Four Film Reviews

Over the past week I have viewed four films, and as promised, I will review them in one post. Also, I will review the films from worst to best.

Wanted - Half a Star

This film is loosely based on the graphic novel of the same name. Actually, the only relation between the two is the name and that they concern villains. The graphic novel analyzes super villains through their point of view, and in a world where they have killed all the super heroes. The movie concerns a fraternity of assassins that keeps balance in the world through kill orders from fate and destiny. Fate, is not a person, but a magical loom, which is a machine that sews cloth. Sloan (Morgan Freeman), the head of The Fraternity, exams the cloth for overlapping strands. This creates a binary code used to decipher letters, and thus names of targets. That is correct. Fate communicates with The Fraternity through cloth. Cloth decides who should be killed. Clearly, these people are villains, and the movie depicts them as such... well... kind of... sort of... not really.

Wanted is actually more closely related to the themes of The Matrix and Fight Club. The movie begins with Wesley (James McAvoy) trudging through a meaningless existence as an account manager, though his previous title was service accountant, but some PR firm said they should manage not service their clients. Wesley has a girlfriend, who hates him, and a friend, who is banging Wesley's girlfriend, but thinks Wesley is the man. Wesley loathes his life and his self, but does absolutely nothing about it. That is until Fox (Angelina Jolie) comes around and says that his father was the greatest Fraternity assassins acting on the orders of fate, correction cloth. While visiting The Fraternity, Sloan says that Wesley's destiny is to be the next great assassin and kill his father's murderer, Cross (Thomas Krestchmann). So far, so good, well, meaning that the story is so far consistent. The message is not so great thus far because it is emphasizing fate and ancestry. These are the essential enemies of liberty. Fate - some supernatural force is controlling one's life. Ancestry - one is to be like his father. Why even wake up in the morning? Everything is already decided. One has no choice, he may not pursue his own happiness, and since happiness is the purpose to life, why even live? However, these people are the villains... kind of... sort of... not really.

Sloan convinces Wesley to join The Fraternity, which he should not really have to do because it is Wesley's destiny. Sloan also says things like, "Seize your destiny," which also does not make sense because destiny seizes people, not the other way around. Eventually, Wesley discovers that Cross is actually his father, not the guy Cross killed. He also discovers that The Fraternity wanted Wesley to join because Wesley was the only one Cross would not kill because Wesley is Cross's son. Therefore, Wesley could get close enough to Cross to kill him. Unfortunately, well maybe not, Wesley kills Cross and only discovers he is Cross's son when Cross tells him as he is dying. Wesley then goes into a brief period of hiding because Fox is sent to kill him, essentially to tie up loose ends. While in hiding, Wesley learns that Sloan has been manufacturing kill orders because the magical cloth said that Sloan had to be killed. Sloan certainly did not want to die, so he just started making up stuff. That's right, Sloan started making up kill orders because he did not like the kill orders from the cloth. Consequently, Cross found out and waged war against The Fraternity to up hold The Fraternity's code.

So now it is a little confusing who the good guys and bad guys are. The movie has classified Sloan and The Fraternity as villains. These are the people who are just killing who ever they want to kill. They are no longer taking orders from cloth. Alright, fair enough, that is pretty evil to go around killing innocent men. However, the movie has identified Cross as the hero. He is the man who wants to keep taking orders from the cloth, meaning fate. The hero, therefore, is someone waging war against liberty and free will. He is a hit man for the tyrant fate. That is pretty villainous, but not according to the film because Cross is upholding a code. A code should only be upheld if it is virtuous. Upholding vicious codes is obviously vicious because it demands that vicious actions be committed. Cross falls into the latter category.

Obviously, Wesley chooses his father's side. Ancestry is one reason - he has no free will. Also, the film thinks upholding a code destroying free will is absolutely solid. Subsequently, Wesley begins waging war against The Fraternity. In a final shootout Wesley reveals Sloan's scheme to The Fraternity. In turn, Sloan reveals that the cloth of fate ordered everyone in The Fraternity to be killed. Sloan then offers two options - kill Wesley and allow The Fraternity to kill who they want and control the world - or - uphold The Fraternity's code and commit suicide. I propose a third option, how about everyone just walk away and live their own lives. Of course, no one chose that. Instead, one man says, "Fuck the code," and is about to shoot Wesley when Fox pulls an awesome stunt by firing a bullet in a curving motion so it kills everyone in the room including herself and excluding Wesley. The moral of the story, when fate orders from his throne for you to die, submit and kill yourself. Bravo, life is not worth living because a supernatural power, correction cloth, can decide when you should die.

Unfortunately for Wesley, Sloan escapes, but he kills him at the end of the movie as he recites a montage about how he is controlling his life. Wait? What? The whole movie was just about submitting to fate, and now Wesley is going on about how people need to control their lives. Is he controlling his life by submitting to fate? That makes no sense. So, then what is the theme of this movies? Absolutely no idea. Convoluted, incomprehensible, nonsense.

Another sour point of this film was that it was schizophrenic, which is also a problem with the next film. It has some very funny moments, placed immediately next to serious moments. I entered the film thinking it would be a serious action film, then a quarter way through I thought it was a comedy spoofing comic book action films, then it got serious again and the convoluted plot developed and I was all confused. I still am confused.

Hancock - One Star

My God who green-lights this nonsense. This movie was like three separate scripts, put into a blender, and sold as one story. It was not like one of those good blends either like a strawberry banana smoothie. No, no, no, this was if some blended fried chicken and a powdered jelly doughnut. Like Wanted this movie is horribly schizophrenic with slapstick comedy next to serious drama leaving me asking, what is this movie, what am I supposed to think, what is the theme? Theme will be addressed later. The best example of this schizophrenia I can remember is when Hancock (Will Smith) discovers that Mary (Charlize Theron), Ray Embry's (Jason Bateman) wife also has super powers. All of the sudden the theme should take an enormous sift, all new super hero themes are just available. Except then slap stick ensues. Hancock uses a fork to see if he can stab her. Obviously, he cannot, she is super. I will let the fork slide. The movie does have a comedic element, and one test is acceptable. However, then he busts a rolling pin over her head, and threatens to hit her with two frying pans. Alright, I saw that routine from the Three Stooges and they were not trying to analyze the mythology of superheroes.

The other problem with the story is that it starts out realistically addressing the problem of superheroes, meaning the millions and billions of dollars in destruction they cause while saving people. Also, Hancock is a jerk, which is a completely foreign personality for a super hero. The first third of the film is Ray, a PR specialist, trying to change Hancock's image. All very interesting, though I would have altered the theme, I am still getting to that. However, the film then changes because Mary is also a superhero, who is trying not to be super. Apparently, there were other superheroes paired up as husband and wife. When they are close they lose their powers, far away they have powers. They were created millions of years ago. Why is all this important? I have no idea. Nothing is developed. Nothing is really answered. It is like they finished filming the first third of the movie and said, "Uh oh, the movie's over. Forty-five minute! That's not long enough. Quick someone think of something. Coffee boy what should we add."

Finally, my favorite, and most important part, theme, which also appears to have gone through a blender, like Wanted's theme. The overarching theme is that suffering is virtuous and happiness. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. I will not explain why this is wrong. I have done it several times. However, I will explain how the movie shows this. Ray has this organization called All Heart, and he wants business to join to change the world. What businesses have to do to join is to give away some product they make for free to people who really need it. This is paralleled by Hancock, a super hero who is not interested in being nice, helping others, etc. However, Ray says he should, and makes Hancock give a speech saying, "You [other people] deserve better from me. I will be better." The movie is all about sacrificing the self for others. In a final blow, there is the stranger incomprehensible mythology between Mary and Hancock. They love one another, yet when they are near one another they lose their powers and they become mortal. Love is selfishness, but by being selfish they are punished. Therefore, they must live their lives away from one another so they do not basically kill one another by causing the other to become incredibly week. Again, sacrificing the self, one's happiness, for others. However, this theme is then corrupted, it is already a corrupt theme but then it is contradicted. Mary says she is happier living with Ray. So, one needs to sacrifice for others, one cannot pursue his own desires, but Mary is being selfish by living with Ray and not with Hancock. Therefore, she should be with neither of them. The theme could have been straightened out to be more virtuous if Mary just said, "Hancock, I do not like living with you, leave me alone." Of course, no one understands that is virtuous.

The reason Hancock gets a half star more than Wanted is the basic idea. A jerk superhero that causes massive destruction on his escapades is held accountable can be a far better film than the one produced.

The In-Laws - Four Stars

This was not that atrocious remake with Michael Douglass from a few years ago. This is the original, and it is far superior, and far superior to any modern day frat pack comedy. Of course, they are completely different comedic styles. The frat pack comedies like Anchorman are cartoonish. They are like live animation Looney Toons. From the immediate first second of the film, the movie needs to be funny, but not just funny, absolutely absurd. The In-Laws slowly descends into insanity. It begins as a normal film. The first somewhat absurd but still funny moment occurs twenty to thirty minutes into the film. However, in the last thirty minutes it is just one ridiculous event after another.

Both actors are superb in their performances. Peter Falk plays an insane CIA agent; however, he is not a lunatic like General Garcia (Richard Libertini) at the end of the film. He has more of a quiet insanity one would expect from a spy. He talks about beaked flies the says of eagles carrying away babies as if it is common knowledge. Then he states their is incredible bureaucratic red tape in jungle due to the Guacamole Act of 1917 that will not allow the extermination of these frightening flies. Later he speaks matter-of-factly about his profession as a CIA agent in a bar with a cab driver. My favorite scene, however, is when he casually speaks with Allan Arkin about his pea soup after the two of them escaped a fire fight.

Alan Arkin is an astounding straight man with lines like, "Beaks. Flies with beaks." He also actually becomes progressively more insane as movie continues, which is hilarious to watch. He starts out as a calm dentist running away from trigger happy Treasury Department agents shouting, "Don't shoot me I'm a dentist," to a man who enjoys the company of General Garcia and his atrocious army choir.

The one poor spot in the film is thematic, of course. At the end of the film Arkin and Falk escape with ten million dollars from the General. They basically set up the General in a kind of espionage drug bust. They sold the General stolen confidential goods, then called in the agents to arrest him. However, they overcharged the General by ten million; therefore, they kept ten million and surrendered the other ten million over to the CIA. They also both escape punishment for stealing this cash. It would have just been simpler for them to be awarded ten million for the capture, or not even introduce it to the film.

A Fish Called Wanda - Four Stars

Another excellent comedy that masters the descent into insanity. It begins as a jewel heist, but once the jewels are moved from their location, each thief is trying to outsmart the other and get away with the goods. The characters includes, Ken Pile (Michael Palin) a man with a stutter, Otto (Kevin Kline) a jealous psycho who reads philosophy and misunderstands it, Wanda Gershwitz (Jamie Lee Curtis) a skank looking for love, Archie Leach (John Cleese) a judge looking for love. What could not be funny?

Kevin Kline is easiest the most hilarious. He is in love with Wanda and is suspicious of every guy around her. Of course, he has a right to be suspicious because she has slept or at least made out with every guy around her. However, he is also incredibly jealous, but he constantly will not admit it because "jealousy is for the weak" according to Nietzsche. In some circumstances Wanda is actually trying to seduce people to get the jewels, like Judge Leach. Unfortunately, Otto is so jealous he sneaks in to spy on them. Even at the end of the film, when Wanda chooses to run away with Leach, Otto climbs on the wing of the plane to spy on them. He is also covered in cement because Ken steam rolled him in wet cement as revenge for eating his pet fishes, raw. That is just a taste as to how ridiculous this is.

Of course, the one sour point, theme. Wanda and Leach run away with the stolen jewels. Personal, I think there is a more hilarious ending where they could all get punished, even though the little updates at the end of the film are pretty funny. Apparently, Otto becomes Minister of Justice in South Africa, and Leach and Wanda found a leper colony in Argentina.