Maybe it’s just me, but I get the feeling that 3-D was made expressly for Michael Bay movies…
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John Malkovich
Remember Knight & Day? Probably not – it was a less than memorable film that mixed action, espionage and romance in ways that were awkward and unsatisfying – it was a bit of a box office disaster.
RED, on the other hand, takes all of those elements and throws in an element of “over the hill gang” whimsy in a manner that is both extraordinarily clever and, ultimately, gratifyingly silly.
Grade: B+
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After giving us unmitigated pap like You Again, it’s nice to see a genuinely good live action movie from Disney. Secretariat is smart, has heart and manages to make historic events suspenseful – not the easiest trick to pull off.
Sure, when the film is away from the track it gets a little overwrought. Sure the score is a hair too insistent at times. Underneath that, however, is solid spine – the story of a housewife who parlays a lost coin toss into the last Triple Crown winner in racing history. And not just a Triple Crown winner, but a completely dominant one – winning the Belmont Stakes, the last leg of racing’s Triple Crown, by thirty-one lengths!
Grade: B+
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I remember one particular review that I read when Tim Burton’s Batman came out. To paraphrase, for the purpose of reviewing Jonah Hex: they got it right: Josh Brolin plays the title character perfectly – writers Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor clearly understand Hex and his worldly and otherworldly aspects; the period is as well captured as any good western; John Malkovich makes an excellent villain as the once honorable Quentin Turnbull, and the bones of the story being told are solid. Unfortunately, Jonah Hex has the feel of an R-rated supernatural thriller [which was the original intent] that has been hacked to ribbons in the editing room to make for a PG-13 audience.
Grade: D+
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John Malkovich and Frances McDormand are two of the classiest, most talented actors around. And now, thanks to today’s offhand announcement on Michael Bay’s website [https://www.michaelbay.com/newsblog/newsblog.html], we know that they and The Hangover’s Ken Jeong have signed on for Transformers 3.
Pre-shoots on the film begin in about a month.
Damn! Now I have to see it…
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When alcoholic CIA analyst Osborne Cox [John Malkovich] refuses to accept a demotion because of his drinking problem and quits, he sets in motion a series of events that enmesh a number of not terribly bright characters in what could safely be called an anti-thriller thriller. When the notes on his memoir are accidentally left behind in a gym, they fall into the hands of gym employees Chad [Brad Pitt] and Linda [Frances McDormand] whose attempt to return them is mistaken for an attempted at blackmail.
Even though the files are worthless, Chad and Linda somehow get the Russians to show some interest – thoroughly confusing Ozzie’s former colleagues [David Rasche and his boss, J.K. Simmons]. At the same time, a federal marshal named Harry [George Clooney] is having affairs behind his children’s books author wife [Elizabeth Marvel] with Osborne’s wife [Tilda Swinton].
As the mistakes pile up, the CIA boss becomes so exasperated that he orders his subordinate to “Come back when this makes sense!” Alas, for them, it never will. In fact, it probably won’t for any of the characters – though one of them comes out of the whole thing less badly than the others.
All the elements of a Coen Brothers film are present in Burn After Reading. Odd angles [especially low-angles]? Check! Character arcs that bend and twist back on themselves? Check! Dialogue that stays with you after you’ve left the theater? Check! Unexpected moments of violence? Check! Expected moments of violence? Nope! If you’ve ever watched early Coen Brothers movies like Blood Simple and Raising Arizona, much of Burn After Reading will resonate with you. It’s that kind of film. If not, you might wonder if there’s anything actually going on in it.
Although none of the characters is terribly smart, some [especially Pitt’s Chad] project a kind of endearingly dim earnestness, which allows us to actually become involved in the movie. And some characters – like J.K. Simmons’ CIA boss – are there mostly to serve up unexpectedly humorous reactions. There’s even enough paranoia to give the humor even more of an edge – as Hitchcock once said, when a character notes, in the first act, that he’s never had to discharge his weapon, he had better do so in the third. The Coen Brothers use that device deftly enough that we don’t believe it when it happens because it’s simultaneously tragic and hilarious. Even the Fugs’ song over the closing credits works to the film’s advantage. After No Country for Old Men, Burn After Reading comes across as the Coen Brothers’ version of a romp. For the most part, it works.
Final Grade: B+
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