Do the Right Thing

What was most interesting to me about this movie is that there were two sides to it, but they blended together extremely fluidly. It's sort of a comedy about every day life in the city, but it's also a searing, controversial drama about race. It seems like these aspects might not work well together, but they really do. This is only the second Spike Lee film I've seen so I can't really say a ton about him, but he does seem to have some interesting ideas.

The movie takes place mostly during a single, extremely hot day in Brooklyn. Lee plays Mookie, who has a sister he lives with, an extremely boisterous girlfriend played by Rosie Perez (and who dances in the opening credit sequence, which is so iconic that I recognized it instantly despite not having seen it before), and works at an Italian-owned pizza restaurant as a delivery boy. He goes about his day, delivering pizzas, avoiding the heat, and bumping into a number of the neighborhood eccentrics that surround him. A bit of tension, driven by the heat, slowly starts to boil as a couple people start to butt heads with Danny Aiello's Sal, the restaurant's owner. One is Buggin' Out, who takes issue with the fact that the place's "wall of fame" is populated exclusively by Italians, and who is played by Giancarlo Esposito, in a performance that is absolutely fascinating watching him play the endless calm and calculating Gus Fring on Breaking Bad. The other is Radio Raheem, who carries around a huge boom box blasting "Fight the Power", and who just seems to not like most people.

The movie goes along, introducing and spending time with its various characters, like John Turturro's Pino, the son of Sal, who's a racist but also hypocritical about it (he loves Eddie Murphy and Magic Johnson but justifies it by saying they're "not really black"), and Love Daddy, a fast-talking radio DJ who sort of acts as a narrator and is played by Samuel L. Jackson. Eventually though, the simmering tension comes to a head, in a series of events that unfold surprisingly quickly change the entire mood of the film. Mookie does something that has been much debated over time, but only really by white people. It's an act of violence that causes a full-on riot, but it also probably saved some people's lives. The movie's called "Do the Right Thing", and I think that he does, but the movie's not about supplying simple answers to complicated questions about race. The types of events that caused Lee to write the movie in the first place don't happen as often as they used to, but as long as they continue to occur anywhere, it's the kind of movie that people should be watching, if only to make them think a little bit.

Casino

Casino seems to be generally viewed as a rehash of Goodfellas, with director Martin Scorsese revisiting similar ideas with a similar cast, and not doing much to set it apart from his most recent gritty classic. Casino is basically just the same movie with more of everything - more violence, more swearing, a longer running time. So is it wrong that I actually like Casino more than Goodfellas? Yes, it's a somewhat excessive movie in some places, but isn't that the point? It's a movie about excess. It's based on the true story of America's most notorious criminal network during their most overtly violent and influential period operating in one of the world's biggest stages for pure capitalism. Las Vegas is bringing in obscene amounts of money, a ton of it is being stolen right off the top, and people got murdered left and right to keep them quiet. It would be disappointing if the movie wasn't over the top. And I enjoyed the hell out of it for most of its nearly three hours of running time.

The story stars and is heavily narrated by Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci playing mob guys from Chicago. De Niro is Ace, a Jewish money guy who gets tapped by the family to run one of their casinos, and Pesci is Nicky, an enforcer who's there to back him up. Both the actors and the characters have a lot of history together, and the movie returns to the unstable relationship they had in Raging Bull, though this time it's Pesci who's the crazy one. The Chicago accent prevents him from seeming like a total rip-off of his own character in Goodfellas, and if anything he's even more out there with his short temper and tendency towards extreme violence. Lots of people end up getting stuck in holes in the desert, and he's responsible for a lot of them. As time marches on and the feds keep building their case against them, they struggle to avoid killing each other as they continually blame each other for all the problems they have. Compounding the issue is Sharon Stone as Ace's wife, an out-of-control hustler/junkie who is even more manic that Pesci, those less prone to stabbing you for messing with her. She has a sleazy ex-boyfriend played by James Woods who does a lot to sell his scumbag nature without much screen time, and he instigates a lot of their marital troubles. Mob movie regular Frank Vincent is also around as one of Nicky's guys, and he does a solid job.

The three central figures are interesting, and while I eventually got kind of sick of Stone's overwrought performance, the combination of business and personal problems that pile on top of them over the course of the story add up to a hectic, exciting, wild ride. And it might be a pretty good movie with just that, but this is Martin Scorsese we're talking about, and this is probably the single greatest display of style and invention I've seen from him. There are long tracking shots that mix with extremely quick cuts that are narrated over by two different characters and all sorts of little touches and interesting moves that you don't really see anywhere else, and they all add up to a film that is almost too fun to watch. The soundtrack is filled with tons of period music that both tells you where you are in history and fits perfectly with the action, and it's hard to go five minutes at any time without seeing something new. It might be style over substance, but it also might be one of the best examples of that ever put on film. I like mob stories because they make you feel things you shouldn't for very bad people, and Casino does that almost as well as any movie you can name. I wasn't blown away by Goodfellas, and while I can see why people would be and why they would prefer it to Casino, I just can't agree with sentiment. The Godfather is the best crime movie ever made, and Casino is one of the most entertaining. The violence is hard to watch like violence should be. The family drama is painful like family drama should be. It's just a visceral, thrilling experience the whole way.

Raging Bull

I could sort of understand how Goodfellas didn't win for Best Picture. It was a very good movie, but for some reason I don't find it as transcendent as many others do. Raging Bull on the other hand... what more could Scorsese do? The black and white cinematography is probably the best I've ever seen. The way every single shot is framed seems to have a purpose and work exactly towards the movie's goals. The plot is pure, and the kind of thing the voters like - the true story of a brilliant boxer who is his own worst enemy thanks to some crippling insecurities and poorly made decisions. The cast is outstanding, particularly Robert De Niro in the role of a lifetime. He worked out into real fighting shape for the scenes as middleweight champion Jake LaMotta, and then gained sixty pounds to portray him in his later years. Add that physical sacrifice to the actual work he does in front of the camera, transforming himself into another person and dominating the screen while doing so - it's incredible. He rightly won the Oscar, but the performance would have meant little without the properly told story around it, and Scorsese went home empty handed for his efforts.

The actual boxing scenes don't take up a large amount of the film's time, but they're impeccably crafted by someone who was never really big into sports. The fight choreography is interesting and believable, and the myriad stylistic touches like the ring shrinking or growing based on LaMotta's psychology or the way everything goes wonky when he allows himself to get pummeled by Sugar Ray Robinson add a lot to it. Outside the ring the film is just as good, refusing to sugarcoat LaMotta's horrible treatment of his family and ignorance of correct social behavior but somehow making him sympathetic by doing so. He seems like a real person as much as anyone in a movie ever has, and along with everything else the movie is never an engrossing watch. You feel his frustration when he has to play along with the mob to get a title shot and his pure anger when he's imprisoned for something he didn't even think was a crime. Just as good as character studies get. Possibly my favorite Scorsese film I've yet seen.

The Sopranos - Season 6

This is the last season of The Sopranos, and also by far the longest. There was a long break after twelve episodes, and then they wrapped it up with another nine. To be honest, for a while, the show didn't feel like it was ending soon. It's hard to say a show so unafraid of killing characters off has a real formula, but as long as they kept pumping fresh blood in and keep the core cast together, the show could have gone on a lot longer. That was never the goal though. It's the story of Tony Soprano, and season six wraps it up while staying true to the original spirit. The beginning and end of the season are unique. In the first episode, Tony gets shot and spends a lot of the time in the hospital inside one of the show's famous dream sequences, although it's different than they usually are, and the last one in the series. Every "last" felt significant - the last psychiatrist visit, the last appearances by favorite characters. I still say The Wire is better, but there's no denying the brilliance or importance of The Sopranos. It's really amazing how these horrible criminals manage to become sympathetic. Not truly sympathetic, of course. They're despicable people I'd never want to meet. But I sure enjoy watching them live.

A few episodes from the finale, a particularly brutal beating by Tony defending his daughter's honor triggers the beginning of the end. You could say it started a bit earlier with the demise of a certain character, but the tone clearly shifts as the final conflict really falls into place and you just know that it's finally happening. The constant head-butting between Tony's crew and one of the New York families that has been going on for years turns into a war, and almost every moment is as intense as anything that's been on television. You can just tell in these shows when something bad is about to happen, and seeing it happen to some people is harder than it usually is. I was waiting to see how the ending fits into the rest of the show, and I have to admit I liked it quite a lot. Sure, I can see how doing what they did could be disappointing or even infuriating to people who have been watching for years, and maybe I would have reacted negatively if I didn't already know about it. But the final scene is just so perfectly constructed, and the ending just works with it so well, that I couldn't help but smile. It's not the most closure you'll ever get from a series finale, but it really is a great scene. I haven't really decided what I think happened, although I'm leaning one way. There are good, differing arguments about what could have happened. What did happen doesn't really bother me too much, though. It was a fitting conclusion to a great show.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

The third game in the trilogy, and flat-out one of the biggest ever.

With San Andreas, Rockstar full subscribed to the idea that bigger is better. The world is massive. It covers an entire state, containing not only three cities, each bigger than the ones in previous games, but also quite a lot of real estate in between, including forests, a desert, and many small towns. The soundtrack isn't as good as Vice City's, but still included a large variety of enjoyable music. They also improved the streaming technology, allowing you to go from anywhere outside to anywhere else without a single loading screen. It's quite an impressive feat, and really increases the scale of some of the bigger chases you can get into. There's a larger variety of vehicles you can use, including special ones like bicycles, tractors, and jetpacks, and there are many more indoor locations you can explore. The biggest gameplay change was the addition of a variety of role-playing elements, giving you full control over your character. CJ is always the same person in the story, but you can work out to make him buff or eat a lot to make him fat. There are several different clothes stores you can use to change your look (and how people react to you), and multiple girls you can befriend and date, giving you various bonuses for doing so. At the beginning, CJ is pretty bad at driving and shooting, but using the different kinds of vehicles and guns improves his performance with both.

With so much to do, the game could have gotten too big for its own good, but fortunately it didn't. It does an excellent job of balancing everything and easing you into it, keeping you focused on one major issue at a time. What was interesting was the distinct feeling and atmosphere in each of the three cities. The take off of Los Angeles is where everything starts and ends, and is full of the gangland warfare prominent during the time period. A lot of people can't get into that, but I thought they pulled it off pretty well. Taking over territory was an interesting diversion (as long as you didn't do too much of it the first time around, since all of your progress gets erased), and some of the things that happen near the end, like a riot in the city, are handled pretty well. Even if you don't like that culture, there's some more traditional Grand Theft Auto stuff in the other cities, where you tend to deal with other sorts of criminals, like a blind Yakuza in the driving-focused fake San Francisco and Italian Mafia in their version of Las Vegas, which includes a really cool, optional casino subplot.

CJ is a really well-rounded, likable character. He's not as independent as Tommy Vercetti, but he's a more sympathetic guy. The story follows him as he tries to help his family and rebuild his gang's status, while going after a pair of corrupt cops who have wronged him from the start. Some familiar faces show up, and the cinematics felt even more authentic once the developers learned they could get away with cussing. The missions are more elaborate than ever, and the game is filled with great moments, including countless spontaneous ones just screwing around with a friend in co-op. Some people complained that the RPG elements got in the way of the game, but that simply wasn't true, they almost always felt like an enjoyable addition, becoming a hassle on only a few small occasions. San Andreas was as big as it could get, but now it looks like Grand Theft Auto IV will be a more contained, tighter experience.

Grand Theft Auto III

In anticipation of Grand Theft Auto IV, which I should be getting my hands on soon, I'll talk a bit about the Playstation 2 trilogy that made me love the series.

Around the Christmas of 2001, there was a bit of a rivalry brewing between the PS2 and the new Xbox. Both systems had a high-profile game coming out. The PS2 had Metal Gear Solid 2, and the Xbox had Halo. But a lesser known game came out of nowhere to far more commercial success than either, a 3D sequel to a kitschy top-down driving series. It was GTA3, and it was a lot of fun. I remember playing it for the first time and being amazed by what I could do. It was the first true open-world game of its kind. The freedom was incredible. Going anywhere in the city, getting into fights with the different gangs, uncovering street races or secret jumps, listening to the hilarious talk radio station.

Of course, what we ended up doing a lot was just causing mayhem, recklessly plowing through pedestrian traffic with a semi truck and getting as many cop cars as you could to chase you. It was a revelation when we realized the best way to rack up stars on your wanted level was to attack people on foot instead of just running them over. And of courses, you could pick up prostitutes to heal you in exchange for money, and if you so chose, kill them afterward to get it back. Money was never an issue in the game, it was just a darkly humorous way to beat the system. Unfortunately, this single aspect of a huge, often quite intelligent game was focused on by media watchdogs and overzealous parents. They warped it, trying to make the game out to be training kids to be brutal killers, with the mistreatment of women in the forefront. Never mind that the series has never once instructed you to harm a prostitute, or any other person who could be considered an innocent bystander. It just allows it, letting you make yourself into any character you wanted. The game also allows you to use an ambulance to deliver people to a hospital and rewards you for doing it well, but I guess that doesn't sell newspapers as well.

Beyond the sandbox mayhem, the game also started the series' trend towards interesting storylines set up by very professionally handled cutscenes. The main character never spoke, but you still felt sympathy for him when he was betrayed and wanted to help him set things right. Working your way up the ladder, interacting with all the different movers and shakers in the criminal underworld, and having a hand in the direction the city takes was a hell of a lot of fun. Everybody latches on to the primitive technology and unsatisfactory weapon targeting now, but it wasn't that big of a deal back then, when you had so much choice in how you took care of things. Other games let you decide between picking off foes from a distance or getting in their face and making them explode, but few let you set up a barrier beforehand and block off their escape route. It started the trend of making the last couple of missions in the game a little too difficult, when you're faced with tons of guys with automatic weapons and the bad targeting really rears its ugly head, but finally getting it done is all the more satisfying. There were too many technical flaws, but when you just consider the scope of it and what it did for gaming as a whole, Grand Theft Auto III was a masterpiece.

Goodfellas

As far as "true stories" go, Goodfellas' is a pretty entertaining one. A little too much of it is narrated, although I'm sure that was less of a complete cliché at the time. It's a winding tale of growing up as part of the mafia, and how instantly things can change or go wrong. Henry Hill grew up envying and eventually joining a family, although he was always on the outside because of his non-Italian blood. The biggest obstacle to his success is Tommy, a guy he came up with who's friendly with him but a little too insanely violent for his own good. Tommy's played expertly by Joe Pesci, who won an Oscar for his efforts. I've seen better acting, but his embodiment of the roll is complete and there are tons of legendary scenes showcasing the real-life personality. Ray Liotta and Bob De Niro are also very good with their parts, more level-headed counterparts to Pesci and apparently very true to the people they mimicked.

I recognized several actors from the little I've seen of The Sopranos, including the therapist, played by Lorraine Bracco, who is also very good as Hill's wife, innocent at first but drawn into the world of crime. The movie as as much about Hill's home life as his work, and the development of their relationship along with his advancement in the ranks make an interesting story. This is one of the multiple occasions where many believe Martin Scorsese was robbed of the Best Director Oscar, which he eventually won with my 2006 movie of the year The Departed, and I can definitely see their argument. The construction of each scene is excellent, with some really great extended shots fleshing out the realistic vibe. There's also artistic handling of key moments, like the subtle perspective shift in an important diner scene late in the film I might not have noticed were it not point out to me, and the whole cast does great work for him. I really should have seen it sooner, but it's never too late to watch a good film.

Game Update 1

I got Call of Duty, its expansion, and its sequel on Steam for pretty cheap a while ago. I wrote about the first game a while ago (I haven't decided whether to throw all that stuff up here), but didn't get around to the others until recently.

Call of Duty: United Offensive (PC)


The expansion to the first game doesn't really add much to the experience and seems a bit weak because of it. They added the ability to cook grenades, which is nice but doesn't seem necessary. They added the worst sprint in the history of video games, which takes you out of the realism because of its implementation. The speed boost is only slight, but worse is that it only lasts for about a second before you have to slow down again and let the meter charge back up. One second seems like a reasonable amount of time for a highly-trained, elite soldier to be able to run, doesn't it?

The British campaign was probably my favorite part, with a cool change of pace being a gunner in a bomber plane (although the series' penchant for making you do all the real work became horribly exposed when two other gunners were killed and I had to man three positions while performing maintenance as the other survivor stayed stuck to his gun) and then later joining in some covert operations. The other sections are less inspired, as they rely on just throwing huge, overwhelming battles at you, and as fun as it is to shoot nazis, it just gets ridiculous somewhere along the way. It's an enjoyable expansion but doesn't bring much to the table.

Call of Duty 2 (PC)


The best change to the formula from the first full sequel was switching to a heal-over-time approach instead of littering health packs everywhere. It's just as unrealistic (and even seems a bit more plausible if you don't think about it too much), and works better for the kind of gameplay they're going for, where you have to stay in cover, make your shots, and then move on. If you charge the enemy, you're probably going to die, although it's fun to try.

The level design is also a little different. Often you're given multiple objectives at once, and you can tackle them however you want. Usually, you're clearing out buildings, which is fun for a while, but sometimes I would have preferred a little more variety like in the first game. There's enough interesting set pieces to keep you going, and it rarely strays into the annoying territory where it puts you in a weakly fortified position and sends endless waves of enemies at you until the cavalry comes (although it does still happen). It's still fun, although I wonder how much longer it will be.

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (PS2)


A new GTA game for 20 dollars new sounds like a great deal, and it is if you keep expectations in check knowing that the location is a rehash and it's a port from the PSP. It doesn't have the oomph of a normal new GTA game, since you already know the city, few gameplay innovations are present, and the story and missions are slightly dumbed down for a portable system. It's still a lot of fun though just to be in Liberty City again. The storyline missions aren't as meaty as we're used to, but it's still a good diversion. I basically used it as a backup game for a while, playing it for a bit when I didn't have anything else to do. Not a bad use of money. I got the sequel recently, I should finish it some time soon.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (PS3)


I'm not sure how well it works playing by yourself, but it's definitely a fun party game. Playing with three friends, working together, using your powers to help each other out, and ganging up on helpless enemies can be a blast. I got pretty far in the game on the Xbox, but we ended up never finishing that game, and I didn't see the end until I played it with a mostly different group on the PS3. It was just as fun, and looked better (besides the always horrid in-engine cutscenes), but the added SIXAXIS tilt functionality didn't add anything and seemed broken. Not only did it not seem to work at times, but a diagram with the controller and arrows showing where to tilt just isn't as easily recognizable as a color-coded button. It can be turned off though, so it didn't really hurt the experience. It's not the best or most polished game, but with a good group it can be an enjoyable, lengthy experience.