Wednesday
Jul032013
Movie Moan - Crap, Crap, Megacrap
Wed, July 3, 2013 You can watch this week's show on Blip:
Or on Youtube:
We thought if we went away for a few weeks, things would change but one of the weakest movie summers in many years has continued in our absence and, for our return show, Jamie and Phil sift through the bones of the latest pieces of cinematic vapour:-
5 mins - Jamie reviews 'White House Down' (which will be lucky to go straight to video in the UK at this point).
17 mins - Phil reviews 'Despicable Me 2', still without having seen the first film.
30:20 mins - Jamie and Phil pick apart 'Monsters University', the most forgettable Pixar movie to date.
45:25 mins - And just to end on a high note, 'World WarZ '.
Download the audio only MP3 version right here.
Reader Comments (7)
Welcome back! I was climbing the walls without you guys. :)
Re: your saying Monsters University is the most forgettable movie worries me. I haven't seen all Pixar movies but to me the most forgettable one was Brave and if you think MU was worse than Brave, that's not good.
Phil, I can't remember from previous MM episodes, sorry: did any of you ever see Now You See Me? I went to see it yesterday and enjoyed it tremendously. It's not a great movie but it's a lot of fun if you have a free afternoon and need something fun and breezy to watch.
Hi Shelly
I think you have to judge a film on what it's aspirations are. 'Brave' is a domestic family drama with magic and bears. It is forgettable but I thought the relationship between the family was very credible. 'Monsters University' is a comedy that just isn't very funny. But it's all subjective. Let us know what you think.
I tweeted about 'Now You See Me'. I think it's a very enjoyable crime caper with a funky score and wonderful chemistry between Mark Ruffalo and Melanie Laurent (and the film is really about them). I saw it a second time today though and it starts to creak a little when you know what's coming up.
Phil, I think I'll be skipping Monsters University till it comes out on dvd. I was never excited for it to begin with - and your review has convinced me I can wait to see it. Brave had a very believable family dynamic, yes, but the story barely holds water IMO and most of it felt like watching a Tom and Jerry cartoon to me.
Yes, knowing how it ends does take the punch out of Now You See Me, but some of the caper explanations go by so fast that you notice things on rewatching you wouldn't notice before. For instance, I'm still not entirely clear on how they steal the money from the bank (not rob the bank, steal the actual money) because that scene went by much too fast for me. Also, I know the movie was really about the twist about Mark Ruffalo's character but here's what I don't understand: was he really an actual FBI agent anyway, or just impersonating one? Are we supposed to believe his and Melanie's characters get together at the end or just that she'll keep his secret or is that left up for personal interpretation? What was the deal behind the Morgan Freeman character - did they want to frame him just because he was exposing magicians, or was he somehow involved in the problem with Mark Ruffalo's character's father dying? So many questions to answer, I'll definitely have to rewatch this one. I did find it far more enjoyable and easier to follow than The Prestige which gave me such a headache, I don't think I'll ever rewatch that one, damn Chris Nolan!
Blimey, so many questions.
I've forgotten exactly how they stole the money in France to be fair. Ruffalo was a qualified FBI agent. There were plenty of agents who knew who he was and he mentioned other cases he'd been on. This was a long term, highly elaborate plan to get revenge on Freeman's character, who exposed Lionel Shrike's magic tricks and forced the guy to come up with something real and dangerous, causing his death by drowning.
Is Melanie going to turn him in? We'll find out in the sequel.
Well, I think we know Melanie won't turn him in - that's what putting the lock on that fence was about, them agreeing to "lock" away his secret. What I want to know, because I am a woman so I must care about these things apparently, is if their characters ended up together at the end. But I'm hoping there's no sequel. It's bound to change writers/director and be much weaker than this movie, so no thanks. And there's no guarantee the whole cast would do it.
So...Mark Ruffalo became FBI just to avenge his father's death? Wow, that's dedication. Thanks for explaining Morgan Freeman was behind his father's drowning death, I missed that part! Pretty ironic timing btw how you talked about the movie in this week's MM and mentioned The Prestige when I just mentioned I hated that movie, haha. Anytime you want to explain the ending of The Prestige, I'm definitely a captive audience.
Ok then, I shall. I'm not quite sure how far back you want me to go in the film but I'll do my best.
Hugh Jackman's character is a shit. He obtains a machine created by the great Nikola Tesla which can essentially clone anything, so Jackman uses it in his magic act 'The Transported Man' to create a copy of himself each night, one of which falls through a trap door into a tank of water and drowns, the other appearing on stage to....the prestige. One night, intending to get final revenge on Christian Bale's character, the second Jackman doesn't appear back on stage during the act and his death by drowning is pinned on Bale.
While in prison awaiting execution, the custody of Bale's daughter is given to a wealthy patriarch called Lord Caudlow who also wants the secret of how Bale pulled of his own 'Transported Man'. It turns out that Cauldlow is Jackman's character in a new identity, getting even sweeter revenge on Bale by taking away his only family and learning his secrets. Bale's character is then executed.
But then he shows up again in front of Jackman, kills him, and takes his daughter back. Bale's secret was that he was actually twin brothers all along and so committed to his art that he never once let anyone know his secret, even those closest to him. The brothers each took turns to be the character we see in the film (one of them loved Rebecca Hall's character, the other loved Scarlett Johansson's - the one who is executed loved Scarlett).
In the final shot, we see Jackman's dead body as his stage burns around him, populated by several water tanks all containing a dead clone of himself; a piece of what soul he had left sacrificed for the applause of the audience.
There's more to it but that's the basics.
Awww, thanks for explaining! Unfortunately it's been so many years since I've seen the film, most of that went over my head, eek! I think what I'll do is print your explanation, force myself to sit through it again sometime and then reread what you wrote, maybe that'll help. Thanks!
I don't think I'll ever warm up to The Prestige though the way I did Now You See Me or even The Illusionist. I was thinking about this yesterday and it occurs to me why I don't like Chris Nolan's work: his movies are like eating vegetables. Yes, they're very smart and intricately plotted, but they are so dour and dreary, they lack a sense of fun. Like most people, I go to the movies for a good time, and I never have a good time when I watch his movies because I'm too busy getting my brains scrambled (and I hate to say it but too many times I don't care about the characters in his movies). At least I was rooting for the guys in NYSM even if it's a flawed movie. I can't say the same about The Prestige - I thought both Jackman's and Bale's characters were assholes, honestly and I didn't care what happened to either of them.