The Good, The Bad and the Ugly Films

Archive for December, 2009

This is the last podcast of the Decade! Allen’s so excited, he can barely get the date out. With another slow news week, we decide to pick up a few things we should have talked about last week and manage to scrape up a few newer things to chat about.

In this episode:

• The deaths of Brittany Murphy, Roy Disney and Dan O’Bannon
• Box Office totals
• Drugs are bad… Mmmmkay?
• A Couple of Dicks has a Cop Out title change
• The movie industry grosses more than 10 beeellion dollars
• New York is shooting its film industry in the foot
• George Lucas has finished filming Red Tails

The movie we reviewed this week was Jennifer’s Body. How has the time between the original release date in theatres and its DVD release affected what we think of it? Will Megan Fox be nominated for an Oscar for her performance? Enjoyable? A piece of crap? Both? Neither? You’ll have to tune in to find out what we really think of it. Is there anything you think we missed when we were talking about it? Let us know: podcast@goodbaduglyfilms.com

GBU List: Talking Animals (ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: THE SQUEAKQUEL)

* I would like to make a note that Allen was in fact right to include Walt Disney’s Robin Hood in a list of possible GOODs. It was released in 1973, not 1967 like Ross suggested and I agreed to.

With the pickings as slim as they are for next week, with only one film being released between now and January 8th (The White Ribbon), we decide to base our next GBU List on Foreign Films. What are your favorite foreign films? Have you seen some real clunkers? What do you/don’t you like about them? Send us an email with your choices and reasons for choosing them and we’ll read them on the show and post them here in the show notes. Send us an email to podcast@goodbaduglyfilms.com, or a voicemail via Skype and we’ll make you semi-famous  by reading or playing your choices on the show (and the subject to ridicule).

See you next year!

- Mark

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By now you’ve probably read 1,392 opinions about this little flick.

After seeing it in IMAX 3-D this week, all I wanted to do is sing!

In the Na’vi, yes, you can try to make the peace.

…But… but… but Cameron’s movie was supposed to fail!

We finish up our look the first decade of the new millennium by identifying trends we saw happen over the last ten years. Some of these include:

• Torture Porn
• The resurrection of 3D
• Theatre Etiquette
• Remakes
• Pixar
• Documentaries
• Musicals
• The Rise of Cult Directors
• The Mainstreaming of Geek Culture
• Comic Book Movies
• The decline of the A-List
• The decline of the Independents
• Film to Digital
• CG Sets
• The New Puritanism
• and more

Enjoy the show

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>>>The egg at the end of the episode was in reference to this hilarious /edit of the Star Trek audio book!

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As the Holidays approach, we’ve obviously forgotten to take our meds. This podcast waxes poetic on everything from Avatar to Hawkman to Queen Latifah and an obscure Olivia Newton-John reference. Hold on to your hats ‘cause it’s a wild ride…

We didn’t get a chance to review a movie this week, but next week, to coincide with the DVD release, we’ll be talking about Jennifer’s Body. Frequent listeners to the show should know what a couple of us already think about it, but will time change some opinions? Will a second viewing color how we feel? Tune in to find out. If you’d like to submit your thoughts of the movie (or Megan Fox’s considerable talents) to our  ridicule uhh… examination, then send them in to podcast@goodbaduglyfilms.com and we’ll read it on the show and add them to the show notes. If you send in an audio file or leave us a voicemail on Skype, we’ll play your review on the show.

GBU List: Number in the Title (Nine)

Allen again can’t find an Ugly, so, in a desperate move, pulls an album out of his butt, totally disregarding the fact that it’s supposed to be FILMS that we’re listing. We let it slide though due to him being so “special.”

Next week’s GBU List is going to be on movies with talking animals in them. This list comes to us courtesy of Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, the live action (with computer generated animation) cinematic masterpiece by director, Betty Thomas. It stars Jason Lee and features the voices of Justin Long, Amy Poehler, Anna Faris and Christina Applegate. Send in your lists to podcast@goodbaduglyfilms.com. Get them in before Monday and we’ll read them on the show! If you send in an audio file or leave us a voicemail on Skype, we’ll play your choices on the show.

-Mark

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Once upon a time, Independent films were made outside of the Hollywood Studio system on money from private investors. The prints traveled slowly from city to city over months, even years, to privately owned theatres and drive-ins. Many of our most respected, iconic film-makers came out of this system; people like David Cronenberg, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, John Carpenter, Wes Craven and even James Cameron. Eventually film festivals became the showcase for indies, and Sundance became the Mecca of the festival circuit. Before long, getting your film in Sundance meant you at least had your ticket to an art-house run and video obscurity.  It was a place where A-Listers gained indie cred, and former A-Listers would either flog their dead careers one last time or resurrect them like phoenixes. The new breed of Independent film crossed over to the multi-plexes, sometimes making big money against their little budgets, and even contending for Oscar gold. Young film-makers made the pilgrimage to the festival to cut their teeth on Hollywood deal-making and dreamed of ascension to the studio system and its studio coffers. Eventually Hollywood itself infiltrated the Indie scene, starting boutique branches of the studios dedicated to making “Independent Film,” forever skewing our idea of what independent film really is. Before long “Indie” described how a movie felt, rather than how it was made. Even after the boutique studio divisions folded, the landscape didn’t change very much.

Over the weekend, Roger Ebert drew a line between Mainstream and Independent films by releasing his list of Top Ten Films of the year… or rather, lists, plural!

Ebert’s criteria for his dual list is basically explained as pandering to his readers; his stated goal was to curb comments that a single list may bring in terms of being too commercial, or too obscure. However, to the average film-goer, his mainstream list, with the exception of “Knowing,” reads like an indie list. When we think mainstream, we are more inclined to think about blockbusters or at least films targeting a wide market. Does Ebert have a point in calling “A Serious Man” mainstream since the Cohens picked up an Oscar for “No Country For Old Men?” Is “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” really a mainstream film considering it was made by indie darling Werner Herzog and, after 5 weeks in theatres, it has only scraped together $1.3 million in revenue – or does Nicolas Cage as the lead push it out of the realm of Indies?

His Independent list reads as the “what’s that???” list of the year. I am only familiar with “Goodbye Solo,” “Julia” and “Trucker.” Does the lack of recognition of the titles on this list qualify them as Indies? And which list would a film like “Paranormal Activity” qualify for since it was made privately on a $15,000 budget, but got picked up by Paramount and grossed $100 million? For that matter, is “The Hurt Locker”’s distributor, Summit Entertainment, still an indie studio now that it has the juggernaut that is the “Twilight Saga” in its clutches?

Even with the confusion added by Ebert’s list(s), 2009 was not a stellar year for what we would widely consider independent film. As mentioned, “Paranormal Activity” was an anomaly with its success, and “Precious” is doing well with its, to date, $40 million take (largely due to the Oprah support). But even a film like Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker” only managed $12.6 million in its theatrical run in spite of critical raves and awards buzz – sadly, it didn’t even come close to “G.I. Joe” box office, making its appearance on a mainstream list all the more dubious. Perhaps Ebert’s real point is that “independent” has become a euphemism for “low-budget,” where it should be reserved for smaller pictures that lack the marketing muscle larger distributors can provide.

Moving forward, indies have a hard row to hoe. Going toe-to-toe against franchise films is proving to be an insurmountable task, especially with the niche that independents carved out for themselves in the 1990s eroding. Perhaps the model Mark Cuban has created will be the salvation of independent film – showcasing them as Pay Per View exclusives in tandem with their limited theatrical showings, and letting word of mouth fuel their success like he did with “World’s Greatest Dad” and “The House of the Devil” (definitely my pick for best indie obscurity of the year). Perhaps it will be the internet, where video can go viral and spread like wildfire across the globe, and the film-makers can directly market and sell to their audiences unfettered by studio rules and interference. The availability of low-cost, high-quality equipment is opening a lot of avenues for the creative film-maker not preoccupied solely by box office races and willing to be truly independent.

There was a time, not very long ago, that there was a short-list of names above the title of a film that would almost certainly guarantee the film’s success. Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks, Harrison Ford, and Jim Carrey were amongst the few whose involvement in a film ensured big box-office.

The A-List is conspicuously, and arguably, absent from The Top Twenty Box Office hits of 2009 (to date). Yes, Tom Hanks and Christian Bale are in there for Angels and Demons, and Terminator: Salvation respectively, but both films are part of franchises, which along with Twilight, Harry Potter, Transformers, Star Trek, Ice Age and X-Men dominated the box office of 2009. The Franchise is truly the star of the big screen this year, and the cache of big name stars counted for little, with one exception….

Sandra Bullock.

Bullock was in three films this year; a romantic comedy, a dark comedy, and a docudrama. Two were/are very successful, one not so much…

The Proposal – (Released June 19th, 2009) Bullock stars in this romantic comedy with Ryan Reynolds as an uptight New York publisher who coerces her assistant into a immigration wedding so she can keep her position in the company. The film is formulaic, and we have seen every device the film uses before, but the charm of the two leads, and an ensemble cast that includes Betty White, Oscar Nuñez, Craig T. Nelson, Mary Steenburgen, Malin Akerman and an adorable puppy named Kevin, buoy the film above the standard material. Made for $40 million, the film earned $164 million domestically – nearly $354 million worldwide, and currently holds the #12 top earner position for the year.

All About Steve – (Released September 4th, 2009) Marketed as a whacky romantic comedy, All About Steve bears more resemblance to Observe and Report than, say, The Proposal. Bullock and company took some chances with this film about a socially inept crossword creator who gets her stalker on when she meets Steve, a seemingly nice guy who makes the mistake of being nice, and briefly making out with Bullock’s character, Mary. She interprets this all as true love and sets off on a cross-country pursuit. Where All About Steve fails as a film is how the audience is never really sure if they should be laughing at, or with Mary – or perhaps even disclosing whether she suffers from a disorder, or if she is just extremely quirky. The movie also fails by trying to to make the last act heart-warming, rather than maintain the oddball, dark tone of the rest of the film. Regardless of how big of a misfire the film was, Bullock opened it to $11.2 million and it went onto make nearly $34 million. Though no budget figures were released, the studio claims it made money, which seems more than plausible.

The Blind Side – (Released November 20th, 2009) In her third release of the year, Bullock puts on her drama hat and portrays Leigh Anne Tuohy, a well-off Memphis mother and wife who takes in a homeless boy who becomes a part of the family and goes on to become an NFL player, in this fact-based story of Michael Oher. The film was well received by critics and opened against Twilight Saga: New Moon, holding its own in second place for the first two weeks of its release, and taking the number one position in its third week. To date the film has made $165 million against its $29 million budget. The Blind Side is currently #3 in its 5th week of release, and the #11 top earner of the year.

While Bullock has had her share of failures (think Speed 2, In Love and War), more often than not, she leads a film to at least moderate success. In 2009 though, she alone proved that a popular actor can lead a film to box office success without the aid of teen-age vampires,  morphing machines, animation or 3D. As well as keeping the A-List alive, Bullock is receiving the accolades that have eluded her often marginalized career – 2 Golden Globes nominations (for both The Proposal and The Blind Side), and a SAG Award Nomination (for The Blind Side) are already announced, and many think at least an Oscar nomination is forthcoming.

Avatar is constructed of two films; the live action, physical props and sets traditional James Cameron film, and the computer animated world of the Navi. The live action sequences hearken back to the James Cameron films of old; worn technology is at once marvelous and mundane. The crew, marines, and scientists operate their gear with offhand movements, and everything has a mechanical heft and crunch that only physical objects can offer. The live action cast, including Sigourney Weaver, Sam Worthington, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel David Moore, Dileep Rao, and Stephen Lang offer varying degrees of commitment to their roles. Worthington and Moore are best, while Weaver flips back between being her Mom roles – angry and loving. The rest are workmanlike with their performances; Stephen Lang is almost Disney-like as the increasingly villainous SecFor colonel.

Meanwhile, the Navi portion – the blue alien people, the computer generated scenes – dive into Disney territory full force. It is unnerving to see more adult emotions projected onto these animated characters, particularly in a disconcerting love scene, but otherwise the stoic, noble, and uncomplicated Navi live in a lush forest world where every turn is another awe-inspiring vista. How you appreciate these scenes depends strongly on your opinions towards computer generated actors and locations. The vivid colors and sprawling locales are at once beautiful and unbelievable. The Navi aren’t as unpleasant as the promotional materials make them out to be; you quickly adapt to their faces, which are partly motion-captured actors, and partly artistic inventions. They work best when they are removed from familiar faces; fortunately, Worthington and Zoe Saldana aren’t cinematic staples, and their faces are changed enough in as avatars, to trigger uncanny valley responses. Weaver’s Grace in Navi form, however, is almost unwatchable. They follow her human face too closely, and seeing Weaver’s features and expressions mapped onto a nine-foot tall blue creature brought about uncontrollable revulsion.

It is telling that these two worlds are kept apart until the final fifteen minutes of the film. Aside from a brief scene of Worthington’s Jake’s introduction to his Avatar, and his prompt rebellion, the two worlds are separated by a narrative and literal device – the connecting pod in which Jake’s human body remains while he explores the alien world of Pandora. The transition between these two worlds is frequently a closeup of Worthington’s eyes, which helps prevent a jarring switch between the cartoonish Navi and the actors. This falls apart in the finale; when humans and the people and fauna of Pandora interact, it is quickly and within a few frames. The steady suspension of disbelief required to enjoy the switch between the two is strained, and the 3D doesn’t help with a seamless incorporation of the two. Humans, particularly when being struck by Navi, or worse, riding in their mech suits appear paper-like and flat, a single plane of depth on a larger three-dimensional construction. It’s a glaring technical flaw in a film full of technical accomplishments. This is the best that we can do as far as melding live performances with computer graphics, and we still aren’t there yet. It’s not Roger Rabbit, but part of me would rather see Luke Skywalker interacting with a muppet than a human being cradled in the arms of a Navi. This is something that District 9 did pull off better, and with a fraction of the budget, though both have similar problems when actors are placed inside imagined, non-physical props and vehicles. Still, we are getting closer, and Avatar is an important step forward for this technology. As for whether or not to see it in 3D, I’ll say that there are some impressive three dimensional moments. It doesn’t really figure into the immersion or enjoyment after the initial ten minute novelty fades, however.

Then there is the plot. It’s familiar territory; have you see Pocahontas? Or The New World? If so, you’re pretty much set, though Cameron’s work is much more the former and much less Malick-ey. Did we need another film extolling the virtues of a native culture over the incoming mostly-white humans? This storytelling trope has been well-represented following the decline of the Western and the rise of anti-colonial sentiments in popular culture. In short, we’re bad, the native cultures we’re destroying were good. While there is an innate appeal to this theory, I do wish that the plot had deviated from this standard format. Shades of grey would have been nice. There was no dark side to the Navi’s culture and reactions, and there was no redeeming quality to the human’s behavior.

It falls victim to the inherent patronizing of idolizing native cultures; to worship them for being pure and close to nature denies them the complexity of having faults. For all its exposition on Navi culture, the larger world they inhabit is only briefly seen. Cameron offers tantalizing cuts to the other tribes, and other parts of the planet, perhaps being saved for the future. While the Navi culture is dull – and boy, is it ever dull – the bright spot is Neytiri, the Navi princess. She is likeable, capable, and charismatic, even through the blue face and giant yellow eyes. When she is angry and hurt, you feel for her. She also is the only alien to offer a range of emotions other than stoic, brave, or miserable. She even laughs.

Avatar is an adventure, and a heroic journey. The alien world of Pandora is being mined and destroyed, and the Navi are in the way of a vast fortune in ore. The Avatar has built Navi ambassadors, empty, mindless shell bodies built with a combination of Navi and human DNA. They walk and look like Navi, but are capable of having a human mind projected into them. Jake Sully and Grace are scientists sent by corporate forces to convince the Navi to abandon their home, while Jake has the further job of spying on them and establishing an offensive strategy. Jake is a last-minute addition to his project, as the newly created Avatar body was intended for his late twin brother, killed before leaving for Pandora. As they are twins, his is genetically compatible with the unbelievably expensive avatar. Jake has his own reasons for wanting a new body, you quickly realize, though the money is very, very good.

Avatar is not a bad film. But it is an unremarkable one. It doesn’t surprise. What you would suspect would happen does, and you are not challenged to reevaluate any preconceptions, whether of the Navi or humanity. Avatar is also not boring; the climactic fight sequence is well-directed and tense, even with the aforementioned technical problems.

The worst part of Avatar? “Unobtainium.” A… hard to obtain… substance of great value. I winced every time it was mentioned.

Overall: GOOD

In our third instalment (officially the second part) of out look back at this decade kicks off with the Top Ten IMDB User Rated Films (as of November 28th) as well as our choices for the best and the worst of the decade.

The Ugly

John

Date Movie

What the Bleep Do We Know?

Lady in the Water

Across the Universe

Bewitched / The Stepford Wives

Mark

Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever

The Whole Ten Yards

Vanilla Sky

Rambo

The Medallion

Ross

The Passion of the Christ

Scary Movie

Hostel / Saw

Loose Change

Death of a President

Allen

Alien VS Predator

Hannibal

Rob Zombie’s Halloween

Town & Country

Twilight

Top 5 Lists

Allen

1. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

2. The Upside of Anger

3. Little Children

4. The Hurt Locker

5. Southland Tales

John

1. Punch Drunk Love

2. Amelie

3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

4. Kill Bill

5. A Mighty Wind

Mark

1. Man on Fire

2. Watchmen

3. Gladiator

4. Hero

5. 28 Days Later

Ross

1. The Fast Runner

2. City of God

3. Amore Perros

4. 21 Grams

5. Moulin Rouge

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It’s the Mark and Johnny Show tonight! Ross showed up, but the weather made him leave early and Allen decided to take a night off from podcasting; his first since we began. What happens when there’s only two of us to do the show? You’ll have to listen to find out.

We still discuss the news and box office, but with no one in the driver’s seat, we’re all over the road with tangents and fresh new story ideas for movies. Muahahah! Nothing can stop us… Well, except for John’s need to go to work.

• Sigourney Weaver was in our news feed a couple of times this week with a heap of awesomeness and an equal measure of what the hell.
• Is Iron Man 2 going to rehash the same old story as Spider-Man 3 or will it rise above?
• H.R. Giger… Back in the saddle and creating a movie monster
• Roland Emmerich and the sweetest deal this year
• What’s the buzz on Avatar?
• The Remake Grinder keeps churning… Which beloved movies of our childhood are they going to rape this time?

We were going to review two movies this week, but with only the two of us on the mics (and Johnny dropping the ball in regards to The Hangover), we decide to just review Julie and Julia. Listen to what we thought of it and don’t forget to send in your reviews. Either fire off an email, or comment right here on the page.

GBU List: Political Leaders/Politically Themed (INVICTUS)

Next week’s GBU List is going to be based on Nine, the new Romance/Musical with Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicole Kidman and Penelope Cruz. No, we’re not going to go for musicals, we’re going to craft our lists with movies with numbers in their titles. Sequels, with the movie number DO NOT COUNT! (ex: Star Trek V) Send in your lists to podcast@goodbaduglyfilms.com. Get them in before Monday and we’ll read them on the show! If you send in an audio file or leave us a voicemail on Skype, we’ll play your choices on the show.

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We pick up right where we left, concluding our look at the good films of the 2000s with John’s list – then it’s onto the bads! Check back next week for out best and worst lists! Contribute you lists here in the comments, or email them to us at podcast@goodbaduglyfilms.com

The Good

John

Dancer in the Dark

United 93

Kung Fu Hustle

Watchmen

Kung Pow: Enter the Fist

The Bad

Ross

Apocalypto

Grindhouse

Return to Neverland

Superman Returns

Aeon Flux

Allen

Mr Brooks

In the Cut

Driven

Swept Away

Mission to Mars

John

Attack of the Clones

300

Borat / Bruno

Casino Royale

Simone

Mark

Crank

Kingdom of Heaven

Iron Monkey

Zombieland

8 Legged Freaks

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