Links: IMDb * Wikipedia * AllMovie * Rotten Tomatoes
Premise: Hellboy and the BPRD have to save mankind from a vengeance-driven elf prince who threatens to unleash an unstoppable army.
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Stars: Ron Perlman * Selma Blair * Doug Jones * John Hurt * Jeffrey Tambor * Luke Goss * Anna Walton * Seth MacFarlane
Review: Another amazing achievement for Guillermo del Toro.
Hellboy (Perlman), Liz (Blair), Abe (Jones) and the rest of the BPRD investigate an attack by tooth fairies and follow a trail of leads to a vengeance-driven Prince Nuada (Goss) who feels that humanity has broken an ancient truce and must be stopped. Along the way, a fourth member, Johann Strauss (voiced by MacFarlane), joins the crew, replacing Manning (Tambor). Princess Nuala (Walton), twin to Nuada, seeks their protection in order to prevent her brother from achieving his aims.
There are humourous moments - especially when Hellboy and Abe get drunk over the fact that they're both in love and the women they love are driving them crazy - and tragic moments - when Hellboy faces the last of the forest gods and has to decide between humanity or his "kind" (the supernatural races). The fight scenes are more dynamic and entertaining than the first film (Mr. Wink vs Hellboy definitely beats the Sammael vs Hellboy fight). The humour in the fight between Strauss and Hellboy is not to be missed.
Del Toro allows the visual imagery of the fantastical to further evolve - the Tooth Fairies, Mr. Wink, the Fragglewump, the Chamberlain, the Angel of Death, Cathedralhead, etc. - all build upon characters and artistic work done for previous films; one can easily see the influence of characters from Pan's Labyrinth upon the gallery of creatures presented in this film. Long spindly fingers, eyes detached from heads and placed in interesting locations, man-in-suit characters as opposed to pure CGI creations, etc. abound in the film.
Other influences also appear - the eye candy in the movie is appropriate to the genre: the forest god easily brings to mind films such as Princess Mononoke by Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki; the destruction of a source of power at the end of the movie brings to mind the Lord of the Rings; the fighting style of Prince Nuala reminds one of any number of kung fu films from the Jet Li or Jackie Chan era - Once Upon a Time in China, etc.
While the film may not make as much bank as direct mainstream films may - Iron Man, etc. - the film is true to both the nature of Hellboy himself and the vision of del Toro. Truly an artistic achievement.
Overall: Good
Showing posts with label adventure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adventure. Show all posts
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Fool's Gold (2007)
Links: IMDb * Wikipedia * AllMovie * Rotten Tomatoes
Premise: A young couple seek Spanish treasure in the Florida Keys while being pursued by a hip-hop mogul hungry for more money.
Stars: Kate Hudson * Matthew McConaughey * Ray Winstone * Donald Sutherland * Alexis Dziena * Ewen Bremner
Review: A disappointment. I like McConaughey - sometimes called the poor man's Tom Cruise - and I like Donald Sutherland. Hudson can be alright sometimes, like in Almost Famous and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (the previous pairing of her and MM). Winstone and Bremner are solid character actors given decent roles. But the story loses its grip with Dziena and the hip-hop mogul Biggs Bunny and his hired goons (Malcolm Jamal-Warner of the Cosby Show puts in an appearance).
Okay, to be honest, it starts losing its grip earlier. Flynn (McConaughey) and Alfonz (Bremner) accidentally set fire to his boat at the same time Hudson (playing McConaughey's love interest, Tess) is filing for divorce. He's been searching for lost treasure and owes a large sum of money to a hip-hop mogul who bought his own island. He tries to prove he found the location to Biggs Bunny (inspiring name) but the mogul sends him out to be killed; the goons chain him to an anchor, then proceed to get shot by Flynn in comical fashion. Flynn falls off the boat, sinks, and comically performs underwater hops to grab the fallen gun, and shoots the chain freeing himself. He proceeds to get picked up by four partiers - who throw him a beer before they pick him up - and they rush him to court for his divorce proceedings.
Sounds impressive, but it ain't.
Flynn and Tess enlist the aid of her boss - Donald Sutherland - whose air-headed teenage (I'm not sure if she's supposed to be a teen or early twenties) daughter (Dziena) is visiting. Once the father-daughter pair sign on for the adventure, Bremner also joins the fun. While they pursue the treasure, Bunny and his hired help enlist the aid of another treasure-hunter, played by Winstone, to find the ship on their own.
Drawn by the prospect of being rich - and their smouldering passion for each other (presumably written in the screenplay but not apparent on-screen) - Tess and Flynn fall back into each other's arms - again in comic fashion. I think the director honestly had no idea when to be humourous and when not to be. Moments of passion become near-farcical. Thugs become oafish, and hip-hop mogul is hard to fathom to begin with. Characters are not true to their natures, and those natures do not change from the beginning of the film. While distracting, the only bright spot in the movie - which could've definitely been a more interesting lead angle - is the father-daughter dynamic between Sutherland and Dziena. Unfortunately, cast as the backstory to the protagonists, both actors' performances are stilted and feel lacking.
And when the daughter unexpectedly shows up at the big climax of the movie to save the day, it feels hollow because once again, characters are not true to themselves.
Bad writing. Stilted dialogue. Poor comedic timing.
Overall: Bad
Premise: A young couple seek Spanish treasure in the Florida Keys while being pursued by a hip-hop mogul hungry for more money.
Stars: Kate Hudson * Matthew McConaughey * Ray Winstone * Donald Sutherland * Alexis Dziena * Ewen Bremner
Review: A disappointment. I like McConaughey - sometimes called the poor man's Tom Cruise - and I like Donald Sutherland. Hudson can be alright sometimes, like in Almost Famous and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (the previous pairing of her and MM). Winstone and Bremner are solid character actors given decent roles. But the story loses its grip with Dziena and the hip-hop mogul Biggs Bunny and his hired goons (Malcolm Jamal-Warner of the Cosby Show puts in an appearance).
Okay, to be honest, it starts losing its grip earlier. Flynn (McConaughey) and Alfonz (Bremner) accidentally set fire to his boat at the same time Hudson (playing McConaughey's love interest, Tess) is filing for divorce. He's been searching for lost treasure and owes a large sum of money to a hip-hop mogul who bought his own island. He tries to prove he found the location to Biggs Bunny (inspiring name) but the mogul sends him out to be killed; the goons chain him to an anchor, then proceed to get shot by Flynn in comical fashion. Flynn falls off the boat, sinks, and comically performs underwater hops to grab the fallen gun, and shoots the chain freeing himself. He proceeds to get picked up by four partiers - who throw him a beer before they pick him up - and they rush him to court for his divorce proceedings.
Sounds impressive, but it ain't.
Flynn and Tess enlist the aid of her boss - Donald Sutherland - whose air-headed teenage (I'm not sure if she's supposed to be a teen or early twenties) daughter (Dziena) is visiting. Once the father-daughter pair sign on for the adventure, Bremner also joins the fun. While they pursue the treasure, Bunny and his hired help enlist the aid of another treasure-hunter, played by Winstone, to find the ship on their own.
Drawn by the prospect of being rich - and their smouldering passion for each other (presumably written in the screenplay but not apparent on-screen) - Tess and Flynn fall back into each other's arms - again in comic fashion. I think the director honestly had no idea when to be humourous and when not to be. Moments of passion become near-farcical. Thugs become oafish, and hip-hop mogul is hard to fathom to begin with. Characters are not true to their natures, and those natures do not change from the beginning of the film. While distracting, the only bright spot in the movie - which could've definitely been a more interesting lead angle - is the father-daughter dynamic between Sutherland and Dziena. Unfortunately, cast as the backstory to the protagonists, both actors' performances are stilted and feel lacking.
And when the daughter unexpectedly shows up at the big climax of the movie to save the day, it feels hollow because once again, characters are not true to themselves.
Bad writing. Stilted dialogue. Poor comedic timing.
Overall: Bad
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Get Smart (2008)
Resources: IMDb * Wikipedia
Premise: A spy comedy where an analyst gets his dream of being a field agent.
Directed by: Peter Segal
Stars: Steve Carell, Anne Hathway, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Alan Arkin, Masi Oka, James Caan, Terence Stamp, Terry Crews
Review: In a theatrical conversion of the 1960s/70s camp series, Steve Carell plays Maxwell Smart, a brilliant CONTROL analyst (whose thoroughness is played to comedic effect) who aspires to be a field agent. Needless to say, he gets called up when it is discovered that the evil organization CHAOS has learned of the identities of all CONTROL agents. Paired up with Agent 99 (Hathaway) who has recently undergone plastic surgery, Smart must learn what CHAOS is up to when a weapons facility in Chechnya is attacked.
Carell again basically plays Carell, a 40-something basically playing just beyond his capability - forcing him to step up. He's done this in the 40-Year Old Virgin, The Office, Evan Almighty, Dan in Real Life and others. You never get the sense that Carell is trying to reach as an actor, but he's really enjoyable in this role. Hathaway and the others are great foils for his act, and often provide quite humourous moments themselves - Arkin throwing himself at the Vice-President, the interplay between the agents and the analysts among others.
It's not a straight spoof in the sense of Top Secret! or even the original series, but is more of an Our Man Flint-type movie, where actual spying and adventure take place with lots of humour. Some of the famous lines from the series are used, but appear often misplaced and do not elicit the intended laughs, whereas some low-brow moments and quips generate genuine guffaws.
Overall: Good
Premise: A spy comedy where an analyst gets his dream of being a field agent.
Directed by: Peter Segal
Stars: Steve Carell, Anne Hathway, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Alan Arkin, Masi Oka, James Caan, Terence Stamp, Terry Crews
Review: In a theatrical conversion of the 1960s/70s camp series, Steve Carell plays Maxwell Smart, a brilliant CONTROL analyst (whose thoroughness is played to comedic effect) who aspires to be a field agent. Needless to say, he gets called up when it is discovered that the evil organization CHAOS has learned of the identities of all CONTROL agents. Paired up with Agent 99 (Hathaway) who has recently undergone plastic surgery, Smart must learn what CHAOS is up to when a weapons facility in Chechnya is attacked.
Carell again basically plays Carell, a 40-something basically playing just beyond his capability - forcing him to step up. He's done this in the 40-Year Old Virgin, The Office, Evan Almighty, Dan in Real Life and others. You never get the sense that Carell is trying to reach as an actor, but he's really enjoyable in this role. Hathaway and the others are great foils for his act, and often provide quite humourous moments themselves - Arkin throwing himself at the Vice-President, the interplay between the agents and the analysts among others.
It's not a straight spoof in the sense of Top Secret! or even the original series, but is more of an Our Man Flint-type movie, where actual spying and adventure take place with lots of humour. Some of the famous lines from the series are used, but appear often misplaced and do not elicit the intended laughs, whereas some low-brow moments and quips generate genuine guffaws.
Overall: Good
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