Argo

Argo: B+

I've always loved movies about making movies. The Player and The Muppet Movie are two of my favorite movies of all time, which making movies is a major story point in both films, yet that's not what these movies are really about. The Player is actually a thriller about a movie studio executive and The Muppet Movie is a road comedy/musical about characters who "want to be rich and famous". Argo is also a movie that's not just about making a movie, in fact, it's about making a fake movie to save hostages in Iran and the amazing thing is, it's all TRUE!

Ben Affleck has surprised a lot of critics and movie-goers alike over the last few years as he's taken the roles of writer/director. Gone Baby Gone and The Town are both fine movies, but I think they're really good movies, nothing spectacular. Maybe that's why they've only been nominated for supporting actor roles at the Academy Awards. I think it's more shocking that Ben Affleck, who has had success as an actor, has suddenly taken up the role of writing and directing and the movies are surprisingly good! Yes, Affleck did co-write Good Will Hunting with Matt Damon AND won the Oscar for writing, but I wonder if they won that Oscar for the same reasons I just mentioned.... actors that are suddenly writing and the movie is good!

Argo is no different. Affleck has left the pen behind for Argo, and instead has taken the lead role (like in The Town) and is directing a cast of great actors, most of them known for their television work. Affleck does some clever tricks and storytelling in this film. The movie starts off with the 1970's Warner Bros. logo, and it instantly lets you know when this movie takes place. It also gives us a back story of how the Iran hostage crisis started, cleverly using storyboards. This brought a smile to me, for I work in the animation industry and love looking at storyboards. It's a great way to bring us into Iran and get the movie started. As the audience, you're thrown into the intense nature of what is happening there.

The movie now becomes a "How do we get them out of there", something that can be seen on television on shows like Criminal Minds or NCIS. Nothing spectacular, but it does have it's interesting moments. The movie takes a left turn and almost becomes farce, when it is decided by Affleck and his supervisor, Bryan Cranston, to make it look like they're Canadian filmmakers making a fake sci-fi movie (ala Star Wars) in Iran to get the hostages out. Affleck does a fine job of giving us a glimpse of how films are made in Hollywood and how it's more publicity than fine storytelling that can get a film made. Alan Arkin and John Goodman have very funny roles as the money (Arkin) and the name (Goodman) behind the picture.

The last third or the movie is quite intense and I believe this is what most people are responding too when they are giving the A+ Cinemascores. Other than that, Affleck's acting is nothing spectacular, they did some great casting on the actual hostages as they showed the pictures of the actors next to photos of the hostages so you can see how much they look alike, and I wouldn't be surprised if Arkin gets another supporting actor nomination for this film, simply because he practically steals the show with one line. Affleck even got President Jimmy Carter to narrate a bit over the ending credits on his account of what we just saw in the movie, to give the movie a clear sense of truth.

Argo is a very entertaining movie with a few great lines, an inside look into Hollywood, and a suspenseful ending that will keep you from breathing until the credits run. It's definitely worth the price of admission and I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot about it during Oscar season.

Frankenweenie

Over the last two weeks, I saw two films at the theater, Frankenweenie and Argo. I enjoyed both films and would recommend both movies to film lovers. I started to write this post reviewing both movies, but feel that it's better to write them in separate posts.

Frankenweenie: B+

I've been a fan of Tim Burton since I saw Pee Wee's Big Adventure at the drive-in with my family when the movie first came out. Ok, I didn't know who Tim Burton was, but I loved the movie. Next up was Beetlejuice at the theater, again loved Beetlejuice and I'm sure the advertisements at the time said "From the director of Pee Wee's Big Adventure", which is probably why I saw the movie. The movie was weird and different, and even though Pee Wee's Big Adventure had a few truly weird moments in it (Large Marge, his dream sequences, etc), Beetlejuice was almost completely filled with these weird moments. Something that I learned to accredit to Tim Burton. So over the years, I learned to appreciate Mr. Burton's films more, especially when his popularity skyrocketed with Batman and Batman Returns. I would pick up issues of Starlog and Comics Scene magazines from the local comic book store and I'm sure it was during that Batman craze when I learned who Tim Burton really was. He had a vision for dark, yet reserved characters. The characters tended to mirror Burton himself. So much so, that the character Edward Scissorhands, resembles Tim Burton in his style of hair and black clothing.

(cover of one of my Comics Scene issues)

Then The Nightmare Before Christmas came out....

I instantly fell in love with the movie. The look, the unique storyline, and the music (yes I do like some musicals) all made the movie completely enjoyable to me. It was the first completely stop-motion animated feature film I had ever seen. At this time, I already knew I wanted to be an animator, specifically a Disney animator, and through the articles (so annoying pre-internet you had to find magazines or go to the library to research people!)  I had read about Tim Burton working as a Disney animation artist early in his career. This made me appreciate the director even more! 

In the Cinefantastique magazine above, I had read how this wasn't Burton's first stop-motion project and that he had created a stop-motion short called Vincent. Burton had also directed another live-action short called Frankenweenie at the studio, which ultimately got him fired from Disney because of it's PG rating and dark nature. Well I wanted to see these films desperately! I wouldn't be able to see Vincent until the DVD release of The Nightmare Before Christmas in 2000. Frankenweenie on the other hand, I was able to rent on VHS from our local library. I loved the short. It was dark, sweet, and funny. Yet it didn't feel like there was enough time to develop the characters in that story. 

At this point in his career, Tim Burton made films that were personal to him (especially Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood). I think that's one of the many reasons why I enjoyed them.

After Ed Wood though, it felt like the movies became less and less personal. There were glimmers of something he felt strongly about with Big Fish, Sweeney Todd and The Corpse Bride, but with films like Planet of the Apes and Alice in Wonderland, it seemed that Burton was more making films simply to make money. Which is fine, because that's what the studios want, but I think the fans of Burton, want to see a movie that shows the inner thoughts of Burton. 

Frankenweenie, the feature film, finally feels like he's returning to do just that. At first the film seems like it's almost a stop-motion shot for shot remake of the short, but with a much bigger budget. Burton used his original short as a jumping off point to not only develop the characters a bit more, which he wasn't able to do in the original short, but to also take the story into a different direction, which is a pleasant surprise for those of us who had already seen the short. Credit definitely has to go to John August, Burton's screenwriter on Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Corpse Bride, for writing interesting characters, especially Mr. Rzykruski (pronounced Rice-Kriski) who is Victor (the main character's) mentor. He has some really great lines. 

The film is completely black and white, which I don't feel has ever been done for an animated feature film. It's a vision Burton had for the original short, and Disney trusted him to keep the feature film that way. The movie looks great and you never once question, "Am I going to see any color?" 

The animation is of course top notch and the characters are designed with that Burton look that many people know and love. Credit has to also go to Rick Heinrichs, Burton's close friend who has been production designer on many of Burton's films, going all the way back to the original Frankenweenie short that he also co-produced! 

I saw the film in 3D as well and it looked great! I've seen a handful of 3D movies in the theaters over the years and most of them have let me down, because I don't see the dimension at all that they promise. For the first time since How to Train Your Dragon, I could see the 3D dimensions and it felt like I was in the room as they were filming the stop-motion puppets. 

I really had a great time watching this movie, especially the things that happen near the end, but I don't want to give that away, because I encourage you to see it. 

I did find some story problems with the movie. A major one being that Victor's dad feels that his son is too different and he encourages Victor to play sports like the other kids. So Victor plays baseball, which ultimately gets our story in motion (a bit of a spoiler, so I won't ruin it), but ultimately I feel Victor would now hate his father for pushing him into doing something he really didn't want to in the first place and now something terrible has happened. There is never that moment of animosity between Victor and his father, which is a shame, because it's definitely something that could've been explored. Other story problems were minor and it happens later in the film, again I don't want to spoil anything, but they can be overlooked. 

Frankenweenie is a pleasant return for Burton to create movies that are personal to him again. Hopefully he'll continue to do so. 

Plastic Man movie circa 1989

When I was younger, I collected a lot of comic books. My favorites were Transformers, Fanatastic Four and Plastic Man. The reasons why I loved Fantastic Four and Plastic Man was that they had characters who could stretch and/or change into things. I also loved Elongated Man, but he only had a one-off issue starring him, but the rest of the time you'd have to find him in Flash comics or Justice League America and Europe.

Plastic Man was by far my favorite. He is/was cocky, yet funny and he rarely fought supernatural beings, he would often fight real criminals like the early Batmans. I loved the Saturday Morning cartoon series even, yet his character was drastically different than the comics (where was Woozy Winks???).

I always loved movies, but combine that with my love for comic books, I had to pick up issues of Starlog and/or Comics Scene magazines when I saw them at the local book store or Comic book store. They would have article upon articles about movies and tv shows being made based off of comics. Keep in mind this was during the Batman craze, so every studio talked about releasing the next movie based off of a comic book, but it was rare to see it (Punisher was terrible and flopped and Roger Corman's Fantastic Four was a joke).

I was recently rifling through my Comics Scenes and I saw articles about wanting to make an Iron Man movie, 18 years before it was actually made and another article about director Joe Dante being discussed to direct a Plastic Man movie! I remember as a kid thinking that this movie would be AMAZING!!! I love Joe Dante movies, Gremlins and Gremlins 2 are so great for many different reasons. Innerspace is funny and charming (my brothers and I still quote that movie "Ever see the Outlaw Yosee Vale? Vhat a flick!") Explorers made me want to go to outer space with my friends. And even the Burbs was weird but fun. So combine Joe Dante and my favorite comic book character, that would've been a young Cinemascapist's dream come true. Alas it never happened, but you can read the article here:

Is Kevin Smith our generation's Orson Welles?

Being a fan of film, I always found it fun to connect stars of Hollywood's past with today's stars. For example, I have felt that George Clooney is the modern day Cary Grant, and in turn I guess that'd make Steven Soderbergh today's Alfred Hitchcock, because like Grant and Hitch, the two of them collaborated on multiple films. There's also today's Jimmy Stewart, Tom Hanks, and in turn that would make Ron Howard today's Alfred Hitchcock, because he and Hanks worked together multiple times like Stewart and Hitch... well that doesn't quite work, but I think you get my meaning.
The other day my wife and I were watching the SyFy reality show, Face-Off (which if you haven't seen and enjoy knowing how movie monster magic is made, it's a really great show). On Face-Off, writer-director-smodcaster Kevin Smith was brought in as a celebrity judge, because of his knowledge of superheroes. At that moment I thought, "Is Kevin Smith our generation's Orson Welles?"

To show you how I got to this conclusion, I guess I have to give both of them a bit of history. Orson Welles was a stage actor turned radio personality that directed what is arguably the go-to film representing masterpiece cinema, Citizen Kane. Released in 1941, Citizen Kane is a black and white film that was co-written by Welles and Herman Mankiewicz. Welles directed the film and starred in it with other actors from his Mercury Theater players. The movie today is seen as a masterpiece in storytelling and cinematography. At the time though, it was a box office flop and it took years before it became the beloved and often spoofed film it is today. After Kane, Welles directed the Magnificent Ambersons. Upon completion, RKO Pictures, the studio that released Kane and Ambersons, felt Magnificent Ambersons was too long and they weren't happy with the downer of an ending. Welles was out of the country when he was notified that the studio would like to make changes. He didn't want to both with it, so the studio made the changes themselves without Welles' approval. To this day, the general public has yet to see Welles' original cut of the film and they probably never will. Welles continued to make films, but sometimes they were never finished or no one cared to see them. He had acted in the film The Third Man, with his Mercury Theater co-star, Joseph Cotten. The film had critical success, but nothing for Orson Welles, who was found as being difficult on the set. In 1958, Welles directed himself as a supporting actor to Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh in Touch of Evil. Welles gained weight, supposedly for the role, playing a corrupt Police detective. Again, the film was recut after Welles finished it without his approval. He wrote a memo to the executives saying how he would have cut the film and decades later, Universal studio unearthed the film and recut it to Welles' specifications in the memo. Welles continued directing, but nothing ever got the acclaim as Citizen Kane. Instead, Welles acted more, did voice acting for movie trailers and commercials and became a television personality and talk shows like the Tonight Show and the Dean Martin Comedy Hour. His second to last feature film credit was as the voice of Unicron in the classic animated film Transformers the Movie. 

Ok, ok, so after that history you're probably saying to yourself "yeah, so how is he like Kevin Smith?" Kevin Smith directed a small independent comedy, Clerks, in 1994. It may not be considered a masterpiece like Welles' Citizen Kane, but it did change the way of independent movie making. Suddenly film students wanted to make movies about people dealing with their everyday life, talking about pop culture. From the mid-90's to early 2000's there's a slew of these films. One reason is because there were so many people that wanted to make them and the other reason is because they were so inexpensive, the movie studios were willing to pay for them. If the returns weren't at the box office, the studios would get their money back in video rentals/sales. Clerks also was the beginning of the View Askewniverse. Like Welles, Smith would use a cast of actors over and over again, but he would also write characters, like Jay and Silent Bob, to make appearances in many of the films. After Clerks, Kevin Smith was asked to direct a film at Universal Studios. Mallrats was made and released in 1995 and Smith was given a budget of $6,000,000, 25 times the budget he had for Clerks. Mallrats was released with not much acclaim and poor critical reception. The film only made $2,000,000 at the box office, a million less than what Clerks had made. Smith decided to go back to making smaller films at Miramax, the studio that released Clerks. While Mallrats was finally finding an audience on video and becoming a cult favorite, Smith directed the film Chasing Amy with a budget of $250,000, roughly the same amount he made Clerks for. Chasing Amy was a huge financial and critical success. With Miramax's money and blessing, Smith continued making films that meant something to him. Dogma and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back both were financial successes... and then came Bennifer... er, I mean Jersey Girl. Smith hired his favorite star, Ben Affleck, the play the role of a widower dealing with being a single dad. He also hired Jennifer Lopez, whom Affleck was dating, to play the role of Affleck's dead wife. This film came right after the Affleck/Lopez disaster Gigli and also the press talking about the couple non-stop. The film ended up being a dud (even though in my honest opinion, I find it entertaining and probably Smith's most mature film to date). Smith took this flop to heart, and never really made another personal film again. Clerks 2 came next, which was modestly successful, and then Zack and Miri Make a Porno, again modestly successful. In between all of these directing ventures, Smith was acting more and not just as Silent Bob. He started doing voice overs and even acting in the fourth installment of Die Hard. Ultimately he was playing a version of himself, but it was a very entertaining part. Smith next directed Willis in Cop Out (originally having the much better title A Couple of Dicks before the MPAA said nay nay). This was the first film that Smith directed, but did not write and I think Smith expected this to be finally his big break into a major studio production. The movie was a modest critical and financial success, and I don't think that was good enough for Mr. Smith. His next film was a much smaller thriller, Red State, which never made it's modest budget back. At this point, Smith said he was retiring from directing and focus on his podcast empire that he created with his longtime producing partner, Scott Mosier. The podcasts have become quite a success and have even started producing original content for Hulu. What's interesting about the podcasts, is that Kevin Smith is almost working in reverse from Orson Welles. Welles started as a theater and radio actor before moving onto film. While Kevin Smith started in film and is now working in podcasts, which in essence is a version of radio. Kevin Smith is also becoming more of a personality on the web and on TV. Judging on a reality show and even having a recurring bit on the Tonight Show. Now I'm just hoping that Kevin Smith makes a War of the World type podcast that puts the nation into a tizzy and one day to see Smith starring on Broadway as MacBeth... someday.... someday....

(This post was really long winded, I feel like I will have a bit more focus next time.)