Stone has made a gaudy crime drama that meanders around for much of its first hour and then springs into action during the second. The film does get better as it goes on but it's not much fun. There is a good deal of suspense that borrows from the sexual-sadistic thrills of films like "Saw" or "Hostel". It's true that Mexican drug cartels employ techniques of persuasion that make films like "Hostel" look pretty tame by comparison. But the suspense in "Savages" could use a little more seduction and a lot less visual shocks and jolting sound fx to keep its audience engaged. There are enjoyments to be had in Stone's film, mostly from Salma Hayek, Benicio Del Toro and John Travolta's different takes on the human foibles of adult corruption. Hayek and Del Toro are particularly good and a pleasure to watch. The three younger actors, Kitsch, Johnson and Lively are lovely ciphers. The screenplay includes enough of Winslow's novel to give the story some writerly dimension and humor. Stone's contribution appears to have been in illustrating the fragments of Winslow's novel in dazzling, sensual and gaudy camera work and staging.
Reviews
6 Reviews
The Brothers Karamazov
(1969)
A mixed bag
6 July 2011
Some good performances, particularly Mark Prudkin as Fyodor Pavlovich, but the film's overbearing theatricality works against the drama of Dostoevsky's novel. The staginess is also not supported by the production design so the storm and stress performances feel ill matched to their realistic backgrounds. There's not much of a cinematic style to the film either and what there is is rather unimaginative. There's very little humor in the film for an adaptation of a novel that can be deeply and unsettlingly funny. And then there's the strange, wrong headed casting of Andrey Myagkov as Alyosha, arguably the central point of view of the novel. Myagkov's Alosha is a doltish void, somewhat of a holy fool, a characterization that might be found in other Dostoevsky novels but not in this one. All in all, a disappointment, not as embarrassing as the Yul Brenner adaptation but just as vulgar in its own way.
Piccadilly Jim
(1936)
A genuinely successful comic adaptation of Wodehouse
6 June 2011
Not an easy thing to do but the great screenwriter Charles Brackett (and co) and the director Robert Z. Leonard get the speed, the slightly demented humor and, amazingly enough, the knowing social commentary lying underneath the jokes. There's a line up of superb character actors with Eric Blore giving what must be his greatest "gentleman's gentleman" performance. It's a comic performance that is both delightfully silly and surprisingly complex. When he mistakenly tells his master that he loves him, it's believable on a number of levels. And his terror in encountering America's lack of concern with the British class system is beautifully played. One can quibble with Madge Evans as the leading lady. She's game and likable enough but neither enough of an actress to create ample character shadings for interest nor enough of a movie star to command with a variety of facial expressions. But Robert Montgomery's leading man makes up for the unbalance.
Dramatic School
(1938)
Memorable performances and a surprisingly subtle script
23 January 2010
Warning: Spoilers
It's somewhat indifferently directed but it has well drawn characters that the actors play to their advantage. Luise Rainer's romantic and urbane intensity can be off putting on film. She's too much of a stage actress and her Austrian accent, though charming, is too pronounced to successfully worm its way into our collective American movie-fan heart. We're always looking at her but we never start to look through her. Paulette Godard is great as a cynical fellow actress and rival to Rainer. She pulls off the moments where her hard boiled facade starts to crack beautifully. Another fantastic performance by character actor Henry Stephenson who has a scene where he has to tell his son that the he'll never be a decent actor because he doesn't have any talent. It's also great to see Lana Turner, who hadn't lost her baby fat yet, in a small role. But the surprise of the movie is how unsentimental it's take is on the realities of show business. Even thought the film pumps in the romantic music at the film's conclusion, it's clear to anyone who has been watching closely that Luise Rainer's character is not as ingenuous as she seems. Her character is a born actress and knows how to melt the hearts of not only an audience but anyone who stands in the way of her career.
One of the best adaptations ever made.
11 October 2005
The essence of the novel is condensed but not compromised. The faces chosen to portray the characters are disarmingly human. The connections between the characters are focused and believable. The interiors that the characters live in and the clothes they wear seem lived in and commonplace rather than a production designer's fantasy. The same can be said for the telling of the story. It is still about romantic love but it has an edge of the battlefield about it. The soulfulness that lies under the surface in Austen's novels is brought to the forefront. In it's own way, this is a very radical film... radical in its simplicity and in the care taken to make Austen's world come alive on it's own terms.
Cannonball Run II
(1984)
Character Actor Epic
19 June 2000
There's dead camp and then there's live camp. Cannonball Run II gets funnier and funnier each time I see it on TV. What is it that speaks to me? Is it Dom DeLouis bounding around in a red satin cape and a black mask with CHAOS written across the forehead? Is it the love scene between Sammy Davis, Jr. and Charles Nelson Reilly? Is it Molly Picon showing up just when you thought the movie had unearthed every out of work character actor in Hollywood? No, what makes this movie special is that so many of the tiny cameos, though laden with schtick, are brilliant. Did I mention Dom DeLouis doing Diana Ross in a harem outfit? Jamie Farr as an Arab sheik? Tony Danza and an uncredited chimpanzee?
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