Hitchcock:When the first pictures leaked out of Anthony Hopkins dressed up in full Hitchcock attire, it was pretty exciting. When I found out that Sacha Gervasi would be directing the film, the guy who directed one of my all-time favorite documentaries Anvil: The Story of Anvil, I got even more excited. Alfred Hitchcock is one of the most brilliant and rightfully famous directors of all-time, and to see his story be put to screen would have to give audiences a good understanding of the man as a true artist. Hitchcock (the film) fails to do that and ends up as something I'm sure the master himself would despise.
Hitchcock is supposedly about the making of Psycho, yet we hardly ever see the brilliance and artistry that went into the picture; the film spends most of its running time showing the relationship between Hitchcock and his wife (Helen Mirren) as a potential affair looms between her and writing partner Whitfield Cook (Danny Huston). The actual making of Psycho seems to have just happened around Hitchcock without much effort, and the team of people that helped make the film a classic, including Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh, are there simply for name-dropping and the subject for jokes.
Sure it has its moments of quaint little Hitch-isms that display his morbid sense of humor, but Hitchcock fails at being a serious look at a serious artist. It panders to the audience with a very broad sense of the man, and does not at all feel written for adults.
Rating: C-
Flight:Robert Zemeckis is finally back to directing live action movies after his decade-long stint making creepy motion-capture animated films like The Polar Express and Beowulf. Flight features Denzel Washington as a pilot with a drug and alcohol problem. During a particular flight while experiencing a mechanical error, he safely lands the plane with a skilled maneuver despite his condition. The film shows Washington dealing with his addiction and impending court trail.
I've heard mixed things about Flight, but I found it highly enjoyable. Although the film is different than what it's advertised to be (it's not so much a mystery of a malfunctioning plane as a pure Denzel Washington acting piece), I thought the film was handled pretty well, despite not being anywhere as good as most other Zemeckis films. I thought Bruce Greenwood and Don Cheadle, playing Whip's friend and attorney respectively, had some of the best bits. John Goodman and Melissa Leo were solid as well in their limited roles. This was a pretty standard drama; it doesn't break any new ground in filmmaking, but it's a solid acting piece and there are a few really well-handled sequences (one being the big plane crash scene). I probably would have rather seen the movie about the intricacies of a plane crash, but it's never a bad thing to see Denzel do his thing.
Rating: B-
Killing Them Softly:Andrew Dominik's third film is a (very) low-key crime drama featuring some familiar faces like Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini, and Richard Jenkins playing characters involved (or were involved) in the world of crime. The film beats you over the head with its political messages, with every TV, radio, or billboard blaring loudly with speeches from Obama or George W. Bush. Dominik really wants to drive home the comparison between criminals and capitalism, but what should have been subtext is just text. There are some really great sequences in this film, such as a tense robbery being committed by under-prepared thugs, but mostly it featured just two characters sitting across from each other, going on and on about their plan(s). Honestly I found myself dozing off for certain sequences - it was just boring. Clearly Dominik is a talented filmmaker, which makes this muddled mess even more confusing.
It's not without its moments, and Ray Liotta is great in his brief screen-time, but the constant use of "subtext" and long drawn out dialogue sequences make it tough to sit through. And on a side note, this has been the least successful Brad Pitt movie in almost 19 years, earning a measly $7 million.
Rating: C
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