We haven’t been out of the house in over three weeks, so supplies are running low (we’ll have to restock next week.) However, looking at what we did still have left we found a bright yellow lemon, so breakfast was Eggs Benedict, home fries, and orange juice. First DVD of the day was The Broken (2012). About five minutes in, the acting was so bad (stilted, conscious of the camera), we decided not to go any further. I don’t know if the poor acting was the actors’ fault, the director’s, lack of rehearsal time because of the budget, or what, but ultimately, if it’s bad, it’s bad. Next up we saw Oz The Great and Powerful (2013), written by Mitchell Kapner and David Lindsay-Abaire, directed by Sam Raimi. This is a thoroughly enjoyable family film that is, essentially, the backstory of the Wizard of Oz himself (I expected the movie to end with the arrival of Dorothy, but it doesn’t.) As always, Raimi brings a great deal of wit and elegance to the story, and although we saw it in 2D, it looks like it is probably one of the most successful depictions of 3D in a movie. Nice little touches throughout, from the opening credits, which visually illustrate each participant’s role in the movie, both actors and technicians, to the idea of having the actress in a wheelchair in the opening section later on play the voice role of the CGI China figurine with broken legs. It’s a heartwarming film, and there’s nothing wrong with heartwarming when it’s done sincerely (I applaud Raimi’s decision not to camp up the movie, or do it tongue-in-cheek.) Recommended. Finally, we saw Snitch (2013), written by Justin Haythe and Ric Roman Waugh, directed by Waugh. Haythe previously wrote The Clearing and Revolutionary Road; Waugh’s previous film was Felon, and he’s had a long history as a stuntman. Snitch stars Dwayne Johnson, better known as The Rock, and most of his movies up to this point have been kind of so-so (he sometimes seems to be modeling his career after Schwarzenegger, alternating action flicks and light comedies), but this is a darker film, suggesting his ambitions to grow as an actor, and he handles himself well. A business owner’s son is set up in a drug deal and sent to prison, where he’s getting beat up by the other inmates more and more often. His father, desperate to get his son out, makes a deal with the prosecutor’s office to help them nab a major drug supplier in exchange for a lighter sentence for his son. To get introduced to the dealer, he turns to one of his employees, an ex-con who’s been trying to stay clean for the sake of his family. He’ll pay the ex-con, who’s desperate for money, $20,000 for the introduction, even though this jeopardizes the ex-con’s life (he could go back to prison, he could wind up dead.) But of course the father doesn’t care about that-- he’ll do anything to help his son, even if it means hurting someone else. When people speak of a Hitchcockian movie they almost always are referring to clever camera work, but there’s another meaning of Hitchcockian that refers to having the audience feel moral ambiguity about the protagonist, and Snitch is that type of film. In fact, quite a few of the characters in the movie are willing to risk other people’s safety for their own selfish ends. Snitch isn’t perfect, and the ending is not as uncompromising as the rest of the film, but it’s definitely worth seeing. Great performance by John Bernthal (who was on The Walking Dead as Shane) as the ex-con. Recommended. imdb/title/tt0882977/?ref_=sr_1
Posted on: Sun, 16 Jun 2013 22:11:18 +0000
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