I had seen this movie right after it came out and would only watch it again so that I could continue my Famke-Film-Extravaganze (FFE), which is s good enough reason but only barely. I didn't remember the film being as annoying as it was. In my memory the banter between Eddie's and Owen's characters was much more witty. Everything else was pretty much as I recall, though I did notice this time that the song/rap over the closeting credits totally disses Arsenio Hall and in a movie starring Eddie Murphy, there is no way that it was coincidental. The question is whether or not Eddie knew about it and if he cared. That probably happened in post production or whenever they add the credits so maybe Eddie was just as surprised as me when he heard it in the song as the credits rolled.
Owen Wilson did this movie in between the two films with Jackie Chan in the Shanghai series, but essentially it's the same character, which is a slightly less annoying version of the character he plays in all the films he is in with Vince Vaughn. He's the amiable screw-up who accidentally gets the job done in spite of himself. The character is self-questioning and self-loathing one minute until he gets someone to build him up a little bit then he's all cock-of-the-walk. He's not that guy in the Wes Anderson films, so I am still holding out hope that he's a cool guy, though his character in the Woody Allen flick, Midnight in Paris is pretty much this character, but with, if you can imagine it, even more talking. I do think that Owen's character is actually particularly suited for this movie to play opposite of Eddie's character who is egotistical and confident in the extreme. I also think that this character type, being Owen's not Eddie's, grinds at me a little bit more than it should because of my own lack of confidence - seeing someone who can so easily overcome his own is galling, because it's arbitrary and comedic, not earned through hardwork. Or like, you know, whatever.
Let's be honest, the only reason to watch this film is Famke. There, I've said it. She was super hot when this came out when she was 37, and she was super hot in Taken 2 which came out when she was 47 (I know it's not polite to say, but she's 48 now). Granted that I may be crushing a little bit, but I actually thought her acting was really good. Actually, I think this every time I see her and a number of other actors - they're attractive women who are good actors, but are limited by Hollywood to the roles that are concerned with the former and not the latter. My great hope is that as they age, they are afforded the opportunities of the Meryl Streeps, Susan Sarandons and Sally Fields, or almost any British actor.
I-Spy on IMDb
Showing posts with label Owen Wilson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Owen Wilson. Show all posts
Monday, August 12, 2013
Saturday, August 10, 2013
I-Spy (2002)
I had seen this movie right after it came out and would only watch it again so that I could continue my Famke-Film-Extravaganza (FFE), which is s good enough reason but only barely. I didn't remember the film being as annoying as it was. In my memory the banter between Eddie's and Owen's characters was much more witty. Everything else was pretty much as I recall, though I did notice this time that the song/rap over the closting credits totally disses Arsenio Hall and in a movie starring Eddie Murphy, there is no way that it was coincidental. The question is whether or not Eddie knew about it and if he cared. That probably happened in post production or whenever they add the credits so maybe Eddie was just as surprised as me when he heard it in the song as the credits rolled.
Owen Wilson did this movie in between the two films with Jackie Chan in the Shanghai series, but essentially it's the same character, which is a slightly less annoying version of the character he plays in all the films he is in with Vince Vaughn. He's the amiable screw-up who accidentally gets the job done in spite of himself. The character is self-questioning and self-loathing one minute until he gets someone to build him up a little bit then he's all cock-of-the-walk. He's not that guy in the Wes Anderson films, so I am still holding out hope that he's a cool guy, though his character in the Woody Allen flick, Midnight in Paris is pretty much this character, but with, if you can imagine it, even more talking. I do think that Owen's character is actually particularly suited for this movie to play opposite of Eddie's character who is egotistical and confident in the extreme. I also think that this character type, being Owen's not Eddie's, grinds at me a little bit more than it should because of my own lack of confidence - seeing someone who can so easily overcome his own is galling, because it's arbitrary and comedic, not earned through hard work. Or like, you know, whatever.
Let's be honest, the only reason to watch this film is Famke. There, I've said it. She was super hot when this came out when she was 37, and she was super hot in Taken 2 which came out when she was 47 (I know it's not polite to say, but she's 48 now). Granted that I may be crushing a little bit, but I actually thought her acting was really good. Actually, I think this every time I see her and a number of other actors - they're attractive women who are good actors, but are limited by Hollywood to the roles that are concerned with the former and not the latter. My great hope is that as they age, they are afforded the opportunities of the Meryl Streeps, Susan Sarandons and Sally Fields, or almost any British actor.
I-Spy on IMDb
Owen Wilson did this movie in between the two films with Jackie Chan in the Shanghai series, but essentially it's the same character, which is a slightly less annoying version of the character he plays in all the films he is in with Vince Vaughn. He's the amiable screw-up who accidentally gets the job done in spite of himself. The character is self-questioning and self-loathing one minute until he gets someone to build him up a little bit then he's all cock-of-the-walk. He's not that guy in the Wes Anderson films, so I am still holding out hope that he's a cool guy, though his character in the Woody Allen flick, Midnight in Paris is pretty much this character, but with, if you can imagine it, even more talking. I do think that Owen's character is actually particularly suited for this movie to play opposite of Eddie's character who is egotistical and confident in the extreme. I also think that this character type, being Owen's not Eddie's, grinds at me a little bit more than it should because of my own lack of confidence - seeing someone who can so easily overcome his own is galling, because it's arbitrary and comedic, not earned through hard work. Or like, you know, whatever.
Let's be honest, the only reason to watch this film is Famke. There, I've said it. She was super hot when this came out when she was 37, and she was super hot in Taken 2 which came out when she was 47 (I know it's not polite to say, but she's 48 now). Granted that I may be crushing a little bit, but I actually thought her acting was really good. Actually, I think this every time I see her and a number of other actors - they're attractive women who are good actors, but are limited by Hollywood to the roles that are concerned with the former and not the latter. My great hope is that as they age, they are afforded the opportunities of the Meryl Streeps, Susan Sarandons and Sally Fields, or almost any British actor.
I-Spy on IMDb
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Shanghai Knights (2003)
Okay, first things first. Last night I watched a movie (Savages) starring Aaron Johnson acting opposite a character named Chon. Tonight I watch with Aaron Johnson where he gets third billing (also what he got in Savages) where he plays opposite another character named Chon, this one played by Jackie Chan. The statistical improbability of my doing this seems pretty staggering. I'm guessing in all of the movies that feature Aaron Johnson and a character named Chon (not to mention Aaron Johnson in third billing) these have to be the only two. And then to randomly check them out and watch them back to back? There is some kind of cosmic message here. If only I can figure it out, I think I might be unable to unlock my superpowers. Wait, did I actually write that last bit? I can hear a particular friend calling me a dork already.
How often can you truly say that the movie was exactly what you expected? This is one of those movies. Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson reprise their roles from Shanghai Noon and this time go to London to fight bad guys. It had plenty of martial arts action, much of it with a comic edge as has become Chan's trademark. There is lots of witty banter between the two leads, well banter anyways and much of that entertaining if predictable. There is a pretty girl for Wilson's character to pine over. They mess around a little bit with history doing silly things like having Arthur Conan Doyle working as a detective at Scotland Yard while they are in London, and a street urchin by the name of Charlie Chaplin. Not to mention the best little play on time, when Jack the Ripper mistakenly targets the beautiful Fann Wong playing the character Chan's character's sister. She easily dispatches with him sending him to a watery grave in the Thames. Who knew?
While I thoroughly enjoyed this film, I can see why they didn't make a third. After this, Chan went on to make the Rush Hour movies with Christ Tucker and Wilson tried his hand at a couple of serious films and then teamed up with Eddie Murphy for a comedic spy thriller, before moving on to team-up with Vince Vaughn for a bunch of shitty comedies. ('I left out all of Wilson's wonderful work with Wes Anderson which was going on before he teamed up with Chan and continued after it as well.)
Shanghai Knights on IMDb
How often can you truly say that the movie was exactly what you expected? This is one of those movies. Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson reprise their roles from Shanghai Noon and this time go to London to fight bad guys. It had plenty of martial arts action, much of it with a comic edge as has become Chan's trademark. There is lots of witty banter between the two leads, well banter anyways and much of that entertaining if predictable. There is a pretty girl for Wilson's character to pine over. They mess around a little bit with history doing silly things like having Arthur Conan Doyle working as a detective at Scotland Yard while they are in London, and a street urchin by the name of Charlie Chaplin. Not to mention the best little play on time, when Jack the Ripper mistakenly targets the beautiful Fann Wong playing the character Chan's character's sister. She easily dispatches with him sending him to a watery grave in the Thames. Who knew?
While I thoroughly enjoyed this film, I can see why they didn't make a third. After this, Chan went on to make the Rush Hour movies with Christ Tucker and Wilson tried his hand at a couple of serious films and then teamed up with Eddie Murphy for a comedic spy thriller, before moving on to team-up with Vince Vaughn for a bunch of shitty comedies. ('I left out all of Wilson's wonderful work with Wes Anderson which was going on before he teamed up with Chan and continued after it as well.)
Shanghai Knights on IMDb
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Shanghai Noon (2000)
I figured that after a string of bad comedies, I would go for an action/comedy film that I knew was funnyish and had a happy ending, this latter more for compensating for the last film than the comedies. You can't go wrong with Jackie Chan when it comes to fast-paced martial arts action with some jokes thrown in. This is at least my second time watching this film, maybe my third. Somehow, I've never seen the sequel, so now I will have to go looking for that.
I like Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson together. Wilson's kind of humor and the character's penchant for avoiding actual physical combat make for a nice counterpost to Chan's kung-fu action. Actually, I tend to like Wilson's work with the exception of Midnight in Paris, where I just thought the whole script was bad and all the actors were flat and close to yelling their lines at each other for significant portions of the film. Maybe I just don't understand Woody Allen because I'm not intellectually endowed enough to understand the fine nuances of his work. What I do know is that every time Wilson teams up for a flick with Vince Vaughn, it makes long to see Wilson in another Allen flick. Not that I want to see Wilson typecast, but I like him best in comedies and Wes Anderson films. I realize that these two subsets of the movie world are not mutually exclusive, but I'm not exactly sure how to classify the Anderson films. Parts of them are hilarious and parts are damned depressing and parts are just different, but the total is always a good film.
The real treat in this movie are the women. I was just listening to a news item earlier today about how women are under-represented in film, the magic number being 17% in regards to starring roles and 28% in regards to speaking roles. That doesn't even take into account all of the women that are there as sexual objects only. There certainly are a lot of women running around in skimpy outfits, and far fewer women than men have speaking parts in this fiilm. At least the two female leads (who are in significantly less of the movie than the two male leads) are not simply there as window dressing. Lucy Liu plays Princess Pei Pei, who is strong-willed and after discovering the plight of the Chinese in America stands up to fight for them and protect them. We also have Brandon Merrill as the "Indian Wife" (I kid you not, that is what the credits call her), who literally saves the main male leads bacon every time they are just about to killed. Both women are capable of taking care of business and doing it with grace. Actually, in the mandatory-for-westerns bar brawl, one of the "ladies of the house" is easily the best fighter in the room, with the exception of Chan.
WAtching this has made me nostalgic for other Jackie Chan movies - I think I will have to track down the series he did with Chris Tucker. I'm not sure they made only three of those or if they made a fourth one, but I've only seen two of them, and the second one, I missed a chunk in the middle of it as something came up when I was trying to watch it. I haven't seen a new Jackie Chan movie in a while, but I'm sure that he must still be making them, so nothing is stopping except lack of slots in my holds queue at the library.
Shanghai Noon at IMDb
I like Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson together. Wilson's kind of humor and the character's penchant for avoiding actual physical combat make for a nice counterpost to Chan's kung-fu action. Actually, I tend to like Wilson's work with the exception of Midnight in Paris, where I just thought the whole script was bad and all the actors were flat and close to yelling their lines at each other for significant portions of the film. Maybe I just don't understand Woody Allen because I'm not intellectually endowed enough to understand the fine nuances of his work. What I do know is that every time Wilson teams up for a flick with Vince Vaughn, it makes long to see Wilson in another Allen flick. Not that I want to see Wilson typecast, but I like him best in comedies and Wes Anderson films. I realize that these two subsets of the movie world are not mutually exclusive, but I'm not exactly sure how to classify the Anderson films. Parts of them are hilarious and parts are damned depressing and parts are just different, but the total is always a good film.
The real treat in this movie are the women. I was just listening to a news item earlier today about how women are under-represented in film, the magic number being 17% in regards to starring roles and 28% in regards to speaking roles. That doesn't even take into account all of the women that are there as sexual objects only. There certainly are a lot of women running around in skimpy outfits, and far fewer women than men have speaking parts in this fiilm. At least the two female leads (who are in significantly less of the movie than the two male leads) are not simply there as window dressing. Lucy Liu plays Princess Pei Pei, who is strong-willed and after discovering the plight of the Chinese in America stands up to fight for them and protect them. We also have Brandon Merrill as the "Indian Wife" (I kid you not, that is what the credits call her), who literally saves the main male leads bacon every time they are just about to killed. Both women are capable of taking care of business and doing it with grace. Actually, in the mandatory-for-westerns bar brawl, one of the "ladies of the house" is easily the best fighter in the room, with the exception of Chan.
WAtching this has made me nostalgic for other Jackie Chan movies - I think I will have to track down the series he did with Chris Tucker. I'm not sure they made only three of those or if they made a fourth one, but I've only seen two of them, and the second one, I missed a chunk in the middle of it as something came up when I was trying to watch it. I haven't seen a new Jackie Chan movie in a while, but I'm sure that he must still be making them, so nothing is stopping except lack of slots in my holds queue at the library.
Shanghai Noon at IMDb
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
The Wedding Crashers (2005)
What is up with me and Christopher Walken movies lately? I can't seem to get away from the guy. How many more can there be? I should have pretty much run out of them by now. But, in all due fairness to Mr. Walken, He was only like the fourth most annoying person in this movie, right behind Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson and Will Farrell. That kind of makes it worth, because each of these three guys I've seen in plenty of things that I like, though admittedly not together. There is one Walken movie that I like, but I can't remember what it's called, I think it has Eric Stoltz in it though and Walken is either an angel or the devil. Hmm. If I can find that on DVD or online, I'll watch that, because even if it turns out that it totally sucked (it probably did, but that's okay I like plenty of sucky movies), it still has to be better than this film.
I know what you're thinking, "Eric, how could you not know what you were getting yourself into?" Point well taken. I just wanted to watch something funny. It was sitting there looking at me. I was in the mood to watch something that I hadn't seen before, and voila! Crap happened.
It's not just this movie that throws me off, it's this whole genre of comedies - the ones where the guys are lovable assholes that are always fucking people over until one day, they accidentally fall in love with the girl they were just leading along. Awkward and stupid scenes follow until the girl admits that she really feels the same and wants to be with the asshole. Not only do I realize that this set-up is actually quite depressing now that I write it down, it's more that the guy is shameless in a particular way. He is shameless in how horrible he is to anyone that is not him. The other kind of shameless, the guy who will do anything for the laugh, I often find them quite funny and often respect their artistic decisions (think Ken Jeong here in every movie he has ever been in, or as Chang on Community). That's my lame epiphany for the day - assholes being mean to people is not comedy.
There were a couple of okay bits in the movie, like how Dwight Yoakam and Rebecca De Mornay make a great couple in the opening scene. Or, when the credits start to roll. I would have to say that those were my two favorite parts.
The Wedding Crashers on IMDb
Thursday, December 06, 2012
Midnight in Paris (2011)
I wanted really hard to like this movie. Time travel. Owen Wilson. Paris. This should totally rock. Yet, it doesn't. The first fifteen minutes of this movie were the longest fifteen minutes in a very long time. Then I remembered that I'm not smart enough or maybe I'm not cool enough. Well, I'm definitely not cool enough for Woody Allen. Perhaps I just lack the intellectual prowess. I definitely lack the intellectual prowess.
How many Woody Allen movies have I seen? Too many. I keep hoping that one day they will just click and I will see the true genius behind the witty banter. But I never do. I always just find it a little banal.
But, on the plus side, the music in this movie is great. It's kind of an upbeat jazzy guitar thing. Allen uses it during cut scenes and movement scenes. I wish the movie itself was more like the music.
I know that I've said that I think that Allen's films rely on banal dialogue, I"m sorry, I mean genius dialogue that I don't understand and think is banal. This film in particular though is incredibly pretentious. Again, I must apologize, I mean this film is genius, but my limited cognitive abilities can only see it as pretentious. I mean if Woody Allen thinks that he can write his normal characters, plus write dialogue that is spoken by Hemingway, Picasso, Fitzgerald and others; then he must have nailed it because he is the premiere intellectual movie makers ever.
meh.
It sucks being so stupid and uncool that I don't get how brilliant this movie is.
Midnight in Paris at IMDb
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