John Carter

John Carter

John Carter is the type of movie that makes me just a little sad.  Though it has performed decently overseas, it was crushed at the box office domestically, and Disney is estimating they are are going to lose $200 million on the film.  The movie is going to be remembered as the big flop of 2012.

And it doesn't deserve it.

I'm not saying John Carter is great.  It's not.  The movie, directed by Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo), has some real problems and is even a little clumsy in places, especially in the film's opening scenes.  The script is a bit hokey in places, the acting is sometimes hit or miss, and I don't understand why Mars looks like Utah.  But you know what?  It is ten times better than most of these summer sci-fi blockbusters which end up making a bazillion dollars no matter how bad they are.  And that it just a shame.

Because John Carter is the granddaddy of all of them.  In 1912, Edgar Rice Burroughs, who also dreamed up Tarzan, created modern science fiction when he wrote a story about an Virginian cavalry officer who finds himself on Mars, where he has super strength because the gravity makes his human bones more dense.  He is a stranger in a strange land, finds himself siding with the locals against an evil empire and marries a princess.  Sound familiar?  It should, because we've been watching this story all our lives.  Burroughs' work has inspired writers, filmmakers, scientists - men like George Lucas, James Cameron, Ray Bradbury, Frank Frazetta, and Jerry Siegel.  Why wasn't that little fact in the marketing?!  The trailers for John Carter made it look like some lame Star Wars or Avatar clone, when really it is the other way around.

Despite its flaws, John Carter's heart is in the right place.  The film is genuinely exciting in a lot of places, and the comedy is for the most part natural and not forced.  Most importantly, you can tell that the filmmakers are involved not because they want to make a big blockbuster, but because they love the source material.  They are trying to do the classic story justice.   This enthusiasm crosses over to the cast, which includes Taylor Kitsch (Wolverine) as our title hero, Lynn Collins (also from Wolverine) as the Princess Dejah, and a solid supporting troupe that includes Ciaran Hinds (Rome), Polly Walker (Rome), James Purefoy (uh, also Rome), Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes), Dominic West (300), Thomas Haden Church (Easy A), Samantha Morton (Minority Report), Willem Dafoe (Spiderman) and Bryan Cranston (Drive).

TANGENT: Speaking the casting, I have to address some miscasting.  Dominic West was cast as the villainous ruler Sab Than, while James Purefoy was cast a roguish good guy captain Kantos Kan.  Both are fine actors and put in solid work, but it is clear to me that their roles should have been switched.  Dominic West keeps getting cast as villain because of his dark looks and mean glare, but he doesn't have the true menace needed here to be a worthy evil tyrant of Mars.  One look at Purefoy's Marc Antony in Rome and you will see a glimpse of the charismatic, magnificent asshole-ishness that Sab Than should have had.  Purefoy would have been spectacular.  Instead, he is stuck as the dependable and noble Kantos, who has an unfunny comedic scene late in the movie that borders on embarrassing.   Purefoy just looks out of place, but West could have pulled it off.  More than than, as you can see from his vibrant work in Centurion, West would have owned this scene.  It would have been funny without making the character any less badass.  West would have been superb.  I know this is a small detail, but that simple switch would have made a big difference.  TANGENT OVER.

Anyway, overall, John Carter is a mixed bag.  It has its flaws, but there is a lot to like in it, and I think it is a shame that it got destroyed at the box office when it really isn't that bad.  It deserves better.  I think everyone reading this review should go check it out.  They might be pleasantly surprised.


MVP:  
When he was hired to write the score, Michael Giacchino (Lost) was told to go big, to write "his Star Wars."  And he does.  With some nods to John Barry, John Williams, and Maurice Jarre, Giacchino goes into overdrive, writing a grandiose (if a tad over-used) main theme and a stunning love theme.  His work propels the movie forward and gives the dramatic scenes more emotion than the script sometimes deserves.  It's terrific work.  If the movie had done better, he would have been guaranteed an Oscar nomination.  Alas, I fear that this score will be lost to the mainstream.  But I will do my best to trumpet its cause.  And I will start by giving Giacchino my MVP award!


BEST LINE:
Tars Tarka: When I saw you, I believed it was a sign...that something new could come into this world.


TRIVIA: 
Possibly, this movie has the record for being in 'development hell' for the longest period of time.  The first attempt to make the film was all the way back in 1931.  No one succeeded until now.  That's...over 70 years!!!

Easy A

Easy A

There is no real reason I should have enjoyed Easy A as much as I did.  It is a teen comedy, the likes of which I usually tend to avoid.  But if nothing else, I suppose Easy A should teach us a very important lesson: casting can be everything.

Emma Stone (The Help) plays Olive, a slightly nerdy and quiet high school student.  In order to get out of hanging out with her best friend's weird family, she lies about going out on a date with a college kid.  The next day, she then also lies about sleeping with that college kid just to get her friend off her back.  As I am sure we all painfully remember, news travels like wild fire in high school, and Olive is quickly branded as a slut.  Coincidentally, they are reading "The Scarlet Letter" in English class, and Olive is inspired.  Though she is not quite ostracized the same way Hester Prynne is in the classic novel, Olive still faces a similar social stigma and begins to ironically wear a scarlet A on her outfits, just to mess with people.  This...just kind of makes things worse.  Lies continue to spiral out of control and beyond anything that Olive can manage.  Hilarity ensues.

As I mentioned, the key to Easy A's success is the cast.  Emma Stone is fiery, biting, and quirky (without using the quirkiness as a gimmick) and she absolutely carries the film.  The rest of the cast is equally good.  Her very peculiar parents are played by seasoned pros Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada) and Patricia Clarkson (Pieces of April), and this pair tends to steal many of the scenes they are in.  The school's personnel includes Thomas Haden Church (Sideways) as her English teacher, Lisa Kudrow (Friends) as her counselor, and good ol' Malcolm McDowall (Clockwork Orange) as the principal. The fellow students, often the weak link in these movies, all put in pretty funny performances, especially the love interest played by Penn Badgley, who shows way more charm and comic timing here than he ever has on that piece of crap Gossip Girl show he stars in (I HATE THAT SHOW).

The movie does have some issues.  Sometimes the script is a little too clever for its own good, calling attention to its own strangeness.  This can get distracting in some scenes, especially the ones without Stone, who manages to make all of her odd lines completely believable.  Another thing that bothered me is that they resort to the stock, judgmental and overly religious group as the high school bad guys.  I understand that judgmental and hypocritical prudes are a huge part of "The Scarlet Letter," so I get what they are trying to do.  But I don't think it works as presented here.  And with all the entertaining characters floating around everywhere else, I wish they had been more creative here than just resorting to the old cardboard cutouts.  Basically, in all these high school movies, if you are religious at all, you're automatically bad, and that annoys me.  Sometimes this type of character works really well (like Mandy Moore in 2004's Saved), but here it is just a bothersome cliche.    

Anyway, that is really a small complaint in what is otherwise a very entertaining film.  I would absolutely check it out if you get a chance.  It may surprise you!  

MVP:

No doubt in my mind.  Emma Stone, for sure.  Of the young actors moving up the ladder these days, she might be my favorite.  She has terrific comic timing and is able to equally sell edgy and nerdy.  In the case of Easy A, she takes a movie that might have been merely amusing and lifts it into something way more entertaining (and picking up a well-deserved Golden Globe nomination in the process).  With Crazy Stupid Love and The Help, this has been a great year for her, and I think her star is just gonna keep rising.  

BEST LINE:

Mom: No judgement, but you kind of look like a stripper.
Olive: Mom!!!
Dad (trying to calm her down): A high end stripper, for governors or athletes. 

TRIVIA:

All the members of Olive's family are named after food.  Her parents are Dill and Rosemary.  Her brothers are Chip and Kale.  That is, uh, odd.  But interesting.