Men in Black 3

Men in Black 3 (2012) comes out fifteen years after the original, and ten years after the sequel. I imagine there's a good number of audiences for whom Men in Black 3 will be a totally new experience. Fortunately, the movie turns out to be a good place to start even if you haven't seen the first two.

Men in Black is a secret agency, lead by Agent O (Emma Thompson), assigned to monitor and suppress alien activity on Earth while keeping the populace ignorant of its happenings. After breaking out of a moon-based security prison, Boris the Animal (Jemaine Clement) decides to go back in time and eliminate the person who arrested him - Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones). When he does so, Agent J (Will Smith) is the only one who has realized that the timeline has been changed and he too travels back to July 15, 1969, the day before Agent K is killed. After overcoming some disbelief, J manages to convince the younger Agent K (Josh Brolin) and others of just who he is and why he's there. With the help of a 5th dimensional being named Griffin (Michael Stuhlbarg) who can see all time lines, they track Boris down.  In the process J learns a well-hidden secret, something K had never told him.

Men in Black 3 features some wacky antics that made the first two movies so fun; combating undercover aliens in ironic situations with lots of funny cultural references. Will Smith acts like his wacky Will Smith self and Tommy Lee Jones acts like the grumpy, experienced older guy with some nearly imperceptibly subtle humor. There are moments of humorously illogical sci-fi reasoning such as Agent O deduces that there has been a fracture in the space-time continuum based on J's sudden insatiable craving for chocolate milk to ease his headaches. But the movie goes a bit further; the story is more complex than the previous movies and we've also got time travel escapades which are usually fun.

Most of the movie takes place in the 1960's, and the way they depicted the 60's was amazing. Yes, there are lots of extras in very convincing costumes that were contemporary of the time period, but the science fiction elements were made to look 60's-ish as well. In the present, the MiB's weapons and gadgetry looked sleek, sophisticated, and high-tech. In the 60's their weapons and gadgets looked more like the ray guns and gadgets from the original Star Trek, Lost in Space, and Flash Gordon TV shows. Even the aliens they meet resembled the oversized rubber-suit monsters from sci-fi horror movies of the 1960's. Not only was this funny, but it also gave and interesting method of setting development that was interesting to watch.

The acting in this movie was outstanding, especially on the part of Josh Brolin. He looks, sounds, and acts so much like an actual, younger version Tommy Lee Jones it is uncanny! I think it was a more impressive performance than Joseph Gordon-Levitt playing a younger Bruce Willis in Looper. He captures Jones' voice and mannerisms so perfectly you can't help but assume that Josh Brolin will inevitably turn into Tommy Lee Jones sometime in the future. He also brought some new quirks to the character of Agent K; young K actually smiles once in awhile as if he is not yet jaded or world-weary as is his older counterpart.

Jemaine Clement plays the villain in this role. I totally didn't recognize him with the makeup job at all. Clement is a New Zealand musician and stars in a comedy TV show called Flight of the Concords. I've never actually seen it, but I did not see Clement in Boris the Animal at all. He plays a nasty villain with some weirdly funny, subtle, deadpan humor himself. He played a great villain and I'd love to see Clement in more acting gigs.

My favorite character was easily Griffin. He's this 5th dimensional being and the last of his species. With time travel stories there is often a sense of determinism and fate which lends to some pessimistic moods a lot of the time. Griffin is a combination of string theory and a zen master. He can see all possible outcomes, and is often frightened when things start going wrong, "Negative possibilities are multiplying as we speak!" But even though determinism is present in this time travel story, Griffin's character helps remind us that while we can't control everything, we always have the ability to make out own choices. That brought a sense of optimism to the movie.

Men in Black 3 had some plot holes in it, but it wasn't a bad movie. I enjoyed it for what it was. It was funny, exciting, wacky, and just plain fun. The movie has a great cast, excellent acting, fun characters, and a good plot. Watch out for funny little details in the background when you watch it; both Lady Gaga and Tim Burton appear on the Men in Black's monitors as suspected aliens. Men in Black 3 is an above average renter and possibly worth owning if you're a long time fan of Men in Black.

Do you like the Men in Black series? Which one is your favorite? Comment below and let me know!

Seven Pounds Movie Review

I keep thinking of comically based movies when I think of Will Smith. Movies like Men in Black, Wild Wild West, and Independence Day. More recently, he's been in slightly more serious roles and action roles. I think it's great that he has developed as an actor. Will Smith portrays an amazing dramatic role in Seven Pounds (2008).

Haunted by a secret, Ben Thomas (Will Smith) looks for redemption by radically transforming the lives of seven people he doesn't know. In the process he seeks out Emily Posa (Rosario Dawson) to help resolve her situation with the IRS. Emily has a serious heart problem and is waiting for a donor, but her blood is very rare and her odds are low. Meanwhile Ben seeks out other people to help them in a journey for redemption. Ben hadn't planned on falling in love with Emily, she's the one who will end up transforming him.

Seven Pounds shows us an interesting character that we, the viewers, are not permitted to know very much about. We see that Ben has a plan and already has it well in motion as the movie opens. While Seven Pounds primarily focuses on Ben, by the end of the movie we still don't know a whole lot more about him than we did at the beginning. Why does he check into a cheap hotel? Isn't he paid for his lucrative job? What favor does his lifelong friend Dan (Barry Pepper) owe him? Why exactly is he looking for people who need their own favors? Why after he intuits he is speaking with a blind man (Woody Harrelson) on the phone, is he so needlessly cruel to him, and then follows the same man to restaurant and engage in conversation? For the first half of the movie, Ben is acting according to a plan that makes sense only to himself. He doesn't really have a reason to explain it to himself again, nor does he have a reason to explain it to anyone else. It makes for a curiously enigmatic story, albeit frustrating that we don't know all the details. I don't think it's an indicator of bad writing, simply a different type of storytelling.

Will Smith plays his role extremely well and he displays an impressive range of emotions. Ben is a man who is wracked with guilt and sadness. He can be a tough, merciless IRS man, he can bend the rules in some cases, he can have a romantic candlelight dinner with a beautiful woman, he is angry sometimes, but he seems angriest with himself. It's an amazing performance.

Rosario Dawson is pretty amazing as well. She's trying to make the most of her situation though she isn't expected to live much longer. She's naturally empathetic and manages to keep up with Ben's sometimes bizarre emotional dance, following his lead. Emily is such a sweet character who offers every ounce of charm and care to the one man who seems doomed to deflect it.

It was strange noticing there was very little background music in Seven Pounds. There's almost no subtle ambient music to help amplify the mood and tone of each scene. The emotional tension is almost exclusively left to the actors. That should say something about how good the actors are. There's also some shaky camera work as if a camera man is trying to follow the action on foot through a small confining house. It did feel somewhat realistic, but shaky cam isn't necessary here. There wasn't physical action going on that we felt rushed to try to capture on film, it was dialogue driven emotional action.

Overall, I thought Seven Pounds was simply "okay." It tended to be an overwrought sentimental drama that dragged on for longer than was necessary. Sure, there are sweet moments of romance, some interesting plot twists, some great moments of emotional intensity, but painfully slow pacing of the film tended to weaken their impact. The ending will probably leave some viewers in tears and leave others indignant. I wasn't all that invested in the movie and even I teared up a bit. I think this is worth watching only if you enjoy heartfelt dramas of redemption and romantic stories. Otherwise, you'll likely be bored and possibly annoyed by Seven Pounds. In this case, I was in the latter category.

What has been your favorite Will Smith role? Mine is probably Independence Day or I, Robot. Comment below and tell me about yours!

The Last Man on Earth Movie Review

I don’t necessarily think that The Last Man on Earth (1964) should be required viewing, but if you appreciate films for their historical influence I think you’ll get some great insight with this Vincent Price classic. It has influenced modern movies in ways you will probably recognize when you see the movie.

In a post-epidemic world, Dr. Robert Morgan (Vincent Price) is the only survivor of a devastating world-wide plague which has transformed the entire population of Earth into vampire-like creatures. Now he’s alone; the last man on earth. At night, plague victims begin to leave graves, forming an undead army that thirsts for his blood. For his own protection, he becomes a vampire slayer that many vampires fear. After three years of solitude, he finds another human named Ruth (Franca Bettoja). Not only desperate for social interaction, he seeks her out to help him find a cure for the vampire virus. But Ruth doesn’t seem to be what she says she is. Can she be trusted?

The Last Man on Earth is based off of the1954 Richard Matheson novel, I Am Legend. That novel has had several movies based off of it, including The Omega Man (1971) starring Charlton Heston and I Am Legend (2007) starring Will Smith. Of these three movies, The Last Man on Earth is the most faithful to the original book. The book is fairly dark, but since this film was made in 1964, there’s only so far the film industry would allow the film to go.

Vincent Price is clean shaven apart from his signature mustache, and wears a suit for most of the movie. That doesn’t really sell the “last man on earth” post-apocalyptic setting very well, but it is what it is. Price does a really great job showing us how damaged Dr. Morgan is after years without contact of another living soul. In one scene he is watching some old homemade film reels of his family. He begins laughing as he watches, but it’s kind of a haunting, empty laugh that portrays a deep sense of longing and sadness. As he laughs, it gradually turns into crying. We really get a feel that his years of solitude have taken their toll, and that this man is not well.

Possibly the most interesting and influential component is the “vampires.” At the time this movie was made, the best known vampire characters were Count Dracula and Count Orlok of the classic 1922 Nosferatu silent film. Both Dracula and Orlok were powerful demonic characters. Dracula was aristocratic, charming, and seductive while Orlok was a predatory ugly (albeit well dressed) walking corpse. The vampires in The Last Man on Earth were a type of movie vampire that had not been seen before. They were people who died from the disease, and then came back from the dead with a thirst for blood. They shambled around aimlessly, lacked rational thinking skills, and were capable of only rudimentary speech.

Sure, they were repelled by mirrors, garlic, and could be killed by a steak to the heart. But these vampires more closely resemble our contemporary paradigm of zombies. There’s a reason for that. George A. Romero was heavily influenced by The Last Man on Earth in writing and directing his iconic Night of the Living Dead which was released only four years later. The zombies in Night of the Living Dead were so influential that it set the standard for all zombie movies and video games forever after. Night of the Living Dead had a prodigious impact on zombie films, and it was The Last Man on Earth that heavily influenced Night of the Living Dead. We therefore have both of these films to attribute modern day zombie films and video games.

There are some problems in The Last Man on Earth. It is has some fairly slow pacing, a pretty low budget, leaves some narrative details unrefined, and the sketchy post-production dubbing makes it feel a bit unprofessional. All of that tends to undermine the story a bit, weakening its impact. I could understand not enjoying the movie all that much based on its substandard production, but I still think it’s a decent movie despite its weaknesses.

The Last Man on Earth was an interesting movie that had some good acting by the legendary Vincent Price. It’s the best cinema rendition of the I Am Legend novel; I liked it more than the Will Smith film. If you appreciate films for their historic influence, I highly recommend seeing The Last Man on Earth. If that’s not your cup of tea, I don’t expect you’ll enjoy it very much. You may like it if you enjoy zombie films since this is where our modern day zombie movie sprouted from.

The Last Man on Earth has fallen into public domain, which means the intellectual property rights have expired. What this means for you is that it is readily available for public use. If you want to see The Last Man on Earth, you can for free! You can follow the link below to watch it on YouTube. But you’ll get a sharper image if you can find it on DVD.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibnpEk4hdjo

What is your favorite “Classic” vampire movie, not that “romantic” sparkly bullcrap variety? Comment below and tell me why!