Saturday, February 12, 2011

One Ring To Rule Them All - The Fighter


       5 out of 5 Popcorn Kernels




See Trailer Here


Just when I thought it was safe to assume that everything about boxing had been done, every Round Girl had carried her last banner, every bloody nose had smeared yet another canvas, every motivated stair-climbing training session had reached its last apex...here comes a new and fresh approach, which taught me, what was old can indeed be new again. 


The Fighter is a different kind of boxing movie - this would be the boxing movie (albeit with a lot more staggering drama) if it were to be directed by, let's say...Francis Ford Coppola of The Godfather series. Here we have a boxing movie, that allows us to root for more than just the boxer. It is about a family, and how boxing itself, has become the protagonist driving a wedge into their seemingly perfectly-dysfunctional world. The hero tries to get out, but they keep pulling him back in, until an outside love interest comes in and shows him a way to lead his own path. It is about an underlying sibling rivalry and loyalty that is tested to its limits. It is about the boxing ring of everyone's life, and how they all fight each day to keep it.


The Fighter is about mainly about two brothers - as the opening sequence will tell you: The older brother Dicky (Christian Bale), was once a great fighter, and HBO is doing a series about him - but not as being a could-be legend who once knocked out Sugar Ray Leonard, but as a present crack-addict and how this drug has carried him (and anyone) down a rabbit hole of destruction. He however, in his Alice-of-Wonderland mind, believes that HBO is there to film his remarkable (and very unlikely) comeback into the ring of boxing. Next to him is his younger brother, whom he trains, and has hopes that he will bring not only himself redemption, but that of his whole family, as the next greatest boxer if the Century; Micky (Mark Wahlberg), who is being promoted by his mother Alice (Melissa Leo), who constantly miss-matches his fight bookings with people that can beat her son to a pulp but still leave him standing long enough to cash the check.


Then comes Charlene (Amy Adams), a barmaid with a bar-mouth and pretty eyes, who allows Micky to take her on a date, and immediately notices that it is not the fights in the ring he has to beat; his biggest competitors is his family. She sees his potential, if only he can get him away from them (and a roster of crazy sisters who look like the rejects from GLEE if it were filmed in the 80's).


And so the fighting begins...


Who Loves Ya Baby
Our main focus becomes the older brother in this story, as he deals with his loyalty in training his brother - which seems to be his only connection into the real world - and his drug addiction. Christian Bale is amazing in this role (he also lost enough weight to make him look like a waif), and his performance is sure to be a contender at the Oscars. He wears so many personalities that I would have loved to have seen the amount of energy it took during the retakes for him to get into character at each scene. Between him and Amy Adams I was mesmerized. For her, it was such a departure from her sweet personality in all her previous movies. She gives such determination in her role that I was really conflicted with who the real Amy Adams was in real life.


Micky is the string that pulls at this family, and the fighting scenes are us rooting less for the fights, and more for his freedom. We want him to win just because it will take him away from his addiction: his family. This is especially so for his mother Alice - and although Melissa Leo is getting a lot of praise for her portrait, and it is well deserved, I felt it paled in comparison with her colleague's. We feel her pain in dealing with this family, and her addiction with trying to make the dysfunction work - because this dysfunction gives her purpose, but she begins to fade into the background as the film ends.


The pacing of The Fighter is very captivating, and the only downside to all of this is the performance by Mark Wahlberg, who's character is dumbed down to a low simmer, and perhaps he should be, because in this family of estrogen and drama, maybe it is best to just disappear. Mark looks like a boxer, and so we believe him, and we admire his restraint, but we are left with concern that Charlene in time will be running his life as much as his present family does.


I was left with a very good feeling at the end of this movie, because it was more than I had expected, and delivered many victories. It showed me that when it comes to family - when one wins, we all win; whether we realize it or not.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Stung Again - Green Hornet

1 out of 5 Popcorn Kernels






There are some movies that arrive and I see, who's value is so below the radar that I am tempted to hold back in writing about it - but you can't account for taste, thus I have to give a modest review for all those that actually liked and was entertained by this movie which follows a long list of Superhero films. 


The Green Hornet comes from a radio program of the same name, and eventually from a similar film which starred Bruce Lee (non of which I have experienced). I am more attuned to the reality-based superhero movies which take on a more comic book feel - where situations mimic the lives we all live emotionally (The Dark Knight, Spiderman, Superman), but this movie falls between the realm of reality and slapstick...and not very well I might add. I had assumed that this movie would be one similar in its Suspension of Belief as Kick-Ass or Scott Williams vs The World (both great films), but this one came below My Ex-SuperGirlfriend or Hancock (still both good). This one was not.


This films stars a rich kid (or adult) Britt Reid (Seth Rogen) and his father, James (Tom Wilkinson - Why?) who runs a newspaper, and their coffee maker/chauffeur (really?) Kato (Jay Chou). After his father's untimely death, Britt has to run the paper and handle life of the rich & famous all by himself, so after a night or romping and rowdiness, he decides that the superhero life is for him...and why not bring along a guy that makes a great cup of coffee as your sidekick?


Exterminating Another Scene
Well, what sells a paper better than criminals - and if you can create crime better than the real criminals then wham! the criminals will be after you, which is better than running around the city actually LOOKING for crime


So The Green Hornet arrives in the guise of a criminal to...Catch-A-Thief (so to speak). It's a win-win if you ask me. The real criminal however, named Chudnofshy (who eventually becomes Bloodnofsky -  played by Christopher Waltz), is a drug king. Then there is the Evil Attorney, Scanlon (David Harbour), who wants the paper for his own ends; both go against the Green Hornet to advance their evil goals.


Oh yes, there is the love interest of Lenore Case (Cameron Diaz), who's only purpose I could see is to balance out all the testosterone in this feature.


Whew...there you have it. Good vs Evil, Love is in he air, and confusion within the public ensues as to who are the real criminals. The pacing of the movie is very quick, so much so, that at times I was wondering why so much meaninglessness was happening on the screen except to be able to meet the full running time the movie had to reach to be considered a movie and not a commercial. The fight scenes were nice, but I have seen them before. I did find that the sidekick Kato (Jay Chou) was at least an interesting study, and almost wished the roles were reversed, because Britt as the Green Hornet was a little too childish, lacking of skills, and inept to be successful as a superhero of anything. His arch as a playboy-type continues throughout the movie unchanged, while Kato appears very independent at first and has to learn to act as a team player (a very submissive role that I saw as quite deterring, but maybe this is how the radio program worked, but I doubt an Asian filled that voice), and that shift in personality makes him more watchable. 


I also ached for Christopher Waltz who won an Oscar for Inglorious Bastards (was this done as a favor?) who plays his part well with dedication and I could see how fun he would be if this story were a bit more serious, but when everybody is acting like a clown, what's the point of going to the circus? We needed a lion-tamer, a trapeze artist, anything to make this more real; even if it is suppose to be comedic. And I assume because Seth Rogen did his part in writing the screenplay - this was the reason for the miscasting (of himself). A shame. 


But as I have said, this movie appealed to many (based on the opening box office sales). The Rock-Soundtrack will let you know the age group this is catered to. And if recycled action, thin storyline, and great actors taking sub-par roles is for you...well enjoy. 


As for me...watching the butter dry on my popcorn was better entertainment.

She Loves Me...She Loves Me Not... - Blue Valentine

5 out of 5 Popcorn Kernels







There is a scene within Blue Valentine, that depicts a road leading out of town, and a missing dog. The family of the missing dog - soon finds the animal dead along the road.


This is the full premise of Blue Valentine, a movie that elicits the ultimate destruction of a relationship. It is not a sad movie, nor is it a happy one; but that road is one we all travel in a relationship; it can either lead you out - or keep you in. In this movie however - each couple understands the road, but in different ways, and those ways are laid out in a motion picture that will have you thinking and pondering its true meaning well after you have gotten in the car to drive on your own road, in your own destiny. 


Blue Valentine combines two different stories about the same people in the course of a few years of their lives: Dean (Ryan Gossling) is a simple man, with simple values. All he wants is a job and a girlfriend (in that order) - once the job is found as a mover in a moving company, he then goes on pursuit of the girl. That girl is Cindy (Michelle Williams), who is dating the college jock Bobby( Mike Vogel ), but in all actions he just seems to be a distraction. FLASHFOWARD! We meet the same couple with their daughter, speaking once again about the dog, his job, her duties as a mother, and his complacency as a father. She remembers those times in her past when she chose him over the jock, and remembers his efforts at trying to woo her; oh how times have changed - for he has settled into his role as father, dad and bread-winner, and she is waiting for her own transition and a role to settle into - she never thought that THIS would be the end of her storybook romance; where is the sequel for godssake!


Look Out For Love
Blue Valentine is a powerful story, because it does NOT have a storybook ending; it does not have the violins of forgiveness, or the somber good-feel of a romance - but what it does offer is a real-view look into two peoples lives when just living and surviving has become their sole goal in life. It charges along like a slow moving train, where you can see the bridge ahead is out and hangs over a precipice of calamity; but even as it moves, one must continue to live as best one can until the end - but by that time, there has accumulated so much tension, anger, and regret that your eventual fall may be the only excitement left.  


Ryan Gosling as Dean creates an amazing performance, and although his co-star, Michelle Williams, is of equal caliber, you can understand why his Golden Globe nomination was forthcoming. He delivers such a change, such a full range of emotions in such a short span of time; because this relationship doesn't cover decades in their lives, only a few short years but in those years you can see the toll - you can see a man that has settled for what he has, and the fear that it could be changing and his struggle to fight to save his storybook...HIS happy ending.


There is an exchange they have on a drive home where Cindy has bumped into her college jock boyfriend at a grocery store, and he still looks...well...Jocky! She is at once struck by those feelings she had long since smothered (and some secrets within their union). When she mentions it to Dean, she tries to downplay it, but he can see and hear a change in her voice. Her guard is up and he wonders why she told him of their casual meeting in the first place. It's a small town, they were bound to eventually meet anyway, and she knows their history isn't a good one, so why? Eventually that drive becomes another one of tension and escapism.  


In Blue Valentine, that same road leads them to many things; a trip to her parents, a trip out of town, a trip to her place of employment, a trip that he may ultimately travel alone. Each encounter, each stripping away of their lives, each scene of love making (which has gotten a lot of buzz as erotic but really its more of a mental-copulation) which becomes less and less about love and more and more about control when in the beginning it was more about giving in...not giving up. 


It reminded me that in love, we can all travel the same road; but its how we handle the traffic along the way that will determine our ultimate destination.