The Informant!

The Informant! (2009)
Warner Bros. Pictures
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Starring Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, Joel McHale

Steven Soderbergh’s first comedy since his Ocean’s films, The Informant! tells the story of a business executive, Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon), and his consultations with the FBI about Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) price-fixing lysine, a chemical used in livestock. Whitacre is a compulsive liar and wants as much publicity from the situation as possible. The FBI asks him to record meetings of ADM to gain evidence to bring down the business. When the case is cracked, ADM and the FBI unravel Whitacre’s web of lies and try to discover the truth behind it.

The Informant! is based on the true story of Mark Whitacre and his involvement in the mid-1990s lysine price-fixing conspiracy as detailed in Kurt Eichenwald’s novel, The Informant. Matt Damon gives a good performance as Whitacre. It is nice to see Damon doing some more comedies after Ocean’s 13, since he is most known for his dramas and the Bourne series. Damon makes the character likable in the beginning, but as his lies become more common, you begin to grow an annoyance towards him.

The film touches upon various social issues related to the economy and how the big businesses will do anything to get ahead. Whitacre is a loyal executive who just doesn’t believe in doing things illegally, so he contacts the FBI to help save his job from a lie that he created about an informer, which backfired on him. ABM stabs Whitacre in the back to take the blame off of them and distract the lawyers from the original issues. The Informant! tries to remind us how these businesses work, and how they don’t care for their workers or executives. They only care for getting money, whether legal or not.

It may not be as fun as Ocean’s 11, or as clever and witty as Burn After Reading, but The Informant! is a decent spy comedy. It is not one of Soderbergh’s best works, or a genre masterpiece, but it does work in most places and Matt Damon gives a wonderful performance to make this film worth a watch.

Rating: B+


February 27, 2010

The Odd Couple

The Odd Couple (1968)
Paramount Pictures
Directed by Gene Saks
Starring Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau

The Odd Couple is the story of two friends, Felix Ungar (Jack Lemmon) and Oscar Madison (Walter Matthau), who are forced to room together when Felix’s wife decides to leave him. Once Felix learns of this, he tries several times to kill himself, but ends up pulling his back trying to jump out a window. Fearing for his safety, Felix’s friends decide that he should stay with Oscar to make sure he doesn’t try anything again.

Once Felix grows into his situation, he begins to take a wife persona towards Oscar. He cooks and cleans his apartment, non-stop, until Oscar has had enough. There is much tension between the two as Oscar does not appreciate Felix’s actions. All Felix does is ruin Oscar’s social life, including a poker game and a dinner date for the two with young foreign ladies.

This film is based upon the play written by Neil Simon. Many people may find fault with the film for not being “like the original” but The Odd Couple does a good job of telling the story of these two friends. The music will stick with you for a while, and is very catchy. Neal Hefti’s composition of jazz instruments really set the tone for this film right from the opening scene.

Lemmon and Matthau are wonderful together on screen as the “odd couple.” There is a great chemistry between the two that make this comedy tremendously funny. It is great to see how Felix’s failed marriage has turned him into a wife. Throughout the film he constantly wears an apron and bickers with Oscar as if they had been married for years. The Odd Couple is a great comedy that shows how far friends will go for others, and how much those friends can take care of each other.

Rating: B+


February 23, 2010

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
Touchstone Pictures
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Starring Bob Hoskins, Charles Fleischer, Christopher Lloyd, Kathleen Turner

Who would have ever thought that Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse would ever have appeared together on screen? Or for that matter, how about Goofy, Woody Woodpecker, and Betty Boop all together for the first and only time? Who Framed Roger Rabbit uses a mixture of live action and classic animation to bring this highly amusing and original tale to life, using cartoon characters from various studios.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is set in a world where “toons” are real and live in “Toon Town.” They can interact with humans, and go into the real world. Detective Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) is hired to take a case involving prankster Roger Rabbit (voiced by Charles Fleischer) who is believed to have killed the owner of Toon Town, Marvin Acme, after he was found to be playing patty-cake with Roger’s beautiful wife, Jessica Rabbit (voice of Kathleen Turner). Roger has been set up, and it’s up to Valiant to save him from Judge Doom, who wants to kill all the toons. After Acme’s death, Roger and Jessica try to find his will and save Toon Town from being “erased” by Doom.

Though it’s not unique to blend live-action and animation together, Roger Rabbit is unique because of how much it is used. There has never been a film that uses this much mixture, or this much interaction between humans and cartoon characters. It is also pays homage to the film noir movement, with its hard-nosed detective, femme fatale, and corrupted system. Roger Rabbit is a good example of this traditional movement with references to Chinatown and The Maltese Falcon. The story keeps you guessing as to who is the true villain that set up Roger Rabbit with several plot twists, that make this a true film noir.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a fun popcorn flick that will keep children and adults entertained. The film does feature several adult references and sexual innuendos, all set in a children’s world, making this film not for young children because of the dark tone and themes. The animation is beautiful and the characters interact wonderfully with the actors. Roger Rabbit is plain fun, with a message of hold onto your imagination, because once it’s gone, you cannot get it back. The film reminds adults of a time when they had an imagination filled with these childhood characters. It’s fitting that the story is set in the 1940s in classic Hollywood when producers and screenwriters had a larger imagination and did not just rehash the same material. Who Framed Roger Rabbit helps us relive our childhoods with an adult twist. As the audience members grows older and move into the real world, it’s nice to see the characters grow with us, becoming more mature as we have now become. It’s nice to grow up, but it is magical to look back on our childhood and see what excited us, and what characters we admired.

Rating: A-


February 28, 2010

Shutter Island

Shutter Island (2010)
Paramount Pictures
Directed by Martin Scorcese
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley

Martin Scorcese is considered one of the greatest Hollywood directors of all time. He has brought us GoodFellas, Gangs of New York, and Casino. In his first feature film since The Departed, Scorcese steps behind the camera to bring us Shutter Island. Based on the book by Dennis Lehane, it tells the story of U.S. Marshals Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) being sent to the psychiatric prison on Shutter Island to investigate a missing inmate. While searching for the inmate, he discovers the true secrets of Shutter Island and the experiments being conducted.

This is not one of Scorcese’s best films, but it is still a great mystery thriller. The story keeps you thinking and guessing about the ending. Right from the opening, the audience can tell that something is not right. Throughout the film, there are many small details that hint that there is more to the story than what is being shown. The film is riddled with plot twists. Some are very predictable, and many are not. The ones that the audience does not see coming are the best and thrill them the most. It is rare for a thriller these days to have a intriguing mystery storyline and still provide enough original thrills. This is one of those films that need a second viewing to pick up on those details. On further viewing, you can see all the minor details that Scorcese placed into Shutter Island to make it truly wonderful and powerful.

The settings of Shutter Island also play to the film’s advantage. The asylum is very eerie and dark which gives off a sense of paranoia. The walls seem to close in on Daniels as he searches for answers inside the old Civil War fort. The entire island is creepy, not just the asylum. It is surrounded by sharp cliffs, and contains forests filled with old cemeteries. There is also an old eerie lighthouse that serves as a major turning point at the end. During the span of the film, a major hurricane strikes the island and makes the weather gloomy, adding to the feel of the film. Once Daniels comes to find out the truth, the storm seems to lighten up, signifying that he is coming into the light of the situation. The music also helps to shape the mood. It is dark, gloomy, loud, and gives a sense of terror. It is composed mostly of a steamboat horn. This scares the audience with its loudness and cautions them that Shutter Island is not a place to be.

Leonardo DiCaprio has really grown into a wonderful actor. This is the fourth film he has done with Scorcese. The director is taking him and molding him into a modern Robert DeNiro. DiCaprio does overact at some points as Daniels, but for most of the film, he pulls it off with finesse. His portrayal of Daniels is believable and makes the audience feel for him. Once the truth is unveiled, it is hard not to be emotionally touched by it. Mark Ruffalo and Ben Kingsley also add to the story as supportive characters.

Shutter Island asks us to look beyond the story and become the detective ourselves. If you can fully immense yourself within the story, then it is possible to achieve this. We are asked to decide what is insane, and are we ourselves insane? Can we do what is right to help others in need, or do we just step back and let others fall? Shutter Island puts us in a situation where we must decide if we were in Daniels’ position, would we do the same and fall to madness or deal with the drama? Daniels decided to not deal with the pain and created his persona and blocked the pain. Shutter Island is a great thriller from Scorcese that is smart, thrilling, and suspenseful. It is a great film, but may require multiple viewings to understand why.

Rating: A-

March 2, 2010

King Kong (2005)

King Kong (2005)
Universal Pictures
Directed by Peter Jackson
Starring Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody, Andy Serkis

Hot off the success of the award winning The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Peter Jackson returns behind the camera to bring us the second remake of King Kong. It is well known that Jackson is a huge Kong fan, and this was his chance to pay tribute to the classic 1933 film by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack. Jackson brings a new approach to the story that adds new elements of drama, action, and romance to his rendition.

King Kong tells the story of a washed-up director, Carl Denham (Jack Black), who hires screenwriter Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody), and aspiring actress Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) to respectively write and star in his new film. He decides to take a ship out to the mysterious, undiscovered Skull Island for filming. When the cast and crew go aboard the island, they are attacked by natives and Ann is captured and is given as an offering to the giant gorilla, Kong. He takes Ann deep into the jungles, as Jack goes to save her. The crew finds their own trouble fighting off dinosaurs and giant insects. Jack saves Ann, but the mighty Kong has fallen in love with her. Denham has the crew capture Kong to bring back to the United States to show off and make a profit. Once in New York City, Kong becomes enraged and escapes to find Ann and makes one final standoff against humans on top of the Empire State Building.

After watching King Kong it is very apparent that Jackson has a great passion for Kong. The film runs over three hours long, nearly an hour-and-a-half longer than the original. Jackson flushes out all the original elements and themes and makes this romantic action fantasy into an epic. Because of the length of the film, the beginning does drag out a bit, trying to build some characterization for the major characters, giving some background to the era, and showing some romantic connection between Jack and Ann. But the true romance of King Kong is between Ann and Kong, the beauty and the beast. Kong began to understand her and come to have emotions towards her on Skull Island. These transferred over to New York City where Kong does everything he can to save Ann from harm. This brings about the social context of the original King Kong about interracial relationships. Throughout the movie, everyone tries to stop their love. The crew, the police, and the planes all try to separate the two. Ann also has feelings for Jack, who in society should be the person that she should be with, but instead she wants to be with Kong. When the two are together, they are genuinely happy, and nothing else matters to them; time seems to stop.

The special effects of King Kong are truly amazing. Kong looks like a real gorilla and there is so much emotion in his eyes. Jackson has proven to be a master of special effects as shown in King Kong and The Lord of the Rings. Andy Serkis brings life to Kong using motion capture. The dinosaurs and action sequences are all impressive and blend together with the miniature sets and live shots.

King Kong is a very impressive remake of the classic. The action is impressive, the story is full of great characters and emotion, and the scenery is beautiful. The only downside to this film is the length and some of the performances are not wonderful. The true star of this film is the computer-generated Kong, the “eighth wonder of the world.”

Rating: A-


February 27, 2010

King Kong: Deluxe Extended Edition
(2006)
The extended cut of Peter Jackson’s 2005 remake of King Kong adds an additional twenty minutes to the three hour film. The scenes are mostly action sequences on Skull Island that add some more thrills for the audience. The crew fights off a triceratops and gets attacked by underwater creatures. Besides the few actions scenes, the extended cut does not improve this wonderful tale of action and romance.

Rating: A-


February 27, 2010