GANGSTER SQUAD

GANGSTER SQUAD
Written by Will Beall
Directed by Ruben Fleischer
Starring Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone and Sean Penn

Mickey Cohen: It’s like they say, all good things must eventually be burnt to the ground for the insurance money.

It’s hard for me to accept that the first major studio release of the year, one featuring a bevy of big names no less, would also be a serious candidate for one of the worst films of the year. I’m not sure why it’s difficult considering how many times it has happened in the past, but when you see this much money invested in such a high profile project like GANGSTER SQUAD, you have to think that Warner Brothers must have put someone in charge who knew what he was doing. Instead, they put Ruben Fleisher in charge, a man whose directorial debut, ZOMBIELAND, can now officially be called a total fluke.

GANGSTER SQUAD is actually a complete joke of a movie, or rather it has to be viewed as one in order to make watching it bearable. Screenwriter, Will Beall, if you want to call him that, has composed a fictionalized account of how infamous gangster, Mickey Cohen, was taken down by an elite and highly top secret gang of super cops, who have banded together in their common goal to see a safer Los Angeles. They are also all post-war soldiers who don’t know what to do with all their misplaced aggression. And in keeping with the facile screenwriting tropes that Beall seems to believe are the foundation of a good genre picture, this band of not-so-merry men is made up of misfits, from a sharp shooter to a hot head to the brains of the operation. Only one of them has a family to worry about so you know exactly which one is going to die first. This is the kind of genius to his writing.

Amidst all the predictable plot development and laughable dialogue, is Fleischer’s total mismanagement of said material. At times, I wasn’t even sure there was a director on set. If there was, I’m sure he would have told Sean Penn and Ryan Gosling to stop trying so hard all the time. Every element of their performances seems forced and rehearsed, without the smallest trace of organic humanity to them. I swear, even the way Gosling puts bacon in his mouth is calculated. That said, over doing it is better than not doing anything at all with your time on screen. I’m talking to you, Josh Brolin. Everyone is either good or bad here; actual character development and layering is not even a consideration. And Emma Stone as Penn’s love interest? That would be disturbing even if Penn’s make-up didn’t make him look like a corpse.

Visually, GANGSTER SQUAD is all style over substance, but with very little trace of taste or ability. There is a brief allusion to the idea that there is little difference between the violence of the mob and the methods used by the squad to bring the mob down, which could give the film some sense of meaning and purpose. Then they take this concept and hammer it into the audience over and over again as character after character questions their moral involvement in the squad. There is only one way for this shell of a film to finish and that would be in a barrage of gaudy gunfire that takes out everything in sight. When the smoke clears, it’s pretty obvious that Fleisher should stick to comedies, if that. At least those are intentionally supposed to be funny.

318. Men in Black 3

318. (23 Dec) Men in Black 3 (2012, Barry Sonnenfeld) 30



No surprise that this is a total mess. Josh Brolin's Tommy Lee Jones impersonation is adorable enough to sustain his screentime and Emma Thompson is having a good deal of fun, too. Otherwise, Men in Black 3 is so poorly conceived and badly edited it's perhaps the most transparently unnecessary sequel ever. It's frothy enough that it's never grating, at least. Rick Baker's alien makeup effects are solid.

228. Nightwatch

228. (29 Sep) Nightwatch (1998, Ole Bornedal) 41



Though there's a creepiness to the setting and premise of Nightwatch, it's too strained and arty to feel especially scary. Ewan McGregor, Patricia Arquette, Josh Brolin and Lauren Graham all lack chemistry with one another, which doesn't help matters. There's also such a limited pool of possible murderers, this barely works as a mystery, especially when you consider how much of the plot defies logic.

204. The Goonies

204. (14 Sep) /The Goonies/ (1985, Richard Donner)* 68

Best Supporting Actor 2008: Results

5. Michael Shannon in Revolutionary Road- Shannon gives an intense performance that serves the film the way it wants him to, I only wish his depiction of the mentally instability man could have been a little less obvious display of acting.

4. Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt- Phillip Seymour Hoffman gives an effective performance that succeeds in treading the fine line to keep the mystery of his character intact without making his performance seem lacking.

3. Josh Brolin in Milk- Josh Brolin although has a very limited screen time that realizes the standard politician on the outside as well as the lonely unhappy man on the inside.

2. Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder- Robert Downey Jr. gives a very enjoyable and entertaining performance by portraying a character who is entirely there to be funny by portraying him with the utmost conviction and devotion.

1. Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight- Excellent prediction Eddie. Heath Ledger simply gives an outstanding performance. Ledger never tries for a moment to portray the Joker in a safe fashion. Every risk that he takes with the performance that absolutely succeeds in creating a chilling entertaining and very memorable villain.

Deserving Performances:
Ralph Fiennes in In Bruges
Brad Pitt in Burn After Reading
Gary Oldman in The Dark Knight

Best Supporting Actor 2008: Josh Brolin in Milk

Josh Brolin received his first Oscar nomination for portraying Dan White in Milk.

Josh Brolin portrays the eventual assassin of Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) who is also his fellow San Francisco city supervisor. Watching Milk again I must say I was a little surprised to see just how little screen time Brolin actually has in the film. Yes he is a perpetual character almost throughout the film, but he only comes in and out for brief periods. Whenever Brolin is on screen though he makes a substantial impact even in the briefest moments. Brolin despite his technically limited screen time avoids ever making Dan White into just into an obvious villain for the film, or an inevitable plot development for the film, Brolin instead succeeds making Dan White into a fascinating character in his own right.

We see Dan White only really on the outside we never see him at his home, or in his personal life, and Brolin must convey everything about White in the smallest of ways. The amazing part about Brolin's performance is his success with the part, I never felt for a moment White was underdeveloped by him despite his limitations within the context of the film. Brolin performance firstly is quite successful in his representation of White for the most part such as in his public appearances. In just his public appearances Brolin just suggests Dan White as just a man passionate about his specific beliefs. He does not try to make him an evil man just a fairly typical politician, at first.

His early scenes are actually pivotal to his performance as he actually tries to be friends with the man he eventually murders. Brolin here is excellent in that he shows Dan White as a man looking for some sort of friendship, a strange man who has some sort of separation from others for whatever reason Brolin is careful not to disclose. There is a sadness though in Brolin's performance creating strangely enough a great deal of sympathy for White. He is able to keep this degree of sympathy even when he is fighting with Milk over there eventual divergences. Brolin shows White to honestly feel betrayed actually no so much for Milk not doing what he wanted, but rather clearly not being his friend that he believed he might have been.

Brolin's performance builds over every little scene showing a pressure building on him in each moment he is on screen up until the murders. Brolin is absolutely brilliant in his final scenes as he goes about the killing because of how matter of fact he is. He never shows it to be some sort of act of a lunatic for a single moment, but rather far more chilling by the act of a man who has simply gone off the edge that just seemed what he had to do. This is a terrific performance by Brolin that realizes his character fully despite his limited screen time. I only wish he frankly was given more time since what he does with White is incredible, and left me only wanting to actually see more of his character.

Best Supporting Actor 2008

And the Nominees Were:

Josh Brolin in Milk

Philip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt

Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight

Michael Shannon in Revolutionary Road

Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder

041. Mimic

041. (04 Feb) Mimic (1997, Guillermo del Toro) 50



Mimic makes a noble attempt to be Alien's successor. Shoddy visual effects and an overall lack of tension prevent that from becoming reality. Guillermo del Toro has an especially difficult time establishing space, a rather deadly shortcoming in a creature feature that spends most of its runtime confined to the claustrophobic subways of Manhattan. This is nevertheless fun, particularly in some of the surprising kills like when one of the monsters kills a couple small children. Mira Sorvino's desire to channel Sigourney Weaver fails, but it's oh so fun watching her try. Kudos to the sound designer.

REVIEW: Midnight in Paris (A-)

(dir. Woody Allen, 2011)

There are many kinds of Woody Allen movies.  There are the good ones and the bad ones.  There are the tough-nosed Manhattan tales and his whimsical fantasies.  His dramas and his comedies.  For a man with such a specific style, he seems to blur such nuanced genres in line with his signature storytelling.  Unfortunately, he hasn't been doing much of that late.

Midnight in Paris is Woody's third European film, following London and Barcelona-based Match Point and Vicky Cristina Barcelona.  When Woody experiments with style, sometimes it can be thrilling (Interiors, Manhattan Murder Mystery) and sometimes it can be awful (The Curse of the Jade Scorpion, Melinda and Melinda) but this fantasy tale so evoked the purity of the Allen form that it was a homerun from the beginning.

Set, obviously, in Paris, this is the story of a successful beat screenwriter (Owen Wilson) trying to fulfill his true potential as a novelist while vacationing with his snotty fiancee (Rachel McAdams, playing the role so well you hate her) and her equally snotty parents.  While there, Wilson falls head over heels for the City of Lights, finding that the purest pleasure from the city isn't material consumption, but rather just seeing the city.  Over and over he states how much wonderful Paris would have been in the 1920s.  It becomes very clear quickly that what McAdams and Wilson have isn't very meaty, which actually prompts Wilson's quest for fulfillment very believable.  One night, while walking the streets of Paris, the midnight clock rings, a 1920s car pulls up and transports him to the world of Paris in the 1920s where he meets artistic icons and one sultry muse.

It's been said that Wilson is the best Allen stand-in since Allen himself, and I tend to agree with that (after having to suffer the indignation of Josh Brolin and the atrocious Larry David), for Wilson understood and exacted the typical nebbish nature of the character Allen has penned.  Though, oddly, this successful Woody Allen film doesn't exactly have a standout performance.  In his career, Allen has been so prolific with writing great roles for actors and specifically actresses.  But in Midnight in Paris, a few bit characters really steal the show.  It's not the apt Wilson, the painfully truthful McAdams, or the perfect Parisian Marion Cottilard.  But rather, it's Alison Pill as Zelda Fitzgerald, Corey Stoll as Ernest Hemingway, and Adrien Brody as Salvador Dalí.

I dare anyone not to sit through Brody's sole scene without splitting a side; his ridiculous commitment to the absurdity of Dalí and his obsession with rhinoceroses is just magnificent.  Pill as the country-bumpkin turned booze maven is a delight, chewing her words and making Zelda just as we'd always imagined her.  Stoll, too, deserves some credit for not exactly having as a comedic a role as the aforementioned two, but still delivering a blisteringly true performance as Hemingway.

Overall, Allen's message in the film is a fine, clear one.  It's nice to see an Allen film not as focused on infidelity or sex as his previous films have been, and he's allowed his truly great story to shine.  It's a small, quiet tale told in fantastic measure, yet with such a profound and grounded conclusion.  I can say without hesitation, that this is Allen's best film in nearly 20 years.  Surely come Oscar time, this film will get at least attention for Allen's superb screenplay.  GRADE: A-

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TRUE GRIT

Written and Directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Starring Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, Matt Damon and Josh Brolin

Rooster Cogburn: I'm a foolish man who has been dragged into a goose chase by a girl in trousers and a nincompoop.

To have grit, one should have an indomitable spirit. For that grit to be true, one would need to subscribe to the theory that grit can achieve some sort of altruistic state of constant existence but that’s just not how grit goes, far as I see it. From where I’m standing, grit is something that, for those fortunate enough to have it inside, shows itself when life requires it, in those situations when you suddenly find yourself needing to get through something you can’t imagine getting through. In TRUE GRIT, directors Joel Coen and Ethan Coen exhibit a whole whack of grit getting through their first “remake” but I’m not convinced they ever reached any real truth along their journey.

TRUE GRIT is said to be an adaptation of the Charles Portis novel and not the 1969 Henry Hathaway film that starred John Wayne and won him an Academy Award for his performance as Rooster Cogburn. The role has now been appropriated by another Oscar winner, Jeff Bridges, and, while I cannot comment on the how the performances differ having not seen the original film, I can say that Bridges definitely lays down the law as a dirty boozer of a U.S. Marshall who has agreed to help one feisty, young lady (Hailee Steinfeld) find the man who killed her father, so that she can have him brought to justice. Matt Damon plays a bounty hunter who is also looking for the same man and so the three reluctantly embark on their mission. This is a western though so the pace of this mission is much more trot than gallop, leaving a lot of time to talk about the weather. The performances drive the film but not fast enough to have kept my interest in achieving the goal.

The Coen Brothers are indisputably two of the most talented contemporary film directors around and this is abundantly evident in TRUE GRIT. They take their craft very seriously and have clearly done their homework here. That said, the aimless nature of the western genre might have been too much for them as it seems to have exacerbated their philosophical tendencies to the point of meandering ramblings. The film can be gorgeous, thrilling and engaging but it took a little grit of my own to get through the leaner parts.

WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS

Written by Allan Loeb and Steven Schiff

Directed by Oliver Stone

Starring Shia LaBeouf, Carey Mulligan, Josh Brolin and Michael Douglas

Gordon Gekko: A fisherman always sees another fisherman coming.

Oliver Stone is reputed to be a controversial film director but that isn’t entirely fair. To be controversial, one must make statements that rock the status quo and potentially encourage progress and change. Stone may have started out his career with more of a bite, but the two-time Oscar winner for directing, doesn’t actually have very much to say at this point. Instead, he attaches himself to projects that cannot help but be controversial in nature and allows our already preconceived notions of these subjects to do all the talking for him.

In WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS, Stone revisits one of his most successful films to supposedly reiterate to us what he did in the original WALL STREET, because clearly, we were not paying close enough attention then. In 1989, investment mogul, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) stepped over everyone he knew for the almighty dollar and ended up going to prison. He was famous for having said that “Greed is good,” but as it turns out, it was pretty bad. So bad that it inspired him to write a book about how greed was going to be the downfall of America. He got rich off that book of course and then Gordon Gekko went on to predict the 2008 economic crisis. If only Stone had made this movie before everything happened. Maybe all of this calamity could have been avoided.

Gordon was released from prison in 2001 to find that no one was waiting for him and the world had continued on without him. Then apparently nothing at all happened for seven years because the story picks back up in 2008. Gordon’s daughter, Winnie (Carey Mulligan) is now dating a Wall Street up and comer, Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf). Together they share a bright future full of possibility and fortune until their financial flooring falls out from underneath them. This new generation of money players is portrayed as reluctant but yet still able to enjoy their wealth and the lifestyle it affords them. Their ideals, nobility and honour, are still intact but this is just an illusion and lucky for all of us, Stone is here to show them that more money means more problems.

The greed that is bringing everyone down in WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS is exponentially bigger than it has ever been and Stone warns us that we will not survive another financial meltdown like the one that just forced the American government to fork over billions of bailout dollars. Solid performances and some impressive camera work on behalf of Rodrigo Pietro make the experience reasonably entertaining but Stone never lets us forget just how touchy everything is. He preaches of how moral hazard will continue to cripple the market but basically applies the same principals to his own filmmaking. As long as he hides behind the overbearing face of controversy, he will never have to risk anything of his own by actually saying something unpopular himself.