Summer Blockbuster Season Starts With The Hilarious Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2

The Good: Very funny, Good effects, Engaging character moments, Good performances
The Bad: Less distinct music, Imbalance in serving the characters
The Basics: Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 does a decent job of tying up some big loose ends in the far corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with style and humor!


There are few elements of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that have aged as well as Guardians Of The Galaxy (reviewed here!). Comedies, especially, tend to have a shorter half-life than dramatic films, but Guardians Of The Galaxy has held up much better than a number of the Marvel Cinematic Universe origin stories and sequels. Arguably, the reason Guardians Of The Galaxy has endured so well over the years (and many, many viewings) is because it found the right balance of humor and action and paired both with an incredible and memorable soundtrack. So, of course, enthusiasm for Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 would be very high, perhaps to an unrealistic extent.

But Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 actually does an excellent job of creating an exceptional sequel and successor to the original film. Instead of having to work to assemble a new super hero (or anti-hero) team and build an entire franchise within the Marvel Cinematic Universe from scratch, Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 is allowed to play within the established corner that was created in the first film. And the pretty amazing aspect of Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 is that the entire film is built on an allusion in the first film and a throwaway joke at the end of the film's teaser/first act.

Peter Quill, Gamora, Drax, and Rocket have been contracted by the leader of the genetically-perfect race living on the planet cluster Sovereign to thwart an impending attack from an interdimensional creature. The quartet works to take down the giant alien when it appears, while keeping Baby Groot safe from the conflict. Victorious against the creature, the Guardians go to Ayesha's throne room to receive their payment; Nebula, who was caught by the Sovereign security forces trying to steal the planet's rare and valuable batteries. Ayesha recognizes something in Quill, but in the process insults him and the team. Either because of the insult or simply on a whim of his own, Rocket steals the batteries from Sovereign while Gamora stows the new prisoner.

As the Guardians head to deliver Nebula to collect the bounty on her head, Yondu finds himself excommunicated by the Ravagers for breaking the Ravager code of dealing in children. Ayesha does not take long to realize that the Guardians have taken the batteries and she sets the Sovereign drone fleet against Quill's ship. The Guardians are facing certain death until they are rescued by a previously-unknown alien who destroys the Sovereign fleet right before the ship crash lands. With the ship out of commission on a distant world, the crew is met by Ego and Mantis. Ego tells Peter he is his father and invites him back to his world. Peter, Gamora, and Drax accompany Ego and Mantis back to Ego's idyllic world, leaving behind the angry Rocket and Nebula to fix the ship. Left vulnerable, Rocket falls prey to Yondu and his Ravagers who have been hired by Ayesha to recover the batteries and the Guardians. But Rocket and Yondu soon find themselves at the mercy of the Ravagers and Nebula with only Baby Groot to save them. And on Ego's World, Peter Quill learns his father's origins, his own powers and the destiny his father has for him. While Quill embraces his father's vision, Gamora and Drax learn from Mantis that Ego is not all he appears and they discover a threat to all life in the galaxy!

First off, one of the big aspects that separates the first Guardians Of The Galaxy from Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 is the music. The first film had incredibly distinct music that resonated and became inextricably tied with the scenes it was in. For all of the apparent popularity of "Awesome Mixtape Volume #2," the film's music is hardly as iconic or memorable as the works from the first movie. In fact, after watching the film, I could only recall two of the songs used in the movie and - unlike the first movie - my mind resonated with the thought that director James Gunn absolutely missed the mark on one of the musical cues. There is a big, key scene in Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 that features a bit of violence and one of the film's utterly unmemorable songs that would have been made absolutely hilarious and entirely memorable if James Gunn had used "It's Raining Men" in the scene. Seriously, there's arguably no bigger musical misstep in the film than that missed opportunity - and when viewing Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2, with that bug in your ear, it is virtually impossible not to watch the scene and imagine it with "It's Raining Men," laugh at how funny that would have been and then grimace at how the film's big moment there loses something by the musical piece that was worked in.

The only other major flaw in Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 - outside, perhaps, wasting any time in the film to seed a potential future incarnation of the Guardians Of The Galaxy - is that the story has so many characters to service that in giving each one adequate screentime and story points, the film has an unfortunately erratic flow. Gamora draws the short straw for the major characters, largely because Zoe Saldana's best character moments are reflections of Karen Gillan's Nebula's character growth. Gamora acts as a sidekick to Star-Lord before reacting to Nebula's surprisingly deep realization that her hatred for Gamora is very reasonable. Gamora's bits are peppered throughout Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 without her actually getting a very strong narrative of her own (though she does have some big action moments and, ultimately, some decent character moments).

Similarly, Drax begins Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 with an impressive number of the film's funniest lines before the movie gets packed with a slew of other character and plot threads. Drax has almost no presence in the film's middle and he comes back late in the film with retreads of some of his earlier jokes. Rocket is presented as taking the brunt of everyone's ire and lashing out obnoxiously, but his practical joke motivates almost all of the film's action. Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 devotes a significant amount of time to developing Yondu and utilizing Rocket as a foil for a whole "buddy comedy" subplot within the film. To be fair, Michael Rooker (Yondu) plays off the virtual Rocket amazingly well and Bradley Cooper's deliveries for Rocket have an impressive emotional range from snarky to hurt to goading in the funniest way imaginable.

Chris Pratt does well as Peter Quill, starting authoritative and moving fast into reasonably shaken by Ayesha's remarks about his heritage. Pratt has been thrust into the role of action hero and he rises to the occasion with good physical performances and - in some key moments as Peter learns about his father - acting through his facial expressions alone. Beyond that, Pratt plays to his comedic strengths is familiar deliveries of deadpan and sarcastic lines that made Quill memorable from the first film.

Newcomer to the Guardians team, Mantis, is an intriguing addition who is ultimately integral to Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2. Whether the character has enduring value beyond the specific story told in Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 remains to be seen, but she is utilized well in this film. And, despite being given lines that are variants of her one trick pony, Pom Klementieff delivers them with credible, wide-eyed innocence that plays as very funny. Klementieff and Dave Bautista have great on-screen chemistry as a rare successful comedic pairing of dual straightmen.

While Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 has a somewhat erratic plot execution as the various threads work to come together in a fairly predictable "stop the super-villain" way, the result is surprisingly satisfying. Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 finds the right balance between action-adventure violence and humor. Seeing the film in the theater, both my wife and I were shocked by the number of children being brought to Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2; it is not a soft PG-13. Between hilarious lines - "I have famously large turds!" - complex character motivations (are children truly likely to understand the motivation of the Celestial?!), a disproportionately large spider, and a fair amount of action violence, Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 is not intended for kids.

But Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 is funny, has clever moments and the characters are motivated by surprisingly deep psychological factors. And for a film opening Summer Blockbuster Season - which is historically known for being vacuous and spectacle-based - it is hard to ask for more than what Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 delivers.

For other science fiction comedies, please check out my reviews of:
Ant-Man
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Men In Black

8.5/10

For other elements of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, please check out my Marvel Cinematic Universe Review Index Page for a complete relative listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Every Able-Bodied Conservative Working In Hollywood Shows Up To Kick Ass In The Expendables 3

The Good: Decent special effects/stunts
The Bad: Light on genuine character development, Obvious plot, Dull performances
The Basics: The Expendables 3 is exactly what one expects from a lowbrow action adventure movie released during Summer Blockbuster Season.


There are few cinematic franchises I have less interest in than The Expendables. Outside The Fast And The Furious, the “Dragon Tattoo” films, and the forthcoming films based on Fifty Shades Of Grey, The Expendables might be the film franchise that is the most obvious, lowbrow and unimpressive still being produced. While I did see The Expendables (reviewed here!), I had no interest in the sequel. So why did I bother with The Expendables 3?

Kelsey Grammer and Harrison Ford. A few years back, Ford declared that he was only going to appear in one film per year, which should have made him very choosy. I suppose some part of me still lives with that mentality (he has long-since gone back to being a more active actor appearing in multiple films per year), that if Harrison Ford is going to risk his reputation, there has to be some redeeming aspect to the film. As for Kelsey Grammer, after years of being trapped in the role of Frasier Crane (albeit a role of a lifetime!), it is understandable that he is appearing in multiple blockbusters this Summer Blockbuster Season just to make bank for a change. When both Grammer and Ford were announced as being in The Expendables 3, it raised the profile of the film so that it had the appearance of respectability. How and why The Expendables 3 was made (other than raw profit motive based on the success of its predecessors) is something of a mystery. Outside giving the film two characters with enough articulation and erudition to make some lines actually comprehensible, how the franchise got Ford and Grammer is still a mystery to me. That said, more than being truly awful, The Expendables 3 is just what viewers would expect of the lowbrow action-adventure franchise.

Opening with a pulse-pounding soundtrack on an armored prison train, The Expendables 3 finds Doc (Doctor Death) being returned to Denzali Prison. Through the clever use of a military helicopter and steel cable, Barney Ross (Zero), Lee Christmas, Jenson and Toll Road are able to rescue him, though is thirst for vengeance leads him to blow up the prison. Rather than taking him right home, Zero arms Doc and the team heads to Somalia where they drop off bombs with Hale Caesar and Victor Minz. Minz turns out to be an enemy Ross once encountered named Stonebanks, which the team discovers when Stonebanks arrives and fouls the deal, mortally wounding Caesar in the process.

The presence of Stonebanks inspires Trench to lend a hand and puts Ross in front of Operations Officer Drummer. Drummer is determined to find Stonebanks one more time, but he does not trust Ross to finish the job. Ross employs Bonaparte to assemble a new team to take out Stonebanks (and fast). Bonaparte shops the soldiers and psychos Thorn, Smilee, Luna, and Mars to Ross to form the new team. Drummer tasks Ross with bringing Stonebanks in alive, with only a thirty-six hour window to find and apprehend Stonebanks before he goes off the grid again. Revealing to Mars that Stonebanks was once an Expendable, the team arrives in Bucharest where they convince Ross to break into the museum where the latest sale is going down. Apprehending Stonebanks, Ross’s new team is en route to delivering him to the Hague when Stonebanks is rescued by his own mercenaries. The rescue operation leaves Ross’s new team captured by Stonebanks and forces Ross to reunite the old team and rescue them and thwart his old friend.

What is not a mystery is how and why the cast of The Expendables 3 added Mel Gibson and Wesley Snipes to the franchise’s roster. In addition of continuing the trend of casting men who are able to growl all of their lines, the film seems determined to cast every possible aging action star or outsider in Hollywood. With Robert Davi cast as one of the film’s behind-the-scenes villains, one has to wonder if the casting session was simply a meeting of the Hollywood chapter of the RNC! Gibson seems willing to take whatever work he is offered and the role of the film’s primary villain allows him to play dark and angry in a way that at the very least taps into the public’s perception of him easily-enough. As for Snipes, his role of Doc is sufficient to remind viewers that he was once a-list on the action movie circuit and restore him to prominence there. As well, Snipes gets to deliver a cute tax evasion joke early in the film that sets the tone of the tongue-in-cheek nature of the humor for The Expendables 3.

Unfortunately, The Expendables 3 is painfully obvious. Viewers who keep checking the clock (as they are want to do during the mediocre establishing events) will easily realize that there is no possible way that Ross’s team will succeed with his apprehension of Stonebanks. The only question becomes whether or not Ross will be captured with them. In fact, the only genuine surprise in The Expendables 3 is that Stonebanks does not shoot the tech whose bomb fails to go off immediately (director Patrick Hughes telegraphs the potential that that will occur, but does not see it through, which was momentarily interesting). Sadly, everything in The Expendables 3 is only momentarily interesting.

Most of The Expendables 3 aims to appeal to the most simplistic of sensibilities. Even if one has not seen any of the prior films in the franchise, they can come into The Expendables 3 and pick up all they need to know. The Expendables is a largely male cast being ridiculous and saying remarkably little (save Antonio Banderas’s late return to the film), it is hard to imagine that the script had more than twenty pages of actual dialogue to it. We get it, these are manly men. The guy doesn’t need to use a scimitar to shave his face before we understand he’s hard core (as Doc does to go from being the disheveled to recognizable Snipes).

While The Expendables 3 has a massive cast, full of recognizable actors, none of the performers are known for being particularly great actors (save Harrison Ford and Kelsey Grammer). As it is, even the two most-recognized actors do not deliver much to be proud of. Ford smirks his way into the movie, as if he knows that he is augmenting a cast of people whose prior credits were made up of fight movies and actual fights (Ronda Rousey and Randy Couture were very well known for fighting and wrestling entertainment before these films). Grammer’s lines are almost all clichés, so his grizzled character is not one of Grammer’s more memorable ones.

All of that said, outside being painfully boring for its predictability, The Expendables 3 is not bad, just thoroughly underwhelming. The character relationships are obvious, the fight sequences are predictable and the acting is entirely familiar for most of the performers involved. Outside teenagers who suddenly realize they no longer have to sneak into an Expendables movie and people searching for two hours of air conditioned theater, it is hard to imagine what the appeal is for making The Expendables 3 a part of this summer’s blockbuster push.

For other films currently in theaters, please check out my reviews of:
Horns
The Best Of Me
The Zero Theorem
The Equalizer
The Maze Runner
This Is Where I Leave You
The Giver
Guardians Of The Galaxy
Life Of Crime
Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes
Behaving Badly
Transformers: Age Of Extinction
Happy Christmas
Snowpiercer

3/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Bound To Be Buried, Grudge Match Is Amusing, But Hardly Essential.

The Good: Funny, Decent acting
The Bad: Predictable plot
The Basics: Grudge Match is a parody of boxing films that focuses a compelling amount on the nature of aging and redemption enough to be smarter than the average parody film.


I’m not sure what it is about the holiday season that makes major studios believe they have the right time to release a boxing movie. In the case of The Fighter, it was ostensibly a release time designed to get the movie award nominations. In the case of Grudge Match, I suspect Warner Brothers is releasing the film to give comedy viewers something other than Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues to go out to theaters for on Christmas day. It’s certainly not for the vicarious thrill of watching other people punch one another while one is frustrated with their family over the holidays; Grudge Match is not a serious boxing film, it is a comedy that pokes fun at the sports movie genre and it utilizes two of the genre’s most recognizable actors to do so.

Somehow I’ve managed never to catch Raging Bull, which was one of the earliest films in which Robert De Niro distinguished himself as a great actor. Sylvester Stallone, of course, made his name in the iconic role he wrote and played in Rocky (reviewed here!). So, in Grudge Match, Stallone is recognizably poking fun at his last few outings as Rocky Balboa and Robert De Niro . . . De Niro has been performing in comedies quite a lot lately, so it’s somewhat unsurprising how he plays the role of Billy McDonnen.

Back in their prime, boxers Razor and The Kid fought two matches. In one, Henry Sharp (“Razor”) won and in the other, Billy (“The Kid”) won. Sharp retired before the pair could establish definitively who was the superior boxer. Thirty years later, Henry is approached by Dante Slate Jr. to provide footage for a new video game. While providing a movement template, Sharp is interrupted by McDonnen and the two throw around angry remarks until a fistfight breaks out. When the video of the fight goes viral online, Slate is inspired to approach the pair with a proposition: the two will fight a grudge match to determine who is the true champion.

Both Sharp and McDonnen are grossly out of shape, so to meet their obligation to the fans they begin training. Sharp turns to the even older former boxer, Louis Conlon, while McDonnen’s trainer has become morbidly obese. McDonnen’s attempt to get in shape gets a boost when he learns he has an illegitimate son, B.J., who he encourages to train with him. Trying to put his life in order, Sharp uses the training to try to work through his feelings for Sally when she pops back up in his life. Sharp still carries anger over an affair Sally had back in the day with McDonnen and he is hesitant to let her be around him as he figures out his life. Motivated more by money, Sharp becomes desperate to win the match while McDonnen is eager to impress his new son and achieve a sense of notoriety that his ego craves.

Grudge Match succeeds, when it does, because it is funny and it has a thematic resonance that is bigger than the comedy. The film, while rich in laughs with almost all of the supporting characters, is smart enough to give the main characters enough dramatic meat to play with. Stallone’s Sharp is moody and bears the weight of consequence for his past decisions and linger anger; De Niro’s McDonnen has an arrogance to him that is shaken by how much his body has changed (which he discovers when he starts seriously training) and by the appearance of his new son. More than being a simple sports movie or a comedy (which never plays for the ridiculous), Grudge Match is the story of two men who have unresolved issues outside the boxing ring that, in the process of coming back into the spotlight, they find themselves plagued by.

That might make the script from Tim Kelleher and Rodney Rothman smarter than the average sports movie, but Grudge Match is still painfully predictable. Dante’s cajoling the aged athletes into the fight itself is set-up in an obvious way and the nature of the romantic mess between Sharp, Sally, and McDonnen seems somewhat contrived.

That said, the acting in Grudge Match is actually impressive. While Stallone growls his way through most of his lines in a way that is instantly familiar to anyone who has seen him in the Rocky movies or . . . well, pretty much anything else he has been in. But Stallone’s mumbling plays well to the character of Razor Sharp and while there are several gags in Grudge Match that mock the iconic moments of Rocky, Stallone never seems out of place or like his off-camera persona. Instead, Sharp is distinctive and presented with a realistic sense of internal conflict that Stallone is able to handle.

Robert De Niro is predictably great as The Kid, though he plays the role with his usual straightfaced sense of comic deliveries that his fans have become accustomed to in recent years. Similarly, Alan Arkin’s delivery of non-sequitors and off-putting lines and Kevin Hart’s exuberant acting plays more to each of the men’s strengths as opposed to revealing anything truly new to the audience. Jon Berenthal gives more emotional range as B.J. than he was allowed to on The Walking Dead (his big season was season two, which is reviewed here!). Berenthal holds his own opposite De Niro and he plays his character’s sense of abandonment well.

Grudge Match might not be going for an Oscar, but it reminds viewers how a satire of an entire genre can work well by aiming for smart. The caliber of the cast and the thematic resonance plays well as entertainment that is not going for giant spectacle this season, though it seems pretty forgettable when it is done. Grudge Match will not be the next Anchorman.

For other works with Kim Basinger, please check out my reviews of:
The Sentinel
L.A. Confidential
Batman

5/10

See how this movie stacks up against every other film I have reviewed by visiting my Movie Review Index Page where films are organized from best to worst!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Is The Expendables The Ultimate “Guy Movie?” Depends On Who The “Guys” Are . . .

The Good: It’s always nice to see Charisma Carpenter getting work . . ., Well-assembled violence
The Bad: Pointless, Light on character, Lots of mumbled lines, Overbearing rock soundtrack (when it is present).
The Basics: Opening myself up to a testosterone-filled action flick, I still find myself pretty unimpressed with The Expendables.


I try to keep my horizons open. I’m not so keen on only watching and reviewing movies that are well within my comfort zone. So, figuring I might get the opportunity to check out an advanced screening of The Expendables 2, I figured I should check out The Expendables. I had actually seen no previews for The Expendables, but its beefy, mostly male cast was not one that especially appealed to me.

The biggest, most pleasant surprise for me, came in the first few minutes of the film. During the opening credits, the name Charisma Carpenter came up and that made me happy. Carpenter was one of the bright spots of the television series Angel (reviewed here!) and as far as I am concerned it’s always nice to see her getting work. Given she was only in about four minutes of The Expendables, it was not enough to save the film.

Following a mission to rescue hostages from a group of Somali pirates, Lee Christmas returns to his woman to discover she is with another guy. Barney Ross, the leader of the suicide squad known as the Expendables, gets a series of jobs and he opts for the most difficult one, which is mission to the Gulf island of Vilena. Assigned (and threatened) by “Mr. Church,” Ross and Christmas scout the island to see if it is worth committing his team to the mission. There they witness the local gangster with his own private army roughing up the locals.

After a narrow escape, Ross decides to take the mission, which seems to be to stop the American coke grower, James Munroe and his private army. But Ross and his team are going up against one of their own; Gunnar, who wigged out during the Somalia mission gives Munroe intel on the members of Ross’s team. The plot is a thin excuse to blow things up, shoot people apart and whack a lot of people in hand to hand combat.

The Expendables is not exactly full of great dialogue. Much of the most intelligible dialogue are good ole’ boy verbal jabs between members of the team. Most of the dialogue is growled out or mumbled through. Some of the most clear lines have little or nothing to do with the rest of the film, like Yin Yang complaining he needs more money for a family no one in the group knew he had or another member complaining about his ears.

There is very little character in The Expendables, but it’s not That Type Of Film. While Ross spends the first portion of the film counseling Christmas on how to move past Lacy and the leader of the the villains – Munroe – gets schooled by his puppet general in the importance of allowing him to keep his dignity (at least in front of the men), much of the philosophy is rapidly sublimated to long action sequences with gun battles, growling and hand-to-hand combat.

The character front is actually filled out better on the villain front. Munroe is smart and vicious and he’s basically thrilled to be a warlord of his own little island. He seems to understand how to command using brutality and that makes sense given that he is supposed to be former CIA. Roberts, as always, is articulate and efficient, his character seems reasonably in control for most of the film.

On the plus side, for a film so full of testosterone, it is surprisingly not misogynistic. Christmas beats the hell out of Lacy’s boyfriend when he gives her a shiner. And despite gawking at their contact on the island, Ross and Christmas don’t just dive for her for cheap and obvious sex. While the torture of General Garza’s daughter Sandra might seem misogynistic, there is ample evidence that the meatheads abusing her have absolutely no regard for life, male or female, and their willingness to torment her has nothing to do with the fact that she is a woman.

Ultimately, The Expendables is what one might expect, a Mission: Impossible where subtlety and technology is replaced with brute force and big honkin’ weaponry. The movie might appeal to big, manly men who might wish to have the unfettered ability to kick some ass, but for those looking for a sensible, well-assembled film, The Expendables will only leave them wanting.

For other works with Eric Roberts, check out my reviews of:
Heroes
The Dark Knight

2.5/10

For other film reviews, be sure to visit my Movie Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Write Your Own Part, Remember Your Lines: Why Rocky Works!

The Good: Decent-enough acting, Generally good character work
The Bad: Very basic plot
The Basics: Surprisingly heartwarming and actually containing a level of character depth that is likely to surprise some, Rocky is a decent character study.


With all of the movies I watch, it amuses me to think that before tonight, I may not have seen a film starring Sylvester Stallone. In fact, the only sports movie that easily comes to mind that I've seen is Million Dollar Baby (reviewed here!) which I watched for the same reason I watched Rocky. In my zeal to watch every film that has won the Best Picture Oscar, I had to watch Rocky. And while I expected it to be droll and obvious, what surprised me was how well the film does actually come together. Winning the Best Picture the year I was born, Rocky may have elements that are more mediocre than they are truly unique, but the film works well overall.

I'll start, then, by detailing the two biggest surprises I got out of Rocky. The first is that when the opening credits finally rolled, a full chapter in on DVD, the writer of the film was credited to Sylvester Stallone. No, he wasn't the co-writer or credited with the idea, Stallone wrote the film.

The other surprise is that Stallone acts remarkably well in Rocky. For sure, this ought to be obvious given that Stallone wrote the part for himself and he is playing a character who is dim and generally unremarkable, but Stallone sells it. Mumbling through the title role, Sylvester Stallone gives a great performance of a mediocre personality. And for fans of animated comedies like The Simpsons and Family Guy, what I truly enjoyed about Rocky was getting more allusions than I got on the first pass of some of the episodes. But having seen Stallone truly act, now it makes me wonder if I would actually find him decent at all in anything else.

Opening on November 25, 1975, Rocky Balboa boxes at the local athletic club for less than fifty dollars (take home) and nurses his head long into the night. By day, he works as muscle for a loan shark and he tends to his pet turtle. Criticized for not being brutal enough, he tries to flirt with the clerk at his pet store and he wanders the streets of Philadelphia. When prize fighter Apollo Creed comes to the city, he finds himself in the awkward position of not being able to fight the man he came to town to fight (whatwith his opponent having a cracked skull). Apollo comes up with a great marketing idea; give a local boy (preferably white) a chance to fight him for the longshot. Creed picks Rocky as his desired competitor and he woos the never-been to fight in five weeks.

As the world heavyweight champion, Apollo Creed, moves toward the event with little care (though he is educated and quite theatrical). Rocky, on the other hand, takes the impending match seriously and trains hard for the fight. Getting his shot with Adrian, Rocky trains and prepares for the fight that will give him an unlikely shot out of obscurity.

Just as Jaws was not just a shark movie, but rather had a whole capitalist argument, Rocky is deeper than it initially seems. Rocky is a character study in many ways with Rocky trying to bond with Adrian and escape the influences that have their hooks in him. His friend, for example - Adrian's brother, Paul - continues to use Rocky to try to get in with the mob for enforcing work. As the fight looms, though, he begins to find his sense of self-worth and he makes a decent attempt to rise to the occasion. Rocky is very much focused on the character and his journey.

More than just a movie featuring long training scenes with Rocky running, the film is about a man realizing who he is and taking the road he did not take in his past. His trainer convinces him that he could have been more than what he has been for the six preceding years working as an enforcer. From that point on, Rocky prepares with a mindset that this is the lone shot he has in life to change his circumstances. The moralizing Rocky does to take him from his reluctant self to his determined new self is a surprisingly compelling scene and it works.

There is very little actual boxing in the movie, for those who are not a fan of boxing. Instead, Stallone hits more meat than he does opponent. Only the last twenty-five minutes of the film - which is under two hours long - involves actual boxing. The fight is almost incidental to Rocky and the only real complaint about it (though it has some realistic gore for those sensitive to such things) is that it has predictable elements to it. Early in the film, Rocky proudly tells Adrian he has never had a broken nose before so, of course, to illustrate the shocking difference between fighting Apollo and fighting anyone else he has taken on, Apollo breaks Rocky's nose almost instantly.

Arguably, Rocky is really a love story between a mousy woman and a shy man. The sports element of it barely factors in outside the opening scene and the final act. Indeed, squeezed in between awkward scenes of Rocky getting to know Adrian and Rocky slowly divesting himself of corrupt influences, like Paul, there is only a brief notice by Apollo's manager that Rocky seems to be an actual contender.

After an hour of watching the underdog mope around the screen trying to do good, and getting spat on (metaphorically) in the process, Rocky becomes strangely likable and outside the hype and success of the film, there is the sense that anything can happen when the bout begins. It is not the type of story where it is an obvious "underdog rises to the top" story. And like more recent films, like Swing Vote, Rocky is much more about the process than the results.

On screen, Sylvester Stallone is surrounded by some real talents. Carl Weathers, whom I was only familiar with from his role in the first season of Arrested Development (reviewed here!), appears as Apollo Creed. He is charismatic and seems to fill the same niche as Billy Dee Williams and he makes Apollo both likable and reasonably cocky. One of the best performances, though, comes from Talia Shire. Shire makes Adrian instantly difficult to watch with her tight body language and quiet delivery of her lines. As the film goes on and Rocky falls for her character, Adrian becomes more open. Shire does a great job of making the transition subtle and realistic and the movie becomes a pleasure to watch because of her.

On DVD, Rocky has a ton of bonus features. There is a picture in picture commentary track by Stallone as well as a more traditional audio commentary track. The original movie trailer for Rocky is also on the disc alongside three new featuettes, more on the famous supporting actors in Rocky than on the film itself. Still, there is a wealth of background information on the movie for those who enjoy Rocky. This makes decent use of the DVD medium and it was clearly remastered for the DVD release.

All in all, Rocky becomes a good way to kill a few hours and there is an obvious potential for franchise here (which we know happened). The film works and it deserves its place as a pop culture reference, if nothing else.

[As a winner of the Best Picture Oscar, this film is part of W.L.'s Best Picture Project, online here! Please check it out!]

For other sports movies, please visit my reviews of:
Whip It
Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire
Chariots Of Fire

7/10

For other film reviews, please visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Men In Black Wins Serious Credit For Originality And Plays Well Even Now!

The Good: Funny, Decent special effects, Character arcs, Story is fun and well-developed, DVD bonus features.
The Bad: Somewhat predictable.
The Basics: Funny and smartly using a diverse cast, Men In Black helps to cement the science fiction comedy in the collective unconscious!


For me, it is always fun to return to origins. So, for example, the very first big assignment I ever had reviewing was for my college newspaper when I pulled the assignment for the summer movie preview issue. I spent the day watching three movies back to back - Con Air, Men In Black, and Batman And Robin - and then reviewed them for the summer issue of the paper. It was exciting for me, but the day dragged and it has taken me until now to rewatch any of those movies. Recently, I took in Men In Black with my wife, as she has it in her permanent collection. I think, perhaps, I was a little too harsh on it when I reviewed it the first time back in college.

Men In Black is a rare science fiction comedy. And while there are plenty of science fiction movies that are funny, oftentimes they are not deliberately funny, they are laughed at more than laughed with. In fact, outside Men In Black, arguably the most successful science fiction comedies are Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (reviewed here!) and Galaxy Quest. Men In Black, however, did not seek to appeal to the niche audience, instead trying to hit the summer blockbuster audience and it was part of Will Smith's ascent to a-lister. In fact, this was probably the movie that finally cemented him as part of Hollywood's a-list, though he was not quite there when the movie was released, as evidenced by the fact that he is billed below Tommy Lee Jones for the credits.

The Earth has been invaded by aliens, not the least of which is a crazed alien trying to leave his designated visitation spot on Earth. When his ship crashes, agents Kay and D are sent in to clean up the mess and make sure Immigration forgets the incident ever happened. They are, as they always are, successful, though the mission leaves Kay without a partner. The incident is the first in a series of events which send known extraterrestrials living on Earth scurrying for the stars. This has a lot to do with the crash landing of a Bug who has taken the body of a human, Edgar, and whose presence on Earth is in pursuit of a galaxy hidden from an intergalactic war.

It is into this situation that a New York City cop, James Edwards, stumbles. Recruited by Kay when one of his perps flees in a most fantastic way and is connected to getting alien weaponry, James is enlisted into the Men In Black, a covert government agency which is responsible for keeping the truth about aliens quiet on Earth. Renamed Jay, James helps Kay find out the truth about the bug and hunt down Edgar. But soon, a menace from outer space threatens to destroy the world if they do not stop Edgar and recover the hidden galaxy quicker!

Men In Black is, first and foremost, a fun film. The premise is smart and original and it is executed with a panache that is not common. Will Smith plays with his sense of comedic timing and is benefited by a script which plays to his ironic voice. In fact, one of Smith’s most memorable lines and deliveries has to be when – as James – he lands on a tour bus and informs the people there “It just be raining black people in New York.” The script is filled with clever one-liners like that and the original set-up with Immigration finding themselves in possession of a real alien is instantly disarming.

As well, Men In Black is just smart enough not to push the romantic subplot between Jay and the coroner, Laurel, into cliché territory. The result is a buddy comedy that is very close to perfection. In fact, I checked my notes from my viewing over a decade ago and I noted in the theater that some of the effects were shaky. However, watching the movie on DVD on my HDTV, the effects seemed just fine.

And Men In Black has character development, even if it is somewhat predictable. Kay is an aging officer who has the experience, but has been pining for the love he left behind in order to become an effective agent of the Men In Black. So, while Kay has the experience, Jay has the energy and the pairing seems to be headed in a very specific direction. The film works because it is enjoyable in getting there, but it is not surprising and in that regard is somewhat less original than the set-up (much like situational comedies that use the same plots, but a different setting than we’ve seen before).

Men In Black also rocks because its supporting cast is exceptional. Supported by actors like Linda Fiorentino, Carel Struycken, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Rip Torn, Men In Black is a comedic success because it uses so many different talents so very well. In fact, Tony Shalhoub is only in the movie briefly, but he has a very memorable role as a pawn merchant Jack Jeebs. Even the usual problematic acting sources shine in the film, in this case the use of a dog whose role is clever and funny.

But Men In Black hinges upon the performances of Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith. Together, Jones and Smith shine and they have great on-screen chemistry which makes them a wonderful comedic pair. Jones has the depth and dry delivery to make the extraordinary seem plausible and Smith has the reactions and emotional range to make the film seem like it is still in touch with reality enough to make the viewer buy the premise. The banter between Jones and Smith alone is worth the price of admission.

On DVD, Men In Black comes loaded with bonus features. In addition to a commentary track which is as funny as the film, there are deleted scenes and informative featurettes. Most of the featurettes focus on special effects – puppeteering and computer-generated effects – but they are informative as well as entertaining.

For a film as short as Men In Black is, it certainly leaves and impression and anyone looking for a fantastic buddy comedy with a science fiction twist is likely to enjoy this film.

For other science fiction comedies, please check out my reviews of of:
Land Of The Lost
Year One
Charlie And The Chocolate Factory

7.5/10

For other film reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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