L.A. Confidential

So back in the mid 90's, we had Entertainment Tonight playing in Finland for a while for some reason. I don't know why as most of the movies they showed on it wouldn't be coming to Finland for a while and some wouldn't make it there at all. But I remember once they had a promo for a horror movie that from the clips they showed, made me think that it would be the next Texas Chain Saw Massacre and probably the best movie ever! And then they showed another promo for some lame 50's cop movie that just couldn't be good. Made by some guy who hasn't really made a name for himself and well, it had the guy from The Usual Suspects and Seven, but that's it. Wrote it off instantly.

Well, eventually the movies came out in Finland. The horror movie ended up being I Know What You Did Last Summer, memorable only for...I forget, but it probably had something good in it. And the 50's cop movie? One of the best movies of the 90's. I have no idea how I could have been so very wrong.

L.A. Confidential is more than a sum of its parts. Directed by Curtis Hanson, whose movies before this one included A River Wild and The Hand That Rocks The Cradle. Cast had Kevin Spacey, who was quite hot in Hollywood thanks to his recent Oscar win, but other than that, who were those guys? Guy Pearce? Russell Crowe? Australians playing Americans? Inconceivable!

But it all works out beautifully. Adapting from a novel by James Ellroy, Hanson and co-writer Brian Helgeland have streamlined a book that many considered unfilmable into a modern classic. From frame one you can see the movie is a labour of love for everyone involved. Everything about the movie feels authentic. And the best thing is that everyone in the movie feels like a real character. It really is a testament to the enourmous talent around this movie, from Ellroy to the screenwriters to the cast for making the movie feel like we're actually watching something happening in the 50's.

Well, except for that one exception. Kim Basinger's Lynn Bracken. For a role that won her an Oscar, she doesn't really do that much with it. I suppose you could argue that her performance is elevated by how stellar everyone else is, but that just makes her stand out like Ronald McDonald at a goth club. Could be that the award was given as a consolation prize to LA Confidential in a year where Titanic took home 11 statues. And she doesn't look anything like Veronica Lake.

Other than Kim Basinger, I can't find a single thing wrong with this movie. I keep praising the screenplay, which justifiably won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar, but it is just that good. I'm sure they're reading this script at screenwriting schools on a textbook how to adapt a book into a screenplay. Jerry Goldsmith's score fits the movie like a glove, as it should, as he's a veteran of noir music, having done Chinatown's music back in the 70's.

L.A. Confidential didn't make a lot of money when it opened. In fact, I Know What You Did Last Summer ended up overgrossing it. There was a pilot for a TV show based on the movie, with Kiefer Sutherland in the Kevin Spacey role, but it was never picked up. The pilot is available on the collector's edition DVD/Blu-ray and to be honest, it's rather horrible.

Curtis Hanson followed L.A. Confidential with Wonder Boys, a brilliant and underseen comedy starring Michael Douglas and Eminem's 8 Mile, never really reaching the highs of L.A. Confidential. Kevin Spacey won an Oscar for the overrated American Beauty and seems to enjoy smaller movies and roles these days. Guy Pearce isn't as big of a name as one would hope considering his brilliant work here and in Memento, but he was last seen in The King's Speech, so things are good for him as well. Russell Crowe has become a huge name since this one and will probably be seen as the main character, the love interest and the antagonist in the next Ridley Scott movie.

L.A. Confidential is one of the smartest movies to come out Hollywood in the last 20 years. So if you haven't seen it yet, put it on your rental queue. And if you're playing L.A. Noire currently, see this movie and you'll see how much the game owes to the movie. My score for L.A. Confidential: 10/10

Interesting Movies in 2011: The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn

This movie kind of sneaked up on me, which in retrospect is stupid. Directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by Peter Jackson should be enough to get anyone's attention, never mind the fact that the comic itself is extremely famous around here. At least in Finland almost everyone knows who Tintin is.

But Spielberg hasn't really made a movie that I really liked in almost ten years and Peter Jackson has fumbled a lot since the Lord of the Rings movies. Added to that, doing the movie in motion capture à la Beowulf and A Christmas Carol didn't really get my hopes too high up.

But then I saw who is writing this thing. Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish, each of whom have proven to be extremely skilled and faithful writers. Steven Moffat runs Sherlock and Doctor Who for BBC at the moment, Edgar Wright made the best movie of 2010 with Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Joe Cornish's Attack The Block is in cinemas now! (Go see it!)

Added to that, the newly released poster and trailer make the movie look like a...well, a real Tintin movie. I'm still apprehensive about the motion capture part, but damn if this doesn't look like a lot of fun. Possibly The Adventure Movie of the Year. Too bad we have to wait until November to see if that's true.

The Greatest Movie Trilogy of All-Time (At Least Up Until Now)

There's the Godfather trilogy. Two of the greatest movies of all time and then, the third movie. Back to the Future. First movie's a classic, the second is still good, while the third has some good moments, it's mediocre at best. Indiana Jones had a trilogy until recently, so it doesn't count as a trilogy. But there's a trilogy that's better than all of these. Two absolute masterpieces and a third movie, while being the worst of the series, is still a lot of fun, and is easily one of the most quotable movies I've seen. I'm talking about The Evil Dead trilogy, directed by Sam Raimi and starring Bruce Campbell.

Me and The Evil Dead series go back a long time. The first two movies were banned in Finland before they changed the video laws in 2001. I had the original Evil Dead on a Swedish VHS, with Swedish subtitles, and Evil Dead 2 on a Dutch tape. It gave these classic movies something extra to enjoy. Not that I'm one for languages, but the taste of the forbidden fruit tasted even better, since you knew these weren't "allowed". Army of Darkness I had on a Finnish Ex-rental tape, one that been watched almost through, but that didn't stop me watching it over and over again. But let's go through the movies one by one, starting with:

The Evil Dead

The plot is very simple. Five students drive up to an abandoned cabin in the woods, where they find The Book of the Dead, and that's obviously not very good. Gore and horror ensues.

The Evil Dead is my favourite horror movie. It's not as scary as The Exorcist or Alien, nor as epic as Dawn of the Dead, but it's not trying to beat those movies anyway. It's a small horror tale, packed with more energy than a squirrel after a 12-pack of Red Bull, especially in the latter half of the movie. The camera seems to have a life of it's own and it definitely helps to create the movie a very unique atmosphere.

This atmosphere is held perfectly throughout the movie. The characters are never fully safe. They can't go outside the cabin and while there are quieter moments in the cabin, that sense of dread never leaves you. The gore is also very inventive, probably to do with the small budget. Aside from the usual movie blood, there's milk used and I'm betting a lot of the stuff you see on screen, you'll be able to buy from your local supermarket.

There's a lot I could pick on in the movie. The acting is hardly Oscar-worthy, some of the effects are sub-par and I know a lot of people laugh at the stop-motion effects at the end of the movie, but for me all this works for the movie.

It could be the homemade feel of the movie that makes it for me. The fact that these people had only done some home movies before this and mostly were doing things with trial and error and managed to craft this brilliant horror classic. This is my desert island movie. It's not perfect, but, man, do I love every second of it. My score for The Evil Dead: 10/10

Evil Dead II

The sequel sees Bruce Campbell's Ash returning to the cabin, this time alone with his girlfriend, Linda. They find the same Book of the Dead, and the gore and horror make a return, this time with added comedy.

The movie starts with what it basically a recap of the first movie, remade with just Ash and Linda. Since they didn't have the rights to use footage from the original movie, they had to do it all over again. Which works for the movie, giving it it's own life, and not being so tied to the original.

Evil Dead II sees Raimi and company planting their tongues firmly in cheek and making a movie that has you laughing your asses off and then scaring you right after. The effects are much better this time and Evil Ed is one of coolest horror movie monsters ever created. This is not to take away from all the other great effects in the movie, created by a very young effects company at that time, KNB EFX Group, who have since grown immensely and create special effects to things like The Walking Dead and Inglourious Basterds.

It also seems that Bruce Campbell is playing a wildly different character. While it's still recognizably Ash, this time he's more arrogant and cocky, more of an action hero than he ever was in the first one. And considering the first half of the movie is basically Ash alone in the cabin, fighting the deadites, this works perfectly. Sheepy Ash from the first one wouldn't have worked and this G.I. Ash is the perfect substitute.

The movie also features the best "tool-up" scene in movie history, ending it the coolest line ever. I know this sounds like overselling it, but see for yourself, it just doesn't get better than this:

Evil Dead II has a bigger budget, though not a huge one by any standards. Everyone has upped their game this time, even the score kicks a huge amount of ass. Horror/comedies are very hard to do, and next to An American Werewolf in London(and I supposed, Ghostbusters, to a certain extent), this is the perfect example on how to do one. My rating for Evil Dead 2: 10/10

Army of Darkness

This time backed by a biggest movie studio, Universal, Army of Darkness continues directly from the end of Evil Dead II and  takes Ash into the Middle Ages to continue his fight against the Book of the Dead. Not so much gore this time, and less horror as well. But the comedy is definitely amped up, for your viewing pleasure!

Like I said before, Army of Darkness is a step down from the original two movies. This doesn't make it a bad movie at all. It just feels like a watered down version of Evil Dead II. If Evil Dead II took place in Camelot. I suspect this is due to the studio not really wanting tree-rape and flying eyeballs in their movie, and who can blame them. As brilliant as the Evil Dead movies were before, they hardly brought in tens of millions of dollars.

Wanting to bring in a new crowd for the movie, there's a definite lack of Evil Dead in the title and there's a short recap of Evil Dead II at the start(using actual footage of the movie this time). After that it's straight to the story.

And the story is a bit muddled this time. It could be because now Ash isn't stuck in a cabin for the movie and actually has stuff to do, but the plot isn't exactly the tightest of the series. Many of the setpieces work perfectly, it's just the way to them is at times a little bit off.

I don't mean to be that harsh of the movie, it's one of the most fun action/adventures I've ever seen. In fact, this is the first movie I ever watched when I got my Blu-ray player. And it's easily one of the most quotable movies ever. Even more so in for the theatrical release. If you only have seen the director's cut, then you're missing out on "Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun." which is changed to "I ain't that good.". And since it has a different ending, "Hail to the King, Baby" is lost completely.

Bruce Campbell is having the time of his life as a rare lead to a major motion picture. All of Ash's tendencies have been turned up to 11 and he really goes all out to being the "loud-mouth braggart" he's said to be in the movie. Kudos to Campbell though, for still making the character sympathetic.

Army of Darkness is Evil Dead by the way of those Hercules and Xena series from the 90's, which isn't surprising since those shows were produced by Raimi and Tapert. It's a fun ride, but ultimately falls a bit short from the highs of The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II. A good ending for the trilogy that could've been much better though. My rating for Army of Darkness: 8/10

Tron Legacy

So the Tron sequel finally came out on DVD and Blu-ray here in Ireland couple of weeks ago and having missed it at the theater, due to mixed reviews, I sought it out and well, it was kind of worth it.

Tron Legacy continues the story of Kevin Flynn, played again by Jeff Bridges. The movie starts in 1989 where poor Flynn looks like a living action figure, talking to his son and goes off to work and is not heard again in 20 years. Then in our present, the son now all grown up and Garrett Hedlund-shaped gets a page from his dad's old arcade. He goes to investigate and ends up in the same world that his dad was in the 80's. Although now it's all changed and is ruled by another Flynn action figure, CLU! Son Flynn must find his dad and get out before it's too late. Or something.

Tron Legacy isn't a good movie. It looks pretty. It sounds pretty. But don't let that fool you. The director, Joseph Kosinski, doesn't really know what to do with the movie and plays it rather safe. Once we get to The Grid, it's more or less Tron - The Greatest Hits with better graphics. There's the identity disc game, lightcycles and all. But what struck me as odd about this is that the otherworldly feeling of the original movie's Grid was gone. What they had done with this one is they changed the Grid into a sort of Flourescent Sin City version of our world. The lightcycles no longer do those 90 degree angle turns and everything just feels a bit off. But still very enjoyable.

Until we get to the scene where Father and Son meet again. Then the movie just stops and try as they might, it never really gets going again. There's a nice action scene in the bar afterwards, but otherwise the movie is just painfully dull and extremely obvious from then on. Garrett Hedlund just looks confused most of the movie, Jeff Bridges seems to be playing The Dude again. At least Olivia Wilde is trying to do something in a role that's woefully underwritten for a character that's supposed to be something very special in the Tron universe.

Speaking of Tron, I have to wonder if the people doing this movie actually realized why the original was called Tron. What happens to Tron in this movie definitely seems like an afterthought and is handled quite poorly, but then again, what about this movie isn't. The filmmakers had a chance here to update Tron to the modern times and audiences, but instead decided to play it safe and make a movie that plays to the Tron fanboys and doesn't have much life to it and lacks any kind of punch. Best way to enjoy Tron Legacy is just listening to the soundtrack and imagining your own Tron movie. It's bound to be better than this mess. My score for Tron Legacy: 4/10

PS: Why can I only buy the original Tron in a dualpack with Tron Legacy? That's just mean, Disney.

Three Amigos

As you know from my criminally neglected IMDb Top 250 movie challenge, there are a lot of movies I haven't seen that I maybe should have. This movie isn't on the list, but I really should've seen it ages ago. It's very 80's, it's funny as hell and is just a lot of fun.

Three Amigos is a story of three actors, who are fired from the studio they're working for and after receiving a telegram from Mexico for help, they leave for their mission, though what they think is just an acting gig, is very real.

While my plot synopsis is making the movie sound a bit different than it is, this is a very funny movie. It feels weird to have a movie from 1986 to feel refreshing, but this is a very different kind of comedy that I see these days. There's a certain innocence to these guys, which probably comes from their lack of intelligence. I also appreciated the fact that there was no forced break-up between the amigos, but that they stayed friends all through out the movie.

It's an extremely quotable movie, which makes me wonder why I haven't heard any of the jokes before. The plethora scene, the plane joke, and well, all the Amigo stuff is near legendary. I know it wasn't a box office hit, but I would've bet that all those Princess Bride and Monty Python quoters would know this one as well.

On the darker side of the sombrero, the movie feels a bit too long and the story could use some tinkering as well, but these are minor points to a laugh out loud movie that I feel is not as widely known as it should. Or maybe it's just me and been in Finland so long where I never saw this movie anywhere. My score for Three Amigos: 8/10

Bonus: My favourite scene of the movie:

Insidious

It seems now that Saw has winded down after seven movies, and they've officially announced that Paranormal Activity will have at least a third movie, it doesn't come as a huge surprise that Lionsgate had the idea to use the people from both series to come up with something more. And that more is Insidious, from the director and writer of Saw with the producers of Paranormal Activity.

James Wan and Leigh Whannell already moved from the gore-filled horror of Saw earlier with a little-seen Dead Silence which is a fun little scare movie. There are a lot of similarities between that movie and Insidious, although Insidious isn't quite as successful.

If you've seen any promos for the movie, you know it's a story about a family that think their house is haunted, but end up realizing that it's actually their comatose son who is the link between this world and the other, letting the ghosts through.

There's a lot to love in Insidious. The film actually creates a creepy atmosphere from the start and has a few quite effective scares. Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson have some chemistry together as wife and husband, and I think it's a shame these people aren't bigger names yet. Both are very good actors. Also, I liked that even though it's sold as a movie from Saw/Paranormal Activity people(and it definitely goes more for the PA audience, no gore in this one), it still has it's own identity.

This is most evident with the camera. Unlike Paranormal Activity, Insidious is a more conventional movie and it shows. James Wan's camera is very rarely still, and does some very interesting moves, sometimes to a distracting degree. It gives a feeling that Wan went for the Raimi School of Camera Tricks, but somehow it just doesn't feel very organic to the movie.

The movie scores big points from doing something audiences have yelled at the screen for every haunted house movie ever. When the hauntings start, the family actually moves out of the house. Even though this ends up being futile, it's nice to see someone out there is paying attention.

For the first two acts, the movie is very good. You care about the characters, the scares are somewhat unique and there's a very creepy atmosphere. But unfortunately the third act is where the movie goes from good to What the hell?

The explanation for the haunting is ludicrous. I realise that this is a ghost story, but suspension of disbelief only works so far. Having Lin Shaye come in and explain the whole thing in a five minute scene where everyone just sits in the living room, stops the movie in it's tracks and it never really recovers. Also, switching the protagonist halfway through the movie doesn't really work in this case. Rose Byrne is clearly the main character for the first half and is then reduced to a crying and yelling wife, while Patrick Wilson takes over the movie.

Is it worth seeing? I'd say yes, the first two acts worked gangbusters for me and even though there's a severe derail after that, it's still worth it for the start of the movie. Also the title card is gorgeous and the opening credits suitably creepy. My score for Insidious: 6/10