Back Seat Producers

In a brief ten-year period, an epidemic of vampirism has swept the planet, making most of the population vampires with a small amount of regular humans kept alive to be “farmed” and have their blood harvested for the rest of the population. Civilization has continued for the vampires, still living their regular lives, but making the adjustments for their new condition, and most of the population has embraced this condition with a small few seking an alternative to this life. One corporation, Bromley Marks (The World Leader in Blood Pharmacy) is the leading supplier of blood to the vampire population, and their supplies are now running low. A hematologist for the company, Ed Dalton, seeks to come up with a blood substitute and is edging closer to success, but not quite getting there yet. If the vampire population is deprived of human blood, then they start to degenerate to something much more feral and fearsome, even to the rest of the population. Ed Dalton is a reluctant vampire though, refusing to drink human blood himself, and slowly is starting to fall prey to the condition that’s starting to take the rest of the population. Ed has a chance encounter with a small group of humans one evening that starts to change everything.

That’s the basic premise to Daybreakers a new movie written and directed by Australia’s Speirig Brothers, and for me, this is a welcome addition to what seems like a spate of vampire movies that more romanticizes the field. Daybreakers plays with the concept in some interesting ways, especially with the way life is lived after the condition strikes, but at the same time fully recognizes that it is a horror movie, but laced with some science fiction and speculative fiction ideas. Some of the cooler ideas are being cars that are customized so that vampires can drive during daylight hours, or in the cities, the construction of underground Subwalks that still let the vampires travel from building to building during the day.

But this is a vampire movie, and it doesn’t shy away from the violence inherent within the genre, so in addition to these ideas, you can certainly expect to see a good level of good old R-rated violence that goes with it, and the Speirig’s are quite adept with it as well, even being involved with some of the films more technical aspects.

They’ve got a nice cast here, headed up by Ethan Hawke as Ed Dalton. Hawke plays this quite earnestly and is pretty rock solid. And that pretty much is true for the rest of the cast as well, which includes Claudia Karvan, and always welcome appearances by guys like Willem Dafoe and Sam Neill.

Daybreakers does some fresh stuff with the genre as well as giving it it’s teeth back so to speak. It’s a briskly paced film that recognizes that it is a B-movie and has some fun with it’s genre, and it certainly entertained me. This may not be the best movie that I’ll see in 2010 (and by that, I mean the type of thing that really sticks with you), but I certainly thought it was a good start and a nice little diversion.

As our movie starts, we’re introduced to a strange little traveling sideshow attraction as it’s making it’s way through and setting up for a show near a pub area in London. We’re introduced to Doctor Parnassus himself, his daughter Valentina, a young man who acts as the “barker” for the show, Anton and Parnassus’ aid, the dwarf Percy. And we’re introduced to The Imaginarium itself, which upon entry, seems to present it’s entrant a doorway into his own imagination and there the entrant has to make a choice of a certain path to take through life. We’re told of Parnassus’ origin, which involves him believing himself to be a leader of a group that keeps the order in balance for the world by telling it’s story, and then we’re introduced to Parnassus’ nemesis, the Devil, who has won a wager with Parnassus that takes him out of his former life and puts him into the existence that he has now. Along the way, the group comes across Tony, a young amnesiac man who was at death’s door until they come along to save him and again, Parnassus also becomes involved in another game with the Devil. Tony helps where he can, as little bit’s of his previous life become clearer to him, but those bits of his past look like they could be even more of a hindrance in the end than a help…

And that’s where I’ll leave off with the basic premise of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus both famous for being the newest movie from director Terry Gilliam and the last movie for the late Heath Ledger. I really, really wanted to like this movie, I’m a fan of Gilliam’s, though for me he really hasn’t delivered a really good movie since Twelve Monkeys, and unfortunately, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is another big miss in a string of misses, but one where it might also be impossible to think of it purely on it’s own on it’s first viewing, because of the obvious death of Heath Ledger and what was done to fill in for that. This might improve in later viewings, but I have to say for myself, those viewings would be much later than sooner, as still this didn’t grab me in the way that would make me want to see it again right away.

If Terry Gilliam isn’t the most cursed filmmaker out there, he’s certainly in the top five. After some very public problems with the making of some of his movies from the past (Brazil and the so far yet to be completed properly The Man Who Killed Don Quixote) he’s plagued yet again with the unfortunate death of one of his stars for this movie, and has come up with a way to finish it, by having other actors replace heath Ledger in some of the key scenes within the Imaginarium, at least on the surface… but there would have to have been other changes made as well (I’m thinking of an introductory scene where a young man goes into the Imaginarium and see’s his face has changed, which doesn’t happen for everybody that goes through), as well as what I though had to be some sort of tonal shifts that seem to undermine Tony’s involvement with the group. In addition, these changes seem to make it so that there aren’t really any rules for the use of the Imaginarium proper and while some could write that away as “Well, it’s a fantasy, anything can happen,” fantasy, at least o me is only really good when there are established rules that are stuck to. And in the end, what you get is something that, again to me, was patchy at best.

There’s nothing wrong with the main performances, Christopher Plummer plays Parnassus, and he’s certainly right for the part. Lily Cole is quite good (and attractive) as his daughter and I actually really like Verne Troyer here as Percy, and think there’s something both odd and quite cool about his interplay with an actor of Plummer’s stature. Tom Waits plays the Devil and of course brings those parts of himself that you’d expect him to for the role, making the character untraditionally creepier than what someone else might’ve done. Heath Ledger is also quite good in his last performance, though this isn’t anything near what he did in The Dark Knight it’s still quite solid, but it leaves the question of what would this film had been like had he lived through it’s completion. Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell all take the part of Tony as he enters the Imaginarium three times and I don’t think they’re seamless performances at all, and I’m sure there had to be some changes made that altered what the Tony character was originally supposed to be in order to finish this up, and unfortunately, those changes are felt.

There’s also nothing wrong with the visual style of the film, which is Gilliam running on all cylinders and certainly making the most of the technology in front of him to give you worlds within the Imaginarium that are like Gilliam animations from the Monty Python days, but this time working in three dimensions.

At present, like the movie Lost in la Mancha which is about all of the problems that Gilliam went through to make The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, it almost seems that the background of the making of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus might make for a more interesting piece than the actual film itself. As I said above, this might change for me with a later viewing, but after the first viewing, I’m not really that inclined to readily give this one another chance. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is an unfortunate mess, it means well and I’m sure Gilliam did the best with what he had in front of him (and probably more in desperation to just maintain his financing), but it left me more wondering in the end just what this could’ve been had he not made the changes that he obviously had to make.

As Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson are closing the case on the nefarious Lord Blackwood, they’re also looking at closing out their own relationship as Watson is about to get married. But seemingly, Lord Blackwood returns from the dead, to hatch his scheme again, and Watson finds himself still tethered to Holmes to deal with this situation…

That’s all I’m going to say about the plot to Sherlock Holmes, the latest attempt to revitalize Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic characters, it’s also the latest film from director Guy Ritchie and uber-producer Joel Silver as he attempts to start another franchise.

To tell the truth, I was a little hesitant to readily see this one. Here’s the deal- I’m actually a fan of Holmes and Watson and read some of Doyle’s stories back in the day. Hell, in high school for my English class, I even did a paper on Holmes complete with comic style illustrations that I did for it (got an A for that paper by the way and even got a little recognition from my teacher for going above and beyond with drawing illustrations for it). On paper, the idea of Guy Ritchie making this movie, with Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes and Jude Law as Watson sounds pretty good, but once I started to see some of the trailers for it, I thought it was being turned a little bit into a smart-ass snark-fest, and so wasn’t exactly sold on seeing it. But after reading a few things about it, I was opening up more to it and of course it helped that I got a free ticket to see it as well (thank you Microsoft and the special deal with Best Buy to buy an Xbox 360 Microsoft points card, which I needed anyway).

And even if I didn’t get to see it for for free, I’d still say this: it really is an overall good time at the movies and I’m really surprised at just how much they got right.

After he made RocknRolla, it was a least apparent to me that Guy Ritchie had his “legs” back after a long period of not making a good movie while he was Mr. Madonna, but how would his style translate to what a period piece this was obviously going to be? Well, he actually reins it in a little bit, in comparison to some of his other movies, though there are some cool hyper-kinetic moments in it, but those moments are used to good effect (primarily when Holmes’ mind is at work) and don’t get in the way at all, making for a cleanly told story.

I have to give the writing team a lot of credit here, because they do pay homage to the books a great deal, and I’ll even go so far as to say that if Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was alive in this day and age, and creating Holmes for the first time, this is probably closer to the way he’d be written (taking into account audiences tastes today). Also, huge kudos to Hans Zimmer for a very kinetic and violin-heavy music score that really works well in the film’s cool action sequences.

Downey and Law are really good as Holmes and Watson respectively, especially Law as Watson, who usually gets a little short-changed in the process. Downey plays Holmes as though he does have a bit of a disorder to him, but the trade-off is of course with his brilliant powers of deduction and his rapid-fire thought process. The only beef that I have is in some of the private moments with Holmes and Watson (and these are a couple of the moments where there are no other characters in the scene) and the relationship from the two comes off more as a little campy and gay in a small way. Now this isn’t a deal-breaker by any means, and you may not even see it at all, as I know the others that I was with to see this didn’t think that was even there- so your mileage may vary (and mine may change as well, as I see this again in the future). Other nice turns though come from Rachel McAdams and Eddie Marsan as familiar Holmes’ characters Irene Adler and Inspector Lestrade and Mark Strong, playing Lord Blackwood, who’s certainly good here, though not as powerful as he was in RocknRolla.

Really, Sherlock Holmes is a lot of fun and hopefully this will be the start of a new franchise- I have no doubt that Downey and Law will be back for a second, but the people I really hope are part of it are director Guy Ritchie, composer Hans Zimmer and the screenwriters who really made this more fun, even more so than it’s stars (and they do a damn fine job for the most part their own selves. Highly recommended…

It’s the year 2154, and former marine Jake Sully has been offered the chance of a lifetime. Jake has lost the use of his legs, and his twin brother was originally supposed to be a part of a scientific expedition on the planet Pandora, a planet whose atmosphere is lethal to humans, but after his brother’s untimely death, Jake, being as good a match as they can get for this expedition is offered the chance to take his brother’s place. Using genetically-bred bodies of the natives of Pandora, and a cybernetic process for controlling those bodies, Jake’s mind is implanted in the artificial body and with a few other humans taking part in this, he’s able to walk again and experience the wonders and dangers of Pandora firsthand. But the corporation in charge of this expedition, has ulterior motives to mine the planet for an ore of great wealth and the marines protecting this expedition want to use Jake to find out the ways of the native people, the Na’vi, and Jake, being a former marine readily agrees and gets way more out of the bargain than he would ever expect…

And that’s where I’ll leave off with the premise to Avatar the first dramatic movie from writer/director James Cameron since he made Titanic. Cameron’s had this idea for a movie since he was a kid, and has waited for the technology to catch up for him, and it’s been well worth the wait. He’s always been right on the cutting edge of technology with his previous movies, but this one raises the bar considerably with it’s motion capture work and the idea of creating computer-rendered characters that you do actually give a damn about. But it’s just not that, he’s created an entire world here with many wonders and pitfalls, and it still doesn’t stop there, as even the man-made elements of the story are also at the peak of what you can do in today’s movies.

It’s a technical achievement to be sure, but of course, it’s story is what matters the most, and fortunately the technology is used well enough to make the story really convincing. I’ve seen a lot of comments in places that bag on the film for not being original enough, and it certainly does borrow from a lot of other sources, but really, for me that didn’t matter. If the story is well-told, then I could care less if it does borrow from other things… and this is pretty well-told (though I do have one little beef with it, but we’ll get to that soon).

It really is something that deserves to be seen on a big screen, and of course in some theatres this is being seen in 3D as well. I saw it in a 3D theatre, and if you have the chance to see it that way, that’s what I’d recommend- but… the 3D isn’t overwhelming and not the point of the film. It’s really well done here, but not for jolting effects but more for actualizing this world. it’s not necessary to see this in 3D to enjoy this experience, but it’s fun nonetheless.

Cameron’s cast is terrific for the most part, and this is where my one beef is, but that’s not necessarily due to the actor but more to Cameron’s story, but I digress… Sam Worthington really impressed me in Terminator: Salvation and he’s here as Jake Sully and even more impressive, serving a double duty with both his human performance as Sully and his motion capture performance in the avatar body, and he’s really good, demonstrating a natural growth of character as this unfolds Sigourney Weaver reunites with Cameron in this film and also serves the same double duty that Worthington does, and again pulls it off real nicely. The pure motion capture parts though- wow, Zoe Saldana (seen earlier this year in Star Trek) really impresses as Neytiri, the Na’vi who is given the task of teaching Jake the ways of the Na’vi. Other members of the Na’vi are performed by veterans like CCH Pounder and Wes Studi, and again they make you believe what they’re doing. The rest of the human cast is filled out by Joel David Moore (who also does some double duty here- not to the same extent as Worthington and Weaver though), Michelle Rodriguez, the always rock solid Stephen Lang and Giovanni Ribisi. Ribisi plays the corporate head of this expedition and he’s where my one real problem with the movie is (though in the big picture, it’s a moot problem). Basically, he’s just a little too cartooned here for what the rest of the movie does- this isn’t really Ribisi’s fault, it’s what he’s been given to do by Cameron, but still compared to everyone else being a little more three dimensional, this character is purely stuck in one dimension, and again considering the scope of this movie, I’d like to think that even a character that’s performing actions as vile as he does here, might still have a little more depth to him.

But still, this is very much worth seeing- it’s big spectacle filmmaking from a master of big spectacle filmmaking who also always manages to go for some heart in his films as well. Cameron hasn’t missed a beat in his long absence from dramatic films and Avatar is the proof. Do not miss this if you have the chance- for me, even with my one beef, it’s right up there with the best of the year…