After bringing the world films such as Matador and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Pedro Almodóvar and Antonio Banderas reunite for this film about a plastic surgeon on the hunt for the men who raped his daughter. If Almodóvar is attached to a film then you know it will be an automatic must see for me.
Our Idiot Brother
Hollywood’s obsession with grown men acting like children continues. I do like the casting choices in the film though.
David Fincher’s latest film, The Social Network has been called both a “masterpiece” and “the film that defines a generation.”Once you get pass the initial hype, and the tendency for critics and bloggers to go gaga over everything Fincher touches, it becomes clear that these associations are not quite true.While The Social Network is one of the better films to hit theatres this year, it is the Facebook application itself and not the movie that will be remembered in the history books.
After being dumped by his girlfriend Erica Albright (Rooney Mara), Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) takes to his blog and trashes her character over cyberspace.This leads to the idea of creating a website that allows students to rank all of the female students on campus.An instant hit amongst the students, Mark’s program end ups crashing the Harvard computer system.While this raises the ire of both the school faculty and the female students, it also brings Mark to the attention of twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (both played by Armie Hammer).The Winklevoss twins approach Zuckerberg about creating a Havard version of MySpace.Although Zuckerberg agrees to help them with their project, Zuckerberg ends up working on his own website, The Facebook, with the aid of his best friend Eduardo (Andrew Garfield).Soon The Facebook becomes a global hit and Zuckerberg not only finds himself meeting the likes of Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), the brains behind Napster, but also finds himself in the middle of multiple lawsuits.
While the film looks at the creation of Facebook, The Social Network is a legal drama first and foremost.The film looks at the question of ownership in today’s society.In one scene Zuckerberg makes a great point where he questions if someone who makes a nice chair, must they pay everyone who has ever made a chair before them.Fincher never picks a side on the issue of who actually created Facebook, he merely lets the evidence play out and forces the audience to decide for themselves.
The interesting thing about this movie is that the hero is actually the villain.Although Zuckerberg is clearly a genius in regards to the way his brain functions, he is far from a likeable person. He is socially awkward and wants desperately to be a part of everything he despises mainly because it is what the cool people do.In fact, all the major developments in the film stem from Zuckerberg’s childish habits.Erica even remarks to Mark, although it could really apply to bloggers as well, that writing crude comments online is what angry people do in the dark.Although the lawsuits involve millions of dollars, Fincher makes a point to remind us that, at the end of the day, the participants are still immature boys looking to impress the opposite sex.
The Social Network has more to say about the nature of mixing friendship and business than it actually does about the impact of Facebook on today’s society.Some of the best moments in the film are found in the tension between Sean and Eduardo.Sean is the cool kid that Mark wants to be.Sean not only talks the talk but has the vision and the experience to back it up.Eduardo on the other hand is the loyal friend whose school taught approach to business limits his imagination in regards to how big Facebook can actually be.
The performances in the film are outstanding.The Social Network features one of the best works from an ensemble cast you will find all year.The performances coupled with Aaron Sorkin’s brilliantly written script and David Fincher’s stellar visual eye packs a big punch. My only knock on the film is that, since it is primarily a legal drama, The Social Network never looks at the effects Zuckerberg’s creation has on society.The program was designed to bring people together online, yet it is actually alienating people from each other in the real world.What I mean by this is that people connect less now face to face, as everything from making plans to sharing stories is done online.It is this reason why I have problems with the whole “the movie defines a generation” chant some are spewing.It is a great film but not one that really impacts society the way you hope it would. Still, as far as legal dramas go, The Social Network is one of the best.
I have always lived by the motto that “I want to see every movie though some more than others”. It is time for me to rethink this phrase after sitting through Cop Out. The worst movie I have seen so far this year. I cannot even talk about the film without getting angry. My rage is at both the movie and myself for watching it in the first place. I had a feeling it was going to be bad...I just did not expect this bad.
The plot revolves around two cops Jimmy Monroe (Bruce Willis) and Paul Hodges (Tracy Morgan), partners for over nine years. Jimmy’s daughter Ava (Michelle Trachtenberg) is getting married soon and he cannot afford to cover the lavish wedding she has planned. Jimmy refuses to let Ava’s new stepdad (Jason Lee) cover the cost of the wedding, and opts to sell a cherished baseball card as a last resort. Unfortunately for Jimmy the card is stolen by a two bit criminal, Dave (Sean William Scott), and eventually ends up in the hands of a gangster named Poh Boy (Guillermo Díaz). As luck would have it, Poh Boy is the mastermind behind a cellphone racket that Jimmy and Paul are trying to bring down.
There is also a subplots involving an abducted woman, two rival cops (Kevin Pollak and Adam Brody), and Jimmy’s wife (Rashida Jones) who may be cheating. None of which, like the movie itself, really warrant any real discussion. The film is just awful on so many levels. I cannot even call Cop Out the poor-man’s version of Lethal Weapon or Beverly Hills Cop which are both heavy influences on this film. This is more like the poor-man’s version of Rush Hour 3 minus the cultural differences. Somehow Tracy Morgan manages to be even more annoying than Chris Tucker was in that film. I had my fill of Morgan after the interrogation scene...which was in the first fifteen minutes of the film! To be honest, I would have rather preferred Jason Lee in the Tracy Morgan role, as he provided the only real laugh in the whole film. Plus he seemed to have actual chemistry with Bruce Willis.
Speaking of Bruce Willis, he never lets himself be engulfed by the silliness of the film. Even his comedic lines are delivered in his rigid tough guy tone. He is as dull as that guy at the company office party who only wants to talk your ear off about the time he wore mismatched socks to work. Seriously, Willis displayed more comedic chops in Live Free or Die Hard than he does in this film. I was waiting for the moment where Willis looked at his watch and asked the director, Kevin Smith, when this trash would be over. Sadly that scene never arrived.
I cannot fathom how Kevin Smith could have made a film this awful given the talent he has in regards to comedy. I have heard many people try and justify the film by pointing out that Smith did not actually write this film. How does that make it any better? Regardless of whether he wrote the film or not, he was the one calling the shots behind the camera. Now I have been a long time Kevin Smith fan and have defended him on more than one occasion in various movie discussions. Yet there is no defending this film. The action scenes in this film, as well as the editing, are horrendous. I could not understand how such a big budget film could have action sequences that were this dull and cheap looking.
While Cop Out will not stop Kevin Smith’s career from moving forward, it definitely signals a low point in his canon of work. Still at the end of the day, I only have myself to blame. The warning signs were there and I foolishly ignored them.
