Quick Shots - 18/Nov/2013

Work Ate My Brain Last Week

I'm back to being stupid-busy at the moment so I don't have time to write proper crits for things I've watched. But I don't want to let them go without any remarks so I thought I'd quickly post some impressions.

'The Lone Ranger'

It's not as bad as the reviews would suggest. Just highly idiosyncratic. The most interesting thing about it is that it draws the framework from Arthur Penn's 'Little Big Man' which was a classic anti-hero text. Echoes of that film are all over this one, which is great. Johnny Depp's makeup is totally memorable.

'Man Of Steel'

A pretty good rendition of the Superman story. Surprisingly good bits were the Russell Crowe as Jor-El and Kevin Costner and Diane Lane as the elderly Kents. It's incredibly sentimental but it's filled with the kind of yearning that Tarkovsky would have approved. How much emotional depth can there be in a comic book movie being done for the n-th time, but there it is, the most properly filmic Superman movie I've ever seen. I was honestly surprised by how involved it was.

'Parklands'

Another movie about the JFK assassination. As movies go, it's ordinary fare, and doesn't give much for the conspiracy theorists in the audience ("where was George Bush snr. that day?"). Not really sure if the brother of Lee Harvey Oswald being shocked by what his brother allegedly did, is a great story. Nor is the story of how the  Zapruder film became public knowledge, terribly compelling. One wonders if the good doctors who worked on the dying body of JFK were also the same doctors who worked on the dying body of Leee Harvey Oswald. It's a moderately interesting film as a companion piece to the truly in-depth 'JFK' by Oliver Stone.

'This Is The End'

Look, I'd understand it if the Illuminati secretly want to kill all smug celebrities and actors. No, really I do. This is a sorry excuse for a self-referential movie. It's really daft, and then it devolves into something really stupid. The only thing that should end as a result of this movie is their careers. I mean really, what the hell is James Franco doing in movies like this? The best shot in the film might have been the three-shot that reunites the threesome from 'Superbad'. Emma Watson's naff cameo is sort of amusing. The rest of the film is hard up for laughs. Jonah Hill's Exorcist-homage gag is just plain dumb.

'Mud'

Surprisingly good. This one works off the template of 'Stand By Me' but with less humour and more pathos. I thought it would suck but it didn't suck at all. The premise is rather peculiar, but the film just powers along with the off-beat narrative of the kids.  It has some great performances from the kid actors. Worth checking out.