How infuriating! Shia La Beouf? Really? Are we out of great actors? Are we scrapping the bottom of the barrel? A "pretense" film with an amateurish central performance by the aforementioned Mr. LaBeouf. What makes it worse, he is surrounded by people of the caliber of Gary Oldman and Guy Pearce. Tom Hardy, a sensational actor by all accounts, here he's kind of ridiculous. Walter Brennan with great lips. The story is told by someone who doesn't have a clue about dramatic structure and the photography goes from pastel to total darkness and I saw it at the Los Angeles Cinerama Dome so I imagine there were no problems with the projection. I'm trying to understand the good reviews. There should be a law against the opportunistic casting and all the rest of this con-job. I'm giving it a 2 and not a 1 because Guy Pearce manages to make his moments very entertaining.
Reviews
5 Reviews
The Cardinal
(1963)
A Heavy Preminger Pastry
13 January 2008
The stiffness in the telling marks the destiny of this confused tale. At times is quite simply, unendurable. The wooden rigidity of Tom Tryon makes things even harder to take. Unconvincing should be the polite way of putting it. Preminger shows an eye for the travelogue part but a total diffidence in the subject at hand. No feel for it at all. Solemnity shouldn't be the way but it is and a rather phony solemnity at that. At times, they all behave like creatures from another planet and nothing they say or do sounds or looks credible. The over long saga is told in little disjointed episodes, the only thing that remains constant is the inexpressive brow of Mr Tryon. Most of Otto Preminger's opus looks terribly dated now. "The Cardinal" is, perhaps, the most dated. Carol Linley goes from saintly sister to exotic dancer in one single throw and Romy Schnaider has a brief and calculated moment. If I had to save something it would be the scene in which John Huston goes to visit his dying friend Burgess Meredith. But those kind of moments are rare. For some reason that I haven't been able to figure out there is a long musical number by Robert Morse, but as absurd as it was, it came as a welcome change from the agonizing pace the film suffers through its interminable length.
No Reservations
(2007)
A Gourmet Dish With A Strange Undertaste
3 August 2007
I think that Catherine Zeta Jones and Aaron Eckhart could do a new version of "Prizzi's Honor" they both look like professional killers. In a nice way, of course. It wouldn't have surprised me if one of the two had produced a kitchen knife and stabbed the other multiple times. Okay, enough of that. The movie is, how shall I put it? Nice. Catherine Zeta Jones manages a sort of warmth that I had never noticed before in her and Aaron, well, he just goes for it, reveling in this film persona that he's been developing for years. The tender macho type. The food looks great but not as great as in "Big Night" remember that one? Some character touches are really spot on. The city and the dishes are photographed beautifully, the human beings a little less. I almost walked out during a musical montage but I'm a glad I didn't. All in all. Fun. Not Preston Sturges but fun.
Apartment Zero
(1988)
A Million Times Zero
22 June 2006
Colin Firth plays a perfect zero without frills and/or tricks. He knows everything about movies - fantasies reflected on a screen - but nothing about himself or the world around him. The slightest provocation that may force him to feel to sense or to act will make him recoil into a maternal cocoon and deny, deny, deny. "Apartment Zero" is savage poetry. Part Garcia Lorca part Jean Arthur Rimbaud. It's also theater, gossip, journalism, trivia and pornography. One element nurturing and destroying the other at the same time. It uses elements of other movies just like the central character does. He couldn't exist without Montgomery Clift or Roman Polansky. Charles Laughton or Alfred Hitchcock. Anna Magnani emits the scream of realization from a still photograph. A Touch Of Evil or A Touch Of Class? Both, I think both. Entertaining, wittily funny and dark, one of the darkest. Unconfortable, compelling. Zero is the oddity to end all oddities. It will never change itself or others. What a movie!
It's a Wonderful Life
(1946)
Ageing Beautifully
20 June 2006
I had fond memories of "It's A Wonderful Life" but, somehow, it never made my top ten. The other night I felt the urge to see it again, from beginning to end, after that fun compilation from the AFI, 100 movies, 100 Cheers. The most surprising thing about this perennial classic is that it's not just a good movie but a sort of miracle. Age has made it more relevant, more powerful. Frank Capra is, without question, its miracle worker. His narration style was a first and in a way unsurpassed. As you may very well know, the film wasn't an instant success. A peculiarity it shares with most of the great works of art. The truth is something that needs time to be confirmed even recognized. James Stewart's performance lived from a 2006 stand point is, quite simply, extraordinary. Capra's films were known as "capracorn" in their day. Strange to think about it now because its sentimentality wasn't really sentimental but a need to find goodness in the darkest places. The great Capra not only found it, it unmasked it with the same relish that he unmasked evil and greed. My only regret is that on this times of technical prowess we'll never see again the likes of "It's Wonderful Life" But, trying to look on the bright side in the most Capraesque kind of way. "It's A Wonderful Life" will be around for ever.
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