Monday, April 23, 2012

Marilyn, Money and Pirates

Thought I'd do something different today. Instead of taking a lot of time and effort into doing a really large review on a movie, I figured why not look at three movies in one post without having to do a full all-out review? I've been getting a lot of hate from folks who complain I'm not doing enough for this site; I've been busy with GeekTyrant and starting work on BleedingCool (which I'm still getting used to). Not to mention, I have exams in the next few weeks. Stressful! However, I hope this puts me back in your good graces. These are reviews of Moneyball, My Week with Marilyn and The Pirates! Band of Misfits

MONEYBALL: Brad Pitt Swings for the Fences


In 2002, the Oakland Athletics baseball team were in trouble. Not only were they the lowest-scoring team in the leagues, they were also the cheapest. Their general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) was struggling to find quality players within the Athletics' budget. On a visit to the Cleveland Indians' management team, he bumps into recent college graduate Peter Brand (Jonah Hill). Peter convinces Billy that the way people think about hiring baseball players based on looks is incorrect and should be based on math (how many times they get on base). Peter is hired to come onto the Athletics' management team and quickly becomes Billy's closest confidante. However, the other members of the group, including fellow manager Art Howe (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who dismiss Billy and Peter's strategy as implausible. However, things in Oakland slowly start to turn around.


There are some critics who say that
Moneyball does crazy things like "reaffirm your faith in the movies". If a movie where Brad Pitt can't stop throwing chairs down the hallway "reaffirms your faith in the movies", you need to see more of them. Pitt's character throwing a chair is meant to visualize his frustration, but when it becomes recurring, it looks unintentionally comical (like he has a problem). Other than that, Pitt does fine in the role, but he's not nearly as charming as he is in other films. Although Jonah Hill received his first Oscar nomination, he can't sell me that he's a genius mathematician even with dialogue co-written by The Master Playwright, Aaron Sorkin. The uptight Sorkin must have been horrified when Sony used AC/DC's "Money Talks" to promote Moneyball to the beer-swilling sports crowd (he just doesn't strike me as a guy who has AC/DC on an iPod; or even somebody *with* an iPod). Why hire a genius cinematographer like Wally Pfister (best known for working with Christopher Nolan) for a baseball movie if nearly all of the baseball scenes are going to be played back through TV? You might remember that I had Moneyball listed under "Worst Movies" for my "Best of 2011" list. It's since been removed, because now I don't really hate it as much as I find it adequate. It's OK, but it's just not a movie that I can go crazy for.

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN: She's Not Who You Think She Is


In 1956, Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams) was the most famous woman in the world: married to an intellectual playwright, Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott); was a popular pin-up girl; and had just been hired for her first foreign film, The Prince and the Showgirl, directed by the revered Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh). Right in the middle of it all was young third assistant director Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne): a young man from England willing to do anything to make it in the movie business. Staking out in Olivier's office is paid off when Olivier is impressed by Colin's resourcefulness in finding a secret house for Monroe and Miller to live in while in England. Marilyn arrives in England and captivates reporters with her normal sensuality and humor. However, when production of Olivier's film begins, she becomes emotionally difficult and timid enraging a ill-tempered Olivier. Colin attempts to ease her fears and Marilyn develops a friendship with him. When Miller leaves the country to return home, Marilyn latches onto Colin and they go on a romantic journey in the country, spending the day together. Of course, as history can attest, it's only a brief chapter in Monroe's life.


I honestly was surprised by this film. I could really identify with Colin Clark as just somebody who is captivated by the movies. Speaking of captivating, Michelle Williams is stunning as Marilyn Monroe. Not a clear copy of her, of course, but enough to drive audiences wild over her. I'm skeptical that she had this epic lack of confidence in herself, but I didn't know her. I find that the way the film is told is highly romanticized, as if Colin is bragging to his classmates that he had a relationship with Monroe. It didn't distract me from the storytelling, but it seemed a bit one-sided and could make it come off as fictional. Kenneth Branagh must *really* want to be Olivier, since his life parallels his so much (an actor/director with an unadulterated love of Shakespeare). It's interesting to see Emma Watson in her first post-Harry Potter film (yes, I know she did movies in between the HP movies) but she's there only briefly as an assistant to the costume designer. Is it me or does Judi Dench play the same elderly know-it-all lady (outside of the James Bond films, where it works) in nearly every movie she's in? It's not charming, lady! All in all, My Week with Marilyn is a charming romance and I give it a high recommendation.

THE PIRATES! BAND OF MISFITS: Set Sail for Silliness


The Pirate Captain (voice of Hugh Grant) and his loyal ragtag crew are at their happiest when they're out sailing the high seas, living free. However, the Captain also wants to win the coveted "Pirate of the Year Award", but he is not alone. Rivals such as Cutlass Liz (voice of Salma Hayek) and Black Bellamy (voice of Jeremy Piven) are also after the honor. In pillaging various ships, the Captain and his crew bump into scientist Charles Darwin (voice of David Tennant), who recognizes the Captain's "fat parrot", Polly, as the last living dodo bird. In the promises of "untold riches", the Captain and the crew take Darwin to London where they find themselves crazily out of place.


After leaving their partnership with DreamWorks Animation after two films (the Oscar-winning
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and the CG-animated Flushed Away), it seemed as though Aardman Animation would never again return to the silver screen. However, they soon found another willing distribution partner in Sony Pictures Animation. Their first film together, the CG-animated Arthur Christmas, was released the same weekend as The Muppets and Hugo and yet all three of them managed to receive 90% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes (a miracle in this day and age for any film). But now, they have returned to their stop-motion claymation roots with The Pirates! Band of Misfits. This movie is silly, harmless fun (just as "Wallace and Gromit" are). My favorite scene was the bathtub chase through Darwin's house (that you get a glimpse of in the trailer). The animation is spectacular and there are loads of laughs to be found. The Pirates! Band of Misfits is just good, clean fun and goes to show what Aardman does best.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

OSMOSIS JONES: One Sick Movie

RETRO REVIEW



In 1994, "Seinfeld" writers Peter and Bobby Farrelly broke their way to the screen with the blockbuster Jim Carrey/Jeff Daniels comedy Dumb & Dumber. After the box-office failure of their bowling comedy, Kingpin (starring Woody Harrelson and Bill Murray), the Farrelly Brothers took a chance on rising star Ben Stiller and gave the world There's Something About Mary, their best-received film to date. Soon, they reteamed with Jim Carrey in what I personally think is Carrey's most underrated comedy, Me, Myself and Irene. And then came what most people believe killed their career and has kept it on life-support ever since; the live-action/animated comedy, Osmosis Jones. While most people think it is nothing more than a disgusting kids' movie, I think it's very funny and lovable.


Sloppy zookeeper Frank Detorre (Bill Murray) is a single father with one daughter, Shane (Elena Franklin). While she would like him to start taking better care of himself, Frank is largely selfish and impulsive though he does care deeply for his little girl. One day, at the zoo, Frank gets into a fight with a chimpanzee over a stolen hard-boiled egg. The egg falls from the chimp's lips and onto the filthy cage floor. As Shane watches horrified, Frank simply pops the egg into his mouth. What Frank doesn't know is that inside his body, a whole community of cells lives and works, trying to keep him safe from the dangers of disease. However, there is one white blood cell cop who thinks he can take on disease all by himself: Osmosis Jones (voice of Chris Rock). Due to Jones botching up a high-speed chase, Frank suddenly has a leg cramp.


However, a dangerous virus has arrived in "the City of Frank". Emerging from the contaminated egg that Frank ate is the deadly Thrax (voice of Lawrence Fishburne) with a master plan to kill Frank within 48 hours. After dispatching with the two cells who discovered him, Thrax causes Frank to have a sore throat. Trying to please the masses by keeping the situation under control, the scheming Mayor Phlegmming (voice of William Shatner) controls Frank subconciously to take a cold pill. The Chief of Police (voice of producer Joel Silver) orders Jones to meet the pill in the stomach and take him to the sore throat. There, he meets the cold pill himself, "Special Agent Drixobenzometapetramine" or Drix (voice of David Hyde Pierce). Drix is a no-nonsense investigator intent on performing the services for which he was made for. Arriving at the sore throat, Jones discovers that the sore throat may not have been as common as everyone has been led to believe. Following a clue, Ozzy and Drix begin their investigation. Soon, they get themselves hot on the trail of Thrax, who will destroy any cell that gets in his path.


I can see people being grossed out by the idea of being in Bill Murray's body. Peter Travers said in his review of the film, "Can your heart be warmed while your guts are being wrenched?" Another noticeable element of the film that critics pointed out was the difference in storytelling speed between the live-action sequences and the animation. As I've read, the animation was nearly finished when the Farrelly Brothers were brought in to shoot the live-action sequences. They only joined the film when Bill Murray was confirmed to star as Frank. One of my personal problems with the film is Uncle Bob, played by Chris Elliott. I assume Bob is supposed to be a cautionary tale because he is even more selfish and a slob than Frank is. Even so, there is no reason for the character to be near unlikable. Admittedly, both Murray and Elliott have been in better movies (most noticeably Groundhog Day). Another unlikable character in the film is Mayor Phlegmming. The character goes from being ridiculously full of himself to a flat-out jerk. One character even says, "You care more about your stupid re-election than you care about all our lives."

However, I do like this film more than most people. The animation looks really cool (especially the chase sequences which I think are top-notch), Bill Murray has a great gross-out performance, Lawrence Fishburne's Thrax is a fantastic villain, and the mystery is genuinely interesting. The locations in the body shown are imaginative with the stomach designed like an airport, the brain as a city hall, and "the Zit" as a nightclub. Also, the songs are somewhat catchy, but in this day and age, most of them are dated - except, of course, for Kid Rock. It's also the only movie we'll ever see with Captain James T. Kirk and Opie Taylor running for Mayor of Bill Murray's body. That just cracks me up personally. This movie isn't trying to hurt anybody, it's just good, messy fun. As the trailer says, "[It's] a dirty job, but some antibody's got to do it."

NOTE: I apologize for the lack of reviews, I've had a lot of schoolwork to do and no time to go out to theaters! Trust me, I will try to have in more content in the coming weeks! I'm still writing for GeekTyrant and just landed a position with BleedingCool! Thanks for reading - Zack