Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Seems like Artisan and Jon Favreau are confident they've got something special in MADE. They're showing the film all over the place right now. There was a screening here in LA last week, and we've got someone who was there to see it. In addition, theblueman has included a look at a film that's playing here in LA in limited release and that will be playing around the country in the months ahead, Tsui Hark's TIME & TIDE.
hey mori,
theblueman checking in with a couple of reviews for you, of Jon Favreau's Made, and Tsui Hark's return to Hong Kong cinema, Time and Tide (Seunlau ngaklau - ain't I pretentious?). I haven't sent in anything since my positive test screening review of Sean Penn's The Pledge (the subsequent failure of which at the box office I attribute solely to my lack of writing acumen...*coughcough*), but I've seen a few films of note recently and thought I'd share my views.
First up, Made, written and directed by Jon Favreau. I caught the screening in Westwood at the UA on Wednesday of last week, with a Q&A with favreau at the end. My friends and I got there about 6pm, the screening was scheduled for 7:30, and we were shocked to discover very few people there at all. But the line grew quickly, and by the time they let us in, the crowd of Swingers fans were raring to go. We got some okay seats, but they'd roped off a HUGE section of seats in the prime section(center middle) for "VIPS", so we had to make do with seats far too close to the screen for my taste. Still, it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the film.
Let's get something straight first before I get into Made. With the heavy involvement of Favreau and Vince Vaughn, I think it's safe to say that a large portion of the intended audience for this film will consider it Swingers 2. Favreau and Vaughn seem to acknowledge this fact, almost even embrace it, as evidenced by the various references in Made to their previous film. I'll leave it to others to catch them all, but the most obvious one is the license plate of the limo in the film, DBLDN11.
With this level of identification with the previous film, one can't help but compare the two. This is of course unfair to say the least, as Swingers is a true cult film with a huge fanbase, and quite possibly even a cultural landmark of the mid-nineties, but unfortunately it is the reality of the situation.
Which is why I'm happy to say that I thought Made was a much funnier film than Swingers. SHOCK! GASP! WHAT?! HOW DARE HE! But it's true. Made is a terrific film, not unflawed, but a good new installment in the cinematic chronicle of the Vaughn/Favreau partnership.
Jon Favreau stars as Bobby, a good guy, just trying to support his adopted family; his girlfriend Jess(Famke Janssen), and her young daughter Chloe. He's a boxer, and the film opens with him in a rather pathetic amateur bout with his best friend Ricky(played by Vaughn;more on him in a minute). Bobby would like to be a pro boxer, but his day job is working construction and driving Jess, a stripper, to bachelor parties. The latter situation isn't an ideal one, for obvious reasons, and very soon he gets himself into hot water by being the typical territorial boyfriend. This causes some consternation to his low-level crimelord boss, Max(Peter Falk), and he finds himself reassigned. Max likes Bobby, and considers him a good worker with good prospects in the organization, but unfortunately he's shackled to his friend Ricky, who, for lack of a better description, is a complete fuckup.
You see, Ricky's a jackass. He constantly gets himself into hot water, through action and more so through his incessant, annoying jabbering. He's a motormouth, who never says the right thing, and in fact, always manages to say the WORST things possible in a given situation. Vaughn as Ricky gives what is in my opinion, his best(or at least most memorable) performance to date. He's like a mean-spirited and immoral Jar Jar Binks.
In any case, Max assigns Bobby(and thus, unfortunately, Ricky) to be his emmissaries on a trip to New York. They start out with no set instructions, just an account with a car service, and $1,500 each in spending money. That's when the film really begins to shine. From there it's an unfolding oddyssey in which Ricky gets he and Bobby into more and more hot water.
That's all I'll say of the plot, which frankly is rather episodic in any case. On to the performances. Favreau, directing himself, underplays Bobby beautifully. He lends an impressive physical presence to the role, while still getting across in touching detail the humanity of the character, and we wince as he gets into each new bad Ricky-caused situation. His relationship with Jess' daughter Chloe is especially poignant, which is rather impressive considering how little screentime they share. Famke Janssen is solid, though she has very little screentime and has to deal with an odd and unfortunate about-face in terms of characterization towards the end. Peter Falk steals his scenes as you would expect. Even Sean Combs (Puff Daddy or P Diddy or Poof Doody or whatever his name is this week) is decent. Combs' character, a gangster named Ruiz, is a small role, but he doesn't fare that badly. Vincent Pastori (Big Pussy on the Sopranos) is credibly in small but key role as Jimmy, the limo driver. A couple of other Sopranos cast embers make appearances, among a plethora of other interesting cameos. I'll leave it for you guys to spot them all, but pay close attention to the bachelor party at the beginning, there's a non-actor cameo that should be of interest to fans of 90's rock.
Favreau's direction is decent for a first time effort, though there's a bit too much handheld imo.
All in all, this is a film you guys should look out for.
I also managed to catch Tsui Hark's newest flick, his return to Hong Kong filmmaking, Time and Tide. It's open in LA right now at the Nuart, but I'm not sure what the release schedule is like nationwide.
After Hark's dual Hollywood debacles Knock Off and Double Team(has any other director ever worked TWICE for Van Damme? And not been sent to a mental asylum?) Hark has returned to his roots, the high-octane Hong kong gangster epic. You may have seen his previous films Once Upon a Time in China(and the sequels) and Peking Opera Blues. I have not, but am assured they're quite good. He also produced a couple of HK films you may have heard of, The Killer and A Better Tomorrow.
Time and Tide opens with Tyler, a smartass bartender, picking up a lesbian cop, who's just had a fight with her girlfriend. Several bars and a few gallons of alcohol later, they wake up together in bed. Outraged, the cop attacks Tyler, who swears (though he knows differently) that nothing happened. She has no memory of what happened, so she leaves in a huff. Cut to nine months later, and she's very pregnant. Tyler tries to get involved with her and help her out, but she won't have anything to do with him. Rebuffed, he decides to make some money to support her and his unborn child. This involves him getting a job from his somewhat sleazy uncle, who runs a questionable bodyguard firm. During the course of one of their assignments, Tyler meets and befriends Jack, who has a wife who is also nine months pregnant. Is this beginning to sound like an action flick yet? No? Well, it is revealed that Jack is a former member of a tough South American criminal gang, who're movin g into Hong Kong after a big haul. Tyler and Jack both try and survive the continually escalating violence that surrounds them, while hoping for a way to support their families.
Believe me, that description is not nearly as overwrought as you may think, at least not in comparison to the film. The film barely has a coherent narrative, and the only thing that continues to keep us awake are acting, and the frequent and gradually intensifying action sequences, superbly shot by Hark. One sequence in particular, with Jack and the main villain on lines, shooting it out as they descend the side of an apartment building, is especially cool.
Nicholas Tse as Tyler is a cool guy, a bit goofy though, and his continuing frustration over not having a real gun is entertaining. Wu Bai as Jack is convincing as a supremely skilled killing machine, and he makes the most of the action sequences. The main villain, Miguel, played by Couto Remotigue Jr, is a disappointment however. He's a simpering, annoying little south american gangsta boy, and he conveys no real menace, and doesn't look like he'd last a minute in hand to hand combat with either of the two pregnant women. What's more, he speaks english most of the time, occasionally switching to spanish for unfathomable reasons.
The film's tone is odd, it begins as a somewhat light-hearted comedy with occasional action sequences, to full on melodrama as the action enters high gear. Time and Tide is an entertaining film, but unfortunately the plot's messiness and uneven pacing(Jack, one of the two major characters, doesn't even enter the film until halfway though, and from that point his storyline dominates, and Tyler is almost forgotten for long stretches of time) prevent it from being truly special among the HK films I've seen, especially those of John Woo.
I'll say this, though...it's about a million times better than Hark's Van Damme crapfests.
theblueman
