JARHEAD

Director: Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition)
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, Jamie Foxx

I have read that Universal Studios is pushing this film as its Oscar contender this year. I feel for Universal if that’s true. I simply don’t understand much of the praise this film has received. Rather than seeing the horrors of a modern war on modern man, the fractalyzed nature of our modern ethos, I saw only some stupid kids doing stupid things, but mostly just being bored. I could certainly feel empathy for their apathy. That’s probably pretty close to how I’d behave if I were there. I could certainly understand the stress of their situation. I just don’t understand what that stress tells me about anything in my life. Maybe I missed it, but I’ll give even odds that there simply wasn’t anything in this film to miss. One serious complaint I have about the film is that there are lines and situations almost directly stolen from Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. I think the director tried to correct this by creating an aura of past films in the story. That is he tried to show how the recruits only knew war through the movies of Vietnam, but it just didn’t work. It felt like a rip off. It was a rip off. It’s certainly a worthwhile notion (that most of us can only express ourselves in others ideas), but it just didn’t work.

Standouts: Jake Gyllenhaal was good, but nowhere near excellent.
Blowouts: It didn’t come together as a whole. Not a single great scene in the entire movie.

Grade: B-

11/13/2005

THE GREAT RAID (DVD)

Director: John Dahl (Rounders, Joy Ride, Unforgettable)
Starring: Benjamin Bratt, Joseph Fiennes, Connie Neilson, James Franco

The Great Raid is a fine little film that perhaps suffers a bit from a lack of star power. It’s a simple story about a US army raid on a Japanese POW camp in the Philippines during World War 2. This is told straight and without much embellishment. The Raid is planned and carried out successfully, end of story. A more successful subplot follows a Filipino resistance group (which surprisingly includes a statuesque blond) and their support of the POWs during their internment.

I don’t really have much to talk about in this film. It doesn’t take a single risk in the story or direction, but neither does it make any serious mistakes. It’s aimed solidly for the army-loving conservative set here in America, or perhaps some older viewers who appreciated a simpler style of story telling. Even though I don’t fall into either of those viewing demographics, I can still admit I saw a fine, enjoyable film. Oh, there were definitely some old-timey simplifications where the Japs were the bad guys and we were the good guys, but heck, not every story has to be complicated to be good. At least we didn’t wear white hats and the Japs black ones.

Personally, I think this movie might have come off better with a Guns of Navaronne attitude and star power. I did have some minor problems connecting with the characters, and I think the acting was to blame, but as I said it was successful nonetheless.

Standouts: Solid construction across the board.
Blowouts: Timid filmmaking without a single risk taken.

Grade: B-

12/23/2005