Weekend Viewing - Jan 22-24

Extract [2009] directed by Mike Judge

Joel is having a sort of a mid-life crisis. His wife doesn’t want to sleep with him – and he’s increasingly frustrated at work and is looking to sell his extract business. His slacker friend, Dean, and him come up with a far fetched plan that will help Joel get laid with a recently hired girl, Cindy. Unbeknownst to Joel, Cindy has her own plans to help a recently injured employee sue Joel for everything he’s got.

Here’s the thing – I liked how Joel has a fairly simple problem – but come up with a very complex solution to solve that problem – yet the whole thing seems a bit forced. The screenplay seemed like a few teenagers imagining what their lives would be like – in a immature male fantasy. Nobody was really well defined as a character - which made their decision making process difficult to follow and even care about. Though the film was humorous it was never really funny – and I would really like to see Mike Judge work on his female characters. 3 out of 5 stars.

Syriana [2005] directed by Stephan Gaghan

I’m sorry – I can’t give you a synopsis to this film – as I still can’t really see what it’s about other than intrigue and corruption in the oil business and in the Middle East. Each character though well portrayed – I didn’t feel connected to – or understood what their goals were – maybe that was the point of the film - I couldn’t really tell you. This is my second viewing of the film – and I still can’t connect the dots – I’m really not trying to be ignorant – I just don’t get it and I’ve got to give it a 2 out of 5.

Y Tu Mama Tambien [2001] directed by Alfonso Cuaron

Two sexually obsessed best friends take a young jilted housewife on a road trip to a beach.

What I really liked about this film is that it kind of plays on a theme that sex isn’t always sexy. The boys are sexually obsessed – but they aren’t very good at sex – they are still young and in need of understanding the world around them and themselves in order to understand sex. When looking forward to seeing this film I read descriptions like “erotic” and “sexy” – but I couldn’t disagree more – sex is used as the tool to show the boys “growing up”.

They grow up quite a bit on the road trip with the help Luisa (the jilted housewife) – who teaches them about their own ideals and how reality is vastly different from what they want to believe. It’s very well acted – and though I wanted to slap around both of the boys – it was only because they were portraying their parts correctly that I wanted to slap them around. It’s a very good film – worth a look – if you aren’t easily offended by full frontal nudity by both sexes. I give it a 4 out of 5.

The Book Of Eli [2010]

People who know me – or even have found my movie blog know I have a bit of a thing for post-apocalyptic films (see Doomsday banner up top). I’m also a big fan of Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman – so The Book Of Eli is bound to get a fab review. That’s my story – and here’s my take.

Denzel plays a “nameless” wanderer through the post-apocalyptic world – he’s headed west. He has several nightmarish encounters – and the most lasting is his stop in a small town that is ruled by a book obsessed man named Carnegie (played by Oldman). Carnegie’s men try and accost the wanderer – in your traditional western – let’s beat-up on the new guy dick measuring contest – and get their asses handed to them. This prompts Carnegie to try and recruit the wanderer – only to discover that the wanderer had more than might – he has the book he’s been after all these years.

I don’t want to give away any twists – but from what I’ve read about the advertising (which I don’t keep up with) and the probability that you’re reading this blog (which is rare) – it shouldn’t really shock you to find out that the book is the King James Bible. Carnegie wants it to rule his people – and start a frenzied religious “cult” to bend to his will. The wanderer (who’s name is Eli – which I guess isn’t that big of a twist since his name is in the title) asks his faith to guide him to a place where the book is needed.

Let’s start off with acting – which I found superb. Denzel when given a role he can do something with – is always fantastic. He pulls off the action and the drama of his character with the skill one would expect from a two-time Academy Award winner. Oldman can chew the scenery with the best of them – and in this role he is outstanding – he’s given plenty of scenery to gnaw and an adept supporting cast to play off of.

The influence of the spaghetti-western genre is strong within this film – and I would argue that with Clint Eastwood killing the traditional western (in Unforgiven) that the post-apocalyptic genre is the new western genre. There’s a real sense of a figure in space with a great sense of composition. It reminded me a lot of The Good, The Bad & The Ugly – where you were either miles away or right in the face of the subject. There is some more stylized action oriented computer helped shots – that work better in this film than I’ve seen in many lesser action films.

The plot is faith versus faith – the just versus the corrupt versions of faith. You get a snake oil salesman in every religion – who twist the words to use them for their own glory and justifications. You don’t need me to explain this – but that’s the main theme.

Lest I forget to mention – it’s an post-apocalyptic film that reminds me both of my favorite video game Fallout 3 (with its somewhat biblical themes at times it felt like a side quest) and one of my favorite films of the last decade Doomsday. There are gun fights, knife fights, explosions, car chases, cannibals, punk-rock wastelanders, and sweet sweet ultra-violence. The scenery of the wastes was brilliant – I wanted to see more – and though there’s hint of a sequel – I would be surprised if it happened.

There’s some nit-picky kind of items that I’ve noticed that a lot of people take real issue with – but given the fact that you can choose to dwell on those minor issues – or blow them up to be as important as the actual plot, acting and direction of the film is a ludicrous act. It never ceases to amaze me how these nit-picks don’t come out and use their fine-tooth comb to take apart their favorite summer blockbusters – that typically have much bigger issues – but will take issue with other films.

Yes, Eli has an MP3 player that he constantly recharges – that’s at least 30-years old and my iPod battery barely holds a charge after a couple years – plot point? Nope. Yes, Eli has very nice teeth for someone wandering the wastes – plot point? Nope. Yes, Mila Kunis looks amazing for someone who’s been raised in the post-apocalyptic era – plot point? Nope. Go ahead let these little things ruin your movie watching experience – no skin off my ass.

The only thing I wanted to do at the end of this film was to watch it again – as I felt like I wanted to do some fact checking knowing the full story. After my first viewing though I’ve decided it was as near a perfect film as I like to watch – and am giving it somewhere between 4 and 5 stars – which I usually round up.