Critical Film Condition

Only in the world of fast paced British poker-faced farce mob comedies can seeing Gerald Butler’s butt cheeks be not as much fun as it sounds. Actually, it is hilarious.

A mobster from the old school, Lenny (played by the ubiquitous Tom Wilkinson) knows the right wheels to grease and has his hand on the throat of any bureaucrat, broker or gangster that matter. With one phone call, Lenny can make the red tape disappear. But as Lenny’s right-hand man Archy (Mark Strong) tells him, London is ground zero for the changing times, with big-time mobsters from the East, hungry criminals from the streets, and everyone in-between, all vying to change the rules of commerce and crime. With millions up for grabs, all of London’s criminal underworld conspires colludes and collides, amongst them a band of thieves known as the Wild Bunch, consisting of One Two (Gerard Butler) and Mumbles (Idris Elba). But as high rollers and petty criminals alike jockey for dominance, the true prize of the multi-millions-dollar deal will fall into the hands of a junkie rock star (Tony Kebbell) – Lenny’s stepson, presumed dead but very much alive.

It takes a while for the story to unfold. However the laid baits do deliver. The writing is sarcastic, vitriolic and sometimes downright human. The movie also stars Thandie Newton (Stella), Jeremy Piven (Roman), Ludacris (Mickey). Overall the cast does an excellent job.

Guy Ritchie, a triple threat in this movie, wrote, produced and directed – and finally reverts back to his old form. RocknRolla is a comedy thriller that is almost (but not quite) as accomplished as his similar early work (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch), but without doubt a witty, adrenalin-fuelled blast from beginning to end. There is a fine line between showing off as a director and being creative. And Guy Ritchie waltzes it perfectly throughout the movie. It is visually interesting, well-balanced and sometimes just f***ing cool. And it sports one of the more interesting love scenes recently. It will be interesting to see how and what he does with “Sherlock Holmes”.

Watching this movie I could not help but wonder whether this movie served as some kind of psychotherapy for Guy Ritchie. It must have. It is just too blindingly obvious. During the 2009 Golden Globe ceremony Sacha Baron Cohen said something to the tune of: “The economic crisis has even hit celebrities and Madonna has to fire one of her personal assistants. Out thoughts are with you, Guy Ritchie”. RocknRolla is a cathartic answer to that.

Boys will be boys.

Popularity: 3%

Alejandro Amenabar proved with “The Others” that a Spanish director can enter the savage jungle that is Hollywood without losing his own style, acquired in his homeland. But now THIS?

“Agora”, starring Rachel Weisz (“The Constant Gardener”), promisses to be one big epic, set in Roman Egypt, 400 B.C. It tells the story of a slave, who with the invasion of Christianity gets a chance at his freedom, but is torn between pursuing it or staying with his master, with whom he falls in love. His master just happens to be Hypatia of Alexandria, a famous phylosopher professor (Weisz).

It is not the type of trailer that I like, with collages of scenes from the movie (I like to get at least some notion of the story without having to read the tagline), but this specific trailer manages to give you an idea of the scope that the final film is trying to achieve. It’s HUGE, and with Amenabar’s storytelling skills, this promises to be an early contender for next year’s Adademy Awards.

Enjoy watching the trailer.

Popularity: 4%

Judd Apatow, of “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up” fame, has a good thing going for him: all of his latest comedies were successful, he’s married to Leslie Mann, and he’s good friends with rising star Seth Rogen. His latest comedy, “Funny People”, tries to set a little foot on the dramatic side of things, and it succeeds to a certain extent.

Adam Sandler plays a stand-up comedian that finds out he is sick, and about to die. His best friends, played by Seth Rogen, Jason Schwartzman and Jonah Hill,  get very depressed in their own unique kind of way, but more importantly, he tries to set things right to his now-married ex-girlfriend, played by Leslie Mann.

The problem with the trailer is that it seems Apatow tries too hard to set the (very good) dramatic tone, but forgets the comedy along the way. It’s obvious that he intends to do that: Sandler and Rogen play stand-up comedians and Eric Bana, who plays Leslie Mann’s husband, tries to be the funniest man in the movie. The jokes just don’t work that well.

The link for the standard definition trailer is down, so I’m posting the link to the HD trailer. the 480p version should work fine on any computer:

http://www.moviefone.com/movie/funny-people/33221/main

Popularity: 6%

Apple has a new exclusive trailer for “Mutant Chronicles”, but it’s not all that different from the one I posted about last month. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I think it’s funny, among all other mutant/undead movies, “Mutant Chronicle” attempts to set a sort of epic setting, something I am hoping it manages to hold in the feature presentation.

Now, there’s no need to keep yapping about it here, since I’ve posted about it before and, again, it is not much different from the last trailer. So I’ll just post the link to the Apple Trailers website for “Mutant Chronicles”, and you make up your own mind about it :-)

http://www.criticalfilmcondition.com/2009/01/trailer-report-mutant-chronicles/

Popularity: 3%

At the very end of the Oscars Ceremony last night, the Academy provided us with a small glimpse of some of the great movies that we’ll have the pleasure to watch in the year 2009. I’ve actually added this clip to our blog, without naming any movies because even I got some surprises along the way. Hope you enjoy it:

Popularity: 8%

Well, it was that time again: movie geeks from around the world get excited by the conglomerate of shenanigans that is the Academy Awards, or as the friends call it, the Oscars. In Germany, we have to endure the show starting at 2AM and, as expected, it went way beyond the expected schedule, with host Hugh Jackman wrapping it up at six.

Of course, Renny and Andi joined me with chips and beer, proving that the Academy Awards is the perfect way to replace our complete disinterest in soccer, and we were cheering for our favorites, something that thankfully wasn’t recorded in any way because it would have gotten us a safe place in the geek Hall of Fame. And in expecting the unexpected, we got something that left us with a bitter aftertaste, proving that the Academy will always be the Academy, no matter what.

The Oscars are about the show and not about the winners, everybody knows that. But believing in change is healthy. Hugh Jackman was not only fresh, he was so good that his limited screen-time was the biggest disappointment. His opener was nothing short of brilliant, toying with current subjects like the financial crisis and the lack of important nominations for comic book movies and his own “Australia”: “The Academy loves to salute range: In “The Reader”, Kate Winslet who is British, plays a German… Nominated. In “Tropic Thunder”, Robert Downey Jr. plays an Australian actor playing an african-american… Nominated. Whereas me, an Australian playing an Australian in a movie called “Australia”… Hosting. Because of the recession, everything is being downsized. Next year I’ll be starring in a movie called “New Zealand”.” What ensued was a display of Jackman’s multiple talents, using cheap props in a musical performance, not “good for an action star”, simply AMAZING. Anne Hathaway joined him on stage, also shamelessly showing a powerful singing voice. Jackman had to finish by remembering that he, the tuxedo-wearing dancer and singer, is in fact Wolverine. Talk about finishing with a bang… Or maybe not, since a second musical act directed by Baz Luhrman had him performing a duet with Beyonce Knowles and KILLING it. Amazing.

But unfortunately, that was about it for Hugh Jackman, who was limited to short descriptions of the events that followed. And it’s in these events and awards that the Academy shows that it is not ready yet to acknowledge that cinema has changed, over the last 40 years. It seems that they have a hard time fitting into newer trends, and when they do, they overdo it and time it badly. Bollywood has played an important role in worldwide cinema for the last twenty years (or much longer) and only now, with an Indian movie directed by a Brit they decide to recognize it. “Slumdog Millionaire” might be a remarkable movie, but it is obvious that all the accolades it got from the Academy, specifically, are results of the shame felt by not giving the REAL Bollywoodian productions in the past their due respect.

There were, of course, the obvious awards: never had I or anyone for that matter any doubt that Heath Ledger was going to win. Not only because his Joker was one of the most remarkable performances in recent memory, but because not giving him the damn thing would put the Academy in a very tight spot with both the press and the public. “Wall-E” was another sure winner. Then there were the surprises here and there, with Sean Penn being one of the few to beat Mickey Rourke in an award ceremony recently, something that Penn himself recognized at the end of his speech. Pennelope Cruz was another “surprise”, although she was my personal choice for supporting actress. Kate Winslet, like Martin Scorcese a few years back, was the “pity” Oscar. Kate is one of the best actresses in the World right now (“of her generation” is the right term, but that would be a serious understatement), and she should have gotten an Oscar a long time ago.

I don’t want this post to take forever, so I’m not even going to START talking about “The Dark Knight”. The Academy gave it two awards, and in their minds “this should at least appease some of the fans”.

But then there’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”. Again, I agree that “Slumdog Millionaire” might be an incredible movie (I haven’t had a chance to see it yet), but “Benjamin Button” is, both technically and as a motion picture experience altogether, one of the most incredible achievements ever. While “Australia” was hyped as the new “…Gone with the Wind”, David Fincher’s “Benjamin Button” managed to merge incredible technical innovations with the kind of dramatic storytelling that reminds us why we love movies… It’s up there, in my highly qualified opinion, with “Casablanca”, “Citizen Kane” and “Forrest Gump”. But still, the Academy wasn’t ready to acknowledge the talent of David Fincher, who shocked the World and helped shape cinema in the new millennium with “Fight Club”… Strangely, it instead acknowledged Danny Boyle, who directed “Trainspotting” and “28 Days Later”. Yes, you could say that rewarding a director like Boyle is a sign of change, but why does it always have to have a little political footnote to it. Boyle is a brilliant director, and in any other year I would agree with all these awards, but when you’re rivaled by something as amazing as “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, it just doesn’t cut it.

In the end, it was the same story all over again. The Academy played it safe, and the least interesting thing during the night were the awards. Hugh Jackman is definitely the best host since Billy Crystal and is a welcome change for years to come… Let’s just hope he gets a little more working-time in the next round.

82nd Academy Awards in 2010: Jackman for pres… err… Host.

Popularity: 4%

Well, it’s been a long time coming, but here it is, people: Critical Film Condition Television, Episode 1. Naturally, this episode serves as a little introduction, as well as an Oscar report. In the future, CFC.tv is going to become a little “best of” video summary of what has happened since the last episode.

Well,  without further ado, here’s the video :-) :

Popularity: 4%

It’s 1:45AM in Munich and I am asking myself what the hell I am doing writing about this movie? To give Steve Martin (or any other actor, for that matter) the responsibility of taking the role that once belonged to the great Peter Sellers was a bad idea from the beginning, and trust me when I say that you’re reading this from a big Steve Martin fan.

With all pointing to disaster, the first movie was surprisingly good, while the disaster was left for the sequel. Truly, “Pink Panther 2” has all the elements that I expected to ruin the first movie. The jokes are gullible, the timing is terrible and there is no mysterious Pink Panther storytelling, no big conclusion, NOTHING!!! And it pisses me off, because when you get Steve Martin, Andy Garcia, Alfred Molina, John Cleese, Jean Reno and Emily Mortimer into the same movie, you have to fuck up really bad as a screenwriter to ruin it, and they did it famously.

After saving the day in the first movie, inspector Jacques Clouseau (Martin) is somehow controlling parking tickets through Paris, until a robber who calls himself “The Tornado” starts stealing major works of art around the globe, forcing the governments to forge some sort of international task force called The Dream Team (I am NOT shitting you right now). Clouseau is naturally part of the team, along with his partner Ponton (Reno, who was the coolest character in the first movie until being busted to a semi-retarded loser in the second) and his assistant Nicole (Emily Mortimer, the only bright light in the movie). I won’t bother much with the story so that I don’t “spoil” anything, but is it just my good screenwriter’s nose that sniffed the real robber after twenty minutes of picture or does it really just take someone with half a functioning brain-cell on hallucinogens to figure it out?

PS: I’m sick so my nose is really in the shitter today :-).

Seriously, if you’re under ten years-old or a real masochist, watch this movie. The jokes don’t work, there’s zero character development with the terrible acting (and waste of good talent) and the plot is pathetic from the get-go, becoming just predictable afterwards. JUST DON’T GO!!!!

Popularity: 2%