Gangster Squad

Gangster Squad – 113min – R

This movie feels like it was made directly from a true crime magazine. Fans of the game L.A. Noir will enjoy the film because of their overwhelming attention to detail to the time period. The performers fit into the character types and everyone performed well. However the only reason for this film is to have over an hour of rough and tough gunshots and explosions. The mighty hero fights for what is right even if he breaks the rules.

The original release date was changed because its opening weekend was schedule after the Aurora movie theater shooting. The gun violence is your typical Hollywood action fair. It was the scene with a machine gun massacre taking place in a movie theater that had to be removed from the film. This movie is nothing more than a red light film. Well acted but nothing really there. If you are interested in this time period, play L.A. Noir. You will get more out of it.

Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) is the big cheese in the Los Angeles crime syndicate. He rules the town with a hard cold demeanor. Sgt. John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) is a hard boiled ex-marine who takes his role as police officer seriously but treats it like he was on the battlefield. The Chief (Nick Nolte) likes the brutality of Sgt. O’Mara and recruits him on a covert mission to hit the gangsters hard and off the books. O’Mara’s wife, Connie (Mireille Enos) *obviously the brains of the outfit*, hand picks the men her husband is to recruit. The guerrilla-war dream team consists of:

Officer Coleman Harris (Anthony Mackie) the only black officer who stands alone in his fight against heroin in the slums.

Sgt. Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling) the good looking ex-marine who has a heart of gold but a spine of ice.

Officer Max Kennard (Robert Patrick) the fast shooting, deadly accurate, six gun wearing officer and his Mexican sidekick/disciple Officer Navidad Ramirez(Michael Peña) .

Officer Conway Keeler (Giovanni Ribisi) is the smart tactician and moral compass of the group.

They fight a lot and beat up the bad guy but they lose a few people along the way. Oh and no one gets any recognition for the work they did. But at least O’Mara gets fired for his troubles.

Emma Stone plays Grace Faraday, a moll and police informant. I thought this role was beneath her. Anyone with a pretty face could have done this job because anyone can be set dressing. Although she and Gosling do look good together and they have on-screen chemistry.

Ruben Fleischer made Zombieland a surprisingly great film so my expectations for him are kind of high. I do have to give him credit for re-editing the film to accommodate the sensitivity of the times. It was the right thing to do.

I fear this movie is going to be used in the gun control debate. If it’s used as debate ammunition it should have been a better film. The pro gun people are going to point to this and say it is the reason that there is violence in our society. Even though at the heart of this story are good guys with guns taking down bad guys with guns. The anti gun side of the argument might fall into that same category saying if we did not see violence then we would not have more of it in real life.

There is no quick and easy fix for this problem. Is there a problem? Obviously. Can we just take away all of the pictures of guns and the guns themselves to make everything better? No. Our solution is going to take a lot of work from everyone to set their own personal biases aside and really look at the solutions to the problems. I am just a movie blogger but it seems that everyone is blamestorming instead of finding real solutions. Ok stepping of my soap box now.

Warning Spoilers!!!! Only Officers not on the take allowed beyond this point!!!!!!

I have none, I have tried to think of something that goes into the spoiler section but there’s really is nothing to this movie that makes me want to talk about it anymore than I have to. It was not a horrible film it was really just a nothing film.

Sorry for getting your hopes up and not actually having anything in this section.


I am going to start working on Film Fix Fridays, what movie do you want me to take a look at to see if I can fix what is wrong with it. Yes, I know, I am arm chair quarterbacking but hey, that kind of thing can be fun.

The Ides of March

The Ides of March – 101 min – R

I was looking forward to watching The Ides of March. The Trailer makes it look like this decade’s American President. I was looking for a movie that shows a political campaign and the contenders are faced with moral questions and have to choose between what is right and what is popular. It’s a world that has tough choices and the right people make those choices and this movie is going to highlight the difficult journey of those people. Boy was I wrong. This movie was one man’s journey from idealist to jaded politician. I want to be clear, I am giving this a Yellow light because of the films problems with story, and not because I was disappointed at the movie’s true direction.

The story surrounds Stephen Myers (Ryan Gosling), a member of a Governor Mike Morris’s (George Clooney) presidential campaign. He and Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman) are the campaign managers. They work through a staff of young people who all believe in Morris’s message and his view of the future. Paul Giamatti plays Tom Duffy, campaign manager for Morris’s opponent. Duffy is a shrewd player in the political jungle, bringing a devious political expertise to the story. The race is being covered by reporter Ida (Marisa Tomei), who is outstanding in this role. She really did a great job as a political reporter that keeps her eye on the story. Molly Stearns (Evan Rachel Wood) is a young campaign intern and Stephen’s love interest. Jeffrey Wright plays a Senator who is selling his endorsement for a cabinet posting. They escort us on journey of sacrificing political ideals on the altar of politics. This is not the story of a politician who has to make the right hard choices. It’s more a story of Icarus who flies too close to the sun and falls to earth. As good as each of these performances were, I did not like most of the characters. The only character I mildly liked was Paul, because through this story he was the only one who was consistent. My problem was in this entire movie there are no good guys. There is no one whom you feel for.

This movie was heavy handed and at times overbearing in its political message. Politics is bad. I don’t think that people today really need to be told that. If anything, we could use a message that shows us a different way of doing things. A way that we can point to as an example and say “this is how we should act, this is the standard we need to hold our political figures to.”

George Clooney had a hand in most of the production in this movie. He co-wrote, directed, performed and produced. I would caution anyone who has enough power to do this that having complete control over a production can make it hard to get objective views during the creation of a movie. I am reminded of another George who does everything but perform and his movies have suffered from the lack of creative input from his staff. A movie is not one person’s vision but a collaboration of skills from several talented people to make someone idea come alive. One example of this is some of the dialogue coming from Ryan Gosling sounds like it is coming right out of George Clooney. You can see similar pacing coming from each of the characters. Grant Heslov also helped write this movie and he has some great movies under his belt and I have enjoyed his acting one of my favorites is in True Lies, We need to see him in more movies.

WARNING Spoilers: No Members of the Press Beyond this point.

I was completely angry at Stephen when he was giving his speech to Molly about how if you make a mistake you have to take your lumps and step away. He was right in the same spot not a minute later with Paul telling him he made a mistake. Hypocrite, I am still brisling over that scene.

Jennifer Ehle was completely underused in this film. She was really just a set dressing through the entire picture. She has one touching scene with the Governor in the car but really she was under used in this film. Her performance in Contagion was much better role for her.

Philip Seymour Hoffman steals the movie in one look. He steps out of a dinner, lights up a smoke and then gets called into a car. He sets his cigarette down on a ledge of a brick wall before he gets in and the wind blows it off the ledge. As he gets out of the car just receiving the news he is off the campaign, he looks down at the cigarette that has blown onto the street, it is such a small gesture but it completely symbolizes his disappointment.

What movie presidential candidate would you vote for?

Drive

DRIVE - 100min - R

Drive is a perfect example of great execution in filmmaking. The precision in timing, pacing, cinematography and storytelling are testaments to the creator’s talent. From the first scene you are plunged into a dark noire view of LA and its characters. This is movie making at its finest. But I have to be honest and say that I was not very entertained. Let’s sum up by saying I appreciate the art of this film, but I won’t be seeing it again. I give this movie a green light because of the exquisite film making, but because I didn’t enjoy the journey, I will have to default it down to a yellow.

The Driver (Ryan Gosling) is a Hollywood stunt driver by day and at night he works at a garage. He is also a part time wheelman -- no questions asked. He is a god behind the wheel. The Driver gets involved with the family next door. Irene (Carey Mulligan), and her son, Benicio (Kaden Leos), are awaiting the return of her husband Standard (Oscar Isaac). The Driver helps them out and gets caught up in their problems when the father’s past comes back to threaten their new beginning. The acting was terrific. The one that stands out is Albert Brooks who shocked me as a cold-blooded killer. I can’t remember him doing a role like this. He was chilling. Ron Pearlman is doing his bad guy routine and that is something he does well. Ryan Gosling’s character was very stoic and laconic through the entire picture. His performance reminded me of the gunslinger played by Yul Brynner in The Magnificent Seven. It’s harder to get the feeling of a character through when you have almost no dialog to work with. It’s a testament to his skill as a performer that he could relay so much emotion with so few lines.

The director Nicolas Winding Refn did an awesome job of captaining this picture. I have not seen anything else from him but I am going to be looking to correct that. I wonder what elements form this film will be used in other films. I look forward to more movies from him. The screenwriter was Hossein Amini another new one for me, I am going to have to keep an eye out for them in the future. His story had elements that were caked in subtext and alternate meanings. I liked the choices that his characters had to make.

DRIVE PAST HERE!!! Spoiler Warning!!!!!

I really love one part of the elevator scene, when he has to make a choice to be with the woman he loves or turning into the monster that she needs to protect her. In doing so he realizes that he can never be with her. And the way that the scene was framed in the elevator was great work. The door closing between him and her is great symbolism.

Carey Mulligan is a wonderful actress. Her performance in this film is great. Love the torn expressions of a woman who has to do the right thing for her family but loves this new person in their lives. The burgeoning relationship between them is well done.

The kicking a person’s head flat was one that could have been shortened. Ryan Goslings rage was a bit too long and it did not play well. There were chuckles from the audience when I went to see it. I wonder if they were caught in not knowing what emotion to relay? I think he is too much a hero type to dabble in the dark vigilantly story elements. But I could be wrong. I would have never picked Albert Brooks as the mob boss either.

Christina Hendricks was also in the film but her role was a small one with very little to work with. She needs to do more movies. I have enjoyed her body of work on the small screen, but Hollywood needs to give her a role with some substance.

I have had long conversations about the movie Crash with my sister. She and I had two views on the film, she did not like it and I did. I understand her point of view now. I know this was a really well done film, but I did not get enjoyment from the journey it took me on. What movies have you had the same feeling about?

Crazy, Stupid, Love.

Crazy, Stupid, Love. – 118min – PG-13

It has been a while since I have seen a good comedy that layers story elements as finely as this movie did. This film has an excellent sense of comedic timing and was enjoyable to watch. There are three sets of couples all working on finding and defending love. The cast was well chosen and I felt each did a stupendous job in bringing these everyday struggles to light. I really love the humor in this film. I can’t remember the last film that made me laugh out loud. The writing was so well done I was completely taken over by the story and taken in with the journey of these characters. This movie gets a green light from me.

Cal (Steve Carell) and his wife Emily (Julianne Moore) open the movie by getting a divorce. This is a heavy topic to start a comedy with. They really worried me about setting a tone of a dark comedy but this is not the case. We also see Hannah (Emma Stone) get approached by a pickup artist by the name of Jacob (Ryan Gosling) who gives her the full court press but she refuses his advances. Lastly we have Robbie (Jonah Bobo) a kid who is in Middle school who is in love with his babysitter Jessica (Analeigh Tipton) a high school student. All of these couples carefully contend with the same elements of love, relationships and self discovery. The journey that is life takes them all for a spin and we see real character growth.

There are several enjoyable aspect to this movie but one that stands out for me is Cal’s journey toward rediscovering himself. Jacob sees Cal in the bar and has a soft spot for him and in a Mr. Miyagi fashion gives him a makeover he desperately needs. The main focus of the film is Cal and how he deals with getting his life back on track, and how he approaches relationships. One thing this movie does well is keep the focus on hope and not give in to the easy joke or the canned Hollywood elements when it delivers its message.

I have to hand it to writer Dan Fogelman: he does do an entertaining story. I have to say I did not recognize his name until I looked him up. His writing credits include Cars, Tangled and Bolt. I have enjoyed the stories that he has done in the past so unbeknownst to me I am a fan of his work. This is something a little different than his normal film milieu but it’s defiantly one of his better films. The co-directors, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, did a great job of translating this script into live action. They have worked on other films but I have not seen them and it looks like they have only directed one other film. They collaborated on I Love You Phillip Morris as directors.

Spoiler Warning!!!! Do not look beyond this point!!! Unless you want to.

Ok the timing of the surprises in this film took me in and I had absolutely no idea they were going to cross paths as much as they did. I loved how they added the complexity to the funny moments. I am thinking of the back yard scene when everything comes to a head. As fun as that was, I really loved how it was a realization moment that nothing is going to be the same ever again.

Another scene was the end. Typically the average American viewer wants to have everything tied up neat and tidy at the end. I loved how they ended the story with a hopeful message one that really says that nothing ever gets completely resolved but all of the characters had a better perspective of how things were going to change from there. It left them and me hopeful.

One of the better moments is when Cal realizes that being a ladies’ man is not for him. I love how characters grow in this movie. Film makers seem to not give that as much attention as they should. The line I really liked from this discovery is “It was not about showing you, it was about getting on with my life.” Good stuff.

I forgot to mention that Kevin Bacon and Marisa Tomei were wonderful in this film, I completely spaced they were in this, I was so taken by the main players. I do want to say that Marisa Tomei hit it out of the park Kevin Bacon was excellent as the office love that is awkwardly trying to fit in.


What is one movie that took you in a direction you were not expecting? What was it and how were you surprised.