OVERDUE MOVIE REVIEWS 12/08/09 (the road, black dynamite, antichrist and more…)
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
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I never thought I’d say this, but I honestly enjoyed this movie. If you can just try your best to not think about the 1992 “Bad Lieutenant” (probably Harvey Kietel’s best performance ever) you’ll enjoy this movie. In fact, if you haven’t seen the original Bad Lieutenant, maybe that’s a good thing (as messed up as that sounds). In this new version of Bad Lieutenant, Nicholas Cage plays a tormented police officer currently trying to solve a drug related, execution style murder of an…
African family. Werner Herzog’s version does keep a few things from the “original” ‘92 version; the cop being a drug addict, having a gambling problem, haunted by a gruesome case he’s currently working on, etc. Herzog even goes so far as to re-create his own version of the infamous scene from the original Bad Lieutenant where Keitel pulls the 2 teenagers over in the car and takes advantage of them. The major difference with Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant is that even though the main character is still a scumbag, he does have a few redeeming qualities and you don’t totally hate him like you do Harvey Kietel’s character. There are so many silly parts in this movie Herzog had to know no one would take it seriously. For example, there’s a scene where Nicholas Cage kills this guy, and then the recently deceased’s “soul” begins to break-dance while the music from the end of Stroszeck plays. Seriously, I’m not making this up. There’s an interesting supporting cast with the likes of character actor Brad Douriff, Xzibit, Faruza Baulk, Eva Mendez and Val Kilmer, who i hadn’t even thought about in years until I saw him in this movie. I can seriously see this movie being a new-age cult moviet. I’m telling you, seeing this movie with a group of people will probably make the viewing experience even more enjoyable.
Black Dynamite
Speaking of new cult movies, we have a new one in the form of “Black Dynamite”. Not only does this movie follow in the footsteps of “I’m Gonna Get You, Sucka”, but it even gives it a run for its money (yes, I said it). Michael Jai White plays a collage of Jim Kelly from “enter the dragon” mixed with Fred Williamson and Jim Brown mixed with Richard Roundtree from “Shaft” in a parody on blaxploitation movies. Finally Quentin Tarantinto’s influence rubs of in a POSITIVE way, and not in a Guy Ritchie kinda way. Lets be honest, ever since Pulp Fiction came out, aren’t you tired of the endless remakes ranging from 2 days in the Valley and Lock, Stock… to Amores Perros and Smokin Aces? My one and only criticism is something that I didn’t even realize myself, but was brought to my attention from a friend after we saw it. There could have been two movies made out of Black Dynamite, but they crammed a lot in to one story. Based off of what I saw in the first half of the movie alone, I would’ve signed on to see a sequel right away. In Black Dynamite, the title character tries to avenge his brother’s death, deal with the drug problem that’s infecting the youth in the community and solve a crime involving malt liquor that carries a secret, evil ingredient. Not only does he battle the local pimps in his neighborhood, but his adventures take him to “kung-fu island” and eventually all the way to the white house where he battles Richard Nixon in a karate fight. The best thing about “Black Dynamite” is that you don’t have to be familiar with blaxploitation films at all to enjoy the movie (although it wouldn’t hurt to get familiar with the genre). FYI, this movie will be showing at the sunshine cinema at midnight in 2 weeks, if you missed its short run at the angelica.
Antichrist
it’s hard for me to “rate” this movie with a; 3 out of 5 stars or a thumbs up/thumbs down kinda thing. Lars Von Triers “Antichrist” is more like an “experience” than just a simple movie. I don’t mean to sound so dramatic, but that’s the best I can do when someone asks if the movie was good or not. Wilem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg play a married couple trying to deal with the death of their young son (who fell out of window while they were having sex). Things get complicated when Dafoe’s character tries to play double duty as a supportive husband and psychiatrist to his wife who seems to be taking the lose much worse. As the story unfolds, Dafoe starts to discover some disturbing things about his wife, and what she’s been up to while he wasn’t around. This movie will do nothing to shake the misogynist label that many people have tagged Von Trier with. Damn near all his films show a female character either; murdered, beaten, raped or all 3. I’m not exactly sure, but with Antichrist, Lars Von Trier might be trying to say something about women in general (which is something really dark and disturbing). Now, this isn’t the most disturbing movie EVER, and I think some of the reviews after it showed at Cannes where a little over the top (there were reports that people felt “violated” after watching it. I dunno about that…). But still, this movie will stay with you a few days after you see it. I recommend that this not be the last thing you watch before you go to sleep. It’s a good idea to have a “happy” movie on deck right after you’re finished watching this. Oh yeah…Lars Von Trier needs a hug. Badly.
Fantastic Mr. Fox
This one is quite an improvement from “Darjeeling Limited”. In fact, I’d rank it above “Life Aquatic”. In the film, Mr. Fox (voiced by George Clooney) finds out he’s going to be a father. Faced with this responsibility, he realizes its time to change his dangerous lifestyle as a chicken thief, and settle down like a regular family man with his wife (voiced by Meryl Streep) and son (voiced by Jason Schwartzman). Unfortunately, even after becoming a father Mr. Fox still can’t let go of the thrill of being a thief, and leads a double life under his wife’s nose. Eventually, Mr. Fox steals from the wrong farmers, and they wage a war on him and the entire village of animals. Each character in the film seemed to go perfectly with the voices behind them. Most notably “Ash” (Mr. Fox’s son voiced by Jason Schwartzman) and “Rat” (a sneaky, knife wielding rat voiced by Wilem Dafoe). I wasn’t expecting much from this, and I ended up loving it. The best thing about Fantastic Mr. Fox is that the film can be enjoyed by just about any age group.
The Road
Much like “Big Fan”, “Watchmen” and “Where The Wild Things Are”, “The Road” this is another one of those 2009 movies that I expected BIG things from, but in the end it only turned out to be “pretty good” or just “ok”. In the film, a father and son try their best to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. Their ultimate goal is to make it south to avoid another winter. Through out the film they face many typical hardships that come in these types of movies (lack of food, water, dealing mother nature, etc). The worst obstacle the father & son have to deal with are the gangs of cannibals who hunt people, and keep them as slaves to be eaten in the future. There’s a lot of predictable stuff in the movie, and after a while, the dreariness and grayness of the movie start to kinda wear you down. But like I said before, the movie is good, but don’t expect anything GREAT. No matter how natural or over the top/big budget these; “end of world” movies are, I’m honestly starting to get a little sick and tired of ‘em.
FYI…not only are coming up on the end of the year, but the end of the decade as well. I’ll be posting up the best movies of the year as well as the DECADE very soon. stay tuned…
-Marcus