Friday Film Festival Vol. 6: Only Slightly Late

This week's F3 is a couple days late, but really did anyone notice?

In this edition: Sin City, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Stand By Me, and Be Cool.

After last week's OC debacle, I watched again so that I could see the Episode III trailer premiere. I figured an hour of The OC was less painful than going to see Robots in the theater, especially since I could mostly ignore the show while playing Neverwinter Nights. Had I been thinking, I would have realized that they would wait until the very last break to show the trailer. It didn't work out too badly though, because by watching the entire show, I ended up getting to see the Sin City trailer as well. I'm not sure what to think of this. Have I liked Robert Rodriguez's movies? El Mariachi was great, especially for what it was; Desperado was also quite good; Once Upon a Time in Mexico was nowhere near as good but was greatly improved by Johnny Depp's role and ended up being enjoyable; Spy Kids and Spy Kids 2 were fun kids adventure movies, but Spy Kids 3 was painful crap; I still haven't been able to get myself to sit down and watch From Dusk Til Dawn. I feel like Rodriguez can be a fun director, but not the genius that many people have named him. I'm only somewhat familiar with the source material for Sin City, having just read one of the graphic novels (The Hard Goodbye) upon which the movie is based this week. I enjoyed it, and was amazed at how well Rodriguez managed to replicate the look of Frank Miller's artwork. I'm not going to get my hopes up that this will be spectacular, but I'm still planning to go see it just because it's nice to see someone have the guts to try something different than every other Hollywood movie.

So, after suffering (but not as much as I thought would) through The OC, I watched the Revenge of the Sith trailer. This actually really got me excited for the movie. If this is truly what the film is like then we may actually get a much better movie than either of the other prequels. The difference is that this appears to be that Episode III will be more action/adventure oriented which is where Lucas can excel. I think we learned from the first two that detailed political intrigue and romantic interactions are not his strong suit. I am anxious to see this, but after Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, I am also apprehensive. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy Episodes I and II, but I also know that they were seriously flawed films.

While at the library the other day, I picked up a DVD copy of Stand By Me. I was inspired to do this partly by the realization that MK had not ever seen the entire movie and partly by a visit to wilwheaton.net. We watched it, and I have to admit that I had forgotten how good it actually is. For a movie where the four main characters are all 12 or 13, the acting is surprisingly good. I'm not saying they were DeNiro in his prime or anything, but still. Watching the movie caused all sorts of memories from the time of its release to come flooding back. I was just a little younger than the characters at the time, and could find things to relate to in all of them. Ok, maybe not in Teddy (Corey Feldman) but definitely the other three. It also cracked me up to see Vern and realize that I'm looking at Jerry O'Connell. It was interesting to look at characters and realize that so many of them were played by now famous actors. Gordy's (Wil Wheaton) brother was played by John Cusack. I certainly didn't remember noticing that before, but it has been more than 10 years since I last watch the movie.

I also went to the theater to see Be Cool, which is the sequel to Get Shorty. Travolta reprises his role as Chili Palmer, gangster turned movie exec (now) turned music exec and dances with Uma Thurman as if we were in a sequel to Pulp Fiction (I know he dies in PF, I'm not being literal). I did enjoy the movie, but it didn't live up to the book, and Be Cool the novel didn't live up to Get Shorty the novel or movie. The novel felt forced, like a sequel that wasn't needed, but was made because of the movie (which is probably what it was), but the movie never felt that way, mainly because in the hands of F. Gary Gray is often became almost a slapstick and much of the comedy felt forced. The plot was even more twisted than a typical Elmore Leonard plot, which is saying a lot. Quick tangent, few people have as many crosses and double-crosses in their writing as Elmore Leonard and David Mamet, but somehow both of them get away with it because they manage to be clever enough that we tend to give them a little extra freedom. Unfortunately, if their work is put into other people's hands it can become messy and almost eye-rollingly unbelievable, which brings us back to Be Cool. (I suppose that makes this more like a chord than a tangent, but you get the point...oh, rambling, sorry). The real highlights of the film were scenes involving Cedric the Entertainer, Harvey Keitel and (surprisingly) Benjamin Andre (i.e. Andre 3000 of Outkast). Each of them, but especially Cedric, managed to own any scene they were in. The Rock, or Dwayne Johnson if you prefer, as Elliot, the gay bodyguard who wants to be a singer and an actor, was amusing, but the self-awareness was turned up a little too high. Yes, we know who you actually are; you don't have to reference it in fifteen different places (this was not the only issue with too much self-awareness in the movie, just the most repetitive--yes, Mr. Director, I caught your name on Cedric's phone, very clever indeed). I was a little confused by his character's music video which looked amazingly like the Burger King commercial for the bacon, cheddar, ranch burger where a cowboy (is that actually Darius Rucker of Hootie and the Blowfish fame?) strolls along singing and playing a guitar. Is that just a coincidence? Was it a product tie-in that I missed? I'm not sure. On that subject, however, my biggest issue with the film was the awful number of product placements. Obvious product placements. Let's list what I can off the top of my head: Diet Pepsi, Tower Records, Aerosmith, Black Eyed Peas, Domino's Pizza, Cadillac (they even had an ad campaign tie in for this one), Honda Insight, MTV. I managed to think of those in the same amount of time it took to type the list, I imagine that there were more I missed (I also didn't include the cellphone/2-way that everyone had, because I don't know what brand it was). Should you see it? If you want fun, goofy comedy with more twists than a bag of Rold Golds, sure. If you want a more Elmore Leonard-like movie experience, go for Get Shorty or Out of Sight (I should have a hard time recommending a movie with Jennifer Lopez in it, but in this case I don't.)

One final note on Be Cool, judging from what I saw in this movie, someone should make a law preventing Steven Tyler or Joe Perry from ever acting again. That was just painful.

Until later...