Goon (A)

DVD Review

FYI: This is an absurdly long movie review. Whether you are reading this on my blog or on Screened, please know that my other reviews are shorter.
Crafting a comedy is a very difficult thing to do. If the filmmakers truly go for every joke and try to make every moment laugh-out-loud funny, the movie ends up empty and soulless. If the filmmakers want to actually tell a meaningful story, they generally end up interrupting the humor and thus creating a tonally off-putting story (on average, would you say that the first half or second half of a comedy is better?). Goon is an excellent tale that manages to be funny all the time, yet still knows when to skip a joke and go for something truly touching.
Doug (Seann William Scott) is a bar bouncer with little future. He is a nice guy, but he certainly suffers from some learning disabilities, something his parents (Eugene Levy and Ellen David) refuse to admit he has. His life changes when as an audience-member at a non-professional hockey game Doug head-butts a burly, helmeted player senseless after the man walked into the audience and threatened Doug’s heckler friend (Jay Baruchel, who also wrote and produced the picture). Doug is offered a job on a semi-pro team as an enforcer, a player who’s job is to protect star athletes by starting fights with aggressive members of the opposing team. After a promotion, Doug leaves his home in the US to go a cold little corner of Halifax, Canada and beats the snot out of people for a living.

Goon is laugh-out-loud funny practically all the time. Instead of relying on drunken-party shock humor like another recent Scott film--*cough* American Reunion *cough*--we see poignant yet ridiculous looks at the bloodlust that fuels hockey fans (I do not say this condescendingly: I am a hockey fan and I unabashedly admit that it is a sport based on a primal urge to see grown men brawl like animals). One particularly good scene features Doug sliding an opponent’s face across the plexiglass surrounding the arena and leaving a bloody smear, while a small child and her bookish parents cheer and applaud from the other side.
Now, I suppose, would be as good a time as any to warn viewers that Goon is disgustingly violent throughout. Bones are snapped, teeth are shattered, noses are squashed, and the ice is stained with blood; all of which makes sense if you keep in mind that this isn’t a Miracle-style tale of playing hockey, it is a movie about gladiatorial combat on an ice rink. I was at some times genuinely concerned if it was too much of a glorification of something absurdly dangerous; I have decided no since 1) kids don’t dream about becoming enforcers, they dream about becoming star players, 2) the movie is R-rated and people should know what they are getting into and be mature enough not to emulate the stunts, and 3) the movie’s brutality is so forthright that few people would actually be inspired to follow through with it (though likely some will).

Other humorous moments come from the shenanigans of Doug’s dumb, unsportsmanlike teammates; the cliched and yet still entertaining foul-mouthed coach (Kim Coates); and the slutty, adorable love interest (Alison Pill). Every actor has believeable chemistry with every other actor, something that should be credited to both the amazing cast and Director Michael Dowse (Fubar). The best part of it, though, is the story, which is equal parts heartfelt and hilarious.
Jay Baruchael is best known for his acting ability (he starred in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and She’s Out of My League after a minor role in Million Dollar Baby) and Evan Goldberg’s early scriptorial career success with Superbad (which came out in 2007, mind you) has been overshadowed by duds like Pineapple Express and The Green Hornet. It turns out they have way more writing potential than it seemed: Working with Dowse and loosely adapting a memoir from a real-life enforcer, the two have far exceeded expectations on the story/screenplay. Both have amazing understanding of what makes good comedy, enormous restraint to ignore easy jokes, and the courage to trust their actors to convey plot elements that aren’t explicitly stated. What is more impressive, though, is they know how to incorporate a heartfelt, surprisingly powerful story into a Hangover-esque screwball comedy.

The future of Doug’s “stardom” is not glossed over. His years as an enforcer are undoubtedly short-lived and the ability to play real hockey is far out of his league. What Doug does have, though, is a noble desire to help his teammates and a deep respect for the sport. In scenes mixed with both irony and sentimentality, Doug and his fellow players--both on his team and the opponents’--share a deep love of hockey and sense of comradery even though their shouting matches and brawls are unprofessional and, to a certain extent, cheating.
This theme is outlined by two very interesting characters. The first, played by international actor Marc-Andre Gondin (a name that I guarantee you will become better known), is Xavier LaFlamme; a former big league star who has bumped back to the minors after an illegal back-check by a rival enforcer nearly killed him and put him in a downward spiral of erratic behavior. While getting to play in the semi-pros is the most successful moment of Doug’s life, it is a humiliating put-down for Xavier. Interestingly, it is Xavier who is jealous of Doug; LaFlamme is disgusted by Glatt’s stupidity and doubts the sincerity of his adherence to the sport. As an enforcer, Doug’s job primary job is to protect Xavier from injuries like he suffered in the majors; tragically the highlight of his career--and probably his life--will be if he manages to keep LaFlamme safe and confident enough to score goals and become a star again.

The other noteworthy character--and one of the year’s best--is Ross “The Boss” Rhea. The veteran enforcer (played perfectly by Liev Schreiber) who caused Xavier’s career-ruining injury, Ross has left the majors and is about to retire, but plans to go out with a bang. Doug plays on another team from Ross, but spends nights analyzing Ross’s best performances in order to emulate them (and, yes, all of his “best performances” were fights). Ross is a barbarian who has ended countless careers--his first scene, in a crowded press conference, is a laughably phony apology for an illegal move that broke a player’s back--but he isn’t all that bad a person. The movie is building up to the inevitable battle between Ross and Doug, but from the get-go Ross sees the puppy-dog sweet Doug and is instantly concerned that his opponent doesn’t get that an enforcer’s career is brutal and short. In the movie’s best moment, Ross tells Doug that it is likely that when they finally play each other Ross will hurt Doug so badly that he will sustain permanent injuries, and is touched when he realizes that Doug does understand this, but is so passionate about the team that gave him glory that he is willing to literally risk his life in order to take them to the championships.
Simultaneously heartwarming, hilarious, and horrifically violent, Goon is one of the best comedies of recent years.

Being Flynn (A+)

DVD REVIEW

A dark, powerful, and ultimately uplifting drama, Being Flynn is one of those truly great pictures.
Writer/director Paul Weitz’s last work was Little Fockers, which would make you think he is a bad filmmaker. This is not true—he wrote Antz and was both writer and director on the excellent About a Boy. Sure, there are some “only good; not great” entries on his imdb page (Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant), and some shockingly awful ones (Nutty Professor II: The Klumps), but he is undoubtedly one of the greatest movie-makers around. He just isn’t a very reliable one.

Being Flynn is not, as some sources claim, a comedy. It is actually very dark. The plot centers on Nick Flynn, a depressed young man dealing with his mother’s suicide by snorting cocaine and working in a homeless shelter (two activities which don’t usually coincide). Nick’s world is rocked when his father, Jonathan, shows up needing a room. Jonathan is, like Nick, a writer; he considers himself as one of the three greatest America has ever produced (the other two being Mark Twain and JD Salinger). Unfortunately, he has never had anything published, was evicted from his house for attacking his neighbor with a cudgel, and lost his job as a cab driver after drunkenly crashing his vehicle. Nick looks at Jonathan and sees where he will end up, and he hates him for it.
One of the best things about the story is that neither man is softened up to be more likeable. Jonathan remains belligerent and delusional; his misfortune is definitely of his own doing. Nick’s hostility towards him is surprisingly cruel, and the son is destroying his life in just the same way as his father. Nick knows it, too, but he is powerless to stop it.

The screenplay is a heavily fictionalized account of a memoir by a real Nick Flynn, and Nick is the most important character in the story. Jonathan isn’t a supporting character, though. Much of the movie centers around his journey, descending the social ladder from low to rock-bottom; all the time he insists he is a genius and has not done anything wrong. A particularly heart-rending moment is where Jonathan, recently evicted, sits in spends the night in a diner drinking coffee and flirting with the waitress; a homeless man walks in and the staff gives him free coffee but tells him he has to drink it outside. A few months later, a haggard Jonathan goes back to the diner and is hurriedly given a free cup and ushered out.
The supporting cast includes Steve Cirbus, Eddie Rous, and the real Nick Flynn’s girlfriend Lili Taylor as workers in the homeless shelter. Olivia Thirlby plays Nick’s manic pixie dream girl; the movie doesn’t overly romanticize this relationship, instead showing a life Nick could have gotten if he wasn’t so hell-bent on destroying himself. Julianne Moore is excellent as always as Nick’s beleaguered mother.

Nick is played by There Will Be Blood’s Paul Dano, who makes the character more genuine and flawed. The great Robert de Niro plays Jonathan and the film owes much of its power to his heart-rending performance. For anyone who says de Niro is no longer an acting legend, this movie is a testament to how he still carries the weight of making excellent
screenplays into excellent movies.
In the end, the viewers get excellent commentary on how people can and should view their lives; that perhaps life is like an unfinished story to be completed after we depart from it. This theme only works since the movie manages to be so genuine and so heartfelt. We truly care about the characters, but more important than that is how we can relate.
Being Flynn is an incredible, powerful drama and an absolute must-see.

The Expendables 2 (B+)

It is shallow even by action blockbuster standards, but The Expendables 2 is well executed schlock and contagiously fun.

Except for Mickey Rourke, all of the original Expendables—Sylvester Stallone (who also wrote the picture), Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Jet Li, Terry Crews, and Rany Couture—return (along with Liam Hemsworth), opening the movie by decimating a Nepale terrorist fort with only hand held weapons and Bad Attitude, a truck coated with makeshift steel plates and a battering ram. The battle is chaotic with shakycam, tons of gore, ridiculously loud noises, and humorous foley effects (the sound of an Expendable punching a foe is louder than the sound of their assault rifles). This silly, action-packed pacing relentlessly continues for the rest of the film. Bruce Willis as a shadowy government figure sends them to retrieve a map locating five tons of plutonium; the mission goes sour when they are ambushed by a band of mercenaries lead by a Jean Claud Van Damme bad guy named Jean Vilain. After Li literally parachutes to China and out of the storyline, the Expendables must team up with Nan Yu, Chuck Norris, and Arnold Schwarzenegger to take down the evil assassins and chaos ensues.

I am purposefully calling each Expendable by their actor’s name because that is what this movie is all about. The characters are written after the actors are signed on and their personalities are taken straight from the personas of the guys who play them. Dolph Lundgren’s Expendable is a gruff thug who went to MIT; Norris’s action hero is a cowboy themed tough guy who is considered a “lone wolf.” Entire scenes are built around working in lines from the stars’ most famous pictures.

The story is thin—very thin. For example, the “character development” amounts to Liam Hemsworth telling a story about being a soldier watching a puppy die and Sylvester Stallone saying he doesn’t like working with girls because he feels responsible when they die (it isn’t even meant to be sexist). Still, this all-action all-the-time approach means there isn’t really a chance to come out with a theme that could really offend someone, a la The A-Team (because of course we went to The A-Team to hear political commentary on the war on terror). And the visuals, character intros, humor, and acting (Stallone did win an Oscar) are a cut above what you see in most blockbusters. (and noticeably superior to the original).

Cantankerous film snobs will complain about the shallow plot and the over-the-top dialogue and visuals. But honestly, did anyone go to The Expendables for good story-telling and gritty war scenes? As a violent, 90-munite in-joke to fans of the 80s and 90s action flicks, this ultimate action ensemble is a dream come true.

Impressive Fan Art by DazTibbles

Overrated/Underpraised: Pirates vs Musketeers

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Nathan Adams of Filmschoolrejects has started a cool new column which pits a film with undeserved love against an unfortunately ignored or ridiculed one. I'm making a similar blog, and by similar I mean the exact same. :)

It has been less than a year since Paul W.S. Anderson’s The Three Musketeers hit theaters, but no one remembers it. However, everyone remembers the original Pirates of the Caribbean. You know what that means: It’s time for some Overrated/Underpraised.

Both of these movies take a period known for swashbucklers and sword fighters and add in extra elements to make a light blockbuster. For the original Pirates movie--Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl--these elements were skeleton pirates and Johnny Depp. Judging from the box office receipts and the critical reviews (and the fact that the series has continued going when every subsequent movie was absolutely terrible), one would think this was a good idea. It sort of is. However,The Three Musketeers had some better ones.

Skeleton pirates are cool, so I won’t bash them. I will instead focus my energy on Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow (sorry: Captain Jack Sparrow). At first, he is entertaining, a gonzo character in a sea of mind-numbingly boring heroes and villains. His introduction of riding a sinking boat into a major English port and tipping his hat to the hanging corpses above a “Pirates be Warned” sign is funny. But if his antics don’t seem to get old on you, they probably should. Jack Sparrow is a pretty terrible human being. He makes his living by stealing. He spent years in a crew with some sadistic terrorists. He “borrows” Zoe Saldana’s boat without permission and then sinks it. He constantly drinks as if being drunk is something cool and attractive. He takes cursed gold pieces that turn him into a skeleton despite knowing it comes at the cost of his soul. He wears way too much eye shadow.

Why should we care--and root for--such a jerk? Should we really admire his drunken, selfish antics? Now I know that we are supposed to believe Jack Sparrow has a good heart, because in the beginning of the movie he reveals his identity as a pirate to save Keira Knightley. But does one selfless act really justify his entire past as a pirate and his entire future as a pirate?

Another problem with the movie is Knightley's character Elizabeth Swan. Keira Knightley has given some great performances--if you haven’t already, please see Last Night--but in the Pirates movies she does a really bad job. The character is a selfish, strident shrew who in addition to being really annoying is completely incapable of doing anything herself. She nearly drowned because her corset was too tight! Kinda sexist.

The Three Musketeers goes with a different strategy. They spice up the old story by making it a heist film with giant airship battles. It is anachronistic and silly, but so much fun. The Three Musketeers has been told dozens of times, but adding the extra element of zeppelins and Ocean’s Eleven-style cons breathes new life into it.

Every scene is just as funny and playful as in Pirates. A highlight is where the young monarchs infuriate the cardinal by making a joke out of an unfair trial over a brawl the musketeers were involved in.

Add onto this is the fact that there is a much clearer theme in Three Musketeers. Even though it takes place in a France torn by a power struggle between a child king and a ruthless cardinal, it ends up being a testament to patriotism and honor. The three musketeers (four if you count the protagonist, played by Logan Lerman) have their flaws, but in the end they are admirable, traditional heroes. Keep in mind, though: This message never interrupts the story’s fast, fun pace.

The Three Musketeers doesn’t just have a better moral, it could likely be a more enjoyable experience than watching Captain Jack & Friends.

Lockout (D-)

DVD Review

Lockout is meant to be mindless action fun. It can be, I suppose, if one truly ignores all aspects of plot and morality and creativity. Lockout wants to be an exercise in self-referential silliness, but it is more a bad movie that openly admits it is a bad movie. Admitting it doesn’t stop it from being true.

Lockout is written by Luc Besson, the guy who created Taken andThe Transporter who is also the guy who created dozens of other action movies that are long since forgotten (Colombiana being the most recent). In other words, it is written by a talented guy who occasionally slips a half-way decent b-movie into the schlock he is hired to churn out. The Internet Movie Data Base identifies him as coming up with the “original idea” and writing the screenplay. I doubt there is an original idea in Lockout, but I assume the events that occur in the picture were scripted since they lack all forms of spontaneity. Still, the database also says he was assisted by James Mather and Stephen J. Ledger (both known for shorts, not feature films), who also direct. I find it possible that one person could have done such a bad job on the story, but it is pretty impressive that three of them could come up with something this awful. Maybe they each wrote a third of the scenes without telling each other what happened in the other parts and then patched it all together as best they could without taking time out of their weekends.

The story is about a guy named Snow who is framed for the murder of a colonel he is friends with. He didn’t do it, but he did take a briefcase which was supposed to be important (before someone cut the scenes explaining that part). Now he is convicted of conspiracy without a trial because it is a dystopian future and something something. Luckily for him, the (US) president’s daughter was on a mission to a space prison to investigate the rumor that it does medical tests on deep space travel on its prisoners. The space station is in orbit around Earth, so I am skeptical as to what “deep space” means, but apparently the president’s daughter isn’t. She was thinking about closing it down because it seems inhumane. She doesn’t bring up the fact that even in the future it is doubtful the idea of a space prison is cost effective. It isn’t like they still don’t still have to pay for guards—there are tons of them walking around the prison, even though all the inmates are cryogenically frozen.

Anyway, she ends up in danger because one of her personal bodyguards starts beating the snot out of an inmate she unfroze because the inmate said he wore perfume, and then the inmate stole the bodyguard’s gun and shot a gas tank, and then unlocked the cryogenic cells so prisoners can walk around if they want. I swear it makes less sense when you see it! Snow is sent in to save her, because they say more than one man would cause her to be killed in the crossfire, and sending in a convicted terrorist as the rescuer seemed safer. So Snow needs to rescue the president’s daughter before they blow up the space prison (since a few of the prisoners took hostages that means it is probably best for all 500 of them to die). Wait, if it is inhumane to test the effects of deep space travel on prisoners why is it okay to blow them up? Being blown up always seemed pretty inhumane to me.

There are two somewhat acceptable parts of the film. The first are the well-executed action sequences that are fun odes to 80s B-movies despite having been obviously edited down to secure a PG-13 rating. It is worth noting, though, that this movie was made with 20% less cash than it took to make Lethal Weapon 2, and that is not adjusting for inflation. Maybe a space epic setting wasn’t the best choice: The cheapness of it all is evident in every frame.

The second not-bad part of the movie is the acting. Maggie Grace, as the first daughter, is not very good; that is probably the script’s fault. Everyone else is great. Guy Pearce as Snow, Vincent Regan as a criminal mastermind, and Joseph Gilgun as a sadistic lunatic are all hamming it up, but that is exactly what is needed for an over-the-top, silly action flick. They are so entertaining to watch you occasionally forgot that everything else is really, really, really terrible.

Some people might be able to ignore plot and morality and artistic merit to see some good action pieces, but in this day and age there are hundreds of movies with better action sequences than this that are of better quality. There is no need to encourage this hideous studio cash-grab by renting it; just get one of the free 80s flicks that can be downloaded 100% legally for free with three clicks of your mouse. One of the best perks of this day and age is you don’t need to settle for garbage like Lockout.