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ex fan to X Fan again, First Class revitalizes series by Chris Vander Putten

X Men: First Class

Dir: Mathew Vaughn

Starring: James McAvoy

Michael Fassbender

January Jones

Kevin Bacon

Jennifer Lawrence

 

**** out of ****

So…another X-Men film, here we go again.  The first film in the series, Bryan Singer’s X-Men (2000) arguably started the modern superhero genre in film.  Not since Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman was a superhero movie so praised.  It set the blueprint for the genre for years to come.  Then came Singer’s sequel to his slick modern action triumph, and it was even better.  For a long time, X2 was the super hero movie all others were compared to. It was bold, it was well developed and it had an emotional core lacking in many other action films. A few years later Singer drops out to make the pretentiously boring and drawn out Superman Returns, and Brett Ratner steps into his shoes for the third installment.  Here’s where things get messy.  Ultimately forgettable, the film was about an hour shorter than it needed to be and the last act left promises unfulfilled.  Fans had been waiting for three films to see Bobby Drake in full Iceman form, and when it came down to it, we got about five seconds tops and then that was that.  Cyclops, forever mistreated even in the far superior previous installments, was discarded early on.  I could go on about the problems in X3, but we’ve all been through it.  It is an o.k. flick but it pales in comparison to the first two (I’ve always been of the opinion that the next film in the series should be called X4:X3)

 

Then we get Wolverine, and form the trailers we see some things we had missed form the earlier installments. We see Sabretooth done right, Wolverine fighting left and right, some fantastic action set pieces in quick trailer edits that made our mouths water.  And Gambit…after three films…we saw Gambit, and there was much rejoicing.

Then the movie came out.

I have had worse disappointments in my life, but this still ranks up there.  If X3 was a let down, Wolverine was an epic tragedy of bad choices, poor plotting, and some truly unforgivable dues ex machina (more so than other superhero films, where a little is expected and understood.)

Fifth time around now, and fans remain cautious of a new X film.  Having been let down two times previously, we held out breath and shook our head.  The trailers looked cool, but still, we didn’t want to become optimistic.  Burned twice now by cool trailers and a fun concept, we assumed it would be terrible.

It wasn’t.  thanks to some great slick direction by Mathew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) and stellar performances all around, First Class is a welcome restart to the series. While it does not hold too much to the previous films continuity, it doesn’t shatter the internal chronology completely and offers fans a few nice nods to past installments. As other reviews have pointed out, the film is full of Bond film cool and Mad Men style. (January Jones will never exist in the present)

The best moments in the film come from three people in particular.  James McAvoy is perfect as Charles Xavier, who has the selfless calm of Patrick Stewart, but a healthy dose of young vibrant energy and ego that is appropriate for the character at this age.  On memorable moment is hearing him utter the mutation monologue used in the first few films as a somber prologue, yet here it is being used to pick up coeds at the university bar.  It’s almost the same exact speech, but played wry and haughty, plus a “groovy” here and there.

Kevin Bacon plays Sebastian Shaw and could not possibly be having more fun.  His perfect blend of sinister arrogance and charm presents a great main villain. (in the opening scene He also looks, sounds and acts almost exactly like my college German professor.  The same haircut, same mustaches, same accent, same glasses and identical mannerisms.)

Finally, Michael Fassbender.  It would be difficult to be a better Magneto than Ian Mckellen.  The best sequences in the previous films have usually been ones where he is the centerpiece (his escape form jail in the second is so awesome I sometimes just watch that scene and cal it a day.) The same can be said here.  The scenes of Fassbender hunting Nazi’s and plotting revenge are among the best in the flick.  I recall reading elsewhere years ago that Fassbender had been up to play Bond before the awesome Daniel Craig was cast, and while Craig is great in the role, watching Fassbender get information from a Swiss banker and stalk his prey on a yacht with a wetsuit and hunting knife in hand made me wish he had indeed gotten the part.

There are some great nods to previous films, both in and out of the franchise.  A great score by Henry Jackman and one unforgettable cool cameo were perfect touches.  The films tone is somewhere in between the serious and dark prior films and the easier and more colorful Marvel produced films of the past few years.  The costumes are more classic less streamlined and one in particular towards the end will make any X Fan happy.  The second time around, the film was even more exciting and well paced, and I was never bored or disinterested.  While it did not entirely wash away the bad taste Wolverine left in my mouth, it helped.  Here’s hoping that this trend continues, and we can all be excited for a new X film next time around, rather than the feeling of dread and disappointment that has come twice before.  Please Mr. Vaughn, I’d like some more.

“Water for Elephants” review by Chris Vander Putten

Water for Elephants

*** Out of ****

I love carnivals.  More particularly, I love media about carnivals.  If it has a carnival or circus in it, I will give it at least a shot.  From La Strada (Fellini) to Sawdust and Tinsel (Bergman), to Freaks (Browning)and Vampire Circus (It’s a Hammer film…long story), I will always give it a shot.  The traveling carnival is what kept me watching the fifth season of Heroes (such a shame, it started so well) and don’t get me started on HBO’s Carnivale (damn you HBO execs.)  Water for Elephants was intriguing to me on many levels.  I had read part of the book and found it engaging and well done, unfortunately I was in college at the time and was reading bits and pieces of it in between finals and papers.  It concerns the life of Jacob, who upon learning of his parent’s death hitches up with a traveling circus as their vet.  There he falls in love with the star performer and clashes with her mentally ill abusive, yet frighteningly charming husband, who runs the carnival (a departure from the book, where the abusive owner and mentally Ill, and also abusive, husband are separate characters.)

The film is not without its flaws, it feels a bit slow at times, and the characters, despite the three main leads, seem like they could be really great and memorable, yet are pretty much regulated to living scenery status.  However, lush sets, fantastic costumes, and some beautiful bits of camera work do create a visual richness that I loved.  Now, as for those three leads; Robert Pattinson plays Jacob and while I will never be one who finds merit in the Twilight franchise, he seems to be a very solid actor with some very good nuances and notes to his craft.  (I feel the same way about his Twilight costar Kristen Stewart, who was very good as Joan Jett.  It is perhaps the sparkly teen vamp films themselves that are terrible, and not so much the fault of the performers.) So R-Patz, as he is annoyingly referred to in the tabloids, proves himself to be a very capable actor sans sparkles.  Reese Witherspoon plays Marlena, the ingénue, and she plays it the way Witherspoon always plays her characters; old fashioned Hollywood glamour, poise, sophistication and perfect nuance.  I love Reese Witherspoon, I always have, and I feel she is the rare actress who is both a fine thespian and great talent, as well as being everything that is Hollywood glamour.  Finally, the gem, the joy and the insidiously charming experience that is Christoph Waltz.   You remember him, right? Who could forget him? He was the one you knew was winning best supporting actor at that year’s Oscars before the opening credits had rolled for Inglorious Basterds. He may never get the chance to play a good guy here in the sates, but do we want him to?  Watching him in this film is a treat, and even if the rest of the film needed some work, His chemistry and interaction between the two other leads more than makes up for it.  His character is charming, affable and utterly despicable, yet at the same time it is completely different from Hans Landa.  I saw this because comparisons are definitely going to be made, and I feel they are unjust.   Despite the fact that Landa was a Nazi, you still liked him; you liked watching him and laughed with him as he moved the pieces around.  Auguste is not like that, his charm is a mask, and his true self, which manifests itself in a difficult scene, is loathsome.  You want something bad to happen to him, you hate him and everything about him, and you wait with baited breath for him to meet a messy end.  I would have made the climax bigger, or less abrupt.  I would have kept Holbrook’s voice as the narrator rather than the strange transition. I would have expanded the circus and made it a character in and of itself. All in all, without the strong cast and unique setting, Water for Elephants could have been boring and dry.  Even with the positives it almost falls into that trap.  However Waltz, Witherspoon, Pattinson, and a nice framing device with Hal Holbrook, do create a nice little package.

“Insidious” Review by Rich Giorgi

Insidious

3 ½ out of 5

            As any regular readers to this blog know, I have taken great issue with the current state of horror films.  The genre, once a way to escape the mundane actions of everyday life, has become itself mundane; unoriginal and unimaginative.  The only movies coming out are sequels, prequels and remakes.  Though these can be done well (Rob Zombie’s Halloween, Scream 4), most are forgettable at best, abysmal at worst.

            Now comes Insidious, the latest from the minds that brought us Saw.  Saw is perhaps one of the most original horror films of the last 10 years, though its sequels have left much to be desired.  Insidious, while not the most original move you’ll ever see, is certainly a big step in the right direction for horror films.

            The movie centers on a family, the Lamberts, who have just moved into a new house.  There is the father Josh (Patrick Wilson), his wife Renai (Rose Byrne) and their 3 children, 2 boys and an infant girl.  Not long after moving into the house, strange things begin to happen.  Books move off shelves, horrific voices can be heard over the baby monitor and shadowy figures make their way on and off screen.  The oldest son,Dalton(Ty Simpkins), falls into a mysterious coma after witnessing something in the attic.  Josh begins spending more time at the school where he is a teacher, coming home later and later at night.  Finally Renai convinces Josh they need to move.   However, the spirits follow them to this house as well.  Josh’s mother (Barbara Hershey) invites her psychic friend Elise (Lin Shaye) to help figure out the disturbances.

            The first act of this movie is a genuinely scary ghost story, not unlike Poltergeist.  The scares come from well timed BOO! moments and a great, haunting score.  The visuals are fantastic.  However, the movie begins to devolve once Elise and her comic sidekicks show up to investigate. 

            Elise is able to explain the happenings.  One thing I love about the greatest movies of this kind is the ambiguity.  I love not knowing exactly what’s going on or what the characters are dealing with.  The movie quickly moves from “psychological” ghost story to cheap “monster-of-the-week” territory…and when your monster looks like Darth Maul, it’s never going to be as scary as that foreboding shadow on the wall or the vague pictures drawn byDalton.  As soon as the horror becomes tangible, any sense of dread is removed, as you know the characters are no longer in the dark. 

            Despite this, Insidious is still a very well done movie with genuine thrills and some downright frightening moments.  It takes the best ideas of Poltergeist and The Exorcist but doesn’t mend them as well together as it could have.  An evil old lady, a character who comes and goes and comes again without much explanation, is perhaps one of the best designed and truly horrifying characters present in a horror movie in a very long time.  Maybe she should have had a larger part.  Either way, Insidious is truly worth your time if you’re into great horror or if you feel like losing yourself for 2 hours remembering why horror movies exist in the first place.

Scream 4…..Thank you Wes Craven by Chris Vander Putten

A letter of thanks to Wes Craven and co.

Oh woe is me; the horror genre was getting so tired, (as it is wont to do).  So many reboots, so many remakes, so many traps (oh so many traps, 7 films filled with traps, so many damn traps).  Carpenter is nowhere to be found, Argento has given up, Zombie has disappointed and Hooper….well yes, ahem….moving right along.  Yet where is he, that master of the macabre, the man who brought us Freddy God Damn Krueger, where has he been?

                When I first saw the trailer to My Soul to Take I was excited.  Wes Craven was making a teen slasher, a good old fashioned slice-em-up.  I was thrilled, I was ecstatic, I was….disappointed.  the film had some fine potential, and I don’t mind if Craven wants to rip himself off for most of the movie, but it was…well…underdeveloped is the best way to say it. I prefer a film to be bad because it is made with too much love, rather than one that feels a bit lazy.  (I.e. Zombie’s Halloween 2 was a terribly mess, but it reeked of care and devotion and was not in the least bit lazy.  This does not make it good, but it does make it harder to dismiss sometimes). So Craven has gone the way of the rest of his flock, I suppose I’ll just watch Saw 30…

                But wait, the last time the genre was getting old, good man Wes flew in and saved us for a small time with one of the three perfect slashers ever made.  1996 was the year the Scream first came out, and while I was too young to see it when it was first realized, I have more than made up for it with repeat viewings.  The other two “Perfect Slashers” share multiple bonds with each other and Scream, and every genre fan knows what they are, Halloween and Psycho, hereafter to be referred to as the “Loomis Triptych”

                So once again the Genre is getting stale, and once again Wes Craven swoops to the rescue.  I was unbelievably excited for Scream 4, so much more than was necessary for such a late entry.  But after my “meh” attitude to My Soul to Take I was naturally concerned.  I love the original movies, I love how self-aware they are, I love how they are made by horror people for horror people, I love how everyone in them loves the genre as much as I do, and I both love and hate the fact that I will always be Randy Meeks. So I watched the opening sequence to Scream 4 with trepidation, waiting to pass judgment and be disappointed.  Then the opening began….and began….and began…and my smile grew wider and wider.  For over 80 minutes that smile kept getting wider and wider and my confidence in Wes Craven came back with a vengeance.

                Campbell was great, Cox is always stunning, and who doesn’t love Dewey.  I loved Emma Roberts; I thought Erik Knudsen and Rory Culkin were fantastic (what’s with the Culkin boom? Kieran was one of the best parts of Scott Pilgrim). Award for Favorite Newcomer goes to Hayden Panettiere though, whose turn as a perfect combination of Randy and Tatum was by far the best new character to the franchise. 

                Critics will lambast, and they will gripe, fans will be divided and snipe at each other for differing opinions, but none of that matters.  The only thing that matters is that there were creepy phone calls, lots of blood, film savvy teens, a healthy game of spot the reference, (now towards its own predecessors as well as other standards) and a nice mixture of scares and laughs.  I jumped, I giggled, I gave myself fully into the experience and I loved every second of it.  It was Scream all over again, As meta as it is possible to get, and then some more.  I want to thank Wes and Co. for dishing out the fun once again, because I have not had that much fun in a movie in a very long time.  I have enjoyed films, I have been moved by films, and I have been interested in films, but it has been a few years since I sat in a theater with my mouth hanging open, laughing and jumping and enjoying myself the way I did Saturday night.  Horror movies should be fun; they should be filled with nervous laughter and creeping menace.  Scream 4 proved that when Craven is on his game, there is no better.  For me, this was better than 3, close tie with 2, and just below 1.  Well done to all, Thanks for reminding us why for a while, the sound of a ringing phone made us jump. 

P.S. Peeping Tom did not get credit or accolades until years later, so I think Kirby should get a pass on that one. 

P.P.S. “If they’d watch PROM NIGHT, they’d save time!”

RIP Blake Edwards – Chris Vander Putten

            It’s been a while since I’ve uploaded anything here, and while there have been plenty of films I thought I would review; I have simply been too busy to commit anything to paper.  However, Blake Edwards passed away last evening due to complications from pneumonia, and I’d like to take a moment to discuss one of my favorite film makers.

            A good friend of the family introduced me to Edward’s work through the Pink Panther films when I was very young, and I will always be indebted to him for that service.  They are, without a doubt, some of the funniest movies ever made, and they launched my admiration for the sixties comedy.  Peter sellers created a character that while often imitated, has never been surpassed. My parents are fond of recalling how hard I laughed (and still do) at Cloussou’s antics, rolling on the floor as a pre-teen.  Later viewings opened my eyes to the subtle sexual innuendo at play in the jokes, and added an entirely new depth to them.  They still rank among my favorites.  To paraphrase some of what others have said, Blake Edwards defined sixties cool.  Part French new wave, part screwball comedy, part farce and all genius; Edwards had a way of making movies that I feel is woefully absent today.  He understood, as all good comedy directors do, that a comedy should and must be a good film first, and then funny.  He was the master at this.  The Pink Panther would still be perfectively serviceable as a drama, as would A Shot in The Dark, without the jokes, and that is what makes them brilliant.  They are fine films that are also funny, not revers engineered from a few punch lines, but fully rounded pieces of genuinely brilliant film making.  Breakfast at Tiffany’s is the standard to which all romantic comedies are held to, and one of the most defining films of the sixties.  And while Capote and Hepburn were vital to that, it is Edward’s direction that raises it above most of its genre.

            If I appear to gush, I apologize. But these films had an enormous impact on my taste.  I invariably compare any comedy to his work, and whenever something occurs in a film that reminds me of him, I will always think better of the flick. 

            When he received an Honorary Oscar in 2004, and entered the stage in a wheel chair which careened of course and into the set.  It was such a perfect gag that thinking back on it now I realize that no one could possibly pull it off the with mixture of slapstick and class that he did. His films are bright and vibrant, and every character is rounded and important, and they are all absurd.  Even Julie Andrews, who some would say (and I probably agree) is the epitome of grace, showed us how absurd she could be in 10, Victor/Victoria, and (cough cough) S.O.B.  On a side note, Andrews and Edwards married in 1969, and she was by his bedside last evening when he died.  If the recent truck load of Hollywood divorces is discouraging for those thespians out there, I say look to Blake Edwards and Julie Andrews, that’s how it is done.

            His acceptance speech was humble and thankful to all of the people in his life; his quote regarding his Wife was particularly telling of the mix of class and humor he appeared to have referring to her as his “beautiful English broad with the incomparable soprano and the promiscuous language.”

            I hope that comedy will once again reach the kind of slickness and style it had when Edwards was at his peak.  He was and will always be one of the all-time greatest director’s in the world.  Comedy is a difficult thing, but he made it look easy. 

I have to go now; I’m catching the next plane to Lugash with Sir Charles Phantom, the notorious Litton.

Blake Edwards was 88 years old.

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