E-F Movies
Elektra (2005)
I saw this, nervous that it would be stupid, but wanting to keep my streak together of seeing all new comic book related movies. It wasn’t bad for the reasons I thought it would be, but for different ones.
These were the reasons I thought it would be stupid. I didn’t think they would give a very good reason for how Elektra came back from the dead after the Daredevil movie. Reason 2, I don’t tend to like overly tough female leads in movies, infallible (etc etc). Reason 3, the previews made the special effects look stupid and unrelated. Reason 4, the previews made it look as if she was going to train some little girl to fight for some unexplained reason.
This is how the movie was good in those areas. Reason 1, they didn’t dwell on how she came back, they didn’t refer back to Daredevil, probably to scared to even be associated with it. You just have to believe in asian magic is all. Reason 2, Elektra was humble, lost, and imperfect. Almost too much, and I will get to that. Reason 3, The special effects were perfect actually. The Hand, a force of ninja fighter type people from the comic book, made a perfect transition. They weren’t feared as much for their fighting skills like they were in comic books, but for their special powers over disease, speed, and animals. The effects helped support this perfectly with the whole movie using sparring cable tricks. Reason 4, the girl actually is the whole focus of the movie, with special powers in and of herself. She is already trained. The girl is obnoxious and her father is the token love interest, but it is better than training her.
The main reasons that I didn’t like this movie that much, was that Elektra was a bit of a crying baby, almost too lost I thought, too vulnerable. I never thought I would say that, but she was really tough at most times, but it seemed like the unsure bit was only there to support an already weak premise. What would be a good premise that would resonate with today’s audience? That I can’t answer, it certainly couldn’t be what was in the comics, but I am not sure this worked either. And that was the other reason I didn’t like it and wouldn’t watch it again, the story didn’t hold me. I wasn’t involved in the character, and I can’t explain that any more, than I just wasn’t engaged.
If you are into comic books see it. Even though Jennifer Garner is more “athletic” looking than Elektra, all girls in comics have an unrealistic chest and to see her in a great translation of the actual costume is pretty cool. But otherwise, I don’t think anyone else will care that this movie even came out.
The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)
Steve Carell in his first starring role, and he knocks it out of the park. Don’t know if he can pull it off again, but I suspect he can. I will say, for the raunchy, stupid, guy humor in this movie, he made me believe that he was a 40 year old virgin. His antics, his personality, which was different from him and what he did on the Daily Show, it was a very funny movie.
We were so pumped to have seen two very funny movies so close together. This is very close to the same line as Wedding Crashers, but I do think a little less raunchy. The supporting cast of guys is really great, especially the guy with the beard, as well as all of the other little neurotic people he encounters, from the horny Borders girl (Elizabeth Banks) to the strange female floor manager that wants to become his “friends with benefits”. The pakistani co-workers were highly cliche however, and even though this was really funny, they did take advantage of some of the cliche’s to help make this successful. But hopefully, he will continue to try to do off the wall stuff and stray more from that.
If you see Wedding Crashers, see this. Very funny, somewhat touching and real, and an interesting commentary on women’s complexities and how a man believes he can exploit them.
Flight of the Pheonix (2004)
This was a solid movie. Some sparsely used stylized action, an awesome sequence of a desert storm, interesting information about what it would actually be like to be stuck in a desert and trying to survive, and an awesome acting performance by Giovanni Ribisi.
Other than Giovanni, this movie has Dennis Quaid, Tyrese, and Mirando Otto (Lord of the Rings fame) and a cast of good supporting standees. The Pheonix is one huge, chrome plated airplane that has a fateful voyage across the desert. With too much weight, the pilot Quaid cannot sustain flying up and over a sand storm as the plane crashes violently. Then the crew must decide on whether to hope of spotting rescue, or an outlandish plan to rebuild the plane by Ribisi’s specs with little to no water.
So many sub conflicts happen, between characters, nomads, and other problems in building the plane that this movie keeps your interest throughout. Ribisi’s role as an engineer who designs and builds planes is really interesting, confident and cocky, and a self preservist above all else, Ribisi is spooky and enthralling all at once. Quaid does a good job as the hard nosed hunky guy, but this is just like every other role he’s played in the last five years.
In the end, they build the plane and escape, even with the revelation that Ribisi designs toy planes for a living. This is a great movie that I recommend for all, action, drama, a tiny touch of love, and most important well placed supporting special effects.
Fantastic Four (2005)
Mmm Boy. Well, now a days there seems to be a lot of positive buzz about comic book movies, but for every good one there seems to be at least one bad one. Fantastic Four isn’t bad per say, but isn’t isn’t great, which is too bad for such a group of well known characters.
The main problem with the movie is story and casting. No small thing, I know. I kind of wondered about Jessica Alba as Sue Storm, and I left the theater not really having noticed her. She seems too young, wanting to be a strong character but not really, only stronger than Reed Richards, and really only gives good performances when she is arguing with Johnny. Who does not look like her could ever be her brother. Not convincing in love, and really not convincing as some super intelligent M.I.T. grad. Bad choice.
Ioan Gruffield. You don’t know that name, unless you saw the lost Bruckheimer movie King Arthur. He played lancelot there, and he wasn’t very good. This isn’t any different. You see fleeting glimpses of Reed’s brilliance, but it isn’t convincing. His character Reed, never becomes a leader that the movie is trying to push, and although a weak argument, he doesn’t look the part. A couple of gray streaks really don’t do anything. Plus, him as an elastic man, those special effects look a little silly.
Ben Chiklis and especially Chris Evans as The Thing and Johnny Storm the Human Torch were good and perfect respectively. If you read around the internet, you will hear that The Thing was awkward, stumbling, and unbelievable in costume. I didn’t think he was bad, I think it would have been hard to do a non CG Thing, and they did a pretty good job. He had some pretty good fighting scenes, and some pretty good emotion trying to deal with the raw hand he had been dealt. Torch was perfect. Not to take away from Chris Evans, but I don’t think that role would be very hard. You act arrogant, you say the snappy lines, and you get the girls. But he does do the Torch to a T, and it is amazing to see that character come to life. They did an amazing job with the CG on that one.
Then, Julian McMahon for Dr. Doom. Who? You ask? Exacctttly. Just like is too common today, you get an unknown and count on them to take the film forward. That is true for most of the cast in this movie, relatively unknown at the very least. But it does show that star power doesn’t always pan out either, like Jessica Alba.
To a comic fan, it is all about the translation, the characters, and their stories. This movie has a lot to do with telling the stories with a cast of five completely different characters. But Bryan Singer did it so well with so many more in X-men, why couldn’t Tim Story (Barbershop Oy!) do it too? The middle of the movie deals with the characters waiting around for Reed Richards to finish a little pod that will turn them back to normal. Then, 3/4 of the movie in, Dr. Doom turns to complete metal and decides that the F4 are the reason that his commercial empire has crumbled and that he is going to kill them with government weapons. Not very creative or villainous, and really an injustice to such a feared and intelligent character.
Don’t get me wrong. I like to see the eye candy. I like to see the characters brought to life and see the vision of transforming them for a modern audience. That is a battle that can have an exciting payoff. But that is all this movie was. When done right like Batman, and you love the characters, a movie can come to life. This one just seems to have gone through the motions.
If you liked Road Trip, this is a lesser shell, with less depth, but has it’s own good qualities if you like these type of movies.
Eurotrip (2004)
One of the last recent stupid “college” type movies, I saw the unrated version of Eurotrip again on my trip to Charlotte. The first time I saw it by myself, and didn’t really enjoy it that much. It helps to see it with other people with a good sense of humor.
The movie is about a kid who gets dumped in a terrible way, and then finds out his penpal in Germany is a girl, not a boy. So he heads out with a friend to Europe to try to find this girl and get with her. The movie has small roles for Matt Damon and Kristen Kreuk as the evil girlfriend, and Michelle Tractenburg, and that is it. The movie has a silly guy, but he isn’t really that funny, and that is really what is missing in this movie, a crazy funny college guy that does anything. Most of the humor relies on painful and awkward scenes relating back to sex, like a drunk brother and sister making out, and a crazy sado scene in Amsterdam.
If you liked Road Trip, this is a lesser shell, with less depth, but has it’s own good qualities if you like these type of movies.
Firefly : TV Series (2002)
I wouldn’t normally write about collected, debunk TV Series’, but everyone in my circle of friends is talking about this, so I took the time to gather some of my own thoughts.
A series written and created by Joss Whedon, who I knew through a comic he wrote called Fray, this is the story about 9 crew mates aboard the Serenity, a futuristic ship in a futuristic world set in space. Traders, thieves, and saviors, their pursuit of the almightily dollar to keep them alive puts them in all sorts of weird situations.
This series doesn’t star anyone you know. But is has been so popular in DVD sales, that there is going to be a movie released in September by the name of Serenity starring the exact same cast.
I enjoyed parts of this more than others, and overall I still feel a little lukewarm. I think that it was technically handled ok, but it does seem to focus on relationships and these relationships are always taking the back seat to the story. You never get close to any sort of climax with any of them, it is a cross between some WB drama and the backseat role characters take on a CSI show.
The movie, however, looks really cool. It focuses on two of the characters, refugees, a doctor and his sister. The doctor is a whitebread Harvard type who broke his sister out from government confinement where they were doing all sorts of weird experiments on her brain. I think the show can’t really get into how powerful she is, but we will see that in the movie as it focuses around them running away and trying to escape, and save her in the process.
If you are curious, I would say try them. I won’t guarantee anything. I probably wouldn’t watch but one or two episodes again, but like I said, I feel like I really know these characters now because of the great job Joss does of building them up, and I think that will add that much more to the movie.
Finding Neverland (2004)
I pretty much knew this was going to be a good one.
Starring Johnny Depp and Kate Winslett, this is based on the true story of James Barrie, the author of Peter Pan.
The story revolves around Depp (Barrie) who is a struggling playwright when one day, he meets the Davies brothers and their mother Slyvia, whose father has passed away. Depp quickly finds himself in a fatherly role to the boys and the deeper he gets, he learns that Slyvia is dying. Their story inspires him to write about a place where people never die, little boys never grow up, and there are no worries.
I like most things English, especially little children, but the little boy who played Peter in this movie was captivating. Peter’s father had passed on and now his mother was dying. He was the only boy who refused to hide or glaze over the truth. He always wanted to be told the truth, and didn’t believe in imagination or make believe. He has a great fear of abandonment and a confusion of why grown ups lie about the truth. Depp really touches his life, although never seems to really heal him.
A touching movie, and an amazing story, I would recommend this movie to anyone. I will warn you it starts out a bit slow, but by the end of the movie, the warmth and color of this movie really comes out.
But to see John grab an ex-stuntman by the crotch and throw him down a flight of stairs is pretty humorous.
