(Very) Short Take: "Haywire", "American Reunion" and "The Vow".

Time and time again, Steven Soderbergh should be commended for being perhaps the only mainstream American director who refuses to stop experimenting with the medium. Not all of his experiments are successful but it's his willingness to keep trying that makes him such a valuable filmmaker, for example see Haywire, by hiring MMA star Gina Carano to play the lead in a movie about a female spy, instantly recalls his The Girlfriend Experience in which he hired a porn star to play an escort. To say that none of the ladies were outstanding actresses would be to say too little, but what Soderbergh achieves is to concoct a movie that feels like a documentary combined with exaggerated fiction. Sure, Carano doesn't hold a candle to the effortless way in which Michael Fassbender or Ewan McGregor move onscreen (Channing Tatum gets no such defense) but watching her fight stock actors has the urgency that matches any of their greatest performances. Other Soderbergh flourishes like stopping the score when there's a fight make for a unique experience that sadly doesn't become more than an exciting experiment.  

American Reunion is nothing more than a sad reminder that the more things change the more they stay the same. The entire gang is back (including Mena Suvari!) for their high school reunion and they have silly realizations like how "first loves are forever", "home is where the heart is" etc.

The thing that remains constant is that the film seems to gloat in the fact that these men-children refuse to grow up and celebrates them for it. The notorious Stifler (Seann William Scott) becoming nothing more than a clown who holds any inkling of a grown up life to be completely contemptible. Sure, adult life may not be all fun and games, but there is a larger problem at bay when a movie character is loved because he chooses to exist in complete denial. The movie therefore is never funny or touching - in the way the original was - instead it becomes somewhat of a horror film that like Carrie reminds us that high school can seriously mess up some people.

Pretty people having love problems has become the staple of all Nicholas Sparks movie adaptations...oh wait, what? This isn't based on a Nicholas Sparks book? Could've fooled anyone. This was a much, much better movie when it was called 50 First Dates.

Grades
Haywire **½
The Vow **
American Reunion *

Is This Movie Still Relevant?

Head over to PopMatters and read my review for Steven Soderbergh's Traffic.

Sheet-y Saturday.

Where we take a look at posters for upcoming features.

Andrew Niccol doing sci-fi? Count me in! However I'm still unsure of what exactly does Justin Timberlake's "acting" bring to the movies...

Also this poster looks like a CK ad.

The next two posters are for the new Steven Soderbergh movies and ugh, this man is a genius. He hand picked the designers for his marketing campaign and chose some of the best in the business (the ones that make Criterion covers...)

The one for Contagion has a District 9 feel and truly what stands out in this poster, and also in the one for Haywire is that Soderbergh goes beyond the worshiping of the movie star...

...he has some of the greatest living actors in these two movies, also some of the most beautiful people. Yet on the posters he goes for an appraisal of graphic design as an art form. The one for Contagion has a very retro touristy feel. As if disease took over the mentioned cities. It's also important to mention how influenced by industrial design are these posters. The first one loves typography while the one for Haywire pays tribute to the great Saul bass and to iconic movie posters of the 70s without obviously ripping them off.

I have to admit I don't even miss seeing Fassy's gorgeous mug in it...

Excited about the new Soderbergh flicks?

While Watching "Wall Street"...

I noticed that Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) shares a birthday with my brother.
Not sure if I see the Taurus in Gekko or the Gekko in my brother though...

Anyway, happy future birthday to my brother and how about you guys, share your birthday with someone famous? (Real or fictitious counts)

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps *1/2

Director: Oliver Stone
Cast: Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, Josh Brolin, Carey Mulligan
Eli Wallach, Frank Langella, John Buffalo Mailer, Susan Sarandon

Regardless of how many times you may have seen Splendor in the Grass, the moment when Bud Stamper (Warren Beatty) learns about the Great Depression never fails to turn your heart upside down.
Such a moment was supposed to occur in the fractured Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, as it deals with recent economic disasters that have affected the world in unexpected ways. We expect it to come when we see Gordon Gekko (Douglas) being released from prison in late 2001 and we expect it to occur again when the movie jumps forward in time to the chaotic 2008.
However nothing really happens and we are left wondering exactly what was the point in making this film.
On the surface it's basically a remake of Wall Street. Gordon Gekko's time in jail nothing but a MacGuffin so that he can regain the prominence he had during his 80's peak.
He writes a book called Is Greed Good? and the masses flock to him like a messiah. Among the crowds is idealistic Jacob Moore (LaBeouf) a wide-eyed proprietary trader who admires Gekko and wishes to be like him. Essentially LaBeouf is playing Charlie Sheen.
Of course, this being the aughts and all, besides being one greedy little bastard he also has a thing for the environment and for his girlfriend Winnie (Mulligan), Gekko's estranged daughter who has gone all Elektra on him by becoming a leftist, money-hating, journalist.
To say that nothing much happens in this sequel would be an understatement given how most of the film consists of scenes where the young Jake and the old sharks (which besides Douglas include Brolin, Langella and a scene stealing Eli Wallach) discuss vengeance, power and money like characters straight out of Clash of the Titans.
Other than the awkwardness of the plot, we often wonder what drew Oliver Stone back to this themes. Throughout the movie his direction seems to be trying to find itself.
Part of him is so in love with Wall Street that he seems to think he invented the 80's. Winnie tells Jake "you're so Wall Street it makes me sick" referring to both the actual stock market and the movie which isn't as iconic as Stone wants to think.
Another part of him seems to feel proud about having predicted back in 1987 that the world's economy would just continue collapsing until we all approached doomsday; however, this part of him also feels guilty and like Jake tries to atone through innumerable mentions of what alternative energy can do for the planet.
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps doesn't know whether to condemn or to glorify and its overlong running time makes us sit through what ultimately is an unnecessary debate.
The one thing that rarely fails is Douglas. Even if Stone tries hard to humanize him (Gekko says "I'm human" more than once) the actor tries his best to remind us that first and foremost Gordon Gekko was so effective because he wasn't human.
Precisely because of his larger-than-life greed it was that he became who he was and not for one minute should we expect him to be turned into a politically correct version of materialism.
This is best embodied in a pathetic end during which Stone once again puts Gekko in the wrong kind of spotlight and we're left wondering if he's making some sort of comment about how easily human beings give "bailouts" to those who have wronged us (which would've turned the film into a twisted, great satire) or if he's just turning Gordon into the Grinch.
It's safe to say that the idea of Gekko getting the last laugh is something 80's Stone would've made, what we end up with right now is a reminder that he doesn't make them like he used to.

Crush of the Week.

Besides Carey Mulligan I'm talking about that dress.
It's mind blowing!
Does anyone know who made it? It's completely the Versace Sarah Jessica wore in the second to last ep of Sex and the City. And with that tiny cardigan it's just oh divine!

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past **1/2

Director: Mark Waters
Cast: Matthew McCounaghey, Jennifer Garner
Breckin Meyer, Lacey Chabert, Daniel Sunjata, Emma Stone
Robert Forster, Anne Archer, Michael Douglas

"Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" is the kind of movie that spoils itself from the trailer. Inspired by Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" it turns Scrooge into Connor Mead (McCounaghey) a Vanity Fair photographer who has made a reputation on account of his "tripod".
He beds every model he shoots and is a firm disbeliever of monogamy and love. When he goes to his young brother's (Meyer) wedding he is visited by the ghost of his uncle Wayne (Douglas), the man who trained him in his player ways.
He announces to him that he will be visited by three ghosts (past, present...you know how it goes) who all will point out to him what an ass he was by dumping the love of his life: Jenny Perotti (Garner).
Lucky for him she's maid of honor at the wedding, but before the inevitable happy ending arrives, the ghosts will unleash some actually funny situations involving alternate realities, Bridezilla tantrums (courtesy of Chabert) and that never ending source of laughs known as bad 80's fashion choices.
McCounaghey does his eternal "pecs on legs" routine (surprisingly he's never shirtless in this film) and his lecherous qualities make for some heartbreaking moments especially when the wrinkles on his face begin to show and both his characters, and the actor, learn that they might not be able to pull this off forever.
Garner can do no wrong, and she's no exception here, bringing Jenny equal parts sass and sensibility (very few actresses out there can put a lump in your throat by getting watery eyes like Jen does).
Her scenes with McCounaghey bring up the sort of flirtation that heats up a room, but we know will never be consummated, which is why the film sometimes falls flat on its face.
The supporting players are rather good; especially Forster as a tough father of the bride, Archer (can you believe she's in her sixties already?) as her foxy mom and Douglas who brings a Dino quality to uncle Wayne that makes his chauvinism somehow irresistible.
"Women are like horses" he says, cockily flashing the pearly whites and working the ascot. You will be surprised to see even your girlfriend will let out a spontaneous chuckle and then probably be pissed about it.
That's the thing with this movie, it doesn't contain life changing wisdom and knows it. It's crass, predictable, extremely cheesy sometimes, but still has some parts that work (Stone as Connor's first girlfriend is hilarious) some that are cringe worthy and some that will send you out of the theater with a huge grin on your face.

"We were attracted to each other at the party, that was obvious! You're on your own for the night, that's also obvious... we're two adults."