2013: The Year in Film: "Fast & Furious 6" Review

As you may or may not know, I explored the highs and lows of this franchise by watching the entirety of the series over the past-few weeks. [See Below] From the depths of "2 Fast 2 Furious" to the height of "Fast 5", the characters of Dom Toretto and company have made an ABSURD amount of money and quite a mark on the last decade or so. In fact, as I write this post, Fast & Furious 6 has set a record for the largest Memorial Day opening weekend of all time, which is utterly preposterous. Over the span of 5 movies, a crew of rag-tag street racers have become master criminals and masters of combat... and I'm 100% cool with that. In the realm of movies in 2013, there simply aren't a lot of outlets for old-school, tongue-in-cheek, over-the-top action in the realm of its 80's and 90's heyday. Flicks in the spirit of Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, The Rock, Face-Off and the collected works of Arnold Schwarzenegger that existed as a sort of testosterone-laden escapism full of quips, one-liners and a winking acknowledgement that yes, this is preposterous, and yes, we're laughing too are largely extinct, driven the way of the dodo by superhero flicks and serious-minded effects driven works along the lines of the Matrix flicks and asian imports. Somehow a film series that began with a blatant rip-off of Point Break with a hip hop soundtrack and street racing became maybe the finest example of the action genre in movies today. It's insane, and I think I just might love it. So let's check out part 6, shall we?

First, the film opens with a "previously on Fast and Furious"-style montage that is both amazing and entirely apropos. We absolutely need more of this in sequels. If you're going in to watch Fast & Furious 6, I would recommend watching the trailers to 1-4 on youtube, renting Fast 5 and then going in and enjoying some absurdly awesome action madness if you haven't seen the series to this point. You'll be all caught up and have managed to save yourself from the crapfest that is flicks 2 and 4. After the events of Fast 5 the crew finds themselves chilling in style.. until they are approached by Hobbs (The Rock) to help catch a former British commando who is robbing military equipment across the globe in an effort to sell advanced weaponry on the black market. He's a master strategist, always one step ahead of the authorities, and he and his crew just might be the best... so the best need to stop him. Here, the best apparently is a crew of street racers who started in LA. After Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) is spotted riding with Shaw and his crew, Dom and his crew are convinced to help Hobbs stop his plot in exchange for full pardons. Enter some insane (and tremendously done) action sequences as our heroes try to outsmart a man who has a plan for everything.

The Good: This flick features 3 or 4 of the most insane non-superpowered (allegedly...) action sequences you will see in this or any year. It's not just car chases anymore (although of course we have plenty of fast cars..), as the spectacularly assembled and choreographed fights, chases, battles and heists are all great fun. I'm prepared to say that Justin Lin is in the top tier of action directors today when it comes to putting together an action sequences. The scenes are clean, easy to follow, and pack a serious punch. Those last few sentences are completely unironic and without snark. Lin knows how to put together an action scene. Also, at this point the actors are all comfortable in their characters which allows the film to have an easy flow with plenty of comedic quips. The bromance between the Rock and Vin Diesel is straight up homoerotic magic. There are at least 3 scenes where they WOULD kiss if they weren't just too hardass for it. I love it. Whoever decided to bring in the Rock and just make him the ultimate badass in this series is my actual, real-life hero. He actually has superhuman attributes, (there is a scene where he throws a fully grown man around a room, completely destroying it that is pure magic, and another where he jumps 40+ feet onto a moving vehicle) drives a gigantic truck, and plays the unabashedly competent straight man while everyone romps around him. It's ridiculous nonsense. At this point, Vin Diesel IS Dom Toretto, and he's turned the character into an almost reserved and understated alpha male. The cadence of his lines, absolute firmness of his convictions and unreserved badassery ALMOST makes Dom a member of the Greatest Generation or something like it.  Tyrese and Ludacris really play their "class clown" roles with aplomb, and lovers Han and Gisele (I think they aren't actors and just really ARE these people...) are competent and quite compelling, if underused. The villains in this film, almost mirror images of our heroes, are menacing in that they are not merely overmatched villains to be outsmarted and outdriven but actually the equal of Toretto and crew. It makes for an interesting dynamic. Newcomer Gina Carano provides a little badassery on the female side of things and has an epic throwdown or two with Michelle Rodriguez that seems destined from the stars.

The Bad: Paul Walker, while he's certainly better (just in that he has a smaller role to carry, his #2 position having been supplanted by the Rock), is still pretty useless. Jordana Brewster, in a flick (actually!) full of strong and competent women, is a joke. The plot involving the return of Michelle Rodriguez and explanation thereof makes little sense and the flick doesn't even pretend that it does. If anything (and this will sound silly...), the flick goes a LITTLE TOO far. I almost feel like it jumps the shark at times. There are a few scenes that go over the top even from Fast 5, and not that that's necessarily a bad thing, it just feels TOO big, TOO ridiculous, in that it goes beyond suspending disbelief into "these people have super powers, right??". Again, you come into these things knowing what you're getting, but it's just a little too much on occasion. There's a fine line here.

In all, on the strength of some outstanding and over the top action sequences, some strong characterization, a tight plot and strong character acting, this is a fine action flick. We've got heyday of action era bromance and ridiculous action scenes going on, what's not to like? There are some weak links, and some scenes that are simply TOO absurd for me to give it the straight-up "great" label, but it's a lot of fun. If you're in the mood for a fun time at the movies, you could do much worse than Fast & Furious 6... and dare I say that I'm actually looking forward to 7? There is a credits scene that's a straight teaser for 7... and I won't spoil it, but it's awesome. Especially if you've seen Tokyo Drift.

7/10. I like Fast & Furious now. Damn you, Rock, you charming bastard.

... P.S., after 3 whole movies of wondering "HOW THE HELL IS HAN ALIVE????" while he teases us with "maybe I'll go to Tokyo..." we finally get an answer: FAST AND FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT IS IN THE FUTURE!!!?!?!?!. That is so awesome/insane that only the Fast and Furious flicks could pull it off. Here's hoping that they bring back 35 year old Lucas "Fake Channing Tatum" Black to play his 19-years-old-in-Fast and Furious-continuity character. The timeline of the series actually and legitimately goes: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 3, 7. That's incredible.

The Fast and the Curious, or: how I learned to stop worrying and love the Diesel.

From humble begininngs...

One of the great curiosities of our day is how, in the name of everything that's holy, did 2001's "The Fast and the Furious", the type of disposable action drivel that populated the summer seasons in the late 90's and early 2000's (think flicks like "S.W.A.T." - with Jeremy Renner!, "Gone in 60 Seconds", "The Transporter", "The Italian Job" and "xXx") spawn a long and successful series that has arguably gotten better with age? Why in the world are we getting more Vin Diesel and Paul Walker while some of those equally successful and often better brethren have long been relegated to the scrap heap of Saturday afternoon's on TNT, USA and FX? Of course, a lot of it has to do with the fact that none of the actors involved have managed to have much success outside of the series (although I would argue that Vin Diesel at least deserves it), but it's a strange quirk of history that we're seeing a relatively well-reviewed 6th installment of a seemingly throwaway franchise. I've gotten a lot of mileage off of ripping on this series in the past (and will continue to do so, believe me), but I decided to do something a little different for this blog and check out the "Fast and Furious" series as a whole... so let's do it. I spent a long weekend (between Thursday and Sunday I watched the entire series, including watching 3, 4 and 5 in one sitting..) checking out one of the more preposterous series to ever reach the 6 mark (that's a post for another day..) killing brain cells and getting good at impersonating car engines in the process, so let's take a magical journey through the life of Dom Toretto and Co. ...

 The Fast and the Furious (2001)

This car is SO fast it's blurry...

This was the only one of the series that I'd seen prior to starting this cycle of self-abuse/project, and what I mostly recall about it was seeing it at the drive-in (yah, NW Ohio!) and my friend driving more than 80 miles an hour all the way home. I remembered that it starred Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez and Paul "Lance Harbor" Walker, featured street racing, and had some sort of plot involving criminals and police, but beyond that, I couldn't remember any details. 2001 was a long time ago, folks. On re-watching, I noticed a few things. First: Paul Walker is a miserable actor. He's just a blank slate, without charisma, range, or any discernible talent besides being good looking.. the homeless man's Keanu Reeves if you will. Second: Vin Diesel is actually a pretty good actor. He manages to imbue what could have easily been a throwaway character with a magnetism and complexity that is the simplest single explanation for why this series persists. Third: speaking of Keanu, the plot of this flick is basically a straight rip-off of Point Break. In Point Break, Keanu Reeves is an FBI agent who goes undercover with surfers because it's suspected that a string of bank robberies have been perpetrated by surfers. After making friends with one group, falling in love and busting another, it becomes clear that his new friends and their charismatic leader were behind the crimes all along. Sound familiar? Yeah, it's basically THE EXACT SAME THING. There are some exciting driving sequences, and in general, I'm amused by the world in which illegal street racing crews are public enemy #1 such to require an FBI task force. It's also quite confusing, given that his Dominic Toretto is generally a likable and honorable guy, as to his motivations for committing the highway highjackings. Doesn't he make money from racing? Seems off. At any rate, undercover cop Paul Walker/Brian O'Connor reveals his identity as a cop in order to save his new friends, and winds up letting Vin Diesel go free. The flick proudly embraces the absurdity of its premise, going all-in on this world of street racing, and is helped along by a (now horribly dated) high-energy soundtrack consisting of Ja Rule (who briefly is featured in the flick), Limp Bizkit, and other long-gone late 90's rap/rock artists. All in all, a solid if forgettable little action flick.. largely saved by the characterization and charisma of Vin Diesel's character and some kinetic action sequences. 6/10.

Number of times Vin Diesel displays super powers: 1. (After narrowly missing destruction by a train, he gets t-boned by a cement truck at approximately 70 miles an hour.. after 5 plus flips he walks away from the accident.)
Number of women who exist as actual characters: 2. Michelle Rodriguez as Letty, Vin's love interest and Jordana Brewster as Dom's sister Mia, who for some reason falls for the utterly charisma-less and obvious cop Brian O'Connor. 


2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)

2 years after the release of the first film, and in the midst of Vin Diesel's brief flirtation with superstar-dom, he clearly passed on the sequel, which instead features disgraced former cop Brian O'Connor. (Paul Walker) I had never seen this flick in its entirety before, despite the fact that it's on TNT at least once a month. O'Connor, on the run to avoid charges linked to the events of the last film, has immersed himself in the world of illegal street racing and is now in Miami. After a brush with the law, his old FBI contact from the first film recruits him to help bring down a local drug lord who is using street racers to help run his operation. The brutal drug lord (for some reason played by a white guy but clearly not supposed to be white) brings on O'Connor and his old friend Roman (Tyrese) while undercover FBI agent Eva Mendes gives them help from within. This flick is clearly going for a Miami Vice feel, which distinguishes it from the first Fast & Furious movie, but is hurt bigtime by the lack of a compelling lead character. Tyrese tries his hardest to make up for the fact that Paul Walker is the least interesting man in the world but he can't make up for the fact that at its best this film feels like brainless, stakesless fun, and at worst it's obnoxious, unwatchable dreck. Paul Walker and Tyrese call each other "bruh" and "cuh" a hilarious 3,000+ times, and the only thing saving this flick from a solid "0" is a pretty smartly assembled final action sequence. If sane people were running this franchise, this would have been the end of the road, but we've only just begun. If it wasn't for the contributions that Ludacris and Tyrese make in the actually good movies in this series it would be even lower than it is. 2/10, and a rather miserable effort all around.

Number of times Vin Diesel demonstrates super powers: 0. Vin Diesel is nowhere to be found! Super powers are in rare supply here, except when Paul Walker drives a car onto an escaping yacht and it actually works.
Number of women who exist as an actual character: .5. Eva Mendes is supposed to be a character, but she never gets developed and shares exactly zero chemistry with any of her co-stars. (Not blaming her!) She gets .5 because she's not PURELY there for sex appeal, but she also serves no real function.


The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)

This is where shit REALLY goes off the rails.  Where "2 Fast 2 Furious" only brought back Paul Walker from the first installment, this flick brings back NO ONE. WHOLE NEW CAST. At this point, you're just throwing "Fast and Furious" onto random movies featuring cars to make extra money, right? Well, let's hold on. "Tokyo Drift" features clearly 10-years-older-than-his-character Lucas "Fake Channing Tatum" Black as an American high schooler who moves to Tokyo to live with his serviceman father after getting kicked out of too many US schools for getting into racing shenanigans. (He destroys multiple cars and a subdivision with an insane race vs. the bad guy from "Accepted" in the opening sequence) In Tokyo, he finds out that (surprise!) everything's different, and has a hard time fitting in at first. After meeting the local race scene and making an embarrassing first effort, Sean is taken under the wing of a local criminal with a heart of gold (sound familiar?) named Han, who shows him the ins and outs of the Tokyo racing underworld. (Again: high-stakes racing underworld, hilarious) Lil Bow Wow is a fellow American who fills the resourceful/goofy friend role. Going into this experiment, I thought for sure this would be the one movie that I hated the most... but the crazy thing is: I kind of like it. Where 1 is a straight "Point Break" rip off with cars instead of surfing, this is a "Karate Kid" rip off with cars instead of karate. Outsider gets embarrassed, gets trained by wise, kind-hearted master, takes on bully, wins the day and the girl. Han's death is actually one of the 2 or so most resonant moments in the entire series. The simple, classic plot and insane Tokyo visuals and racing sequences make this a somewhat memorable, if very goofy, detour from the rest of the series. Han fills the Vin Diesel role and interestingly, this is the one entrant to the series that in no way features any law enforcement work, although it does feature the Yakuza - exciting! Fun series fact: director Justin Lin made his series debut with this one, he would go on to direct 4, 5 and 6 and bring some cohesiveness to the series. 5.5/10

Number of times Vin Diesel displays super powers: 0. He's not in this flick until a last-second cameo!
Number of women who exist as an actual character: 1. Sean's love interest Neela has some hopes and aspirations - despite being caught up with the dastardly "DK". (Why, in movies, are protagonists always interested in girls who are dating the villain? Doesn't that reflect poorly on her character, dude?)


 Fast & Furious (2009)

At some point between 2003 and 2009 Vin Diesel's non Fast and Furious career fell apart, and Paul Walker never had a career aside from this franchise (and Varsity Blues!), so the old gang returns for the fourth installment, which in actuality is a pretty direct sequel to the first Fast and Furious flick. Plus, it has one of the more nonsensical sequel titles in recent memory.  In the opening scene, we see what Vin Diesel and crew have been up to since we saw them last: hijacking fuel in the Dominican Republic, as Toretto is a wanted international criminal. Plus - HAN (HOW IS HE ALIVE??!?!?) is rolling with Dom and co. Brian O'Connor, now an FBI agent (didn't you guys know that the FBI is REALLY interested in guys with long criminal rap sheets?) is working a case to take down cartel boss Braga, who uses street racers (of course!) to transport heroin across the border through secret tunnels. After Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) is murdered by Braga's crew, Dom comes to LA seeking to bring down Braga for revenge. Dom and Brian inevitably end up joining forces and rekindling their friendship despite Brian's earlier betrayal and total lack of any interesting characteristics, and Brian and Dom's sister rekindle their romance. After some moderately interesting double crosses and a few harrowing and well-done action sequences, our heroes bring down the Braga cartel, and Vin Diesel decides to face justice. The flick ends with Brian going full villain and hijacking the bus transporting Vin Diesel off to prison in by far the flick's best scene. This flick is more interesting as the means that brings narrative cohesion to the series than anything else. It also preview's Lin's trademark taste for big, loud, preposterous action sequences. However, neither Braga nor his driver are compelling villains and the plot itself is rather paint-by-numbers and dull. Despite having many of the elements of a better movie, this one falls short, although it's great to have Vin Diesel back. 4/10

Number of times Vin Diesel displays super powers: at least twice. He and O'Connor are the only survivors from a firefight that kills dozens of other people, and he takes an absurd amount of punishment while driving through walls, fireballs, other cars, support beams and a rockface before impaling Braga's right hand man with his car.
Number of women who exist as an actual character: 2. Even though Jordana Brewster displays questionable judgment in taking back a guy that betrayed her, she has a sizable role, and the flick introduces Gisele, who will be a member of the crew moving forward.

Fast 5 (2011)

So after the return of the original cast what had been a fragmented collection of movies turned into an actual series again. After the events of Fast & Furious, Dom, Brian and Mia find themselves international fugitives on the run. The crew is in Rio, taking jobs to survive when a job gone wrong results in the deaths of DEA agents and a double cross by a Brazilian crime boss. Dom decides the group will get revenge by stealing the crime boss' entire fortune as the US government sends in their top man to apprehend the fugitives. Their top man, of course: The Rock, and this is where the series really finds its legs. Up until this point the series has featured various protagonists facing off against uninteresting villains of varying competence. Now, Hobbs (the Rock) is presented as a mirror image of sorts of Toretto, a physically imposing, competent figure who our heroes can't simply outsmart and outrun. To pull off this job, Brian and Dom decide they need a team, and they summon Ludacris and Tyrese from 2 Fast 2 Furious, Han (who is somehow not dead) from Tokyo Drift, Gisele from Fast & Furious in an effort to unite the franchise. It's actually a pretty clever conceit. The strength of this flick is its ensemble, and every character is given a moment or two to shine. Our heroes try to stay one step ahead of Hobbs while plotting their heist, and the film proceeds at a rather breakneck pace. To be honest, this is one of the better straightforward action films I've seen in quite some time. It has a great sense of fun, developed characters who have chemistry together, elaborate, ridiculous action sequences and an Ocean's 11-style heist plot. Of course, this being a Fast and Furious flick, we feature fast cars, although interestingly, this is the first flick to completely abandon the illegal street racing thread that had run through the rest of the series to greater or lesser extent. Even Paul Walker seems to have a little pep in his step, maybe because he's tasked with shouldering less of the load with a larger ensemble. The Rock and Diesel have their inevitable showdown, and it's as epic as anything in Avengers (and possibly as super-powered...) and end up inevitably joining forces to take down the crime boss who happens to own most of Rio's police. Due to the absurd ridiculousness of the whole affair and the flick's proud embracing of that ridiculousness, this flick is simply a ton of fun to watch. 7.5/10, and by far the best of the series.

Number of times Vin Diesel displays super powers: well, he successfully jumps many times to and from moving vehicles, punches and throws the Rock through walls, glass and any other "breakable" object for 10 minutes without lasting injury. At least 5 times.
Number of women who are actual characters: 2.5. Jordana Brewster's Mia is now pregnant, so she has that going on, the Rock has a Brazilian cop working with him who takes an interest in Dom, and Gisele is a half of a character, who takes a liking to Han (HOW ARE YOU ALIVE, HAN?????)


In all, I gained a new appreciation for Vin Diesel as an actor (seriously, I did), and though the series has its ups and downs, it certainly gets to a high note with 5. 2 Fast 2 Curious.
 

2013: The Year in Film: "Star Trek Into Darkness"

There are two great universes in sci-fi. With all due respect to the myriad of contributions made by franchises like Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, Halo, Alien and The Matrix, but when you're talking spaceships and outer space, for the world at large you're talking Star Trek and Star Wars. By some insane accident of history (or the fact that Joss Whedon is tied up with Avengers), JJ Abrams managed to score the first post-Lucas Star Wars flick after successfully bringing Trek back to life after the Next Generation films ground to a screeching halt and we saw an extended period of time with no Star Trek anywhere. And his first Trek was, in a word, great. If it's more action-oriented and sillier than Trek usually is, I'll take those relative negatives if they go along with a great cast, outstanding production values and a spirit of fun and adventure that gets right at the heart of why people love Star Trek in the first place. 2009's "Star Trek" is on a short list of movies along with Iron Man and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade among movies that I just straight-up don't trust you if you don't at least acknowledge that those are really good, fun and entertaining movies.  It's been a long 4 years since Abrams' first Trek brought Kirk and Spock back to life for a new generation, hell, the last movie is on FX already, but let's check it out. It's unclear whether Abrams will be back for any future Trek flicks with this cast, I'm betting that given the demands likely to go along with the Star Wars gig, he'll probably be gone, but the important thing is that Trek has been brought back to the public consciousness... more Starfleet and the Federation is never a bad thing. 

*BONUS*
Ranking the Trek flicks:
12.) Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
11.) Star Trek: Insurrection
10.) Star Trek: The Motion Picture
9.) Star Trek: Nemesis
8.) Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
7.) Star Trek: Generations
6.) Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
5.) Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
4.) Star Trek Into Darkness
3.) Star Trek: First Contact
2.) Star Trek (2009)
1.) Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

- All of which brings me to a brief aside: take a look at that list. JJ Abrams' flicks are undoubtedly among the strongest that Star Trek has had in the 30+ years of the franchise - so why are we hearing so much complaining about them from the very people who should be the most thankful? Do we not remember the crap sandwich that was the end of the Next Generation movie run? Are Abrams' flicks more action-oriented and less overtly philosophical? Yes. Do they feature great effects, tight storytelling and strong acting from a great cast? YES. What do we care more about? Philosophical nit-picking or watchable movies? Stop complaining, nerds... this is why we can't have nice things.

After the last flick, which saw a time-traveling villain create a new, alternate timeline to the Star Trek we know and love and destroy Vulcan in the process, Kirk, Spock and the rest of the crew of the Enterprise (NCC-1701) are off on their voyage of discovery, exploring new worlds and boldly going. Kirk and crew get into a bit of trouble for disregarding Starfleet regulations around the same time that Starfleet finds itself under assault from a mysterious terrorist. As the Enterprise is tasked with hunting him down it becomes clear that all is not as it seems, either with the terrorist himself or with Starfleet, as Kirk, Spock and co. find themselves racing to save themselves and prevent catastrophe.

The Good: Abrams can direct action, no doubt about it. Lens flares aside, this is a flick that looks great and features some breathtaking action sequences. This cast is great top to bottom and the film really conveys the sense that the crew of the Enterprise has grown together in the time that's passed since the last installment. This is Kirk's film, and he makes serious steps forward as Chris Pine is given many moments to advance the character past the brash and often overeager captain of the last film into the more self-assured and heroic character so beloved by Trek fans. Quinto absolutely owns the role of Spock and is looking and sounding more like Leonard Nimoy than ever. Simon Pegg as Scottie is terrific and provides many memorable scenes. John Cho, Zoe Saldana and Karl Urban are all great as Sulu, Ohura and Bones as well. Along with Chekov, all of the primary members of the crew are given at least one moment to shine. Benedict Cumberbatch is compelling, chilling, and occasionally more than a little sympathetic as the primary villain, as always, he's outstanding. The plot, while not perfect, is tight and manages to call back to a classic Star Trek tale. Abrams has by and large waved goodbye to the more cerebral Trek of old in favor of more straightforward action fare, but when it's as fun and well-acted as this, one viewing of "Nemesis" convinces me that was the right move. If an action "Trek" is what we need to have a Trek worth watching, that's a sacrifice well made in my book. Oh, and there are Klingons, so that can never be a bad thing.



The Bad: The plot is, at points, full of holes and really shreds the "canonical" Trek timeline. Given that this is an alternate timeline, that's not all bad, but it really does leave the Trek we know and love far behind. Some of the moves and motivations don't seem to make a lot of sense except to drive the plot forward. In all, given how damn fun this film is to watch and the strength of the cast, I'm willing to overlook the film's shortcomings.   Some of the secrecy surrounding the identity of certain characters doesn't make a lot of sense in retrospect and the "reveal" served as more of a distraction than anything.

Ultimately, though, this is a fun, well-acted, beautifully shot summer film. It captures the spirit of Trek perfectly, if it leaves some of the traditional trappings of it behind as did its predecessor. Well worth seeing in the theater. Worth paying the IMAX upcharge as well. Do it, I liked this one better than Iron Man 3.

8.5/10

2012: The Year in Film: "The Great Gatsby" Review

  "The Great American Novel" is the sort of nebulous term that causes AP English students and college freshman to start doodling while professors ramble. It's also likely to be discussed over coffee by the kind of people who take pictures with fake mustaches. At any rate, F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" has as good a claim to the title as any, and quite frankly, a much better claim than most. It's the sort of Zeitgesit-catching prose and subtlety heavy work that makes translation to screen difficult, despite its many cinematic scenes and qualities. Francis Ford Coppola wrote the 1974 version starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow that ultimately feels incredibly dull and falls short (largely due to a lack of chemistry between the leads - Redford was supposedly so engrossed with the Watergate story that he spent every spare moment in his trailer and neglected his work). Enter: Baz Luhrmann?? The crazy Australian famous for making seizure-inducing bombastic flicks with all the subtlety and social commentary of Gallagher smashing a watermelon? Okay? Lurhmann, famous for the 90's high school angst clownfest Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rougue! (yes, there's an "!" in the title - you can tell his flicks are "edgy" by the titles!), and competitor for "worst movie I've ever seen" Australia, is tasked with bringing Fitzgerald's devastating take-down of American opulence, arrogance and greed. Let's just say that's a strange choice.

Say what you will about the choice of director, but he managed to assemble a great cast. Leonardo DiCaprio (Leo!) as the titular Gatsby, Joel Edgerton and Casey Mulligan as Tom and Daisy Buchanan, Jason Clarke, Isla Fisher and... Tobey Maguire as Fitzgerald cipher Nick Carraway. (Ok, good except for the last part) Gatsby, of course, follows recent college grad Nick Carraway (a poor but socially connected Midwesterner) as he moves among the new and old money social set of Jazz-Age New York and Long Island. The novel features scenes of decadent parties, dingy speakeasies, and a city alive with energy.


The Good: This flick looks spectacular. Plain and simply, Luhrmann does not disappoint when it comes to the glittering city, the opulent scenes at Gatsby's mansion are dizzying and the film is enveloped in a sort of otherworldly majesty. The acting is strong, particularly from DiCaprio, who is at his movie-star finest here. It's kind of fascinating to see just how dashing he is, considering he's spent most of his career trying to make himself look like a regular guy. Minor blog "boys" Jason Clarke and Joel Edgerton turn in solid efforts as well.  As expected, Luhrmann does a great job in capturing what was so intoxicating about the Jazz Age as New York rose to prominence as maybe the most important city on the planet.

The Mediocre: Carey Mulligan, whom I've always liked (watch "An Education", seriously. Thank me later), simply isn't up to the task of pulling off Daisy Buchanan and matching Leo step for step. Despite Luhrmann's best efforts to glam her up, you're never buying that she's this dynamo of reckless sexual energy and spontaneity who men want to be with and women want to be. That's not entirely her fault, I don't know if there's an actress under 35 capable of playing that part, which is why I listed it under "mediocre", but it really takes away from what Luhrman is trying to do.

The Bad: Tobey freaking Maguire is a bottom 6 actor on the planet. How he manages to finagle his way from big budget flick to big budget flick I'll never know. (Is he a secret Coppola too?) More than once during the flick I thought to myself "What is the dopey version of Peter Parker doing on West Egg?" before I realized that Tobey just can't act and just constantly wears a look on his face more befitting non-sentient creatures. His attempts to literally embody "wide-eyed wonder" are an embarrassment. I understand that the role itself is little more than a cipher for Fitzgerald's voice, but Maguire manages to imbibe it with absolutely zero charm and even less personality. A complete and utter empty shell of a character who dopes around from scene to scene without the faintest glimpse at any inner life of his own or the merest spark of intelligence. Plot/theme wise, we get an important glimpse into Baz Luhrmann's mind here. Fitzgerald's work is an important and rather scathing critique of material wealth, greed, status and the corrupting nature of it all. Luhrmann apparently read the book and decided it was a touching tome on star-crossed lovers amidst fabulous settings. The love story in the book is, by and large, merely a plot device. Efforts at the end to rescue the lessons and theme of the book fall short of the grandiose treatment given to the very things the book sought to condemn and which deserve extra condemnation today. Oh, and while I don't have an issue with anachronistic song choices, in and of themselves (let's be real, no one wants to see a  Baz Luhrmann 1920's flick featuring only Cole Porter songs and the ragtime), the song choices used here (Jay-Z and Watch the Throne by and large..) are just TOO on the nose. Featuring a rapper rapping about "balling" while showing rich people being decadent is about as subtle as playing "Free Bird" or "White Rabbit" while someone is using drugs. There are THOUSANDS of songs in this world, hire a hipster to mix it up some, Baz.

Ultimately, this is a flick that looks great and features a core performance of a true movie star at the top of his game. If it were just a tragic love story about rich people in the Jazz Age (and didn't star Tobey Maguire) this would be a legitimately kind of good movie. As it is, this is The Great freaking Gatsby, and I question whichever studio head put Baz and his fever dreams in charge of it. A shame it falls short, because there was a good movie somewhere in here. A Great Gatsby adaptation should be an awards favorite, not stuck between Iron Man 3 and Star Trek 2 as a studio money grab looking for the mom dollars.

5/10.

2013: The Year in Film: "Iron Man 3" Review

Iron Man, due in large part to Robert Downey Jr.'s ridiculously charming portrayal, just might be the most popular fictional character on the planet right now. From the relative obscurity of Marvel's B-team (not popular enough to ensure that major studios purchased his film rights in the decades before 2008's "Iron Man" in the way that Marvel's premier properties Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four were bought by Sony and Fox) he's gone on to anchor two solo films that were huge hits domestically and worldwide as well as be the center of the 3rd biggest movie of all time, Avengers. It's odd then, in light of all this success that Iron Man 2 is widely seen as a slight misstep and the weakest entrant of all the Marvel flicks. After disagreements about its production led to the departure of director Jon Favreau, Marvel made the unorthodox decision to bring on writer/director Shane Black. Black, who had previously directed Downey Jr. in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, is most well known as the screenwriter of legendary action flicks like Lethal Weapon and The Last Action Hero. In this atmosphere of (admittedly slight) discord, Marvel moves into the post-Avengers era with its biggest star.

After the events of Avengers and the final battle that nearly took his life, Tony Stark finds his world shaken. He's buried himself in his work, making continued advances on his Iron Man technology while hardly finding the time to sleep or interact with the outside world. In the meantime, a new terrorist threat is rising, threatening the nation and Stark with mysterious and highly advanced attacks.


The Good: Downey, simply put, was born to play this role. His quips, mannerisms, quick tongue and steady supply of one liners makes Tony Stark simply one of the most loveable characters in pop culture today. Iron Man 3 is an extremely funny film, not afraid to play for a laugh whether it be through sight gags (I especially enjoyed 90's Happy Hogan doing his best Vincent Vega), one liners, or downright ridiculous small characters. The writing was tight and effective, with several twists that were unexpected. The film makes the interesting choice of having a large portion of it take place while Tony is nowhere near an Iron Man suit, forcing him to use his genius in other ways, which really serves to drive his characterization while grounding the flick away from expansive CGI. Never fear, true believers, for there is plenty of Iron Man action including cool tricks with new suits. Gwenyth Paltrow's Pepper Potts has an easy, familiar rapport with Downey and the two really serve to ground the goings-on as they have through 3 other films now. There are some great action sequences and strong supporting performances from Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce's menacing anti-Stark of sorts and blog favorite James Badge Dale. I like that the film manages to at once exist in the Marvel Universe and yet be a stand-alone Iron Man flick. The Avengers are acknowledged, but this is Stark's show, and that doesn't feel forced or false in the least.

The Bad: there are a few choices as far as plotting and character development that I feel were  perhaps ill-advised. There's a decision with the Mandarin that I feel largely wastes the potential of the character and Ben Kingsley altogether. I'll leave it at that, but in all honesty, that's my primary critique. It wastes a potentially strong plot device for continuing to drive the Iron Man and Marvel universe. In addition, the film, while very funny, at times dances on the line of sacrificing its necessary gravitas for a laugh. I won't say it ever crosses that line, but it's dangerously close a time or three.

In all, this is a splendid summer action flick and a strong entrant to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While it's not as much of a joy to watch as the first Iron Man film, it also doesn't benefit from the origin story, which is always the most easy to tell.  It's definitely a step up from the messy Iron Man 2, which falls apart at times and struggles with tone through its second act. Interestingly, this flick plays more like a conventional action film and less like a superhero movie. A lot of the credit/blame for that surely goes to Shane Black, but it works here, and really sets this flick apart from the other films.

Ultimately, this is a fun time at the movies that while falling short of the peak of the superhero genre, remains a strong addition to Marvel's roster. Whatever the future of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark may be, this is a solid addition to the series.

8/10.