Sleight of Film

Today’s quick review: 21. Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess), an MIT senior, needs $300,000 to attend Harvard Medical School. His prayers are answered when he catches the attention of Mickey Rosa (Kevin Spacey), a mathematics professor who runs a secret club of student card counters. But as Ben finds success in Vegas, he grows distant from his friends and risks losing himself to his newfound riches.

21 is a light crime drama with heist elements. 21 is a movie with a good core plot, decent acting, and pacing issues. Mickey uses his brightest students to run a card counting system capable of clearing six figures from the blackjack tables in one trip to Las Vegas. Their activities are not illegal, but the risk of getting caught is high and professionalism is a much. However, the film spends too much time on setup and gambling montages, causing it to drag in places.

Kevin Spacey is the high point of the movie, bringing his considerable acting talent to the role of Ben’s sharp but predatory card counting coach. His part is limited to a few key sections of the moive, though, and the focus is on Jim Sturgess. Sturgess straddles the line between dorky and charming, lacking the edge to pull off the hustler half of his persona but remaining a pleasant enough protagonist to follow.

Watch 21 if you are interested in a low-key approach to the heist genre. The stakes are lower and nothing is stolen, but the vibe is the same. The film makes a few pacing errors and the characters could be stronger, but 21 is still a decent watch when the right mood strikes you. Skip it if you prefer an actual heist film or crime drama.

6.8 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 7.0 for a good premise with decent execution.

Today’s quick review: Pulp Fiction. Jules Pitt (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent Vega (John Travolta) are a pair of enforcers working for crime boss Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames). A miracle leaves Jules contemplating a more righteous path, while Vincent is asked to take care of Marsellus’s wife Mia (Uma Thurman) for the night while Marsellus is out of town. Meanwhile, Butch (Bruce Willis), an aging boxer who Marsellus has hired to take a fall, enacts a daring plan for his retirement.

Pulp Fiction is a stylized crime drama from Quentin Tarantino. The movie consists of three interlocking stories told in non-chronological order. The first segment focuses on Vincent and his night out with Mia, the second on Butch and his plan, and the third on Jules and his perceived miracle. No story goes exactly as planned, with plot twists that send them careening in different directions.

The unusual format can make the movie hard to follow at first, but paying close enough attention shows that Pulp Fiction is very well crafted. The vignettes fit together like a puzzle, with themes and events that intersect in unexpected ways. While the movie lacks a single overarching plot, it makes up for the absence through unpredictability and style.

The film’s dialogue is packed with Tarantino’s unique musings on the world, from the ethics of foot massages to the nature of awkward pauses in conversation. Although the characters are not entirely likable, their dialogue and mannerisms make them oddly compelling. Interesting scenes, intelligent camera work, and iconic moments arguably make the film Quentin Tarantino’s best work.

Watch Pulp Fiction if you are in the mood for an odd, stylish crime drama with an excellent cast and Quentin Tarantino’s signature style. Between occasional violence, mature themes, and a penchant for the shocking and unexpected, Pulp Fiction is not for the sensitive. But those who are on board with the mature content will find Pulp Fiction to be an incredibly competent film that is well worth the watch.

8.9 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it an 8.5 for stylish presentation, excellent craftsmanship, and a number of iconic moments.

Today’s quick review: The Incredibles. After a public relations disaster forces America’s superheroes into early retirement, Bob Parr (Craig T. Nelson), the former Mr. Incredible, and his wife Helen (Holly Hunter), the former Elastigirl, settle down to an ordinary life in the suburbs to raise their shy daughter Violet (Sarah Vowell), their hyperactive son Dash (Spencer Fox), and their baby Jack Jack. But when Mr. Incredible resumes hero work behind his wife’s back, the consequences of his actions threaten to tear his family apart.

The Incredibles is a CGI family comedy and Disney’s take on the superhero genre. The Incredibles features superpowered action, themes of family and supporting one another, and a stylized world of heroes and villains inspired by the glory days of the superhero genre. The graphics are dated but nevertheless impressive, while the writing sparkles with humor and clever details. The whole is capped off by an outstanding soundtrack with a strong trumpet theme.

Fans of the superhero genre may find The Incredibles odd at first. The setting is a hodgepodge of superhero conventions more than a world of its own. The Incredibles’ powers are close, but not identical, to the Fantastic Four’s. The family dynamic seems to distract from the core hero work. But eventually the film proves that it is not only an ode to the genre, but a competent story in its own right.

The Incredibles does a surprisingly good job of handling the familial aspects of its story. The story is not just about Bob’s midlife crisis, but Dash’s need for an outlet, Violet’s lack of confidence, and Helen’s efforts to keep them all together. For relatively simple character concepts, they touch on some interesting themes, and their interactions and growth are handled quite well.

Watch The Incredibles if you are looking for a family-friendly adventure with great characters, strong writing, and mountains of style. Most people will enjoy the film to some degree, and many will find it a modern classic.

8.0 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it an 8.0 to 8.5 for smart writing, action, and fun.

Today’s quick review: The Princess Bride. After her true love is killed on the high seas, a forlorn Buttercup (Robin Wright) agrees to marry Prince Humperdink (Chris Sarandon). But unbeknownst to her, Humperdink has arranged for her kidnapping to spark a war with a neighboring kingdom. A trio of brigands (Andre the Giant, Mandy Patinkin, and Wallace Shawn) abscond with the princess, but their scheme is interrupted by a mysterious stranger clad in black (Cary Elwes).

The Princess Bride is a cult classic that delivers comedy, romance, and adventure all wrapped up in a storybook shell. The pleasant, simple flavor of the storybook genre makes The Princess Bride a light and easy watch. At the same time, The Princess Bride pokes loving fun at the conventions of the genre, from the politeness shown between the stranger and the kidnappers to the everyday treatment of a world of potions, miracles, and unusual rodents.

For all its charm, The Princess Bride is missing a number of elements that would make it an engrossing story in its own right. The story has a generic medieval setting with slight fantasy elements. The fight scenes are not impressive enough to qualify it as an action movie. The characters and story are deliberately simple.

The magic of the story lies in its telling. Peter Falk’s warm narration of the story to his sick grandson provides the film’s framing device. All the countless minutiae that other movies rely on to buttress their stories are scrapped in favor of memorable characters, quotable dialogue, and charm. The strength of these elements is not always apparent on the first watch, but The Princess Bride has a quality that persists time after time.

Watch The Princess Bride if you are looking for a light, cute, and somewhat sappy adventure. Skip it if you dislike the genre or are looking for more weight or a more fully realized world.

8.1 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it an 8.0 to 8.5 for charm and quotability.

Today’s quick review: Doctor Strange. After a car accident leaves him unable to operate, Doctor Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), an arrogant neurosurgeon, tries everything he can to recover the use of his damaged hands. His search takes him to Kamar-Taj, a mystic school in Nepal, where a woman known as the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) teaches him about the world of magic. But after Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen), a traitor to the school, steals the key to a dangerous ritual, Strange must put his newfound power to the test to save the world from an otherworldly threat.

Doctor Strange is a superhero fantasy film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Doctor Strange is Marvel’s first foray into straight fantasy with no attempt at a science fiction coating. The magic fits surprisingly well with the universe’s established cosmology, giving Doctor Strange free reign with its special effects and action. The result is a polished, visually astounding adventure with mind-bending special effects and boundless creativity.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays an excellent Stephen Strange, arrogant and inconsiderate, but with just enough of a conscience to redeem him. His inflated ego is counterbalanced by Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams), a fellow doctor and Strange’s on-again, off-again love interest, who sees the good buried within him. Tilda Swinton plays the Ancient One, a mentor figure with a peculiar relationship with Strange, while Chiwetel Ejiofor rounds out the main cast as Mordo, a fellow sorcerer who helps Strange in his training.

The story is solid if conventional, a well-executed tale of redemption with a typical superhero plot. Where Doctor Strange excels is its visual spectacle, a smorgasbord of fractal designs, visual surprises, and physics-warping fight scenes. The action is fast-paced martial arts crossed with Inception-style reality bending and magical weaponry. The whole package is tied together with smooth writing, a dash of Marvel humor, and a fitting, baroque-inspired soundtrack.

Watch Doctor Strange if you are looking for an action-packed visual feast and a self-contained, fantasy-heavy take on the superhero genre. Those who are cooling on superhero films should consider giving Doctor Strange a shot anyway; its slick execution and magic elements separate it from the usual fare. Skip it if you dislike action movies or magic.

8.0 out of 10 on IMDB. I also give it an 8.0 for spectacle, polish, and fun.

Today’s quick review: Swimming with Sharks. Guy (Frank Whaley), a Hollywood neophyte, is pushed to his breaking point when he takes a job as the assistant to Buddy Ackerman (Kevin Spacey), an abusive movie executive. His dreams of making it big in the industry are put to the test by Buddy’s insults, disrespect, and impossible standards. Guy must choose between his career and a developing relationship with Dawn Lockard (Michelle Forbes), a movie producer who urges him to get out from under Buddy’s thumb.

Swimming with Sharks is an unusual drama about the film industry and its effects on people. Guy’s eagerness to please runs aground on Buddy’s bad attitude, and Guy is left searching for some trace of humanity in an inhuman boss. The setup feels like a comedy, but it plays out like a drama, in spite of the absurd nature of Buddy’s criticisms. Kevin Spacey delivers a memorable performance as Buddy Ackerman, a character with just enough complexity to cause the viewer to question just what kind of man he is.

Swimming with Sharks does build to some interesting themes about ambition, sacrifice, and self-respect, but it lacks the plot to fully explore them. The story is told thorugh a series of flashbacks, but the only events of note take place in the present. The flashbacks chronicle the early days of Guy’s employment, the birth of his romance with Dawn, and his acclimatization to working for Buddy, but they are more a series of interactions than proper events. As a result, Guy seems to drift as a character rather than undergoing a concrete transformation.

Watch Swimming with Sharks if you are a fan of Kevin Spacey. The dynamic between Buddy and Guy is iconic, and the writing has a couple of smart moments. But the movie wanders instead of telling a concrete story, and the tone is caught awkwardly between a comedy and a drama. For those willing to overlook its faults for its virtues, Swimming with Sharks is a decent watch. For those looking for the complete package, skip it.

7.1 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 7.0 for good characters held back by a poorly-constructed plot.

Today’s quick review: Stardust. Tristan (Charlie Cox), a naive English country boy, ventures over the wall near his village into the magical kingdom of Stormhold in search of a fallen star to win the hand of Victoria (Sienna Miller), a girl from his village. But the star turns out to be a woman named Yvaine (Claire Danes) who is cross about falling to Earth. As Tristan hurries to get Yvaine home in time for Victoria’s birthday, he must stay ahead of Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer), a witch who wants the star’s heart to restore her youth, and Septimus (Mark Strong), a prince seeking to use the star to claim his father’s throne.

Stardust is a fantasy film directed by Matthew Vaughn and based on a story by Neil Gaiman. For a modern take on the fairy tale genre, Stardust has surprisingly solid fundamentals. Apart from a few mature themes that push it into PG-13, Stardust has all the optimism and wonder one could expect from the genre. The story is very well constructed, adroitly managing its plot threads and setting up its endgame quite nicely. Between crisp writing, thoughtful direction, and a subtly impressive soundtrack, Stardust remains an engaging watch throughout its two hours.

As for the characters, none are exceptional, but they fill their roles quite well. Tristan is a bit of a sap but blends his starry-eyed idealism with enough courage to make him a worthy hero. For her part, Yvaine receives little development at first but is fleshed out nicely over the course of the movie. Michelle Pfeiffer plays a satisfying witch in the classical mold, while Robert De Niro steals the show in his supporting role as Captain Shakespeare.

Watch Stardust if you are a fan of well-written, well-executed fairy tale fantasy. Stardust is a spiritual successor to The Princess Bride, but it distinguishes itself from its predecessor with heavier fantasy, a more cohesive plot, and more polish, albeit at the cost of some of The Princess Bride’s quotability and storybook charm. Those who dislike fantasy or find the fairy tale genre to be unsatisfying or naive will get little out of Stardust and should skip it.

7.7 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 7.0 to 7.5 for craftsmanship and charm.

Today’s quick review: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Adventurer Allan Quatermain (Sean Connery) returns from retirement at the request of the British government to prevent war from breaking out in Europe after a series of attacks perpetrated by a mysterious mastermind known as the Fantom. Quatermain joins Tom Sawyer (Shane West), a successor to the Invisible Man (Tony Curran), Captain Nemo (Naseerudin Shah), Dr. Jekyll (Jason Flemyng), and other unusual characters in a continent-spanning hunt for the Fantom.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a science fiction movie based on the comic book series by Alan Moore. The film reinterprets some of the more notable characters from Victorian-era fiction as borderline superheroes and sends them on an adventure across Europe. The character reinterpretations justify some interesting moments throughout the film, but the unstable nature of many of the protagonists make them difficult to root for.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen does deliver a surprising amount of action for a movie nominally set in the 1890s. The characters’ unique abilities coupled with guns and explosives are enough to square away the film’s action component as good if not outstanding. The plot has a reasonable premise but suffers from a lack of focus, while an excess of twists makes it difficult to predict the film’s trajectory.

Watch The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen if you are in the mood for a schlocky, action-packed take on Victorian literature. An unfocused plot and unsympathetic characters keep The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen from being the fun romp it should be, but it still makes a decent popcorn watch for those interested in the premise. Skip it if the concept sounds silly to you, and watch Van Helsing instead if you are looking for a horror-genre counterpart that has a bit more fun.

5.8 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 6.5 for clever use of public domain characters hindered by a lackluster plot and poor characterization.

Today’s quick review: Big Trouble in Little China. When Jack Burton (Kurt Russell), a loudmouthed trucker, visits his friend Wang Chi (Dennis Dun) in San Francisco’s Chinatown, he gets dragged into a magical conflict beyond his understanding. Wang’s fiance Miao Yin (Suzee Pai) is kidnapped by the evil sorcerer David Lo Pan (James Hong) for use in a ceremony that will free him from an ancient curse. With the help of a willful lawyer (Kim Cattrall) and an old tour bus driver with a few tricks up his sleeve (Victor Wong), Jack and Wang must infiltrate Lo Pan’s Chinatown stronghold, confront a variety of magical foes, and rescue Miao Yin before the ceremony is complete.

Big Trouble in Little China is a tongue-in-cheek 80s fantasy adventure film directed by John Carpenter. Kurt Russell leads as Jack Burton, a trucker who refers to himself in the third person and has a hard time backing up his bravado. His fresh-faced buddy Wang, played by Dennis Dun, is the more competent of the two but is prone to many of the same mistakes as Jack. Together they fight their way through a hectic series of challenges based loosely on Chinese mysticism to rescue Wang’s fiance from Lo Pan.

Big Trouble in Little China makes for a peculiar watch. Despite its simple premise, the plot quickly becomes confusing as new elements are introduced and discarded in rapid succession. What starts as an apparent gang war turns into a mystical adventure, and the main party fluctuates wildly as allies join or are captured. The explanations are enough to piece together what is going on, but barely, and the viewer is left to guess at events as they happen. The martial arts action is plentiful but not that impressive. The special effects are passable if dated.

For all that, Big Trouble in Little China is a fairly fun watch. The quality of the film depends on how tongue-in-cheek you think it is being. Taken at face value, it has all the hallmarks of an 80s movie with none of the finesse: a macho protagonist, cheesy dialogue, and a plot that seems to be made up as it goes along. Taken as a parody, it winks at all these conventions, from Jack’s frequent blunders to the thin explanations for the story’s magical elements. But the nature of the genre, plus the fact that parts of the film can and should be taken seriously, makes it difficult to tell where the joke ends and the movie begins.

Watch Big Trouble in Little China if you are in the mood for a self-deprecating 80s film with a distinctive flavor. How well you like the movie will depend on how much you like its blend of 80s camp and mock 80s camp. Those who are struck the right way will get a lot out of this movie, while others will wonder what it was they just watched.

7.3 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 5.0 for the movie it pretends to be and a 7.0 for the movie it actually is.

Today’s quick review: Quantum of Solace. James Bond (Daniel Craig) follows the trail of clues left in the wake of the events of Casino Royale in a mission that is as much personal as it is business. His investigation leads him to Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), a powerful man at the head of a secret organization known as Quantum. Together with Camille (Olga Kurylenko), a woman out for revenge, Bond races to uncover Quantum before its criminal ambitions for the country of Bolivia become a reality.

Quantum of Solace is a spy thriller and the second film in the rebooted James Bond franchise. Despite high production values and many of the elements that made Casino Royale a hit, Quantum of Solace suffers from subpar writing, an incoherent plot, and shaky camera work. The premise is a reasonable one: Bond is up against the secret criminal organization responsible for the events of the previous movie. But the execution disappoints, with tangled plot threads and action scenes that are overshadowed by their counterparts in Casino Royale.

For all its faults, Quantum of Solace is still a modern Bond film and therefore a reasonably entertaining piece of cinema. Though it lacks the spectacle and crisp execution of Casino Royale, it retains Daniel Craig’s steely resolve as Bond, Judi Dench’s seasoned expertise as M, and one of the better universes the spy genre has to offer. Watch it if you are in the mood for a spy movie and do not mind a dip in franchise quality or for completion’s sake. Skip it if you dislike the Bond reboots or if you have already seen Skyfall.

6.7 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it 7.0 to 7.5 for decent quality well below the Bond standard.