Celebrating 50 Years of James Bond on Blu-ray

I'm having a double Ogasim. This is just too cool. Of course I'm going to be repurchasing product I've owned for the fourth or fifth time. I guess I am the Consumer that Hollywood craves.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Back in the late seventies or early eighties, my best friend Art Franz, turned me on to the works of John LeCarre. I think I only read "The Spy who Came in from the Cold", "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" and "Smiley's People".  I don't remember them that well but I do recall that they were intricately plotted, very detailed and focused on the real contest between the Soviets and the West. Smiley was a character that was contained but brilliant and his mind was not really clouded by anything except the game. Alec Guinness portrayed Smiley in a BBC production of Tinker Tailor, that ran on PBS back in the early eighties. I think it was an eight hour project, so you can tell there is a lot of plotting and material that could be visualized.  This new theatrical version is just over two hours and there is still the same amount of plotting in it but it has to develop a lot quicker.

I guess I should consider myself thankful that the concession stand attendant had to move over and put together Ice Cream for someone else, otherwise I might have got my usual large Coke Zero and then might need to leave the theater to relieve myself an hour or so in. Had I done so, I know I would have been lost because every moment in the film has clues and paths that will help develop the story. This is a spy story where the plotters are not known till the end, the main villain is never really seen directly, and the hero is a nondescript bureaucrat, who appears to be as ineffectual at home as he is efficient at work. Phone calls, receipts and words repeated by someone that you did not share them with, are all the evidence that we get for most of the mystery. There are only three quick scenes of violence and everything else is internalized or hinted at.

Gary Oldman has been a wonderful actor for more than three decades. I first remember seeing him in "Sid and Nancy", an unpleasant memory of the Sex Pistols but a grand introduction to Oldman as an actor. I have seen him chew up the scenery in plenty of films. "Romeo is Bleeding" and "The Fifth Element" are good examples of Oldman going full force at an over the top character and making it interesting. He has been the lead, a key supporting character and a passing cameo in dozens of films over the years. Alec Guinness played Smiley as a little more elite and not quite as cold. Oldman takes the character and owns it. His Smiley barely speaks in the movie, he is all reaction and timing. There is a vacuum around his personality that sucks in all the air and makes him feel like the center of the scene even when he has little to do. The end of the film made me want to see him in a big screen version of "Smiley's People" right now. It is a very good example of a performance that is subdued but controls the story around it.

The intrigue and suspicion in the movie is supported by a cast of very good actors that covey exactly the mood the film needs. Toby Jones (who I think is American) plays the new head of the British spy agency known as "The Circus", with unctuous superiority and disdain for anyone else.  Colin Firth is one of the suspects who also oozes an attitude of superiority in the grand British style.  There are so many good performers in the film that it is easy to lose track of the focus which needs to be the story. I did feel at times that a little more underlining would help the viewer keep track, but if you are engaged, you won't have any trouble figuring out what is going on.

The movie is set in 1973, and the director and art director do a fine job showing us London without all the new landmarks and Budapest (although I suspect it has looked the same for a hundred years) looks like it could be behind the Iron Curtain. This is a well made piece of adult entertainment and I am pleased to say there was a pretty good audience for a 10:30 a.m. showing on a Tuesday. This bodes well for financial returns, which maters because there really should be a follow up using the character of Smilely in another story, but if they can't get Gary Oldman to return, they should forget it. You need this kind of performance to sustain an intellectual puzzle movie that would not be very appealing if there were not an excellent cast selling it.

The Darkest Hour

January is a dead time for new movies. Most films opening are wide releases of late debut Oscar bait. Then there is the annual Liam Neeson ass kicking movie, and finally there is product that is so dismal, it can't even be opened in September so they wait until January to dump it. This movie actually opened on Christmas day and then it died. It felt like a wake today because Amanda and I were the only people in the theater to see this screening. It actually was kinda nice, I did not have to ask anyone to turn off their phones and save the Facebook updates until after the movie. Counter programming is a strategy that can work if you have no other competition, but this movie has Sherlock Holmes, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Mission Impossible to contend with for the action audience and it was not a contest.

This is your basic alien invasion movie, with horror touches. I had a student in class tonight named Yuri, who said he saw it at a midnight screening for the opening, in 3-D, he said it sucked. Of course he paid $16 to see it when he was probably tired, I paid $6 and saw it all before noon. I used this as an example in class tonight, in making a claim of future fact. Could I expect to make money investing $30 million for a sci-fi action film to open on a holiday among crowded competition ? My answer was no, I'd have waited and tried to open the week before the Liam Neeson movie. Action fans will want something to wet their appetite, and the other movies will be more played out by then. This is a high concept film with no stars, a limited budget and a downer theme opening at Christmas, someone did not make very strong inferences.

I found the movie perfectly satisfying for what it is. There is an interesting concept, a very effective special effect that gets used each time there is an alien attack, and the setting was somewhere that has not been seen a thousand times already in other movies (although Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, did just use the same setting for the opening sequences of it's story). There is nothing groundbreaking here, if you were to cross "Cloverfield" and "Independence Day", you would pretty much get this chase film set in a largely abandoned Moscow. There is enough suspense to keep you involved for an hour and a half, and the people are pretty as are the special effects.

There are four or five main characters, and then some come and go as the movie travels from one location to another. Not everyone makes it out of the scenerio that has been set up and that adds a little bit of credibility to the plot. Although if you think about it, you can probably predict who will survive and who will get wiped by the alien forces. I did like the fact that the American characters had to struggle because they did not speak Russian, and therefore they could not tell which broadcasts or what signs should be listened to. Each character gets a couple of minutes to shine, and even one character that we know to despise, gets a chance at redemption. I did like the courage theme that ran through the film. We all ask ourselves, "how would we cope in this situation?" Here we get a variation on the answers that seems to cover most of the possibilities.

Emile Hirsh is the only name I recognized in the cast. Except for the four Americans, everyone else is Russian or Swedish so they are not household names. I thought Hirsh was the weakest performance of the cast, but he does have one good scene at the end where he is explaing his friendship with his buddy/business partner to one of the girls in the story. That was his most convincing segment in the movie. He also has some rousing moments in the closing of the film, but he is not really an action star. This movie is all about the concept. If you are not too discriminating on dialogue or character, and you like alien invasion movies, then you will be OK with The Darkest Hour. If I were you however, I'd go to the discount 2-D matinee instead of the mid-night 3-D screening.

Biggest Let Downs of 2011

This is not really a worst of list, since there were only a couple of movies that I saw that I outright hated. Most of the films listed here ended up her because they disappointed me in some way. They may have had a premise that was promising but turned out not to be the focus of the film, or maybe it was technically well made but lacking in story. When movies surpise you in a good way, you can remember them and recommend them to others. When films tick you off or step on sacred ground without wiping their feet first, then others need to be warned.

Hangover 2

The Hangover 2

I don't know why I expected it to work. The first one was perfect and there was no need for a second version. The trailers did suggest more over the top insanity so my hopes got elevated and all of us got excited. I'm smart enough to know better. The movie virtually re-makes the first film without adding anything particularly new. The characters we came to enjoy turned into guests that overstayed their welcome. I might see it again on the satellite, because I watch way too much, but I will never get the money back or the excitement spent seeing this in a theater.

Green Hornet

The Green Hornet

There was almost no hope that this was going to be much good. The idea of a comedy based Hornet featuring Seth Rogan, just sounds unlikely. This movie mostly just lays there and does nothing to make us care. The only element that made me care was Amanda delivered product placement materials for the shoot during her internship. Again, it was not bad, just underwhelming. When I looked back on my comments last January, I was a lot more positive, but I was also correct, the movie is not very memorable.









The Mechanic

The Mechanic

I am a huge fan of the original with Charles Bronson. He was the forerunner of all the action guys of the 80's, 90s, and 00s. Jason Statham is the quintessential tough guy of contemporary cinema, so it should be a good match but again it was underwhelming.  This could have been so much better so that is the let down.

Cars 2

Cars 2

Cars is one of our favorite Pixar films. Cars 2 is the first outright disappointment from Pixar. Too much Mater, too frantic, none of the charm of Radiator Springs. 

The Thing

The Thing 

I have no excuse, I just wanted it to be something in the area of the John Carpenter version,that was a ridiculous hope. CGI goes overboard in the Antarctic. I am embarrassed to say I spent the money.

Pirates of the Caribbean:On Stranger Tides

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

It is better than the two sequels but that does not say much. This is a great character played by a terrific actor, but it is being wasted on stories that do not measure up. The first movie was perfect, everything since has been a mildly interesting echo. I probably encouraged this by giving into the herd mentality and going ahead and seeing this. I always let my hopes outweigh my fears when it comes to movies. I keep having hopes for Jack Sparrow to really be used in a good movie.

Transformers:Dark of the Moon

Transformers: Dark of the Moon 

I remember almost nothing about it. It was maybe mid-week, and there was nothing else that was new. We liked the first one, the last two are so ehh that I could see them again and and they would be new to me.

HOP

Hop

A mix of live action and animation that does not work. It feels like a chipmunk movie without the Chipmunks. The trailer sold me on it, so whoever put that together earned their money, but everyone else was overpaid to make this dull film that had some nice visuals but terrible acting and a weak story. Compare to "Arthur Christmas" to see how basically the same idea for a story can be realized.

The Adjustment Bureau

The Adjustment Bureau     

This movie was irritating while I was watching it and it is pissing me off right now to remember it. Metaphysical B.S. that uses the high tech special effect of opening and closing doors. Whoa. Overwrought claptrap. In looking back at my original comments, I said I was indifferent to it, not that I hated it. I now stand corrected by myself.

Rubber

Rubber

I saw the trailer and thought "This will be stupid Awesome!", I was wrong it was just stupid. The idea of a sentient rubber tire rolling around the desert, causing thing to explode with it's mind...how could you screw that up? It sounds like trashy fun. Instead we get a pretentious story of obsessed film makers and stupid people who will watch anything. Oh I get it, I'm an idiot for being drawn in by your scenario, and now you want me to see that. F.U. (And since you are French, F. France too.)

2011 Movie Year In Review

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I want to be careful about my recommendations and evaluations. I pay to see all the movies that are on my list. These are not screeners sent out that I watched at home, this was hard earned cash that I laid out to see these movies. I sat in a theater and shared the experience with other audience members. Sometimes the only other people in the audience were the ones that came with me. This may say something about my tastes that will make it easier for you to judge how my opinion might compare to yours. There are many quality films that I would like to have seen but have not yet had a chance to. In the old days, when I had more time and the time I had was under my control more, I would see those obscure independents, or an occasional foreign language film. Documentaries also slip in on occasion, but for the most part, I see what is available at the local theaters on a weekly basis. That means that most of the films I saw were mainstream Hollywood pictures. I average a film a week in the theaters, so I saw upwards of 50 movies this year. The following list is not an attempt to predict awards or to measure a film in terms of quality. This is a subjective list of the movies that I was most impressed with or reacted to the most strongly; it is limited to those movies that I saw, it does not mean that other films might not be better.

My Favorites for the Year

1. Warrior

Warrior

This movie caught me off guard and knocked me over. It looks like it is just some martial arts film but it is so much more than that. We know who is going to be in the final fight, but it was still dramatically set up, and we don't know how that fight is going to play out. There is strong family drama in the story of the two brothers on a collision course and a really fine performance by Nick Nolte, as their nightmare of a Father who is seeking redemption  with both of his sons. I cannot explain why this movie was not a bigger hit, it had more heart and excitement than any action film or drama I saw the rest of the year and it was full of crowd pleasing moments.

Win-Win

     

2. Win-Win

A small movie that is beautifully acted by everyone in the film. The theme of the movie is self respect and what one must do to maintain it. Sometimes it is tough to face up to our failures but ultimately we are better people if we try to do the right thing, especially when it is hard. There must be something about wrestling movies that works for me, I loved Visionquest back in 1985, and the Wrestler just a couple of years ago. So a second sports based film is at the top of my list, but neither of them are sports that I have ever been a spectator of, go figure. We are also introduced to an authentic young actor who is also a champion high school wrestler. I thought he was great, I hope he works in other kinds of films in the future. 

Captain America

               

 3. Captain America: The First Avenger  

Of the big Hollywood films that I saw this year, I was most enthusiastic about the nostalgic superhero movie made by Joe Johnson. We just re-watched "The Rocketeer" on Blu-Ray and it is easy to understand why Johnson is a match for this movie. His style is romantic and practical. We don't get a bunch of shaky cam sequences trying to build false suspense, instead we get solid storytelling with terrific technical detail in art design and cinematography. We also get an non-ironic  lead. There is a sub-text in the story about what real heroism is, and it is not simply having super powers. Tommy Lee Jones steals every one of his scenes with the best lines in the movie. There is something about American Exceptionalism in this movie, that some of our fellow citizens need to be reminded of.

Pom Wonderful Presents the Greatest Movie Ever Sold

4. Pom Wonderful Presents the Greatest Movie Ever Sold

 I enjoy documentary films, but I usually see them on TV or video. I was skeptical about Morgan Spurlock after "Super Size" me, which was entertaining but felt like it was full of straw man and ad hominen arguments. He does however have a winning personal style and the concept of this movie is just hysterical. It was fun watching him go through the process of finding funding through advertising. Sometimes to add seriousness to the proceedings, there are some side paths that are followed on the impact of advertising on society, but when it sticks to product placement and the main thrust of the movie, this is a big winner.

Harry Potter

5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Some achievements are so amazing that it is hard to fathom how they were accomplished. While it is not quite Stonehenge or the Pyramids, the Harry Potter series stands as a testament to human endeavors. Eight films in 10 years, each maintaining a high degree of quality and largely managing to stay true to the original source material. The confluence of publishing and film making is highly unusual as the new versions of the movies promoted the next book and the new book promoted the next movie. Anyone who thinks this is merely a children's story is living in their own fantasy world. This is a series of stories about growing up and facing the tough choices that confront us. That it is told with whimsy and adventure is a huge plus. This is the movie that I saw in theaters the most this last year, I paid to see it four times. Each time was as emotionally satisfying as you could want. The series covered the same years of growth that my daughters were going through and they could always relate, despite the fact that the story is fantasy based. Adults and children will share this series for years, much like the Star Wars movies or The Wizard of Oz.

6.Hugo                                                                                              

Hugo 

This is a 3-D film that uses the 3-D quite effectively. It adds to the story and makes the setting more interesting as a result. There is a wonderful history of early cinema on display and a nice kids adventure story to boot. The movie looks amazing and the actors are all playing the parts effectively. I think Ben Kingsley too often takes roles to pay the bills, but here he is extremely well served by the director Martin Scorsese. If you haven't seen this yet, treat yourself to a 3-D presentation. If you don't still have it in a 3-D option, it is still a wonderful movie to share with anyone who loves movies.

Super 8

7.  Super 8    

We actually get three Spielberg films this year and the best one was not even directed by him. Super 8 is a movie that has Spielberg's imprint all over it. The story focuses on a group of kids, set in the late seventies, who all have family issues of some sort and all become involved with a science fiction based plot. It looks like it was shot by Spielberg in the 1980s, but J.J. Abrams has simply managed an homage to the master who brought him into film making in the first place. While it is marred by an unfortunate use of a traditional Hollywood bad guy, the real focus is on the kids who are all excellent. There are some really nice moments in the movie and a lot of tension to go along with it.

Battle L.A.

 8. Battle Los Angeles

This is a straightforward action film. It is basically an alien invasion movie with a series of battle sequences that build tension and make us care about the traditional platoon of grunts that we follow in this kind of movie. There are some captivating visuals and the conflict is pretty well set up for reasonable chances of success and failure, so we don't always know how things will come out. There are a lot of cliches in the movie but there is also a lot of truth in the hard work and sacrifice our military makes to try to protect us. This movie works on a very conventional way to show everyday men and women, doing their jobs and accepting responsibility for their choices. Another opportunity to see what heroes are like without the ironic smirking that so often characterizes these types of movies.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

9. Rise of the Planet of the Apes  

This was the most intelligent and well rendered entry into the Planet of the Apes series since the very first movie back in 1968. Andy Serkis is the go to motion capture performer in films today and his Cesar is an indelible creation for a science fiction film. This story develops carefully and logically for the most part. we have a huge amount of sympathy built into the central Ape in the story. This makes the re-boot that was attempted ten years ago look even worse by comparison. It is not the technology for story telling that makes a movie worthwhile, it is the story and the characters that ultimately make a film move us emotionally. This movie manages to do so and build to a climax rather than simply be a series of visual climaxes. It is really smart and involving.

X-Men First Class

10. X-Men: First Class

Here is another comic book movie on my list. I was never a reader of the X-Men comics, but I have enjoyed all of the other films. None of the previous films reached the heights that this movie does. This is an origins story that develops the main characters in a real time and puts them into an historical context very effectively. The visuals are quite good, but what was especially appealing to me were the performances of the two leads who bring to life the main characters first as partners but ultimately as antagonists. This is another example of comic book story telling that does not talk down to the audience. Instead it challenges us to understand the complexities that people with these kinds of unusual gifts would be faced with.





I am adding two additional films that impressed me with their quality.

War Horse

There is something about a Spielberg film at Christmas, that reminds me of the old days. Maybe I remember the Color Purple or Empire of the Sun and just think 1980s. This film version of the hit play features real horses and not the puppets that have made a sensation of the theatrical production. It is beautiful and heartfelt. It is also a tough story with many traumatic elements. 

The Help

This is an inspiring story of the women who helped raise the children of the South but were not always treated as the valued citizens they were. "The world is a different place" is a phrase I sometimes say disparagingly about things I see that irritate me, especially changes that make the world seem less pleasant than it once was, but when I say it about the subject of this film, I mean it in the most positive way. Thank God the World is a different place.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Too Tired right now for the full post. I will get to it tomorrow. Preview though "Very Good".

OK, I'm still tired but I need to get this done. I did not read any of the original books that this movie is based on but I have watched all three of the Swedish language films made from the series. The story was excellent and it is quite intricate. I found that I was able to follow the Swedish language version more clearly than this English language remake. It may have been that the sub-titles force you to pay more attention to details than a passive listener is likely to do. There are elements to this story that require the setting in Sweden, so the new version basically is the same movie done with international stars,but shot pretty much in the same locations as the Swedish language version. Production values are also a bit higher.

This is a dark and disturbing story. There are ideas and sequences in the film that are likely to haunt me the rest of my life. There is a brutal rape scene that was horrifying in both versions of the movie. This current version struck me as less explicit in the visual aspect of the sequence but stronger in the sound design and the acting. The retribution segment that is a follow up may seem less terrible simply because I knew what was coming. It is a comeuppance that is earned but is nearly as brutal as the act that inspired it. This post seems to be focusing on comparisons between the two movies, I suppose that is inevitable, but I don't want to ignore those things that are unique to this particular movie.

Since I have been a James Bond fan all my life, title sequences are like manna to me. The Maurice Binder work on the Bond films was my introduction to titles. Earlier this week I saw a great opening title sequence in "The Adventures of Tin Tin", this is the second title sequence this week that is noteworthy. The music you hear in the teaser trailer is used in the titles. The Led Zeppelin "Immigrant Song" actually build some tension and lets the audience know that this will be an unusual story we are about to see. The images are artistic visuals using black oil covered props, faces and human forms. We get a good idea from this that there are dark things coming in the next couple of hours.

I don't know the actor from the Swedish version of the film but he was perfectly fine, I thought however that Daniel Craig was much more effective at playing a conflicted investigator. I was impressed by him in a sequence in the movie where he is in substantial danger. In the Bond character he plays, even when at the mercy of the bad guy, he comes across as tough. In this story he is not tough, he is defeated and you can see the expression on his face that another character is referring to at the time. It was a solid piece of acting. The actress from the Swedish version was solid, but I thought her performance weakened over the course of the other films. I don't know how Mara Rooney will do in the subsequent versions should they choose to make them, but I think she is going to be pretty huge after this. She nails the character and makes us understand that there is anger in her but also a good deal of insanity. The end of the story as it is shown here, steals her potential breakthrough, although in the long run it is necessary for the other movies to work

The director David Fincher has done a couple of movies that I like really well and a couple of films that I can't stand(Alien 3 and Fight Club could disappear and I would not shed a tear). "Zodiac" was the best film of it's year but was largely ignored. He gets the creep factor up in two or three places and sustains it. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, needs that sort of suspense and creepiness, and it shows up in a couple of places, including the climatic revelation of the murder mystery. My memory was that there was a very limited sexual relationship in the Swedish film and it is more extended in the new version. I think that works at deepening the relationship between the two main characters but also showing the seeds of resentment that are going to be a part of the next couple of features, so for me this is a plus for this version. They made a commitment to extending the movie past the place that the mystery of the story is resolved. It is all set up for what comes next, the last twenty minutes of this movie were the first twenty minutes of the second of the Swedish films. This section was not as clear as in needed to be and it makes the film sag at the climax instead of sing.

It is hard to say that the movie is entertaining since it goes so many dark places. It was exciting and suspenseful and well crafted. I think the story telling in the original Swedish film was stronger but the acting and production here is better. I do think that there was a lot of honesty in the promo used in the teaser, "The Feel Bad Movie of Christmas". The images and ideas are hanging around my head, and I don't know that I like it, but I do know that the film worked because it left me with those feelings.

Q&A: How Do I Know If My IMAX Theatre is Real 70mm IMAX or lieMAX (Digital IMAX)? |

Q&A: How Do I Know If My IMAX Theatre is Real 70mm IMAX or lieMAX (Digital IMAX)? |

A nice summary of the Lie-Max controversy. Check out the screen size comparisons with the little six foot man in the bottom corner.