Tropic Thunder

Tropic Thunder (***)

Ben Stiller can be very funny, but more often than not recently he's been forced into a lot of asinine crap like Along Came Polly and Night at the Museum (see the Family Guy joke: "So, by this point in the movie we know that Ben Stiller's character doesn't like spicy food. Well, guess what's for dinner!!" "NO. WAY."). As such, Tropic Thunder, a movie that Stiller directed and co-wrote himself, is pretty refreshing to see. It's a tremendously funny movie that has a ton of star power in it, yet doesn't feel derivative and "Hollywooded-up" like the aforementioned movies Stiller has been in as of late.

The movie introduces us to its four main characters through fake commercials and trailers before the movie proper begins. We're first reminded that rapper-turned-actor Alpa Chino's new beverage,"Booty Sweat," is available at the concession stand in the lobby. We then see the preview for Tugg Speedman's (Ben Siller) new movie "Scorched VI," the latest installment of Speedman's action movie franchise in which he has to continuously prevent the apocalypse, which, nearest we can tell, he does by standing stoically on the edge of a canyon holding an assault rifle. "Scorched VI," we learn, will be completely different than the other five "Scorched" movies, because this time Speedman has to prevent the world from going into a deep freeze instead of being destroyed in a hellish inferno. Next, we see the latest vehicle for Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), called "The Fatties," in which Portnoy plays every role. It consists mostly of fart jokes and is eerily similar, and no doubt intentionally so, to the very much real Nutty Professor movies. Lastly, we're introduced to the Australian-born Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.), who is heavily into method acting and who tends to gravitate more towards art-house, Oscar-bait roles, as we see from his role in "Satan's Alley," which is basically Brokeback Mountain except in an abbey.

This segues into "main" part of Tropic Thunder begins, where we see that all of the above actors have been cast in a movie-within-a-movie of the same name. It's a big-budget Vietnam war film, with all the explosions, random wanton violence, and action movie cliches of a movie like Rambo, in spite of the fact that its supposed to be adapted from a (purportedly) true story written as a book by an actual Vietnam veteran. They're joined by Kevin Sandusky, a dorky looking kid who looks like Joker from Full Metal Jacket when he's in costume and talks mostly about stuff like the merits of Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD when not in character. We learn that the movie is already behind schedule a week into filming, at that there are questions as to how well the movie's young, upstart director, Damian Cockburn, can keep the massive undertaking under control. After a massive pyrotechnics scene goes awry, Damian seems at the end of his rope, which is when Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte), the veteran who's on the set to see how his story is being brought to the big screen, suggests that he take the actors out in the wilderness to really "get 'em in the shit!" Damian then concocts a plan to film the movie in an avant-garde style by actually having the actors trek through the Vietnamese jungle, while they're filmed on hidden cameras mounted amongst the trees. For reasons that I won't spoil, the plan goes horribly awry very early on, leaving the actors to debate whether or not they're still being filmed and trying out figure out where the hell they're going.

The entire movie is pretty funny, but Robert Downey Jr. completely stands out head and shoulders above everybody else. His character, despite being Australian, is cast as an African-American Sargent, and he undergoes a controversial "pigmentation procedure" to better recreate his likeness. This doesn't sit well with Alpa Chino, who points out that, "They gave the only good role for a black man in this movie to Crocodile Dundee!" Kirk Lazarus tries to plead his case with him, but mostly makes things worse as he refuses to break character (not before doing the DVD commentary, he says) the entire time and constantly talks like an overexaggerated Ving Raymes. Robert Downey is nearly unrecognizable in whatever make up they put him in to look black (I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that it wasn't actually a pigmintation procedure in real life), and holds nothing back in creating a character that's completely over the top in the best way.

Ben Stiller's character is funny as well. I think he channels a little bit of Zoolander as he moves haplessly through the jungle, at one point making a disguise out of a panda skin. Jack Black's character spends most of the movie going through withdrawl after he loses his stash of heroin early on in the filming. He has a couple of very funny scenes as he attempts, mostly unsuccessfully, to keep himself from freaking out, although his character's not quite as consistently hilarious as Robert Downey's. Back in Hollywood, there's a subplot with Matthew McConaughey as Tugg Speedman's agent, which isn't quite as funny, until he shows up in the big climax, and I think detracts from the main plot in the jungle more than complements it. There is another very funny appearance by a well known actor which I won't spoil, because for once the commercials actually did a good job of keeping it under wraps. I'll just say that its probably the next funniest thing behind Robert Downey Jr's performance. As I've described, some bits work more than others, but as a whole its a very enjoyable movie.

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I remember there being a big controversy when the movie came out regarding its use of the word "retard." Having seen it now, I can tell you what I pretty much suspected to begin with, in that the controversy is mostly complete nonsense. There's a bunch of references in the movie to a character Tugg Speedman played earlier in his career called "Simple Jack," which was meant to be a character that would be endearing to audiences in the way Forrest Gump was, but which failed miserably. Kirk Lazarus's theory is that Speedman's problem was that he went "full retard," point out, for example, that Rain Man wasn't "full retard" but just autistic. There's a whole conversation where they speak about playing "retards" in cruel terms like this, but that's the whole point really. All they really care about is whether or not depicting these characters will get them critical acclaim. They don't actually care about shedding light on the hardships of actually being mentally challenged or anything of the sort. That the two are so nakedly insensitive is the whole reason why the scene is funny. If I may say so, this was a retarded controversy.

Quantum of Solace

Quantum of Solace (***)



Two years ago, I saw Casino Royale and loved it, as did most critics. After the Pierce Brosnan films descended into a downward spiral of silliness-- culminating in stuff like Bond outrunning a laser from space across an ice shelf in his Aston Martin in Die Another Day--the stark, gritty realism of Casino Royale was a welcome breath of fresh air. Furthermore, Daniel Craig seemed to bring a new depth to the character that hadn't existed in a long time. I was therefore somewhat surprised to see the very mixed reaction to Quantum of Solace, despite the movie once again starring Craig and, by all appearances in the trailers, having much the same tone and style as its immediate predecessor. Having now seen the movie, I'll agree that the movie probably represents a half-step backwards from what Casino Royale, and that there's room for some negativity towards it, though not quite the level of negativity coming from some critics.

Quantum's most jarring change from the standard Bond formula is that its a direct continuation of the story from Casino Royale. Other Bonds have had recurring villains, like Blofeld, and his criminal organization S.P.E.C.T.R.E., but even still, they're essentially self-contained stories. Conversely, anyone who hasn't seen Casino wouldn't really have the full picture of what's going on in Quantum. After Casino ended with Bond tracking down the mysterious "Mr. White," the man Vesper contacted when she betrayed Bond and MI-6, Quantum opens with Bond racing his way to meet with M (as played by Judi Dench for... I guess this is the sixth time?), with Mr. White in his trunk. Bond is still pissed off that Vesper was killed, he still has a problem with killing people that really need to be questioned first, he's still seen as the rogue agent of MI-6, and the plot still finds Bond trying to infiltrate the same organization, though we discover its now much now much larger in scale and it has a name, Quantum, hence the title. That so many of the themes from the last installment are continued here is perhaps the movie's biggest downfall, even though they're themes that worked well in Casino Royale. It feels a little bit stuck in the mud, not willing to push this latest iteration of Bond much further than what the last movie showed us. The movie does give us a new villain from elsewhere within Quantum with a devious plan of his own to try and spark some new interest and give the movie at least some sense of being self-contained, but the villain is only mildly interesting and mostly forgettable.

The aforementioned villain is Dominic Green, the CEO of an energy company looking to install a new, business-friendly regime in Bolivia. The Americans in the CIA get the gist of what's going on, but don't care to intervene, except for Bond movie staple Felix Lighter, whose crisis of conscience about the whole thing gives him a role to play in the movie. The whole scheme leads to some decent pot-shots at U.S. foreign policy and big corporations who claim to be big on the environment but are actually pretty ruthless in destroying it. The villain himself, however, is rather uninteresting. He has the same sort of smartest-guy-in-the-room, "hey everybody, look at how ingenious of a business man I am" thing going on that Le Chiffre did in Casino Royale, but doesn't have much of a personality, and is only mildly threatening, really. He certainly doesn't have any interaction with Bond or with any other character long enough for him to have any truly endearing moments on the level of say, an Auric Goldfinger ("Do you expect me to talk?" "Oh no, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!").

The action sequences are great, but there's not really enough going on in between them at times. Casino Royale was described by many as sort of the "Jason Bourne-ification" of Bond. I think this one has even more in common with the Bourne movies, but isn't quite as well executed. Part of what kept Casino Royale so interesting was Bond's very humanizing relationship with Vesper. In Quantum, Bond's lust for revenge and detached nature after Vesper's death was already reflected somewhat in Bond's conversation with M at the end of Casino, and wasn't really enough to play out over an entire second movie. In Quantum, the biggest female role is that of a woman whose family was killed when she was a little girl by the dude who's about to be reinstalled as President of Bolivia and is basically out to get even. The filmmakers try and create a whole juxtaposition between her and Bond as they both try and cope with a painful loss and a desire for vengeance, but it ends up feeling pretty shallow and buddy-cop-ish.

The continued move away from the cheesiness and cliches of the most forgettable of the Bond movies is much appreciated, but I want these movies to start incorporating at least some of the classic Bond wit, which right now we're only treated to brief moments of. This movie, while enjoyable to watch, felt far too nihilistic for a Bond movie. I'm not saying I want to see Q following Bond around at every moment in a goofy-ass fake beard dispensing exploding staplers or something, but I think the movie needs to gravitate a bit more back towards Bond as being the embodiment of cool, instead of a tortured soul.

The iconic gun barrel, "oh crap, Bond just shot me in the face," opening that once upon a time began each movie--but appeared only in a somewhat revised form in Casino Royale after its grainy black-and-white opening--appears at the end of Quantum of Solace. It's possible that this is sort of the symbol of the "prequel" story formed by Casino and Quantum coming to an end, and that the next movie will be more of a traditional Bond movie. In other words, that it signifies that this Bond has made the complete transformation into what we all know as 007. Or maybe I'm just reading way too much into it, I dunno.

Typealyzer

I stumbled upon this "Typealyzer" thing, which claims to be able to determine what type of person someone is based on the writing on their blog. This is what it gave me:

ISTP - The Mechanics

The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generelly prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts.

The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.

The site makes sure to point out that its still in Beta. Either it knows me better than I know myself, or they need to tweak this thing some before they take Beta tag off of it. I don't really anticipate starting an exciting new career in firefighting any time soon.

Futurama: Bender's Game

Futurama: Bender's Game (***)

Bender's Game is the third of the straight-to-DVD Futurama movies, and I'd say its in the middle of the three in terms of how much I enjoyed it. It certainly goes pound-for-pound with Bender's Big Score and The Beast with a Billion Backs in terms of its laugh-out-loud moments, but it seems to lack some of the heart that I've come to expect from Futurama. It feels a little bit more like a Family Guy episode in that there's a lot more tangential little bits here and there that are really good for a punch line or two but don't really further the story along. Furthermore, we don't get any real development between characters, like Fry and Leela, which is disappointing after it how well it was done in both the series finale of the show and then again in Bender's Big Score.

There is a lot of undeniably funny stuff packed into less than an hour and a half's worth of movie and there are a lot of individual bits that hold up to the best bits from any point of the series. For the most part, though, they're confined to the first half. Mom is back, along with her Three Stooges-esque sons (at one point they basically break the forth wall and point out that they're basically like the Three Stooges, with Leela and Amy pointing out that they're not as funny to them as, say, Sex and the City). Another personal favorite of mine, the surly trucker guy ("We're all scared, its the human condition. Why do yous think I put on this tough-guy facade!") has an excellent cameo. The second half descends into a Lord of the Rings/Dungeons & Dragons parody, which at times feels like its straining for laughs and seems like its something out of something like Epic Movie. At one point, Fry essentially turns in to Gollum from obsessing over a 12-sided die with mythical powers which he calls something like the "doeca-delicious," and looks into a reflection to see the evil half of himself trying to sell him a knife in the style of a late-night home shopping show. It kind of made me laugh, but at the same time felt pretty hammy and very un-Futurama.

Thus far, the Futurama DVD movies have certainly been worthy successors to the TV series, and haven't felt as though they've jumped the shark at all, but haven't felt as though they're the best-of-the-best. Hopefully, they're saving the best for last (or at least what's planned to be the last), but if the fourth is on the same level as they've been so far, I won't really feel slighted.

RocknRolla

RocknRolla (***)

Nine and eight years respectively since Guy Ritchie put himself on the map as a director with his British crime flicks Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, and Snatch, Ritchie tries to again make himself known as something other than the dude that was married to Madonna with his latest offering, RocknRolla. The movie is a lot like its spiritual predecessor Snatch in that it continuously jumps back and forth between different characters in different parts of the London crime world, whose stories eventually converge as the movie reaches its climax. In Snatch, the movie dealt with an unlicensed bare-knuckle boxing ring, certain elements of which eventually converged with a diamond heist gone wrong. In RocknRolla, the crime that is the centerpiece of the movie is a little more white collar, dealing with back-channel real estate deals, but as the story develops it eventually begins to involve all manner of degenerates, from junkies who sell stolen clothes, to sports bookies, to sadistic Russian mobsters.

Early on in the movie we meet Lenny Cole, played by the always excellent Tom Wilkinson, who doesn't fancy himself a gangster, but is quick to point out proudly that he "owns London". Despite being an angry old bastard who's suspicious of "the immigrants" he finds himself making a deal with a Russian businessman who wants to build a huge arena but doesn't have the permits for it. He even lets Lenny borrow his lucky painting to solidify their partnership. The shit hits the fan, however, when the painting is stolen from Lenny's office and Lenny quickly deploys his right-hand man, Archie, to scour the area for whoever stole it. Archie is in some ways reminiscent unnamed main character of Layer Cake, which I coincidentally just watched pretty recently. He seems devoted to his job, but also seems sort of detached and a bit weary of it. Beyond that we never really learn much about him until we get a big revelation about Lenny at the end that affects Archie quite personally.

Elsewhere, we meet a trio of guys named One-Two, Mumbles, and Handsome Bob (probably not their birth names, gonna go out on a limb there), who are still low on the London crime totem-pole, and so to get money they accept "a bit of work" whenever they can get it. For one job in particular, One-Two--played by Gerald Butler, who doesn't yell constantly like he did in 300, but often times still has that same goofy grin on his face as when he played Leonidas--meets up with Stella, who wants them to secure a bit of money, of which they'd get a cut. Stella (played by Thandie Newton, who I barely recognized in this role, but played Condi Rice in W and the woman who gets felt up by Matt Dillon in Crash) is an icy-cold vixen sort of character, and has a sort of alluring aura of mystery about her. She's one of the more interesting characters in the movie. At it turns out, Stella is working for the Russians as an accountant (the kind that can be "creative" with numbers), and the money they're stealing is the Russians' money. This leads to all kinds of finger pointing, and then all manner of violence between Lenny's group and the Russians.

At the same time all of this is going on, Johnny Quid--rock star and estranged step-son of Lenny--has sequestered himself on a drug binge after faking his own death. When its revealed that his presence will be necessary to make everyone involved in the real-estate deal not want to kill each other, his two record producers, played by Ludcaris and Jeremy Piven, have to go looking for him. Their characters aren't without their charms, but their sections of the film are probably the least interesting.

Even though everything comes together at the end of RocknRolla in much the same way that everything comes together at the last boxing match at the end of Snatch, the whole product wasn't quite as satisfying to me. There are certainly a lot of similar examples of sharp writing and ingenious one-off bits--like when One-Two goes out of his way to taunt a slightly pudgy Russian mobster as he outruns him down a set of train tracks--that make you realize why you like this sort of genre in the first place. At the same time, however, Lenny's character, while well-devised and well-played by Tom Wilkinson, doesn't project the same sort of evil and dread that the boxing promoter did in Snatch (I'll never forget the scene where he helps himself to some of Jason Statham's coffee and announces chillingly: "No sugar for me. I'm sweet enough!"), and the quick jump cuts between characters seem somewhat more muddled and don't give you quite the same sense of the plot headed towards an explosive climax. At any rate, if you're a fan of Guy Ritchie's previous stuff, or British crime dramas in general, you'll certainly enjoy this movie. Until next time, keep being a real rocknrolla.