I'm Looking For The Man That Killed My Father.

TRUE GRIT (2010)

http://www.digitaltrends.com

It's no secret that I'm a Coen Brother's fan. I recently highlighted them as number 5 in my list of Top Ten Killer Directors. Fargo (1996), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), Blood Simple (1984)--time and again, they've churned out classic after classic. And so, when I saw the trailer for True Grit, I was hooked. Granted, I've never seen the John Wayne version, nor have a read the book, but as a Coen Brothers die-hard, I was into it. What I got, I still have mixed feelings about. 

The film starts off with the conflict: the young but persistent Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) has taken it on herself to hunt down Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin), the man who robbed and murdered her father. She enlists the help of the washed up Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges), who gets a lot of slack for being old, being a drunk, and, oh...killing people unnecessarily. A lot. Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Matt Damon) is also on a quest to track down Tom Chaney and claim the earnings, so he joins them to form an unlikely trio of three people who really don't want to be near each other.

http://moviesmedia.ign.com

Overall, it ran a lot like O Brother, Where Art Thou?. The people on a very barebones quest, meandering about trying to find some semblance of direction. Honestly, they spent so much of the movie turned around, I'm surprised they found Chaney at all. The thing is, it's a movie filled with long and strange pauses, with scenes that just seem to stretch on. Which is fine by me, because the dialogue was fun and the characters were enjoyable to be around, so I didn't mind lingering from scene to scene with them. It just didn't give the film as a whole a very tight feeling. And then just when everyone is "solving their character problems" and I think the plot is becoming a little kitschy, the Coen Brothers manage to turn it on its head. Suddenly, what was a blatantly obvious film about revenge and perseverance turns into something else: a more subtle and tender story of loyalty, the bonds of friendship, redemption and growing up. It sounds cliché, but I think the Coen Brothers did eventually turn it around with a very nicely placed snakebite. 

As for the actors. Little Hailee Steinfeld was just stunning. She was hands down the best part of the movie. I believed her every second she was on the screen. She played a bold young girl, without coming off as pretentious, and her chemistry with the other actors was great. Especially with Matt Damon, who I actually liked in this movie, even though I'm usually not that big of a fan of him. Someone give this man more comedic roles. That said, his character had a pseudo-romance with little Mattie Ross, and while it stayed harmless and didn't go into any potentially pedophile awkward space, it did pop up here and there with a couple twisted spanking scenes and gave a little something interesting to their dynamic. Jeff Bridges was Jeff Bridges. Always brilliant. 

The one character I would've liked to see more of was Cogburn's nemesis with woolly legs, Lucky Ned. He seemed to have come out of nowhere and they gave the impression that there was a history there, but it was never really explained. As much as I appreciate subtly, I'm not getting any rewards if this epic fight out with Lucky Ned is simply...an epic fight out, and I don't really have anything to back up their strife with. I was waiting for a "he poked out my eye" story, but that never happened. I suppose that might've been too much, but just a little something-something and I'd have been happy. 

Image from yourmoviebuddy.blogspot.com

Lastly, the film itself ended on a bit of a flat note for me. I really enjoyed the journey, and the characters, and getting to know them. The standoff with Cogburn and the four men was riveting, and then I loved the whole snakebite scene. However...well. Alright. I'll just say it. I got emotional with the horse. Not going to lie. Kill all the men you want--but Little Blackie! I was mourning, and the Coen Brothers offered no relief. And then I'm fine with an unresolved ending. Really, I am. The cutting-off-her-arm thing was cool. I was all for that. But overall, leaving without word of LaBoeuf, and then going to see Cogburn only to not see Cogburn...it just didn't seem necessary to me. Like, we learned that she lost her arm and never got married. That was about it. I'm all for following up with the characters, I just felt like we could've used a little more than that. And actually-14-year-old Hailee was a much better actor than the woman who played grown up Mattie Ross. Is all I'm saying. 

What do you guys think? Did this movie have true grit?

What Happened To Your Face?

JONAH HEX (2010)

Image from http://dietrichthrall.files.wordpress.com

Alright. So this isn't Halloween per se. But Hex's face is...pretty terrifying. I mean, he's basically got an extra mouth on his cheek. So it kind of counts. The thing is, I watched the movie all the way though, and then the credits began to roll. And normally, this is the part where I go "Whoohoo! Let's do that one again!" or "Eh. That was a bad decision." Instead, I simply slouched in my couch, and I couldn't make up my mind at all about the movie. I'll say this upfront. It was a good movie. The trailers set up certain promises, and the movie fed into (nearly) every one of them. At the same time, it felt a little like it scraped by with doing the bare minimum. 

The premise was fantastic. Old world meets new weapons. Cowboys with machine guns. I'm all for it. The machinery was awesome--crossbows on fire, golden atomic bombs, and the rifle flame thrower. Clearly, someone had a lot of fun coming up with all this shit. And it worked, and blended in perfectly with the Western set up. However, the movie felt like it was trying to squeeze too much into too little. Which was silly because...it really shouldn't have had that much to work with. What the movie couldn't quite figure out was we don't CARE about the big massive super weapon. As fucking badass as it is...the whole point of the weapon is to make Turnbull this extremely powerful and dangerous villain. That's it. When I see the weapon, I want to see it explode some shit, I want to see Turnbull look sadistically pleased, and bam. End of story. I don't need to have a minor plot line where Washington officials just keep talking about how dangerous this weapon is. I saw it demolish a whole city--I know what it's capable of. 

The fact is, the movie focused too much on the logistics of the plot and didn't give us enough of what we came for: the characters. The thing is, they set us up with some really cool characters. Jonah Hex with his ugly face, his ambiguous morality, and his ability to...talk to the dead? Yeah. That was badass. That needed to introduced sooner. Not to mention, Josh Brolin has a talent for being awesome in just about anything he does. Then there was Turnbull, one of John Malkovich's less impressive roles, but nonetheless, good for what he was. And--more or less the reason I wanted to see the movie in the first place--Turnbull's right hand man, Burke, played by Michael Fassbender. Michael Fassbender and Josh Brolin nailed the feel of the movie--they overacted a little, they were extravagant, eccentric characters. Josh Brolin growled out his lines like he was chewing on bullets and Fassbender snickered his way through the movie like a sadistic leprechaun. They were comic book characters. On the other hand, Turnbull wasn't as impressive as his weapon, and Lilah (Megan Fox), the take-no-prisoners feisty prostitute, was cool, but not cool enough. She had some moments of badassitry, and yet I wanted her to be MORE badass. She was cool on her own; her little skirmish with the John was awesome. But once she's standing side-by-side with Hex, it's hard to remember that she's more than just "the girl". He's so epic, and Megan Fox hides in his shadow once they finally pair up instead of complimenting him with her own style of ruthlessness. 

My ultimate problem with the movie was that everything was, essentially, there, they just didn't use it all to it's full extent. I could feel the build up, and then the pay off somehow would lack that epic finish. I loved, for example, the moments when they really went all out. The moments when Hex was talking to the reanimated corpses, for example, or when he was being resurrected and choked out a black crow. Those moments were COOL. They were unexpected and all out. And yet at other points, the movie moved at a shy pace, as though afraid to push it too far. The best example I can think up was when Burke went to collect Lilah and had that little moment with her. Now, we know Lilah is fully capable of defending herself, and we know Burke is one sadistic shit. This has all been set up for us. And yet, when they finally come together and he's about to kidnap her, all her has to do is give her one punch and she settles into submission. I just wanted to grab the screenwriters and tell them: When in doubt, take it to the next level. Push it too far. I'd rather be shocked at something on screen than bored by it. 

All in all, the premise was fun, the movie was ultimately enjoyable, but it just lacked that extra kick that would have really made it an excellent movie.