Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Queue Catch All #2

This last week, we've been watching a lot of Arrested Development, since Netflix put it on Watch Instant. It's just so hard to stop watching that show. I still found time (out of my ever so busy schedule) to watch some movies.

Barry Lyndon - I love Stanley Kubrick. I might have to say he's my favorite director. I think Dr Strangelove is the best comedy ever made(not the funniest movie, there is a difference) and Full Metal Jacket is the best Vietnam war film. I also think A.I. is a great film, but that's another topic if it should even be included in a Kubrick discussion.
But with all that, I didn't like this film. At all. It was slow and boring. If a movie is slow, it cannot be boring. If a movie is boring in any way then there is no helping it, no matter how much character or action or drama or beautiful shots. None of that matters if you have no interest in what's going on. Barry Lyndon I think was beautiful, based on what people have said and what Wikipedia led me to believe. But seeing how I was looking through the TV in a stare as if the movie was a 3D painting I couldn't tell that it was beautiful. Raging Bull is one of the best films of all time, but I'm not going to pop it on TV for funsy, it just isn't entertaining.
So Sorry, Stanley, please don't turn over in your grave, if that's where you're at. This movie just needed to be interesting. First of all, the main problem was that the character was just not likable. Usually, films centered around "social climbers" don't always have the most likable characters, but there must be something worth watching in the lead character; they have a talent, are witty, etc. But Barry Lyndon never showed us what to like. It's interesting to note, Stanley Kubrick was going to make a version of Vanity Fair, but there was a TV miniseries made when he was developing the idea, so he turned to the book this film is based on. Barry Lyndon follows a man in the late 1700's climb the social latter of Europe. Vanity Fair follows a women social climbing in 1800's England. The side note I want to make is that I fell asleep during the 2004 Reese Witherspoon version, so obviously these pictures aren't far apart. Basically Barry Lyndon is Vanity Fair with a man.
Besides not caring about the lead, I just could not get into any of it. Every scene started with either a super close up on characters that took 2 minutes for the camera to pull out to the whole scene, or the camera was super wide and took 2 minutes to zoom in on characters. And many times there was no dialogue to pass the time. Half the movie is taken up in the camera zooming in or out or panning to establish the scene. And since you don't care about the scene, why are you caring about all the setting up of that scene? Beautiful or not, this film is a waste of all of Stanley Kubrick's talent. The most interesting scene is when Barry beats his stepson at the piano recital. As always, action is story. And action is interesting. A step-dad beating his stepson is interesting.
P.S. - I picked the movie poster above because it reminds me of Baron Munchausen, a film with similar setting but couldn't be further in tone than Barry Lyndon.
I'll review The Adventures of Baron Munchausen in the near future, since I can't remember much of it, and it's on Watch Instant now.













Squid and the Whale - I should really like this film. I really should. But somehow I'm slightly offended. S&tW is hipster hogwash or arrogant intellectual propaganda, whichever sounds more elitist. This was written by intellectuals for intellectuals with a piss on everyone else. Jeff Bridges (and the whole cast) is an arrogant elitist, and he very well could be playing Noah Baumbach himself.
I just felt the whole time that Baumbach was patting himself on his learned back while he has all these "things" to say. The film just holds itself so high on a pedestal, but no one put it there. It reached its hand down and put itself on the pedestal.
I'll pause for a moment a make it known, that yes, I realize the family are indeed written as elitists. The parents pass that on to their children and everyone is elitist and living absurd, dysfunctional elitist lives. But my eyes are open. I can see through the film, right into the filmmakers and see that they, the filmmakers are nothing more than themselves elitists who think they're so smart and have these funny, interesting things to say. But this film doesn't have anything to say. It's not actually profound in any way. Don't be fooled. This film is for elitist intellectuals to talk about at cocktail parties and sound smart and cultured. But still see Fantastic Mr. Fox, Noah's heavy hipster hand is kept to a minimum by the true hipster king, Wes Anderson.

I'm Reed Fish - I almost shouldn't review this because I went in the other room for about 45 minutes while Betsy watched this. I also shouldn't because I hate reviewing bad movies, but I spent at least some time watching the beginning and the end, so why not spend a little more reviewing it.
I walked out when romance comedy plot point Number: Randomly bump into Love Interest happens. I knew at that point that there was no saving this cliched film. It not only follows the romance comedy plot, but more specifically it follows the Pre-Wedding Planning Romance Comedy. Spoiler Warning: He doesn't end up with the girl he planned on marrying, big surprise he ends up with his old high school friend who is back in town. I could go into all the other cliches, but instead I'll just complain about films that don't add anything new, even though they try.
The gimmick of this film (romance comedies at this point in time need a gimmick) is that Reed Fish makes a film about his love story. About 30 minutes into the film, the actual physical film, I mean like the film that goes around the projector, burns up and the film stops. At that point you realize you've been watching Reed Fish's film within a film. Sort of interesting. Kind of. But then it doesn't make much actual sense. While I was in the other room, Reed apparently came into money because his parents died, and he decided to make a film about his real life experience. So then...he used his friends and small town fellow citizens in the film. With a bunch of money to make a film, why not get real actors? Or a bigger question, how can small town hicks actually act so well?
So then at the end of the film, I mean the film the audience is watching, and by audience I mean Betsy and I, not the audience that is watching Reed Fish's film in the movie, which half of them star in. Sorry, I lost it. I'll start over. The twist in the end is that you're wondering who the person in real life is the girl in the movie that he harmed. But then you find out it's the girl who was his high school friend, not the girl he was supposed to marry. So you figure that out and then they get together in a meaningful way and the movie ends. (The movie the audience is watching, and by audience I mean us.)
That's I'm Reed Fish. Basic romance comedy. Too basic. Way too basic. The gimmick is just that, only a gimmick. Gimmicks don't make great films. Giant robots make great films.


10 Best Romance Comedies

10. Sabrina (1954)
9. Pretty Woman
8. (500) Days of Summer (To make Betsy happy)
7. The Philadelphia Story
6. Roman Holiday
5. The Shop Around the Corner
4. Breakfast at Tiffany's
3. My Best Friend's Wedding
2. Annie Hall
1. When Harry Met Sally

1 comment:

  1. My Best Friends Wedding takes the #3 slot? Get the eff right out of town.

    Also, I recently watched Baron Munchausen and it is a fever dream of adventure awesomeness. It reminded me of a time when there were awesome movies not based on pre-existing franchises.

    Barry Lyndon made me want to open a vein it was so slow and awful. I couldn't even finish it.

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