Someone somewhere in Hollywood deserves to be thrown down a dark well for the abomination that is Be Cool. While its prequel, Get Shorty, was an amusing, well-written, gangster comedy this is just trash. Imagine a painful fusion of cameos, actors who don’t seem to care about their characters and thus change them drastically between scenes, music videos, cringing sequel jokes, and pathetic comedy and you’ll be getting their. Be Cool lacks where the original stood so tall: plot and characterisation. Only The Rock comes across as anything less than annoying, with a knowing self parody of his usual tough man act. A more atrocious, by the numbers sequel I cannot imagine.
The Ring 2, sequel to a Hollywood adaptation of a Japanese movie based on a book, which is not based on the commercial Japanese sequel (Ring 2) or the original sequel (the now largely forgotten Rasen, itself based on the original book’s sequel). Quite a history. Something was just wrong with this sequel though; it felt like there was too much time reimagining certain aspects of what happened in the original. The videotape was barely used, the takeover aspects were more than a bit obvious, and the water effects were fairly cheap and came from nowhere. This is made all the more strange by the fact that the Japanese director who made the series what it is, Hideo Nakata, directed this. Why he changed what he did is bizarre, and lets down the film.
The final contender this month is an odd film called The Assassination Of Richard Nixon. Surprisingly, there is next to no material on said assassination attempt. Instead the film is more of a character study into increasing desperation and dementia, propelled by Sean Penn as Samuel Bicke. The lead character becoming increasingly frustrated with how he and other underdogs can’t seem to get a break, he eventually decides to do something about it. Penn shows his talent once more, making us sympathise with his characters plight while being confounded by his continual discord with his surroundings. Powerful stuff.
Being the only good film of the month, The Assassination Of Richard Nixon is the winner.