So many movies, so many movies, where do I start?
Money Train
I only watched it because it was about to expire. Never realized it took place over Christmas/New Years, but I was kinda hoping that would play in a little more, maybe with a crazy crook Santa or something. Chris Cooper has an interesting concept of a Lethal Weapon like killer who sets people on fire, but he's not directly related to the actual robbery. The movie is about Wesley Snips and Woody Harrelson robbing the armoured car of the subway lines, but that's the last half hour, it's like the ending was grafted on. I thought that really should have been the WHOLE movie, since, you know, that's what we came to see. We want a crazy robbery comedy and this was just an hour of lead-up to it. Of course, in movies like this that are about one actual event, the whole event is so short that the rest of the movie is just wasting time.
Of course, I thought that Jennifer Lopez would have a lot more to do in this movie. Something more along the lines of her part in...
Out of Sight
Loved it. Loved it loved it, great snappy dialogue, and yeah, I totally felt that this was part of an expanded universe. And I love how it was shot, it looked like a "movie" in the best possible way.
Killer Joe
Oh my god I loved this movie too. I heard it was **** crazy, and it was, and it's got actors I love seeing: Emile Hirsch, Thomas Hayden Church, the somehow hypnotizing Juno Temple (who's kind of got a perfect body for movies, she's so short you can fit her all in frame and still see her face and eyes clearly). And when Matthew Mac (as I'll call him because I'm not gonna look it up) gets a role that lets him actually ACT, like he does in this movie, he's really fun to watch. He's just drippingly cold and indifferent. He's not evil, I don't think, just direct and no-nonsense taken to the extreme.
And of course, on the Matthew Mac fix, I followed THAT up with
Magic Mike
...and he's in the first scene. It really changes your perspective on him. I was kind of waiting for that evil guy to show up again. And I was really wishing that the guys Adam owed money too were the same guys who Emile Hirsch owed money to in "Killer Joe," that would have been AMAZING!
And you know from the start, somehow, that this is a real downhill spiral. I really don't think there's a happy ending, just an escape (not to spoil it), but I honestly think the main issue, having a crooked business partner and getting into drugs, is probably common in a LOT of people's jobs. Pizza delivery, for sure, big drug havens there I understand. But that's not glamorous. And there's a certain fun and glamour to the lifestyle and montage of male strippers. And they certainly do make a point of making it feel fun and exciting and intoxicating.
And since dancing is a big part of the movie, I followed that with...
Make It Happen
...which I've known the visuals of since it came out, cause Mary Elizabeth Winstead dancing about in skimpy outfits, come on. But I'd never actually sat and watched it and it was weak sauce. It took forever to get to the points you knew the movie was going for. The story is pretty simple, you have your poor but idealistic girl (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) going to Chicago to get into dance school, fails, and winds up dancing at a club. That's the previews. But she doesn't even get on stage until the halfway point, HALFWAY through the movie! Half way!
There's no antagonist, there's no sense of stakes, the relationship she has with the DJ (which is totally clean, they almost imply they make out but they're smart enough not to, she's a "good girl," you see) there's no real complications or "real" drama or ANYTHING like that. And given that it takes half the movie to get her on stage, it's just BORING. There's two songs before she gets to Chicago, which should have been the START of the movie. And of course, if she doesn't even make out with her boyfriend, you think we're gonna see anything good?
Best we see is her sports bra at her final audition, that and skintight pants (and she looks UH MAY ZING), which is actually a hot sexy dance (and she even backflips, Magic Mike style! Whoo!) but it doesn't feel like it's summing up everything she's learned. Yeah, it's the ending from Flashdance (think about that title for a second if you don't recognize it). Which brings up a whole other issue that I have with these types of movies, that everything revolves around one gatekeeper, which is so out of date now. I also have the question what good the dance school really is, what do the graduates do, what is that degree worth? And exactly what kind of work does a graduate dancer get? How much paid dancing is there? I thought she would recognize that she's got her career started early, you know?
Also, in the movie, Chicago is just flush with young people. There's no ACTUAL adults, no grown people, everyone you see is young and pretty, I'm kind of annoyed by that.
I did notice that the dance club (which is kinda burlesque but not dirty burlesque, they actually DO wear clothes) has a lot of FEMALE fans, which I would have HOPED would be commented on (you know I'D comment on it), but if MEW doesn't even screw the DJ, you know lesbians don't exist. Oh, and I ALSO wished that the DJ had mixed his own "get it on" music, that would have been GREAT!
It's weak. Just weak. Just look up the dance numbers, particularly the umbrella dance, which I posted in the "stripteases" thread on here, and your good.