Reel Low: Ironclad [2011]

Well, this post has been sitting in draft form for nearly two months as I became consumed by Mad Men posts, went on vacation and had a crazy excursion through the justice system, which culminated in coming face-to-face with a an eventually convicted child molester. All of that didn't exactly give me a lot of time to contemplate a decent but unessential medieval action flick that had the tendency to take itself a little too seriously at times, yet not enough at others.

But that's not important. What is important is that the world know Ironclad gets a simple thumbs-up from me. It's been a little too long now for me to write up a proper review without re-watching it, but I liked it. Overall, the movie is a little on the uneven side, but with these actors and mostly well-done scenes of action and bloodshed, I consider it recommendable. It's the story of a small, ill-trained and under-provisioned group of soldiers defending themselves against impossible odds, much in the spirit of Seven Samuraiand Zulu. While nowhere near as good a film as those, there's enough good material with this one to hold your attention. This is quite possibly the best medieval siege movie of the last decade. Only the Helm's Deep scenes in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers come to mind as having exceeded what director/screenwriter Jonathan English did here (and by a wide margin, I should add).

Ironclad has been criticized for being historically inaccurate. This is generally an odd critique to me for action films inspired by landmark moments of the past. Did you really expect an education from a James Purefoy movie? No, you came for the insane violence and stayed for the great performances of top-billed cast members. Speaking of, Purefoy is predictably solid as the the gruff yet earnest knight templar leading the small band of castle defenders. Meanwhile, Brian Cox and Paul Giamatti simply outdo themselves repeatedly in this movie. They're the real reasons to watch this one. Rounding out the cast is the wonderful Derek Jacobi as a timid lord and the serviceable, if unspectacular Kate Mara as his young wife. And for those of you yearning for more Games of Thrones action, Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister) does have a small role here as the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Oh, remember how I said Ironclad is crazy-violent? Check this clip some Dutch dude obviously made from a bootleg copy of the film. (Very SPOILER-ific due to lots of kill-shots.) It's fun stuff.



Better than the real trailer, in my opinion.

Reel Low: The Avengers [2012]

"The Avengers" by Mondo (variant)

Oh, my god, that was fun!

I got out of the theater a few hours ago, and I'm absolutely going bonkers over how much I enjoyed The Avengers right now. So much better than I'd let myself believe it could be. If you've watched the five prequel movies to The Avengers, you will very likely love it every bit as much as I did.

The Marvel movieverse has taken an interesting path to bring their comics world to a mass audience, mixing plot and character points from various storylines and universes that worked best with their casting decisions, today's CGI and the best possible costume design for the screen. Personally, I've enjoyed all of the films from Marvel Studios that have served as precursors to The Avengers to varying degrees -- loved most of Iron Man and Captain America but both failed to deliver outstanding villains, thought they spent too much time on Earth in Thor, forgot to add in the heroic side of the big green machine in The Incredible Hulk, and with its abundance of characters Iron Man 2 now looks like little more than a two-hour reminder that The Avengers was coming in a couple of years (despite its good parts). But even those missteps were worth it to make sure similar pitfalls didn't strike for the grand reveal of this superhero team.

All the best elements from these five movies were woven together masterfully by writer/director Joss Whedon, and then enhanced at nearly every conceivable opportunity. For any fan of Buffy The Vampire Slayer out there (the TV show, not that abomination of a movie), it'll come as no surprise that he was able to bring an engaging and exciting story to the screen, brimming with intelligence and humor while this collection of misfits toys save the world. And with all that he still manages to tug at your heartstrings at times. Essentially this is a "get the band back together" flick with a bevy of characters, but Whedon brought the perfect balance of screentime to all of our main six protagonists and the big bad, while still leaving some choice moments for Nick Fury, Agent Coulson, Maria Hill and even Pepper Potts. While I would certainly have loved to have seen more of certain characters (Hulk!!!), I also don't think a single one of them was shortchanged. And that balance extends to the battle sequences, the quiet moments and the absolutely laugh-out-loud banter. Perhaps most impressive was how he enabled the (relative) newbies of Mark Ruffalo's Hulk, Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow and Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye to fully realize their characters in an action ensemble film, and more-so with Chris Evans, who in my opinion came to embody Steve Rogers with even greater command than in his own movie! And any fanboy who doubted Whedon's ability to direct action before watching this film should find some crow to chow down on, because I think it's pretty safe to say The Avengers is filled with the most exciting string of one-on-one action sequences ever assembled.

Look, there are things to nitpick here -- I really think they should have been forced Johansson to use at least a hint of a Russian accent, for example -- but these are little more than the extreme grumblings of a uber Marvel fanboy. These are things I think even the most hardcore Marvel zombie can let slide.

On the plus side, there are so many wonderful moments for us True Believers, and not just the now-standard Stan Lee appearance. While not at the frequency of past movies, there were still plenty of Easter eggs for the comic fan to appreciate, from Dr. Banner wearing a purple shirt beneath his suit to a reference to life-model decoys to the guy that shows up in the first post-credit scene (and there is a second one, so keep your butt in the seat until the end!).

The Avengers was so good, Iron Man 2 may have just become better because of its obnoxious prequel shoehorning. Well, probably not, but I at least want to re-watch it for the first time since leaving the multiplex in 2010 to make sure. Jokes aside, it triumphs as the best pure superhero film to date, finally showing all those normal folk out there these comic book stories and characters are smart, addictive, inventive, enthralling, heart-breaking, poignant, and -- above all else -- fun. In other words, they're just as great as any other fantastic work of fiction. Assemble your friends to the theater. You'll have blast.

Reel Low: 44 Inch Chest [2009]

Sometimes the opening moments of a movie are so oddly hilarious, it's a challenge trying to decipher whether or not you're actually supposed to be laughing or not. Such is the case with 44 Inch Chest *.

In the opening sequence, we're greeted to the trashed home of our principal character, Colin, complete with him sprawled out on the floor staring unblinking at the ceiling in emotional distress and playing Harry Nilsson's original version of "Without You" on repeat. I mean, even after completing the movie I realize it's probably supposed to be a joke, but like much of the other dark humor throughout the film, the creative team behind it leaves it up to you to decide if this is merely tragic or thoroughly laughable. And since I didn't know much of anything of this movie going in, that's where I was left at and unsure what was coming next.

See, since my quest to remain spoiler-free on things has bled into all aspects of my media consumption (FOX's post-episode teasers for 24 many years ago started giving too much away for my taste), now I don't watch previews for any shows or movies if I can avoid it. It's best decision I ever made for enjoying stories fresh, especially movies and television shows since the promoters of these are the worst offenders. Mostly I just go by word of mouth recommendations and scanning articles from a bevy of trusted sites I have on my feed reader these days. So, I really didn't know much about this movie before hitting the play button aside from a vague remembrance of some website I trusted mentioning it. I can't recall which site that was or even if they actually liked it now, but I decided over a year ago I had to see it. And many moons later, here we are.

What probably kept my interest in 44 Inch Chest high for over a year was probably its who's who of older, standout British actors dominating the cast. The cuckolded Colin is just a sweaty, drunken mess as interpreted by Ray Winstone. Meanwhile, his associates -- all of whom are implied or shown to be engaged in various forms of illegal and/or unsavory behavior amid the London underworld -- decide to help cheer him up by kidnapping his wife's young philanderer in broad daylight in order for Colin to enact his revenge. And when your friends are Tom Wilkinson, Ian McShane, John Hurt and Stephen Dillane, each spouting off some of the most imaginative foul language ever to be uttered in the history of English while boasting with veracity of the violence they intend to administer to the Loverboy. And I can't neglect to mention the small, but key role of the philandering wife played by Joanne Whalley, Val Kilmer's ex-wife who looks a lot better than Val Kilmer does these days (I will take any opportunity I can to make use of that picture).

Regrettably, the story of 44 Inch Chest fails to live up to the pedigree of its cast.

That's not to say there aren't wonderful moments of bombastic vulgarity and black humor that will induce a deep belly laugh from you that come close to redeeming it's missteps. No, the downfall of the film comes when it succumbs to the temptation of explaining away a man's anger over being cuckolded via hallucination and it turns out that those fantastic boasts are nothing more than that, since the final decision regarding the Loverboy was... disappointing, to say the least.

Although the movie was not successful as a whole, I still love each of the five criminals on display here and would absolutely welcome watching their early or further adventures again. Their underworld exploits would put just about anything someone like Guy Ritchie could ever dream up. Not that that idea has a bloody chance in hell of happening, of course.

* - On a grammar nazi note, it is killing me not to slap a hyphen between "44" and "Inch," but that's the official title of the film, as far as I could discern. Sadly, those in charge of it did not feel it was necessary to hyphenate what is, to me, clearly a compound modifier of "Chest." As a student of AP Style, I find this perturbing. Maybe it's a British thing? Regardless, I frown upon it. (Phew! I feel better now that I got that out.)

Reel Low: Martha May Marcy Marlene [2011]

"Do you ever have that feeling where you can't tell if something's a memory or if it's something you dreamed?"

So asks the lead character of her sister in Martha May Marcy Marlene, the highly acclaimed debut film from writer/director Sean Durkin. It's the clearest example of the mish-mash of reality with dreams, illusions and moments of her disturbed past in this confused girl's mind. Intertwined with these traumas are the pull of the memories of an adopted family who manipulated her psyche at every opportunity and the attempts at re-indoctrinating herself with her actual family in the "real" world.

Martha May Marcy Marlene is a cult film. Not of the Russ Meyer or Roger Corman variety, though. No, this is a movie depicting an ACTUAL cult, tucked away on an isolated farm in the mountains of New England. This is immediately apparent as we watch the men of the commune, led by a quietly forceful man named Patrick, eating dinner as the women gather along a nearby staircase, waiting until they finish so they can eat.

Shortly thereafter, we get our first glimpses of Martha on her own - attempting to run away from her second family. In her desperation to escape, she calls her sister, Lucy, who she has not spoken to in two years. While at her luxurious home, we are told some vague morsels of her troubled youth that eventually led Martha to be swept up by the promise of a better life with Patrick and his followers.

Throughout the film, we see what Martha sees. Or, more accurately, what she thinks she sees. The present and past are jumbled for Martha, complete with all the confusing horror the resulting illusions have turned into for her. Durkin weaves the events running through her mind with deft transitions - jumping into the lake behind her sister's home turns into leaping off a cliff into a spring in the woods surrounding the farm, or while apologizing to someone while preparing dinner on the farm turns into exasperation for her sister as she can't figure out who Martha is speaking to as they are cooking a meal. They're small moments, but easing away from her old life to this new reality is a slow process for Marcy after the mental abuse she endured under Patrick's spell.

This is the first appearance of Elizabeth Olsen, and what a debut it is. As Martha, she embodies all the complex nuances of a mentally traumatized girl. It's nearly impossible not to feel sorrow for all the ordeals her character has gone and will continue to go through. All the buzz surrounding her work on this movie is well deserved.

Meanwhile, Sarah Paulson has all her WASPy glory on display here as Martha's elder sister Lucy. Along with her British husband (played by Hugh Dancy) in tow, she is firmly positioned amid the lifestyle of the 1%, and her existence could not be in a more different place than Martha's. Eventually, her attempts at understanding give way to frustration and dismissive aggression towards her troubled sister. Coupled with the fact that Martha refuses to explain her past horrors, Lucy simply cannot comprehend her sister's actions (often, but not always, with good reason). It's a wonderfully written character, one who you are both sympathetic toward and enormously frustrated by.

And then there's John Hawkes, who may have delivered his best performance yet in an already stellar career (highlighted by Deadwood, Winter's Bone and Eastbound & Down). Although subdued and earnest, his take on cult leader Patrick is nothing short of monstrous as he manipulates everyone on his compound, from raping impressionable girls to belittling the young men in his stead and intimidating anyone else in his way.

Martha May Marcy Marlene is simply an excellent movie, and I suspect it'd be just an intriguing even after additional viewings. Had I seen this movie before the end of last year, it would've earned a spot on my Best Films of 2011 list.

Reel Low: The Grey [2012]

Well, 2012 didn't waste any time in delivering us one helluva great movie.

Typically, mid-January to mid-February is one of those times of the year when movie studios dump their crap on us. The Oscar nominations have already been announced, hence the lack of powerful dramas and arthouse darlings available on screens at the country at large. And it's too soon for blockbuster action flicks because... I don't know... it's too cold outside to eat popcorn?

In other words, Underworld: Awaking is the reigning number one movie in America because it actually was the best of the bunch released last week.

But, in what I hope is a growing trend, the relatively new Open Road Films has released The Grey in this dead zone, ensuring that movie-goers didn't have to wait long at all for something to sink their teeth into.

Trailers for The Grey would have you believe it's a two-hour, bare-knuckle brawl between Liam Neeson and some wolves. Forget those.

Yeah, Neeson fights some wolves. But that's not the only reason why you should watch this movie.

Liam Neeson plays Ottway, a broken man who has found himself living in a remote Alaskan community as a sharpshooter protecting oil company workers from the hazards of the wilderness they are infringing upon. After a horrific plane crash that makes Lost's opening sequence feel like watching a merry-go-round spin, a group of survivors are stranded in some of Alaska's harshest arctic conditions. When they're not battling the elements, they're up against a vicious pack of grey wolves, forced to deal with each other, and must find what inner strength they have amid their own fears and weaknesses. The Grey is a gripping character study masked behind a man-versus-nature yarn of the highest order.

Joe Carnahan's direction is superb. Nearly every scene felt real. I'm convinced that all but the final scene depicting falling snowflakes were filmed during actual times of snowfall; I can't remember ever having thought that while watching a film. His approach is nuanced with very tight shots on the primary characters' faces early on, and that technique evolves into grander shots of the sprawling mountainous terrain of the Alaskan wilderness, revealing the magnitude of what force these men are up against in their attempts at survival.

Additionally, the sound is so expertly edited in this movie, you constantly find yourself put on edge. Calming moments are yanked away from you in explosion of windy fury. Peaceful silence is interrupted by cracking of branches in the dark. The terror of a party of howling wolves.

And, my god... the performances of some of this group are astounding. Of course, we all know Liam Neeson is the bomb. The man just continues to defy all conventional wisdom and has become increasingly badass in his filmography while never foregoing the brilliance of his craft.

And complimenting him is some really fine work from much of the supporting cast.

After his great turn in last year's Warrior, Frank Grillo continues to impress. It's hard for me to believe this is the same guy who played the ever-grimmacing lawyer Nick Savrinn on the first season of Prison Break. Watching that then, I never expected he'd be capable of providing so much depth to a character like Diaz, a tough-talking ex-con and constant agitator to everything around him. Also fantastic is Dallas Roberts, who was so wonderful on the ill-fated Rubicon, with his earnest portrayal of Hendrick, embodying the humanity of the group. And I can't fail to mention a barely recognizable James Badge Dale, who shines with Neeson's guidence in one of the best scenes of its type I can recall (this is a spoiler-free zone, but you'll know the scene in question when you see it).

All of this swirls into a powerful display of human emotion inner-cut with downright thrilling and suspenseful battles. I could never take my eyes off the screen.

If The Grey is a harbinger of what is to come in the theaters in 2012, count me as pumped.