Sunday 25 April 2010

Movie Review: The Wrestler (2008)


Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke) was a champion professional wrestler in the 1980's. 20 years later, he is living in a trailer park and still dragging his aging and broken body to school gyms and community centres in suburban New Jersey to participate in pathetic weekend wrestling matches in front of small audiences.

Randy's only "friend" is Pam (Marisa Tomei), a local stripper who goes by the professional name Cassidy, although she may only care about him enough to keep him as a paying customer. After a heart-attack, Robinson tries to quit wrestling for good; re-establish a relationship with his estranged daughter (Evan Rachel Wood); and elevate his friendship with Pam to something more serious. But the wrestling ring is the only place where he can even remotely imagine himself succeeding.

The Wrestler is a character study centering on past glories and vacant futures. Mickey Rourke delivers one of the performances of his career as a broken man quickly realizing that he has very little, and that what he does have he is losing. Rourke brings The Ram to life with an appropriately over-the-top physical look of a beefed up but aching body and artificially blonde long hair. None of it can mask the imminent disintegration of both his physical prowess and his soul, and his desperation to make late amends as the only life he knows draws to a sudden end.

In a strong supporting role Tomei as Pam is a stripper past her prime looking to move on from selling her body for a living, much like the wrestler but perhaps with a better likelihood of success. Her dilemma between developing feelings for The Ram and maintaining the distance needed to keep him as a client crystallizes the choice she faces to leave the relative comfort of her easy but time-limited fantasy life and take on the real world before it's too late.

Director Aronofsky creates an appropriately depressed suburban environment where livings are scratched out and there are no mis-leading signs of anything ever changing for the better.

The Wrestler is unrelenting in its portrayal of hopelessness among the depressed, and a most memorable movie because of it.







All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.


Sunday 18 April 2010

Movie Review: Encounter With Danger (2009)


A made-for-TV movie that creaks and groans under the weight of underwhelmed expectations.

Our leading lady is Lori (Shannon Doherty) who is apparently a tenured university professor. It says a lot about this film that the script never bothers to inform us professor in what, and which university. Never mind any information that may actually, say, round-out the one and only main character.

Lori is engaged to Jack (Mark Humphrey), an accounting consultant. Lori tags along with Jack as he goes to a client meeting with a software giant in a Washington State resort community (filming was actually across the border in Maple Ridge and Langley, British Columbia).

Jack promptly disappears without a trace. Most of the rest of the movie revolves around Lori trying to find her missing fiancee, and getting little support from the suddenly creepy locals. She also soon finds herself being followed by men-in-black types.

80 minutes of tedium follow, featuring lots of shots of cars traveling on winding rural roads and a few more scenes at a single location in a town screaming to be labeled "quaint". Lori then cracks the mystery of an Enron-type fudged accounting scandal with a couple of key strokes after she amateurishly breaks into the headquarters of apparently one of the most important software companies in the world. "This doesn't look right", she mumbles, one second after clicking on "annual report".

The movie ends with the police and the FBI emerging out of nowhere on an undefined section of highway to nab the bad guys after a random sprint in the forest. Lori and Jack live happily ever after.

The film is directed by Neill Fearnley from a script by Peter Sullivan -- both are veterans of the made-for-TV world, and on Encounter With Danger both could have been replaced with robots, without any noticeable loss in production quality. Actually, a computer-generated script may have been less unintentionally funny.

As for the acting talent, Shannon Doherty puts in by far the best performance among the cast of deserved unknowns. Take that as a warning.

Encounter With Danger is true to its name: an encounter with dangerously poor film-making, and it's appeal is that it always threatens to become bad enough to be almost funny.







All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.



Saturday 17 April 2010

Movie Review: The Warriors (1979)


One of the best films ever made is a low-budget comic-style romp with a no-name cast about a gang on the run during one long New York night.

"Can you count suckers? I say the future is ours, if you can count!" --
Cyrus to the 900 assembled gang members.

Director Walter Hill achieves something remarkable in The Warriors. It is one of those rare films where the story, directing, performances, cinematography, lighting and music come together to create a timeless classic. The Warriors is as enjoyable and current today as it was back in 1979. It's not that the film has aged well -- it simply does not age.

"We've been unable to see the truth, because we've been fighting for ten square feet of ground - our turf, our little piece of turf." -- Cyrus again, working the crowd.

In an undefined but not too distant future, 900 members of New York's various gangs gather at night in a Bronx park, including nine members of the Warriors from Coney Island. The meeting is called by the Gramercy Riffs, New York's largest gang, and their leader Cyrus (a masterful Roger Hill) delivers a rousing speech outlining how by maintaining a truce and uniting, the gangs can rule the City.

"Can you dig it? Caaan you dig it? Caaan yoouuuuu diiiigg ittt?" -- Cyrus driving the crowd to a frenzy, just before getting shot.

Luther (David Patrick Kelly), the unhinged leader of the Rogues, shoots Cyrus dead, and loudly blames the killing on the Warriors. The police suddenly descend on the meeting, and in the ensuing chaos of 900 gang members fleeing the scene, the Warriors make their immediate escape, but not before their leader is killed.

The surviving eight Warriors, now led by Swan (Michael Beck) have to make the long journey back to Coney Island, while pursued by the police, the Riffs seeking vengeance and every gang member in New York.

From this simple premise inspired by Greek mythology, Hill weaves a series of unforgettable scenes: Cyrus' speech; the Warriors escaping from the Turnbull AC's bus; the confrontation with the pathetic Orphans; the baseball bat battle in the park with the brilliantly attired Furies; the bruising battle with the roller-skaters in the men's bathroom; the short but stunning across-the-aisle encounter with the grad partiers on the train; Luther taunting the Warriors with the beer bottles; and the final confrontation on the beach. And let's not forget the Riffs' radio announcer who keeps track of the action as it unfolds -- only her lips are ever seen.

"I'll shove that bat up your ass and turn you into a popsicle." -- Ajax to the Furies before they rumble.

The Warriors contains an almost unfair number of classic moments, all occurring as a natural part of the narrative rather than as pre-announced set-pieces.

The amount of running and non-stop action gives the movie a kinetic energy of its own: The Warriors feels like a power source.

At the same time, Hill manages to inject a lot of humanity into the movie and brings to life several characters, in a film which could have easily been excused for foregoing any individuality. Each member of the Warriors has a persona, including the cool leader Swan; the impulsive Ajax (James Remar); the stalwart Cochise (David Harris); and the young Rembrandt (Marcelino Sanchez). And in a relatively few scenes, David Patrick Kelly creates in Luther a highly-strung, barely-holding-it-together and unforgettable villain.

Into this male dominated world Hill also introduces Mercy (Deborah Van Valkenburgh) as the woman from the very wrong side of the tracks who ironically sees the Warriors, for all their trouble, as a means to move up in the world.

"You're just a part of everything that's happened tonight...and it's all bad." -- Swan to Mercy, just after she kisses him.

Barry De Vorzon created a synthesizer-driven music score that adds to the timeless feel of the movie, while Andrew Laszlo's cinematography bring out the best of a subway-focused New York on a rainy summer night. The vivid and sharp colours and lighting of The Warriors, despite the darkness of the night, emphasizes the movie's comics sensibilities.

"Warriors, come out to plaayeeaay!" -- Luther repeatedly taunting the Warriors while methodically clicking three bottles inserted into his fingers.

Controversial upon its theatrical release for causing riots in some theatres as some real gang members got over-excited, The Warriors is an absolute gem of a movie and proof that excellence sometimes emerges from the most unlikely of packages.








All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.


Monday 5 April 2010

Movie Review: Wild Cherry (2009)


If there are any original ideas that can still be squeezed out of the high school sex comedy genre, they are likely to be found by independent films or not at all.

Wild Cherry, an independent coming-of-age production filmed, of all places, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, certainly has a go. Director Dana Lustig, working from a script by Chris Charney, pushes boundaries and finds scenes and lines of dialogue that register well on the originality scale.

In the final year of high school, the football team players use their legendary "Bang Book" to record sexual conquests, and assign themselves campus virgins to have sex with before the season is over. Helen (Tania Raymonde) is a virgin but serious about the team's kicker Stanford (Ryan Merriman). Helen's friends Chase (Rumer Willis) and Trish (Kristin Cavallari) are also virgins, and soon find themselves inexplicably courted by football players before they discover the secret of the Bang Book.

Taking a leaf from the ancient Greek comedy Lysistrata, Helen, Chase and Trish decide to withhold sexual favours until after the football season is over, to teach the boys a lesson.

In framing the sexual mis-adventures within a context that allows for an examination of what sex among teenagers is about, Wild Cherry is already a few yards ahead of the typical fare. And if you want to look for it, the film also allows a discussion about the differences between boys and girls when it comes to early frolicking.

But Wild Cherry does not shy away from the raunchiness and humour, and manages to deliver some gems. In one sequence, Helen goes on a serious search for her first self-administered orgasm, using whatever she can find around the house. This is followed by no small amount of panic involving a salad that her Dad (Rob Schneider) is preparing.

Other good moments involve an over-use of erection pills; and football players trapped naked and blindfolded at the school swimming pool, then confronted by their coach outraged about them playing "hide the pickle". And Wild Cherry certainly pushes all boundaries related to new, widespread, and never-naturally-intended uses of semen.

Wild Cherry is helped along by engaging performances. The leading actresses do well, with Raymonde (from TV's Lost) and Willis (the daughter of Demi Moore and Bruce Willis) demonstrating enough talent to move forward from this genre onto more serious roles. Heading in the other career direction, Tia Carrere has a small but memorable role, introducing the girls to a new form of "power".

It's no classic, but within the limitations of the genre, Wild Cherry is a good pick.






All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.


Sunday 4 April 2010

Movie Review: The Godfather (1972)


The epic tale of a Mafia family in New York, spanning ten years from 1945 to 1955. The business is crime, the price of failure is death, and the violence is brutal and never far from the surface. This adaptation of Mario Puzo's book is at once haunting, beautiful, and unforgettable.

Don Corleone (Marlon Brando) is The Godfather, the New York-based head of one of five dominant Mafia families. He controls an empire with interests and influence in everything from gambling and prostitution to politicians and judges, as well as a sprawling family including sons Santino (James Caan), Michael (Al Pacino), and Fredo (John Cazale).

When they refuse to provide protection to the burgeoning narcotics business, the Corleone's are embroiled in a bloody tit-for-tat gangland war. The Don barely survives an assassination attempt, his hot-headed son Santino is spectacularly gunned-down, and the previously disengaged Michael dives headlong into the violent world of his family, personally gunning down a corrupt police chief and a rival criminal boss before fleeing to Sicily. When an uneasy peace is declared, Michael returns to New York, seeking both ultimate control and cold-blooded vengeance. Michael's rise to power from a disinterested and side-lined observer to the nexus of power is the key story arch.

As one of the greatest movies ever made, and at almost 3 hours in length, it is difficult to believe that The Godfather was the first major movie for both Francis Ford Coppolla and Al Pacino. Coppolla directs in a tableau style that turns almost every scene into a masterpiece of framing, texture and artistry, with the camera placement and movement just as interesting as the on-screen content. Every scene is given time to expand, evolve and add depth and complexion to events and characters.

One of the best cast of actors ever assembled delivers iconic performances. Pacino and Brando have the most interesting material to work with, with Brando as Don Corleone transitioning from a dominant all-powerful figure to a doddering grandfather, while Pacino is riveting as Michael is gradually transformed into a ruthless and power hungry mob leader. James Caan gets the showy role as Santino "Sonny" Corleone, excited by violence and quick to resort to it. Robert Duvall as the family's lawyer, Tom Hagen, embodies the overlap of business veneer and outright crime that defines everyday life for the Corleones.

The movie plays out against the classic music score of Nino Rota. The main theme is one of the all-time most recognized movie tunes, and by itself is capable of evoking the grandness of the Corleone's story.

The Godfather's contribution to both the history of movie-making and mainstream culture is hard to overestimate. The classic line "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse"; the inter-cutting of the church baptism scene with the violent assassinations ordered by Michael; the sympathetic portrayal of mobsters; Brando's menacing performance as Don Corleone; and the operatic assassination of Sonny have all had remarkable and long-lasting influence.

Deservedly considered an all-time classic, The Godfather is a stellar example of what the art of film can achieve when a great story meets inspired movie-making talent.






All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.