Each Day, A Film
January 25th, 2012
I note that the recent updates have been fairly short and getting shorter, so I think it's probably time to halt this catchup session before I dry up.
Sticking with the theme of films I actually hauled my posterior to the cinema to watch, though, let's talk about Once Upon A Time In Mexico.
Now, let's not fuck about; Once... is a strange movie, which comes across as just a little confused. This isn't a bad thing - it's the result of a mass of differing storylines attempting to culminate in a coup d'etat in Mexico, and in turn all these differing storylines are the result of the fact that the majority of characters within the film do get decent character development.
Now, Mexico is another film I developed a mild obsession about, because, frankly, as much as I'm a sucker for visual effects, I'm even more of a sucker for trailers. Less so now, but back in the day I could be bought and sold and sold again second hand by a decent trailer. At the same time, it came out in my post-graduation haze, where the degree I'd just finished meant nothing compared to film, film, film, and Robert Rodriguez - as previously mentioned - was a personal minor deity of the time because he was empowering; apparently you shouldn't say "I'm going to be a filmmaker", you should say "I am a filmmaker!", as if the affirmation will magically transform you.
Let's make an attempt to unpick the storyline - an attempt during which I make no apology for referring to characters by the actors' names, by the way.
Now, Johnny Depp is tasked with keeping Mexico from being either too good or too bad - in his terms, maintaining the balance, which occasionally involves shooting chefs to make a point. However, Willem DaFoe is planning a military coup against the government, aided by Eva Mendes' corrupt agent - who Johnny Depp seems to have had a prior relationship with. To combat a coup being undertaken by a sizable military force, Johnny Depp hires three musicians - one mariachi still grieving for the loss of his family, another reduced to singing for kisses, and the third a drunk in need of drying out. At the same time, Johnny Depp asks Ruben Blades to investigate the coup for no real reason other than he needs something to do and has a personal revenge to undertake.
At the same time, Danny Trejo works for - but doesn't like - Johnny Depp, instead deciding to sell Antonio Banderas out to their opponents. Whether this is before or after Johnny Depp probes Cheech Marin's corpse's anal cavity with a rubber-gloved finger then throws him into a lake is best left unworried about. Johnny Depp ends up the best blind gunfighter in Mexico, aided by a chewing-gum selling boy, the musicians thwart the coup, and almost nobody lives happily ever after.
Isn't it easy when you break it down?
Then again, if you're watching it for the plot, you're probably already not onto a winner.
When I saw this in the local cinema, I was one of twelve people, two of which were clearly only there because they received an over-65s discount, it was something to do, and they were assuming it might be like one of those fancy Spaghetti Westerns they used to like back in the day. All credit to them, however, they stayed throughout the entire experience - graphic shotgun kneecapping and all.
The film is - in Empire's words - "a custard-pie fight of a movie", which I always thought was a nice phrase; messy, annoying, but at least there's custard involved. I don't love it, but I will always have a place in my movie loving heart for the strange overplayed stylistically violent end to the Mariachi trilogy, if only for the
Thursday, 26 April 2012
Grab your things, I'm gonna take you home.
Each Day, A Film:
February 13th 2012 (Retrospective)
I know, I know, the retrospective thing is getting a little insane in terms of backlog. I'm doggedly determined, however.
Let's talk about The Avengers.
Not because we should, or because we could, but because we have to.
Seriously.
I invite you to look at it this way. For the last three years and change, I've been studying film academically - for a given value of academically, certainly, but I try to be as academic as possible. At the same time, I've been surrounded by tweenagers - people making that fun progression from 18 to 21, from teenage to twenty, from young to youth.
At times, they've been a fucking nightmare. Now, having been through the wringer for over a thousand days, there are a handful that I would willingly do anything for - primarily because they've done so much for me - along with a handful that embody the nadir of the human race in so many ways, from covetousness to mendaciousness to capriciousness. I know, that's a lot of ness, but it's true; some of them make me want to spit.
Then I remember that in a few weeks they go out into the real world which will, make no mistake, not tolerate their bullshit, and I smile, because I've already had to do that and was able to make the decision to go back afterwards to study something I was passionate about.
Emphasis on was.
The reason I started the new Each Day A Film format was because this blog had become a hilarious litany of complaint about the people who made my life either difficult or hellish. For sure, it's all petty bullshit that nobody should fixate about, but when it's your life, fixation tends to happen.
So having had the joy of film and filmmaking systematically cut out of my system over the past eighteen months, I made the executive decision to tell all of my work - the stuff I care about, the stuff I don't care about but have to do, and all the ancillary stuff - to go and take a long walk off a short pier, because, Goddammit, I'm Going To See The Avengers.
Now, the fun thing is that, for no apparent reason, because I live in England, we get the film a full eight days before our American cousins, which must drive them loco, to be honest.
But when I emerged from the cinema - even having to wear those bloody 3-D goggles (and to be fair the only reason I even saw the film in 3-D was because it was showing an hour before the 2-D version) - two and a half plus hours later, I had a goofy grin plastered on my face and the world, for a few hours, felt like a much better place.
I'm going to try not to do much in the way of spoilers, but just in case I do, consider this:
SPOILER WARNING
To be, well, your spoiler warning. Especially you, America.
The thing about The Avengers - or, thanks to being English, Avengers Assemble - is that everything about it is big, big, big, but even though sometimes you can kind of feel the occasional budget scrimping (how did Thor get back to the world other than it being explained in a line of dialogue by Loki? Why do the Chitauri soldiers just switch off after the link to their home dimension is severed? It felt like that could maybe have been done just that little bit better, with an expanded sequence, instead of wrapping things up in under...
Wait...
Two and a half hours.
See what I mean about big? With superhero films you're lucky if they can reach out and tickle the two hour mark these days, what with everything clocking in at 90 minutes with or without credits...
The other thing was that there's no pandering to people who haven't been following continuity that closely. If you haven't seen either of the Iron Man films, then you might not know that there's a reason Tony Stark plays the colossal entitled jerk, and if you haven't seen the Captain America film you get nothing other than some punching-bag flashbacks. Similarly, Bruce Banner is introduced without much reference to the Lee or Leterrier Hulk films, and Loki and Thor just turn up as if Thor only finished a few weeks ago.
Don't know what's going on? Tough. And, to be an asshole, that's how I like it, because I'm the most colossal Marvel film nerd there is. Oh, for sure there are more nerdy people on the subject out there, but the difference between me and them is that they might believe, but I Believe with a capital B that this weird superhero film wave we're riding at the moment is a sign that we, as a species, are finally starting to hit a more positive headspace after 9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan, and so many natural disasters. Take a look at the weird evolution of the superhero film if you don't believe me; the X-Men films go through comic-book to death, death, death in the space of two films only to be rebooted with First Class. Spider-Man's being rebooted, although that's more to do with rights issues and the fact that Tobey Maguire is not, sadly, perpetually young. Shit, even Daredevil's getting rebooted, and he was the poster boy for the weird Justice/Kicking Alleged Rapists Onto The Train Tracks dyad.
And now, when the world is threatened - or, at least, New York, which is the world in miniature - we can actually rely on this weird little coalition of superpowered beings - from the demigod to the irradiated scientist and the poster-child for arms merchant irony to the super-spies and the archers and the patriotic experiment subjects. All that, and Samuel L Jackson in an eyepatch.
I'd been looking forward to this film for a few years now, believe it or not, and I was actually prepared to be disappointed.
But no. A big, goofy grin.
I believed - and still do - that The Avengers represents a turning point. It's too early to judge whether it'll be the end of an era and the beginning of a new one or simply the bridge that allows for a continuation, but I can pretty much certainly say that it won't kill off the superhero movie forever, which is pretty much what people were worrying about, myself included.
Right up until this point it was kill or cure, and my analysis lies with cure.
That and the big goofy grin.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's the thing, though; I do want to nitpick, and I do want to talk about one or two little plot holes and issues, but I'm not going to because - and this is a little odd for me, but let's press on - I'm not going to do what, oh, say, everyone else is doing and post spoilers and whatnot.
I'm going to wait for that and rethink my analysis and maybe, just maybe, we'll get back to it next week. But until then, consider superhero season restarted for reals.
February 13th 2012 (Retrospective)
I know, I know, the retrospective thing is getting a little insane in terms of backlog. I'm doggedly determined, however.
Let's talk about The Avengers.
Not because we should, or because we could, but because we have to.
Seriously.
I invite you to look at it this way. For the last three years and change, I've been studying film academically - for a given value of academically, certainly, but I try to be as academic as possible. At the same time, I've been surrounded by tweenagers - people making that fun progression from 18 to 21, from teenage to twenty, from young to youth.
At times, they've been a fucking nightmare. Now, having been through the wringer for over a thousand days, there are a handful that I would willingly do anything for - primarily because they've done so much for me - along with a handful that embody the nadir of the human race in so many ways, from covetousness to mendaciousness to capriciousness. I know, that's a lot of ness, but it's true; some of them make me want to spit.
Then I remember that in a few weeks they go out into the real world which will, make no mistake, not tolerate their bullshit, and I smile, because I've already had to do that and was able to make the decision to go back afterwards to study something I was passionate about.
Emphasis on was.
The reason I started the new Each Day A Film format was because this blog had become a hilarious litany of complaint about the people who made my life either difficult or hellish. For sure, it's all petty bullshit that nobody should fixate about, but when it's your life, fixation tends to happen.
So having had the joy of film and filmmaking systematically cut out of my system over the past eighteen months, I made the executive decision to tell all of my work - the stuff I care about, the stuff I don't care about but have to do, and all the ancillary stuff - to go and take a long walk off a short pier, because, Goddammit, I'm Going To See The Avengers.
Now, the fun thing is that, for no apparent reason, because I live in England, we get the film a full eight days before our American cousins, which must drive them loco, to be honest.
But when I emerged from the cinema - even having to wear those bloody 3-D goggles (and to be fair the only reason I even saw the film in 3-D was because it was showing an hour before the 2-D version) - two and a half plus hours later, I had a goofy grin plastered on my face and the world, for a few hours, felt like a much better place.
I'm going to try not to do much in the way of spoilers, but just in case I do, consider this:
SPOILER WARNING
To be, well, your spoiler warning. Especially you, America.
The thing about The Avengers - or, thanks to being English, Avengers Assemble - is that everything about it is big, big, big, but even though sometimes you can kind of feel the occasional budget scrimping (how did Thor get back to the world other than it being explained in a line of dialogue by Loki? Why do the Chitauri soldiers just switch off after the link to their home dimension is severed? It felt like that could maybe have been done just that little bit better, with an expanded sequence, instead of wrapping things up in under...
Wait...
Two and a half hours.
See what I mean about big? With superhero films you're lucky if they can reach out and tickle the two hour mark these days, what with everything clocking in at 90 minutes with or without credits...
The other thing was that there's no pandering to people who haven't been following continuity that closely. If you haven't seen either of the Iron Man films, then you might not know that there's a reason Tony Stark plays the colossal entitled jerk, and if you haven't seen the Captain America film you get nothing other than some punching-bag flashbacks. Similarly, Bruce Banner is introduced without much reference to the Lee or Leterrier Hulk films, and Loki and Thor just turn up as if Thor only finished a few weeks ago.
Don't know what's going on? Tough. And, to be an asshole, that's how I like it, because I'm the most colossal Marvel film nerd there is. Oh, for sure there are more nerdy people on the subject out there, but the difference between me and them is that they might believe, but I Believe with a capital B that this weird superhero film wave we're riding at the moment is a sign that we, as a species, are finally starting to hit a more positive headspace after 9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan, and so many natural disasters. Take a look at the weird evolution of the superhero film if you don't believe me; the X-Men films go through comic-book to death, death, death in the space of two films only to be rebooted with First Class. Spider-Man's being rebooted, although that's more to do with rights issues and the fact that Tobey Maguire is not, sadly, perpetually young. Shit, even Daredevil's getting rebooted, and he was the poster boy for the weird Justice/Kicking Alleged Rapists Onto The Train Tracks dyad.
And now, when the world is threatened - or, at least, New York, which is the world in miniature - we can actually rely on this weird little coalition of superpowered beings - from the demigod to the irradiated scientist and the poster-child for arms merchant irony to the super-spies and the archers and the patriotic experiment subjects. All that, and Samuel L Jackson in an eyepatch.
I'd been looking forward to this film for a few years now, believe it or not, and I was actually prepared to be disappointed.
But no. A big, goofy grin.
I believed - and still do - that The Avengers represents a turning point. It's too early to judge whether it'll be the end of an era and the beginning of a new one or simply the bridge that allows for a continuation, but I can pretty much certainly say that it won't kill off the superhero movie forever, which is pretty much what people were worrying about, myself included.
Right up until this point it was kill or cure, and my analysis lies with cure.
That and the big goofy grin.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's the thing, though; I do want to nitpick, and I do want to talk about one or two little plot holes and issues, but I'm not going to because - and this is a little odd for me, but let's press on - I'm not going to do what, oh, say, everyone else is doing and post spoilers and whatnot.
I'm going to wait for that and rethink my analysis and maybe, just maybe, we'll get back to it next week. But until then, consider superhero season restarted for reals.
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