The Informant (2009)

Dir: Stephen Soderbergh
Warner Blu-ray

This is true story (or so we're told) of a man (Matt Damon) working for a large food additive company that is afraid of getting fired so he concocts a huge lie based around corporate espionage that leads to more lies that ultimately leads to Damon blowing the whistle on the company he works for to the FBI for price fixing with competitors. This man is both a moron and a genius. He's a well educated manipulator that doesn't know when to quit, or shut up. The film is good for a few chuckles but never achieves or really strives for laugh-out-loud funny even though several comedians cameo through out the film. Visually it looks like a Soderbegh film with orange and blue lighting prominently on display along with hand held camera work. Tapping Marvin Hamlisch to do the score sets the mood perfectly for the tone and pace of the movie. It's fine that Matt Damon put on weight to play the main role, but what about all those chubby actors out there that need a break? This isn't one of Soderbergh's best but it's good for a viewing, it just may not stick with you long afterward.

6/10

How To Train Your Dragon (2010)

Dir: Dean DeBlois & Chris Sanders
3-D Theatrical Viewing

Animated films have really hit a comfort zone these days. There is a formula that I see that keeps getting repeated and it works just about every time. Take a quirky, oddball boy, have is father be the opposite of him and a widower, mix in a tough, smart girl, and then let the boy prove everyone's expectations wrong and change the way they think. You hit all your bases so all you have to do is pick the setting. An island in need of food, a panda that learns kung-fu, or vikings fighting dragons. Now I like vikings and dragons, so I'm in. Jay Baruchel plays Hiccup, the boy, Gerard Butler is his father, and America Ferrera as the tough girl. Battles are fought and lessons are learned. The animation is top notch computer generated fare, the story is safe, and there are plenty of comedy stars rounding out the supporting cast. Formula achieved. The only thing I didn't understand is why the grown up vikings were Scottish?

8/10

Jennifer's Body (2009)

Dir: Karyn Kusama
Fox Blu-ray

Is there anything worse than watching fake teenagers pretend to be hip and say things like "indie rock band"? No. And that's exactly what you're in for with this painfully dull wanna-be cult film that tries way too hard to make you think it's a subversive classic. It helps that if you make a horror comedy to try and include at least one if not both of those aspects. Megan Fox is simply embarrassing as the twenty five year old high school senior that is possessed by a demon and kills off her classmates to gain energy. There's nothing new or exciting happening here, the story is no different than a million other straight to cable quickies. It was the kind of experience that you want your friends to be in on so you can make fun of what you're watching, but if you are viewing it alone, you feel embarrassed and are constantly afraid someone will catch you. I don't even want to put a pic up.

1/10

The Tiger's Tail (2006)

Dir: John Boorman
MGM DVD

So chronologically I jumped ahead a quarter of a century but I never pretended to have a method. This is one of four films that Boorman has made with actor Brendan Gleeson, who stars here as a successful developer in Ireland. One day while sitting in traffic, a man wipes down his window, and it looks like a disheveled version of himself. He loses sight of the man but sees him pop up a few more times before he is led on a chase into a muddy area where he gets stuck and the double races back to take his place. The film that follows is more of a meditation on self, in an existential sense. It asks the question of who we really are other than who we pretend to be. The details of the plot could actually be rather frustrating if taken at face value as it's peppered with logic problems and moments where you'll ask "why doesn't he just do...?" While I was intrigued by the premise, the movie has an uneven flow to it, some supporting characters get too much screen time, or not enough if we were supposed to be more concerned with them. And quite frankly there is a scene with Gleeson's wife (played by Kim Cattrall?) and his double that can't be construed as anything but rape and feels sorely put of place here. The final scene comes across as a strangely compromised happy ending where everyone wins. While it had things about it I liked, I ultimately just couldn't recommend it.

4/10

A quick note about Boorman fest: As I write this I have not seen anymore of his films but have watched plenty of other things I need to catch up on writing about. I will continue with a few more selections and then move on to another subject (any suggestions?). I felt that I got a very good sense of what kind of director Boorman is and hopefully pointed to those things without being repetitive. I hate to generalize, but with most artists it seems like their best work is their earliest, when they still have an energy to them you just can't fake.

Excalibur (1981)

Dir: John Boorman
Warner Bros. DVD

With Excalibur, Boorman attempts to tell the story of King Arthur, his father Uther, Merlin, and the Knights of the Round Table in two hours and twenty minutes. Here is where the problem lies. Several of the plot lines feel rushed while some scenes seem to linger past their expected time. It gives the movie a feeling of being both briskly paced and overly long. While I believe Boorman did the best he could with making a film that encompasses so much story into a 140 minute run time, this obviously would have benefited from a Lord of the Rings style trilogy treatment or editing the film down to just focus on one part of Arthur's life. The staging of the action is fine but never amazing and I have to question the decision to shoot the film in 1.85:1 as opposed to 2.35:1, it makes the experience too confining and not very grand in it's approach. It's a good film that could have been great. It's certainly better made and more serious than the rash of fantasy films produced in it's wake in the early eighties, but it's also not as fun. Of course being fun wasn't the goal, but a few of the performances are so over the top, it's like the actors only reference to the material was Monty Python and the Holy Grail. These moments are few, but I think it proves that Boorman is at his best when he tells a very specific story with minimal characters. An approach like that to this story would have been very interesting.

This is one of the oldest DVDs I own, I believe it was released in 1999. The film is certainly due for update in the quality department on home video. Hopefully there is a high definition transfer in the works.

6/10

Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)

Dir: John Boorman
Netflix streaming

So I was pretty enthusiastic about the first four films in my Boorman fest, unfortunately that all changed with the Exorcist II. The film has a pretty bad reputation and it certainly is far from perfect, but to Boorman's credit he does try and do something completely different from it's predecessor. This is probably the main reason for the disdain, the movie is the exact opposite of The Exorcist. While the original is tense and claustrophobic, this one opens the story up to the entire world, specifically to Africa where James Earl Jones plays a former victim of the demon. In doing this, we see that the world the film resides in, demon possession has nothing to do with a Christian mythology. This also opens the door to bring a rather silly subplot about mental telepathy. The story picks up with Reagan (Linda Blair) the child possessed in the first film and now a few years older. She meets a new priest (Richard Burton) at therapy who wants to know what Reagan remembers about her experience. This leads to world travel, psychic binds, and demon possession. The film is pretty lite on horror and overly long. I can only imagine that Boorman agreed to make the film after Zardoz because he felt like he needed a hit, but that's just speculation. I hate to dismiss the film outright, there are some interesting ideas going on in it, it just never clicks.

3/10

Point Blank (1967)

Dir: John Boorman
Warner Bros. DVD

Revenge, obviously a theme that strikes a nerve with numerous people as it is the subject of several films. It can be contributed to the fact that we've all felt wronged at some point or another and the country collectively felt wronged in the late sixties and into the early seventies, hence the amount of revenge thrillers being produced during the time. But revenge has never been as poetic and stylish as it is in Boorman's Point Blank. This is a film I have always been very fond of but haven't sat down to watch it in years. Thankfully the movie lived up to my memory plus some. From the second it started I was completely captivated, like I was watching it for the first time again. The story cuts back and forth showing us glimpses of a job gone wrong with Lee Marvin & John Vernon and shots of a determined Marvin walking down a long corridor, his ominously loud footsteps permeating the soundtrack. This sets the stage for Marvin's tale of being double-crossed by his partner and his wife and now being on the path to get back what's his, $93,000. Keenan Wynn plays a mysterious figure that helps Marvin down the road to the men he must deal with to get his cash. Vernon is convincingly slimy and menacing as the double-crosser in one of his first major screen roles. Angie Dickinson plays the sister of Marvin's double-crossing wife and is, well, perfectly cast as the woman everyone desires. Boorman brings a bubbling energy to the narrative that is constantly seething, just ready to explode in short bursts of artistic violence. Not only are the visuals and rhythm of the film skillfully manipulated by the film's director but, like the line readings in his other early films, the dialog is delivered in such a perfect way that it made me giddy. The film is based on one of Donald E. Westlake's "Parker" novels, although the main character here is named Walker. The same story was remade by Mel Gibson in his film Payback, which Boorman had nothing nice to say about the film or it's star saying "He seems to think he's Lee Marvin. Except he's two feet shorter. And about one third the talent." The disc has commentary with Boorman and film director Steven Soderbergh whom I presume is on it because his film, The Limey, seems directly inspired by this one, but I have yet to listen to it. I have to say that I would consider this one of my favorite films of all time.

10/10