Public Enemies

Drew's Thoughts:
Having already been biographed reasonably well in 1945 and 1973 (both films called Dillinger) I wondered what a modern rendering of John Dillinger's life could offer us movie goers. Turns out to be surprisingly little, if anything.
The biggest letdown for me was the acting. With Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Marion Cotillard all in the cast I was expecting some good performances even if it might be a lackluster film. Unfortunately I turned out to be quite wrong. First of all, Johnny Depp is surprisingly uncharismatic in this movie, and as a director if Johnny Depp manages to give an uncharismatic performance in your film you've really fucked up. Even in the rare instance where he doesn't play a quirky character as in Donnie Brasco, he is still a phenomenally captivating actor. In Public Enemies though, I didn't really care much about him either way. I wasn't rooting for him but I also wasn't absorbed in his "evilness" or something. In the previous Dillinger movies I mentioned, both Lawrence Tierney (in 1945) and Warren Oates (in 1973) had a mad dog mentality within them when they played the character, something surely Depp is capable of producing. Instead though, the character had no depth and it was hard to believe that this was a man that captivated the nation when he couldn't even captivate two people in their living room. Elsewhere in the cast, Bale is fine but his character doesn't have much more to go on than cliched heroics and Cotillard is okay, but doesn't really factor into the story all that much and doesn't have a good handle on an American accent yet either.
The blame should be mainly laid at the feet of the writers and director, Michael Mann, because, come on, look at what they had to work with Depp, Bale, Cotillard and, of course, Dillinger. Mann, no stranger to making bad films, really managed to strangle all the potential life out of this movie (not that the script provided much in the first place). The movie isn't necessarily "bad" either, it's just so bland that all it can inspire is apathy. It's pretty blah across the board too, which in a way is almost worse than a bad movie with a few redeeming elements. I don't anticipate it showing up anywhere at the next Dolphin ceremony.

Inglourious Basterds

Drew's Thoughts:
I wasn't expecting much from Quentin Tarantino's latest but I should have been expecting a lot less. Other than a good supporting performance by Brad Pitt, the film really has nothing to offer.
I was expecting it to be along the lines of Kill Bill, not a good movie but an entertaining shoot 'em up adventure instead I got a Jackie Brown/Kill Bill 2-style borefest. That's no hyperbole, the movie is really fucking boring. The 2 and a half hour film amounts to about 10 really long scenes of really boring conversations. Except for a brief section near the end of the movie that's driven by plot, the movie feels pretty interminable no matter who's talking.
Quentin Tarantino has been a joke for a long while now, but with Inglourious Basterds, which apparently took him 10 years to write, the disparity between what Tarantino thinks of his films (that is very highly) and what he actually produces (that is very shitty) has never been so stark. A film that he supposedly spent so much of his life on, seems slapped together, not unlike some of his previous films. The guy actually thinks he can ape The Dirty Dozen for a few scenes, throw in a scene imitating a British espionage movie and, of course, a couple of scenes where characters drop movie references needlessly set all to old Ennio Morricone scores and abra-kadabra he's a got a movie.
Also by naming the movie Inglourious Basterds and putting only Brad Pitt holding a rifle on the poster, I was under the impression the movie was going to actually be about the "Basterds" going around kicking "Nat-zi" ass, which in my opinion is a perfectly good premise for a silly action movie. I think had Tarantino done that, the movie might have faired a tad bit better. But instead they are introduced and not seen again until the end of the movie. Pitt, the only actor in the film that actually makes something out of Tarantino's silly dialogue, is fun to watch channeling a humorous combining of Jesse James and Tyler Durden with a touch of Lee Marvin for inspiration; and his impersonation of an Italian is pretty damn hilarious too. I can't help but wish there was more of him, maybe the movie wouldn't have felt like such a waste of time. Christopher Waltz, who won best actor at Cannes, was alright as the Nazi baddie but didn't strike me as anything special and I'm not sure anyone else in the movie is worth noting, except maybe that Mike Myers's impression of a stuffy British intelligence officer was amusing.
Anyway, sorry for the rant but this movie blew.

Broken Embraces

Drew's Thoughts:
Pedro Almodóvar's (Talk to Her, Volver) latest film is his most streamlined yet. He appears to be channeling his love of noir-influenced thrillers and Douglas Sirk's 50s Technicolor melodramas with touches of David Lynch-styled suspense.
At the center of the story is blind screenwriter who calls himself Harry Caine, played by Lluís Homar, though he was formerly known as writer-director, Mateo Blanco. The film moves along two different timelines, one current and the other 14 years earlier when Caine was Mateo. Lena, played by Penélope Cruz, also figures prominently in the story as the actress Mateo casts in the first comedy he was directing. Lies and violent twists ensue. I won't divulge any more of the story, because figuring it out as you go along is a lot of the fun.
Cruz gives a good performance as usual when she's working with Almodóvar, as does Homar. The cinematography and art direction were pretty great, fantastically colorful while still maintaining realism. This is Almodóvar's best directed film in my opinion, it's well edited and engaging and Alberto Iglesias provides an effectively tense score. My only complaint is that the resolution could have contained more oomph. The film builds potential for some kind of shocking ending but instead it ends up being rather plain.
Broken Embraces is a good movie, some of Almodóvar's best work. It should be considered for all the big Dolphins, though depending on how strong the year turns out to be it may get squeezed out.