Mr.Clark Reviews Movies and TV Shows

[Aerie]

How 'bout this for a topic.

We can edit the title and this post. ***






*** except JMA & MW movies

[Mr.Clark]

Wow, I don't know whether to feel honored or like I've pissed somebody off.

[dzero]

I'd go with honored

[Mr.Clark]

I guess I'll christen this properly with my drunken ramblings thoughts on The Incredible Hulk, which I got a chance to see yesterday.

This being Marvel's second attempt at a silver screen solo project it seems appropriate to compare it to there first, Iron Man. In this regard the movie is some ways short of a complete success. I don't think that Iron Man was perfect, but it was a very solid debut. The Incredible Hulk is by no means a bad film or a failure it just lacks the silky cool of Iron Man which flowed from scene to scene with a charisma largely derived from Robert Downey Jr.'s effortlessly cool Tony Stark. Hulk attempts to mimic the light mod and tone but comes up short.

Theres something to be said for the effort Marvel is putting to get top quality actors to take over there iconic roles. RDJ has always been an exceptional talent despite his checkered past, and Edward Norton is someone I've rated as probably the most gifted actor of his generation since he burst onto the scene in Primal Fear. Norton is probably my favorite actor in Hollywood but, if I'm honest its hard, not to lay at least some of the faults of this movie at his feet. His portrayal of the brilliant scientist Bruce Banner is at times brilliant, he would look quite comfortable in a University Lab or lecturing in front of students, probably better than Eric Bana did in the much maligned Ange Lee incarnation HULK. It is however safe to say he doesn't fit the role quite as perfectly as Downey did with Stark which is a shame as few people have played troubled multiple personality types as well as Norton has.

The rest of my review must be prefaced by a bit of gut feeling mixed with rumors. In the run up to this films release there were alot of rumblings of discontent between Norton and TPTB at Marvel. Norton not only stared in this film but was also one of the keys in developing the screen play. There were a lot of rumors of editing room squabbles between Norton and Marvel and I get the sense that some of these were true. The basic man on the run plot is pretty straight forward and quite good in a Bourne film sort of way, but i get the sense that something more cohesive could have been achieved if everyone had been on the same page. Its a bit like an Italian luxury car, blissful in spots but with questionable build quality.

As far as the direction goes its fairly obvious where the different back rounds are for Marvel's choices of director. Louis Leterrier is a guy whose best known for his, sometimes mindless, action flicks (Transporter 1 and 2), as such he seems completely in his element in the action scenes there fast griping and visceral but his discomfort with the more comedic and romantic elements fall some ways short, often feeling forced and lacking proper framing. In contrast Jon Favreau's Iron Man was completely in its element when it came to both the romantic and comedic elements, but felt ever so slightly less comfortable in the action scenes. RDJ and Gweneth Paltrow just have a much more natural chemistry than Norton and Tyler.

The other thing worth mentioning is the CGI work which while good just doesn't feel as believable as Iron Man's did and even that was short of perfect. Transformers has set the bar for me in terms of making the CGI look photo real. Hulk needed to surpass this standard in order to make me believe what I was seeing was real and it just didn't make it.

On the hole it was a decent if unimmersive re-incarnation of what could be a promising franchise.

[AngelZ]

Great thread idea and thanks for the review.

[Mr.Clark]

Well I managed to see both of Todays new releases and the one that definitely impressed me most was Get Smart. I wont get to technical but its a very funny movie. It tries to make an action/comedy and for the most part succeeds even tho at times the action scenes come off as being slightly ham fisted. Steve Carell is one of the most talented physical-comedic actors since Peter Sellers (yes I mean that as very very high praise). Carell nails every single joke and bit to near perfection. Alan Arkin and Anne Hathaway play there supporting roles almost flawlessly. There is also some fantastic little cameos that i wont spoil. This is probably going to be one of summers biggest sleepers, a much better film than i think anyone was expecting it to be.

[Mr.Clark]

Well the title says this is a movie thread but its my party and I'll cry if I want to, so I'm going to repost a review of the wire i wrote up for another forum full of people who've yet to understand its awesomeness.

The Wire is completely different. Its IMO the mother of all cop dramas. Unlike CSI or Law an Order you don't get the hole case in an hour. You get one case that stretches over an entire season. The first couple episodes are introductory, showing you the players and whose doing the dirt. Then you see them starting to build a case and it just builds piece by piece layer by layer. Its also a very unfaltering look at life in this ugly dirty city as well as life as a cop or a legislator. You see whose dirty, whose scheming and who just wants to do there job.

The writing and character work is second to none. They really create this hole world and every character that your introduced to is fully developed and fully explored usually over several seasons so you really get to see how power shifts between the characters.

For me the centerpiece of it all is Det. McNulty a philandering alcoholic old school Irish cop. Hes smart ruthless and will back stab anyone to get done what he thinks needs to get done.He knows the players, he knows the angles and he knows the streets. He's a-political and completely unambitious just a force of nature.

It is most definitely worth checking out but be warned you have to give it a good chance. By that i mean you have to watch at least the first 5 or 6 episodes, even then your only scratching the surface but it all builds to an amazing level of complexity.

[Mr.Clark]

Wanted, I've seen this movie twice in the past week. The first time i saw it I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. After a second viewing I feel I've come slightly closer to a conclusion.

Its a very disjointed film that ultimately doesn't resonate with me like it should. I do however feel I'm somewhat off the base with this as in each case the opinion of the rest of the theater seemed pretty positive. Before going in I'd read a lot about comparisons to Fight Club and the Matrix. They both fit to an extent but its an awful lot of false praise. This movie lacks the scope of vision that was present in the Matrix trilogy and most assuredly lacks the sincerity of Fight Club. The Fight Club comparison is all about the rebellion against a monotonous life, rejecting a the cubicle and aspiring to a higher, albeit more violent calling. Where as Fight Club had a real depth of thought this is just pure 12 year olds impulse. The Matrix comparison fits about as well. The fight scenes have the same sort of zing and pop to them they also have the same level of absurdity. Where the Matrix had a fantastical universe far removed from what we know are the limits of physics this asks us to accept whats possible in a world that looks rather plainly like our own. I enjoy escapism as much as most popcorn flick watchers but this movies just didn't have the soul to sell me on what i was seeing was real.

Outside of Mcavoy's Wesley Gibson none of the character are developed beyond a 'Hi My name is _____, and I do _____" followed by a demonstration of said skills. Angelina Jolie's Fox being the one exception but even she struggles to show a serious connection beyond that of a mentor with a will they / wont they hook up romantic interest. Mcavoy's performance is hit and miss for me. He does better with the quiet and almost stoic tough guy moments, but at times he cracks up like 14 year old whose chugged a couple red bulls, but then again you get the sense thats what this movie is shooting for. It shoots for an audience of pubescent boys who still imagine there going to wind up as James Bond, but even in this it's only half successful as the story never really gels and it just comes off as a series of montages, theres the miserable regular joe montage, the rocky-esque training montage and the ubber assassin wet dream montage, and then its rolling credits.

This is where the disappointment for me really hits, I'm not a comic book fan and know little about the source material for this but from what I've heard of the premise for it might have been a better film if they stuck to the story and didn't just go gaga for the bullet bending. I don't hate the fact that it plays light at topics I hold dear to my heart from Fight Club I just wish it had tried to find coherence in the characters and the story. Theres an impressive cast and promising character squandered on something that could have been so much better.

[Mr.Clark]

I just got home from watching the Dark Knight in IMAX and for starters its worth every penny and i recommend going the extra mile or 30 to see it on that format. Its truly breathtaking.

The film itself is a masterpiece. Its taking the notion of a comic book film and pushing its boundaries in just about every possible corner. I'll start off with the acting. A lot has been said about who 'is' the Joker, Nicholson v. Ledger. The truth is there two very different incarnations of a similar concept. Nicholson's Joker is alot like Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark, its casting the character to fit the actor. In both cases they found actors that were near perfect fits for the characters they played. What Ledger did was create something unique. Something so sinister, such a twisted genius that you can in no way see the man behind this creature, he completely vanishes behind the mask hes made for himself and becomes unrecognizable. His performance is so far the best piece of acting I've seen all year, if that changes I'll be the first to admit it. If Ledger were alive and breathing I would still put him up for an Oscar, thats part of what bugs me people who won't look or won't recognise the genius of his work will write off any award as being the Academy falling all over itself to give an accolade to some one they screwed over in the past. Aaron Eckhart also deserves tremendous praise, he'll be relegated to a footnote for a performance that deserves so much more, He is the soul of this film, his story is the biggest tragedy in a story full of them. Christian Bale once again proves he is the best Batman ever IMO. Everyone from the top on down plays there part to perfect and each part has to be or else it doesn't gel as it should. The film as a hole is a work of genius equal to the evil genius of the Joker and in order for it to succeed every piece has to meet with perfect symmetry.

In a season for mindless blockbusters TDK comes off as anything but. Its a blockbuster in every sense of the word but to label it as such would be selling it so much shorter. If you were to take away the costumes and the comic book lineage and tell this same story but focus on a vigilante cop you would have a shoe in for a Best Picture nod, but the comic book stigma is going to hold back a story that transcends its genre. Nolan himself compared this film and the aura he was trying to create as being like 'HEAT', in this regard he succeeded masterfully.

Its a story about fear, morality, justice and the compromises one must make to accomplish the greater good. How can those fighting in the name of justice achieve there goals without compromising there beliefs, when there's an enemy who has no beliefs? As a vehicle for deeper thought this film can be viewed as a thought provoking masterpiece on terror and what it means to come face to face with it and how a society can fight combat the chaos it creates without compromising ones integrity. It doesn't make political statements but it can force someone to examine there own beliefs. This is a film about good people fighting the force of insanity, they have to fight dirty and no one comes out of the struggle clean. They all suffer tragedies some worse than others and how they deal with those tragedies is an ultimately inescapable view of there inner most character.

In short this is one of the best sequels I've ever seen it completely and wholly dwarfs its predecessor in a way, that to me, The Empire Strikes Back and Gofather II can't even begin to reach.

[dzero]

Jul 18, 2008 18:53:29 GMT -5 Mr.Clark said:

I just got home from watching the Dark Knight in IMAX and for starters its worth every penny and i recommend going the extra mile or 30 to see it on that format. Its truly breathtaking.

Saw it yesterday on a regular screen. In the next couple weeks I'll take the 10 -12 mile drive to an IMAX and see it there. Probably going to be an improvement on the only other IMAX I've ever seen, some amateurish POS about the Alamo. Why was I watching that? Because I was at the Alamo of course .


nice review Mr. Clark

[Mr.Clark]

Why thank you, I do think you'll really enjoy it on IMAX.

[Mr.Clark]

I wanna pimp an indie/under the radar flick that I'm a big fan of called Renaissance. Its a Sci-Fi/Thriller/Noir and its motion-capture/animated. Its sort of like Sin City meets Beowulf, but even where as Sin City was black and white with gray and some color this is true black and white no, I repeat, NO gray scale. The graphics alone make it worth watching but its got a really solid sci-fi/thriller story to it and some excellent voice acting from among others Daniel Craig and Jonathan Pryce. There's also a couple of really brilliantly shot action sequences stuff that would be pretty close to impossible to film in conventional methods. This isn't an easy film to find at your local FYE but Netflix or Blockbuster should have it.



I didn't realize that when you embedded a Youtube video you got the add as well.

[Mr.Clark]

Film: Kingdom of Heaven: the Directors Cut

Rating: 9/10

Just finished watching this on Bluray . This film further proves my theory that Ridley Scott is an absolute master at his craft and no one in Hollywood, not even some tight assed executive, should be allowed creative control over his work. I've seen the theatrical cut of this several times and always enjoyed it. Its an excellent story and despite the fact that its a story based on over 500 year old history, it couldn't be more relevant. Every speech on justice and morality and the peril of where religion meets greed couldn't be more timely in today's climate. Much of the core history and moral focus from the theatrical cut comes through here in tact, if not enhanced. The one thing that is added to the films great benefit is the sub plot that was entirely removed from the theatrical cut, that is the story of the Princess' son, the heir to the thrown. His story is significantly enhances the tragedy that occurs here and when Balian is forced to make his choice that will seal the fate of a kingdom the story of a young boys struggle enhances it drastically. This film is an epic near masterpiece that deserves a lot more respect than its been given, its a very long film and at times does drag slightly but Scott is a exceptional story teller and has an amazing eye capturing the beauty and despair of a struggle and combat, something that is enhanced to great effect by the Bluray format.