Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Better late than never. This is what I thought about "Death At A Funeral" and "The Lookout". (I hesitate to call these burblings, reviews.)
"Death At A Funeral".
"Death At A Funeral" is an old fashioned British farce of dark secrets, misunderstandings, bad taste/poo jokes, and bad behaviour. It features a good cast of familiar British character actors, plus the U.S. actor Alan Tudyk. Everybody is pretty well given equal screen time and something to do, and you would imagine that that they just had a whale of a time on the set, what with all of the running around, the chance to sprout outrageous dialogue with a poker face and, sometimes, the chance to overact wildly. Such a shame, then, that the fun just didn't completely translate onto screen.
You see, the problem with farce is that the construction of the story has to be very carefully thought through, and the pace and timing has to be absolutely spot on, for the farce to work. I didn't think that "Death At A Funeral" was nearly fast, pacy or frenetic enough, and this was with it only being a short movie - 90 minutes. Sometimes it dragged badly.
"Death At A Funeral" is not a disaster. It does have it's moments, mostly involving Alan Tudyk as Daisy Donovan's nervous fiance Simon, and Andy Nyman as the put upon Howard. I thought those two actors performances were really funny. (Need I also say that I thought Daisy Donovan is still incredibly sexy? No, I didn't think so.)
So... "Death At A Funeral" is not bad, but all things being equal, it is not a masterpiece either.
"The Lookout".
Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Chris Pratt (unfortunate last name there, Mr. Frank!), who is a young, good looking guy and the star of his high school hockey team. His life is changed completely when he sustains head injuries in a car crash. Four years later Chris is trying to rebuild his life and work through his physical and mental problems (he has issues with 'chronological sequencing'). Chris works a night time cleaning job in a bank. Chris is noticed by a guy called Gary Spargo, who has plans...
To be honest I thought that "The Lookout" was fairly predictable and didn't really make the most of an enticing setup. But that aside, it is also a fairly entertaining and well put together modern crime thriller.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is really good as Chris Pratt. As much a cypher here as he was in a great film from a couple of years ago called "Brick". A really interesting performance. I had never heard of Matthew Goode, but he is ... Er... good as Gary Spargo. Sadly I didn't really believe Jeff Daniels as Chris Pratt's blind friend Lewis (too many mannerisms, too much the wise old sage, maybe Morgan Freeman was too expensive?) and I thought that the lovely Isla Fisher as the interestingly monickered Luvlee Lemons (she plays a stripper) was completely miscast. Too young (although she is 31 years old, so what do I know?) and too innocent looking.
A good enough film for an evening out, but again, not a masterpiece.
"Death At A Funeral".
"Death At A Funeral" is an old fashioned British farce of dark secrets, misunderstandings, bad taste/poo jokes, and bad behaviour. It features a good cast of familiar British character actors, plus the U.S. actor Alan Tudyk. Everybody is pretty well given equal screen time and something to do, and you would imagine that that they just had a whale of a time on the set, what with all of the running around, the chance to sprout outrageous dialogue with a poker face and, sometimes, the chance to overact wildly. Such a shame, then, that the fun just didn't completely translate onto screen.
You see, the problem with farce is that the construction of the story has to be very carefully thought through, and the pace and timing has to be absolutely spot on, for the farce to work. I didn't think that "Death At A Funeral" was nearly fast, pacy or frenetic enough, and this was with it only being a short movie - 90 minutes. Sometimes it dragged badly.
"Death At A Funeral" is not a disaster. It does have it's moments, mostly involving Alan Tudyk as Daisy Donovan's nervous fiance Simon, and Andy Nyman as the put upon Howard. I thought those two actors performances were really funny. (Need I also say that I thought Daisy Donovan is still incredibly sexy? No, I didn't think so.)
So... "Death At A Funeral" is not bad, but all things being equal, it is not a masterpiece either.
"The Lookout".
Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Chris Pratt (unfortunate last name there, Mr. Frank!), who is a young, good looking guy and the star of his high school hockey team. His life is changed completely when he sustains head injuries in a car crash. Four years later Chris is trying to rebuild his life and work through his physical and mental problems (he has issues with 'chronological sequencing'). Chris works a night time cleaning job in a bank. Chris is noticed by a guy called Gary Spargo, who has plans...
To be honest I thought that "The Lookout" was fairly predictable and didn't really make the most of an enticing setup. But that aside, it is also a fairly entertaining and well put together modern crime thriller.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is really good as Chris Pratt. As much a cypher here as he was in a great film from a couple of years ago called "Brick". A really interesting performance. I had never heard of Matthew Goode, but he is ... Er... good as Gary Spargo. Sadly I didn't really believe Jeff Daniels as Chris Pratt's blind friend Lewis (too many mannerisms, too much the wise old sage, maybe Morgan Freeman was too expensive?) and I thought that the lovely Isla Fisher as the interestingly monickered Luvlee Lemons (she plays a stripper) was completely miscast. Too young (although she is 31 years old, so what do I know?) and too innocent looking.
A good enough film for an evening out, but again, not a masterpiece.
Labels: Movies
# posted by Pynchon @ 10:06 pm 
