Archive for the 'Drama' category

DVD Review: The Departed, The Covenant

Mar 05 2007 Published by under Action Movies, Awful Movies, Drama, Movie Reviews, Movies, Oscar Worthy Movies, Pop Culture

Since Little Quip is knocking on two years old, we rarely make it out to the first run movies. Sure, there are a plethora of films featuring happy, friendly, animated creatures, but since we crave a movie for grown ups, we’re relegated to NetFlix. It’s been a while since I shared any thoughts on the crop of available DVDs, so Mrs. Quip and I sat down this weekend to catch up on a couple of recent releases.

The Departed

First up was The Departed, the Martin Scorsese directed Oscar winner. The only other nominee I have caught so far is Little Miss Sunshine, so my gauge may be a little off, but the rest of the BP nominees must have been pretty mediocre if The Departed scored the win. It wasn’t a bad movie, but it wasn’t terribly good either.

DiCaprio and Damon both did a very good job as undercover agents who have infiltrated the enemy territory and convinced their respective bosses of their loyalty. Toward the end of the film, DiCaprio tells Damon that he had the favor and trust of their boss – Jack Nicholson. The clear implication is that DiCaprio the rat, was more convincing to Costello than Damon the employee.

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of their acting. Damon (and I know a lot of people disagree with this) is simply a much better actor than DiCaprio. Maybe the problem is Damon is just much more comfortable with the Southie accent, but he’s just more convincing. The two, however, completely outclass Nicholson.

Jack has reached the end of his career and apparently decided to keep playing the same character again and again. He’s now revised the same role for Batman, Witches of Eastwick, and The Departed, to mention a few. He’s going to end up like Marlon Brando – able to charge exorbitant amounts of money for the draw of his name, but ultimately unable to capture any of the magic of his earlier roles.

The biggest problem with The Departed, however, is the story. It’s predictable, there is little intrigue, and the ending is so contrived it’s pathetic. The story builds up this semi-adversarial relationship between DiCaprio and Wahlberg, and you figure the end will feature Wahlberg coming to the defense of his undercover agent. Instead, they conveniently suspend Wahlberg’s character in some sort of other-world where he completely ceases to exist. That is until he appears at the end of the film to tidy up the damage.

The ending is evidence of Quentin Tarantino’s impact on Hollywood. In just about every one of his films, the ending is the same – everybody dies. Scorsese took a page from that playbook and came up with a concocted story, and a weak ending to achieve the same effect. If that’s what they were after with this story, they should have gone to the master and let Quentin helm the pic.

The movie was entertaining, but of all the films that could have earned Scorsese the Oscar, Raging Bull and Taxi Driver were much better. This, to me, has the feeling of “we’re sorry” Oscars. They wanted to recognize Scorsese for being passed over by rewarding a rather mediocre movie with the Best Pic and Best Director nods. If you want to see Scorsese at his best, skip this and rent Goodfellas.

The Covenant

The Covenant is one of those films that has a great premise, and yet completely fails to deliver through a combination of poor acting, poor direction, poor writing, and poor special effects. If you stirke out on every one of those, you’re done. That’s where this movie comes in. Skip it on DVD, skip it on cable, and try to avoid the overwhelming sense of shame you’ll get from watching it.

The premise is, like I said, intriguing. What if the Salem witches were, in fact, actually witches? What if they had remarkable powers, some went into hiding after the trials, and their bloodlines continued with those powers through to present day. Sounds like it could make a good movie, right? Yes. But not this one.

Instead, the writers implement the cliché machine and start cranking out pablum. About five minutes into this flick, I turned to Mrs. Quip and asked if she had figured out the storyline. She replied that she had figured out the plot, the character development and the ending. It really is that bad.

We kept watching. We were hoping for, at the very least, an awesome battle to the death between the good guy and the bad guy. What we got though, was a weak version of catch featuring sparkling orbs of goo that make the ground explode when you drop the ball. Compound that with the typical plot device of “We never found the bad guys body… hmmm… what could that mean?” and you end up with a lame set up for a possible sequel.

If you don’t mind watching a movie, knowing full well that it may make you retarded, then this is the flick for you.

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DVD Review – Derailed & King Kong

May 21 2006 Published by under Action Movies, Drama, Movie Reviews, Movies

DVD ReviewOnce the kid was born, movies in theaters became a thing of the past. Now, the wife and I are big fans of NetFlix. A while back I started to create a recurring post called the DVD Review. The thought was, I’d offer thoughts on movies after the luster of their release marketing wore off.

This week’s delivery brought King Kong, Derailed, and Pride & Prejudice. We haven’t made it through Pride & Prejudice yet, so I’ll hit the others.

Derailed – This movie didn’t have a lot to offer. At all. At any point. The plot was thin. The characters were uninteresting. The pace was slow and the story predictable. Aniston didn’t bring much to the flick, and Owen himself didn’t seem to care what happened to his character.

The movie tells the tale of a married man who meets a woman on a train, gets involved in a tryst, and ends up being mugged and watching her get raped. Shortly thereafter, the mugger begins blackmailing him. That has the potential to set up a suspenseful movie, but it never gets there. Aniston refuses to talk to the police about the brutal rape because her husband would learn of the affair – ignoring the possibility that her husband wouldn’t notice the physical trauma from the rape.

The movie spends the next 102 minutes dragging the viewer through one hackneyed premise after another. If you haven’t figured out the plot from that brief recap of the first 10 minutes of film, you might enjoy this. If, like most people, you’ve already put the whole story together, save your time and money.

Before the movie serves up the ending you have known was coming for 85 minutes, you’re trying to do your taxes in your head and wondering how you can get the last 90 minutes of your life back.

King King – Before I moved this blog to Word Press (and in doing so lost all my previous posts) I spent a lot of time railing on this picture. Only one note made it into the post-transition blog.

I’m still amazed that Paramount spent nearly $300 million to make and market this film. It’s much better than I expected, but not $200 million better. I had seen most of it in the Jurassic Park franchise. The cast spends two hours and 45 minutes of the 3:10 run time stuck on Isla Nublar Skull Island being chased by dinosaurs and giant insects. The remaining 25 minutes is spent watching Kong slide on ice in New York.

They did manage to make King Kong much more disturbing and sinister than I ever thought possible. The natives on Skull Island, for instance, were like something from under the staircase in a Wes Craven flick. Seriously, what’s with the mutants and what about a giant monkey causes their eyeballs to roll up inside their heads?

The one thing I found really interesting was the model work. I’m trying to figure out whether Peter Jackson meant for all of the models to look cheesy or if that was an accident. If you’ve seen any comments by the director on that topic, send them along.

In all, I’d be hard pressed to recommend Derailed to anyone other than insomniacs that don’t respond to medication. Kong is a good rent for the visuals. In the alternative, though, you could pull Jurassic Park or Jurassic Park III out of the cabinet and watch them. Just remember to imagine a giant gorilla thrown in with the raptors and T-Rex and you’re all set.

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Oscar Nods

Jan 31 2006 Published by under Action Movies, Awful Movies, Comedy, Drama, Movies, Oscar Worthy Movies, Pop Culture

MoviesCelebritiesSo the nominations are out… The big winner was Fatback Mountain, with 8 nominations. A number of movies scored a handful, but the story of gay cowboys is Oscar’s favorite, so far.

Honestly I think Oscar nominations must be doled out by the same people that handle US Figure Skating’s Olympic athletes. To exclude Walk The Line in the best picture category, but then include the crap-fest Crash is a crime against movies. Yes, I’m pleased that Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon got best actor/actress nods, but leaving the movie out of play for the big score is a travesty.

The media coverage will beat to death the story line about the Witherspoon/Huffman duel over best actress. On the men’s side, I’ve got to go with Phoenix despite the buzz about Hoffman.

On a final note, don’t start screwing with the color controls on your television come March 5. This years Oscars look to be a rather monochromatic event with Terrence Howard and Ang Lee providing the only diversity. Honestly, if William Hurt can get a nod for a walk-on, the Howard should have picked up a supporting actor nomination for his role in Crash (he was the bright spot in a very drab movie). He was excellent in Hustle and Flow. Unfortunately, the only chance he may have this year is if the Academy hands him an Oscar just so they can avoid the complaints about their all-white affair.)

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The DVD Review

Jan 09 2006 Published by under Action Movies, Awful Movies, Comedy, Drama, Movie Reviews, Movies

The DVD ReviewMy wife and I have an 8 month old son. He’s just at that age where he’ll remain content for about an hour to 90 minutes, then start complaining in general terms. As a result, a first-run movie, unfortunately, is a rare occasion. So I’ve become NetFlix‘ biggest fan. I’m getting my money’s worth on that $18 per month. I figure my average rental fee on any one movie is less than a dollar.

Anyway, all of this inspired me to kick off a new section – the DVD Review. It should be subtitled “I Watch The Crap So You Don’t Have To.”

With the long weekend last week and the uneventful week this week, I had time to chew through a number of flicks. There were a couple of gems, and a bunch of crap. So here we go.

The 40 Year Old Virgin – Greatness. The humor is raw and course (which my wife hates) and there is a lot of profanity that seemed unnecessary (the chest waxing scene could have been funnier with fewer f-bombs and more of the “Kelly Clarkson” shtick. I think him screaming random oddities would have been better than the names he kept calling the woman. The story is cute and moves along well. The only major issue I had with the story line was the Paul Rudd “girlfriend” thing. It added nothing.

The Brothers Grimm – The movie grim. It’s 30 minutes of my life I’ll never get back. It would have been 118 minutes, but at about 30, I couldn’t take the pain any longer and hit eject. The Bush Administration should use this movie to interrogate al-Qaeda suspects.

Four Brothers – I don’t know where to start with this golden turd. I think a friend summed it up best… “Where do these guys live that you can have a shoot out with full automatic weapons in the middle of the street, in broad daylight, for 20 minutes, and not a single cop shows up?” That was just one of two elements of suspended disbelief that I had trouble with. The rest of the movie was the other.

Must Love Dogs – This was a good date movie. The wife and I both enjoyed it. It’s sugary and sappy as all date movies are supposed to be, but it was fun. Pop it in when your wife/girlfriend wants to curl up on the couch. It’s one that she’ll enjoy and you can accept.

Saving Grace – I have a fondness for absurd British comedy. Still Crazy, Waking Ned Devine, and The Full Monty are great flicks even if you have to watch them twice to understand what the characters are saying. Saving Grace fits nicely into this category.

Into The Blue – If you liked 2 Fast 2 Furious (not the original, but the sequel) than you might like this. Just don’t expect it to move along as quickly. It’s not the most exciting movie, but if you’re into Scuba diving, some of the underwater shots are really nice.

Alexander - My thoughts? Watch Troy instead. I expected a movie about Alexander the Great. Instead, I got a movie that felt like I was sitting in on a therapy session for ATG. This movie was less Braveheart and more Analyze This. I really don’t care if Alexander the Great was neurotic because his father didn’t love him. And what the hell is the deal with Oliver Stone movies? This guy seems to spend a lot of time trying to tell us why nobody is responsible for their own actions.

So there you have it. The first round of the DVD Review. Visit us next week when we’ll try to get around to Danny Deckchair, The Constant Gardener, and Hustle & Flow

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