The final film fight of the month, before the finale. A good selection of films included.
The Nines unexpectedly casts Ryan Reynolds, previously a bit of a goof ball, as the main dramatic lead, in this tale of inter-related lives. Reynolds does a surprisingly good job as all 3 characters that the stories here centre on, but is let down by the messy nonsense he is given to work with. If the film had stuck to it’s strong central premise (the relationships between actor, writer and character in creation of each other’s worlds), it could have been brilliant. It’s sadly let down by meandering scenes and fairly cack-handed plot tie-ups. Even if the interweaving story had been tied up with a neat device (it really wasn’t), showing the device would be preferable to one of the characters simply saying it. A real shame.
Based on the “His Dark Material’s” trilogy, The Golden Compass is set in an alternate universe where people’s souls live as animals outside their bodies, and a mysterious substance called Dust is leaking in and changing things. Having never read the book, I can’t say much about the criticisms that the film makers have faced from staunch fans about the downgrading of the religious overtones. What I can say is that although it’s clearly aimed at children (and is a little simple and easy because of it), it’s a decent, watchable movie. Worth it to see two giant bears fight it out.
Richard Kelly made strange indie hit turned mainstream success, Donnie Darko. At some point after that, someone must’ve told him to just go nuts. And he did: Southland Tales is the execrable result. Before I go on, I’ll say now that I very nearly made a Film Fight Special just for this movie, to show the myriad ways in which it is terrible. I decided it’s not worth the effort. What you get here is a massively self-indulgent film, which is all over the place in terms of tone, terrible B-movie acting, awkward balancing of the back story with the cinematic story (yes, I’ve read the comics), many characters that are near enough pointless (Justin Timberlake’s pilot being top of the list — why he was allowed to shove a music video in the middle is beyond me), atrocious editing, some of the worst dialogue you will ever hear, and an ending that I’ve best heard described as “if I told it to you plain and simple, you’d think I was making fun of it”. The third worst movie I have ever seen.
On a higher note (but still somewhat weak) is the Dreamwork’s animated film, Bee Movie. Rather than be content with jokes in its own self-contained little world, it goes down the “it’s all the same as the human world BUT WITH BEES!” route and suffers badly for it, a few too many puns and bad sight jokes pulling it down. Surprisingly for a film with a decent cast, the voice acting is all either atrociously flat or alarmingly over the top. Despite the criticisms, the movie is OK in so far as it’s cheery and harmless.
It’s been getting a lot of high praise, but The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford leaves a lot to be desired. The pacing is glacial and paints a mediocre picture of both the titled character, leaving little desire to see either get anywhere. It also suffers from the increasingly frequent issue of knowing where to end. Because the film can’t decide which character to focus on, it insists on showing a lengthy period after the titular event which drags on for a little too long. It does, however, manage to capture some moments beautifully, the cinematography proving to be startlingly crisp and dramatic; however desperately Oscar-baiting it comes across as at times.
Gus Van Sant’s latest effort, Paranoid Park, looks good in synopsis: a kid who accidentally causes the death of a security guard is increasingly racked with guilt, becoming more and more distraught as time goes by. The filmed version is remarkably dull, Van Sant failing to convey any of the drama that he intended to. What we get is a short film where, despite the aforementioned accident, not a lot happens. Shots are held too long, the acting is non-existent, and the story doesn’t got anywhere. Very close to the definition of mediocre, but little more than time wasting.
Finally, I Am Legend is the 3rd adaptation of the book by Richard Matheson, and the question on every fan’s minds is whether or not they’ll go anywhere near the excellent ending of the book. While I won’t spoil that (go read it), I will say that they hint at it a few times and then do an incredibly lame ending instead, horribly twisting the meaning of the title. While the opening hour or so is interesting, filled with some reasonable set pieces and a decent structure, it never really gets anywhere and is badly let down by the final third. If you want to see this, go watch The Omega Man instead. It does a better job at doing the same thing with the source.
The winner? With no strong contender this month, the Assassination of Jesse James almost snuck it on cinematography grounds, but The Golden Compass was more entertaining so wins pretty much by default.
With the year out of the way, the Film Fight Finale for 2007 will be along very soon.