May 30-June1, 2008

Three Kings -

I recall my mother liking this film, so I figured it was worth a shot. In short, four soldiers attempt to steal several million dollars in Kuwaiti gold from Saddam shortly after the first Gulf War ended. The film is described as a dark comedy, but I don't really think it's that. Network is a dark comedy. Wag the Dog is a dark comedy. This is...something else. Certainly there are many comedic moments, often times at the beginning. In fact, at times the film tries too hard to be funny. But really this film is, unsurprisingly, a political commentary on the Gulf War and US policy in the Middle East in general. I mean, it's pretty obvious. Showing a series of absurd situations and characterizations during the Gulf War, it's gonna be a political commentary.

Let's face facts, with a movie like this, you are going to be looking for the political commentary. Therefore it's very difficult for the filmmakers to get their commentary across without it being overly blunt or over the top. And for the most part, they tread that fine line very well. There are a few situations that go a little too far, but for the most part it's very well subdued.

Sadly, the movie goes from political commentary to pretty standard war flick about two-thirds in. It's still well done, but it's also quite predictable. Both parts of the film are good, but they seem disjointed from one another. The performances are pretty solid, though a few of the characterizations are flat. I'm guessing that the major point of this film was to introduce the fallacy of American involvement in the Middle East to the general public, to show our naivete in thinking we were there to "protect Kuwait", when all we were really there for was to press our oil concerns. Also to introduce the news that America trained many of the people we were fighting in Iraq back when Iraq was our ally against Iran. Obviously by now this news is old hat, and I think by the time this film even came out that news was out of the bag. But the film does a solid job in reminding us how absurd the whole situation was and really how absurd any war is.

Grade: B

Prizzi's Honor -

This film reminded me that Jack Nicholson can act. Basically every role for Jack Nicholson in the past 10 years has been Jack Nicholson playing Jack Nicholson. Which is fine, because Jack Nicholson is awesome. But, yea, there was a time that Jack Nicholson could fucking act. And this was it. I read the synopsis: Jack Nicholson playing a dim-bulb mafia thug. Wha?! I couldn't see him pulling it off. But damned if it he didn't. He got the accent down. He got the mannerisms. He suppressed his native Jack Nicholson as much as he could. He was awesome.

The movie itself? It was ok. It was fairly light-hearted as far as mafia pictures with people getting killed goes. It was a "comedy" though there weren't terribly many laugh-out-loud moments, but I let out a solid guffaw now and then. It was just a throw away movie. Entertaining while you watch it, forgotten the moment it ends. Not much staying power with a person. I will say, though, that the ending was fairly bleak when compared with the rest of the film. It left me going...huh.

Grade: B-

Barton Fink -

Early Coen brothers film about a young, idealistic playwright who goes to Hollywood and gets his life taken apart. When it comes to Coen brothers, I prefer their comedies over their dramas, and while I'd swear that at times this movie was trying to be a comedy, it was in fact a drama. It actually was an over-stylized drama. It was the Hudsucker Proxy meets Blood Simple. It reminded me a lot of Blood Simple, and that's not a good thing because I didn't like Blood Simple. Both that film and this are terribly over-stylized. I'm not talking in visuals per se, I thought the set design and overall visual look of this film was absolutely wonderful. It's the mood. The Coen brothers try to make every moment in this film just drip with mood and overtones. They were successful in their aim, but failed in that it was annoying as hell. You don't have to have every single frame just oozing mood. It's too much. It's overwrought. It was when they backed off of it, and played things a little lighter, that the film really bloomed.

The film features the usual cast of Coen regulars. John Turturro, John Goodman, plus a couple of character actors I like (see Jon Polito). I really don't like John Goodman. I'm sure he is a very nice person, but he always plays such assholes no matter the film that I really have garnered a dislike of him. However, I think he inhabits his role in this film very well, and I'd have to rank it right up there among the tops of his roles.

I like the use of silence and the use of the beach painting in the movie, and I think it is well-crafted. It's just over-crafted. In such, you can tell it's an earlier one of their films. Later they found a much cleaner, smoother story-telling for their dramas (i.e. Fargo and I'm led to believe No Country For Old Men, though they did come back to it later with The Man Who Wasn't There, a film I do not like). Still, even at that point in their development, they were already very skilled filmmakers. Worth a watch.

Grade: B-