Peggy Sue Got Married
Francis Ford Coppola, 1986
Peggy Sue Got Married is a difficult movie to like or dislike. It has a core premise – a forty-two year old woman travels back in time into her own body at age seventeen – that, while full of potential landmines, also has a wealth of both comedic and dramatic possibilities. Unfortunately, Coppola (or, given that he was a hired gun, his largely unknown writers) chooses to blandly walk through the scenario, without really committing to comedy or drama and winds up with a movie that pretty well defines middle-of-the road. When he does throw in something unexpected and bizarre (like the old fogies’ lodge that was founded by a time traveler), the element is quickly dispatched without exploration. The movie is perfectly competent in nearly all aspects, but inspired in none.The cast does what they can to elevate it, though. Kathleen Turner, despite some . . . odd line deliveries, does a fantastic job of selling both ages through her body language and demeanor. Nicholas Cage finds slightly less success in that regard, but he gets points for remaining watchable and interesting even in the face of the horrible, horrible affected voice he puts on. A young Jim Carrey manages to not be too distracting.
5/10
The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi
Takeshi Kitano, 2004
About an hour in, I was thinking the best thing I could say about Zatoichi is that it wasn’t boring (which is not as faint a praise as you might think). Once the back half kicked in, however, it became apparent that this movie was at least a half hour too long, and most of the momentum dropped right out. Now, the best thing I can say about it is that there is a very distinctive sense of humor at work, which provided a lot of amusing and interesting moments amidst the tedium. Even the dance number at the end was kind of neat (and I don’t often say that about dance numbers). Despite the length, I’d be tempted to say I kind of liked it, if it weren’t for one critical issue: The violence.Now, I’m not saying the movie was too violent. Far from it (and what are the odds I would ever say such a thing?). My issue is with the technique used to portray the violence – specifically, extremely poor compositing with CGI blood sprays. A man swings a sword in front of a green screen, and another actor is placed in the path of the sword. A spray of red pixels explodes from somewhere in the neighborhood of the sword. Rinse and repeat. This technique is not used once or twice, it is used almost exclusively. I have read that Kitano wanted to diminish the impact of the violence by doing this, but I can’t help but wonder what the point of making a samurai movie filled with limb removals and head choppings is, if you don’t want the violence to have impact. The best way to prevent the audience from feeling the impact of slicing a man in half is to not slice the man in half! At first, I viewed the effects as somewhat incompetent, perhaps charmingly so. Instead, assuming the information about Kitano’s intentions is correct, they turned out to be intellectually dishonest.
2.5/10
On the Town
Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1949
There’s not a lot of point in me reviewing this movie. It’s a musical, there’s lots of singing and dancing, it’s just not my thing. That said, it’s one of the more enjoyable examples I’ve seen (note I said MORE enjoyable, not enjoyable), and certainly better than the last Donen/Kelly collaboration I saw, if only because the ridiculously unmotivated and pointless dance number shoehorned into the back half is a little more interesting this time.I’m trying to avoid using full-on evaluative terms like “good” or “bad,” here. They really aren’t relevant, when you get down to it. The classical song-and-dance musical (as opposed to something like Sweeney Todd, which has a different sort of operating philosophy) is, for all intents and purposes, just like the slasher movie. It’s a bunch of (barely) characters strung together into a thin semblance of a plot that serves as an excuse to move us along to a series of set-pieces that are really meant to be appreciated on their own. Whether those set-pieces are bravura ballet sequences or amazing Tom Savini prosthetic effects showcases, it’s really all the same. In neither case is there anything inherent to the production that is of value (at least, not most of the time), so any evaluation basically comes down to the question of whether the set-pieces are the sort that appeal to you. As it happens, I’m a great admirer of Savini’s work.
And I don’t really like Gene Kelly’s.
4/10
Progress: 20 (Par)
2 comments:
Seriously, Star Wars Episode III gets a higher score than Zatoichi? Really?
Okay, to be fair,I may have been a bit harsh. I started out with Zatoichi as a 4, but as I was writing the review, the whole composited violence thing just started making me angry, and I downgraded it.
Relative ratings are difficult when you do them at different times. When you start putting lists together after the fact, sometimes the numbers wind up shifting a little bit to make it more internally consistent. That may happen in this case because you're correct, that doesn't sem right.
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