Quick Shots 02/Mar/2014

I have been watching some bits and bobs while I've been snowed under with this script. The problem with a lot of movies is that they hover between 2 and 3 out of 5 stars. It's a good problem to have in the sense that you're assuredly not making 1 out of 5 movies, but it's rare that you catch something you can mull over and have a good think.  I live in fear of being jaded because really, that's what happens to reviewers - they lose perspective on what's on offer.

Well, this is what's been on offer.

'Don Jon'

Joseph Gordon-Levitt's take on what's wrong with internet porn. Moments of moralising are off-set by the ironic confessions made to an unseen priest which ultimately begs the question, "how did you come to that number?" Scarlett Johansson plays a New Jersey slag heap of a cow. Julianne Moore plays a tragic character. It's a mixed bag.

For all our denunciation of porn there always seems to be an army of new girls wanting to flaunt it. It's like the world is split into two worlds - where feminism calls the shot, and where money calls the shots - and ne'er the two shall meet.

The film reminded me of an old saying from Latin America that masturbation takes 3 times the mental effort as normal sex, but 5 times the effort if you do it without porn. I think this is what the film really wants to tell women as a way of explanation. Maybe it's true, maybe it's not. It' hard to speak for the world's male population.

'Season of the Witch'

This one's a few years old. I caught up with it because it draws on 'The Seventh Seal' heavily. As a remake, it's not really that compelling, although it goes to great lengths to preserve the plot points from Ingmar Bergman's great film. The casting of Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman in the guise of a re-imagined Sir Anotnius Bloch and Jons is interesting but they both carry too much weight in their careers to have the impact Max von Sydow and Gunnar Bjornstrand have on screen.

Nonetheless the film is fun to watch as you tick off the little references to Ingmar Bergman's classic. the fact that it has been re-imagined as a cheesy little action flick is neither here nor there. Some of the medieval paranoia makes for great viewing.  I imagine Ingmar Bergman might have really enjoyed this one.

'Red 2'

This is much better than the first movie. It's just a better script and as a star ensemble vehicle, everybody gets to shine. That being said it's not exactly excellent, merely competently good. It has its good moments and then the boring 'process' moments where you're waiting for them to just get a move on and shoot somebody.

I've already 'fessed up to being a Mary-Louise Parker fan so, no more on that here. Bruce Willis is his usual self but John "Being" Malkovich has got the zany gear wound up to eleven, as does guest star Anthony Hopkins who plays a cross between the absent minded nuclear physicist and Hannibal lector without the cannibalism. Helen Mirren is Helen Mirren - turning in one of those stiff-upper-lip matriarchs.

'Rush'

The 1970s is always a good setting for a period piece. An interesting flashback to the time Niki Lauda had that horrific accident and then came back to race within weeks. Chris Hemsworth shows a better range playing English playboy racer James Hunt but it's Daniel Bruhl as Lauda that really steals the show. The car action is great while some of the wide shots don't work so well.

The ins and outs of Formula racing cars, back in the 1970s is very interesting. Seeing the names Stirling Moss, Enzo Ferrari and Mario Andretti made my heart skip a beat. The guy who played Clay Regazzoni is a dead ringer for Todd Phillips but he's not Todd Phillips.

It's a good film and serves more than a 2 paragraph write up but I guess that's the way it's got to be for now.