Thursday, July 02, 2009

Ice Age 3 and Public Enemies

Aravis and I went to see "Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" last night. She mentioned beforehand that since Jude got to see Transformers in IMAX she thought she should get popcorn with her movie... she's such a con. The chemistry between the characters, and the humor is what makes this series just good enough to recommend. Unfortunately so much about Ice Age is dull and boring. The colors, the music (or lack thereof) and the settings are just so drab and lifeless. Fortunately the characters are unique, and kind of have grown on me, and the the humor (especially Scratte) are enough to almost keep me awake. Alas this movie did not quite meet the sleeping standard (as in it caused me to fall asleep) but it was very near the end, so it was mostly good. Also, as an interesting aside, if you turn your 3D glasses upside down, the objects that are meant to jump out at you actually drop into the background, and the backgrounds come directly into the foreground.

Jess and I went to see "Public Enemies" tonight. Let me start with my primary criticism of the film; the camera work. The whole film was of that digital, handheld quality (perhaps because it was digital handheld). I completely understand the draw to this kind of filmmaking, but it was not fitting in the context of this film. At one point, later in the film there is a shootout at a hunting lodge; this scene felt like something you might see on low budget television. That was not the kind of feel that this film deserves. Unfortunately for the most part I found the camera style to be so distracting that it did take away from my appreciation of the rest of the film, but I'll try to put it all aside for the next few moments. I really liked Johnny Depp's portrayal of John Dillinger. He brought a subtle flair to this role, making Dillinger a gangster from all those famous old gangster films, with a modern introspective flavor. I also liked Christian Bale's character, an FBI agent on the trail of Dillinger. I felt like we didn't get to see enough of him or get to know him well enough, but what we did see was once again subtle yet very effective. The director Michael Mann is wonderful at conveying relationships and ideas without insulting our intelligence as an audience. Great actors and a great director don't explain stuff to you, they show you. This film contained all the aspects of a great film, yet failed to convince me that it was great. Perhaps there were too many reminders of "Heat" or maybe I spent too much time thinking about "The Last of the Mohicans" as the characters chased each other through the woods. I shouldn't be thinking about a directors other films when I'm supposed to be watching his current film. Is that my fault or his? I blame him.

3 comments:

Matthew R. Crum said...

I left this film somewhat confused. I too felt the camera work, especially at the beginning, was poorly done. I like the scenes in the woods, but during a key scene it wasn't clear who was who and this caused even more confusion (I'm being vague to avoid spoiling the film... it is still worth seeing). I like that the film was about a guy from Mooresville, IN. One guy at work mentioned that the whole "gun-made-out-of-soap" scene was way to low-key. Maybe Mann only intended true Dillinger buffs to pick up on this (as I didn't). For me it was too slow, too long, but enough action to keep me interested.

Matthew R. Crum said...

P.S. The best part of the movie was the trailer for "Inglourious Basterds." While I don't live for the next Tarantino film as some of my brothers do, this one does look very interesting. The fact that Mike Myers is in it sealed the deal for me.

Peter said...

I think I've stopped hoping for the "next Pulp Fiction" from Tarantino and just enjoy each of his film for what they are, I'm looking to "Basterds" as well.