Faith
n begorrah, suren if it isnt time for
another trip to The Electric Theatre.
I hope you all had a happy St. Patrick's Day, whether it was spent
down the pub in Belfast reminiscing about the Troubles or on the
couch at home eating a bowl of Lucky Charms. I've got a handful of
movies to throw at you this week and since I'm not really sure where
to start, let's do things in reverse alphabetical order! Whoa! Hold
on!!
Now
in Theatres...
V for Vendetta
This is, I suppose, this week's A-Picture
but let me say right off the bat, I have reservations about it. I
have said many times that movie reviews should not get hung up on
comparing films to their source material. Movies are not books,
books are not movies, and which one is better doesn't
really matter because they are different mediums working in
different ways. It's like saying an éclair is better than a
taco. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. It all depends on what
you want out of your food. Consequently, I will attempt the
impossible here and try to forget that V
for Vendetta, the graphic novel illustrated by David
Lloyd (I will respect the writer's wishes to have his name kept off
this project), is one of my favorite comic books and ignore the fact
that this film adaptation is almost nothing like what I hoped a
movie version of this story would be like. I will deal with the
movie as its own entity and as such, it's pretty darn good,
especially in its second half. But the march to that second hour
seemed occasionally clumsy and awkward to me. The domino pattern
that is the story (to borrow the film's most inspired visual
metaphor) is laid down without much subtlety. That seems to have
been sacrificed in order to make room for scenes of V showing off
his kung fu and knife-throwing moves. These scenes are cool and, I
suppose, what most people want from a movie written by the Wachowski
Brothers and produced by Joel Silver but it's not what I want from a
dark sci-fi allegory a la 1984.
Still, there's much to admire including some great cinematography by
the late Adrian Biddle, amazingly detailed production design that'll
probably wear out at least a few pause buttons when this
movie hits DVD, and a uniformly excellent cast. Natalie Portman
gives a go-for-broke performance as Evey. Stephen Fry was an
inspired choice to play talk show host Deitrich. And Hugo Weaving's
voice is a perfect match for V, though I'm not prepared to rave
about what a great physical performance he gave. Considering he was
hired after the movie began shooting, I'm not at all convinced that
Weaving is the only actor behind the mask. And if he is, he
certainly didn't need to be. For all I know, this performance was
delivered by a combination of Weaving, the actor he replaced, a
stuntman or two, and a Team America
puppet. At any rate, while I didn't whole-heartedly love V
for Vendetta, it's certainly a much, much better movie
than it could have been. The road to The
Hell Plaza Octoplex is littered with horrible films based
on intelligent and literate comic books. Happily, V
for Vendetta is not one of them. It's stylish, exciting
and cathartic, yet intelligent enough to make you think about what
it is you're applauding. But the book is better and you should all
read it after you see this. (***)
Ultraviolet
If I sounded a little wishy-washy on calling V
for Vendetta this week's A-Picture,
let there be no doubt that Ultraviolet
reigns supreme in The Hell Plaza Octoplex.
This is a perfect cautionary tale about the dangers of playing Movie
Roulette. That's what you're playing when you just show up at a
theatre and buy a ticket for whatever the next movie is. This is
just mind-numbingly awful. The story has something to do with a
future society where a man-made plague has turned a fair number of
the population into Hemophages or vampires
(don't be scared... it seems to just be a euphemism as they don't
display any vampiric traits I'm familiar with unless I missed the
part in Dracula about the
ability to change the color of your hot leather outfit at will).
Milla Jovovich stars as Violet, a rebel Hemophage who's sent to
intercept some kind of ultimate weapon. Turns out the weapon is one
of the worst child actors I've ever seen in a major motion picture.
She spends the rest of the movie trying to protect the kid. I can't
imagine how this thing even snuck into theatres. The fight scenes
are either poorly executed or done off-screen entirely, the wooden
performances give wood a bad name, and I've downloaded better
computer effects from jibjab.com. About fifteen minutes into this
movie, I realized I'd forgotten to turn off my cell phone. I left it
on and prayed for someone to call. (*)
The Libertine
Johnny Depp stars as John Wilmot, the Earl of Rochester, in this
oft-delayed costume drama. Rochester was a drunk and a lech but also
a prodigiously talented writer and poet. These gifts provide both
his salvation and his downfall at the court of King Charles II (John
Malkovich). I liked about half of this movie. Depp gives his usual
reliably excellent performance, as does Malkovich. The period
details feel authentically gritty and the screenplay by Stephen
Jeffreys (adapting his own play) is both literate and engaging. But
I was disappointed when Samantha Morton turned up as an actress who
Depp trains. I feel like we (or at least, I) have seen more than
enough period dramas about the stage at this point. Also, for the
first time ever I found myself wishing a film had been directed by
Peter Greenaway. The music by Michael Nyman helped put me in a
Greenaway state of mind, I'll admit. But the film could have been
helped a great deal by a director with a wider visual palette than
Laurence Dunmore displays here. It appears the movie was shot
entirely with natural light, along the lines of Kubrick's Barry
Lyndon. The difference is that Kubrick's movie looks
fantastic. The Libertine is dark, monochromatic, and singularly
unattractive. It's worth watching for Johnny Depp but it's a close
call. (** ½)
The Hills Have Eyes
Alexandre Aja's remake of Wes Craven's 1977 shocker doesn't deserve
a place in the Horror Remake Hall of Fame alongside Carpenter's The
Thing or Cronenberg's The Fly,
but neither does it deserve to be dumped alongside Van Sant's Psycho.
Once again, a typical American family in an RV gets stranded in the
desert and find themselves besieged by hill people. But this time,
the hill folk aren't just deranged savages. They're bona fide
mutants, twisted out of proportion in both body and mind by American
nuclear testing decades earlier. So yeah, the social commentary is
substantially more ham-handed this time around. And I have to say
there was no reason for this movie to be shot in Morocco instead of
right here in the good old U S of A. Don't tell me it was for
budgetary reasons. You could make this thing for half what they paid
for it, easily. But the movie delivers where it counts, ultimately
becoming one of the most vicious and grim mainstream horror movies
I've seen in a long time. I actually liked this a little better than
Aja's debut, High Tension, a
movie so seriously undone by its atrocious finale that it's like
watching a house of cards collapse in front of your eyes. The
Hills Have Eyes at least holds itself together throughout
its running time. Aja has style and mood to spare. If he can get his
hands on a script to match, he might yet produce a real classic.
(***)
Now
on DVD...
Oliver Twist
I had somewhat high hopes for this 2005 adaptation of the Dickens
novel. Roman Polanski is a great, great filmmaker, no matter what
anybody says, and I love Charles Dickens and this book in
particular. And while I can't say I was disappointed, it wasn't the
definitive Dickens film I was hoping for. Young Barney Clark is very
good as Oliver, the orphan with an air of melancholy about him, and
Polanski and screenwriter Ronald Harwood do an admirable job
cramming the novel into just over two hours. Ben Kingsley is almost
totally unrecognizable as Fagin and while his performance is
certainly entertaining, it doesn't flesh out the character as much
as it should. Oliver Twist is
a handsome, well-mounted production and if it isn't as surprising or
engaging as one might like, that's only because the story itself is
so familiar. Barring an eight-hour BBC production, this is likely as
good as you can ask for. And yeah, the book is better.
(***)
I'm afraid that's all I've got for you this time out. Before we
call it a day, however, I'd like to call your attention to the
little long distance dedications that conclude these
articles/columns/blogs/whatever-you-wanna-call-ems. Usually The
Electric Theatre is dedicated to someone who passed away
during the previous two weeks, an artist usually whose work and/or
life touched mine in some way. It's my little way of paying tribute
and saying thanks.
This week's edition is a little different. Instead of dedicating
The Electric Theatre to
someone gone, I thought I'd salute someone who's just joining us.
Over Christmas, my wife Tisha and I were honored to be asked to be
godparents by friends of ours who were expecting. On Thursday, March
9, at around 11 AM, Felix David Vu-Schura premiered. It is to him
that this week's Electric Theatre
is dedicated with heartfelt congratulations going out to Florian and
Fawn. I shall try to be worthy of my post.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go make somebody an offer they
can't refuse. See you all in the cruelest month (that'd be April,
for those of you who aren't big T.S. Eliot fans).
Jahnke
ajahnke@thedigitalbits.com
Dedicated to Felix David Vu-Schura
"Electric Theatre - Where You See All
the Latest Life Size Moving Pictures, Moral and Refined, Pleasing to
Ladies, Gentlemen and Children!"
- Legend on a traveling moving picture show tent, c.1900 |