188. The Happening

188. (04 Sep) /The Happening/ (2008, M. Night Shyamalan) 20



Four years after my initial viewing and so much of The Happening remains hilarious and clear in my mind. The film is truly an enigma; it's at times so campy it must be deliberate, but in turn is disorientingly and preposterously self-serious and wonky. Shyamalan's The Last Airbender doesn't match this in tone whatsoever, making it seem like a fluke that this is so fun and watchable. That also reassures me that The Happening, for all its silliness, is somehow not playing for laughs. Yikes. At least Betty Buckley's batshit crazy appearance is as irresistible as ever.

129. Ted

129. (28 Jun) Ted (2012, Seth Macfarlane)* 41

Better than one would expect a film about a foul-mouthed, living teddy bear to be, Ted is still hokey and formulaic enough to have sprung from the mind of Seth Macfarlane. Like his generic Family Guy, the pop culture jokes will date woefully. Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis do what they can to make their bland romance something more, but they can only do so much with this volume of potty humor and lameness.

TED

TED

Written by Seth MacFarlane, Alec Sulkin and Wellesley Wild

Directed by Seth MacFarlane

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis and Seth MacFarlane

Ted: (Dressed in a suit) I look stupid.

John: No, you don’t. You look dapper.

Ted: John, I look like something you give to your kid when you tell ‘em Grandma died.

The opening sequence to TED, Seth MacFarlane’s (FAMILY GUY) first live-action feature film, tells you everything you need to know about whether you’re going to enjoy yourself or not. In it, a narrator (voiced by AMERICAN DAD regular, Patrick Stewart) tells us the story of how, one Christmas, a little boy’s wish brought a stuffed bear to life. The twosome will go on to become the bestest of friends until inevitably one day when a woman will come between them and threaten their very special relationship. It isn’t long before jokes are made about Jewish people and obscure pop culture references or even before the narrator himself takes a decidedly dirty direction with his tone. This is the story of a boy who doesn’t want to grow up, as told by a man who has made a fortune playing directly to boys who don’t want to grow up, the world over. Sometimes, I question whether MacFarlane has ever fully grown up himself. The question he poses to us is whether that’s actually a bad thing or not.

I think it would be fair to say that if you enjoy MacFarlane’s humour on his animated Fox shows (including THE CLEVELAND SHOW, in addition to the previously mentioned examples), then you will most likely laugh it up throughout TED. I actually do like MacFarlane’s humour quite a bit and I did a fair amount of hearty chuckling throughout his film debut, but not enough to see through all of his laziness. As much as I enjoy FAMILY GUY (and I do often enjoy it over and over again), I have found that he has learned to coast a bit on what he knows works well already. In TED, MacFarlane plays it safe, bringing on a number of people he’s already familiar with, from co-star, Mila Kunis, to composer, Walter Murphy. Heck, there’s even one foreigner character who knows the English language well enough to get by but misses all the nuances. (If you watch FAMILY GUY, you’ll know what that refers to). It almost felt to me at times that not only was MacFarlane playing it safe but rather surrounding himself with the familiar so he too would feel safe in this unchartered territory.

I would be remiss not to mention as well how similar Ted the bear sounds like  MacFarlane’s quintessential character, Peter Griffin. They are so similar at times that MacFarlane even calls himself out on it in one scene when Ted quips about how he does not sound exactly like Peter Griffin. Just because MacFarlane is in on the joke though does not make us forget that TED is, on many levels, just FAMILY GUY crammed into a cuddly bear. And while this does entertain on many levels, it only does so to a point. What it does past that is expose without question MacFarlane’s limitations as a writer and director.

PS. I really do like you, Mr. MacFarlane. I guess, I just want to see what else you can do, where else you can go.

Best Supporting Actor 2006: Results

5. Djimon Hounsou in Blood Diamond- Hounsou is only ever really loud or really quiet, which is acceptable for much of his performance, but when his limits are noticeable they are very noticeable.

4. Mark Wahlberg in The Departed- Wahlberg is enjoyable enough as the loud abrasive police officer, it is not a complex performance but it serves its purpose.

3. Eddie Murphy in Dreamgirls- Murphy throws a great deal of energy into his role, but for me I could never separate this from his earlier comedic performances.

2. Alan Arkin in Little Miss Sunshine- Arkin gives a strong performance that is both consistently humorous, but Arkin also effectively brings a great deal of his heart to his performacne.

1. Jackie Earle Haley in Little Children- In a part that could have portrayed in an overly cinematic or stylized way, Haley always keeps his portrayal far more effective by playing it always truthfully to his character.

Deserving Performances:
Ben Affleck in Hollywoodland
Michael Caine in Children of Men

Best Supporting Actor 2006: Mark Wahlberg in The Departed

Mark Wahlberg received his first Oscar nomination for portraying Sgt. Sean Dingnam in The Departed.

The Departed tells about two police officers one an undercover cop (Leonardo DiCaprio) trying to bring down a crime boss (Jack Nicholson) and another (Matt Damon) working for the very same crime boss.

Out of the eventual best picture winner The Departed only one actor was nominated for an Oscar. Wahlberg was this actor, for whatever specific reason. Jack Nicholson as the film's villain was possibly the choice many would have thought would have been nominated, but maybe the Academy thought he should stay at least a little longer as tied for the most supporting actor nominations with Arthur Kennedy, Walter Brennan, and Claude Rains. I imagine though he was probably nominated by the nature of his character which is purposefully loud, and the whole point of his character really is to be a scene stealing character.

Wahlberg's whole point in the film as the Sgt. Dingnam is just to basically yell in a comedic fashion until just about the end of the film where he gets to quickly commit an act of wraith and vengeance. Dingnam really is a limited character, and Wahlberg really is not a great actor, in fact he seems to be a rather limited actor, but I will say one thing he does seem to do well is yell loudly and in a comedic fashion. This means he certainly fits for the role of Dingnam, his limits do work for the limited Dingnam. He actually is good enough at being a sort of a comedic relief for the film.

Wahlberg in all of his scenes talks loudly, and always has an abrasive thing to say about someone whenever he is on screen. He certainly is enjoyable enough in the role of Dingnam, and brings to life this abrasive quality certainly well enough. He also does do it in a humorous enough fashion that certainly works for the film, and the role without overplaying too much. He still does make Dingnam a man in the same film as the rest of the characters. He still shows Dingnam to be a cop who wants to do his job correctly, but he merely happens to show that he is does it in his only particular way.

This is not a great performance by Wahlberg by any means, but he serves his performance, even though it is rather limited. He does have his final very short scene showing a little bit of a different Dingnam clearly changed by the events of the film. There is no transition shown since Wahlberg is unapparent for a great deal of the film, but nevertheless Wahlberg handles the moment well. This is not an incredible performance but it is an entertaining one that achieves its rather limited goal. It will not be the performance that you really remember from the film, but it still does add to it in its own small way.

Best Supporting Actor 2006

And the Nominees Were:

Djimon Hounsou in Blood Diamond

Eddie Murphy in Dreamgirls

Alan Arkin in Little Miss Sunshine

Jackie Earle Haley in Little Children

Mark Wahlberg in The Departed

The Departed

The Departed, 2006
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Nominated for 5 Oscars, Won 4
Won BP over Babel, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine and The Queen

Synopsis: Billy Costigan wants to be a cop. But with his family history of crime, no one will hire him. Until they need a man to go undercover, to be the mole in Frank Costello's crime ring. Costello's been avoiding the law, and being arrested for a long, long time, and Billy is the perfect spy. His family was friends with Frank Costello and his partners, and Billy gains Costello's trust very easily. Meanwhile, Colin Sullivan is an up-and-coming cop, rising in the Special Investigations Unit. He's brilliant, and has a pitch perfect past. And that makes him the perfect mole in the SIU. Being a friend and worker for Frank Costello since childhood, Sullivan is the perfect mole in the Boston Police force. But when both sides suspect a mole, Billy and Colin race to uncover the other, to save their own skins.

Before I write this review, I must say, Cop/Mafia/Gangster/Lots of swearing films aren't really my thing. This is going to gain the most positive review from me simply because I don't generally enjoy these types of films, and I can't appreciate films where the character have extremely limited and dirty vocabulary.

That being said, we move on. This film had an interesting premise, even if it sounded a tad bit cliche. The seemingly rough guy is the good guy, while the guy with the spotless past and the up-and-comer being the bad guy. But we know that right away. But the two sides don't, and the moles themselves don't know who the other one is.

The performances in this film were great. I thought Leonardo DiCaprio rocked the whole show and was surprised to see he wasn't nominated for the role (only to see he was nominated for Blood Diamond instead...I'm assuming he was fantastic in that role, I still haven't seen it.) Additionally, Matt Damon is pretty much always great, in my opinion. He played the good guy/bad guy really well (even if a lot of the movie he had a dopey-gaping look on his face). I was surprised to see Mark Walhberg nominated for his Supporting Role, having had very little screen time. I'd have liked him to have been in it more. (Though is it only me that thinks Matt Damon and Mark Walhberg could be twins? During the opening I was having trouble figuring out if Colin was Damon or Walhberg, until we saw Walhberg had thick dark hair. Good thing he did, or they'd have been indistinguishable)

The film was well told, if not a little long for my taste. We see both sides trying to weed out who the mole is. Colin Sullivan is near the top and is quickly able to conceal himself, while Billy Costigan is a little more exposed. Personally, I couldn't understand why Costello didn't figure it out. It was blatantly obvious to me, and I don't know why he didn't pick up on it.

Anyway, the film had lots of twists and turns, and was well told. We feel for both characters, both living double lives, trying to make their way through.

Overall, I thought it was just an okay film. I found nothing about it that was incredible, or amazing. While Leonardo DiCaprio was really good in it, it was otherwise just an average film. At least, those are my thoughts.

(short review, but I honestly don't have much to say about it. It was kind of whatever. Not bad, but not brilliant.)

7/10

THE FIGHTER

Written by Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson

Directed by David O. Russell

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Melissa Leo

Before a boxer sets foot in any ring, he most likely has a plan of attack in place. If he is serious about what he does, he has studied his opponent; he knows his strategies, his weaknesses. A great boxer is in control of the game even when it seems like he might not be; he can see the match straight through to the knockout. THE FIGHTER is just like that boxer and once the bell rings, signifying the fight has begun, it comes at you fast and hits you hard. You won’t even see it coming. It’s that good.

Everyone is a fighter in THE FIGHTER but there are two that fit the bill in a more technical sense of the word. Mark Wahlberg, a producer on the film, plays Micky Ward, the real life Lowell, Massachusets native and now retired junior welterweight boxing champion. Ward was on hiatus from professional boxing in the early ‘90’s and the film picks up as he is preparing for his comeback in 1993, with his brother, Dickie Ecklund (Christian Bale), also a former boxer, coaching in his corner. Ecklund’s serious crack problem does not allow for him to be in anyone’s corner but his own really and Micky must learn to fight his way out from brother Dickie’s shadow in order to become his own man.

Wahlberg gives a strong performance, giving THE FIGHTER a solid center to move around but part of Micky’s character is to allow the more dominant forces in his life control his surroundings. This allows for the supporting players to truly stand out. Bale is a twisted and tortured mess, a refreshing return to form. Meanwhile, Melissa Leo is pure, trash gold as Micky & Dickie’s manager mom. Even Amy Adams turns a quiet role as Micky’s love interest into something smoldering. Her fights with Mama Leo are almost as gruesome as the one’s in the ring.

As incredible as THE FIGHTER is, it would be nothing without the man in its corner, director, David O. Russell. Russell has crafted a taut picture that plays like its working the ring from every angle possible and placing the viewer in the middle of this barrage of punches that rarely lets up. Don’t worry; you get out alive. You aren’t the same though.