In the next few days Ill be posting my reviews for some of the best film Oscar nominees. These are my reflections on the films after the first screening. First up, a Bostanian epic pronounced The De-pah-ted. Will I be watching the Oscars? No, awards shows ended for me back when Titanic took the night. You just cannot top a gigantic recreation of a doomed Atlantic ship matched completly with sight and song all on one stage. You cant..
Bamf her rematerializing from the void...
There is a sad lack of creativity in the movie business these days. More so, a lack of new ideas and fresh original concepts. Hollywood blames the rise of the home theatre; the 5.1 surround sound and flat screen monitor are the thieves of their ticket dollars. They say that the folks will stay at home because the big screen no longer offers anything unique to them. There is a rush to get 3-D into the cinemas with George Lucas and James Cameron pushing the technology forward. While a neat idea, its still not quite there yet. I saw Superman Returns in I-Max 3-D and had an exploding migraine by the end. Perhaps I was little late on my 4pm cocktail, but damn did that movie hurt.
I don’t feel Hollywood needs immersive entertainment experiences to fill those seats. They need to create experiences that are immersivly entertaining. The public wants original interesting content, not crappy late 70’s-80’s television shows (cancelled long ago btw) brought to the big screen. One could argue that the reason we see film actors going to network TV is because there is more daring subjects tackled in a 22 episode season versus 2 hours and 25 minutes of screen time.
Now the trend of imports has risen. The Weinstein’s are re-releasing films that played in Asia years ago. Redubbed for your pockets pilferage. I blame Jackie Chan. A HK film Infernal Affairs was remade for the American audience. Where is the originality? Are we so intellectually bankrupt that our finest filmmakers have to look over seas for content? Or is the Hollywood system simply ignoring the risky stories, afraid to tell or show something that might offend, incite or *shudder * fail?
Scorseses new film The Departed opens this weekend and I ask you, why should you see this? Infernal Affairs directed by two androgynously named Asian directors is supposed to be pretty good, so why remake it? We (America) seem like the leech of the world right now. Can you imagine what Lucas would say if some great Asian Director asked to remake Star Wars with a ensemble Asian cast? You don’t have too, he’d say F off. But that is what is precisely going on right now.
So why would you want to see a film this weekend called The Departed directed by Martin Scorsese, a man whom has eyebrows bushier then Farrah Faucets vagina after chemo (zing!)? I’m not entirely sure who would like to see an incredible ensemble American cast. A cast that has more chemistry together then any of the Oceans films, no matter how much they invent it on Oprah. I don’t know why a movie should even be worth your time when it is sad when its funny, and funny when its sad. Leonardo Dicaprio sucks. He totally makes you forget he was ever Jack and that he ever did a film called The Beach. He sucks so badly because he’s so F ing good. Everyone is. Jack Nicholson sucks too. His performance borderlines a reprisal of The Joker, and would be likened to seeing Samuel L. Jackson playing Jules from Pulp Fiction again. Which would be awesome, but something that will never happen, which sucks. All the aforementioned suck only because it is a REMAKE. However, it is a remake that I adore.
Other Suckables
Matt Damon: Sucks
Mark Wahlberg: Sucks
Alec Baldwin: Sucks
Martin Sheen: Sucks
(suck means deliciously amazing)
The only person that didn’t suck in this movie was Nas a rapper, and he wasn’t even in it. It’s just a song you hear in the background that he did a while back. Nas doesn’t suck, because he is horrible. There I said it.
In case you are not picking up what I’m putting down. The Departed was great. The film had me twisting in my seat. There were gasps of shock in the audience, amorous laughter and biting of nails. In the year 2006, The Departed it the best film I have seen so far, but it’s still just a remake. *sigh *