Way behind on my reviews, I want to offer up some quick thoughts on the big summer films I saw. Writing the 10,000th review of these films seems like a waste of time, I'd rather focus on something you may not have seen or even heard of yet. But it's my compulsion to write about every movie I watch, so I have to say something. Overall I thought this was the best summer movie season of the decade. I didn't see anything truly terrible, which was a surprise, and there were a couple of near masterpieces. I enjoyed to loved all the following films: Wall-E, Speed Racer, Kung Fu Panda, Iron Man and Forgetting Sarah Marshall


The Dark Knight

Without a doubt the best film of the summer, which is obvious from the reviews and the box office. Writer/Director Christopher Nolan crafted an epic crime film, that just happens to be about Batman. I loved Heath Ledger's wonderfully calculated over-the-top performance as the Joker. I love how they crafted him to be unbelievably evil for no real reason, we don't get the whole back-story, he just is. Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent & Two Face, is almost equally as good, his switch from white knight to villain is really the heart of the film. If I had any complaint, is that they didn't focus enough on Batman, he seems secondary at times. And the whole cell phone bit, acting as a world-wide sonar, seemed too far fetched. But this is a nearly perfect film, even at two and a half hours, it flies by. I made the rare second trip to the theater to see it again. - Grade: A (Seen on 7/18/08 & 8/10/08)


Wanted

As much as I like to see Angelina Jolie kick ass, I mainly wanted to see this film because of director Timur Bekmambetov. His Russian film Nightwatch is one of the most visually inventive films I've ever seen. With a relatively low-budget, he created some of the most superb action sequences ever put to film. I couldn't wait to see what he did with a Hollywood budget, and the film didn't disappoint on the action side. I like that they immediately set-up that this is a world where the fantastic can happen. Within the first 5 minutes, there is a guy jumping out a skyscraper window, taking out snipers with his handgun as he flies between buildings. Setting up the rest of the film, so we can believe that people can bend bullets and flip cars willy-nilly like. I liked James McAvoy, even though his American accent kept slipping, as the everyday schlep, who learns he comes from a long line of super-assassins. It's definitely a turn-your-brain-off-and-enjoy-the-ride kind of film, and I had fun with it as that. - Grade: B (Seen on 7/5/08)


Hancock

Will Smith has always been hit or miss for me. Sometimes I think he's great, his smart-ass attitude really made the Men in Black films, but those same characteristics completely ruined I, Robot. In the past few years I think he's shown a bit more range, he showed good range in Pursuit of Happyness, and I thought he did a good job with I Am Legend, not ruining it with horribly out of place jokes.

Hancock looked interesting to me, mainly because it was a superhero film, that didn't have a comic behind it, a totally fresh character. I also liked that he was reluctant about his powers, that he really only uses them for good when he has too. And I would imagine that somebody so powerful would feel alone in this world. In the end I liked that the explanation for his powers was so different than any other superhero story, no radioactive cockroach or nuclear testing gone wrong. The film moves along quickly and is fairly entertaining, but it wasn't good enough for me to want to see Hancock 2. - Grade: B- (Seen on 7/5/08)


Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Visually, Guillermo del Toro is one of the best directors around. He creates absolutely breathtaking scenes. And Hellboy II is full of them. I especially loved the scene were Hellboy and crew visit the Troll market. It's like the Star Wars cantina on acid. There are literally hundreds of fantastically out-there creatures to gawk at, most of them walking around in the background. I can't wait to get the DVD, just so I can pause it and get a better look. I also fell in love with the opening scene where Hellboy's adoptive father is telling him the story about the Golden Army. Guillermo uses what looks like Tim Burton stop-motion animation, but is probably computer generated, to show the story of how the magical world came to an end.

I liked the story of how this Elf Prince wants to bring back the magical world to what it once was, show the humans whose boss. It's interesting to see Hellboy struggle with his conscience about whether he should join the Elf, because most humans have shunned him and he clearly belongs to the magical side. With him ultimately deciding to fight for humanity. The film kind of grinds to a halt anytime there's a love scene, either between Hellboy and Liz or Abe Sabien and the Elf Princess. But Overall I dug Hellboy II, much more than the first film, it felt more well rounded, and is a rip-roaring adventure. - Grade: B (Seen on 7/10/08)


Tropical Thunder

Ben Stiller is a very underrated director. His films Zoolander and The Cable Guy, both rate as great comedies in my book. So I was very excited to see him at the helm of this action-comedy, with him, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. in front of the camera. A real comedy dream team. I enjoyed the film, but didn't think it was as funny as advertised. It was almost like Stiller was more concerned about the action scenes.

Although it may be one of those comedies you have to see a few times to truly appreciate. Thinking about it now, brings a lot of laughs to mind. Everybody was raving about Tom Cruise's appearance as the extremely angry, fat-balding studio boss, which I definitely give him props for. It's great to see him out of his usual role. But I think Danny McBride's role as the film crew's explosive expert got more laughs per line. Between this and the following film, the guy shows some serious comedic chops. And I can't forget about the brilliantly hilarious fake trailers at the beginning of the film, that perfectly set-up each of the main characters roles. I guess it was funnier than I originally remembered, and I'm looking forward to sitting down with some friends and watching it again. - Grade: B (Seen on 8/23/08)

Pineapple Express

This wrapped up the summer of 2008 films, at least those that were worth seeing. Seth Rogen has built himself a nice career as the shlubby stoner type that appears in Judd Apatow films, and his role as Dale in Pineapple Express is probably the pinnacle of said type-casting. He's a lovable loser, a wastoid and an action star all in one. I've always thought that James Franco had a lot of potential as an actor, but he's been stuck in pretty-boy roles for a while. He's hilarious here as Saul, an obvious take-off on Brad Pitt in True Romance, the drug dealer who gets into deep trouble with Dale.

I really had a lot of fun following these two stoners around as numerous people get beat-up and killed around them. Again Danny McBride nearly steals the show, or at least every scene he's in. Towards the end the three make the most unlikely group of action heroes in the history of film, taking on a gang of drug dealers and the Yakuza at the same time. Perhaps the most surprising thing about this film is that it was directed by David Gordon Green, who's known for intimate and talky indie films. This was so far outside his style, but he brings a great kinetic energy to the whole thing. It'd probably be more enjoyable toking up some Pineapple Express first, but even sober, it's a fun ride. - Grade: B (Seen on 9/6/08)

After watching Russell Crowe in hero mode a few nights back in American Gangster, it was fun to see him in all-out bad guy mode. He’s one of the few actors around that has the gravitas to make you fully believe him in either role, and it’s fun to watch him stretch those impressive muscles. Here in 3:10 to Yuma, he plays one of the great western villains in Ben Wade. Until a third act slip-up nearly ruins his character and the entire movie. (Which, I’ll write about in full spoiler mode below.) I was enjoying the film and his character so much up till that point, that despite the total flaw, I tried to overlook it and enjoy the film for all its other great moments.

3:10 to Yuma focuses on two characters, Russell’s Ben Wade, who’s a total hard ass, has zero compassion for human life, and leads a gang of ruffians with an iron fist. On the other side is Christian Bale’s Dan Evans, he’s the polar opposite; tries to do everything by the book and goes out of his way to avoid violence. But it’s a harsh world and on the inside he’s really a hard man, trying to be good, and he's hiding something about his past. In the opening scene of the film, his family’s barn is burned down by the local goons working for the rich land owner, who Dan owes money too. The next day, he’s taking his sons and the last of their cows on the way to town, when they run across the path of Ben and his gang, who are robbing a stage coach.

You can tell this is a new fangled western in this highly stylized action scene, the guys on the coach have a Gatling gun mounted to the back and fire away mercilessly, while the bad guys ride hard after them, one of them even exploding when they get hit, because of the dynamite in their pocket. The scene ends with the coach flipping in a fury of dust and strewn bodies. The whole thing feels more like a car chase from a Bourne movie, than anything resembling the traditional western.

Ben shows a bit of compassion by letting Dan and his son's go and rides into town, where he is soon caught, due to his own arrogance. The railroad man, who’s coach was just robbed, offers a group of untrained men a reward if they get Ben on the 3:10 to Yuma train, taking Ben to prison. A doctor, one of the goons who burned Dan’s barn down, a Pinkerton who was the last left from the coach, and Dan who just walked into town. Dan wants to do the right thing, but also wants the $200 to save his family’s ranch. Through some good trickery the group manages to send Ben’s gang in the wrong direction, buying them some time, but still manage to run into a group of rogue Indians, some mining men that have it in for Ben, and Ben himself offers up all kinds of trouble on their trip to Yuma, and not everybody makes it there alive. Dan keeps alive thanks to an unlikely one-sided friendship with Ben, who sees Dan as a kindred spirit in some way.

The film offers up a nice simple western story, 6 unprepared men, taking one of the most dangerous men alive across the desert. The film is very nicely put together with a modern western flair, beautifully shot in cinemascope, it looks pretty authentic, with everybody’s dusty and dirty, plenty of hard horse riding and six guns a blazing. Crowe makes Ben a charismatic villain with ice cold heart. Bale does his usual thing, going all out, looking the dirtiest and most beat up of the bunch. Ben Foster has a blast playing Ben’s right hand man, a maniacal gunman, without an ounce of pity. Peter Fonda has his best role in years as the Pinkerton, who’s run in with Ben a few times before, but remains professionally pissed about it. I was totally into the story, and it’s put together so deftly, that I was really falling in love with the, until the story takes a completely unconvincing twist at the end. But it leads to another cool shoot-out in the streets of Yuma, so I wasn’t totally upset, but it nearly ruined this otherwise perfect western. – Grade: B-

(Spoilers ahead, I’m going to discuss the ending that nearly ruined the film.) Okay, so up until the very end of the film, Ben is a ruthless killer, willing to do anything to stay out of jail. When Dan reveals his secret about being injured by his own men in the war, Ben suddenly flips, changing from someone who'd do anything in his power to stay out of jail, to helping Dan get him on the train. Ben starts gunning down his own gang, and willingly puts himself on the train, even after Dan is dead. Sure, he’s mentioned that he’s escaped prison, but where’s the motivation; you don’t flip on a dime from ultimate bad guy, to decent fellow, with just a couple of words. It rang completely false.