Apocalypto

Whether Mel Gibson’s a boozy, narcissistic jerk whose entitle-itis got him in over his head during a traffic stop or (and?) an anti-Semite who’ll only say so when he’s drunk is irrelevant to me. Truth be told, the tone of Gibson's commentary left me thinking he's probably a bit of both. But considered strictly on its’ own merit, Apocalypto is beautiful and exciting and masterfully made, and the scale of the production is just jaw-dropping. Just take a look at the size of the Makeup Department. For Christ's sake, more than 60 drivers alone are credited.

The casting and acting are terrific. Rudy Youngblood as Jaguar Paw is winning and runs his sandals off. Raoul Trujillo as the lead heavy, Zero Wolf, is seriously menacing. But Gerardo Taracena as Middle Eye, the fellow from the poster, sprouting the Coolio braid from his forehead, steals the show. The way he juts out his lower jaw and deadens his eyes makes you sick; you just know he’s frozen over inside. From his IMDb page, I gather he hasn’t hit Hollywood yet, but hopefully we’ll be seeing him again soon.

A fun game I found myself playing throughout was “Spot the Movie Reference.” We have the spiked mantrap of Southern Comfort, the throat-slashed loved one of Braveheart, an anachronistic nod to Ratso Rizzo’s “I’m walkin’ here,” Beyond Thuderdome’s orphan cohort and even a brief glimpse of a pre-Columbian Master/Blaster.

But Gibson’s got some new tricks, too. According to the commentary, the coarse, funny, seemingly anachronistic banter of Jaguar Paw and his hunting party is actually borne out by research of the idiom of the late-classic Maya. And while Gibson and cowriter Farhad Safinia's refusal to paint their heroes as noble savages is not what you're used to, you come to appreciate it. It makes the world seem more authentic.

The human sacrifice and eclipse scene atop the pyramid is a skillful demonstration of political manipulation as the king and high priest work the crowd with little more than a nod and a wink. And, while Gibson admits a bit of dramatic license, the perfectly choreographed gauntlet scene seems realistic and maintains the high-tension sadism of the raiding party.

For 139 minutes I was alternately excited, saddened, thrilled, filled with dread and just plain knocked out. Whatever you think of the man, the movie is amazing.

Hooray!

Ratatouille opens today! The word is good: A.O. Scott of The New York Times writes a glowing review this morning, and the aggregate review sites Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic score it 93 and 94 out of 100, respectively.

I haven’t seen it yet, and I’m not going to waste your time summarizing the summaries I’ve read this summer. Just trust me, and go see it. Now. Before you learn too much about it and spoil the experience. I don’t think you can set your expectations too high, but maybe go in with a tiny bit of skepticism. “Will’s sending me to see a cartoon?”

Then when you’re done you can go back and Netflick Brad Bird’s other near-perfect movies, The Incredibles and The Iron Giant. Get excited!

Much Ado About...Nothing?

Posted today on imdb.com:

Netflix Hit by a Blockbuster Punch
"Blockbuster has stepped up what some analysts have described as cutthroat price competition against NetFlix, reducing to $16.99 the monthly subscription price for its unlimited three-DVDs-out-at-a-time plan. The figure is $1.00 less than Netflix's most popular plan. Citigroup analyst Tony Wible told Reuters, "We expect that Netflix will eventually have to match the price cuts or lose significant share to Blockbuster." Shares of each company declined on the news, with Netflix falling 8.8 percent to $20.00, a three-month low."

Oh, I don't think so. For a dollar (okay $12/yr.) I'm going to recreate my 274-movie queue by hand, 12.5% of which Blockbuster doesn't carry? Netflix currently offers 80,000+ titles. Blockbuster: 70,000+. To be honest, I was thinking the difference would be more on the order of 25%. And it was when I trial-subscribed to Blockbuster a year ago. But nevermind that's still 34 movies I'd lose. (No fair pointing out that #15-#260 live in the fallout zone of passed over hopefuls as I leapfrog new releases to the head of the line. No doubt all of which Blockbuster now carries. Aargh! Who's writing this thing here, me or you?)

But maybe you're on to something. Blockbuster does offer their "Total Access" plan with an in-store return option and immediate swapout for even new releases AND an additional in-store rental coupon per month in addition to your 3-at-a-time all-you-can-eat plan.

But Netflix still wins with their nifty "Watch Now" feature. Right? I tried it. Once. It works great. If you like sitting hunchbacked and tyranosaurhanded in front of your computer for two hours. Alone. Kind of like I am now. My back.

You know, blue is my favorite color.

Now Playing: Hot Fuzz

Now here’s what I was trying to get at in my Grindhouse piece. Rather than bog down precisely replicating the feel of the movies it’s honoring, Hot Fuzz stripmines B grade action movies and converts the tailings into gold. It trades up. For instance, the movie calls out a cheesier moment in Point Break, when Keanu’s man-crush gets the better of him and he can’t bring himself to shoot Swayze, instead unloading his clip into the sky. Then it flips the moment so nicely that when Danny (Nick Frost) can’t bring himself to shoot his father and empties his pistol with an “Aaargh!” it’s heartfelt and hilarious at once.

As in Shaun of The Dead, there are some fun supporting performances turned in here: an over-the-top Timothy Dalton, a deadpan Martin Freeman (of the BBC’s “The Office”), Steve Coogan, perfectly oily as usual, and Bill Nighy defines Crypt Keeper cool.

I’m really looking forward to watching this one on DVD with subtitles. It’s not that the accents are too thick, just that the pacing and colloquialisms are rewardingly unrelenting. Close attention pays off as the jokes come over the wall like rage-infected Mongols.

My one beef with the movie is that the whip-pan smash-cuts that were so fun in Shaun of The Dead become a wee bit tedious here. And the sound effect track is way too loud. This movie doesn’t require a big screen to maximize its’ entertainment potential (more on this later), so I recommend you wait until it comes out on DVD and you can control the volume yourself.

And, oh hey, check out this fun article tracing the references of a few of the Hot Fuzz posters out there. Good stuff, love the Dirty Harry.

Now Playing: 28 Weeks Later

This is the best sequel I’ve seen in a long time. Or, maybe purest is a better way to say it. This movie cleanly picks up where the first movie left off, delivers a streamlined, terrifying chain of events that really make sense and leads us effortlessly to the undoubted three-quel.

By the same token, I guess, you could make the case that the movie is kind of slight, it doesn’t amplify the world of the first movie in the way, say, Aliens trumped Alien. It’s merely another episode in the continuing rage epidemic. But God in his heaven was never happier he isn’t crawling around in the mud with us than when the frenzied horde comes a-calling in the opening sequence.

In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.