Movie Review Catch Up III (2010) [MASSIVE F**K UP EDITION]

 

So I’m way behind! I’ve been busy with a few things but unacceptable excuses aside, here’s a catch up. Because of the work load I’m going to provide some long reviews on the films I’d like to elaborate on and some short 2 to 3 sentence reviews (following my brother‘s footsteps in a way) for the rest of the films I’ve seen.

Cop Out

Two New York detectives must track down a rare baseball card for their own means by dealing with a tangled web of characters that go from organised criminals to petty thugs. Starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan as the couple of dicks this is the first Warner Bros. movie to be directed by Kevin Smith. The screenplay is by Robb & Mark Cullen (otherwise known as the Cullen Brothers) which also makes it the first film to be directed by Mr. Smith and not written by.

Cop Out is a film with the intent of homaging the buddy cop movies of a not too long ago yesteryear. Its setting and story are not without their flaws but are not without their merit. Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan give good enough performances (although Tracy can only really go so far with what is essentially a badly written character). I guess the problem with Cop Out is that it’s a film that doesn’t have any skin.

……. I can honestly say that’s the best way I can really sum it up.

Everyone in charge seems to have done and okish job but unfortunately there isn’t one person among the different people involved in creating this film, to take charge and fill in its weaknesses. It seems the Cullen Brothers compiled the script well enough but no one has taken the draft the step further to really give it any kind of kick. It also seems that Kevin Smith has compiled the film the best he can but unfortunately his usual style doesn’t quite suit it and he didn’t see what to fix. And so the pattern continues.

Cop Out it would seem, was a project in which everyone involved seemed assured that result was heading towards at least solid, when sadly it wasn’t and the real result is an odd underdeveloped rendition of a potentially better simple cop comedy.

 

Even though I’m a big fan of Kevin Smith, this recent piece of work doesn’t worry me too much as Kevin Smith hasn’t ever been a maker of consistent work and often dips in and out with his films. Even though I’ve enjoyed many of his films I’ve marked my absolute favourites out of this list of films he’s directed, by typing them in bold:

Clerks.
Mallrats
Chasing Amy
Dogma
Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back
Jersey Girl
Clerks II
Zack & Miri Make a Porno
Cop Out

Based on this pattern I am looking forward to his next film but for now his latest work is sadly a limp, poorly constructed cop flick.

 

2.5 out of 5

The Last Airbender

Ok.

In an old mystic world where there are those born with the ability to bend the elements (fire, water, air, earth) there are legends of the Avatar, he who has the ability to bend all four. 100 hundred years after the disappearance of the Avatar’s last incarnation, a frozen child emerges and reawakens. It’s not long until it’s apparent that this child is the last of the airbenders and the Avatar himself (in fact that last part is really obvious).

Produced by Nickelodeon and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, this is a live action adaptation of the cult television cartoon series also produced by Nickelodeon.

Alright the truth is that I really tried with this film. In the time leading up to it’s release, I wrestled with whether or not to finally watch its source material (as I have been meaning to and have only seen parts) like reading a book before seeing the film of it (not my best metaphor). My decision to watch the movie as a movie on its own greatly affected my experience watching it and here is how I feel in the end:

The Last Airbender is bad. And yet, my feelings are mixed.

There is some absolutely terrible work done in this film. A lot of the acting is abysmal and misdirected along with a complete disregard for a little thing called timing, in every sense of its significance in film making and all round general story telling. The film mostly serves as further evidence in the progress that I like to refer to as The Curious Case of M. Night Shyamalan as he had established himself, years ago with clever films like The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable and in recent years has taken a dip which has led to this kind of thing:

And some of the stuff in The Last Airbender is a new low. But all the dramatist shittery in the performances aside, there are some surviving roles. Nicola Peltz as Katara and Noah Ringer as Aang are kind of alright. They’re quite clearly poorly directed but they seem to rise slightly above many of the others. You could argue this is because they are two major characters but believe me when I say that this is a film that has no problem with disregarding the presence of its protagonists and focusing on something else for a long time all for the sake of…. well whatever the hell it is this film is holding in high priority. The one actor I had no problem with was Dev Patel who played Prince Zuko. His character’s drive is cheesy and he’s somewhat over the top but that’s fitting to the setting (when on paper or animated) and during his moments it feels like we’ve cut to a better film.

The only other things that work fine in the film are the visuals and the music. With the effects there are some bits where the green screening proves dodgy and the blending between live action and CGI models of Aang fighting people puts itself a little bit into the uncanny valley but there are sequences that are more impressive than plenty of other stuff currently available. The art direction is very nice as it translates the original artwork of the show into something a bit more accessible and acceptable for live action. James Newton Howard’s musical score, much like Dev Patel’s performance, makes use feel as though we’re watching a better film, when we experience the more score heavy sequences. All this shows that there were some people doing their jobs on this film.

So The Last Airbender ultimately is hugely disappointing. However, I do have mixed feelings as there are bits and pieces that seep through with some noteworthy value, but these are things like the original ideas from the TV show or people of particularly self sustaining talent that worked on this film, so really these bits and pieces of noteworthy value can only make you want to follow them back to their sources and away from this atrocious film. Particularly the story and characters in The Last Airbender led me to realise I should get to watching the Nickelodeon cartoon as they seem like they’d work really well if done properly and, the way I hear it, they do in the original show.

This movie sucked.

 

 

 

2 out of 5

***And here are the few small ones I feel I can sum up more easily.***

***Although plenty can be said about a few of these.***

MacGruber

A silly and dumb humoured film with not a lot of story for it to feel like a proper parody of anything. However it moves fast enough and is so oh so charmingly cheeky that it brings out laughs and proves entertaining.

 

 

 

3 out of 5

Get Him to the Greek

A surprisingly sweet and enjoyable film despite it’s slow and poorly timed moments that occur here and there and its slightly confused sense of satire towards the music industry.

3 out of 5

 

 

Inception

The most uniquely unoriginal movie to grace the silver screen in a long time. Essentially a fantastic answer to the question: “What if Chris Nolan directed a Cronenberg/Carpenter movie?” An incredibly engrossing and rewarding action movie with a nice collection of technically warped concepts etched out as a lovely map. The kind of stuff that all blockbusters ought to be made of.

4.5 out of 5

The A-Team

Stupid fun. The former at times wins out but it never ceases to be the latter.

3.5 out of 5

- Kirk Out!