I don’t have a short attention span, I’m willing to invest three hours, maybe four or five on a film that I think will ultimately end up being very good. I’ve seen “Ben-Hur”, and “Giant” and both were movies that were worth spending many hours on. When a film is great, a four hour movie can feel like five minutes and leave you wishing there were more, but when a movie is bad those four hours feel like an eternity, as did “Dogville”. I knew independent art films could be pretentious and rambling, it comes with the package, but I never knew they could be this pretentious and this utterly nonsensical.
Monthly Archives: June 2005
Cypher (2002)
“Cypher” has an excellent concept presented to the audience on-screen, and that’s what’s disappointing. The film is a socially relevant observation of two (what I can assume are) humongous corporations fighting for dominance in a futuristic world of greed and deception, these two humongous companies are shifty and cold and use their employees to represent them in apparently mundane meetings about stock and products. This is an excellent topic and brilliant concept that could have made for one of the most thought provoking gems that went undiscovered. When the film ended (I was so happy when it did) I was left boggling my brain wondering how good this film could have been.
A Joker’s Card (2004)
“A Joker’s Card” is possibly one of the more ambitious DC fan films I’ve come across in years. As a comic geek, I’ve admittedly seen very little fan films, but this one was surprisingly good. I wasn’t expecting much in terms of quality, but director Wu takes what he has and turns it in to a very colorful off-beat fan film that spoofs Batman’s rogues gallery. Imagine the villains and heroes off-spring attempting to create their own crimes and chaos. Dick Grayson’s son Nick has a bondage fetish, the Joker’s and Mr. Freeze’s sons are working together to kill Gotham’s off-spring of heroes to inflict their own crimes but are met with obstacles when Wonder Woman’s daughter decides to save the day. I was just laughing my ass from beginning to end because while it is a fan film, its intention is to charmingly spoof the Batman lore and it pulls it off well.
Batman Begins (2005)
You’ve probably heard this a lot since this film came out, but fuck it, I feel like saying it too. They finally got it right. Finally. After long years of imagining what the Batman franchise could have been, my hopes finally come to fruition. Finally. Batman is now Batman. Finally. Batman is a dark menacing figure who doesn’t wear silver specks on his costume. Finally. Batman is a really layered character. Finally. And here’s an incredibly wild concept: Batman gets more screen time than the two villains in the film. Finally. This is “Batman Begins”, this where it started, and I couldn’t be happier. There’s this feeling from beginning to end that we’re being given something that we were missing in the old franchise. There’s depth, psychology, warmth, heart, subtext, and so much amazing storytelling, all of which lacked for the better part of the first “Batman” franchise.
A Joker's Card (2005)
“A Joker’s Card” is possibly one of the more ambitious DC fan films I’ve come across in years. As a comic geek, I’ve admittedly seen very little fan films, but this one was surprisingly good. I wasn’t expecting much in terms of quality, but director Wu takes what he has and turns it in to a very colorful off-beat fan film that spoofs Batman’s rogues gallery. Imagine the villains and heroes off-spring attempting to create their own crimes and chaos. Dick Grayson’s son Nick has a bondage fetish, the Joker’s and Mr. Freeze’s sons are working together to kill Gotham’s off-spring of heroes to inflict their own crimes but are met with obstacles when Wonder Woman’s daughter decides to save the day.
Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
That’s it, I’m done. I’m giving up and packing it in. I don’t get it, I just don’t get it. What’s the big deal? Honestly. I love comedy that has awkward pauses, and this doesn’t have it. It’s just films like these that make me just want to stop and walk off in to the sunset. I don’t get it. After months and months of hype and good reviews, and buzz, and fan reaction, and watching people imitate lines from this, I bought in to it like a sucker and assumed that perhaps I was in for a really great comedy that was turning rapidly in to a cult classic, and then on the ten minute mark sirens went off on my head. I can usually tell when a movie is going to suck about ten minutes in to it, and suddenly, I knew this was really crappy.
The Machinist (2004)
“The Machinist” is such an accomplishment, an accomplishment that, big surprise, went almost unnoticed in Hollywood. It’s utterly refreshing in this day and age to watch a movie so intellectually stimulating, it’s fulfilling to watch a psychological thriller that demands the audience watch, pay attention, follow along, and decipher for themselves without falling in to the usual Hollywood conventions. Brad Anderson instills a lot of atmosphere and slow paced tension here for the audience, creating such a brilliant Lynch-esque labyrinth of a murder mystery.