Thursday, May 24, 2007

SPIDER MAN 3

Director: Sam Raimi (Spidey 1 & 2, A Simple Plan, Army of Darkness)
Starring: Tobey McGuire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Hayden Church, more

There are things you can count on in this topsy turvsy world. No, not many, but a few. Death, taxes, and that Hollywood will churn out sequels until they suck so badly that people stop buying tickets. Spider Man 3 is the first puff of air in that inevitable storm of suck that will eventually pull this franchise to the ground, just like the last franchise, and just like the next franchise.

Oh, don't get me wrong, the film has its moments. It's not an awful movie, it is an awfully written movie, but there are still some good moments mixed in. The worst part is that there are a lot of obvious, major flaws in this film. That's a bad sign. I'm sure that the director, and producers realized the problems in this script before filming even began. My guess is that they also realized that you have to release sequels while the last film is still in the minds of the public. Otherwise ticket sales will be down. At least that seems to be the perception of Hollywood producers (I think they're wrong on this point, but of course it's not my money invested in these things ...).

Before I dive into the a la carte list of failures in this film, I might as well (try and) lay out the plot. Here's the cliff notes version (Warning - This will ruin the plot for you, if you actually care): Peter Parker loves Mary Jane, James Franco loses memory, Goo falls from space, Lowell from Wings becomes the Sand Man by falling into unexplained science experiment, Goo turns Peter slightly evil, Pete and Mary Jane break up, Pete dances, embarrasing Mary Jane, James Franco regains memory, Goo infects kid from That 70s Show turning him into nameless half Spiderman/half pterodactyl bad guy, Spider Man teams up with James Franco to fight Lowell from Wings (not the band, the sitcom) *and* the aforementioned nameless bad guy, they kill space Goo in some trivial way, Lowell inexplicably becomes good guy, and James Franco dies.

Man, when you lay it out like that, it's even more clear how awful this story was. There are 2 villians too many in this film (at least). In the villian list we have: Spider Man himself (infected with Space Goo), the Sand Man, Topher Grace, and James Franco. That's a lot of bad guys. And not a one of them makes the slightest bit of sense in this film. In a way, the Space Goo itself is the big villian in this film, but for some strange reason the Space Goo is never even mentioned. I'm serious. Not once. We see it fall from the sky. Peter Parker sees it infect him, so does Topher, but they never once mention it. It's as if Space Goo is so commonplace in their worlds that it's nothing of note. Sure, it might have been a metaphorical image for each of our own personal dark impulses. As it turned out it was just silly Space Goo. Awful. Just awful.
The worst of this, however, is just how jolting the bad writing of this film is when contrasted with the suberb screenplay for Spider Man 2. That film might have been the best written summer blockbuster in a decade. This film probably wasn't even the best written summer blockbuster of the weekend it was released.

I believe that Raimi has already signed on to direct a Spider Man 4. In modern memory there aren't a lot of examples where franchises have failed, and then been rejuvinated. There are far fewer that have been reborn with the same director at the helm. As a matter of fact I can't think of a single example. Best of luck to you Mr. Raimi.

Standouts: The evil Peter Parker was funny. Kirsten Dunst is still cute. I like Thomas Hayden Church even though his character here was lazily written. One scene was filmed in Cleveland. Go Cleveburg!

Blowouts: Script, script, script and script. If it isn't on the page, it's not magically going to make it on the screen.

Grade: C-

Friday, May 11, 2007

THE NAMESAKE

Director: Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding, Vanity Fair, Salaam Bombay)
Starring: Irfan Khan, Kal Penn, Tabu

Has it really been a month since my last movie? Nope. But it has been a month since I've had the free time to write a review that's even semi-literate. So let's try and catch up a bit, shall we? On to The Namesake.

Mira Nair is one of the best female directors working today. And don't mistake my inserting that "female" in the sentence as diluting the praise. Ms. Nair is a supremely successful and talented director, gender aside. As there are no more than a handful of female directors at all, however, I think her feminine success is even more notable. She's in the vanguard of an (hopefully) growing army of higher-profile women filmmakers along with Sofia Coppola. Yes, you might add Julie Taymor to that duo, but her noteriety stems more from her stage-work than her film projects. Regardless, women - they're starting to get their directorial shot.

I was a big fan of Monsoon Wedding, the ABCD (American-born, confused Desi) tale of Western children and Indian parents. It was delightful in every way. The Namesake is yet another story of conflict and compromise between the generations, and cultures, of Indian parents and their Americanized kids. This story, however, is not quite so bright, is not so cheery, is not so sweet. It is loving, and tender, and caring, but it's also a little painful. It is a sweet and wonderful little movie.

Gogol (Penn) is born in an American city, and raised in its suburbia. He is an American. Gogol, of course, is not a very subcontinental name. He got the moniker due to his parent's confusion with a quirky American system that forces the parents to name their child before they could get instructions from the grandmother, as is the proper method of his culture. Gogol is the father's favorite author.

As the boy grows up, and enters the time of his rebellious youth, he learns more about his namesake. Gogol was a depressed and sickly man, strange, but brilliant, who eventually starved himself to death. Young Gogol comes to hate his name and rejects it, in a sense rejecting his parents choices and desires. He dates a rich, blond art-child, the daughter of a curator at the Met. Her wealth and lifestyle provide tastes of freedoms he's never known in the structured, traditional and middle-class world of his parents. He is told to date these girls, to live his life, to sample the culture of America ... but that if he wants to be happy he should marry an Indian.

Surprisingly (to me at least), he does just that. Even more surprisingly (to me at least) this ends painfully. He eventually marries a sexy Hindi girl, a one-time nerdish bookworm who apparently found out about fashion and makeup while in college. This seems perfect for all involved. She is westernized. She is beautiful. She is intelligent, and talented, and successful. It turns out she's also selfish and arrogant. He comes to hate her intellectually fashionable urbanite friends (as we all should), and she eventually leaves him.

So, in this entire review I've basically been telling you about the young man, Gogol, who would seem to be the center of this story, but he isn't. This story I think, is really about his parents. It's about their sacrifices, about their dreams, about their successes and failures, about their picture of him and how he misunderstands it. Irfan Khan plays the father, a sweet, calm, quiet man, willing to subjugate himself for the future of his children. Tabu plays the mother, equally resilient, as quiet and accepting of her fate as his her culture. This sweet story of a boy learning about himself and where he's come from, is very much the story of these parents trying so hard for their children. Yes, these people may be a bit too perfect, and the story a bit too concerned with the definitions derived from names, but in the end it's just a sweet story of sacrifice and love. And as Martha Stewart would say (who has no relationship with this review at all ...), that's a good thing.

Standouts: A sweet story, fine acting, and very good direction equal a good movie.
Blowouts: I don't think the movie missed in any significant way. Nothing was perfect of course, but nothing was a real failure either.

Grade: B+