Iro's Film Diary

#454 - The Lone Ranger
Gore Verbinski, 2013



A Texas ranger who has been left for dead teams up with a Native American tracker in order to bring a gang of murderous thieves to justice.

Right from the moment that this film opens with Johnny Depp's wizened Tonto telling his life story as part of a dusty sideshow exhibit is punctuated with flat comedic cues, it was obvious that The Lone Ranger would face an uphill battle. While it does suffer from modern blockbuster excess and some issues when it comes to balancing tone (the opening scene does indicate how the film's further attempts to address the white man's poor treatment of Native Americans in the face of Manifest Destiny don't exactly mesh too well with the film's general Pirates of the Caribbean vibe), it's not completely without merit as it has a few moments of technical decency (especially in the much-lauded finale, which was my main reason for watching it), but I'm ultimately more disappointed than angry at it.

__________________
Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

#455 - Fright Night
Craig Gillespie, 2011



A high school student has his normal life disrupted when his childhood friend suspects that their new neighbour is a vampire.

While the opening scenes of the Fright Night remake do suggest that it has updated the premise for the worse (not just through a clichéd horror cold-open but by changing the protagonist to a cool kid whose embarrassingly nerdy friend is the first to discover the vampire) but it definitely improves as it goes along. Credit must go to Buffy the Vampire Slayer alumnus Marti Noxon for penning the new version and working in some decent additions that flesh out the story well in between the moments that feel too familiar (there's even a scene that I reckon must be a deliberate homage to the car scene from Children of Men, but what really made me notice its hidden strength was an earlier scene involving a six-pack of Budweiser). Throw in some competent (if not amazing) displays of horror-based action and some scenery-chewing performances by Colin Farrell and David Tennant and this actually inches its way towards being one of the better horror remakes of recent years.

An American Werewolf in London is a childhood favorite of mine and I've always been interested in its (lesser) counterpart. But because it's not hailed as being amazing and generally a lesser though still not exactly lackluster werewolf movie, since it still has some reputation. But alas, I've never seen it. I'm rather interested now though because of your rating.

I LOVE Bad Boys... but the other one though. But seriously, I actually saw the Penn one first, back in a very early age and because I was young I was pretty indifferent to it. Looks like I might not be missing something with a possible rewatch...

Unfortunately, I was the other way around - more angry than disappointed with Lone Ranger. I didn't downright hate it, but a little bit and mostly I was just annoyed with the humor, the style, the everything pretty much. I hated Hammer, but Depp did decent as another Depp-dresses-up character. The action was bloated and dumb but admittedly entertaining at times. You lowered your rating a bit I see.

As mentioned earlier I share your fairly positive thoughts towards the Fright Night remake... I thought it was a pretty good modern horror movie and especially a good remake.

__________________
/watching movies for mark f/
MovieMeditation's Cinema Reviews // Film Diary 2015 // Letterboxd Profile // MovieMeditation's Top 50 Horror

I'm honestly sad that I can't get into An American Werewolf in London the way so many others seem to. I gave it a when I revisited it last year, which I concede is a little low, but I don't feel like I can personally give it more than . I recognise its greatness, but something about it just doesn't click for me. People like to treat me like some kind of insatiable hard-ass who hates on classics for the hell of it but a sizeable fraction of that comes from me just struggling to genuinely enjoy a good film. Nobody's more frustrated by that than me.

Heh, as soon as I saw the rep I was wondering how you'd take the fact that I watched the "other" one. In any case, it kept reminding me of Alan Clarke's Scum, which is like this movie except more British and genuinely horrifying (while also having significantly more substance to boot).

Yeah, yeah, rating changes happen, especially when I start typing out some detailed thoughts in ways that force me to rethink my overall opinion of the film. The humour is definitely not as good as it could be - as noted, the opening scene decides to take an old Native American having to play wax statue in an amusement park for a living and opts to indulge some broadly comical facial tics, which really darkened my expectations. It definitely seemed more tolerable than any Pirates sequel, at least.

Pretty much, for the first 15 minutes I thought it'd be some douchey cash-in but it managed to hold its own well enough.

I agree with your complaints about The Lone Ranger in that its kind of political commentary doesn't work with its attempt to be a Disney blockbuster. I liked the political overtones and also how like many films that inspired it it deals with the changing of the West and introduction of technology. I think it's clear from Rango that Verbinski has great appreciation for the genre, but here is compromised by studio expectations.

__________________

#456 - Hacksaw Ridge
Mel Gibson, 2016



Based on the true story of Desmond T. Doss, a conscientious objector who joined the U.S. Army as a combat medic during World War II.

In many respects, Hacksaw Ridge plays out like your standard based-on-a-true-story narrative about a war hero. A home life that may range from the idyllic to the traumatic but almost never feels like it's not worth defending from the homeland's enemies, a journey through basic training that allows for the development of friendships or animosity (or both) with comrades-in-arms, and - last but not least - deployment to the battlefield where the hero's story truly gets told. The main difference with Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield) is that, while he earnestly wishes to do right by the country he loves, he steadfastly refuses to ever touch a weapon. While there are multiple reasons given by the film to explain his decision, the one that is ultimately given priority is his unwavering devotion to being a Seventh-Day Adventist that naturally extends to honouring "thou shalt not kill". From there, he goes through many figurative and literal trials that test his commitment to his principles (especially at the eponymous location). This is an interesting variation upon the war-hero formula that actually manages to make its anti-war rhetoric seem genuine (which makes it all the more disappointing when there are certain scenes that effectively contradict the effort that's been put into making the rest of the film work).

Though it does veer into clichés and schmaltz from time to time (especially during the first act), Hacksaw Ridge somehow manages to make it emotional moments feel sufficiently (if never completely) earned. Some solid actors are assembled to off-set Garfield's admittedly gormless (but not totally ineffective) starring turn - Hugo Weaving delivers a strong supporting turn as Doss's veteran father, while unlikely candidates such as Sam Worthington and Vince Vaughn are put to decent use in some stiff-necked military roles. Though the dramatic side of things is only just on the right side of the good-bad divide, Gibson adequately compensates by focusing his notorious fascination with brutality into some genuinely gruesome depictions of war as hell. The last hour of the film effectively becomes a single protracted set-piece, but the length works in favour of making the nightmarish scenario feel as endless to us as it does to the Americans we observe (the Japanese, decidedly less so). There are significant flaws within Hacksaw Ridge that can be noted both during the film and upon subsequent reflection, but it ultimately comes out on top thanks to Gibson's uncompromising sense of craft and ability to (mostly) walk a fine line between earnest commemoration of its subject and unflinching portrayal of the visceral atrocities he endures. It's a powerful film, if not necessarily a great one.

#457 - Creepshow
George A. Romero, 1982



An anthology of horror stories that are collected in the eponymous comic book.

Mixing together Stephen King and George Romero proves a surprisingly inspired choice that may get off to a rocky start with the somewhat dull "Father's Day" segment, but definitely improves with each new installment (except maybe "The Crate"). The use of a comic book to frame each tale makes for a particularly inspired choice that allows Romero to go all-out on a visual level as the colours become bolder while various compositions and effects mimic comic-panel layouts. The results may not be especially scary but the tales and the characters within them are out-sized enough to be entertaining anyway (with particular highlights including King himself as an inept hillbilly and Leslie Nielsen of all people as a sadistic kidnapper).

#458 - Midnight Special
Jeff Nichols, 2016



When a man kidnaps his unusually gifted son from a religious cult, it sparks a statewide manhunt.

Nichols is a filmmaker I've struggled a bit to truly get into even as I can appreciate the qualities of what I've seen so far; in this case, Midnight Special might edge towards being my favourite of his things even if it is because its mysterious sci-fi plot lends extra structure to his typically flexible approach. This results in a consistently tense little film that may not be thrilling enough to really count as a thriller but definitely has enough moments of intrigue and suspense that ensure it remains consistently interesting. Given how Nichols tends to favour character over plot anyway, it's just as well that this film benefits from solid turns from not only Nichols regular Michael Shannon but also from the likes of Adam Driver and Kirsten Dunst.

#459 - Stretch
Joe Carnahan, 2014



In order to pay off his sizeable gambling debts, a limousine driver agrees to take on a dangerously eccentric client.

I generally don't think too much of Carnahan's output, but it does seem like I prefer him when he's being more serious than funny. Stretch feels like a successor to his earlier hitman caper Smokin' Aces with its tale of a semi-likeable schmuck (Patrick Wilson, who I do tend to like even in his weaker movies) struggling to survive an onslaught of crazy characters against one very lurid backdrop and increasingly absurd stakes. Despite its brief and frantic tale, Stretch barely does anything to give itself an edge as its shallow thematics are effectively lost in the shuffle of garish Hollywood excess and smarmy neo-noir. Special note has to go to Chris Pine's very against-type turn as Wilson's wealthy but deranged passenger (to say nothing of the occasionally interesting score).

#461 - Idiocracy
Mike Judge, 2006



An ordinary man is cryogenically frozen for 500 years and wakes up in a future where the average person has incredibly low intelligence.

This is one of those viewings where I've effectively seen most of the movie anyway and know how it ends but never saw the whole thing from start to finish, which definitely works against a movie that's as reliant on a single joke as Idiocracy manages to be. Mike Judge may have built a career on creating subtly intelligent comedies about complete idiots, but Idiocracy never seems to get the balance right between witty stupidity and regular stupidity. There are some decent performers in the mix and there's something to be said for the visual element of this particular dystopia that make it play like Brazil's white-trash American cousin. Beyond that, it's too slight to really do much more than provide an easy punchline that may not necessarily lack for relevance these days but doesn't hold up all that well either.

#462 - Firefox
Clint Eastwood, 1982



A traumatised Vietnam veteran is assigned a mission where he must go undercover in Soviet Russia and steal an experimental fighter jet.

With Firefox, I'm seriously questioning my commitment to making my way through Eastwood's directorial back catalogue. It starts off promisingly by having Eastwood play a veteran whose PTSD threatens to complicate his high-stakes spy mission, but it slowly and surely wears out its welcome as it shifts from tense little cat-and-mouse vignettes to increasingly tedious examples of derring-do. Whatever Eastwood-directed piece I watch next, I hope it's got more going for it than this.

I really don't know what to expect in terms of my enjoyment of Gibson's latest. I imagine it cheesy, corny and heroism-inforced with a few highlights, probably in the action department. We'll see when I get around to it...

I think I've only seenCreepshow 2... I liked the concept and feel of it, i should probably make time for the first some day. I really like what I have seen from Nichols so far, but I have yet to see Midnight Special. I really hope to like it. I've been interested in Stretch before, on more than one occassion, but I've never went about actually watching it. Looks like I don't miss anything.

Of course I first saw them in the 80's as a teen, but there's 4 old favorites of mine with Fright Night, The Howling, Bad Boys, and Creepshow. On the other hand, I remember Firefox being a snoozefest.

Looking forward to Hacksaw Ridge and Midnight Special, the latter I'll be watching next weekend.

I dont know if youve seen it already but Tightrope was no pip to watch. Other than that I cant think of anymore Eastwood duds. Yeah Firefox was dull.

I saw Bronco Billy at the drive-in and hated it. I was only 9 though.

It was the same night I first watched I Spit on Your Grave

#463 - Heartbreak Ridge
Clint Eastwood, 1986



An ageing Marine sergeant is assigned to train a platoon of extremely undisciplined recruits.

While I'll definitely concede that Heartbreak Ridge is considerably more engaging than Firefox, it's still a film that I feel hard-pressed to actually enjoy or appreciate. The script seems to be built almost entirely out of one-liners as a variety of foul-mouthed military types square off against one another to the point where it practically feels like parody - this same slight absurdity extends to Eastwood's characteristically blunt run-through of the action. At least it does a half-decent job of undercutting its military machismo that makes it more tolerable than you'd expect from a film that feels like it inspired Full Metal Jacket in all the wrong ways.

#464 - Uncommon Valor
Ted Kotcheff, 1983



In order to rescue his son from a Vietnamese P.O.W. camp, an Army colonel reunites the surviving members of his son's unit.

All things told, this is a fairly solid men-on-a-mission film that makes decent use of its "bring our boys home" set-up. It helps to have the always dependable Gene Hackman as the intrepid squad leader, though the rest of the casting proves decent and allows for the squad itself to have good chemistry together. This is borne out by the guerrilla warfare on display being simple without ever being dull, which is about as much as you can ask for from a film of this type.

#465 - The Passionate Friends
David Lean, 1949



A married woman reunites with an old flame and starts having an affair with him.

This is about what I'd expect from early Lean as it offers up an unremarkable yet competent and brief tale of romantic drama. There's some decent monochromatic photography (especially the many shots of the French countryside) and at least a couple of good performances (Claude Rains being the obvious stand-out) but otherwise it's a passable piece of work that makes me think I should revisit Brief Encounter at some point.

#466 - The Doom Generation
Gregg Araki, 1995



A young couple and a dangerous hedonist go on the run together after they are involved in a violent crime.

For some reason, even the best films about Generation X tend to strike me as being at least a little silly. Maybe it's because looking back at them shows how much they really struggle to adequately reflect a whole-new collective of angsty youths without coming across as naive or exploitative (or both). The Doom Generation starts off in very much the same vein as the likes of subUrbia or S.F.W. (which is still better than the likes of Reality Bites or Empire Records). Fortunately, underneath the gory violence, raw sexuality, and annoying characters is a strangely appreciable sense of existentialism as its lead trio get into all sorts of cross-country misadventures that extend from the blackly comic to the genuinely disturbing and all points in between. At the very least, its twisted sense of sincerity goes some way towards making its rougher edges work out in the film's favour.

#467 - Oliver Twist
David Lean, 1948



A young orphan growing up in Victorian England runs away from his harsh environment and falls in with a gang of pickpockets.

Much like Great Expectations, this sees Lean carry out an uncomplicated but professional Dickens adaptation that is capable of showing off his capacity for a fine period work in terms of both its well-performed drama and remarkable art direction. Shame about Alec Guinness's...shall we say...ill-considered appearance as Fagin. How many different ethnicities did he play for Lean anyway?