Domino (2005)

Starring: Keira Knightley, Mickey Rourke, Édgar Ramírez, Jacqueline Bisset, Delroy Lindo, Mo'Nique, Mena Suvari, Dabney Coleman, Lucy Liu, Christopher Walken

Director: Tony Scott

Genre: Action, Crime, Drama,

Rating: C

This might be the worst movie I've ever seen Kiera Knightley in - which says a lot, because she's been in movies like Phantom Menace, Bend it Like Beckham, and King Arthur.  Actually, I'll take that back; this isn't the worst Knightley movie I've seen, but it might be the worst Tony Scott one - I've seen fewer Tony Scott movies.

Domino claims that it's the true story, mostly, of real life actress turned bounty hunter Domino Harvey (played by Knightley), although having watched it I suspect that's as legit as saying that Pearl Harbor is based on the true story of the attack of Pearl Harbor.  It tells the story of an angry girl who never really fit in until she became a badass bounty hunter.  The film alternates between being flashbacks, telling her journey into being a bounty hunter and the incident that got her arrested, and her interrogation by FBI agent Taryn Mills (Liu), to which she is all too willing to tell her story.  Not that you really believe her story.  The whole thing comes across as this ridiculous concoction, which is made worse by the fact that the movie pretends like it's based on a true story.  I think had it dropped that premise - had it simply said that the character of Domino was base on the person of Domino but that the story was a complete fabrication, it would have been better.  The entire film is really rather ridiculous, requiring viewers to suspend their disbelief - which is hard to do when it's pretending to be based on truth.

That's the biggest problem with this movie.  It's not the acting or the script or the shooting choices - all of which vary between good and not so good, but none of which alone make the movie a bad one.  It's the fact that it asks the viewer to suspend too much of their disbelief.  It's important to not ask too much of your viewers.  I can suspend a lot of disbelief in a science fiction or fantasy movie - I love being sucked into some sort of alternate reality, a world which is the result of the imagination of its creators.  At the same time, however, I hate it when someone pretends that something is set within the real world, pretends that this is even a real story.

Despite that, however, I don't really dislike Domino.  It's not a good movie, but it's kind of fun.  There's action and there's some funny bits - thanks largely to the likes of people like Mo'Nique.  The plot could have been hugely simplified, the story cleaned up a lot, and the script tightened.  But the biggest problem is definitely going to remain the fact that this film pretends like it's real when anyone can see that it isn't.

American Reunion (2012)

Stars: Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan, Chris Klein, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Tara Reid, Seann William Scott, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Eugene Levy, Mena Suvari, Jennifer Coolidge
Director: Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg
Genre: Comedy
Rating: B-

American Pie was a coming of age film about a group of boys in their senior year of high school who make a pact to lose their virginity, while its first two sequels (American Pie 2 and American Wedding) follow the same group as they discover what happens to you after you finally come of age.  Now, thirteen years after the original film hit screens comes the latest and fourth feature film in the series; American Reunion.  This film provides the story of what happens when you realize that adult life isn’t all it’s cracked out to be.

Since the wedding of Jim (Biggs) and Michelle (Hannigan), each member of the group has apparently gone off into the world, leaving East Great Falls and rarely looking back.  Jim and Michelle have fallen into a rut in their marriage, Kevin (Nicholas) is happily married and a bit of a housewife, Oz (Klein) is a sportscaster living in LA with a supermodel girlfriend, Finch (Thomas), who has lost contact with his friends, is travelling the world, and Stifler (Scott) is becoming aware of the fact that he’s a loser.  Everyone is brought back to their hometown just in time for their 13-year high school reunion, where they’re each confronted with what they’ve given up in life; Jim and Michelle sex, Kevin Vicky (Reid), Oz Heather (Suvari), Finch his chance at one true love, and Stifler… well, actually, Stifler hasn’t given up anything and has insisted on remaining the same person that he was in high school.  Hilarity ensues as each tries to come to terms with their desires and the way life has turned out for them, and figure out how to reconcile what they have with what they once wanted.

American Reunion is no American Pie.  Had I not seen the original movie I highly doubt I would have enjoyed this one at all; it really offered nothing new or original as a movie and is incapable of standing on its own.  It does, however, pay a nice tribute to the series, and in many ways restores the dignity lost from the American Pie Presents straight to video films.  It has all of the classic elements of an American Pie film: Jim and his dad (Levy) share awkward conversations, Michelle tells band camp stories, Stifler interacts with bodily fluids and throws a party, and of course there’s Stifler’s mom (Coolidge).  The film may not have been exactly original, borrowing a lot from both the previous films and essentially every other reunion-esque film about 30-somethings, but it was funny.  In all reality, it was just about everything you can expect from an American Pie film.