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Wow, it has been weeks since I last did a blog on crime movies from 2014. So here are 4 more movies that have to touch on that topic thru various means. Corrupt governments oppressing people, a hitman getting revenge on the guys who killed his puppy, Corrupt governments selling drugs, and a guy who wishes he had gotten any part of that stuff on tape.
Really? Another one of these? Not really complaining. Most movies out of the growing subgenre of “Untouchable
aging badass” tend to be really entertaining.
I look forward to its future entries… mostly… as “John Wick” is a little
rocky to start off. This movie has
issues. Mostly in that the writing is
weird.
First the
positives, I like the action scenes which are clearly the reason this movie exists, I like the strange level of world building with the ultra-class hotel
that caters to hitmen, I like some of the little style touches when they make
the subtitles appear in different places around the screen and emphasizing
different words with color, and I like that John Wick gets hurt during the
movie making him one of the rare untouchable badasses that is somewhat
touchable.
Now on to
the weird writing. This movie starts
with Wick mourning the loss of his wife… or as much mourning as Keanu Reeves is
capable of displaying. After the funeral
he receives a gift from his wife in the mail, a puppy he can love so that he
can go on living a normal life. Then he
is randomly attacked by mobsters who steal his car, kill the dog, and cause him
to enter a state of despair that sends him on a roaring rampage of
revenge. Here is my question: Why not
just write the movie so that the mobsters kill the wife? Why have a dog in the movie at all? Yeah the cliché of a wife dying to motivate the “hero” is sexist, but it at least makes sense. And it is not like portraying her as this
angelic being who died of natural causes and is totally separate from his
violent world is any less a sexist cliché.
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| I have never been a fan of this guy's acting. I have documentation. (Image) |
John is a
retired hitman who kills dozens of people in this movie, dozens of goons who
probably have puppies, wives, and children of their own. They are doing a job just like Wick did back
in the day before retiring to be with his wife, but he shows no sympathy toward
the vast majority, only letting some he knows personally an opportunity to walk
away before he continues mowing down the army of bad guys. He shows little respect for the safety of
passersby and is so emotionally blank (see again: Keanu) that I am left
watching one of the biggest over reactions ever. Yes, I like dogs. Yes, I think the bad guy was an asshole (He is
an actor from “Game of Thrones” who has an infinitely punchable face). Yeah, they are crooks… But so is Wick. If he can go on to live a normal life so can
they, he is denying them the same opportunities he was afforded and all they
know is that he is some rage monster out to kill their boss.
If the wife
had been murdered and Wick nearly killed then his desire for revenge would seem
less silly, and you could complicate things by having him being a new man, that
he thinks he is betraying his wife’s memory by being violent even if it is to
avenge her. Heck, have her be a former
assassin too, that she felt bad for having killed people and that she and John
were trying to get past it all. That way
his spiral into violence has some weight.
The movie
is also weirdly toothless. There is a
scene that takes place in a spa/pool/nightclub with a bunch of mobsters and
women in bikinis. For a rated-R movie
there are (shockingly) zero boobs. And the
only blood splatter is digital, fading to mist instantly. Few people are left alive to cry or howl in
agony. There are few instances of guts,
I would say it feels like a video game, but many video games go out of their
way to portray extreme violence is epic detail.
Essentially the weight of Wick’s attacks is diminished.
The movie also
starts on a plot hole. The mobsters that
kill Wick’s dog first see him at a gas station, where they offer to buy his car
and he says, “No”. Then they attack him
that night… Except Wick doesn’t notice anyone following him (maybe the stone
cold assassin is oblivious), he parks in his garage so they couldn’t have
spotted the car by driving by. So did
the goons find him by searching his plates?
Wouldn’t there be a red flag? The
only cop in the entire movie is crooked and knows John personally, the chop
shops know John’s car on sight, and everyone in the movie knows who John is…
except these three car thieves. What? And you do not have the excuse of them being
new criminals from out of town, the main thug’s father was Wick’s direct
supervisor. This guy should have known
who Wick was.
Overall: 5/10
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| There are some lines, "I'm think'n I'm back." that seem kind of bordering on hack catch phrase. But they just miss being one. |
The movie
reminds me a lot of “Lincoln”. The
complex political leverage and lobbying surrounding a great man fighting for
civil rights in the south, with issues in his home life pressuring him and
drawing his attention away at various moments, ultimately ending in a speech
that spells out important principles, but the looming specter of assassination
hangs over the whole thing.
The movie
is worth watching and has a powerful core with David Oyelowo nailing a mythic performance
as King. The movie does a lot of cool
stuff with a surprising hate crime bombing, very touching exchanges between
several characters, and careful to show how both black and white protesters
were assaulted (as racist as it may sound it might be important to show a white
audience that white people were victims too, because without that fact they
might end up caring less, because a lot of them are un-empathic assholes). There was one scene with a man whose grandson
was gunned down in a diner that had my eyes welling up.
There are times
that the movie slows down, prime examples being the parts in which the members
of SNCC bicker over prideful bullshit (one is for King’s methods and sees King
as a hero, the other is an idiot). I
thought Carmen Ejogo (I actually thought she was white a few times and it sort of confused me... Fire the lighting guy I guess? Maybe I was just watching this like a racist) was okay as Coretta (King’s wife), but nothing amazing (I
actually wish they had spent less time with the family and more time with the
protesting). And I feel that there was a
general lack of levity, I know that this stuff was bleak, but there isn’t a
single guy cracking jokes? Maybe it is
just my love of dark comedy that makes me expectant of some gallows humor in
nearly anything, I guess you could laugh at the argument against civil rights
which boils down to, “if you start letting them vote and walk down the street
without being afraid of random violence, next thing you know they will think of
themselves as people and want freedom of opportunity and from poverty” which is
crazy troll logic at best.
One last complaint: the camera work
was sometimes a little off, there were instances of people being so far to the
left of the screen their faces were nearly cut off, while behind them is a lot
of dead space (maybe this was an intentional choice to show them as wrong or
eschew, but I mostly just found it strange, like I wanted to turn my head).
Overall: 7/10
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| It is an alright poster. |
Named after
(presumably) what I mumble to anyone who wakes me up before the alarm.
Another
entry that resembles “Selma” in that it is a biographical movie about a very
specific event in a person’s life, connections to the government not giving a
shit about black people and minorities, and… has the looming specter of an assassination
hanging over the proceedings. It is also
very much in contrast to a movie like “Argo” which portrays spy work in a
positive and quirky light, while this makes you feel much less patriotic.
While I
have always suspected or known on various levels that criminal activities are
used to fund spycraft operations, this movie draws a very uncomfortable picture
of the United States Government. Gary Webb
exposes the questionable ethics of drug policy and then is drawn into a massive
story about conspiracy to use drug money to fund Central American
violence. Blocked in all official
channels and left to wonder where to turn when all of his contacts start to
disappear or disavow him his career and life are destroyed. It also ends on a speech that spells out important
principles… (MOVIE FORMULA DETECTED).
It is worth watching, but it is
about an incident that is less legendary than Selma, and a man less renowned
than King, so I have by default less to say about it, even though I would
recommend it over “Selma” because I feel that it had more humor, and the wife
and family were played better. This is a
less relevant movie than “Selma” though I feel it more enjoyable to watch.
Overall: 7/10
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| Gary, hate to break it to you, but the truth is both more important... and a lot less important these days. |
In pretty
much any other year this would have probably been a #1 pick, but this year was
so good for movies it will merely have to be in my top 6.
This movie
kind of reminds me of “There Will be Blood” but rather than being about the
growth of the oil industry it is about contemporary gonzo news, and instead of
wondering whether the money turned the main character into a crazy person or if
he was always that way… Well in “Nightcrawler” the main character is pretty
clearly a violent psychopath from the word go.
I am not
sure when Jake Gyllenhaal got a bug up his ass and decided he really did want
to be given a gold statue for acting, but he’s doing a damn good job and is
getting unfairly overlooked. He is in
every scene of this movie and seems to constantly be vibrating with anger,
determination, lust for power… He is always just on the verge of snapping. It is delightful.
And any plot
that has me asking, “How is he going to get out of this?” And then gives me an ending prompting me to
say, “Oh, well that was ingenious.” This
is a movie that did that.
Overall: 9/10
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| It is hard to find an image for this movie that isn't covered in praise for it. I kind of wonder how the star and director of "Drive" would have done the script differently. (Poster) |
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