I’m so sorry to do this, but I find myself really pressed for time today. Thus I must resort to a very bare-bones edition of Openings. Basically, I’d like to see Fair Game, will probably see Due Date, and may or may not see Vision. Back to normal next week; have a great weekend, everyone.
Due Date (trailer)
Megamind (trailer)
Fair Game (trailer)
For Colored Girls (trailer)
Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen (trailer)
Gone Elsewhere 
Are any Chaplin reviews forthcoming?
There are many reviews of Chaplin’s films on Brian’s Capsule Review site.
Many good reviews, I’ll add.
I’ll try and catch the first two, even if the trailers for Due Date haven’t gotten me excited like the ones for The Hangover did.
Megamind has a good, solid concept that I’ve always wanted to see on film.
Slim, thanks for the tip!
Brian, I’m glad you got to see many of the Chaplin films. I’ll have to muddle through my queue and push them back up to the top
I actually got to all the Chaplins in the series other than Modern Times and City Lights, both of which I’ve seen in the last couple years at the cinema, and both of which I’ll probably want to get on Blu-ray when Criterion gets around to them (Modern Times is actually out next week). I think I’ve seen all of his features now except for his last one, A Countess of Hong Kong, which didn’t play.
I enjoyed the series as a whole more than I enjoyed the individual films themselves, if that makes sense. I don’t think I’ll ever fully warm to Chaplin but it was great to be able to see so many of the movies in a short period of time and with restored prints.
I thoroughly enjoyed Fair Game, it’s in my top tier of films from this year. Review to come.
Great! I’ll start sharpening my knives, because I didn’t like it much.
Saw ‘Due Date’ tonight. It’s generally gotten lukewarm reviews and while it is erratic and throws away its potential, I liked it overall.
Actually, I thought the first half was largely excellent, as thanks to the efforts of Zac Galifianakis, Downey and Phillips the relationship between the main characters was consistently enjoyable and occasionaly hilarious to follow. I think it works because while Downey suffers all these hardships due to Galifianakis’ moronic behaviour, because Downey’s character is basically a jerk and Zac’s is pathetically likable, you can half-enjoy his character’s sufferings instead of finding it cringeworthy.
Alas, a car crash midway through the film is a turning point as from that moment on, it becomes surreal, heavy-handed and contrived and the humour based on the character interaction is largely wasted.
Still, it was better than I thought. I particuarly enjoyed Downey Jr’s performance.
Rating: B-
I think this is where I differ, because I thought he was just as nasty as Downey’s character, and not the slightest bit likable at all, pathetically or otherwise. In fact, I think he was more responsible for my disgust with the film than Downey’s character.
There was the odd occasion where he was nasty (such as his reaction to Downey’s story about his dad abandoning him) but I think that was the fault of the script more than Zac’s performance, which I thought was spot-on.
Yeah, I have to agree with Brian.
The things he does are something only someone trying to write funny situations within the framework of what he’s been given would come up with.
He doesn’t act like a ‘character’ as much as he does a walking plot contrivance. He’s telling us, through this writer, that the world has devolved into a fat bearded man who holds a dog like a baby who will say whatever he wants to anyone he meets, no matter how long he’s known them, he will masturbate in front of them (I don’t condemn this act, but we’re men, walk into a bathroom and stand in front of a toilet, asshole), crash a car with that person he’s just met in it and…I’ve written too much about this stinker already.
The characters are cookie-cutter genre archetypes with no organic development.
I guess I saw him as basically a bundle of passive-aggressiveness. Like insisting that they go score some pot even though they’re ostensibly in a hurry. Or they way he checked his insurance after the crash while the guy next to him is writhing in pain and probably going into shock. Or the aforementioned masturbation scene. Just as much as the Downey character, everything was about him, and his needs, and to hell with everyone else.
That said, I’m not faulting Galifianakis as much as the movie itself. This ought to have been a very dark comedy about unlikable people, where these two guys would have been at home, and not a sentimental buddy flick, where the sentimentality grates even more than usual because these guys are the last two to deserve it.
Actually, thinking about it for a second, this isn’t even right. As much of a jerk as Downey’s character was, he was endlessly accomodating of Ethan. He may have had a short temper but otherwise he showed a lot more awareness of and sympathy for Ethan than Ethan did of him.
He did punch that kid, though.
I can’t disagree with the criticisms that Brian and filmman have made.
Certainly there are major problems with the film in the 2nd half, best illustrated by the Mexican border section – instead of being resolved by character interaction and friction as occurred during the 1st half, it’s resolved by some big, dumb car chase which isn’t believable on any level. And since Jamie Foxx’s car was still in the authorities possession, wouldn’t it have been pretty easy for the authorities to catch up with Downey and Zac?
The issues with the film in the 2nd half and the silly plot contrivances (like what actually occrred to Downey’s wallet) would probably mitigate me from enjoying the 1st half as much if I saw it again. But, to use the quote Ebert is fond of using, “A man goes to the movies. The critic must be honest enough to admit that he is that man” – and I can’t deny I really enjoyed the 1st half and thought it was a solid picture overall.
Saw Megamind. Agree with one review which said it was more ambitious than could’ve been but was also more conventional than it could’ve been.
Started off really well and despite being overly busy as most mainstream animated films appear to be these days, the ingratiating nature of the central character (well voiced by Ferrell) and some sharp gags made it good fun in the opening segments.
But it never quite delivers on its initial promise; it gets too convoluted in its plotting, is bogged down by a dull romance subplot and gets too sucked in by the familiar beats these animated films have such as an excessively chaotic ‘action’ finale.
Still, not bad as these things go.