Movie Update

Fargo - Five stars. Watched it the other day for Script Analysis. Better than I remember it. So simple. This is the type of great film that makes you not want to make films because it is so good....as opposed to the type of great film like Pulp Fiction that makes you want to run out make something the next day.

The Weather Man - Not a great movie, but I found it refreshing to watch, not unlike drinking unflavored ice tea. I don't think ice tea is a particularly good drink, but every once it awhile it'll be satisfying. If you can get past the first few minutes which begin with a voice over and Nick Cage looking straight into a mirror, a major filmmaking faux paus...it has it's moments. The biggest compliment I can give it, is that it's like a poor man's Sideways set in Chicago. It deals with the same mid-life angst. The father-daughter sequences are solid and the wife does a a hell of an acting job. I can't decide between two and three stars. On the one hand, two stars means I didn't like it. But on the other hand, I give the Royal Tennenbaums three stars. So it's a tough choice, as you can see.

Jarhad - One star. This movie sucks. By reading further, I am ruining the plot for anyone, but to be honest, the movie ruins itself. First poor directing choice: how can you possibly start the movie with a drill sergeant yelling funny things at the Marine recruits? It wasn't an homage to Full Metal Jacket, nor did it try to add anything new to Full Metal Jacket. It was a sanitized rip off from Full Metal Jacket, as if was some obscure film no one had ever seen. Horrible directing choice. Second horrible directing choice - casting the smug as fuck, narcissistic, I'm cute, Jake Gyllenhaal. Third horrible directing choice, having Peter Sarsgaard play a criminal devoted to the Marines as if he were, in Phil's words, a college professor. Fourth horrible directing choice, there are two big emotional explosions in the movie that aren't even close to being earned. In one, Jake G threatens to kill a fellow Marine...I kept thinking this a joke, he's clowning on the guy, but eventually you realize it was supposed to be a scene that he's losing his mind. Not for a moment do I believe he's going to kill the other guy, it comes across like he's pretending to lose it, like a poseur friend from high school who goes around pretending like he's "all fucked up," to get attention. Disgusting. The second emotional blow up is at the end when Peter S loses it because he wants to shoot an Iraqi commander instead of letting planes blow up the whole regiment. There is no set up to this outburst. It makes no frigging sense and comes out of nowhere. Completely unearned.

Fifth horrible directing choice, the entire first act you're supposed to empathize with Jake G who's girlfriend is at home possibly seeing other people. But you never meet her or them and have no sense of their relationships except for inserts and photographs. And let's be honest, who gives a shit about a 19-20 year old having some girlfriend that may be be cheating on him. That's what 19-20 year olds do. They cheat. You don't give a flying shit about their relationship, so who cares? Jake should of be out trying to get laid with prostitutes AND get murderous about the girlfriend possibily seeing another guy. Now that's interesting. But I don't give a shit about a woe-is-me, I live away from my high school girlfriend, she is supposed to be loyal to me nerd. Give me a break.

Sixth horrible directing choice: choosing to direct this film. Sam Mendes lives up in the Hollywood hills fornicating with Kate Winslet. Since when do we entrust this British fuck to make movies about middle class Americans? This guy has no perspective on what these people are like, probably doesn't know a single Marine prior to getting attached to Jarhead, and here he is making a movie about it. What a fraud.

Seventh horrible directing choice, trying to present "all side of the argument." Why make a movie obviously about our current Iraq war when you have no opinion NOR understanding? Mendes has this Texan character speak for the American left, talking about how America supplied Saddam with guns, how he doesn't trust the military, blah, blah, blah, reciting arguments high school students probably find smart. Then he has the Jamie Foxx and Peter Sarasgaard playing the American right, shut the fuck up, let's kick this Saddam Hussein's ass for all the terrible things he's done. Mendes a) doesn't understand the nuances or more compelling arguments in favor of the war OR against the war and so can't present either and b) Doesn't have an opinion of the war he'd like to express. People will probably read the film as an anti-war piece, but that's because people think every film about war is an anti-war film.

UPDATE: I purposefully didn't read any comments on Jarhead prior to seeing the movie because I wanted to enjoy it on my own. Oppps. Anyhow, Instapundit has a round up of lukewarm to shitty reviews. This movie may be the biggest joke of the year.

Anyhow, I could write more, but bottom line, Brett Ratner and Michael Bay should invite Sam Mendes into their hack director club - Welcome to the Suck, Sam Mendes.

UPDATE II: One more shitty directing choice I forgot about was a scene when Jake G was obviously lit to look like Marlon Brando in Apocolypse Now. Huh? How is Jake G at all reminiscent of the Kurtz character? Such a cheap frigging reference. I can just see Mendes talking to Deakins on set - so can you light him with yellow/orange light a la Apocalyse Now. Deakins must have wanted to barf.