Heat vs. Public Enemies

So, what's the difference? Why is one an iconic heist thriller? Literally the movie that MADE crime drama...and the other a shallow, weak portrait of a 1930's crime icon?

What makes Heat different from Public Enemies?

1. Fictional vs. Non-Fictional Script - Michael Mann did not have to worry about explaining the story of Neil McCauley (De Niro) and Vincent Hanna (Pacino). It is easy to realize who these people are, a career criminal and a determined detective. Their background/upbringing is not relevant.

John Dillinger's (Depp) background is relevant. How did Dillinger come to be the man he is? The only background we receive is Dillinger's ancedote of "I like baseball, movies, good clothes, fast cars... and you. What else you need to know? ". This is not nearly enough backstory for a 2 hour and 20 minute movie and one of America's most famous criminals.

2. Timeline - With Heat, Mann did not have to worry about acccuracy of dates. He weaves a storyline over a course of months in the case of Heat. Between the opening heist, the final heist and the climatic final scene. The story was what he told. The audience did not have to search for dates, question the timeline or even accept the "period" of the film.

3. Cinematography - Mann is an artist behind the camera. He knows how to capture light, portray a scene, allow a moment to resonate and properly frame a picture. But in Heat he was able to illuminate the entire city of Los Angeles (a strength he reinforced with Collateral). In Public Enemies, he has no singular location to embolden. The problem is lack of authenticity in the location. No single setting is completely "depression era", therefore Mann could not full develop any of his locations.

4. Cast - I love Johnny Depp. I really love Christian Bale. Marion Cotillard wasn't bad. The rest of the cast was alright and it was great to see the corpse of Stephen Dorff have a small role. Mann also used some of his usual suspects. But Heat? Does it get better than De Niro and Pacino? You were getting the classic INSANE Pacino, where he realized he was no longer the top dog actor, but could steal a scene by yelling and saying crazy things like,

"Cause she's got a great ass... and you got your head all the way up it! Ferocious, aren't I? When I think of asses, a woman's ass, something comes out of me."

It doesn't get any better than that. See for yourself.



You also have Jonny Voight dressed up like a cowboy with his handlebar mustache, Hank Azaria in an un-funny role, President effing Palmer, young Natalie Portman, Tom Sizemore during his smack/crack/meth addict days, Ashley Judd looking as fine as she ever has or ever will (similar to Cameron Diaz's moment of perfection in The Mask), and VAL KILMER! KILMER! KILMER! OH MY GOD...Iceman! The real Val Kilmer before he ate his way out of "cool" roles and into funny, portly gentlemen (see: Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang). Kilmer is a stud in this movie with his sweet long hair and, in the words of Robert Miller, a "killer bod". When he snipes the guys in the abandoned drive-in movie I almost cried with joy. Bale does win the battle of the Batman though, Kilmer's Batman debuted the same year as Heat, 1995.

I am sorry Ed Scissorhands/Batman, but the best cast stands with HEAT.

5. Finale - You can't match the 30 minutes of Heat. Not possible. Just like the way Orson Welles blew his load on Citizen Kane, it is possible Mann ruined the "crime-drama" genre with his work on Heat.

Heat was EPIC. Public Enemies had the tall task of living up to these lofty expectations. No dice. Michael Mann has a joyous burden that will probably never go away. Mann is again constrained by history, he needed to portray *SPOILER* the death of Dillinger frame for frame. However, Mann did not need to spend so much time developing the ending, it was very anti-climatic. It was also not consistent with the high-speed action of the entire movie. I understand that he wanted to emphasize the finale, but the lack of character development left for a hollow scene.

Mann Oh Man!

Michael Mann lets me down again. This is two in a row. The worst part? Mann can't pawn the awfulness of this film off on Colin Farrell.

5 Goobers for Public Enemies

Upcoming Attractions

These are the upcoming movies that I am getting pumped about:


Public Enemies - This is by far my most anticipated of the summer. It puts together three things I could never get enough of Michael Mann (Heat, Collateral, Last of the Mohicans), Christian Bale (TV's Mary,Mother of Jesus, the voice of Thomas in Disney's Pocahontas) and Johnny Depp (Cry Baby, 21 Jump Street). Putting these three together in a movie should be the cinematic equivalent of solving cold fusion.

I am also a big fan of period pieces that actually try to stay true to form. This will not be a Knight's Tale. Mann shot much of the film in parts of Wisconsin that still have a Depression-era feel.

The female lead is Marion Cotillard, from La Vie En Rose, she should add to the film. Giovanni Ribisi is also in the film and I love everything he does, even his role on Friends, hopefully he expands past his type-casting of "slow person" for this role.

I am a bit concerned,however, due to Mike Mann's last movie, Miami Vice, not sure if I blogged about how horrible this film was. Or about my eternal disappointment of Colin Farrell. Either way, while Mann has created Heat, Last of the Mohicans and the Insider. He allowed the ugly, red-headed stepchild of Miami Vice, out of the basement. I will cringe until I am actually in that movie seat.

Public Enemies is set to be released on July 1st.

Bruno- I really liked Borat. I know that Sacha Baron Cohen is definitely a hit or miss type comedian with most fans, but I think that while his movies are outrageous, he is able to show how absurd some Americans are in real life. Released July 10th.


Inglorious Basterds - Quinten Tarintino's WWII flick. Starting Brad Pitt and Ryan "The Temp" from the Office. I always like Tarintino's stuff so I am expecting the same here. Of course, like everything from the past decade, this is a "re-imagination" of a 70's film that will get absolutely no credit. Debuts August 21st.


There will be more movies to discuss, but this is a short list to start with.

Star Trek

Star Trek was really good. I recommend seeing it in theaters. I give it 7.5 Goobers. Great summer action film. The cast worked out well. The story line was entertaining. Go see it.

25 Years Later...

Now, for the second installment of my 3-part Summer Blockbuster Analysis. Today we will be looking at Terminator Salvation. While I can’t say that I liked the movie that much, I can say it was better than the critical beat down it suffered at the hands of journalists and bloggers. The first I heard of the new Terminator movie was at some point two years ago, probably during a theatrical trailer prior to The Dark Knight. I was initially very skeptical about the project, but kept an open-mind.

Pros:
- Sam Worthington, an Australian actor plays the role of Marcus Wright, who is a human turned cyborg. Go figure he was recommended for the role by James Cameron, the visionary who created the first two Terminator movies. We also share a birthday. Look for his next big role in Cameron’s Avatar
- Nice surprise pseudo-cameo towards the end of the film, that’s all I will say
- Moon Bloodgood is gorgeous
- As always, I get way too excited by trailers, especially this one that features NIN: Deceptive!
- Bale digs deep into roles and the added aggression led to his "freak out" on the Director of Photography...which led to the Youtube Dance Remix

Purgatory:
- Ron Howard’s daughter was neither good, nor bad. Just there.

Cons:
- Weak story. The action scenes did not justify a poor plot.
- Bailing on the R rating for $$$.
- Christian Bale mails in his performance, he blends a little Batman voice, with a bit of weight loss and zero emotion. Very disappointing from one of my favorite actors.
- The story did not utilize some of themes from the original Terminator, the movie did not really highlight on the “chase” aspect of the first two and was also void of humor. Humor plays a critical role to the success of the first two films.
- McG did not do much to enhance the quality of this film, he should go back to directing music videos for Korn

After watching this, I made sure to make it up to my eyes/brain/ears by viewing both Terminator & T2. These two films were created in ’84 and ’91, respectively. It was just a disappointment to think of the 25 years that have passed since the original and this is what McG and co. produce. The original Terminator had sooooo much vision and creativity. This film, similar to T3, was destined to fail due to unrealistic expectations. It reminded me of a darker version of Transformers.

Overall: Wait for Redbox/Netflix…or as a cure for Insomnia in 4 years when it is on Spike TV in the 1am to 3am spot.
Alternative: The third installment will give you one alternative. Another is to rent one of the first two Terminator films, make sure to check for the James Cameron seal of approval.

Terminator Salvation
“The End Begins.”
Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Other People…including annoying Michael Cera knock-off Anton Yelchin
Directed by McG
Written by John Brancato and Michael Ferris (Catwoman & Primeval…should have known…to be fair they did write The Game)
Run time: 115 mins
Shot in: New Mexico

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0438488/
terminatorsalvation.warnerbros.com



5 Goobers. Uninspired.

IXNAY on the XMEN

The movie would have benefited from this actual cat compared to Hugh Jackman.

Well, well, well, I have been forced to come back to the blog due to recent business decisions at my employer. Let’s see, since my last post I have seen quite a few flicks. We have passed through the post-Xmas dead zone and hit the cusp of the summer blockbusters (everyone ready for Michael Bay to explode something(s)?). I can’t really recall what movies I have seen in the past five months to give a solid rating, so I will proceed to what I have seen lately.

3 summer blockbuster/action/extreme/space/robot/metal/blood/death/babes/movies of the past three weeks:

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

This movie was god-awful. I am confident that the script was crafted around fight scenes and then they connected each with childlike dialogue to transition to the next person Wolverine would slice with his claws. Really gripping stuff. I am not even going to venture into the historical inaccuracies or the reason why a Canadian MANimal would decide to fight in every war relevant to America’s interests.

Supporting cast?

- Ryan Reynolds was used sparingly, he was supposed to be DeadPool, but of course Marvel F’s that character up in the end

- Dude from Friday Night Lights, did he have a Cajun accent? Or was that his attempt at a Cajun accent?

- Will.I.Am – this should be your first warning sign

- Liev Schreiber – Seriously? As Sabertooth? This guy? I bet Live is an actor that is really “respected” by other actors, which means he takes things seriously and would never subject himself to….oh wait, how about 3 does of Scream and an undersized man/cat with oversized fingernails.

- Additional support hacks

I just don’t understand how they could take the franchise character and destroy it. The first X-Men movie was very good, the second was an admirable sequel, the third was directed by Brett Ratner…of Rush Hour fame. So I can say that it was on par with the stylistic action/comedy of Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. With memorable quotes such as "Logan: Way to go, Furball. " Are you kidding me? Anyway, there are many more reasons I hated this movie, but I can’t think of them. The etch-a-sketch this is my brain has been successfully turned over and shook.

Let’s give it 2 goobers.

Holiday Movie Madness

Jonah Takalua: Puck you, Miss.

Over the break, I saw a large amount of television and movies. Here is a quick run-down:



Movies:

- Role Models - More Apatow, Stifler being Stifler, Paul Rudd goodness, overall OK, about 5 Goobers.

- Ben Button - Pretty good, very long, touches on life and death very "frankly", I was pleased with the outcome...7 Goobers

- Valkyrie - Labeled as a "thriller", however it is hard to maintain a tense atmosphere when the viewer is aware of the outcome, I had a bit of a pity feeling of pressure for Tom "central tooth" Cruise...also can we see something OTHER than a WWII war movie? Please? 6 Goobers

DVDs:

- The Strangers...really creepy at moments, overall fails just as every other horror flick does, Liv Tyler is terrible

TV:

- Summer Heights High - GENIUS! Chris Lilley has studied at the Gervais School of Comedy

- Some Curb - Love Larry David

- HBO's 4-part series, 'House of Saddam', pretty interesting, pretty awesome, worth the four hours


If I had to recommend just one thing from the list...it would be Summer Heights High. I need to get HBO.