Warm Bodies

 

               Love knows no color, age, or gender. Love doesn't care if you are human. We have seen love conquer all, even vampires and humans fall in love, so why let a little thing like being dead get in the way of falling in love? With the popularly of zombies, you had to know a zombie love story was going to come, the only question is it just a dead man walking? I will try to withhold any more bad “dead” jokes during this review, but will only try. Now what is a zombie romance about?  Well, let me tell you.

        R (Nicholas Hoult) is a dead teenager, it seems some plague engulfed the earth and made most of the population the walking dead. There are still regular people, because no zombie movie is any fun without survivors. The dead seem to hang around the airport, walking around looking pretty normal, well except for their walk and that the grunt instead of talking. The living on the other hand has built a wall around where they live, but venture outside it for supplies. Grigio (John Malkovich) is the leader of this living community, and he has a hatred for the walking dead. He sends his daughter Julie (Teresa Palmer) out with a group of other teenagers to find medical supplies. Well let me tell you that was the wrong thing to do, because they run into a group of zombies.  A fight ensues and all the humans are getting eaten, but then something happens when R sees Julie.  Somehow Julie ignites life again inside R and slowly his heart starts to beat again. R knows something is different and he somehow passes it to his zombie friend M (Rob Corddry). It seems now a large group are becoming alive again, and all because of the love R discovered.

   I really enjoy zombie movies, everything from “Day of the Dead” to “The Walking Dead”, so a zombie love story sounded good to me.  I knew there would be a slight problem in a zombie love story though, how would he express his love, when all he can do is grunt? Now there lies my biggest problem with this movie, all the grunting that is suppose to pass as talking. Writer and director Jonathan Levine did great with the inner monologue that R has with himself, but as soon as he attempts to talk, it loses me. Hey I am not being insensitive, I want zombies to be able to fall in love, but let’s face it they are dead. I think we have reached a new low in the world of romantic comedies, and I feel we can only go up from here. “Warm Bodies” is not a terrible movie; it is just difficult to watch during parts of it. I say we let the dead just want to eat the living, not love them, because for me this movie was dead on arrival.

 Brian Taylor

           

                                                             

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

         

                             When I was little I was read all the classics stories from the Grimm Brothers. For those I didn't read their actual stories, I saw the Disney movie instead. Those movies were good and kept to the original story pretty good. Never did I wonder what happened after the story ended, I thought the endings were satisfying. Everyone remembers the story of Hansel & Gretel, but do you want to know what happened when they grew up?

     That story is the bases for “Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters”. It seems after they killed that witch that tried to eat them, they decided witch hunting is what they are made for. Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton) are kind of like the Ghostbusters, but for witches instead. It seems this one town has been having a rash of children disappear, so the town’s Mayor calls on our heroes. What they find is something bigger going on than just your normal run of the mill witch-hunt. There is some shooting, and of course some hunting, all to stop the witches from fulfilling their prophecy. Lucky for Hansel and Gretel automatic weapons seem to exist as well as endless ammo. Our heroes must stop Muriel (Famke Janssen), who is a grand witch, from completing her quest, and making witches immune from fire. It sets up a battle at the end that helps Hansel and Gretel live up to their title.

      What are they doing to the stories I grew up with? Last year it was “Little Red Riding Hood”, now “Hansel & Gretel”, next month it’s “Jack and the Bean Stock”, where will they stop? I fear a “Three Bears” trailer coming soon. I heard somebody say that they think Jeremy Renner must have lost a dare to star in this movie, I might have to agree.  Writer and Director Tommy Wirkola did do a good job on the 3-D effects and the movie looked good, but that is it. The movie looked exactly how advertised, so you kind of know what to expect, but that doesn't numb the pain from watching it. You can’t just retell a classic story and add martial arts and guns, and claim to make it better. The best part of watching the movie was having Hansel develop diabetes, from being forced fed all that candy as a kid, and he had to give him-self a shot to stay alive. You can’t really say anymore after that. I knew this movie would not be good, but I hoped it was entertaining. Unfortunately for you and me, it was neither; it is just another movie you should stay away from. If you don’t stay away, they may make another, or turn some more classic tales into movies like this, and let’s face it none of us want that.

 Brian Taylor

       

                                                                   

Flashback Corner--Zorro the Gay Blade

“That is not a “2”, that is a “Z”…And I say it is a “Z” for “El Zorro”!”

 

          When I started this “Flashback” portion of the blog, my intention was to re-watch films and one see if they still hit that nostalgia button and also see if they hold up after years and years since their release. 

After watching “Zorro the Gay Blade” I have found a film that has done both in spades.  This comedy from 1982 is the story of Don Deigo Vega who after getting rich off the people or “peepoles” as he calls them finds out his father was the masked figure Zorro fifty years ago.  Now that he has passed the truth has been revealed to Vega and he has decided (half-heartedly) to take up the mantle of Zorro.

His first night out, he unwittingly robs a tax-collector, and insults the acting alcalde, the elected leader of the people in public.  Then on that same night he reveals himself to the town and proceeds to break his ankle.  This leads to him sending for his twin brother to take over as Zorro until his leg has healed.  The comedy comes in when his brother arrives and claims to have changed his name from Ramon Vega, to Bunny Wigglesworth, and has essentially become a flamboyant homosexual.  So Bunny takes the classic black Zorro suit and changes it up to varying colors including plum, avocado, orange and gold.  And instead of a sword, he fancies a whip.

This movie is fantastic!  It’s still funny with George Hamilton playing both roles of the twin brothers, and his foil the alcalde played by Ron Leibman is brilliant, I don’t know if he was unable to speak after this role since most of the time he is yelling orders or even sentences which would kill on multiple takes.  Lauren Hutton as the love interest does what she needs to though Hamilton steals every scene she’s in.  With his pronounced accent which is even called out in the film makes listening to everything he says funnier on repeat viewings.   The sword fights are on par with “The Princess Bride” and they feel very choreographed.  But the flow of the film and the humor completely still work and even though it follows a familiar formula, the characters and writing keep it entertaining.  Plus the main Zorro theme is John Williams good, it’s used throughout the film like a Superman theme.  It stayed in my head for days.  If you’ve never seen it or like me it’s been over thirty years, give it a re-watch, you’ll miss the way comedy used to be done.

--Robert L. Castillo  

Mama

           

        Let’s face it we all enjoy horror movies. We love those moments of putting our hand over our eyes, but still peaking through to see what is going on. Unfortunately when it comes to horror movies they are mostly paint by numbers. As soon as something new and original comes out, it gets copied and reused over and over again. So when you do get those doses of originality and it is somewhat good, we should celebrate it. “Mama” is that movie, a horror movie that is just outside the norm.

      Victoria (Megan Charpentier) and Lily (Isabelle Nelissa) have not had a good life. Their parents are gone, and they have been left in a cabin in the woods, but someone has been taking care of them. That someone is called Mama, or maybe a better description would be that something is called Mama. Lucky for Victoria and Lily, their uncle Lucas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) has never given up looking for them. Once found it takes the girls a little time to adjust to normal life again. Lucas and his girlfriend Annabel (Jessica Chastain) take the girls in and try and give them a normal life. Mama though doesn’t want to let the girls go, and continues to watch over them. All the while their doctor is trying to piece together who and what Mama is exactly.

    “Mama” is like a ghost and monster story combined, which only adds to the story. Based on his short from 2008, writer and director Andres Muschietti understands how to instill some fear. Too often horror movies rely on cheap scare tactics, which work sometimes, if only to make you jump, and they can be predictable. “Mama” stays away from those for the most part, Muschietti uses wide camera shots that let things unfold in front of our eyes. Jessica Chastain continues to show that she is good in just about anything she is in. As Annabel, she plays the girlfriend who is reluctant to be called Mama by the girls at first, but comes to love them both. It may not be like her Oscar nominated role in “Zero Dark Thirty”, but she still gives it her all. I wouldn't say that “Mama” is a good movie, but it is a good horror movie. Above all though it is original, and we should support someone who goes against the grain and decides to color outside the lines some times. I like things that are different, so if you like a good scare, check out “Mama”.

 Brian Taylor 

                                            

Top 12 of 2012

                            I know it is the middle of January and everyone has been waiting for my favorite movies of 2012. There were some good movies that came out this year, a lot of ok movies and of course those movies that no one wants to admit they saw. So I don’t want to keep you waiting for the real reason you are reading this (drum roll) so here we go.

12. Beasts of the Southern Wild

         If you missed the gem that came out earlier in the year, then don’t feel bad, most people did. First time director Benh Zeitlin delivers a moving film about a little girl named Hushpuppy (Quvenzhane Wallis) and her ailing father. Hushpuppy must learn the ways of courage and love as deals with a natural disaster.

11. Holly Rollers

         To watch this film by writer and director Leos Carax will leave you mesmerized. We follow Monsieur Oscar as journeys from one life to the next from dusk to dawn in Paris. Sometimes you will be amazed while other times you might be confused. In the end though it will leave in wonder at what you just saw.

10. Killing the Softly

          Some directors bring out the best in certain actors. For Brad Pitt that director is Andrew Dominik. With their follow up from “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”, Dominik and Pitt deliver another great film. Pitt plays a hit man who is trying to do his job in hard economic times. With the help of a great supporting cast, this is a film that tells a great story.

9. The Imposter

    The documentary about a French kid who convinces a Texas family he is their missing 16 year old son. With this one lie, it opens up new questions to what really happened to the kid, as the story becomes more tangled with each answer.

8. The Life of Pi

       Richard Parker might be mad at me with my placement of this film, but I will take my chances. The best looking film to come out all year and a lesson on how to use 3D. Ang Lee’s vision of Yann Martel’s classic novel is a movie you won’t soon forget.

7. The Intouchables

      A French film that will leave you feeling real good about life. This is a story of a quadriplegic and the man who he hires to help him with everyday life. There are so many things that will make you smile and a few that may make you cry. In the end you experience something unforgettable.

6. The Avengers

     How could I not include the perfect superhero movie? Joss Whedon made a lot of geeks happy this past summer as well as pretty much everyone else.  He found the perfect mix of action, story, and laughter, and made a film that had some flaws, but made up ten-fold in fun.

5. Lincoln

        This movie would have been hard not to be good. Steven Spielberg has added another great movie to an already long list of great films. With the amazing performance by Daniel Day Lewis as Lincoln, this might be one of Mr. Spielberg’s greatest movies yet.

4. The Master

     Paul Thomas Anderson is a genius filmmaker. I wish every year I could see a new movie by PTA. The Master is the tale of one man who is lost, until he finds The Cause and its charismatic leader. This film any other year might have been my number one, but ether way still a great watch.

3. Zero Dark Thirty

     Everyone has heard about this movie, and after seeing it, you will be telling all your friends about it. Kathryn Bigelow’s film about the hunt and capture of Osama Bin Laden with leave you in awe of what it took to end one of the greatest manhunts of all time.

2. Silver Linings Playbook

    This film about love and life will leave you smiling. Written and directed by David O Russell it’s sure to be one of his best. With great performances by everyone involved and a great story, this film is everything you want a movie to be.

1.  Cloud Atlas                                                                                                 

For me, no movie left me in awe this year more than Cloud Atlas. I left the movie theater still processing the magic I had just seen on the movie screen. I wish more movies were like this, but it is just not meant to be. The story how actions can affect everyone’s life through time, is breathtaking. Every year I look for that one film that reminds me why I love movies and to me it doesn’t get much better than this.

   Honorable mentions:

   Argo, Searching for Sugarman, My Sister’s Sister, End of Watch, and Looper

Brian Taylor

The Limited Top Ten...

I’ll say it now, as the other half of the Cine-Men, I missed almost every movie that was nominated for Oscars and Golden Globes this year.  All the big fall movies that probably would have made it onto my list were missed.  No Django, no Bond, no Zero Dark Thirty, no Silver Linings Playbook, no Beasts of Southern Wild, no Argo…  I’m sorry Ben, please forgive me.

This year did feel better than previous ones, we had a good start and a, from what I’ve been told a terrific finish.  With a particularly weak Summer.  “Avengers” did rule, but look at the competition: Dark Shadows, Battleship, That’s my Boy, The Watch.  The award season made up for it, though I won’t be able to tell until they come out on DVD.  So I can look forward to that until the next superhero summer, with the man of steel and man of iron.  Enough stalling, behold, my best of list…until I see the rest and completely change it.

 10.  THE RAID: REDEMPTION

This is by far one of the best action movies of all time.  And certainly the best one of the year.  The true plot is simplistic almost out of a soap opera, or whatever an Indonesia version of a soap opera is.  What we get is a SWAT team trapped in a drug lord’s safe house with criminals with guns, knives, machete’s and can all fight like Jet Li, and as the poster tells it, “30 Floors of Hell.”  The violence is hard core, and the set pieces are constantly outdoing the previous one.  You want adrenaline pumping action with great fight scenes, this is your movie.

 

9. WRECK-IT RALPH

Disney and Pixar decided to switch places this year, where “Brave” looked amazing, felt ‘done before’.  Like ‘Brother Bear’ before.  And the great voicing, characters, and story goes to the “Ralph” crew.  It’s a really sweet story with a heartfelt performance by John C. Riley, and an overly cute Sarah Silverman as game character glitch trying to find her place in the world as much as Ralph is.  Every time they are on screen together is magic and the video game jokes are clever for both adults and children.  The message can be interpreted different ways, but it has all the makings of a cartoon classic.

 

8. CHRONICLE

Being one of the un-popular kids in high school it’s easy to relate to the characters of this film.  One of the best “caught-on-tape” films that truly uses as much of the medium as possible, and is clever about the uses of cameras throughout the story.  What really works here is that not everything is spelled out for you.  You get a glimpse of what happened to the three boys that give them their amazing abilities, but the power is a mystery and it’s not what’s important.  It’s the effect this power has on the individual boys.  This is the kind of fantastic origin story I love to see, the kind done right and is original with a hint of familiarity to it.

 

7. THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

The fitting finale to the ‘Godfather’ of super-hero movies.  Actually, it feels more like “Return of the Jedi” what with the over-stuffed narrative and tons of storylines to wrap up and all these new characters to develop and follow.  Being a third part of a trilogy, it’s still one of the better ones, Bane was a surprise hit, and even though it took Batman over 40 minutes of screen time to be Batman, in the end I was satisfied and the final moments are still worth watching, auto-pilot, and café scenes notwithstanding.  It will be hard for anyone to do something like this again.  I do however have hope for Superman and The Avengers.

 

6. JOHN CARTER

After re-watching this one again recently, I’m still convinced that people missed the boat with John Carter’s adventures on Mars and that it will one day find its audience, and get the recognition it deserved.  I always used to wonder “Will anyone ever make another Star Wars?”  People compare films to it and none ever lives up to it.  But I truly feel that this is the close as anyone has ever come to trying to fill that gap that’s been there since Episode IV and V.  It truly has everything you could want in a film: action, adventure, humor, sword-fights, flying machines and man, and a cute sidekick beast.  Maybe there was a casting issue, and a little too much story too fast, but that doesn’t take away from the entertainment and pure enjoyment I get when watching “John Carter”.

5. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED

This is one of those films with the indie sensibilities and heart that can make you laugh and still have a easy to relate message.  The set-up is a guy who may not be all there who puts a ad for a companion to go to the past with him.  Aubrey Plaza as the reporter intern posing as a candidate for said trip is perfect in the role.  The entire cast really works and since it involves time-travel (real or not) this was right up my alley.  The Duplass brothers works always feel to me like “Lifetime” movies for guys.  And I mean that as a complement.

4.  THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY

I’ll admit, I am biased in many ways to the Middle-Earth movies.  Granted the original trilogy had a better start with “Fellowship of the Ring”.  I still enjoyed being in the world that Peter Jackson put on film.  And despite with obvious rip-offs of his own films, what more than made up for it was experiencing this film at the 48HFR.  I have never seen a movie like this before.  This is what it feels like what everyone said “Avatar” was supposed to be.  Overall this was not perfect but I enjoyed it for the stand out moments in a world I have come to love.

3.  THE CABIN IN THE WOODS

This penned Joss Whedon masterpiece felt like it picked up where “Scream” left off.  A film that makes fun of the horror genre while still being a solid entry in the realm of horror films.  My favorite horror is the kind that has more laughs than scares.  “Shaun of the Dead”, “An American Werewolf in London” and the like.  ‘Cabin’ does this in spades.  With the Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins characters we get an element not seen in horror before.  And I will give you it’s not very scary at all, and the gore is few and far between, but the last quarter of the film is so insane that it makes up for any shortcomings.  Most of all, hate it or love it, it’s a fun movie to watch and reminds you why the ‘Buffy’ and ‘Angel’ shows were ahead of their time.

2. LOOPER

It has Joseph Gordon Levitt, it’s written and directed by Rian Johnson, and it has time-travel.  Why wouldn’t I love this movie?  After recently buying this on bluray and watching the hell out of it (seriously, I’ve seen it five times since buying it) it has so many great moments, and great characters and the story which shifts near the end and asks a question that geeks have been asking for years.  I won’t spoil it, but it’s not really in the trailers and all it does is add to the brilliant story that unfolds before your eyes.  They also pull a “Back to the Future” gag in a grizzly way.  And watching Levitt transform into Bruce Willis is still as amazing as the Cage/Travolta switch in “Face/Off”.  If you haven’t seen this one yet, give it a watch you will not be disappointed.

1.    THE AVENGERS
 
What else can be said about this movie that already hasn’t been said?  Except maybe, “I told you so.”  On this very blog back in March I was onboard with this incredible aligning of planets that is Marvel’s heroes and the genius of Joss Whedon.  We got the summer blockbuster of which the like hasn’t been seen since the Star Wars films in the 80’s and dinosaurs and Terminators of the 90’s.  Whedon made the seemingly impossible possible by bringing this group together and have them win the day and our hearts at the same time.  Don’t believe me?  Watch people around you when the Hulk pounds the crap out of Loki and tell me that will never cease to make you smile.      

Honorable Mentions:  The Grey, 21 Jump St., Lincoln, The Expendables 2, Goon, Prometheus, Killer Joe, Ted, VHS, Jeff, Who Lives at Home, Lawless

--Robert L. Castillo

Zero Dark Thirty

               

            Imagine if you read a really good book, but you already knew how it ended. Would it make the book any less engaging to read?  That was the challenge of “Zero Dark Thirty”, how do you keep people into something when they already know how it all ends? You do it by letting them see how intense one of the largest manhunts in history ever went down.

        Maya (Jessica Chastain) is a fresh recruit who is sent to Afghanistan in 2002, to help find the people responsible for the attacks of 9/11. She joins Dan (Jason Clarke) who is already using any method he can to extract information from detainees. Maya at first looks a little uncomfortable watching the methods used to get what is needed, but doesn’t take long to fit in. Maya find a lead that she thinks will help the C.I.A find Osama Bin Laden, and she follows that lead wherever it takes her. From 2002 to 2010 she follows the trail until she gets the break she needs, now if she can only get everyone else to be as sure as she is that she has found what they are looking for. Maya waits as government bureaucracy does what it does best and delays her from getting her target. The good thing is we all know what happens; now we get to see how it happened.

       “Zero Dark Thirty” is as good as you have heard it is. Written by Mark Boal, (The Hurt Locker) the movie is a thriller all thrillers try and be. While watching you will not want to get up to go to the bathroom during its two-plus hour running time, for fear you might miss something. The film is broken up in chapters, to help lead you up to some of the tensest minutes I have seen in a movie all year. The attack on the compound will keep one hundred percent of your attention. Director Kathryn Bigelow shows that she was not a one hit wonder with “The Hurt Locker” and proves she is one of the better directors out there. It makes you forgive her for making “K-19 The Widowmaker” (raise your hand if you remember that one). “Zero Dark Thirty” has made many top ten list this year and it won’t take you long to see why. From beginning to end there are not many things you will find wrong. Going into this I had high expectations, and didn’t know if this film would live up to them. When the film ended and the screen went to black, I knew I was wrong, because somehow it exceeded those high expectations. Don’t be the last to see this movie, be the first, because even if you know the ending, this movie is so worth the ride.

 Brian Taylor

                                              

Gangster Squad

                       

 

               “As far back as I can remember I always wanted to be a gangster”.  Every time I see a movie about gangsters I think back to that famous like uttered by Ray Liotta in “Goodfellas”. That life looked so much fun, well minus the killing and the whole breaking of the law. Most gangster movies always glamorize the gangster’s point of view, but what about the cops that don’t follow all the rules?  The kind who could not be bought? Well, welcome to “Gangster Squad”, a movie about those afore mentioned cops and their quest to take down organized crime in Los Angeles.

     Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) is a bad guy. Mickey is from back east and he is determined to make Los Angeles his own. Not many people are standing in his way, so Mickey works on controlling everyone he needs to in order to make his plan work. Sgt. John O’ Mara (Josh Brolin) is an honest cop who only sees right and wrong. He doesn’t care who Mickey is, he just knows he commits crimes and that he should be stopped. When Chief Parker (Nick Nolte) decides to form a unit to take Cohen down, he chooses O’Mara to be its leader. O’Mara picks five guys who can help bring down Cohen the only way they can, without badges. Just like all gangster movies, there are plenty of law breaking and guys with Tommy guns. O’Mara’s gangster squad sets out to change the game and convince the mob that they are not welcomed in the city of Los Angeles.

     I don’t like to judge movies off of trailers too often, but the trailer for “Gangster Squad” was really good, so I guess the only way to go from there was down. I mean with a hot cast that includes Ryan Gosling, Michael Pena, Emma Stone, and Josh Brolin, what could go wrong? Well I will tell you what can go wrong. With all those stars it is a shame that none of them had a character worth playing. I can’t blame them though; I blame that on Will Beall, who would be the writer of this film.  I get the feeling that this story would have been better if it was a drama, and not a straight action film. The film was directed by Ruben Fleisher (Zombieland), who seems to have not paid too much attention to the editing of his film. I say that because you should not see the editing, and with this film you saw it too much. After you get past the lack of good characters and the bad editing, “Gangster Squad” is not that bad. It is pretty simple and has some good action scenes and plus everyone is good to look at, but hey it is Los Angeles. Most people will enjoy this movie, and while I didn't love it, I also didn't hate it, it’s more of an ‘okay’ time at the movies, and I can think of a whole lot of worse ways to spend your money.

Brian Taylor

                 

                                                           

Not Fade Away

         

              Everyone loves to hear a success story. We enjoy reading those stories because they help our belief that anything is possible. The stories you don’t see often are the stories about the ones that don’t make it. When it comes to the music business there are more groups that do not make it than ones that do. “Not Fade Away” is about one of those groups that didn’t make it.

      Douglas (John Magaro) is a normal teenage growing up during the beginning years of Rock and Roll. It seems like every teenager in his suburban New Jersey neighborhood wants to start a band. Douglas gets his chance when a local band loses its drummer. They start off playing cover songs at house parties and practicing in the basement of one of the band members. After an accident involving a joint, Douglas gets his chance to sing lead, and show everyone one that the band is better with him as the front man. Douglas is a disappointment to his father Pat (James Gandolfini) who doesn’t understand his son’s long hair and the way he dresses. Douglas’s band meanwhile is becoming more popular in their home town; they have even written an original song. While performing, Douglas reconnects with Grace (Bella Heathcote), a girl he loved in High School. Together they become each other’s biggest supporters even through their up and downs. Douglas and his band have a chance to sign with a label, but an accident sidetracks them and makes Douglas question the path he is on.

    “Not Fade Away” was written and directed by David Chase. If his name sounds familiar it should be, because he is the creator of “The Sopranos”. When growing up Chase dreamed of being the star drummer in a rock band. He played for many years and lucky for us he didn’t make it and went on to create one of the better TV shows in the last twenty years. If Chase’s dream sounds a lot like the story of this very movie, I don’t think that is a coincidence. You can tell as you watch the film that the music and movies that pop up in the film were influences for Chase and had an effect on him. This film is a project of love for Chase, and you can feel that as you watch it. The problem with the film though, is it seems to have no sense of time in it. It takes place between 1963 and the early 70’s. With that said, it is hard to keep up with when it is, it almost feels like it jumps around a little too much. The best way I can describe “Not Fade Away” is, it’s one of those movies you don’t love, nor do you hate it. Instead it just kind of lingers in the area where you don’t know what to think about it. I could feel how important this film was to Chase, but after seeing it, you will wonder if he even should have tried to make his movie about “not making it.”

 Brian Taylor

                                                       

What's on Redbox?--Killer Joe

          After his initial one-two punch of “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist” director William Friedkin films since then have had one thing in common.  They were all forgettable.  Does anybody remember “Deal of the Century” with Chevy Chase?  Or “The Brinks Job” with Peter Falk?  How about the Shaq-tactular “Blue Chips”?  Okay that was mean, “To Live and Die in L.A.” was pretty solid. It’s also almost thirty years old.  However since 2000, Friedkin has been making a slow rise to his greatness as a filmmaker starting with “Rules of Engagement” then with “The Hunted” with Benicio Del Toro and just six short years ago with the intense “Bug” with Michael Shannon and Ashley Judd written by Tracy Letts.  The writer-director pair has re-teamed for the “totally twisted deep-fried Texas redneck trailer park murder story” starring Emile Hirsch and Matthew McConaughey “Killer Joe”

The story is right out a noir tale from the forties: kill someone, get the insurance money.  Simple.  And just like those movies of old, it’s never that simple.  Hirsch is Chris Smith a down on his luck punk with a plan to kill his mother with the help of her ex, his father (Thomas Haden Church) and his father’s new wife (Gina Gershon) all under the nose of Chris’s not all there sister Dottie played brilliantly by Juno Temple.  They hire a Dallas detective who moonlights as a killer-for-hire to do the job, but since they can’t pay him until after the insurance is collected, Joe decides to get a retainer, Dottie.  The family not-so reluctantly agrees and as you can imagine things start to unravel which then lead to a full-blown meltdown as lines are crossed, and debts are paid with an insane, intense finale that may leave you hanging, but not really.

Much like “Bug” this film centers on the characters more than the story, as things get going, you are just waiting to see what these crazy people will do next.  Temple as Dottie, may have some saying it’s easy to play crazy, but she adds a self-awareness that makes her actions even more believable.  Hirsch, Church, and Gershon play the typical trailer-trash to almost perfection.  But the stand out, and rightly so, since the film is named after him is McConaughey as Joe.  He plays the quiet, sweaty, smooth and slightly insane cop that leaves an impression.  He also does something with a piece of chicken that you will never forget.  I really prefer this Matthew McConaughey over the rom-com guy, maybe they pay his bills but he’s so much more enjoyable to watch when he’s the fast talkin’ Lincoln lawyer, the soldier killin’ dragons, or tellin’ spooky stories like in one of my favorites “Frailty”.

So if you’re in the mood for intense redneck drama, you could do worse than “Killer Joe”, it’s funny, creepy, and unlike the more recent epics that seem to come out every year, clocking in at an hour and forty minutes, you won’t feel like you’re wasting your time.  I hope this is just another step up for the returning to form directing of William Friedkin.  

--Robert L. Castillo

Flashback Corner--Zero Effect

“Are you telling me you can speak six languages and fly a jetliner but you don’t know how to file a tax return?...It’s never come up?...Does this have to happen right now?...No, that’s a W-2.  WW2 the Second World War.”

 

          In the music business common is the “one-hit wonder”, in film the common hit is usually the first film, when an writer/director really has had something to say and knows that they may not get a chance to say anything ever again on film.  Such is the case of Jake Kasdan’s “Zero Effect”.  This little gem from 1998 stars Ryan O’Neal, Ben Stiller, and Bill Pullman as the mysterious Daryl Zero, a private detective who is the world’s greatest observer/detective, but is the worst at communicating with anyone in his personal life.

The story is a slant on a typical old fashioned detective yarn, with a modern day Sherlock Holmes complete with the twists and turns of ‘not everything is as it seems’ with secrets behind O’Neal’s character Gregory Stark.  The man loses his keys and needs Daryl Zero to find them, all the while Zero’s handler Arlo played by Stiller is having doubts about his commitment to his eccentric employer.

This is a fantastic film with a stellar performance by Pullman as the smooth, cunning detective while on the job and a nutcase while off.  The script is sharp and solid and has great narration by Pullman, who claims to be writing a book on the subject of his methods.  It’s littered with tons of great lines spread throughout the piece: “A person can’t escape their nature.”  “What doesn’t kill you, defines you.”  And one of my favorites: “I’ll shoot you.  Really, I will.  I have a gun and everything.”  It’s a lot of fun and has complete re-watchability. You get all the idiosyncrasies of the Zero character and how he goes through life with his uncanny abilities that may be a handicap more than a gift. 

Unfortunately this first film is also the best by Kasdan, and maybe I was out of line with the whole one-hit wonder thing, his last few films have had some good moments, like a bad album has some good songs.  I take it back it’s exactly like a one-hit wonder.  Here’s hoping he’s got another great one in him, until then, check out “Zero Effect”.

--Robert L. Castillo