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Reviews
The Black Dahlia (2006)
What's wrong with you people?
(possible spoilers, I'm not keeping track.) Call yourselves De Palma fans? This movie was so luscious I never wanted it to end. Therefore I was pleased to see it go on and on with new plot... let's say... *developments*. This is simply a means (or excuse) to have more sumptuous screen time. Swank's delivery, simultaneously enjoyable and laughable, and deliberately fake, kinda sums up the whole enterprise. This movie feels much dirtier than L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, which I couldn't sit through--boring direction, for people who think plain reality is grim and venal? By the way, every "random" thing in that movie tied up too neatly later, too. At least De Palma casts American cops and only candy-coats his ugly truth cinematically: makes a movie you want to keep watching for sensual reasons.
Hartnett was great, Eckhart was wasted, and Johansson joins the long history of untalented females in De Palma films (a challenge to himself? a statement on sex relations? note that this implies a certain power in all women, vs. the work the men are expected to do...) while Kirshner, dead, blows her away. My only complaint is that modern actors don't enunciate, so much of the 40s-era speech is lost, but the exposition is so tight you can't afford to lose even one line.
And thank GODDD Fiona Shaw got a chance to come back and do some real stuff. She's too good to merely decorate the dinner table.
I don't know if a movie like this SHOULD have a sincere emotional basis -- it's like a game where you're trying to keep up with all the token scenes you have to have in a big expensive commercial movie. For money reasons alone he probably couldn't have got the movie made without Johansson. And we get to see Bill Finley again.
So I agree the plot meanders, but that's not the point. Or rather, it IS the point. How can anyone swallow the Rollo Tommassi thing and complain about this? At least stuff like k.d. lang (in her Fat Elvis phase) indicates the knowing joke. Did anyone ever think giant Kim Basinger looked like tiny Veronica Lake?
The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002)
Not nearly that bad
Everyone complaining about this movie is a tool of the system, mouthing sound bites they heard somewhere else. In fact, this movie is a lot better than many recent box office hits (incl. other Eddie Murphy movies). I guess "moderately entertaining" ain't enough for H'wood when it costs 100 mil, but there are many, many examples more deserving of the stinkbomb rep PLUTO NASH got. And most of them cost more.
Inspector Clouseau (1968)
The BEST of the series. Best!
This film is a forgotten comic masterpiece, replacing the cartoon approach of the well-known Pink Panther movies with better timing and something like a plot. Arkin is hilarious -- actually SUPERIOR to the Clouseau most people know.
Peter Sellers wore every role like a mask -- oddly enough, considering this one -- while Arkin is inherently funny and finds the inner motivation to make the character work, which Sellers never did. Also, the script is better. The shtick of Sellers doing "funny French voice" makes no sense a French setting; this removes Clouseau to England on special assignment, which works. It's as if the writers saw their chance to get away from Blake Edwards' influence and ran with it. There are actually some surprises, which never happens in the predictable, boring, unfunny Edwards movies.
INSPECTOR CLOUSEAU might be TOO tightly paced, unlike the yawning stretches found in the other films... the plot jumps around a little and it's as if some connective scenes are missing, but this is way better than the alternative.
There is plenty of slapstick, but it doesn't form the whole movie, with a plot tossed in on the side and wrapped up in the last few seconds. And even the quality of the slapstick is better, toned down somewhat. Draw back from "too much" and you get "just right." Arkin's Clouseau is somewhat sympathetic, not just a jackass. (This rescues the surrounding characters from their usual status as window dressing, too.) Even the introduction of Bond-like gadgetry doesn't derail the movie. Better direction, better music, and the action moves forward instead of undoing itself every two seconds.
The Substance of Fire (1996)
One of the great films of its time
Saw this at a film festival prior to its release and can't believe it didn't get more attention. The actors are excellent, but, more than that, it takes pains to *adapt* the original play into something that has a shape as a film. Never feels stagy, in spite of all the talk that seems to upset so many IMDb users. (Not in excess of any other talk-movie. Why would this one attract all the action fans?) Its pieces may not all add up, but that is something that marks a great film as often as it does a bad one. (Except for the fact that there are simply fewer great films in the world.) The quality of its observations is so good, it doesn't matter that there seem to be a few extraneous contents or that its point may not be entirely clear. It doesn't back away from complex questions and doesn't stoop to easy answers. Excellent.
Better than the American dramas getting all the awards, certainly.