Week in Review: August 20 - 25

Notes - This past week we were marked by the deaths of director/producer Tony Scott, comedian Phyllis Diller, and astronaut Neil Armstrong.  The world is a different place without them.

Movies - This week's Bond movie was You Only Live Twice and the new movie was The Bourne Legacy.  I wasn't really a big fan of either.  To mark Tony Scott's passing I did two of his films, Top Gun and Domino.  One is a classic, the other not so much.

Books - Book of the week was E.L. James' Fifty Shades Freed, the final instalment in the Fifty Shades trilogy.  To Mark the completion of the series, I also looked at the many signs of domestic abuse that the series marks in a note.

TV - TV show of the week was the first season of Revenge.  While I enjoyed it, I'm not entirely sure if I'll be tuning in to the second season; I don't think it'll be one that will keep me watching week-by-week.

Recommendations - New movies this week are Premium Rush, Hit and Run, and Robot and Frank.  My guess is that the best of the bunch is going to be Robot and Frank, which will also be the hardest to see given its limited release.

Next Week - The plan for next week includes the much delayed Pete Smalls is Dead, and a tribute to Neil Armstrong with the space-related disaster movies Armageddon and Deep Impact - because if you're going to do one, you might as well do them both.  New movie of the week will be Whitney Houston's final film, Sparkle.  Bookwise we're going to wrap up (for now) both the Tales of Dunk and Egg series and the Lord John series, with the short stories "The Mystery Knight" and "Lord John and the Plague of Zombies."

Requests -What about you guys? Anything you'd like me to watch or read?  Let me know in the comments.

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.

Top Gun (1986)

Starring: Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, Tom Skerritt, Michael Ironside, Meg Ryan, Rick Rossovich, Whip Hubley, James Tolkan

Director: Tony Scott

Genre: Action, Drama, Romance

Rating: B

This has long been a favourite movie of mine, and is in my opinion probably one of the best Tony Scott films there is (which is either saying a lot or not much at all, depending on your overall opinion of Tony Scott movies).  Top Gun is ridiculously cheesy at points and really kind of bad, but at the same time it’s so good it’s easy to forgive the cheese.   It’s not exactly a mindless action film, but it definitely has a lot of the characteristics of one – if you don’t spend too much time thinking about the movie and just enjoy the ride then it’s a good one.

Top Gun follows US Naval Aviator Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Cruise) and his wingman Radar Intercept Officer Lieutenant Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Edwards) after they essentially luck out and get a ticket to the Top Gun school at NAS Miramar, despite the fact that Maverick is considered to be a rather reckless fighter.  There, Maverick competes with fellow pilot LT Tom “Iceman” Kasansky (Kilmer) for the position of top pilot – with Iceman considering Maverick to be dangerous – while also wooing civilian instructor Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood (McGillis).  Oh, and there’s the music.  I love the soundtrack to Top Gun, which is furthered by the fact that my three favourite songs on the soundtrack are all original songs for the movie itself – “Danger Zone,” “Take My Breath Away” and “Top Gun Anthem.”  If you don’t like the first two, you might want to skip this movie as they’re both played a lot.

Okay, so the premise of the movie is a bit ridiculous and in many ways rather typical of the armed forces (in whatever variation) type movie, especially when an outright war isn’t actually used.  The acting, however is good – whatever you might feel about Tom Cruise’s personal life, you can usually count on him to bring in a good performance.  I’m not sure if you can say as much about the rest of the cast, with the exception of Tom Skerritt and Anthony Edwards, who I either don’t know from anything else or can be a bit unpredictable in the roles they pick.  Granted, Tom Cruise has become a bit unpredictable as of late too.  I enjoy the chemistry between Maverick and Charlie, even if I do question just how quickly their relationship progresses – we don’t really get to see it develop, it just happens.  The film’s a bit bogged down by the whole search for why Maverick is the way he is; the daddy issues are both over used and unnecessary.  I would have completely bought the whole “Maverick is reckless because he’s a young guy who’s flying a fucking jet” storyline.  More depth wasn’t really necessary.

Where this film really succeeds, however, is in the jets.  The flying is cool, even if it’s reckless and possibly unrealistic.   I actually really don’t care (or know) if it’s unrealistic and the fact that it’s reckless is a huge part of why it seems so cool.  It is fun watching people do stuff that could potentially get them killed.  That’s why people like watching action flicks; it’s all about the danger that the characters appear to put themselves into.  Top Gun appears to have a lot of danger and cool stunts, which the characters are always eager to point out to us.  Where the movie fails is in its drama and romance, both of which really provides a surplus of cheese.  While there’s chemistry between Maverick and Charlie there’s nothing original, unique, or really cool about the relationship.  The music does kind of fail here too; as much as I love the soundtrack, I do have to say that the same songs are played over and over again, in a way to the detriment of the film itself.  It’s one thing to have a thematic song for a movie, it’s another thing to have a few thematic songs and to play them almost exclusively – something that’s made worse by the fact that this isn’t a movie that should need to depend on the soundtrack.  I love music based movies where the one song is sung more than a few times because it’s the song that the characters are writing or it’s part of a performance, or whatever.  But when it’s just the background music, it can get a bit stale and kind of suggests that there isn’t that much in the way of a music budget – they probably spent it all on the jets.  Which, really, was a wise choice.  I mean, it’s jets.  I can forgive a lot of cheese and a repetitive soundtrack in favour of stunts with jets, especially when I enjoy the songs themselves.

A Note: Tony Scott

It's being reported that director/producer Tony Scott (Top Gun, The Last Boy Scout, Enemy of the State, Man on Fire) committed suicide today.

My condolences go out to his family and friends.  I know very little about the man himself, but I did enjoy his movies, even the ones that weren't exactly good.  Hollywood has lost a great director/producer.

I was planning on reviewing Pete Smalls is Dead this week, but in light of Scott's passing I think I'll delay Pete Smalls in favour of a Tony Scott film - probably either Top Gun or Domino, perhaps even both.