Hey folks, Harry here with my freshly crusty seaman friend Quint here to give you his salty look at what he thought of a pair of flicks he saw this week... And I'll be coming atcha soon with my ENEMY AT THE GATES review. Till then, read on me friends....
Ahoy there, squirts. 'Tis I, the uncannily crusty seaman, Quint, here, taking a breather from transcribing my latest interview to give you good people my opinion on two of the big movies coming up. Don't worry all you Ghosts of Mars veterans out there. I'll keep it short and sweet.
Let's start with 15 Minutes. I saw this one first. The trailer for the film had me interested, but not terribly excited, so I had no idea what to expect going in to this film. De Niro has been successful at comedy recently. Would he be able to turn that success to his dramas?
For those who don't know, the movie's about 2 foreign guys, one Czech and the other Russian, who come to America after being imprisoned to meet up with the one that got away from the heist with all the cash. The big Russian guy has a secondary motive for coming to America. He wants to follow in the footsteps of his hero, Frank Capra, and make movies.
Things go awry and they end up taping their "adventures" through New York, making a macabre movie. Hot on their tails are young, "let's do it right, by the numbers" fire marshal Ed Burns and alcoholic, camera loving detective to the stars Robert DeNiro.
This movie was much harder than I anticipated it being. In tone, it felt a lot like the buddy cop dramas of the '70s. Truth be told, the movie takes about 15-20 minutes to get going for me, but I was never uninterested in what was going on in the first part, it's just the pace didn't pick up until Ed Burns and Bobby DeNiro met up around the end of reel one.
DeNiro and Burns just clicked for me. They had a very definite chemistry and right on dialogue that kept things always real and interesting. Kelsey Grammer's Tabloid TV host character is disturbingly realistic. Just like DeNiro and Burns' characters, I could see Grammer's character easily existing in our reality.
The movie brings up a lot of questions about the media and how it handles certain news. "If it bleeds, it leads," says Grammer in the film. We all know that violence and sex both sell, and I have no problem with that, but how far will the media go to ensure the big ratings? The film seems to make the news out to be more for entertainment purposes now (big duh), than for the actual news. Grammer treats his on the scene reports like it's a movie shoot. He follows DeNiro on an arrest early on in the film and when his camera crew is late arriving and misses the action, he literally asks for another take. "Could you do that again?"
Now we all know that most news shows are a joke today, but 15 Minutes pushes it to the limit. As heavyhanded as that sounds, the movie is quite entertaining, if not a tad bit predictable. There were certain plot points, however that just flew right out of left field and caught me (happily) off guard. Curveballs are your friend.
Is it worth your time? Definitely. The acting is top notch, the characters, bad and good, are fleshed out and very interesting. The score, too, is pretty fun. I mean, you gotta love any movie that makes ya' think of the glorious '70s cop flicks. Now, this movie is no French Connection, but then again, what is? Is it worth Full Price... hmmm... I'd say yes. It'll make you think, but won't give you a headache.
The other movie I saw this week, tonight actually, was the Jude Law/Ed Harris/Joseph Fiennes WW2 movie, Enemy At the Gates. Goddamn was that an intense movie! Really, from the trailer I wasn't expecting it to be as nailbiting and bloody as it was.
The movie is about a young Russian soldier, played by Jude Law, who becomes almost singularly responsible for keeping the Nazis from overtaking Stalingrad and thus keeping Hitler from taking all of Europe. He is proven to be Russia's best sniper.
Joseph Fiennes plays a Russian Officer given the task of raising morale among the men. The "don't give up or we'll shoot you ourselves" tactic didn't seem to be working, so Bob Hoskins' Krushchev puts Fiennes in charge of finding a hero to get the army fired up again, give them a purpose and goal once more. He uses Law's exemplery sniping and Law soon becomes famous, for good and for bad. The Nazis answer back by sending their top marksman, Ed Harris to find and kill that pesky young Russian.
Ed Harris is one bad motherfucker in this movie. His steel blue eyes are chilling and scary as hell. This man could fuck you up ten ways from Sunday. You can just tell this is a guy you do not want to mess with. In a cat and mouse movie like this, it is crucial to get a cat (Harris) that is all but unstoppable. I never felt like Law's Vassily Zaitsev was undoubtedly going to win. I never felt that he was 100% sure going to be the victor.
Too often in movies nowadays, you'll have a hero who you know has no problem beating the villain. There is no tension in movies like those. Not so for Enemy at the Gates, which is chockful of tension. There was never a moment where I didn't think Ed Harris wouldn't obliterate Jude Law given a half a chance. "Oh, man! Jude Law is so fucked!" was a common thought through this movie. Harris also plays a real person, believe it or not. He's given a bit of history and is a living, breathing character.
Jude Law holds his own. I was never a big fan of The Talented Mr. Ripley, but I always thought Jude Law did a good job and looked forward to his future movies, hoping to be affected the way most seemed to be by Ripley. Now he's carried a movie that I love. Law was always believable in all aspects of his character, be it in combat or out.
There are two supporting characters I'd like to bring up for a second. One is Ron Perlman as a sniper that learned from Ed Harris' character and is brought in to help Jude Law take Harris down. Perlman is always fun to watch and Enemy at the Gates is no exception. He has a mouth full of silver teeth, for godssakes.
The other is young Gabriel Thomson, a boy of about 12 who idolizes Law's character. He wants to see Law victorious and even puts himself into danger to help feed Law information... or his he really feeding information to the Germans? Maybe playing both sides? You'll have to see the movie to find out, but I will say that he's one of my favorite characters in the movie.
The blood. This movie has a lot of it. It has some amazingly horrific bullet hits. You feel each shot, each wound, it's that good. There are some shots in this film that I'm surprised the MPAA let me see, given how picky they've been lately. You get to see sucking shrapnel wounds, you get to see a crowd of people taken out by airplane machinegun fire, you get a dozen graphic headshots and even a few dismembered arms and legs.
Then you got the love story. The Mummy's Rachel Weisz plays the girl that both Jude Law and Joseph Fiennes pine for, a female soldier who wants to kill some Nazis for personal reasons. This is cause for many complications in the story and glorious they are. I think she's absolutely gorgeous... I heard word afterwards from others that didn't agree, but that's fine. I'm glad they don't agree. A few less people to worry about contending for her. She wears no (obvious) make-up in the movie, but that just made her more attractive to me. I don't know. I guess that's just a seaman thing. It's the same little voice telling me that I like Weisz in Enemy at the Gates that tells me I like Michelle Yoeh more without make-up. Go figure.
Anyway, there's a little something for everyone in this movie. Gore for the gorehounds, action for those easily bored, fine acting for those sticklers out there, good score, romance, comedy, drama and all that good shit. Jammed packed this movie is.
I cannot recommend this movie strongly enough. Enemy at the Gates is my favorite movie of the year, so far. We'll see how long it holds that spot, but as of right now it's number one. I'm a sucker for a good, bloody, intense war movie, what can I say?
All right. Short and sweet, just like I said. Keep yer eyes on the horizon, squirts. That interview I be transcribin' with S-Mart's Employee of the Month will be before you shortly. Until then, farewell and adieu.
-Quint
Avast me maidens, if'n it be a seaman you want, write here!
