Year: 2012

Jack Reacher (2012, Christopher McQuarrie)

The first third of Jack Reacher is an elegantly told procedural, with director McQuarrie emulating a seventies cop movie. Of course, there are some garnishing, but nothing monumental. Tom Cruise’s cop is actually an ex-Army cop, it takes place in the twenty-first century (but I don’t think there’s a single computer turned on in the entire picture) and it’s a got an action movie finish. The finish is great–McQuarrie doesn’t give the violence flare, it’s all matter of fact. It knocks the movie’s quality down a little, but only because McQuarrie has to stop making a cop movie.

Technical standouts are Caleb Deschanel’s photography and Joe Kraemer’s music. Kraemer (until the last bit, when he’s just scoring action) does an amazing job. The music gives Reacher a lot of its personality, especially since the film often leaves Cruise in the first half to do other things.

Some of these other things involve Rosamund Pike, who I’ve never liked before but here is phenomenal, and Jai Courtney as a bad guy. Courtney’s good too. He doesn’t have a lot to do, but McQuarrie makes sure it’s all important. Same goes for Richard Jenkins and David Oyelowo. They’re both great. And Alexia Fast is good too.

As for Cruise?

At the end of the big action finale, Cruise tells a bad guy about how he’s a badass. Maybe McQuarrie waited with the line because he had to know Cruise had earned it.

And Cruise (and Reacher) definitely earn it.

Swamp Thing 81 (Holiday 1988)

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Veitch does a sequel to one of the first Swamp Thing issues–I think back in the Wrightson days–and he captures some of that series’s cynicism. Mind you, he’s doing it with a superhero guest star and part of a big crossover event. I almost wish he hadn’t done it because it’s so downbeat. But it’s good.

Most of the issue is spent with Abby and Chester meeting an alien, but there’s a little of Roy Raymond recovering from his ordeal. Veitch doesn’t hint why Raymond gets the attention, but it gives he and Alcala a Louisiana hospital to draw and it looks fantastic.

The issue shows how essential Abby is to Veitch’s approach on the series. Alec doesn’t even show up this issue, but the issue’s outstanding anyway. Maybe even because Veitch gets to tell the story through Abby.

Veitch handles the required big event crossover issue sublimely.

CREDITS

Widowsweed; writer and penciller, Rick Veitch; inker, Alfredo Alcala; colorist, Tatjana Wood; letterer, John Costanza; editor, Karen Berger; publisher, DC Comics.

Swamp Thing 80 (Winter 1988)

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Poor Veitch. Swamp Thing is about to take part in another big DC crossover–they don’t announce it on the cover or in the text, but it’s Invasion!–and he’s got nothing. He basically sends Alec off into space again, or something like it. The finish, with Swamp Thing forced to escape Earth, looks exactly like the last time he did.

What’s different? Well, Abby’s pregnant and the issue opens with a funny scene of them putting together the baby’s room. Then there’s some rather good stuff with the Parliament of Trees. Veitch just can’t organically incorporate the invading aliens (even though he never shows their faces, just their hands). It’s like the Flash Gordon movie and Ming….

Crossover issues are rarely any good and often incredibly problematic, so it’s a testament to Veitch’s handle on the series he was able to get a few good scenes in the issue.

CREDITS

The Longest Day; writer and penciller, Rick Veitch; inker, Alfredo Alcala; colorist, Tatjana Wood; letterer, Tatjana Wood; editor, Karen Berger; publisher, DC Comics.

Die, Monster, Die! (1965, Daniel Haller)

For the first three quarters of Die, Monster, Die!, the biggest mystery in the film is how wheelchair-bound Boris Karloff gets around so well. The lifts become visible in the last act.

Karloff’s British upper crust whose family name has fallen on hard times thanks to an embarrassing father. Satanic ritual embarrassing, not hounding the ladies embarrassing. He’s also stupid. Karloff has a really hard time with that part of the role. He’s not convincingly dumb… or dangerous for that matter.

Still, he does better than Nick Adams. Adams is the young American courting Karloff’s daughter. Adams’s hair is Monster‘s second great mystery. Why aren’t there any scenes of him pomading it? Especially since he has an indoor style and an outdoor one.

When Monster is good–and Adams’s investigation of the creepy goings-on often aren’t bad–Adams is serviceable. Sadly he’s never convincing as Suzan Farmer’s suitor. He comes off like a protective younger bother (I forgot to mention, Adams looks like he’s twelve).

Farmer is quite good, even if Jerry Sohl’s script seems to give her good material by accident. As her ailing mother, Freda Jackson is excellent.

Director Haller does a great job fifty percent of the time. He’ll fully utilize the wide screen one shot, then do something lame the next. It’s frustrating, especially since he’s got fine photography from Paul Beeson. Alfred Cox’s editing, however, is a disaster.

While the multiple (weak) endings hurt the picture, there’s definitely some good stuff to it.

0/4ⓏⒺⓇⓄ

CREDITS

Directed by Daniel Haller; screenplay by Jerry Sohl, based on a story by H.P. Lovecraft; director of photography, Paul Beeson; edited by Alfred Cox; music by Don Banks; produced by Pat Green; released by American International Pictures.

Starring Boris Karloff (Nahum Witley), Nick Adams (Stephen Reinhart), Freda Jackson (Letitia Witley), Suzan Farmer (Susan Witley), Terence de Marney (Merwyn) and Patrick Magee (Dr. Henderson).

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Swamp Thing 79 (December 1988)

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There’s something immediately compelling about Veitch’s take on Superman and Lois Lane. His Lex Luthor, fat and mean-spirited, is a little less interesting (if competently done), but his Lois and Clark are positively realistic. But Veitch also loves playing with the Superman standards–Clark changing into his costume while falling off a building, putting back on his suit while running up it–it’s a lot of fun.

Of course, it’s a Swamp Thing comic where Alec plays second fiddle to the guest stars. In some ways, even Chester and Liz make more impact than Alec does here. They’re at least moving forward–Alec is just responding to events outside his control. He’s reacting, they’re growing.

Veitch returns after two issues off Swamp Thing with a good Superman comic. The issue, even cleaning up old plot threads, doesn’t feel particularly rooted. It’s fine, but it’s cooler looking than anything else.

CREDITS

Waiting for God (Oh!); writer and penciller, Rick Veitch; inker, Alfredo Alcala; colorist, Tatjana Wood; letterer, John Costanza; editor, Karen Berger; publisher, DC Comics.

Contemporaneously…

Naughty Nurse (1969, Paul Bartel)

Naughty Nurse should be better. Bartel’s direction is outstanding–Jan Oonk’s black and white photography is particularly phenomenal–and he writes some funny material, but it should be better. Bartel seems to think because he’s funny, he doesn’t have to keep Nurse logical. It would have been funnier–and better–if Bartel had kept it all together.

He also has a small problem with the actors. The titular Nurse, Valorie Armstrong, isn’t dynamic. She’s supposed to be bitchy, but she doesn’t have any fun with the bitchiness. Bartel opens with fellow nurse Alix Elias and gives her a fantastic monologue. She overshadows everything–except Oonk’s photography–while she’s talking. Armstrong, once she becomes the focus, has to catch up and she can’t.

The second half–before the final reveal–is a good mix of uncomfortable and funny. Bartel makes Nurse awkward but never too awkward; the direction’s just too strong.

Les Misérables (2012, Tom Hooper)

Thank goodness for Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen… otherwise, someone might confuse Russell Crowe’s performance as the most inept in Les Misérables. Actually, Crowe’s quite a bit better than Eddie Redmayne and Amanda Seyfried too. Redmayne just can’t sing–neither can Crowe, but it doesn’t impair his acting too much–and Seyfried’s just misused. Director Hooper–possibly sticking to the original stage production–never bothers to establish her relationship with adoptive father Hugh Jackman. As a result, Seyfried never resonates.

As for Jackman, he’s good but the film takes place around him. It works when it’s Anne Hathaway, who’s absolutely amazing in the film and just one of her songs is worth sitting through the entire boring picture, but flops when it’s Redmayne. Samantha Barks is part of a love triangle with Redmayne and Seyfried and she’s not bad. She can’t carry the second half of the film though.

What’s so inexplicable about Les Misérables is the bad casting. Why anyone put Redmayne in it opposite someone who can obviously sing and act–Aaron Tveit–and then give Redmayne the bigger role is (artistically speaking) beyond me. Hooper mollycoddles about half the cast, which doesn’t do the film any favors.

Of course, Hooper doesn’t do it many favors himself. He can’t direct actors (child actor Daniel Huttlestone is atrocious) and he can’t direct the CG sequences either. The film looks absurdly silly at times, especially with Danny Cohen’s truly incompetent photography.

Hathaway and Jackman deserve a better production.

Swamp Thing 78 (November 1988)

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It’s another fill-in issue–Mandrake’s on pencils again (with Alcala inking); Stephen R. Bissette handles the writing chores. It’s also filler narratively, but very nice narrative filler. Bissette doesn’t have much for Abby to do, however. He sends her on another trip to the afterlife, which could be eventful, but instead she just hangs out with Alec Holland for a few pages.

The other Alec, though, Bissette’s got a lot for him. The issue’s something like Bissette musing on how Swamp Thing would be relating to the new developments. It’s a relaxer issue, but a beautifully paced one.

Bissette has this incredible twist in the issue. Bissette paces things for the one sitting read, not an eventual trade. Swamp Thing is a great example of how trades changed comics writings for the worse.

The issue’s not without problems–the end twist is a little outrageous–but the issue’s fine.

CREDITS

To Sow One’s Seed in the Wind; writer, Stephen R. Bissette; penciller, Tom Mandrake; inker, Alfredo Alcala; colorist, Tatjana Wood; letterer, John Costanza; editor, Karen Berger; publisher, DC Comics.

Contemporaneously…

Coffee and Cigarettes II (1989, Jim Jarmusch)

Coffee and Cigarettes II stars twins Cinqué Lee and Joie Lee as twins having coffee in Memphis. Why are they in Memphis? They don’t know, but it seems like it’s Cinqué’s fault. Jarmusch le’s the twins bicker though most of the short, which is funny enough but then there’s Steve Buscemi too.

Buscemi’s playing the annoying (local) waiter. His Tennessee accent is shaky but his rant about Elvis is awesome. Cigarettes feels tailor-made for a film class, with white Buscemi physically separating the black Lee twins. The banter could also be plotted as to how it goes back and forth.

But spending too much time on Jarmusch’s process distracts from the short. The twins are great–particularly Joie–and the short’s rather a fun time.

There are some outstanding shots too, which Jarmusch uses both for comic relief and narrative pacing. Cigarettes is a fabulous use of eight minutes.

3/3Highly Recommended

CREDITS

Written and directed by Jim Jarmusch; director of photography, Robby Müller; edited by Melody London; produced by Rudd Simmons and Jim Stark.

Starring Joie Lee (Good Twin), Cinqué Lee (Evil Twin) and Steve Buscemi (Danny the waiter).

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The Specialist (1994, Luis Llosa)

Technically speaking, the best thing about The Specialist is probably John Barry’s score. Except he ripped off his James Bond scores and threw in some of his Body Heat music. Neither mood fits The Specialist, which isn’t glamorous enough to be Bond and isn’t sexy. I would have liked to say “isn’t sexy enough to be Body Heat” but The Specialist just plain isn’t sexy.

It’s supposed to be sexy, given how much emphasis director Llosa puts on stars Sylvester Stallone and Sharon Stone in various stages of undress (not to mention the two carry on some painful phone flirting), but it isn’t. While Llosa’s direction is lame and both Stallone and Stone are bad (Stone’s worse), Llosa simply doesn’t realize the picture right.

It might be sexy if it were about a broken-down ex-CIA assassin and a damaged woman who’s prostituting herself to avenge her dead parents (long story). But The Specialist treats Stallone and Stone as megastars, not people. The scenes where James Woods–in a great performance as the bad guy–berates her and Stone actually gets to show emotion, those scenes almost work. They suggest a film worthy of a good John Barry knock-off score.

Eric Roberts costars as her target and he’s nearly good. Alexandra Seros’s script is too laughable for anyone (save Woods, who mixes insanity and mocking contempt) to actually be good.

As for Rod Steiger’s Cuban gangster? He’d be funny if he weren’t such offensively bad.

The Specialist‘s awful.