Change Your Image
badmanllp
Reviews
Next (2007)
Unexpectedly Excellent
I don't usually write comments - but felt compelled to on this single occasion after seeing some fairly weird knee jerk criticism of this excellent flick from other commentators.
I accept we won't all like the same movies, so here is a helpful guide as to whether you will like 'Next' or not.
*1)* Is your idea of a complex, hard to comprehend plot, Driving Miss Daisy?
If so - with the jumping around and playing with time 'Next' does, you're going to have problems. It'll only annoy you, so give it a miss. Or Ms.
*2)* Do you enjoy gritty realism and want all characters, major and minor, blue shirt and red shirt, black hat, white hat - to have believable motivation and backstop?
If so - Next is not going to work for you - as parts of it are fluffy and a bit fuzzy and you'll only get cross and distracted about how French mercenaries got hold of a nuclear device and why they are detonating it without asking for a decade's supply of fois gras or something. And how they know where a super secret bit of the FBI hangs out, etc.
*3)* Don't you feel movies should have meaning and enrich your soul? I mean; you are giving the best part of two hours of your life away, watching it, right?
Hmmmm - if you agree with the above, maybe you should give Next a miss. It's just the terribly well made bit of hokum it was designed to be. (Although on the Philosophical front, it does have one decent joke about a Zen Master and a Hot Dog).
*4)* You are a full paid-up, possibly founder, member of the 'I love Nick Cage overacting' club.
Another reason not to spring for the rental. Here Mr Cage shows restraint and not a little charm. No nostrils flaring. Not a one. Almost no shouty-shouty. No Big Eyes. You are going to hate this.
*5)* You like your endings done up in a bow. With nice red ribbon. And a sparkly tag.
This ending is cool, and although completely unexpected - strangely satisfying. If you're not the kind of person who agrees with point 5).
IM - obviously not very - HO, Next is a terribly well made picture. All central performances are good and the direction and editing are, for the most, spot on. It's a fairly daft piece of pure entertainment which retains some intelligence, without ever loosing its light touch.
It's the kind of mainstream Hollywood movie I wish there was more of and it's way better than most of the movies I've seen in 2008 - so although it's really only an 8.6, I gave it a 9.
If Deja-Vu put you off the time travel and sci/fi thing - Next is superior in every single way and even if you're not a Philp K Dick completist - anytime you want to spend a satisfying 96 minutes in a movie theatre or in front of your 50" Plasma - unless you've ticked one of the above boxes, you could do much, much worse.
The Big Hit (1998)
What the secret of good com-(timing!)-edy?
Well, la, la, la............
I'm sitting here thinking of why The Big Hit is such a Big No-No, when on the face of it, the set up (Grosse Point Blank lite) and bits of the script seem fairly promising.
Well, for a start, Mark Walberg ain't no John C - but Three Kings showed that he is, with the right direction and supporting cast - better than this.
So - maybe it comes down to the fact that good comedy requires a lightness of touch and subtlety that the Director and most of the supporting cast just don't have?
None of the banter that is done so well is a movie like - shall we say Ocean's 11 - flows the way it should. It's wooden. The timing is all out. If I was going for something pretentious (and, sod it, this is IMDb after all so why not) I'd say that there is no negative space for the humour to sort itself out. But that would be meaningless, wouldn't it, and fairly unhelpful.
So, I simply feel it my duty to report to you, dear reader, that there is no compelling reason ever to watch this movie. I strongly suggest that you watch GPB again instead and compliment yourself that you might have been spending your time viewing something very, very much worse.
Swimming with Sharks (1994)
Don't for a minute think Spacey is giving an OTT performance
Swimming with Sharks is a very fine movie - if you haven't seen it I encourage you to get the DVD out because it has some great writing and performances to equal the script.
I'm just scribbling this comment to say that when I first saw the movie, I assumed that Spacey's (excellent) performance was a bit OTT. Still great, but OTT.
A couple of years later I happened to be doing some business with a major talent agency on the West Coast. I became acquainted with one of the partners in the agency.
So I can say from personal experience that the charm, the rage, the trappings, the sycophancy, the whole shmoola depicted by Spacey is, if anything, mildly understated :-)
Def worth 2 hours of your time.
WiseGirls (2002)
Why They applauded at Sundance............
Because it was OVER..........
Good lord - the direction has TV movie written all over it and the general absurdity of the whole thing just underlines how dismal this poor effort is.
As for the final scene - stunned groaning all round.
Not even bad enough to be worth watching for the cheese factor.
Mira Sorvino should be doing better work than this :-(( She was very cool in Replacement Killers, so we looked for other movies starring her. Sadly this was one of them.
On the other hand - we all applauded at the end too.
Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003)
OK Rental - saved by the unique extras!
OK - OOATIM is not a classic movie - it's workman-like, has it's moments but I could take it or leave it.
Then I was prompted to view the extras - 2 10 minutes short about how Rodriguez writes, shoots, edits and scores his own movies in his garage. It's quite a garage. The guy comes across as being uber-enthused and very realistic about the whole business of film-making.
Cherry on the cake? The 10 minutes short on how to cook the pork dish which has a central role in the movie itself.
RR shows himself to be funny, ironic and very cool.
The director's commentary is also very revaling about the actuality of film-making.
The film may have been a little flimsy - but the extras are essential lessons in film making - and food preperation. I wonder if he could remake Babette's Feast ;-)
JC
Tasogare Seibei (2002)
Jane Austin - Japanese Style
Slowly building up to what a friend described as a 'High Noon' style climax, this is an astonishing period piece that is both serene and gripping.
Readers of Jane Austin will recognise the society depicted - heirarchical, ruled by family ties, customs and obligations.
The structure, pace and execution of the movie are almost flawless.
If you love film - please go and see this movie. If you make film - please, please go and see this movie and learn something from it!
ps It occurs to me that Twilight Samurai is probably the single best antidote to "Kill Bill" known to man. :-))
Switching Channels (1988)
Sooo much better than Broadcast News
This is really worth rediscovering - Turner and co really throw themselves into it and (shock) Reeve sends himself up excellently (particularly good in the 'vertigo in the lift' scene.
As revealed elsewhere, it's a remake of The Front Page - in fact right now can't think of a better way to spend a rainy afternoon than a double bill of these two in front of a nice fire :-)
So - not going to change your life - but I'll cheer you up.
28 Days Later... (2002)
28 mins later.....my friends left the auditorium
Oh Danny Boyle - in a week of seeing a fine Aussie movie (Lantana), a great French movie (L'Apartament) and - damn it - a kick ass US movie (Living in Oblivion) all made on modest budgets, we have 28 Days later.
Where to start - OK, the first 10 mins have some great shots of an empty London. What a fine city we live in and what a great place it could be to make movies.
Then it slowly falls apart as you realise there's no plot, no real characters, no soul, little style - and that DV doesn't work that well on a big screen.
I stuck around out of morbid interest, my friends left.
If you need a low budget Brit Shlock movie, Dog Soldiers is a much tighter enterprise altogether.