MOVIE REVIEW: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)

Ever since the passing of Dame Liz, it dawned on me that I had never actually seen any of her early work. My familiarity with her went only within the realm of her cheesy perfume commercials, the glut of news reports about her health, and The Flintstones. Since I had read Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, years ago in high school, it seemed perfectly fitting that this would be the one for me to check out. And hey...not only did Ms. Taylor happen to be a good actress, but BOY, was she gorgeous! She pretty much sizzles in this film alongside her equally talented co-star, Paul Newman. The color photography captures every nuance of soul through their piercing, lightly-colored eyes. But enough about them...

Brick Pollitt is an ex-football star-turned-alcoholic, who spends his spare time trying to drunkenly relive his glory days on the field by himself. Brick is married to Maggie - the "cat" - a sexually-frustrated sexpot who's become the black sheep of the family on account that she and Brick are childless. That problem is only one of many that encompasses the couple's turbulent relationship, and Maggie herself feels akin to the film's namesake, due to her undying loyalty to Brick and her lack of direction on "where to land" should she "fall off" the "roof". When Brick's father, Big Daddy's 65th birthday rolls around, and the family comes together once again, things begin to get really heated as the cracks in the Pollitt family begin to expose as well.

What was cool about stage-to-film adaptations in Golden Age Hollywood, is that many of the filmmakers took great strides not to mess too much with the original. Granted, there are some subtle changes and visual elaborations of off-screen activity, but for the most part, the film is pretty faithful to the play, from what I remember. The producers even managed to keep the supporting cast intact, which I thought was a nice touch. While I've already elaborated plenty on the acting, I will say for those of you who are wary towards watching old movies that this one is very dialogue-heavy. All of the action is pretty much confined to one set for the approximate hour-and-forty-minute runtime. However, I appreciate that kind of intimacy within a film. It's not very common, nowadays, but that's what makes Cat on a Hot Tin Roof stand out, in comparison to today's more flashier adaptations.

8/10

Peace,
- Jon

MOVIE REVIEW: Ghost World (2001)

Ghost World is a dark comedy, that caught me off-guard by how dark it actually was. Based on a comic book by Daniel Clowes, it follows the lives of two high-school graduates with nihilistic temperaments who are searching for meaning in their world. If you think of Scott Pilgrim as your direct definition of a comic-book film, Ghost World isn't like that. Rather, this film plays it (mostly) straight, and relies on it's dialogue, as well as some colorful sets and costume choices. While it didn't blow me away, in terms of the writing, I found the characters very intriguing and often very funny.

Enid and Rebecca have graduated high school, and rather than go to college, decide to spend the time they have in front of them figuring out what to do with their lives. Mainly, their favorite past time is torturing others with psychological pranks. Their schadenfreude antics lead them to Seymour, a 40-something single record collector whom Enid takes a keen interest in. Never feeling any sort of strong emotional connection to anyone like him before, Enid sets out to re-invent Seymour's life for the better, but faces the challenge that it puts upon her friendship with Rebecca, her relationship with her family, and her own self.

I find the characters in Ghost World fascinating, because they're unlike anyone I've ever met before, but are extremely believable. Enid herself reminds me of a cross between Holden Caulfield and Juno. In some ways, these characters represent the emotional pits of despair we've experienced from time-to-time. The acting at times is fantastic, especially from Thora Birch and Scarlet Johanssen, who have since gone on to do wonderful things in their craft. I can see some people considering the ending to be rather bleak, and I do wish the characters sought some type of resolution, but I'm not sure this was the kind of movie for that. In any case, if you like quirky dark comedies, Ghost World should do the trick.

7/10

Peace,
- Jon

MOVIE REVIEW: Super Mario Brothers (1993)

As one of the first few video games I ever played and loved, it shocked me that I never actually had a chance to see Super Mario Bros. - the movie. I understand that there was probably a good reason why: SMB is a confused, muddled mess of a flick that somehow manages to be entertaining for all it's B-movie trappings. It's such a departure from what the film should have portrayed, that one wonders what the producers were thinking. It's not exactly a re-imagining, or a direct-transaltion. And there's some pretty cool effects that actually justify some marginally substantial production values, yet one wonders why they didn't go the extra mile? Oh well, it is what it is, and what it is, is, well...

When dinosaurs disappeared from the Earth, the meteor that caused it actually sent them to a different dimension. In this dimension, the dinosaurs evolved to become sentient, and even resembled humans (huh?). They also dominated another sentient species descended from fungi (...huh?), with the help of dictator King Koopa. The Mushroom King sent his only daughter, Princess Daisy, into the humans dimension, and she grew up in a relatively normal existence. Meanwhile, Daisy somehow befriends two Brooklyn plumber brothers named Mario and Luigi. When Koopa orders Daisy's capture, the lovestruck Luigi (...does not compute) and the sarcastic Mario chase down Koopa into his own dimension to get her back.

So, it sounds like your typical SMB plot, the problem is, the film's tone is scattered all over the place - it's too dark to be a kid's movie, and too stupid for teenagers and adults to legitimately enjoy. And the production values; they range from terrible to somewhat interesting, but they're honestly no better than a Nickelodeon TV movie. I think the only smart choice the producers made was to scale back the video game aspects, in order to compensate for their (somewhat dubious) creativity around the budget and script. I'm sure most of the actors tried their best in this, but knowing how their pedigree would turn out in later years for people like John Leguizamo, they must be somewhat embarrased in how their performances turned out. Yet, while I admit SMB is a ridiculous mess of a movie, it entertained me on the veritable "so-bad-it's-pretty-good" sort-of level. Gamers may want to stay far away, as the deviations from the source material may make them cry. Everyone else...avoid if you hate bad movies, I guess.

Not convinced? Maybe the cheesy, early-90s trailer will sway your opinion -

6/10

Peace,
- Jon

MOVIE REVIEW: The Paper Chase (1973)

From the moment I made it clear I wanted to go to law school, to the countless times my LSAT practice course instructor made references and quotes to this film, it became clear that seeing The Paper Chase was a mandatory rite of passage for law students and unavoidable out of my own curiosity. For many 1Ls, Paper Chase is the first thing to scare them as far as what to expect out of law school, based on it's candid, honest apporach to the classroom environment, grounded in the difficult and often humiliating Socratic Method. But since the film is technically a dramatic work, I took these things with a grain of salt, albeit, with some slight unease. Above all though, Paper Chase is a good movie.

James Hart is a clueless, first year law student at Harvard. Hailing from Minnesota, Hart is unprepared to deal with the rigors and intense studying at his fingertips. He also has to deal with vying for recognition from his professor; the stern, authoritarian Charles Kingsfield. Hart retreats from the stress rather easily by partying, or sleeping with the local school socialite, who has become the object of his affection and reluctant psychological distress receptacle. What changes things for Hart however, is when he realizes his new sweetheart is actually Kingsfield's daughter.

Films like these have a knack for keeping my interest, because they deal directly with events going on at large in my life and speak in a way that art so brilliantly does by creating characters that one instantly relates to. While Hart is somewhat of a man-child, he gradually grows into what the school expects of him, and his will to succeede is a very admirable quality. Likewise, Kingsfield, for all his thorns is an intriguing figure, in spite of his imposing presence. The pacing is very strong, and the film has a wicked sense of humor; whose strongest source is at the taut verbal sparring between Hart and Kingsfield. Perhaps, this is a fairly apt viewpoint of the Socratic Method in action. For a 1L-to-be like myself, Paper Chase didn't fully intimidate me, because that Harvard isn't representative of every law school in the US, but it gave me some good, emotional insight from an entertaining, fictional angle.

8/10

Peace,
- Jon

MOVIE REVIEW: Scream 4 (2011)



I honestly went into Scream 4, with moderate expectations. Even though I loved the first one and somewhat enjoyed the two sequels, I knew that a semi-reboot to go above and beyond the first would've been hard to top. With nearly ten years in between 4 and 3 (wow, has it been that long? I remember seeing 3 in the theater!...with my sister, who snuck me in, of course), horror films have gone the way of Saw/Hostel torture porn, ludicrous PG-13 thrillers trying to emulate Japanese ghost stories, and forgettable remakes that have tried to out-do the original in terms of gross-out factor. Without any good slashers in plain sight this past decade (save for Orphan, and I'm probably in the minority on that one!), all I can say is: "Thank God for Scream 4!"

If there is any film, especially in horror, that can go meta-theatrial-over-meta-theatrical, Scream 4 is probably it. If you know the series, someone famous or integral to the plot gets killed in a chilling manner that sets the scene for the rest of the film. This time, the opening actually messed with my head that I kept wondering what events were real and what weren't. For this installment, the plot is centered heavily around horror reboots, remakes, and the so-called "post-modern" aforementioned trends in the last paragraph. The story and script are very clever, with the new teen characters being very self-aware (not bad in the acting department, either). In spite of this, some of them (including the veterans) still fall victim to horror cliches, and the whole film itself features a few glaring examples. My favorites were the cute blonde girl vindicating her credibility to the killer on the phone, by claiming she had a 4.0 GPA, yet, she still flees up the stairs...come on! The other was when Sidney, the main character, witnesses a murder across the street, then enters the house, unarmed, to investigate the scene of the crime. Did she just surrender and snap? Or is she that ballsy? Not very smart, but whatever...

In Scream 4, Sidney, the main survivor of the last three films has carved a niche for herself as a famous author, and returns to her hometown on the 15th anniversary of the first film's murders to promote her new book. The other two are Dewey, who is now the police Sherriff, and his now-wife, Gail, who is itching to become a reporter again after marriage and domesticity have squandered her career. Upon Sidney's arrival, murders start happening again, with Sidney's teenage cousin, Jill, and her friends targeted as victims. In the ten years in between this and the last sequel, Sidney, Dewey and Gail have somehow become semi-legends; the lore of the serial killings has become popularized in a successful slasher series called Stab, and the ubiquity of cellphones, Facebook, YouTube, and blogging have forged a generational gap between the new and veteran characters. The killer knows this, and exploits the new tropes in some exciting and creative ways.

Good sequels are hard to come by, but I feel safe by saying Scream 4 exceeded my expectations by becoming a good enough film to standalone in it's own right. Besides the minor cliches bugging me, I also thought the tone was slightly uneven, early on - mild one minute, then scary the next. The thrills worked, and I was on the edge of my seat for the whole time, but in the beginning, they seemed sort of random. On a more interesting note, I kind of figured out who the killer was, in the middle, but I remained skeptical due to the plethora of red herrings. I'm obviously not going to say who it was, but when the killer was revealed, I felt really disturbed after the killer's motives were explained. Where the first Scream used obsession with horror movies as the catalyst towards the killer's main motives, like a chilling reaction to the spate of school-shootings in the 1990s, the killer in Scream 4 was motivated in a more completely twisted and sadistic way. Just like it's predecessors, Scream 4 manages to make it's own social-commentary, albeit more contemporary. The ending was perfect, for a solid slasher/thriller that made me enjoy the series all over again.

8/10

Peace,
- Jon

MOVIE REVIEW: Total Recall (1990)

Total Recall is like Star Wars meets North by Northwest; it's an absolutely relentless thriller with magnificent chase sequences set in a sci-fi universe that encapsulates upon the first frame with vivid special effects and creative fantasy. How this little action-cinema staple slipped under my radar for all these years is beyond me. This is one of those films that, like The Matrix, is so involved in the fantasy angle of it's story that you could almost call it live-action anime for all it's creativity. Although I have not read the Philip K. Dick story that it is based on, I will say that at least whoever crafted the screenplay did a great job of turning it into memorable and exciting Hollywood popcorn entertainment. Even though the film is only groundbreaking in it's visual effects, everything else services the audience well.

In 2084, humans and aliens have colonized Mars, let alone figured how to make space travel feasible. Doug Quaid is an everyman construction worker, who happens to have an "untapped" talent for quick reflexes and martial arts. A dream where he travels to Mars with a beautiful woman continuously eludes him. Against the wishes of his strangely objective friends and wife, Quaid enlists in a "virtual-vacation" program called "Rekall", which uses false memories to create an idyllic environment for rest and relaxation. The program backfires though, when Quaid begins to have a seizure, forcing him to recover an identity he never realized he originally had.

Even though this film was made over 20 years ago, the Oscar-winning special effects still amaze me, in all their practicality. It's funny how films had a knack for appearing vivid enough to be called fake, but were still believable within the context of the story. CGI has squandered a lot of creativity for many practical filmmakers, but it also has it's attributes in other departments. At the time this was made (according to the DVD extras) Total Recall had it all, in terms of all aspects of visual and artistic design team. This is an amazing-looking film, that also happens to have some fantastic action and incredibly strange-looking creatures (there's even what I consider a hyper-sexualized version of the Star Wars cantina scene, complete with a three-bosomed femalian). Bottom line, Total Recall has it all in terms of your full-circle action movie: Explosions, cheesy one-liners, and eye-popping effects. A lot of the story may seem like more of the same, but that's not always a bad thing.

8/10

Peace,
- Jon

MOVIE REVIEW: Animal Kingdom (2010)

Some films just come out of nowhere from different corners of the Earth, and you wonder what makes them so acclaimed. In this case, it was Academy Award nominee for Best Supporting Actress Jacki Weaver's intriguing performance as an Australian crime family matriarch in the film Animal Kingdom. As a stickler for great acting, I became even more intrigued by the trailer, marketing the film as a tense thriller, along with the blurbs that touted the film as "...an Australian Goodfellas". Unfortunately, whoever wrote that blurb may not have realized that Animal Kingdom is anything but either of the last two. Despite some promising setups, I must admit I was disappointed.

In Melbourne, 17 year-old '"J"'s mother is taken to the hospital, DOA from a drug overdose. Orphaned J seeks out his grandmother, affectionately nicknamed "Smurf". Smurf takes J into her home, where he realizes his extended family is really operating one of the most powerful crime rings in Australia. His hot-headed uncles represent various "trades" from car theft to drug dealing. When the heat goes up and J becomes embroilled in murder, involving a group of corrupt cops, he goes into a witness protection program. Forced to walk the line between his corrupt family and the ethically questionable authorities, J must act fast if he is to stay alive.

I can understand why many people find Animal Kingdom to be a great film, it's got wonderful characterizations and a story whose complexity perhaps rivals that of The Departed. It is unfortunate, however, in my opinion, that the direction for the film is staler than a week-old loaf of bread. While some may appreciate the long, drawn out segments of chasing or violent aftermath punctuated by the somber score, I found it to be incredibly dull and perfunctory. Even though the acting was more-or-less okay, so much of the dramatic moments were lacking in any sort of catharsis for me. In other words, I got the basic gist of the story, but the director's vision didn't meld well with my expectations and the result, overall, was a film that wasn't very out-of-the-ordinary in comparison to other crime tales. Oh well.

6/10

Peace,
- Jon