The Green Mile

The Green Mile is a good movie trying very hard to be a great one. It's Frank Darabont's second film from the 90s, and like The Shawshank Redemption, it is a period drama set mostly in a prison in early 20th century America, featuring a bond that forms between a white man and a black man, and based on a story by Stephen King. It also features a strong cast, and is undeniably well made even if you don't like the story. The film has an extremely stately pace and feel, almost to excess, and tugs very hard on your emotions, although it's not quite the same as Shawshank. One of the biggest reasons is that the plot actually has a supernatural element, one that would actually qualify the film as a kind of fantasy story, and one that I imagine would greatly surprise anyone who came into watching it blind, especially since this element doesn't actually surface until a full hour into the film. A lot of things are like that though, since it's three hours long when the story seems like it could have been told in two. I wouldn't say it was too long exactly, or that it ever really got boring, I just don't see what the benefit was to giving every single bit of story as much time as the producers would physically allow to develop.

So Tom Hanks is in charge of death row at a prison. Most of the prisoners are decent guys who did wrong, but the two that get brought in after the movie begins are different. Michael Clarke Duncan is a saintly giant, the ultimate version of the magical negro. Sam Rockwell is a deranged, freakish bastard. Hanks is the boss of several recognizable faces as the other guards, who are mostly good men like he is, except for Doug Hutchison's character, a privileged piece of shit with family connections who wants to watch a couple crooks fry before transferring to a better paying job. Sam Cromwell plays the warden, and Patricia Clarkson is his wife dying of a brain tumor. Those are pretty much all the pieces that will be shuffled around, as the guards learn more about Duncan's abilities and realize why he ended up getting sentenced to death for the rape and murder of two young girls. The acting is good all around, especially the two leads, with Hanks' weariness over what his job is doing to him and Duncan's otherworldly innocence, despite the stereotypical nature of the character. It really is a well produced film, and I liked the mixture of fantasy bits with an old fashioned southern drama. But it seems like the kind of thing I'd struggle mightily to ever watch again, and the whole movie is quite possibly just a bit up its own ass. Still, I liked it.

Friday

So yeah, this isn't part of that whole "watching the greatest movies ever made" thing. It's a simple low budget comedy, but a pretty good one for the most part. I wasn't expecting a lot out of Ice Cube's acting as Craig, but his hard edged persona actually works well with the silly material. Chris Tucker plays Smokey in what was his breakout role, and the two of them make for a pretty entertaining on-screen duo. The plot is as basic as they come - Craig lost his job yesterday, so he spends his now-free Friday hanging out with Smokey and watching the people in the neighborhood. Things get more complicated later, after Smokey accidentally smokes too much of the weed he was supposed to sell, and they get into some trouble with the dealers. Also the local bully causes some troubles. But all of the trouble they get into is pretty minor, and just a way to try to build some tension near the end of the movie and give it a climax. They're never really in a lot of danger, and things work out exactly as expected. Which is okay, because the movie's just supposed to be funny, and it mostly is. A few of the jokes are pretty broad and disappointing, like some easy scatalogical humor and a midget being funny because he's a midget. But for the most part it's an easygoing movie with a few likable comedic performances and a decent soul behind it. It's just nice to see a side to 90s LA that's a bit more fun. I don't know about the sequels though, especially without Tucker's strong personality holding them up.

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

300 posts. I don't know if I should be proud or ashamed of myself.

Talladega Nights was much funnier than I thought it would be. I'm not sure why my expectations were low, I guess I just might be growing out of stupid comedies a bit, but it wasn't as dumb as I assumed. They could have just made fun of rednecks and NASCAR for a couple hours, but there were lots of clever moments and pretty good wordplay that made it quite funny in spots. Even when characters were just insulting each other, the specific insults were usually pretty darn good. It was especially great hearing it from Ricky's two kids, who were horrible brats in the beginning but ended up as articulate gentlemen.

Will Ferrell's schtick of picking a random, usually sports related profession and doing a movie about it is getting a little tiring, but he's been likable whenever I've seen him on the screen (I just realized I've never seen one of his movies in theaters, which is weird), and does a good job carrying this movie. John C. Reilly plays his sidekick and best friend, who's very dedicated but completely lacks common sense. Sacha Baron Cohen is also good as the villain to the story. They use the character as a simple excuse for a lot of French and gay jokes, but he provides a lot of amusement as well. The rest of the cast also does a pretty good job keeping things funny, including known names like Michael Clarke Duncan and Amy Adams. The dialogue is a strong point of the script if the pacing isn't. It felt like Ricky spent too little time doing well and too much wallowing in his own failure before recovering in the obvious return-to-glory storyline. Instead of spending time establishing the situation, there were some pretty drawn-out scenes that were strictly for laughs, although I suppose I can't fault a comedy for having those. In the end, I liked the movie quite a bit.

God of War II

The first God of War was exciting and ambitious, but flawed. Its sequel doesn't fix all of its problems, but it is still an improvement on the formula and in most ways the better game. A lot of people will always like the original more because it was new, it was fresh, and all that. But I appreciate it when a sequel builds on the predecessor, refining what makes it great and dropping what didn't work, while making sure to keep it interesting and maybe taking it to the next level. They certainly do that with the scale and brutality in this game. At times it seems almost too epic, like when you leap from the back of a Pegasus onto a Griffin while flying thousands of feet in the air, slice off its wings and spike it to the earth below. The massive temple environments are extremely impressive, and the scale of your journey is just so much larger. A quest of vengeance against Ares seems pedestrian next to the goal of changing the course of time to defeat Zeus himself. The end sets up a third game to end the story arc brilliantly, and the sequel on PS3 has the potential to be amazing.

They added a lot more boss fights this time around, although a lot of them aren't as impressive as the ones in the first game. Fighting gigantic statues and sea creatures is awesome, but a lot are against people more your size and less interesting mechanically. None of them are bad though, and it's interesting how the game depicts you as killing off various famous Greek heroes and icons like the Colossus of Rhodes brought to life. Oh, so an angry dude took it down, not an earthquake. The combat was refined a little, and it was nice to see the inclusion of some new weapons, although none of them handled as well or as enjoyably as the classic chain blades. They added some new context sensitive maneuvers and platforming elements which mostly integrated well into the gameplay. I still think the inclusion of puzzle and adventure elements is what really makes God of War more enjoyable than the average button-mashing action game, and it's still a lot of fun. Unfortunately, they haven't run out of truly annoying ideas that make you want to grab the designer by the throat and ask him what the hell he was thinking. Combat is fun, but not when you have to do it to give yourself time to rotate a lever or something, and failing to do so quickly enough results in your death. It's not more exciting, it's just irritating, frustrating garbage. At least that stuff is limited to a much smaller role than in the first game. What they were able to still do with the PS2 hardware is incredible, and it's a terrific finale for the console.