May 2-4, 2008

My heart wasn't quite into the movies this week. Largely because Dwarf Fortress continues to own my soul. But the three movies did play and my interest was mostly on them.

RKO 281 -

This movie is about the making of Citizen Kane. So let's talk about Citizen Kane. I've seen Citizen Kane three times in my life. The first time I watched it I was fairly young, 12 or 13 I think. I wanted to see what the hullabaloo was all about. I didn't get. I didn't see what was so great. Fast forward some time. I'm in college taking an introductory film course. We watch Citizen Kane, and I am absolutely blown away. Now that I have been trained to look for certain things in the film, the lighting, camera angle and such, I am absolutely astounding. It is a technologically brilliant film, using the language of film in (at the time) completely innovative ways. And that pretty much sums up Citizen Kane the film as a whole. It's a film for film critics and film artists and film appreciators. For the average person, it won't be that good. The third time I watched it was when I bought the special edition DVD and I listened to Roger Eberts commentary track over the film. It is simply the best commentary track I've ever heard. I learned to appreciate the film in a completely new way. For example, did you know that shot-for-shot, Citizen Kane has more special effects than the original Star Wars? It does, it's just that the shots don't make fantastical things like spaceships, but more mundane things like building fronts.

I mention the special edition DVD for another purpose. Included on that DVD was the AandE (I think) documentary "The Battle for Citizen Kane", which was actually the basis for this film. I had watched it, so I was familiar with the story material. It really is a fascinating story. I wasn't aware of the connections between Kane and William Randolph Hearst beforehand, so this was new to me. And it shows an interior glimpse at the Hollywood machine that was rarely scene.

Now, about RKO 281 itself. I have very little negative to say about this movie. The production value, the art decoration, the editing, the acting, the story were all top notch. Liev Schreiber does a great job as the young genius Orson Welles, great supporting work by John Malkovich, Roy Scheider, and James Cromwell. Perhaps the weakest part of the film was Melanie Griffith playing Marion Davies. Really great characterizations. It would have been all too easy to paint Hearst as the megalomaniacal tyrant suppressing free speech of the young innovator Welles, but we are also shown to what depths Welles will go to get his movie made. Welles was not stainless in the affair. Overall the movie was very good. If you will permit me, I would like to use a baseball analogy. This movie is not a homerun, but it is a ringing double off the wall. Whatever magic or majesty is necessary to make a film timeless, make it stick in your head, seems to be missing here, and I don't know why. I can't really find anything to complain about. It's a solid film. It's just not a masterpiece. Maybe it's the subject material, I don't know. But I heartily recommend anyone and everyone watch it.

As a side note, the incident described in the film taking place aboard Hearsts yacht involving Thomas Ince was itself made into a film called The Cat's Meow, which will be coming up relatively soon on my Netflix list. I'm looking forward to it, but mainly to see Eddie Izzard play Charlie Chaplin.

Grade: B+

The Madness of King George -

A film looking at the political mechinations during the reign of King George III (after he lost America) when he went batshit insane.

This is a tough film to review. It's one of those films that doesn't seem to have a "point" per se. RKO 281 had a point, it showed the battle of wills between two people, the clash of humanity. It had a destination. This film is a series of events without a destination. It's a concourse of happenings. It reminds me of Six Degrees of Separation that way. There doesn't appear to be much story arc, it just presents a (absurd) situation and lets you draw your own conclusions from it. It is perhaps unsurprising that both films are based on plays. This may be a common element of plays, I don't know. I don't know plays very well.

However, like Six Degrees of Separation, this film completely sucks you in. You can't help but watch what's happening, even if it doesn't happen to be leading you anywhere. And personally, I can't think of any better purpose for a movie. A movie is a story, and as such, it must capture the attention. This movie does a damn good job of it. It's not a masterpiece as a masterpiece film must not only just capture the attention, but have the according cinematography, acting, production, direction and whatnot to accompany the story. In these aspects the Madness of King George does solid yeoman work, though not revolutionary. But still, the story pulls you in, and that's good enough.

Grade: B+

The Rundown -

I must admit, I did not do a very good job of watching this movie. I was busy working my dwarf fortress and constantly distracted. This has happened to me in the past, where I have not given a movie the attention it is due (most notable with Double Indemnity and Touch of Evil). I feel guilty about it. But I believe I got a decent enough impression of the film.

An action movie trying to establish Dwayne Johnson (the Rock) as a new action film star. This movie was...surprisingly good. In that it was damn funny. I have no idea if the filmmakers were trying to make it funny, but it was funny. There were some great comedic moments. There were some not so great, but really, what do you expect. Dwayne Johnson does a decent job with his role. It is a role well designed for him. Not a lot of depth, but just enough to make him seem more than 2-dimensional. Sean William Scott's character was annoying as fuck. I think that was supposed to be the point, but he was still annoying. And there was a young Rosario Dawson.

The story was forgettable, but again, this is an action movie, so what do you expect? What's important was the action, so let's talk about the action. The fight scenes were COMPLETELY unrealistic. They were also COMPLETELY awesome to watch. They were very inventive, and if there was wire fu involved, it was low key. I have nothing against wire fu, but it's nice to see something else every once in a while. The film editing, both in the fight scenes and elsewhere, was a bit spastic. I think the editor was watching a little too much Darren Aronofsky, and missed the point while s/he was. And the special effects labeling at the start was pointless and annoying. But still, as far as action flicks go, this was a good one.

Not enough Christopher Walken though. Needs more Christopher Walken.

Grade: B-