The Martian

Interstellar

Thursday Movie Picks: Twins

In with the New Blogathon: The Departed

Six Degrees of Separation Blogathon

A few months back, Nostra at My Filmviews started up a blogging relay based on iconic movie characters. It wasn't his first, but it caught on like wildfire. Soon, there were several other copycat relays, including one I started myself. Nostra is back with another relay that he's presenting in association with the Dutch movie blog De Protagonisten, but like the great ones always do, he's managed to kick things up a notch. How so? This relay is actually six different relays all going at once. Yup. Top that, punks.

The concept is based on the age-old six degrees of separation game. Basically, each blogger lucky enough to get passed a baton will have to make the connection between two personalities or entities that have something to do with the movies in six steps or less. For instance, to use the example Nostra used in his original post, let's connect Matt Damon to Arnold Schwarzenegger:

 ...

Step #1: Damon grew up with Ben Affleck.

Step #2: Affleck starred in Changing Lanes with Samuel L. Jackson.

Step #3: Jackson has appeared in a number of movies directed by Quentin Tarantino.

Step #4: Tarantino directed Micheal Keaton in Jackie Brown.

Step #5: Keaton starred in Batman.

Step #6: In Batman and Robin, Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Mr. Freeze.

With me, so far? Cool.

The last part of this is the passing of the baton. I'll let Nostra explain this in his own words:

At the end of their post these bloggers will assign it to another blogger and set the endgoal for that blogger. The next blogger will start with the movie/actor/director the previous blogger ended with and make the connection to in six or less steps to the assigned endgoal. Example: Ruth ends with Transformers and set the endgoal to Cary Grant then the next blogger will have to make the connection between the two. Please make sure that you link back to the previous post(s) as this will help your readers follow the blogathon and it will also help your fellow bloggers to some extra readers, which I’m sure you’d agree will help everyone.

Make a connection, use who or whatever you connected as the starting point for the next blogger and randomly pick an end point for that person. Got it.

So, where did I get the baton from? Due to my constant begging, on bended knee no less, Shah at Blank Page Beatdown took pity on me and forked it over. In his post, he was successfully able to link Robert Downey Jr. to The Godfather. His task for me? Connecting The Godfather to Lindsay Lohan.

Boys and girls of all ages, I'm not just going to make the connection. I'm going to do so in record setting fashion.

Step 1:

The first Godfather in the franchise, the one and only Don Vito Corleone was portrayed in Oscar winning fashion by Marlon Brando, however...

Step 2:

...the role was also played a young Robert De Niro in the The Godfather Part II.

Step 3:

Robert De Niro appeared in Machete with Lindsay Lohan.

Looks like my work here is done.

Yyyyyeeeaaahhhh, that's it. Get some.

Oh, almost forgot to pass the baton. I'm going to hand it to John at Hitchcock's World. His task? Connect Lindsay Lohan to Sidney Poitier.

Elysium

Directed by Neill Blomkamp.

2013. Rated R, 109 minutes.

Cast:

Matt Damon

Jodie Foster

Sharlto Copley

Alice Braga

Diego Luna

Wagner Moura

William Fichtner

Emma Tremblay

Faran Tahir

Jose Pablo Cantillo

Adrian Holmes

Matt Damon plays President Obama. Okay, not really. It's probably too soon for you to get where I'm going with that so I'll come back to it later. Damon actually plays Max Da Costa who lives in Los Angeles in the year 2451. He's a convicted felon trying to live life on the up and up. That's a little difficult when the police, automated by the way, just yank you out of line at the nearest checkpoint and arrest you whenever they want due to their knowledge of your past. I imagine its also difficult when you know unequivocally that you will never rise past a certain station in life. Such is the way of society in the twenty-fifth century. All those beautiful and wealthy people that make up the one percent have finally just packed their shit and left us here. Literally. They live on a space station high above Earth named Elysium. They've got it so good, they even have a machine that cures any disease in a matter of seconds. The rest of us slugs are stuck here on the third rock basically going all crabs in a bucket on each other. For us regular folk, getting sick is pretty much a death sentence. As luck would have it, that's precisely what Max does. Well, not exactly. He actually gets exposed to as much radiation as humanly possible without dying on the spot or transforming into The Incredible Hulk. He's told he will most certainly expire in five days, is given some pills to make the time bearable and sent on his way. Understandably, he tries to get to Elysium, ASAP! One little problem with this: the good folks in the sky shoot down anything approaching their home and immediately arrest anyone aboard anything that manages to slip through.

I like to start with positives, so let's talk action. This is clearly the best part of the movie. It's fast, brutal, and certainly more graphic than I expected going in. Another plus is the premise. Theoretically, if we were to start living anywhere other than Earth's surface, the super rich and/or important would probably be our first colonists. What would it be like if they all just took off one day? There are also shades of the sci-fi classic Metropolis present. The rich and the poor really do live in societies segregated by bank account sizes. Just like in Fritz Lang's masterpiece, and in real life (oops, didn't mean to say that out loud), the elite are largely supported by the labor of the poor while simultaneously thumbing their noses at them. In fact, John Carlyle (Fichtner), who has to be on Earth to oversee operations for his company, incidentally where Max works, tells us directly that he hates "breathing this air."

Unfortunately, things never quite come together like they should. One problem is that once it's established that our hero needs medical help, the exploration of the differences between the classes ceases. Instead, we quickly shift into Star Wars mode as Luke (a sleep-walking Matt Damon) and the Rebel Alliance try to infiltrate the Death Star. We're not as behind them as we should be because we discover that the people of this particular empire aren't really all that evil. They might be oblivious, an indictment on its own, but not enough for us to go all in on their mission. This leaves our Darth Vader, or Delacourt, played by Jodie Foster, seeming to act alone, except for her Earth-bound Boba Fett, or Kruger (Copley). As Vader imitations go, Foster does a piss poor one. She plays it completely stone-face, which isn't too terrible. However, she takes it way over the top by speaking with the most ridiculous accent from nowhere since Tom Hanks in The Terminal. It's especially grating because no one else is doing it. By the way, she's also got a little Col. Jessup from A Few Good Men going on. I say this because one of her big moments is giving her version of "You need me on that wall!" She even seemed to be struggling to refrain from blurting out "You can't handle the truth!"

So far I've mentioned Metropolis, Star Wars, The Terminal, and A Few Good Men. This points to another big problem with Elysium. It's too transparently derivative. I get that there's nothing new under the sun, but this doesn't even try to disguise the fact that it's just a hodgepodge of other, better films. Even the look of it, during the scenes on Earth, is very similar to another movie. That movie is director Neill Blomkamp's own hit District 9. It gets to the point where you just start picking out which movie each particular element comes from. This works for the best when, say, Quentin Tarantino does it as a way of paying homage and putting his own spin on it. Here, it feels like a lazy knock-off someone is trying to pass off as the real deal.

If there is one part of the narrative into which great effort was put, it's the movie's message. Sure, our hero is sick, but great pains are taken to make it clear that his ex-girlfriend's daughter Matilda (Tremblay) is even sicker. She's stricken with leukemia. Even though her mom, played excellently by Alice Braga, works in a hospital, they can't afford treatment and even gets kicked out of said hospital. The only thing we need to know about her is just what I've told you. She's a child who is probably going to drop dead before Max. This is why our sickly Luke Skywalker is really Pres. Obama. He's gonna get this poor girl cared for, dammit! Whether or not you agree with it on principal, I think we can all agree the Commander-in-Chief used some forceful tactics to get his baby passed into law. Again, regardless of how I feel about it, because I actually think it's a good idea, just poorly executed, we don't need a two hour commercial for ObamaCare, even if it does use excerpts from some of our favorite movies.

MY SCORE: 5/10

Favorite War Movies

Truth told, war movies are not my favorite genre. That said, there is nothing quite so visceral as a well done battle scene, and not much as gut-wrenching as a film that cuts to the heart of war. The simple fact of the matter is that war is, unfortunately, one of the most innately human things depicted on the screen. That said, I have to say thanks to all of my fellow vets out there. Enjoy Veteran's Day and check out one or more of my...

5 Favorite War Movies

5. Apocalypse Now

(1979)

General: Francis Ford Coppola

Conflict: The Vietnam War

This is Francis Ford Coppola at a time when he could seemingly do no wrong. We follow Benjamin L. Willard, played by an amazing Martin Sheen, go on a manhunt for one of the United States' own, Col. Walter E. Kurtz. Apparently, Kurtz has gone crazy and needs to be eliminated. Marlon Brando delivers the goods as the nutso colonel. The rest of the cast also turns in stellar work. Included are Harrison Ford, Robert Duvall, and a pubescent Laurence Fishburne. They help deliver Coppola's anti-war vision to the screen. This is arguably the best movie ever made about Vietnam.

4. Glory

(1989)

General: Edward Zwick

Conflict: The Civil War

An oft-neglected component of American history, both educational and cinematic, is the contribution of black soldiers to the efforts of the Union Army during the Civil War. More than any other, Glory is the film that drives home the point that African Americans were not merely spectators in the decisive battle over the legality of slavery. Cpt. Shaw (Matthew Broderick) is tasked with heading up an all black company. They are given only menial task which gives us ample time to get to know them. Boy, do we ever, thanks to stellar work from Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, and Andre Braugher (making his big screen debut), among others.

3. Schindler's List

(1993)

General: Steven Spielberg

Conflict: World War II

Schindler's List is different from most war movies in that the focus is not on the people actively fighting. Here, our protagonist is Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson). He's a German businessman who is a member of the Nazi party. However, his life becomes saving Jews from persecution and execution while maintaining the appearance of loyalty to the Nazi's. It's an epic in every sense of the word. This includes its villain, Amon Goeth, played by Ralph Fiennes being as unlikable as is humanly possible.

2. Full Metal Jacket

(1987)

General: Stanley Kubrick

Conflict: The Vietnam War

Let's just get this out of the way, now. The opening half of Full Metal Jacket is the best depiction of boot camp ever committed to film, period. What R. Lee Ermey does as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman is nothing short of perfect. The same goes for Vincent D'Onofrio as Private "Pyle". I've seen both men in many things since but whenever I do, this movie immediately comes to mind. The second half, which includes neither, has been so overshadowed, people seem to forget it even exists. I'm not here to tell you it's just as good as the first half, but I will say that is excellent in its own right.

1. Saving Private Ryan

(1998)

General: Steven Spielberg

Conflict: World War II

What Saving Private Ryan does better than perhaps any movie not made during the silent film era is tell its story through action. Sure there's plenty of exposition in the name of character development, but it's the battle scenes that not only thrill us, they tell us what's going on. Of course, what's going on is the seemingly impossible extraction of one soldier, Private Ryan (Matt Damon) from the front lines of World War II after it is learned that his three brothers have all been killed. Damon is good, but as his commanding officer, Tom Hanks is great. It's some of his best work, in my opinion. The rest of the cast is also great and too numerous to name. And yes, the Omaha Beach scene that opens the movie is the most tense battle scene of them all.


Some other great war movies (chronologically)...

Paths of Glory (1957)
The Battle of Algiers (1966)
Patton (1970)
Das Boot (1981)
A Soldier's Story (1984)
Platoon (1986)
Flags of Our Fathers/Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
The Hurt Locker (2008)
Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

Happy Feet Two

Directed by George Miller.

2011. Rated PG, 100 minutes.

Cast:

Elijah Wood

Robin Williams

Pink

Benjamin Flores Jr.

Hugo Weaving

Brad Pitt

Matt Damon

Common

Sofia Vergara

Hank Azaria

John Goodman

Carlos Alazraqui

Ava Acres

Lombardo Boyar

Mumble (Wood), along with seemingly every penguin in the world finds themselves trapped when a giant hunk of ice blocks their path out of a frozen valley. Meanwhile, Will and Bill, a pair of krill played by Brad Pitt and Matt Damon, respectively, break loose from their school and venture out into the ocean on their own. Pop song medleys and dancing ensues.

As with its predecessor, the singing and dancing is the strength of the movie. The way songs most of would never think of in the same sentence blend seamlessly is brilliant. The numbers are lively and make time speed  by as we tap our own happy feet and maybe even sing along. That is, of course, as long as the thought of musicals aimed at children doesn’t automatically turn your stomach.

Where the first movie falters is in its sudden twist in tone. After two cheerful acts encouraging kids to be true to themselves, the third is an excruciatingly dark one involving man’s exploitation of animals for financial gain and destruction of the environment on top of our hero suffering spells of dementia. Even though we never get anywhere near those depths this time around, we’re only given one fun act before settling in for lots of penguins fretting about their pending doom and worshipping false idols. Sure, there are plenty of attempts at humor but most of them fall flat. To gauge this, I made sure to notice my children who weren’t laughing very often. The truth is the penguins and most of the other creatures fail to engage us unless they’re belting out a tune.

One exception, at least on a minor level, is Mumble’s son Erik (Ares). Like his dad, he’s a bit different than the other penguins. He doesn’t join in on any of the songs they sing. In fact, he doesn’t say much at all and spends as much time as possible hiding. As in almost every other movie ever made that features such an insecure character, this is all leading up to the moment he bursts out of his shell. The pleasant surprise is how effective a moment this is. It’s an absolute showstopper, by far my favorite part of the entire movie.

The rest of the film proceeds as it must, efficiently but not always joyfully. Everything happens right on time as we’ve been trained by countless other kiddie flicks. The climax is ridiculous, even for a cartoon about singing penguins. All of this would be forgivable if it didn’t commit a cardinal sin. There are large chunks of Happy Feet Two that are just plain boring.

MY SCORE: 5/10

Contagion

Directed by Steven Soderbergh.

2011. Rated PG-13, 106 minutes.
Cast:
Laurence Fishburne
Kate Winslet
Matt Damon
Jude Law
Gwyneth Paltrow
Marion Cotillard
Sanaa Lathan
Anna Jacoby-Heron
John Hawkes
Stef Tovar
Grace Rex
Bryan Cranston

Elizabeth (Paltrow) returns home from a business trip to China feeling a bit under the weather. She gets worse over the next few days until she has an apparent seizure and dies. By the way, she infects her six year old son with the same mysterious ailment and he suffers the same fate. Miraculously, her husband Mitch (Damon) deosn’t get sick. Yes, this is explained. Very quickly we find out Elizabeth is one of many such cases occurring around the globe at a rapidly increasing rate. The Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization spring into action in hopes of creating a vaccine before much to the world’s population is wiped out.

A large part of the movie’s magic is derived from the combination of writing and acting. The dialogue is often clinical, filled with enough medical jargon to make your eyes glaze over. However, the cast still manages to convey both passion and compassion. This comes through most in the performance of Kate Winslet as Dr. Mears. Her character isn’t someone most of us want to hang out with. She’s pragmatic, aloof and occasionally blunt. On the other hand, we can tell that her caring runs deep. Though she may be the uncompromising face of some far away medical group to the other characters, we never see her that way. There’s also an angst-ridden portrayal by Matt Damon and a conflicted turn by Laurence Fishburne. All handle their roles quite well.

The dire tone and unsettling score add mightily to the proceedings. Along with most of the characters, the world itself seems to dread what the next day may bring. This aspect is enhanced by the trusty counter that pops up every now and again to tell us how many days we’re into this situation. By the way, we start on “Day 2,” which happens right before Thanksgiving. Talk about ruining the holidays.

Many so-called horror movies delight and/or disturb us with various methods of mutilating the human body. Others try to scare us with ghosts, goblins and other things that go bump in the night. Contagion does neither. In fact, it will never be found if you click the link to horror movies the next time you’re on Net Flix. However, that’s precisely what it is. And a darned good one. The secret to the frights it gives is we can envision it really happening. At various points in the not-so-distant past many thought the events depicted here were already happening. This is a movie that plays into our collective germophobia, using it to draw us to the edge of our seats.

Invictus

Directed by Clint Eastwood.

2009. Rated PG-13, 133 minutes.
Cast:
Morgan Freeman
Matt Damon
Tony Kgoroge
Patrick Mofokeng
Matt Stern
Julian Lewis Jones
Marguerite Wheatley
Patrick Lyster
McNeil Hendricks

Newly elected South African president Nelson Mandela (Freeman) attempts to use the country’s rugby team to forge national unity in the days shortly after apartheid has ended; based on a true story.

Once again, Clint Eastwood proves you don’t need extensive fireworks to keep the audience engaged. He gives us his normal patient storytelling. Though nothing much happens in the way of action until the big game at the end, we don’t get bored. Instead, we’re fascinated by the picture being painted before us. It helps that Morgan Freeman turns in a splendid performance as Mandela. In him, we see a leader doing what he thinks is best for his country despite the fact he’s alone in his thinking.

There is no shortage of sports movie clichés. Long story short, and I don’t think I’m really spoiling anything here: an underdog team gets their act together. Think of all the movies you’ve already seen with that theme and you get the idea. It also gets to be repetitive. The typical cycle goes something like this: we see some dissention or doubt cast on what Mandela’s doing. Somehow word gets back to him and he pops up wherever the problem is and says a few magic words and everyone falls in line.

It’s a movie that manages to be good in spite of itself. Genre clichés and Mandela’s almost mystical presence threatens to overwhelm, but they never quite ruin things. It just becomes precisely what it wants to be, a feel good movie. This means that while there are reasons to knock it, it eventually wins you over.

MY SCORE: 7/10

The Adjustment Bureau

Directed by George Nolfi.

2011. Rated PG-13, 106 minutes.
Cast:
Matt Damon
Emily Blunt
Anthony Mackie
Michael Kelly
John Slattery
Terrence Stamp
Amanda Warren

Like tons of movies before it and what I’m sure will be tons more to follow, The Adjustment Bureau is about a boy chasing after the girl of his dreams. He meets her and for some reason or another she keeps getting away. This is the plot of TAB in a nutshell. Widening the scope reveals a religious debate on the free will of man vs. God’s master plan.

The boy is David Norris (Damon). At age 24, he became the youngest person ever elected to Congress. Now in his thirties, he’s working on a run for the Senate. It looks like it is going to be a successful one until an impulsive mooning incident is caught on camera. Just before he is to give his concession speech he has a chance meeting with the girl, Elise (Blunt). At least we think they meet by chance. Along with David, we soon learn that everything happens according to The Chairman’s plan. Yes, we very quickly surmise The Chairman is the name we’re using for God, even if David doesn’t.

David wasn’t supposed to learn of the plan at all, but one of the adjusters literally fell asleep on the job. This allows our hero to see other adjusters at work. Adjusters make seemingly random things happen to keep us following the plan. Of course, when they’re spotted by David they quickly get a hold of him and reluctantly fill him in on the whole plan thing and let him know two things. First, if he ever reveals the existence of the Bureau, even by accident and regardless of whether anyone believes him, his brain will be permanently wiped clean. He’ll know nothing nor be able to remember anything, an instant vegetable. Second, he’s never to see Elise ever again. That just isn’t part of the plan. Of course, this begs the question if they could completely wipe your brain or adjust your reasoning as they do to Charlie (Kelly), David’s best friend, couldn’t the adjusters simply remove his memory of them and the girl? That would certainly be more effective than hoping he does what he’s supposed to. Who am I kidding? If they did that, we’d only have about a 30 minute movie. So off he goes back into the world armed with knowledge he was never supposed to have.

As we all know, the flesh is hard to deny and our hero is determined to get the girl. Whenever he manages to get near her, the adjusters are never far behind. Throughout all this, one of them develops a soft spot for David. His name is Harry. He’s played adequately by Anthony Mackie. Harry is important both within the confines of the film as well as outside its boundaries. What he means to the story is fairly obvious. He pretty much serves as David’s guardian angel. This makes him another in Hollywood’s (and American Lit’s) long line of the archetype known as “The Magical Negro.” This is an African-American character with unnatural abilities who’s sole purpose is to aid the white protagonist. If you think I’m thoughtlessly playing the race card think about The Legend of Bagger Vance, The Matrix, The Green Mile, Bruce Almighty, Ghost, Percy Jackson & the Olympians…I could go on for a long time. It’s troubling because it is such an oft-recurring stereotype that seems harmless but reeks of subjugation. It’s also jarring in movies where that is only black character as Harry is here.

Still, I don’t deem TAB a success or failure solely based on my views of harry. He’s just one item in a very mixed bag. It’s a solid movie with an intriguing premise and fun chase scenes. It’s almost like Damon were playing Jason Bourne again, constantly on the run. The difference is David doesn’t engage in hand to hand combat and nothing blows up. It also has a spiritual aspect the Bourn movies never aspire to. This can lead t o deep, philosophical discussion, which is always good. However, it also defies its own logic for the sake of a clean ending. I have to give it credit because it ends with a brave stance if you think about what it’s saying.

True Grit (2010)

Hereafter

The Good Shepherd

Directed by Robert De Niro.
2006. Rated R, 167 minutes.
Cast:
Matt Damon
Angelina Jolie
Alec Baldwin
Tammy Blanchard
Billy Crudup
Robert De Niro
Michael Gambon
William Hurt
Timothy Hutton

The Good Shepherd is a dramatization of the events that led to the creation of the CIA. It also dramatizes the agency’s earliest days, specifically it’s involvement in the Bay of Pigs. We see things through the eyes of Edward Wilson (Damon). He’s a fictional character, but like almost everyone else in the movie, he’s based on a real-life person.

The film plays like Edward’s rise through the ranks to become the CIA director and the problems his unwavering dedication to country has caused in his marriage. However, from within the twists and turns of a spy movie emerges a film much more about father-son relationships. The absence of Wilson’s dad, who committed suicide when Edward was just a young boy, hangs over the movie. Then there are the various men who assume mentorship of Edward and the problems of trust bound to arise from associating only with people engaged in espionage. Finally, there’s Edward’s relationship with his own son that we don’t realize is important until the final act.

For enthusiasts of the genre, there are plenty of spy games played. These have the added advantage of being based on true events without stylizing them. Still, it’s not an easy movie to watch. It’s a largely monotone affair in which dialogue is almost always spoken calmly and often whispered. Matt Damon’s performance perfectly embodies all the movie wants to be. Some will be turned off by his emotionless portrayal but that’s precisely what his character is supposed to be. He handles the role well.

It is also a dialogue heavy movie that asks you to pay close attention. What happens between sentences and offscreen drive the movie. Offscreen is where most of what would be action scenes in another movie takes place. Because of this, many would consider it boring, and may have trouble following. It can indeed be difficult to delineate what exactly the point of all this is since it purposely builds slowly towards it. If you’re looking for an adrenaline rush, steer clear. If you want intrigue and don’t mind it in hushed tones, have at it.

MY SCORE: 8/10