Most people would be hard pressed to give Robin Hooda bad review. There are too many opportunities to be entertained throughout the two hours of filmmaking. I think it is good, and I’ll watch it again.
Robin Hood is, however, deeply flawed. There are plot points that are bizarre, character revelations that are frustrating, and one of more cringe-worthy moments I’ve experienced at the cinema in 2010. I won’t reveal the moment because I’m hoping everyone who goes and sees the movie will know what I’m talking about.
I was confused throughout most the movie, not because it was hard to follow, but because the two following questions kept slapping me in the face:
First, why is this film about Robin Hood?
My guess: Well, I’m assuming that would come down to Ridley Scott needing a pre-existing audience with a story relating to the crusades a subject that has fascinated him in the past. This, of course, is fine with me. Directors can do whatever the fuck they want.
I’m also assuming Scott wanted an action-heavy plot with a pre-existing audience. (Robin Hood is a superhero story when it comes down to it.)
If he gets a pre-existing audience the budget can inflate. I agree with big-budgeted films that go for any audience possible. Michael Bay does this to great success. The films’ characters suffer, but the special-effects budgets flourish due to huge box office expectations.
And second, why are so many big-budgeted films obliged to satisfy a female audience merely by having a contrived Xena-Warrior-Princess style character?
My guess: I’m guessing Lady Marion was never written as a sword-wielding, Xena-style character, but pressure came down from studio execs to make the film more female-friendly. Again, this is fine…directors can do whatever the fuck the want.
But look, having a female character intervene courageously in a fight, only to be defeated by a villain, and then have a male hero come in and save her undermines the feminist undertone. Kill Bill is a real female-warrior film. In Robin Hood these elements feel contrived. It feels similar to a Michael Bay film at moments – an unfortunate consequence of having a 200+ million dollar budget.
Regardless, of my above thoughts, Robin Hood thrives on its performances and action-sequences. Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett perform well as Robin Hood and Lady Marion. I don’t know how the movie will be received with the common viewer. The action sequences, set design, and costumes are deeply admirable from a cinemaphile’s point of view.
But what of the common public? Will the film’s odd storyline sit well with the common viewer? Do people care about huge battle sequences? Or do they just care about technolust and robots transforming? These questions will be answered the second weekend of box office when word-of-mouth gets out. I don’t say this often, but I smell a box office flop. Lastly, I should mention that Oscar Isaac’s performance as Prince John shines. I wish his character occupied more of the story. Oh well…
Release day: May 2010
Collin Says: B-
You’ll say: B
By Collin, on May 24th, 2010
Hot Tub Time Machine
The Hangover was widely crowned a comedic masterpiece by audiences and critics alike. It won the Golden Globe for Best Comedy or Musical and grossed over 400 million dollars worldwide.
The Hangover is indeed very good, but a lesser-seen film, endlessly compared to The Hangover, is called Hot Tub Time Machine – a movie I claim is the Citizen Kane of comedy. That is obviously a hyperbole, but this movie is that great.
The film follows Adam (John Cusack) and Nick (Craig Robinson) as they reunite with their friend Lou (Rob Corddry) when he may or may not have attempted suicide while drumming along to a song in his car. How he does this I won’t reveal, but it is ludicrously funny.
After discovering their friend Lou is in trouble, Adam and Nick decide to rediscover better times by bringing Lou to the Kodiak Valley Ski Resort where they used to party in the nineteen eighties. Adam brings along his nephew Jacob (Clark Duke) and when the group arrives at the Ski Resort they quickly discover, like themselves, the place has turned to shit.
The group quickly hops in their room’s hot tub and are transported back in time as their former selves in 1986, except for Jacob who kinda’ stands outside time. I guess? The movie moves along with a lighting pace all headed by the genius performance by Rob Corddry, who was given free-reign to run wild as Lou. Every moment, every line, and every piece of body language has comedic value and entertainment wrapped in it. It reminded me of Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda, a performance that won him an Oscar.
Am I saying Corddry deserves an Oscar? Probably not, but his performance should not be ignored. He is able to mesh the difficult position of a fast-paced, joke-a-second screwball comedy with genuinely heart-felt moments of tenderness, regret, and the realizations of a life wasted.
Which raises another point – The Hangover also offers bromance and tenderness for its characters, as well as a plot much more feasible in space and time. Then why did Hot Tub Time Machine feel more real to me?
It might be because this film is based on fantasies and regrets we all have. Such as: What would have happened had I stuck with her or him? Why didn’t I become who I wanted to be? What if I’d thought of that million-dollar idea first? Is life really preordained? And even a surprisingly profound question: Is time linear?
How about the comment: “Oh, her? We’re not really friends anymore. We just kinda’ grew apart.” Have you ever said that? I sure have. All these ideas are explored through the lens of screwball, gross-out comedy.
There is an exchange that really struck a cord with me – when Adam is arguing with his ex-girlfriend about her dumping him. She dismisses his sadness, commenting that he has a lot of success ahead of him and he painfully replies that he doesn’t.
When people ask me what this movie was like I say it is kind of like A Christmas Carol meets Dumb & Dumber. I mean it.
Hot Tub Time Machine is a paradox. It provides rapid-fire jokes with characters so destroyed by regret and emptiness that we kind of see ourselves in them. Oh yeah, and there are like a thousand awesome pop-culture references from the eighties…
Release date March 2010
I say: A
You’ll say:B
By Collin, on May 22nd, 2010
Top Ten Living Directors
This type of list needs a few honorable mentions. I’ve taken the liberty of three: Paul Thomas Anderson, Woody Allen, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
10. Alfonso Cuaron
His film Y Tu Mama Tambien might be me my favorite movie ever made. I don’t know exactly why. Another one of his films, Children of Men, ranks among the best science fiction movies ever made. He is one of the three Mexican New Wave directors, all of which are on this list.
9. Quentin Tarantino
I constantly knock the guy. I don’t know what I dislike about him. It is not unlike my annoyance of Wes Anderson. Film School students probably jaded me. Tarantino’s Kill Bill is in my top ten favorite films.
8. Christopher Nolan
We’ll see how this guy pans out, but come this summer, Inception might rank him #1 in Hollywood.
7.David Lynch
What a master. Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Muholand Drive, and the great Inland Empire are greats. What an enigmatic genius. What a weird visionary. He’s one of the few avant-garde directors who can remain in the mainstream. I’m hoping digital filmmaking hasn’t freed his madness too much. At least financial constraints made him answer to producers.
6. Guillermo Del Toro
This dude is a Mexican god. Pan’s Labyrinth alone would have gotten him on this list.
5.Darren Aronofsky
I read some people who claim this dude the next Kubrick. Obviously people might be jumping the gun a bit. But Aronofsky is a baby in terms of age. Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, and The Wrestler are all great films. He’s definitely not the greatest living director, not by a long shot, but has the potential to be.
4. Peter Jackson
It is funny because my brother and I were already PJ fans before he became famous with Lord of the Rings. His films Dead Alive and Bad Taste remain cinema’s bloodiest, weirdest treasures. I was skeptical hearing that he was going to helm the LOTR’s series. Who would have thought?
3. Werner Herzog
Who is Herzog? Well, most won’t know his name. He made a kind-of famous documentary about a dude getting eaten by a bear. Other than that, he isn’t a house hold name. Me thinks Bad Lieutenant will bring him into more widespread acclaim. See his movies.
2. Clint Eastwood
A lot of people dismiss him as a ludicrous director from a boring age of filmmaking. I just say piss off to all of them. Unforgiven, Mystic River, Changling, Million Dollar Baby, Letters from Iwo Jima, Gran Tarino; what great movies. He has been pumping out great movies in the best two decades. He will likely not make films in his nineties so I’m hoping his last is more of the same.
1. Martin Scorsese
If you haven’t caught Mean Streets, his early mafia film, go see it. In fact, watch all his movies. Raging Bull remains his triumph, but so does his ability to adjust to Hollywood’s trends. The seventies was high time for small, art house movies in the mainstream. Godfather probably wouldn’t get made these days and if it did, it would be hard to find.
These days Spielberg sucks outside of his film Munich. Coppola went crazy. De Palma is in no man’s land. George Lucas is raping his legacy, as shown in South Park.
All these great directors came from the same generation of greatness, but where everyone else failed, Scorsese flourished. How much Catholic guilt and male insecurity can one man pack into mainstream, audience-friendly films? A lot, that is how much. He is the greatest living director. His only misstep? Making Shutter Island, what an awful ending.
-Collin Gilbert from http://www.podcastfilmreview.com
By Collin, on May 21st, 2010
Underground Film Review Special Episode:
Top Ten Films of the 2000s
This is an old podcast we did early in the year. We’ve since revamped our show’s format so the show will be much shorter, and frankly, less boring.
I chose to post this show because it is probably the most accessible and interesting for non-cinemaphiles.
But regardless, I insist to everyone who would call this episode shit that our new show is going to be a wee-bit less shitty and much more concise….maybe. We’re recording a new episode Saturday May 21st.
This movie is really not that good. There are 30 vampire films that could push it out. Lost boys? But something inside me enjoyed it. It is kinda’ entertaining, redundant, and utterly pointless, but what the hell…
9. Dracula (1931)
This movie is just okay. It isn’t really scary and anyone who calls it the scariest vampire movie is a twat. I’ve scene it only a few times and have never really liked it. Vampires aren’t really scary.
8. Nosferatu (1922)
Well,scratch that. Vampires can be scary. If you have the stomach for a silent film, (Many don’t) stick with this one. It really is scary as hell. If you can’t, well, check out number 1.
7. Blade, Blade 2
The first is good. The second might be great. Guillero Del Torro’s a fucking filmmaking Jedi. His action films are really good. His drama/fantasy films are legendary. My brother and I watch these movies once and a while. They are a sad reminder of how great Wesley Snipes was. He had it all, the acting chops, the martial-art skills (I think he was Fifth Dan) and the physique.
6. Salem’s Lot
This is probably not the greatest adaptation of Stephen King book to ever happen. It is still pretty scary though
5. Interview with the Vampire
A bit boring at times, but it is funny how much I like this movie. It is one of the few movies that looks at vampires as characters, not just villains. Up until True Blood it was, dare I say, the most sensitive look and vampires ever put into popular culture.
4. Bram Stroker’s Dracula
This is a really cool movie. Francis Ford Coppola’s last really good film. It is sexy, violent, scary, and fun. It is said to be the closest adaptation of Bram Stroker’s novel. I shamefully have not read it, so can’t comment.
3. Underworld
This movie is a lot of fun. Like Resident Evil has nothing to do with zombies, Underworld has little to do with vampires. It is a fantasy action movie. It isn’t scary or really that memorable. But out of all the vamp movies ever made. I might be the most entertained by Underworld.
2. From Dusk Till Dawn
This movie would never get made without the fame of Tarintino and Rodriguez, who both had exploded on the indie scene with El Meriachi and Reservoir Dogs. Two films I deeply admire. FDTD is a seriously bizarre movie and is a favorite of my brother, as well as myself.
1. Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
If you don’t know the name Werner Herzog. You don’t know enough about movies. The guy is one of the great living directors and I’m not saying that as a snobby film elitist. His take on the classic film Nosferatu (#8) Is truely terrifying. Made only years after Wrath of God and Fizcallardo, I wonder what made him switch gears and use Kinski in a horror film. Whatever, Herzog’s a genius. Kinski’s potrayal of dracula is quiet, tormented, and really creepy. See this movie.
Robin Hood
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