Friday, January 25, 2008

There Will Be Blood

There are plenty of things that I love about sports. One of the great things is that there are plenty of sports analogies to use when describing something. I usually only use them to help emphasis a point or get under someone’s skin.

When discussing There Will Be Blood with my co-worker, I was torn. Before I had a chance to see it I had everyone telling me how great the movie was. After watching it I wasn’t sure if it was a really good movie or just an okay movie with great acting. Often times, like sports, the line is blurred. The movie reminded me of one of the Chicago Bulls teams from the 90’s. Were they a really good team or just an okay team with a few great players. They really only needed a few people to play great and they had chance to win every night. With a few good players, There Will Be Blood has a chance to win big on Oscar night.

The film begins almost like a silent film. There is very little said in the first 15-20 minutes. The films first real dialogue is Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis who would be Michael Jordan) sort of giving the plot of the movie. He introduces himself as an “oil man” and H.W. Plainview (Dillon Freasier who would be John Paxson or Steve Kerr) as his son and business partner. He had to be about 8-10 years old which made that funny to me for some reason. He's the most serious 8 years old I've ever scene.

One night Plainview is paid a visit by a young man who tells him of a town that has oil coming out of the ground. He says that companies are buying up land all around it, but that town is where the oil is. Daniel and son H.W set off to this town to see if it is true or not. The bulk of the film takes place in a small town as Plainview and his colleagues extract oil, and with their shrewd business practices, try to scam the townspeople out of their money. Not that exciting of a plot right? That’s like not having a great team and then some how you land MJ and Pippen.

Daniel-Day Lewis delivers and MJ like performance in the film. He is very believable as Daniel Plainview. I left the film thinking that he was Plainview, a rude oil man who even go as far to say that he didn’t like people and found most of them to be ignorant. The character was so driven that he sacrificed his family, friends, often didn’t like or know the people he worked with. He had a focus kind of like Michael Jordan in some ways.

The other amazing performances comes from Paul Dano (who would be Scottie Pippen) who plays a young evangelical preacher, Eli Sunday. Eli is focused on getting some of the oil money for his family and his church. Dano is one of the great surprises of the movie. I think his performance may go overlooked because of the magnificent job that Daniel Day Lewis does in the film. We know Lewis is great because we’ve seen him in Gangs Of New York, and Last Of The Mohicans. I can’t recall seeing Dano in anything. I was shocked when I looked at the Academy Award nominations this week, and did not see his name on there for Best Supporting Actor. Much like Jordan and Pippen, the two of them together were phenomenal, and by far the best scenes in the movie.

So back to my analogy. The plot is so-so and the rest of the supporting cast is okay, but don’t really do anything to help carry the film. Much like those Bulls teams, two to three major players carry the film (The last 30-45 minutes are incredible). The very last scene is like a 2-on-1 fast break with Lewis and Dano. I’m not quite sure where the line is blurred. Is it really that good of a story? We all know that the actors can make or break a film. We know this is true for most films, but I think it stands to be even more true for There Will Be Blood. I’m not sure if you replace those actors what kind of film you have left. If you replace MJ and Scottie, what sort of team would you have left?

My suggestion: Great performances in this movie. I don’t care if it’s the movie that’s great or the acting. This is one of those must-see-movies of the year and the year just started. It may at some point be overhyped and shoved down our throats as the Academy Awards approach. Try not to let that discourage you. People got tired of hearing about how good the Bulls were, but you have to admit they were a good team.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Cloverfield

Last night I took the opportunity to round up a bunch of friends and go see the first big movie of 2008, Cloverfield. I remember seeing the trailer when I went to see Transformers thinking that the movie looked great, but somehow what/who the monster was would leak out by January. I’m glad I was wrong. Somehow they were able to keep this movie monster hush. I heard everything from them not showing the monster to the monster being some mutated version of Teddy Ruxpin. This mystery allowed for the Internet buzz to build as people speculated what the monster was or wasn’t. Still the movie had to be more than just Godzilla 2008. Not to mention we had a King Kong remake a few years ago and who wants to see that again. Cloverfield needed some substance if it was going to be a hit.

Cloverfield is shot entirely in first person point-of-view. You will either love how different it is or hate how different it is. Most people seemed to like it. I didn’t see anyone puking in the corner of the theater from motion sickness.

The movie starts as Rob (Michael Stahl-David) is leaving for Japan to start a new job as Vice President. His friends decided to throw him a party and decide to have people make video confessions to Rob so he can look at them when he’s in Japan (the reason for having the camera around). With the camera rolling we meet the other characters in the film, Beth (Odette Yustman), Jessica (Lily Ford), Marlena (Lizzy Caplan), Jason (Mike Vogel), and the narrator/camera man Hud (T.J Miller).

Once everyone is partying, there is a loud boom outside. Everyone rushes to the TV to see what happened assuming it’s another terrorist attack. The report says that there was a capsized ship by the Statue Of Liberty. All the partygoers rush to the roof to see if they can get a glimpse of whatever is happening. Suddenly there is a loud explosion and everyone rushes to the streets and that’s when the real mayhem ensues.

Why is the camera still rolling? This is their attempt to record whatever it is that’s happening to New York City. I guess I can buy that. I’m sure there would really be some idiot that would want to get that footage.

So this film needed more than a monster to keep people interested, and it is found in the relationship between Rob and Beth. Rob is in love with Beth and she calls saying that she’s trapped in her apartment. Now Rob feels compelled to save her and is willing to risk his life. Saving her means staying in NYC while this monster is destroying everything in sight. The other friends join along to help and Hud gets it all captured on film.

I think about my date life, and if I would be willing to risk my life. Not so sure about that. The phone conversation would go something like this.

Girl: Help! I’m stuck in my apartment
Me: Oh no! Are you okay?
Girl: No I can’t move
Me; Dang! Are you serious?That sucks. Is there anybody there to help you?
Girl: No! I'm hurt bad.

(Thinking the monster is right by her apartment)
Me: I’ll call 9-1-1.I love you but I gotta go now there is a monster running around eating people.


Of course some of the stuff in the movie was extremely unbelievable, but I got over it very quickly. I’ve never been in the middle of a monster attack so I’m not sure how things would really work out. I just remember thinking that more people should be dead by now. One of my concerns was that they were not going to show the monster. They do show the monster and more. A lot like The Mist, during some scenes you will just see parts of the monster and not the whole thing. Don’t worry there are plenty of chances to see the beast, and it doesn’t disappoint. I’m still not quite sure what it is.

My favorite character (Other than Jessica) was Hud. He was the comic relief in the film. He said and did some pretty inappropriate things and he reminded me a lot of people I know. You would definitely need someone there to lighten the mood in the middle of an attack. I wouldn’t want everyone around me freaking out.

My suggestion: Great start to 2008. I really enjoyed the flick and would recommend it. It’s something new and something different. A breathe of fresh air for Monster movies and for Hollywood as a whole. I’m glad J.J Abrams thinks outside of the box. I hope to see more of the same in the future. The movie may leave you with the “What if this happened in my city” question. Hopefully you’ll do what I would do and that’s leave.

Friday, January 11, 2008

Blogging on the go!

Trying out my mobile blog. Now I can blog on the road!

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

politickin radio

I wanted to let all you readers know that I will be on politickin radio Thursday 1/10/08. We will be discussing “Is Hollywood Bankrupt”, the strike, television and some other movie news. You can check the interview out at politickinradio.com. Be sure to check out Ambra and Andre’s podcast ever y Thursday and you can even listen to some of the old ones. Thanks for your support

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets

Against my better judgment I went to see National Treasure 2: The Book of Secrets. Why? One of my friends was in town for the holidays and we always see movies. It was late and I wanted to see something fun, nothing stale and nothing too emotionally heavy. I must admit that I did enjoy the first movie so there was some appeal with the sequel.

This movie experience did not get off to a good start. As always I’m at the movies early and the previews were terrible. There wasn’t one movie there that I liked. Not one! How is that possible? So after sitting through some gut wrenching trailers Disney decides to show this 5 minute Goofy movie about how to get your home theater installed or something stupid like that. It was a complete waste of time. Not only was it not funny, but it was sooooooooooo long and boring. Who’s idea was that? They need to be fired.


National Treasure 2 picks up where the last movie left off. Now Benjamin Gates (Nicholas Cage) is out to prove his family was not involved in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. They talk about this assignation as a great American tragedy. Not so sure I agree. Maybe if the Gates family had something to do with JFK or Martin Luther King I would believe this eagerness to clear his name.

Anyways in a quest to clear the Gates family name gates brings along Riley (Justin Bartha),
Abigail (Dian Kruger), his father Patrick Gates (Jon Voight), and this time momma gates is coming along for the ride (Helen Mirren).

I find the storyline to be utterly ridiculous in the movie. First, Kidnapping the President? Ooooooooooookay. Why haven’t you been shot again? Second, how does Abigail still have a high level security job within our government? For arguments sake let’s say you do have a soft spot for blondes, but wouldn’t you do a little C.Y.A and keep a real watchful eye on her. I’d have an intern whose sole job would be to make sure she didn’t do anything crazy.

I thought the first movie was unbelievable but it still tied things together well. The sequel doesn’t do as good of a job keeping the story interesting and some parts of it seem all over the place and even less believable.

I never really understood the Wilkinson character. They never did a good job of establishing the reason for having him around and why he was so obsessed with finding this Lost City of Gold.

The bright spot of the movie was Gates sidekick Riley. He added some comedy to the movie and help make some of the most boring parts bearable. The comedic timing was pretty good and I laughed out loud a few times. Still not enough to save this movie.

My suggestion: This is the reason people hate sequels. For every Terminator 2 there is a Book Of Secrets. Wait for the DVD or the Showtime Movie Premier. Hopefully you won’t have to sit through that Goofy movie.