Netflix – Page 26 – Blue Ink Alchemy

Category: Netflix (page 26 of 27)

IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Changeling

[audio:http://www.blueinkalchemy.com/uploads/changeling.mp3]

It wasn’t too long ago when the words ‘A Clint Eastwood Film’ described an action flick featuring a character that was either Dirty Harry Callahan, The Man With No Name or somebody who existed between the two. Clint Eastwood is someone along the lines of Robert DeNiro or Al Pacino: a star with a long history of delivering both furious action fueled by pure manliness, and dramatic turns that set him on a different level from other so-called ‘actors’ that don’t deserve mention at the moment. And Clint has further distinguished himself in that nowadays, ‘A Clint Eastwood Film’ means one he’s directed. I plan on going over all of his directoral offerings, and Changeling is a great place to begin. The film stars Angelina Jolie, Jeffrey Donovan, Colm Feore and John Malkovich.

Why, Changeling? you might ask. Why not Unforgiven, his directoral breakout? Both it and Million Dollar Baby won him Oscars, why am I not starting there? What about Flags of Our Fathers, or Letters from Iwo Jima, his powerful war films? Why not Gran Turino, which includes perhaps the most manly and grit-filled rendition of “GET OFF MY LAWN” ever captured by a camera? These are valid questions, and I actually plan on taking time to review all of these – and no, it’s not just because I want to watch Gran Turino again.

Changeling is a good place to begin on Clint’s directoral work because it captures many of the aspects that make him such a visionary film-maker. With this riveting true story, we see the way Clint brings us into a bygone time, the handling of his actors and the framing of his shots. You might get some of these elements from Unforgiven, Flags of Our Fathers or even Mystic River, but Changeling does it with such natural grace that it feels less like 142 minutes of movie and more like an encapsulated lesson on how to effectively direct. Clint has brought us both the appeal and darkness of an oft-romanticised time in American history, along with a great performance from Angelina Jolie and one of the best turns by John Malkovich I’ve ever seen. Oh yeah, and he also gave us Jeffrey Donovan in a period suit with matching fedora.

An entire thesis could be written on the plot I haven’t mentioned yet, but here’s the short form and, as usual, it’s free of spoilers. Angelina Jolie is a hard-working supervisor at a telephone exchange in Los Angeles during the roaring ’20s. Her son is an intelligent, precocious youth who pulls off a pretty impressive feat by endearing himself towards us with only a few minutes of screentime. Mom comes home from work one day to find the house empty and the kid’s lunch uneaten in the icebox. A little police runaround brings her to the office of Jeffrey Donovan’s insufferable prick of a police captain who assures her that her son will be found. Sure enough, in a few months, she shows up at a train station when word comes her son’s been found, but after taking one look at the shorter, pudgier and more annoying child, she knows it’s not her child. The police disagree, citing her womanhood as the main cause for her baseless idea that the boy isn’t who they say he is. The mother insists, and soon it’s clear that the only person who’s fully in her corner and willing to match her zeal and devotion is the radio-broadcasting Presbyterian minister who believes the City of Angels has become a cesspool of corruption run by self-indulgent swine. It’s a little odd to see this compassionate yet occasionally brimstone-fueled spiritual leader being brought to us by way of Cyrus the Virus and Humma Kavula. I’m just glad he did something like this to wash the taste of that dreadful turn he did in Eragon out of our minds. I’ll keep praying he stays far away from anything related to Twilight.

Anyway, this is a fantastic film, and it features one of the cinematographic keys to Eastwood’s success. All of his films – that I’ve seen so far anyway, I still need to sit down and watch Unforgiven end to end – have what I like to call “a haunting etherealness.” Classic films can become dated in their look and material, and it can be difficult to hearken back to a bygone age without extensive set dressing or CGI which is often hit and miss in a drama. Clint Eastwood sends us back in time before we even realize we’ve been temporally displaced and has us invested in the characters just as quickly. Actors are, by and large, attractive folk (Angelina Jolie and Jeffrey Donovan in particular in this case) but Clint doesn’t let them get away with just being pretty faces. They believe in their material and we, in turn, believe in them. There’s no trick photography to distract us from the pace of the writing and the musical score does exactly what it says on the tin, underscoring the drama and action rather than overwhelming us with bombastic horns or one woman wails. Clint Eastwood’s careful and measured genius comes through in the final film as all of these elements, exemplary on their own, seamlessly fuse into a storytelling experience rarely seen in an age of mean-spirited gross-out money machines that laughably call themselves comedies, and video game adaptations that wouldn’t know a good story if it showed up at their door dressed in a corset and stockings.

I’m getting a little long-winded on this one, but I wanted to establish what I respect and love about the films of Clint Eastwood. As I said, I plan on reviewing them individually, but a common thread that defines them all is this singular excellence and haunting, timeless etherealness that puts him on the level of such seminal directors as Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. If nothing else, he shows us that sometimes the best things we do in our lives might not happen until well into our adult years, which means we should never give up on our dreams and no matter how daunting the obstacles might be to reaching our goals, the only way we truly fail is if we quit. But I’m wandering off the point again. The point is: Changeling is an excellent, singular and unforgettable film, and you should put it on your Netflix queue without delay.

Josh Loomis can’t always make it to the local megaplex, and thus must turn to alternative forms of cinematic entertainment. There might not be overpriced soda pop & over-buttered popcorn, and it’s unclear if this week’s film came in the mail or was delivered via the dark & mysterious tubes of the Internet. Only one thing is certain… IT CAME FROM NETFLIX.

IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Zero Effect

October 9, 2009 / BlueInkAlchemist / 0 Comments

Not all films age well. Some become trite or campy with the passage of time. Others, however, remain timeless in one way or another. Things that keep a film fresh include memorable characters, smart writing and excellent direction. Zero Effect has all three, and is also one of the most quirky and unique detective stories since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle introduced the world to Sherlock Holmes. The film stars Bill Pullman and Ben Stiller in what I feel are their best roles to date, along with Kim Dickens, Angela Featherstone, and Ryan O’Neal.

Zero Effect introduces us to private detective Darryl Zero. There are some parallels that can be drawn between Zero and Sherlock Holmes. Among other things, both of them are somewhat anti-social and caustic, both of them have musical interests and both of them are absolutely brilliant. However, where Sherlock is terse and blunt in dealing with other people, Zero negotiates his jobs and does most of his interaction through his intermediary, the long-suffering Steve Arlo, while staying sequestered in his penthouse apartment behind a reinforced pneumatic safety door and a front door with no less than seven deadbolts. Sherlock Holmes is an accomplished violinist, and Darryl Zero… well, he won’t be winning any Grammy awards any time soon. And then there’s Darryl Zero’s various cover identities, complete with disguises ranging from the subtle to the ridiculous.

The plot of the film revolves around a rich man who has lost his keys. The missing keyring includes the key to a safe deposit box, the contents of which are the cause for the rich man getting blackmailed. Zero actually has to come out of his inner sanctum to engage the case, because Arlo’s instincts are telling him the case is more complex than the client is saying. And that’s all I’m going to tell you. If you haven’t seen this film, you really should. If you’re not a fan of mysteries, there’s plenty of laughs. If you’re not one for comedy, study the characters of Darryl Zero, Steve Arlo, even the client and the blackmailer, to see multi-dimensional and complete people, rather than one-dimensional stock characters.

Zero Effect is the first movie that was written and directed by Jake Kasdan, son of the great Lawrence Kasdan. Lawrence wrote Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Big Chill and Silverado. Jake follows in his dad’s footsteps with very smart, well-paced writing and direction. The focus of the story is balanced adeptly between the various characters, and while Darryl Zero is the central figure, the feel is more of an ensemble cast than a leading man with supporting characters. Zero Effect will make you laugh, think and pay attention, and blends its characters, writing and direction into one of the smoothest detective stories I have ever seen. I recommend it highly, and since it’s available as an Instant selection on Netflix, you don’t have a single excuse for passing it up.

IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Crank 2: High Voltage

October 2, 2009 / BlueInkAlchemist / 2 Comments

MovieBob calls him Jason “Will Badass For Food” Statham. I can’t think of a more accurate moniker. Most of his efforts feature him beating up or shooting at mooks for some nefarious mastermind, but occasionally he’ll be pulled into Revolver territory and try something more cerebral. Crank: High Voltage isn’t cerebral in the slightest. You don’t just check your brain at the door; if you try to think too hard about it, the movie will grab your brain and drop-kick it out of the room, and you’re not going to mind a bit because you’ll be laughing too hard. It stars Jason Statham, Amy Smart, Corey Haim, Bai Ling, Clifton Collins Jr. and Dwight Yoakam.

Both Crank 2: High Voltage and the original Crank have some things in common with Shoot ‘Em Up, in that they’re more homages to the sort of over-the-top running gunfights you’ll see in more serious action movie affairs such as Smokin’ Aces or even The Matrix. They skirt the realm of parody without indulging in the gross-out silliness or shameless pandering of, say, Meet the Spartans. While Shoot ‘Em Up does this with a slight smirk and a knowing wink, the Crank films are to action films what Jackass is to stunt sports such as skateboarding – completely over the top, intentionally vulgar, and laughing the entire time.

Jason Statham is Chev Chelios, who at the end of Crank was dropped from a helicopter high above the city to an almost certain death, complete with a heartfelt final message phoned into his girlfriend (Amy Smart). Chev’s heart is far too badass to be stopped by a mere fall from a few dozen stories, and keeps right on pumping, keeping Chev alive. Chev is scooped up by gangsters who want to harvest that indestructible heart – and other organs, wink wink – for their aging boss. They get the heart out and replace it with a battery-operated artificial one to keep him alive long enough to get the rest of his goods. At the mention of removing his bait and tackle, however, Chev begins kicking ass and taking names, breaking the battery pack for his heart in the process. He needs to keep charging himself up with electricity to stay alive long enough to get his real heart back.

This is just the first five or so minutes of the film, by the way.

The pace, as you might have guessed, is very fast and not terribly forgiving. If you miss something happening, you’re not likely to get much of a recap. Like a “Loony Tunes” cartoon geared towards grown-ups, it’s absolutely madcap from start to finish, making no apologies and taking no prisoners. The fourth wall is pounded on more than once, from Amy Smart taking a jab at fans to the surreal monster sequence towards the end of the film. The entire premise for both Crank flicks is pretty much “We’re doing this because it’s cool.” It’s as if Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor were competing to see just how many lines they could cross in an hour and a half.

By now you’ve probably determined if this is your kind of movie or not. It’s certainly not for everyone. If you have a problem with gratuitous violence, shameless nudity, or long strings of profanity, you won’t go anywhere near either of these flicks. You’re also not going to find deep social commentary or philosophical meaning in them, so look elsewhere for that. What you get with Crank 2: High Voltage is countless moments of badass action, quite a few laughs, and in this reviewer’s humble opinion, a damn good time.

IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Righteous Kill

September 25, 2009 / BlueInkAlchemist / 1 Comment

When it comes to iconic actors who frequently appear in films on crime & punishment, two of the foremost talents are Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino. They’re both tough and manly actors with gravitas and grit in their performances, and they have a long history of delivering the dramatic goods. When they’re in the same film, which is a rare occasion, there’s an electric chemistry that can overcome a lot of cinematic blunders. Unfortunately, even this unique power isn’t enough to take away the sting of mediocrity that comes from Righteous Kill. The film stars… well, DeNiro and Pacino, mostly, but also features John Leguizamo, Carla Gugino, Donnie Wahlberg, and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson.

The film seems to be reliant on DeNiro and Pacino to hold the audience’s interest. This is probably due to a story so thin I suspect it was written on rice paper. It’s a plodding, straight-forward affair about long-time partners who are fed up with criminals managing to escape justice by one means or another. Rather than gather evidence and interrogate suspects Law & Order style, they resolve the situation by giving the perpetrators a lethal case of lead poisoning. It tries to be a character study on the origins and extent of a given person’s thirst for revenge or justice, but the effort comes off as unoriginal. This is a story we’ve seen before, and it lacks the indy edge of The Boondock Saints or the over-the-top dark comic grittiness of The Punisher. It’s procedural in more ways than one, and instead of interesting forensics or riveting plot twists, the writers put the responsibility of the story’s motion on the shoulders of the cinema veterans.

This isn’t to say that our two leading manly men aren’t good. They do the best with their material, and considering who we’re talking about, that’s not insignificant. But there just isn’t enough decent story for them to work with, and more than once they come off as uninterested in their own emotions and motivations. The same could be said for most of the supporting cast, as well, who are all talented but mostly turn in forgettable performances. They’re not just phoning it in, here; they’re phoning it in with a couple of tin cans tied together with string. The overall effect is a film that looks very appealing from the outset, but once it gets underway the viewer will more than likely find themselves waiting for it to end, provided they’re not impatient enough to reach for the remote and hit “Stop.”

Have you ever bitten into a strudel or Twinkie or other filled confection only to find somebody at the factory was asleep at the switch and there’s only about half as much filling in the treat as there should be? And it’s all on one side due to how it was shipped, leaving most of it empty and a little on the dry side? That’s Righteous Kill. I spent most of the movie thinking, “I could be watching Heat instead of this!” Indeed, if I were to recommend anything here, it’d be to find something else to occupy your time other than Righteous Kill. For example, you could catch up on old episodes of “NCIS” or “Law & Order: SVU”. Or read a book. Or do the laundry…

IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

September 18, 2009 / BlueInkAlchemist / 0 Comments

Batman: Arkham Asylum was released for major consoles last week, and the reviews have been overwhelmingly positive. Even Yahtzee had quite a few things to say in favor of the game’s merit. I played the demo on my X-Box and enjoyed it thoroughly, and I’m sure the full game would be just as good if not better. However, these are times in which new entertainment must be balanced with things like square meals and reliable transportation, and so rather than telling my wife & cat that it’s going to be Ramen Week, I’ll keep us all happily fed and review a Batman film from Netflix’s Instant selections. It stars the voice talents of Kevin Conroy, Dana Delany, Abe Vigoda and Mark Hamill.

I’m a fan of the recent reboot to the Batman movie franchise. Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are equally brilliant and compelling films, especially in the usually hit-or-miss arena that is comic-book superhero adaptations. One of the best things about them is doing away with the camp of the 60’s TV series and the messes Joel Schumacher put on the screen. In some respects, I feel it’s a cue they took from the animated series that first premiered in 1992. It followed on with Tim Burton’s notion of an art-deco film-noir inspired Gotham City with long shadows, square-jawed gents, leggy dames and stories that were not only mature but well written.

Mask of the Phantasm is the first “theatrical” release the series produced and it showcases all of these aspects pretty well. A lot of it plays like an animated Batman Begins and while that’s not a bad thing in terms of content, storytelling or acting, it does have a bit of the “we’ve seen this before” vibe. That aside, the story about a Batman-like figure bumping off mob bosses while the Caped Crusader evades the police and a rather sleazy city councilman is decently paced and delivered with poise by the animators and voice cast. The highlight of it, for me, is when the Joker hits the scene.

Heath Ledger delivered a powerhouse performance as the deliberate, reasoned and completely psychotic Joker in the Dark Knight. He was unforgettable in his espousing of chaos and occasional dark creepiness. The Joker, as played by Mark Hamill (yes, that’s right, Luke Skywalker is the Joker) in Phantasm , doesn’t quite get that edgy but instead conceals his madness with a distinctive, almost constant laugh and a mercurial mood that is echoed beautifully by the animation. He’s no less dangerous than Ledger’s Joker, but he has more propensity for odd contraptions and lethal puns.

Kevin Conroy might be one of the best actors to play Batman to date, if not the best ever. The real Bruce Wayne, the public Bruce Wayne, and Batman himself have three different voices, and they’re not so dissimilar as to be jarring. Christian Bale should be taking notes. Batman’s voice is brooding and gritty without being distorted or ridiculous, Bruce’s public voice is light and carefree, and the real Bruce is somewhere in between. Conroy makes it sound easy, and he keeps us immersed in the experience of the story. He and Mark Hamill also lend their voices to the Arkham Asylum video game, which only increases the interest to a Batophile like myself.

At 76 minutes long and free of commercial interruption, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm gets us right into the action and doesn’t overstay its welcome. It suffers a bit from the comic book story tendency of leaving plot threads hanging at the end, but that happens so often in cinema these days it shouldn’t be a surprise. Since it’s available instantly from Netflix, you can bring it up through your web browser if you find yourself in need of lunch break entertainment and everybody else has gone out. However you watch it, if you’re a Batman fan, it’ll be time well spent.

Category: Netflix (page 26 of 27)

IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Changeling

IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Zero Effect

IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Crank 2: High Voltage

IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Righteous Kill

IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

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