The Bank Job

The Bank Job

A decent little heist film directed by Roger Donaldson, The Bank Job should have done better at the box office. From what I remember, the marketing tried to make it out to be a 1970s British version of Oceans 11 - all hip and stylish and fun - but that is hardly the case. This film is grounded in reality, and evokes a gritty realism that benefits the movie immensely.

Based very loosely on a true story, The Bank Job is about the Baker Street Bank Raid. A former model named Marlene (Saffron Burrows) hires a group of petty crooks led by Terry Leather (Jason Statham) to break into Lloyd's Bank and steal the contents of all the safe deposit boxes. But the movie gets even more interesting after the robbery. Terry has opened a Pandora's Box - among the items he has stolen are dirty pictures of a royal princess being used by radical activist Michael X ( Peter De Jersey) as blackmail and coveted by MI5 government agents. He's also taken an incriminating accounting book from porn magnate Vogul (David Suchet, best known for his superb work as Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot). So now Terry and Co. have the police, radical activists, organized crime and government agents on their tale. All these plots are not strung together in an overly stylized way, but are told realistically. Donaldson does an admirable job of balancing all the converging plots and to his credit, I was never confused. It also helps that this story is loosely based on a real story - half the fun of the movie is trying to figure out what is real and what the filmmakers fictionalized. Surprisingly, more is real than you might think.

The movie certainly has its flaws. Jason Statham, as much as I like him, kind of sticks out. He does a acceptable job, but his acting just seems more suited to the wild and woolly Ritchie films or over-the-top fare like Crank and Transporter. Given the realistic tone of the rest of the film, I had trouble buying him as the lead. Also, the movie that has spent so much time reminding us of the gritty Brit films of the 1970s (like Get Carter) kind of wusses out in the end and goes a bit Hollywood - giving us an unnecessary and out-of-place fight scene and then wrapping up everything in a nice, little bow. That was a little disappointing.

But still, overall, The Bank Job is quite a nice, little movie. I definitely recommend it. I am hoping you will be pleasantly surprised like I was.

BEST LINE: Agent Tim Everett: "We are in this matter for the royal, er, portraits only. The proceeds and the pissoffs are your problem."

TRIVIA: If you blink, you'll miss him. But Mick Jagger plays one of the Lloyd Bank employees.

MVP: The main government agent is Tim Everett, a tall, tuxedo clad, raven-haired agent who flirts and smokes a lot. Remind you of someone? There is no doubt in my mind that this is supposed to evoke James Bond. And as played by Richard Lintern, Agent Everett doesn't play the role with even an ounce of irony or as an anti-007. On the contrary, Lintern plays him completely straight - if James Bond were real, he probably would be a whole lot like this guy. And that is fascinating to watch. When Daniel Craig retires, I think Lintern would be a nice choice. He's got the right combination of smugness and intelligence.

Toy Story 3

Toy Story 3

How does Pixar do it? The law of movies generally demands that a franchise get worse over time. While sometimes the second movie is just as good as the original, the third is generally a stinker. And yet Toy Story 3 is easily the best of the Toy Story movies.

Despite pressure from Disney, Pixar refused to make another Toy Story movie until they had found the right story. After 11 years (can you believe its been that long??), the Pixar gang found their story. In a way, the long wait makes the story even more believable. Andy, the toys' owner, is now grown up and moving to college. Many of the toys have already been sold or given away, leaving just a dozen or so favorites, including Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen). The toys spend much of their day trying to put themselves in a position so Andy will play with them again, not realizing that he has outgrown that part of his life.

The gang eventually find themselves in a large daycare center, Sunnyside, which at first seems to be a toy nirvana. There are lots of new toys to be friends with, a nicely organized toy society run by a giant pink bear named Lotso (Ned Beatty) and an abundance of kids to play with. But all is not what it seems...and these kids don't play nice...

That's the basic setup of the film, which also includes a thrilling and extended climax that is way more exciting than most adult adventure films. But while the animation, the humor, the voice acting and the humor are all top notch, what Pixar has always done best is bring the emotion. This isn't the maudlin, manipulative emotion you usually see in Hollywood flicks. There's no sappiness here. Pixar brings something genuine to the table with their movies - here we have Woody and Co. having to come to grips with their place in this world and trying to figure out if they even have a place. Their loyalty to Andy is touching, and their loyalty to each other is even more so.

Kudos to Pixar. I know at some point, they will make a bad movie. But so far, not only is their record spotless, but they just seem to be getting better. Their last four movies have been their best four movies (Toy Story 3, Ratatoille, Up, and Wall-E). What magic sauce are they using on their spaghetti and can they share it with the rest of Hollywood? 

Update: Well, since writing this review, Pixar has finally made a bad film...Cars 2.  Still, their run has been remarkable!  

SPOILER - DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU'VE SEEN THE MOVIE: I have to bring up that climax again. The climactic escape from Sunnydale is easily 30 minutes, if not longer, and contains enough hair raising moments for an entire film (as well as a subtle Return of the Jedi reference). As our heroes find themselves in the city dump, trapped in an incinerator and slowly slipping closer and closer to the flames...whoa...I actually wondered if kids would be able to handle this scene! When the toys all hold hands and accept their gruesome fate...well, I don't cry during movies, but uh...yeah, that was some intense emotion on display. Wow, Pixar is good. Damn you for making me cry! SPOILER OVER.

MVP: I think I have a tie between Mr. Tortilla Head and Spanish Buzz Lightyear. Those two were too funny and I refuse to choose between them.

TRIVIA: The very last shot of the movie is of white clouds against the blue sky. This is a call-back to the very first shot of the first Toy Story - which is the white clouds against the blue sky on Andy's wallpaper.

BEST LINE: "Your real problem is the monkey. The monkey is the eye in the sky. He sees everything - classrooms, hallways, even the playground. You can unlock doors, sneak past guards, climb the wall, but if you don't take out that monkey you ain't going nowhere. You want to get out of here, get rid of that monkey."

The Good, the Bad, and the Weird

The Good, the Bad, and the Weird

Every once in awhile, my brother Mike tells me to watch a movie and says, "You'll like this movie. I guarantee it." His guarantee carries a lot of weight - growing up, it introduced me to Conan the Barbarian, Princess Bride and to the finest films of James Cameron (both Terminators, Aliens, The Abyss). It had been awhile since he had given me a guarantee, but when he gave me a copy of The Good, the Bad, and the Weird (from now, to be called GBW) for my birthday, he said, "Don't worry, I guarantee it."

Despite the title, this is not a remake or takeoff of Sergio Leone's epic, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Instead, director Ji-Woon Kim takes that western classic as his inspiration and launches us into an entirely new and bizarre adventure. There is a secret map with a treasure so valuable that nobody even knows what it is. The Weird (Kang-ho Song) steals the map during a train heist. Hot on his trail are the Bad (Byung Hun Lee) and a bounty hunter, the Good (Woo-sung Jung). These three characters already present a strange problem that the film relishes in - I can't figure out when it takes place. The Good, with his cowboy hat and repeater rifle, has clearly charged in from a Hollywood-style western. The Bad seems like he would be more at home in a 1980s Hong Kong gangster film. And I have no idea where the Weird fits in. Add to that the Japanese army and a gang of axe-wielding barbarians - yes, I said a gang of ax-wielding barbarians - and you've got yourself one helluva strange ride.

And I loved it! GBW creates its own little universe and plows forward with a huge smile on its face. If the film stumbles a bit, it is during one set piece near the end that goes on for just a few minutes too long. It's not bad; it just slows the momentum down right when we need to be barreling into our climax. But that is a small nitpick. For the most part, I was smiling at this movie from the very beginning to the end.

Some have asked me to compare it to the other recent Asian western, Takeshi Miike's Suriyaki Western Django. There is no comparison. Despite some wonderful moments, SWD is a complete mess and is more concerned about its own weirdness to be effective. It's just too self-consciously strange - right down to its meaningless Quentin Tarantino cameo. GBW, on the other hand, isn't trying to be weird. It is only concerned with one thing - giving the audience an entertaining ride. And it 100% succeeds. Mike's Guarantee is still as good as gold. Will you guys trust my guarantee? Just pick this movie up. I KNOW you will enjoy it!

MVP: Tough call. All three of the leads are good. Let's rule out the Good. Jung is very good in the role, but isn't given as much to do except for being good and badass. Lee as the Bad is a little more interesting, giving a odd performance that appears like he is high half the time. This doesn't make him any less deadly, and he really does deal out some real pain in this flick. He is a great bad guy. But I think the movie has to go to Kang-ho Song as the Weird. Song is one of the more versatile actors working in Korean film, ably bouncing from comedy to action to horror without missing a beat. Here, his offbeat shenanigans, his ability to kick butt without knowing what's happening, and his love for his grandmother are just too fun for me not to pick him. Kang-ho Song - the MVP is yours!

TRIVIA: Director Ji-woon Kim wanted this movie to be called a "kim-chi western," after the traditional Korean dish. It is because he said this movie is spicy and vibrant, like the Korean people.

BEST LINE: "Byong-Choon, any idea what is happening here?"

The International

The International

I almost feel like a hypocrite reviewing The International. Here I am, clamoring for films that don't dumb themselves down for the audience. And along comes The International, a smart procedural about Interpol agents and all I can think of is, "I wish they would just stop talking and blow something up."

What a slog of a movie this is. Ugh. Released ironically at the height of the banking crisis, The International is about an evil bank that likes to fund wars and military coups. And if you piss off this bank, they won't just foreclose on you. They'll probably send an assassin to blow you up instead. Enter Interpol agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen) and New York attorney Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts), whose lifelong mission is to bring down the evil bank.

What exactly is wrong with this movie? I don't know. The plot is interesting. The cinematography is terrific. The performances are uniformly excellent (Clive Owen really is among the best at this sort of thing). The problem may lie in that the movie isn't sure what it wants to be. Is it a procedural? In the first half, it sort of seems that way as our agents track the clues, scramble for witnesses, and conduct a series of interviews. They talk in one scene, followed by another scene of talking, followed by another scene of talking - somehow the plot is moved forward, but I'm not quite sure how. The second half of the film, which turns into a thriller is a bit better. But only marginally. Really, we just get a big buildup to nothing. The film's climax is a boring footchase in Istanbul - the city is so beautifully filmed that I kept thinking "Wow, what a pretty view. I wish those running people would get out of the way." That's not what you want for your climax!

There are a few reasons to see the movie someday, maybe when it's on TV. As I mentioned, the acting and cinematography are topnotch. And there is one killer action scene in the Guggenheim Museum. Shame the sequence really doesn't belong in this movie - it is like nothing before or after it in the film, which really makes it stick out awkwardly. But watched by itself, it's one helluva gunfight and worth checking out.

Overall, The International is a bit of chore to get through. I suppose not even assassinations and Clive Owen can make the banking industry exciting. 

MVP: Uli Hanisch, production designer, Stephen Brean, set designer, and the crew of location managers. The International features perhaps the greatest collection of cool buildings I have seen in a long time. Every major building made me say, "wow, where did they find that?!" The evil bank's HQ, the CEO's house on a cliff, Interpol HQ, the brilliant reconstruction of the Guggenheim's winding walkways, the plaza in Milan, the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. And the interior sets are just as cool, from the sleek and cold lines of the Bank to the cavernous cistern underneath Istanbul. So kudos to the team of art designers, production designers, set designers, and location managers. Whoever is responsible for collecting this group of awesome locations that kept me interested during the boring conversations...my hat's off to you!

TRIVIA: The production team used the original blueprints and spent four months building the accurate interior of the Guggenheim Museum in an abandoned locomotive warehouse. It's a pretty impressive set...and boy, do they do some damage to it...

BEST LINE: Wilhelm Wexler: "Well, this is the difference between truth and fiction. Fiction has to make sense."

Fright Night (1985)

Fright Night

So this was Fright Night? The classic horror movie that all my friends told me about growing up?  I know I was coming a bit late to the party, but was happy to finally sit down and watch this movie.

Taking a cue from Rear Window, Charlie (William Ragsdale) thinks his next door neighbor Mr. Dandridge (Chris Sarandon) is a vampire. No one believes him - not even his girlfriend Amy (Amanda Bearse). Oh no! Can Charlie save the day?

I can't say I'm really impressed. If I were a teenager, I would have loved this movie. And maybe if I had seen it and loved it as a teen, I would still dig it now (see my Clash of the Titans review for an example of that!). But coming to it now for the first time, I can't help but notice the bad script, cheesy acting, and the horrible 80s synth music. And a special mention needs to go to Stephen Geoffreys as Evil Ed, whose obnoxious, giggling, snickering performance almost ruins every scene he is.

But you know what is weird? As the movie started, I thought, "wow, this isn't very good," but I kept watching. There is some sort of goofy charm that works its way into you. A huge part of this lies in the steady support of Roddy McDowell, who appears in the second half of the movie as a hammy, over-the-hill actor and "vampire hunter," Peter Vincent. His performance perfectly mirrors all great 1950s Hammer films with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Whenever McDowell is on camera, the fun factor picks up considerably.

Chris Sarandon is also pretty entertaining - his Mr. Dandridge doesn't really act menacing or evil. He's more of a smug, over-confidant jerk. Which honestly, is probably what a real vampire would act like. Unfortunately, he is also involved in the most uncomfortable scene in the movie - when Mr. Dandridge tries to seduce Amy. I don't care if the actress was in her 20s, she is playing a teenager, and I was a bit creeped out by a middle-aged man busting the moves on her. Maybe it was supposed to be creepy...but it belongs in a different movie.

So overall, is Fright Night good? No, not really. But its an entertaining little horror flick, not particularly scary, but with a few fun performances that makes it all worth watching.  ** (two stars)

MVP: Clearly Roddy McDowell! His Peter Vincent is really fun, and he makes some interesting decisions throughout the movie. Case in point (minor spoiler here), when he kills one vampire, we get this long transformation sequence as the dying monster reverts back to its human form. It is supposed to be a showcase for the special effects with a few reaction shots from McDowell. But instead of looking on stoically or in amazement, the two reactions you would expect, McDowell actually starts to weep. This vampire at one point was a human being and that person is now dying, and Peter Vincent can't help but grieve.  That pathos from one of our heroes was completely unexpected, and a good example of why McDowell deserves this MVP.

BEST LINE: Charlie about Ed: "No vampire's gonna want him anyway. He's probably die of blood poisoning."

TRIVIA: A monster puppet made for Ghostbusters ended up not appearing in that movie, so they put it in Fright Night instead. I want to know which one!

Clash of the Titans (1981)

Clash of the Titans

It is time to revisit one of the great movies of my childhood. I was a bit afraid to sit down and re-watch 1981's Clash of the Titans. As I kid, I thought it was fantastic. But as an adult, having not seen the movie in a decade, would I still like it?

Thankfully, yes. Let me first be upfront and say that Clash of the Titans is not necessarily a good movie. It's script is silly, the acting is often wooden, and I have to give a special shoutout of hatred for BoBo the mechanical owl, who is incredibly dumb (and a clear ripoff of R2D2).

But there is a goofy, nostalgic charm to the picture. It's just a fun little adventure, riffing on Greek mythology and trying sincerely to just entertain. For those who haven't seen it, Harry Hamlin stars as Perseus, a Greek prince who must save a beautiful princess named Andromeda (Judi Bowker) from being sacrificed to a sea monster called The Kraken. Along the way, he gets help from the a playwright (Burgess Meredith), that stupid metal owl, and the winged horse Pegasus. He fights many of the great monsters of mythology, including most famously the Gorgon, Medusa, whose gaze can turn men to stone.

I will admit, I'm biased. If I was watching the movie now, for the first time, I might think it was lame. But I still enjoy it, even in its lamer parts! It brings back my childhood. This is the movie that first introduced me to Greek mythology, a love affair that continues to this day. And those images that entranced me as a child have aged well - Perseus flashing his magic sword in the sun, the Kraken swimming underneath its massive submerged gate, Charon the Ferryman, the destruction of Argos, Andromeda's cuteness, the heroic music score, and Perseus' badass bearded friend (I never knew his name, but he's a badass and has a beard) swatting away the flies while someone is being burned at the stake in the background. Those moments retain their magic and are probably the reason why I will show my kids this movie someday (believe it or not, even with the stake-burning, the movie IS appropriate for most kids!).

If I had a complaint, its that the scenes in Olympus with the gods don't work at all. I know they are important from a mythical standpoint, showing how the Olympian gods idly fool with the destinies of those pesky humans. But even as a kid, I was intensely bored by the whole thing. It was just a bunch of old people in togas talking. Now as an adult, I can recognize the amazing cast of actors playing the Olympians - Laurence Olivier, Jack Gwillum, Ursula Andress, Pat Roach, Maggie Smith - and yet I am still intensely bored. The director found a way to make Olivier boring. I didn't think it was possible.

But these scenes are few and far between. The rest are silly, entertaining goodness. If you've never seen it before, you may not want to. You won't appreciate it. For the rest of us, dig in.

MVP: Medusa (and producer/creature animator Ray Harryhausen). What a brilliant piece of character design, filming and editing - the Medusa segment is the one part of the movie that wholly raises above its roots, and becomes something different - a dark and gloomy sequence that is genuinely suspenseful and terrifying, with superb character animation, terrific lighting, spot-on editing and acting, and brilliant sound design (Medusa's tail rattling is the primary sound element of the entire scene. It is brilliantly unsettling). The sequence is easily the best part of Clash of the Titans and it one of the crowning moments of Harryhausen's carrer.

BEST LINE: "Release the Kraken!"

TRIVIA: The Dioskilos, the two-headed dogs that Perseus fights, did not exist in Greek mythology. The creatures are based on Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guarded the Gates of Hades. When asked why he didn't include the third head, Harryhausen said it would be too much work to animate the extra wolf's head. Not worth it.