there when K died. He was present when the act happened. Maybe that's why he could remember and O couldn't, but that's kind of cheating with the plot. What time travel rules say that the people who were with you when you died in the past can remember you and how can that be explained in quantum physics in a way that isn't silly and contrived even by sci fi standards?
When J returns from the past and meets K for lunch, K, who only likes country music, is singing along to Jay-Z and Alicia Keyes Empire State of Mind. Is this a clue that something that occurred during J's time travel changed K and made him less intractable and closed than he used to be? We don't see O again, so we don't know if anything changed between the two of them, so that they're now in the present what they almost were in the past. The trip back enlightened J, but we don't know what it did to K, other than to bring him back from the dead.
The plot contains both action and sentiment and Will Smith's humor is always engaging. He is very similar, in look and manner, to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air and there's not much wrong with that. It's not new, but that makes it no less charming.
Of course, Agent J (Smith) has to go back in time to save the world, but one feels that the world is actually secondary. He's really going back to save his partner's (K's) life. He loves the man. He misses him -- even though they've only been apart a day. He doesn't want him erased from his life. The universe takes second place to that very basic affection between friends. At one point, after J does return to 1969 to meet and assist a young K in killing a bad guy, K asks J if J has a girlfriend in the future. J responds, "I've got you." It's just sarcasm, but this movie shows that it's true. These men aren't partners or friends. They are family. And it feels like it. They've worked together for 14 years and even though the audience has been with them for all of that time, we do feel as if we've been part of the journey which, as it turns out, began even earlier than we think.
We meet Agent O (Emma Thompson) and discover that she and K had feelings for each other. Why they never materialized into something deeper between 1969 and today remains a mystery. Maybe that's being saved for the sequel. But it's somehow sad, just as the wall between Emma and Anthony Hopkins' characters in Remains of the Day was sad. J marvels at the moments of lightness and warmth he glimpses in the young (29 years old) K and he keeps asking, "Man, what happened to you." Young K just laughs and says, "I don't know, it hasn't happened yet." And you laugh, but you also smart a little. Whatever happens you wish it would unhappen, because you don't want K to live the next 40 years so cut off from his feelings, so alone. It's how I felt after reading Young Goodman Brown in school. Why did Goodman ever have to have that dream? It cost him so much. It cost him his Faith -- in more ways than most. Well, here, J still has people who love him 40 years later, but not in the way they could have, if something hadn't happened to change him.
I liked the fact that the psychic's words made J (and us) think that the only way that K could live is if J, himself dies. He was willing to sacrifice himself to save the world -- and K. His fight scene at the top of the crane with the villain, Boris the Animal, strangely reminded me of Buffy The Vampire's The Gift episode. Buffy also had to fight on a crane and to make the decision to jump/fall to her own death to save her sister -- and the world. That's the fate J was facing when he took the plunge.
As for the ending, as soon as the black military officer who helped them in Cape Canaveral 1969 said that his own first born child was there to watch the moon launch, I knew immediately who the man must be. What I didn't understand is why his life and death was kept a secret from his son (J). The officer was not one of the "Men in Black". He did not work anonymously. His job was with NASA and he performed it openly as a ranking commander. He was not responsible for hiding the existence of aliens from the public. He died in the course of helping on a top secret mission and was present when K killed the villain that would have destroyed the world, but because the officer witnessed something secret and died in the process that didn't mean they had to "erase" his memory. Couldn't they have just staged an innocent reason for his death, say he had a car accident or died during rocket testing. Surely they could have gained the government's cooperation in creating a cover up and faking whatever paperwork needed to support it. Instead, they don't explain the man's death and disappearance at all and young J grows up thinking that his father walked out on him. He just left and never returned, from what J knows. Another tragedy.
I liked the movie. Likable familiar characters in a script that not only utilizes their history, but builds and expands it. Humor with pathos.
SIDE NOTES
Nice little walk on by Will Arnett and something being done by Emma Thompson in scenes where America gathered by their tv sets to watch the moon launch. I think Emma (in a wig) played several of the women sitting in front of the tv, but by the time I realized it was her, the short scenes were over. Reminds me of the Night at the Opera rumor that Papa Marx played an extra who waved at the passengers on the departing boat, but also played one of the passengers -- waving at the people (including himself) down below on the dock. Emma seems to have played at least two extras in MIB3 and I don't know what other "in" jokes I may have missed.
The man who gave J the time machine (inherited from his father) ran out of the time he needed to explain how traveling memory worked, but J wondered why he could remember K in the present day (after Boris went back in time and killed him) but no one else could. The Time Machine man said it was because J must have been there, back in 1969. It turned out that J was, but so was O. She was involved with K back in 1969. Why didn't she remember him. Maybe the man meant that J was actually there when K died. He was present when the act happened. Maybe that's why he could remember and O couldn't, but that's kind of cheating with the plot. What time travel rules say that the people who were with you when you died in the past can remember you and how can that be explained in quantum physics in a way that isn't silly and contrived even by sci fi standards?
When J returns from the past and meets K for lunch, K, who only likes country music, is singing along to Jay-Z and Alicia Keyes Empire State of Mind. Is this a clue that something that occurred during J's time travel changed K and made him less intractable and closed than he used to be? We don't see O again, so we don't know if anything changed between the two of them, so that they're now in the present what they almost were in the past. The trip back enlightened J, but we don't know what it did to K, other than to bring him back from the dead.
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Up in the Air (2009)
Ryan Bingham is like an inverse Willy Loman. He still has his job. It's not obsolete. In fact, in these economic times, maybe his job is more pertinent than ever, but he's going through a crisis that's similar to Willy's. Time passed Willy by. It's finally caught up to Ryan.
Ryan flies around the country firing people for a living. Companies bring him in to do it. An outside, impersonal source to handle a situation that no one actually close to it really wants to touch. Ryan has pat speeches and lines to hand the people who find that they're suddenly out of work. When we see him do it, we think he is mechanical, cold, charming, dispassionate. Processing people with the same efficient finesse that he maneuvers through airport security. He's done it so often, he's made it an art. And it fulfills him. His goal in life is to earn 10 million flying miles in the American Airlines loyalty program and learning how to use his company's expense account to maximize his airline points gives him as much pleasure as human milestones (birth, marriage, anniversaries) give other people.
Yet, we slowly see that Ryan's not all that he seems. He's more. Sure he wants to avoid his sister's call and is annoyed when she catches him on the phone to ask him to take pictures of his travels, as part of a wedding game their younger sister has concocted. She's getting married and has prepared a cutout photo of herself and her fiance for their loved ones to use to take mock photos of the couple in different locatons across the globe. Ryan doesn't see the point of photographing replicas of the couple in places they will never get to visit. He thinks photos are for people who don't have memories. He actually GOES to all of the locations. He doesn't need fake pictures of himself there. Of course, Ryan's inevitable epiphany is a predictable one. By constantly traveling, he isn't experiencing life, certainly not more than his sister and her betrothed are, who may never set foot outside of Northern Wisconsin.
Although the movie does take Ryan through the expected transition as he "realizes" how empty his world really is, watching him with that cutout of his sister and her boyfriend tells us that he was never really that much of an automaton to begin with. He packs his suitcase with precision. Traveling light to get through the airport faster. Cutting out all excess and -- you'd think -- emotion. But when he stuffs that oversized cutout into his carryon, however inconvenient taking it with him is, we learn something. He dutifully takes pictures of the cutout just as his sister asked. When the cutout falls in the water, he falls in himself, trying to fish it out. Back at the hotel, he blow drys the damp cardboard, repairing the damage. His oldest sister, Kara, described him as hating to do anything for anyone except himself, but that's not what we see. Maybe he's just better at dealing with the cutouts than with their real life counterparts.
Ryan meets another traveler in a hotel bar. Alex "only" racks up 60,000 miles a year flying on business and she and Ryan compare hotels and rental car companies. She's impressed by his priority club status that is so much higher than her own. He doesn't tell her about his 10 million mile goal. Although she would seem sure to approve, even envy, it. Maybe he doesn't want to brag. Or maybe he senses that since she has so many fewer points than he does, she's more tied to the world she travels through than he and might be put off by the thought of 10 million air miles. He doesn't call her as promised after their first rendezvous and he explains to her that he didn't know if it was appropriate. She assures him that he doesn't have to worry about what's "appropriate" with her. She is just like him, only with a vagina. If he wants to call her he should. She lets him know that she's not going to expect any more of a commitment than he would and that has the effect of making him feel freer to . . . commit.
He returns to the home office in Omaha. He was on the road for 322 days last year and that meant he had to spend 41 MISERABLE days at home. We see his barren apartment. Sparsely furnished. Undecorated. Less homey than the Hilton line of hotels he stays in. A neighbor comes to deliver a package she's been keeping for him. He asks her to come over that evening. She says she's dating someone now. Guess he'll be spending the night alone at "home."
At the office he learns that there might be many more such nights. They are trying a new system created by ingenue Natalie Keener, a new employee. They fire people through teleconferencing, saving the company vast amounts of money in travel costs. Ryan is being grounded, taken out of the air, to sit behind a desk and computer screen and fire people from a distance. His objections at the coldness of this approach ring phony, since he was never that warm when he terminated his victims in person anyway. He never related to the strangers in pain on a personal level. When they cried or became enraged, he responded by deflty handing them a pamphlet and telling them all the answers were inside, smug in the fact that once he got them to leave the room, he'd never have to see that person again. So, when he argues that firing them via tv screen is heartless and doesn't take their unexpected reactions into consideration, his words smack of hypocrisy. But then he takes Natalie on the road with him, to show her why her video-conference firings will never work in the real world and we begin to see the compassion behind Ryan's coolness.
He may use stock phrases to respond to the pain people express when they learn they're being fired, but he originated those phrases. Other people copied them from him. We begin to see that they may have originated from Ryan's genuine concern. He tells Natalie not to apologize and when they tell employees they're being let go and not to say that she knows how they feel, because her feelings don't matter compared to the person who is losing his/her job. Ryan knows that detachment can spare as much pain as it relieves. Suddenly, when Ryan equates joblessness with freedom, there's a suggestion that he's actually trying to offer the fired person hope, a lifeline to grab, rather than just giving them a snow job. It doesn't really make his words any more useful to the person losing a paycheck, but we see that his intentions are more sympathetic than they appeared in the first segment of the film. When they get to Detroit and Ryan's boss tells him that they're going to fire people there via video, Ryan resists. He says Detroit is harder, because they've been through so much and the employees there should get hands-on treatment. With those words, we see that Ryan likes his job because he cares about things other than his airline points.
As Ryan begins to look more human, Natalie remains a caricature. She was introduced as the new girl, full of ideas, but no real world experience. And ends the same way. Perky, shrill, green and judgmental. She wants to fire people by video herself, and scoffs when Ryan takes time out to photograph the cardboard cut out of his sister. Yet, she lectures Ryan about not having a heart. She envisioned a picket fence marriage for herself by the age of 23 and thinks Alex and Ryan have failed somehow because they haven't achieved it. Yet, her boyfriend dumps her in a text message, while Alex and Ryan seem to be finding true contentment in their "no strings" relationship. She's no happier chasing the partner that she's "supposed" to have by this time in her life than Ryan is never having seen the point in looking for one. She may be rooted, but she's far less grounded and giving emotionally than Ryan is. Maybe he sees no point in marriage or children, but he wouldn't have devised a Skype system for firing people, as she did.
That's why the end is rather a letdown. As Ryan sees Alex off at the airport, she casually tells him to call her if he gets lonely. He says, "I'm lonely," before she moves even two steps further to the gate. She laughs, thinking it's a joke. It's not. In the middle of one of his patented speeches when he usually advises people to cut the ties that bind them and travel light and fast, like a shark as opposed to a swan who mates for life, Ryan is suddenly struck dumb. He leaves the seminar and catches the first flight he can find to Chicago where Alex lives. He's in such a hurry to be with her that he forgets his usual protocol, fumbling at the Hertz depot, forgetting his credit card, moves that he usually practiced blindly. He gets to Alex's doorstep only to have her open it as woman of the house. She has children and a husband. Ryan leaves quickly, devastated. Later, he gets on a plane and is surprised by the announcement that he has racked up 10,000,000 miles. The flight crew serenades him. He had anticipated and rehearsed this moment for years and now he doesn't even remember what he'd planned to say so many times, when he'd imagined it happening. Back at the office, he calls the airline and donates a million of his points to his sister and her new husband. He collected those points in lieu of family and now they mean nothing. It's rather a cliched revelation. Basically, it's the same "true meaning of life" that Ebenezer Scrooge eventually learned, but Ryan was never Scrooge. He was never cruel or uncaring. He never really had to evolve.
His sister married a man who invested all of their money in a real estate venture that promised families a home by catalog order, no better than the hotel rooms that Ryan regularly passed through. He gave Ryan a spiel about his business project that was rehearsed just like the speeches Ryan was paid to give at conventions. He even tries to sell Ryan one of the cookie cutter homes, but recognizing schtick when he hears it, Ryan doesn't fall. This same guy is prepared to dump Ryan's sister at the altar, until talked out of it. Because their money is tied up in his real estate scam they have no money for a honeymoon. That's why the sister was collecting cardboard cutout photos of herself in places she would never see. Ryan's life may have been empty, but it seemed more authentic and fulfilling than the one the newlywed couple would make for themselves. Ryan had more than Natalie did. And Alex . . . she had a family. She told Ryan they were her real world and he was just her escape. She invited him to call her if he felt like being a "grown up." Natalie told Alex that she wanted to look like her in 15 years. If Natalie doesn't change her direction, that's exactly how she will look. She'll have all of the traditional accoutrements, home, spouse, 2.5 children, long-haired dog, everything that you're supposed to have attained by that point in your life, but without the happiness that you'd expect to come with it.
They all seem worse off than Ryan, not better. Sure, maybe he avoided involvement because he was afraid of getting hurt, but it also kept him from hurting others like Alex, Natalie's boyfriend and his sister's fiance have done. So, why is Ryan the one left alone, more to the point, lonely at the end? Why are we left with the sense that he has failed, where none of them have succeeded? The sister's fiance explained to Ryan that he got cold feet about his wedding because he saw his whole future unfold. He would marry, grow old and die. What's the point? What's the point indeed. There is none, so Ryan shouldn't feel that he has missed it. In that sense, the movie was disappointment because Ryan seemed to have been put in the position of belatedly learning a lesson when, from my view, he was the only one who had it right all along.
Question: Wasn't sure why Ryan told his brother-in-law that he'd given up his one bedroom apartment when he actually hadn't. Perhaps he only did it to avoid investing in the brother-in-law's building scheme, but I believed him and thought it meant he had forfeited his only semblance of playing by the "normal" rules, or pretending he had or needed a home. He hadn't given that up after all.
Ryan flies around the country firing people for a living. Companies bring him in to do it. An outside, impersonal source to handle a situation that no one actually close to it really wants to touch. Ryan has pat speeches and lines to hand the people who find that they're suddenly out of work. When we see him do it, we think he is mechanical, cold, charming, dispassionate. Processing people with the same efficient finesse that he maneuvers through airport security. He's done it so often, he's made it an art. And it fulfills him. His goal in life is to earn 10 million flying miles in the American Airlines loyalty program and learning how to use his company's expense account to maximize his airline points gives him as much pleasure as human milestones (birth, marriage, anniversaries) give other people.
Yet, we slowly see that Ryan's not all that he seems. He's more. Sure he wants to avoid his sister's call and is annoyed when she catches him on the phone to ask him to take pictures of his travels, as part of a wedding game their younger sister has concocted. She's getting married and has prepared a cutout photo of herself and her fiance for their loved ones to use to take mock photos of the couple in different locatons across the globe. Ryan doesn't see the point of photographing replicas of the couple in places they will never get to visit. He thinks photos are for people who don't have memories. He actually GOES to all of the locations. He doesn't need fake pictures of himself there. Of course, Ryan's inevitable epiphany is a predictable one. By constantly traveling, he isn't experiencing life, certainly not more than his sister and her betrothed are, who may never set foot outside of Northern Wisconsin.
Although the movie does take Ryan through the expected transition as he "realizes" how empty his world really is, watching him with that cutout of his sister and her boyfriend tells us that he was never really that much of an automaton to begin with. He packs his suitcase with precision. Traveling light to get through the airport faster. Cutting out all excess and -- you'd think -- emotion. But when he stuffs that oversized cutout into his carryon, however inconvenient taking it with him is, we learn something. He dutifully takes pictures of the cutout just as his sister asked. When the cutout falls in the water, he falls in himself, trying to fish it out. Back at the hotel, he blow drys the damp cardboard, repairing the damage. His oldest sister, Kara, described him as hating to do anything for anyone except himself, but that's not what we see. Maybe he's just better at dealing with the cutouts than with their real life counterparts.
Ryan meets another traveler in a hotel bar. Alex "only" racks up 60,000 miles a year flying on business and she and Ryan compare hotels and rental car companies. She's impressed by his priority club status that is so much higher than her own. He doesn't tell her about his 10 million mile goal. Although she would seem sure to approve, even envy, it. Maybe he doesn't want to brag. Or maybe he senses that since she has so many fewer points than he does, she's more tied to the world she travels through than he and might be put off by the thought of 10 million air miles. He doesn't call her as promised after their first rendezvous and he explains to her that he didn't know if it was appropriate. She assures him that he doesn't have to worry about what's "appropriate" with her. She is just like him, only with a vagina. If he wants to call her he should. She lets him know that she's not going to expect any more of a commitment than he would and that has the effect of making him feel freer to . . . commit.
He returns to the home office in Omaha. He was on the road for 322 days last year and that meant he had to spend 41 MISERABLE days at home. We see his barren apartment. Sparsely furnished. Undecorated. Less homey than the Hilton line of hotels he stays in. A neighbor comes to deliver a package she's been keeping for him. He asks her to come over that evening. She says she's dating someone now. Guess he'll be spending the night alone at "home."
At the office he learns that there might be many more such nights. They are trying a new system created by ingenue Natalie Keener, a new employee. They fire people through teleconferencing, saving the company vast amounts of money in travel costs. Ryan is being grounded, taken out of the air, to sit behind a desk and computer screen and fire people from a distance. His objections at the coldness of this approach ring phony, since he was never that warm when he terminated his victims in person anyway. He never related to the strangers in pain on a personal level. When they cried or became enraged, he responded by deflty handing them a pamphlet and telling them all the answers were inside, smug in the fact that once he got them to leave the room, he'd never have to see that person again. So, when he argues that firing them via tv screen is heartless and doesn't take their unexpected reactions into consideration, his words smack of hypocrisy. But then he takes Natalie on the road with him, to show her why her video-conference firings will never work in the real world and we begin to see the compassion behind Ryan's coolness.
He may use stock phrases to respond to the pain people express when they learn they're being fired, but he originated those phrases. Other people copied them from him. We begin to see that they may have originated from Ryan's genuine concern. He tells Natalie not to apologize and when they tell employees they're being let go and not to say that she knows how they feel, because her feelings don't matter compared to the person who is losing his/her job. Ryan knows that detachment can spare as much pain as it relieves. Suddenly, when Ryan equates joblessness with freedom, there's a suggestion that he's actually trying to offer the fired person hope, a lifeline to grab, rather than just giving them a snow job. It doesn't really make his words any more useful to the person losing a paycheck, but we see that his intentions are more sympathetic than they appeared in the first segment of the film. When they get to Detroit and Ryan's boss tells him that they're going to fire people there via video, Ryan resists. He says Detroit is harder, because they've been through so much and the employees there should get hands-on treatment. With those words, we see that Ryan likes his job because he cares about things other than his airline points.
As Ryan begins to look more human, Natalie remains a caricature. She was introduced as the new girl, full of ideas, but no real world experience. And ends the same way. Perky, shrill, green and judgmental. She wants to fire people by video herself, and scoffs when Ryan takes time out to photograph the cardboard cut out of his sister. Yet, she lectures Ryan about not having a heart. She envisioned a picket fence marriage for herself by the age of 23 and thinks Alex and Ryan have failed somehow because they haven't achieved it. Yet, her boyfriend dumps her in a text message, while Alex and Ryan seem to be finding true contentment in their "no strings" relationship. She's no happier chasing the partner that she's "supposed" to have by this time in her life than Ryan is never having seen the point in looking for one. She may be rooted, but she's far less grounded and giving emotionally than Ryan is. Maybe he sees no point in marriage or children, but he wouldn't have devised a Skype system for firing people, as she did.
That's why the end is rather a letdown. As Ryan sees Alex off at the airport, she casually tells him to call her if he gets lonely. He says, "I'm lonely," before she moves even two steps further to the gate. She laughs, thinking it's a joke. It's not. In the middle of one of his patented speeches when he usually advises people to cut the ties that bind them and travel light and fast, like a shark as opposed to a swan who mates for life, Ryan is suddenly struck dumb. He leaves the seminar and catches the first flight he can find to Chicago where Alex lives. He's in such a hurry to be with her that he forgets his usual protocol, fumbling at the Hertz depot, forgetting his credit card, moves that he usually practiced blindly. He gets to Alex's doorstep only to have her open it as woman of the house. She has children and a husband. Ryan leaves quickly, devastated. Later, he gets on a plane and is surprised by the announcement that he has racked up 10,000,000 miles. The flight crew serenades him. He had anticipated and rehearsed this moment for years and now he doesn't even remember what he'd planned to say so many times, when he'd imagined it happening. Back at the office, he calls the airline and donates a million of his points to his sister and her new husband. He collected those points in lieu of family and now they mean nothing. It's rather a cliched revelation. Basically, it's the same "true meaning of life" that Ebenezer Scrooge eventually learned, but Ryan was never Scrooge. He was never cruel or uncaring. He never really had to evolve.
His sister married a man who invested all of their money in a real estate venture that promised families a home by catalog order, no better than the hotel rooms that Ryan regularly passed through. He gave Ryan a spiel about his business project that was rehearsed just like the speeches Ryan was paid to give at conventions. He even tries to sell Ryan one of the cookie cutter homes, but recognizing schtick when he hears it, Ryan doesn't fall. This same guy is prepared to dump Ryan's sister at the altar, until talked out of it. Because their money is tied up in his real estate scam they have no money for a honeymoon. That's why the sister was collecting cardboard cutout photos of herself in places she would never see. Ryan's life may have been empty, but it seemed more authentic and fulfilling than the one the newlywed couple would make for themselves. Ryan had more than Natalie did. And Alex . . . she had a family. She told Ryan they were her real world and he was just her escape. She invited him to call her if he felt like being a "grown up." Natalie told Alex that she wanted to look like her in 15 years. If Natalie doesn't change her direction, that's exactly how she will look. She'll have all of the traditional accoutrements, home, spouse, 2.5 children, long-haired dog, everything that you're supposed to have attained by that point in your life, but without the happiness that you'd expect to come with it.
They all seem worse off than Ryan, not better. Sure, maybe he avoided involvement because he was afraid of getting hurt, but it also kept him from hurting others like Alex, Natalie's boyfriend and his sister's fiance have done. So, why is Ryan the one left alone, more to the point, lonely at the end? Why are we left with the sense that he has failed, where none of them have succeeded? The sister's fiance explained to Ryan that he got cold feet about his wedding because he saw his whole future unfold. He would marry, grow old and die. What's the point? What's the point indeed. There is none, so Ryan shouldn't feel that he has missed it. In that sense, the movie was disappointment because Ryan seemed to have been put in the position of belatedly learning a lesson when, from my view, he was the only one who had it right all along.
Question: Wasn't sure why Ryan told his brother-in-law that he'd given up his one bedroom apartment when he actually hadn't. Perhaps he only did it to avoid investing in the brother-in-law's building scheme, but I believed him and thought it meant he had forfeited his only semblance of playing by the "normal" rules, or pretending he had or needed a home. He hadn't given that up after all.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Friends with Benefits (2011)
If you've seen the trailer for this movie, you may assume that you already know the plot, from beginning to end credit. You would be correct. In fact, the storyline not only follows that of similar movies, but is virtually identical to the "this, that and the other" plot in Seinfeld, when Jerry and Elaine decide to resume their sexual relationship for recreation, with rules to make sure that no emotional ties develop.
In this movie, Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis' Dylan and Jamie do the very same thing, but, surprisingly the funny script makes the result much more than a predictable cliche.
We're treated to extended scenes of the two friends negotiating and directing their sexual escapades to hilarious effect. With no need to be loving and kind they can critique technique and bark orders at each other with abandon. In a way, as lovers unburdened by fake sincerity and tender artifice, they seem like more honest partners than most couples are to one another and one can easily imagine that makes their sex all the more enjoyable -- and intimate, in a non-intimate way -- because there are no white lies or barriers between them.
As pals, they enjoy sports, social gatherings and gossipy phone calls together. Sex is only part of what we see develop into a full-fleshed relationship. We like them, they like the other. When the inevitable happens and they become romantically involved, in the end it doesn't end up too mushy -- but we wouldn't mind that much if it did. They deserve it.
There are some sub-plots where we see that Dylan and Jamie's emotional distance is caused by their dysfunctional family backgrounds. Jamie never knew her father and her wacky mom, Patricia Clarkson, doesn't seem to have known him very well either -- if she even remembers which suitor he was. Dylan's father suffers from Alzheimer's, further saddling a family that has never healed from the mother's abandonment years earlier. It's nice to try to give the lead characters roots, but I'm not sure that their personalities needed to be explained or rationalized. So, neither has had an enduring romantic relationship. They're still in their twenties. I don't think that makes them emotionally damaged, as the movie posits. Perhaps, it makes them wise.
The movie is smart, funny and a fun romp, whether Jamie and Dylan are in or out of the sheets.
In this movie, Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis' Dylan and Jamie do the very same thing, but, surprisingly the funny script makes the result much more than a predictable cliche.
We're treated to extended scenes of the two friends negotiating and directing their sexual escapades to hilarious effect. With no need to be loving and kind they can critique technique and bark orders at each other with abandon. In a way, as lovers unburdened by fake sincerity and tender artifice, they seem like more honest partners than most couples are to one another and one can easily imagine that makes their sex all the more enjoyable -- and intimate, in a non-intimate way -- because there are no white lies or barriers between them.
As pals, they enjoy sports, social gatherings and gossipy phone calls together. Sex is only part of what we see develop into a full-fleshed relationship. We like them, they like the other. When the inevitable happens and they become romantically involved, in the end it doesn't end up too mushy -- but we wouldn't mind that much if it did. They deserve it.
There are some sub-plots where we see that Dylan and Jamie's emotional distance is caused by their dysfunctional family backgrounds. Jamie never knew her father and her wacky mom, Patricia Clarkson, doesn't seem to have known him very well either -- if she even remembers which suitor he was. Dylan's father suffers from Alzheimer's, further saddling a family that has never healed from the mother's abandonment years earlier. It's nice to try to give the lead characters roots, but I'm not sure that their personalities needed to be explained or rationalized. So, neither has had an enduring romantic relationship. They're still in their twenties. I don't think that makes them emotionally damaged, as the movie posits. Perhaps, it makes them wise.
The movie is smart, funny and a fun romp, whether Jamie and Dylan are in or out of the sheets.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011)
As a completist I like to read and watch installments of everything (even farcical sitcoms) in chronological order. Still, though I missed Mission Impossible 3, it wasn't hard to get into Ghost Protocol's plot, such as it is.
Ethan Hunt is no less wondrous in his execution of impossible feats than James Bonds, but he makes them look a little more difficult and gritty. That's as close to "believability" as anything in this series gets.
As Hunt and his team gallivanted across the globe to save the world from nuclear destruction, I actually did get a sense of their different environs, Russia, Dubai and India. If the costumes, accents, interior and cultures were not exactly authentic, at least they provided a contrast from American locations.
The teamwork was entertaining, though formed by strangers. I'm not sure why William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) yelled at Jane Carter (Paula Patton) for "letting" an assassin die when, after all she was in a fullout brawl with the woman in front of a wide open window. Someone was duty bound to fall out of it and that was hardly anyone's fault but the script's.
In fact, all of the film's "emotional" moments fell flat and felt phony: Hunt's love for his wife, Brandt's guilt about that wife's death, and Jane's need to avenge a murdered colleague who was also (rather perfunctorily) a love interest.
In total though, the movie was a fun romp with some tense moments and consistent flair.
Ethan Hunt is no less wondrous in his execution of impossible feats than James Bonds, but he makes them look a little more difficult and gritty. That's as close to "believability" as anything in this series gets.
As Hunt and his team gallivanted across the globe to save the world from nuclear destruction, I actually did get a sense of their different environs, Russia, Dubai and India. If the costumes, accents, interior and cultures were not exactly authentic, at least they provided a contrast from American locations.
The teamwork was entertaining, though formed by strangers. I'm not sure why William Brandt (Jeremy Renner) yelled at Jane Carter (Paula Patton) for "letting" an assassin die when, after all she was in a fullout brawl with the woman in front of a wide open window. Someone was duty bound to fall out of it and that was hardly anyone's fault but the script's.
In fact, all of the film's "emotional" moments fell flat and felt phony: Hunt's love for his wife, Brandt's guilt about that wife's death, and Jane's need to avenge a murdered colleague who was also (rather perfunctorily) a love interest.
In total though, the movie was a fun romp with some tense moments and consistent flair.
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