Vince
Vaughn is my homeboy. If I dig Frat Pack funny-men Will Ferrell and Ben
Stiller - and I do - then Vince Vaughn will go down as my
alter-ego. Bruce Banner had the Hulk, Dr. Jekyll had Hyde, Tom Cruise
has Scientology... and I have Vince Vaughn.
Sure,
Vince had a rough start of it (see Jurassic Park: The Lost World and
the Gus Van Sant horror-ible remake of Psycho) - but everyone
experiences growing pains. By the time 2004 rolled around, Vince
found his freakishly tall groove. Having been around for Zoolander
(2001) and Old School (2003), Vince found that he could take his 21st
century jive-talking ways to the silver screen. And as Peter La Fleur
and Wes Mantooth, two fantastically named dudes, he did just that.
I don't know who thisguy is but he's not my Vince Vaughn.
Yet
it wasn't until Wedding Crashers and The Break-Up that Vince really
became my jive-talking man crush. One could make a case that in
Anchorman and Dodgeball Vince was the archetypal character whose purpose was to make the other star stand out. In Wedding Crashers, though, we bared witness to a fantastic onscreen chemistry between the two leading men: Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson.
There
aren't many "chick flicks" which I'd call memorable, but I'm happy to raise my green paddle and say that The
Break-Up is one. Why? Well it certainly isn't because of Jennifer
Aniston... or the city of Chicago. No, it's because of Vince Vaughn...
and the hilarious supporting cast!
In The Break-Up Vince watches an exorbitant amount of Sportscenter and enjoys commentating
his way through a game of Madden. And if that isn't enough, he also enjoys spinning a yarn or two. I rest my case.
And
now that I've finally paid homage to Vince Vaughn - and make note of
the fact that I didn't mention his enjoyable cameo in Into The Wild -
lets get to The Internship.
It
was a pile of stinking poop. This movie was laborious. In fact, if a
bloke could go through the birthing process, and Arnie seems to think we can, then surviving this movie would be great preparation.
As
soon as it starts you get the sense that these salesmen, Billy (Vaughn)
and Nick (Wilson), are "a poor man's" version of who they were in their
last go round - Wedding Crashers. Vaughn co-wrote the script and one
has to question if he set out to just write a (Google-ised) Wedding
Crashers sequel.
Essentially
the title (and the trailer) says (and shows) it all. Billy and Nick are
let go from their jobs as personal salesmen and they must make the
technological leap into the new age of multimedia hustle and bustle. So, where would a pair of old-school, technologically challenged salesmen go? Google.
If
this film is trying to recapture the dynamic duo's comedic brilliance
in Wedding Crashers, then it has failed. What Wedding Crashers offers is
confidence and charisma from two of the funnier men in the business.
Their charisma is palpable and this helps to build the suspense as they
crash the mother-of-all-weddings. In The Internship we still have these
charismatic men, and a half decent idea, but instead of aura and
suspense we have the overly cliche story of the misfit underdogs
fighting for redemption. Can Hollywood do nothing else?!
On
top of these considerable issues is... Google. Those of
you who don't like product placement, even when it's done subtly, will
tear your eyes out. It's more of a 2 hour advertisement than a movie...
let alone an enjoyable movie. Is Google even happy with this? The
happy-go-lucky work place is oozing with fake sentimentality and
creative desperation. In the trailer the idea of Google looks awesome -
and that's where the awesomeness ends.
Spot the Google!
Tedious,
repetitive and predictable - director Shaun Levy continues to miss the
mark. Big Fat Liar, Cheaper By The Dozen, Just Married, The Pink
Panther, Night At The Museum, Date Night, Real Steel, and now The
Internship. Sure, Levy's work can be listed under 'Light-Hearted Family Movies' - although the drunken strip club scene in this one
might not thrill parents! - but there's not much in Levy's stuff which
truly interests audiences.
The
supporting cast is particularly weak. The amount of stereotypical geeks is more than a Big Bang junky could bear. And, of course, they all are on
a quest to redeem and reform
themselves. Also, what's Rose Byrne doing in this movie? People have said her scenes with Owen Wilson are
some of the best. Say what?! You could probably find her exact lines (and actions) in at least two-dozen other movies.
They've got all the bases of geeks covered!
Not
to be outdone, though, is Max Minghella, who plays everyone's worst
nightmare - a strong willed, prick-Brit, who can't get a single decent
line/scene.
The
funniest moment in the film comes in the form of Will Ferrell's
mattress salesman. This is vintage Ferrell -
he's over-the-top and vicious. His hilarious role (which is uncredited) is brief and
with his departure follows the film.
Who would’ve thought Sylvester Stallone would have this kind
of success after Rocky III was released in 1982? Ted Kotcheff did, casting
Stallone as the titular steely eyed Vietnam vet, hell-bent on taking down
corrupt lawmen of this world. Stallone is forced to take to the forest with
just a knife and compass in-tow to survive the police and a particularly
formidable helicopter, giving First
Blood the manhunt thumbs up.
I'm only number ten?!
9. Catch Me If You
Can (2002)
There are numerous Tom
& Jerry remakes out there that are worthy of Manhunt attention - but few
attract sympathy (and possess the charm) like Spielberg’s 2002 entry, Catch Me If You Can. Unbelievable yet true, this (illegal) pursuit
of the American Dream takes on a dramatic edge and will leave you contemplating
whether crime pays... or why it is that the Yankees keep winning.
Leo... being Leo.
8. Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
As a film based on the decade-long, Where’s Wally,
search for Osama Bin Laden, Zero Dark
Thirty delivers in action packed awe and troubling truths.
This bold entry, directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by
Mark Boal, combines a gritty (and realistic) script with a director who is known to
rustle feathers and shoot action scenes as realistically as they come. You won’t
regret the ride this movie delivers.
Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!
7. Dirty Harry (1971)
Harry Callahan: I know what you're thinking. 'Did
he fire six shots or only five?' Well, to tell you the truth, in all this
excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the
most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've
got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?
- Clint speaks for himself.
6. North By Northwest
(1959)
A New York ad exec somehow gets mistaken for a government agent and is then hunted down by “foreign spies”...
Get out of here!
No, no, this is the real deal – just ask The Master himself,
Alfred Hitchcock.
In this one The Master utilizes the American countryside as
he sends the original Mad Men man,
Roger O. Thornhill (Cary Grant), across corn fields and then up to Mount
Rushmore, in a heroic effort to evade the foreign agents.
It’s an instant manhunt classic.
Hauling ass to Mount Rushmore!
5. Heat (1995)
Question: What’s the one thing you can’t afford to do when
you rob a bank?
Answer: Leave a clue.
But when a clue is left after a heist in Michael Mann’s, Heat, the temperature, and tension, rises.
By the time this brilliant (Pacino vs. De Niro) action-thriller ends, you'll feel about
ready to be served alongside some potatoes and veggies.
4. Tinker Tailor
Soldier Spy (2012)
Once you get past Smiley’s obtuse persona and the dreary
British weather in the opening thirty minutes of this stellar film, you’ll realise that this is the real (manhunt) deal. No,
there isn’t a single Michael Bay explosion, nor Bond babes or elitist
one-liners – this is the gloomy, quiet world of cold war politics and espionage.
Yet behind all the abhorrent motherland accents, you’ll find a true manhunt
film which gets your heart racing and mind spinning.
One day this picture will be hanging in my dining room.
3. Silence of the
Lambs (1991)
What is it with psychopathic serial killers and manhunts?
Whether they are helping you catch another of their kind, Silence of the Lambs, or playing the heralded baddie, Se7en, they never cease to draw
audiences and plaudits. But there’s something extra special about Thomas Harris’
Hannibal Lector – maybe it’s the way he’s able to eat Ray Liotta’s brain, and
remain, in a weird way, classy...
This manhunt will play with your mind in a way that will
leave you hoping you never meet another person who goes by the name Claricccccceeeeee.
Ray Liotta's brain is currently digesting in Hannibal's gut...
2. The Bourne
Identity (2002)
Doug Liman’s Bourne
Identity blew the lid off Robert Ludlum’s conspiracy theory series, and
catapulted Matt Damon into the Hollywood spotlight as an action movie star who can actually do more than run, jump and flex. Yet behind all the
glitz and glamour surrounding this Bourne series is a good ol’ fashion manhunt plot-line (following in the Tom & Jerry
fashion).
The Jason Bourne look.
1.The
Fugitive (1993)
Dr Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford) is unjustly accused of
murdering his wife. So – guess what happens next...
Harrison Ford excels in this sort of role, doesn’t he? He
handed in a similarly heroic role as the iconic Rick Deckard in the 1982
sci-fi/thriller Blade Runner.
Some
call it the "Great American Novel", and yet the author never saw any of
its success. In fact, after its first round of printing, Gatsby met
its temporary demise as only 3,000 more copies were produced before the novel was cast into the world of literary gloom. New York's World newspaper reported it as a - "Dud" - and Fitzgerald would write to a mate, "Of
all the reviews, even the most enthusiastic, not one had the slightest
idea what the book was about." (It has been said that before Fitzgerald died in 1940, the author himself bought copies of the novel... just to generate some sale figures.)
Yet
this initial criticism isn't the main problem I have with the title - "The Great American
Novel" - my problem is in the title itself. Is it an "American" novel?
Well, yes, but the themes and ideas behind it are certainly not reserved
for Americans.
I
can remember reading Gatsby for the first time when I was 15, living
in Holland and feeling the pains of the dreaded teenage years. It was an
overcast, grey Dutch day when I first opened the book. I was sitting out in the back grounds of The American School of The Hague waiting for a rather
formidable pack of bullies to leave so I could go
home. Yes, I was one of those teenagers. So, instead of facing my fears and walking by the bullies, I sat on a frosty bench and poured through The Great Gatsby. A week later I strode into
Mrs. Mack's Year 10 English class and told her, "This is the best
book I've ever read... twice!"
In
Gatsby I found the man who encapsulated everything I wanted. My 'Daisy'
was half way around the world and I had a chip on my shoulder since
Dad's job had shipped us to Holland. I was miserable, but I was dreaming a
great (American) dream. And so it goes, whilst I was dreaming my dream,
Gatsby entered from stage right.
In The Great Gatsby I also found a thrill and a lesson. A thrill - that I could
try and recapture the joys I had once experienced while living in the warm,
(expat) oasis of Malaysia. And a lesson - that the past cannot be repeated
and it's not in the world, nor the people around me, that I find
my worth. Rather I am esteemed by something higher - or I should say someone higher - along the lines of a certain oculist in Gatsby.
Baz
Luhrmann's The Great Gatsbyis the fourth silver-screen adaption of
Fitzgerald's novel. The novel was first made into a feature film in
1926, when Herbert Brenon sought to bring the glitz of the 1920s to the big screen. The second adaption was released in
1949, as Elliot Nugent set out to explore Fitzgerald's subtly suggested
truths (and lies) surrounding the millionaire Jay Gatsby. This is an
interesting adaption, but it's primarily weakened by a script which fails
to encapsulate the time period and contrast it with the tragic hero.
Next
up was the first true and faithful adaption in 1974. Made by
celebrated British filmmaker Jack Clayton, this adaption (written by Godfather extraordinaire Francis Ford Coppola) featured a star
studded cast - led by Hollywood golden boy Robert Redford as Gatsby and
the gorgeous Mia Farrow as Daisy. But while big names took on Clayton's
project the film failed to throw any punches and instead chose to
curl up at the feet of Fitzgerald and purr quietly. But if Clayton's film was a
reflection of a safe adaption, then Baz Lurhmann's Gatsby is the first
adaption which has dramatically blown the lid off the casket.
We
know what to expect from Baz, right? Glitz and heavy Broadway glamour.
So it's no surprise that this is what we'd call the melodramatic version
of the bunch. One also can't help but wonder if Baz just wants to be
the star of his films - even if he isn't seen in the flesh.
Depending on who you ask, Baz's (left) adaption has cost somewhere between $100-150 million
The
film is enveloped in Nick Carraway's (Tobey Maguire) narration, only with
a new twist - Nick's narration comes from a sanatorium in Chicago. It
appears Nick is suffering from the same ill effects of the 1920s as
Fitzgerald did (both being alcoholics). And so Nick is told to "write"
out his problems to heal his aching heart, mind and soul. This was
slightly cringeworthy, and this cringeworthy decision was amplified when
Luhrmann decided to show Fitzgerald's actual lines on the screen (in an alphabet soup style). But even if it isn't the start we would've hoped
for, its not worth walking out on. So we press on to hear the unreliable
narrator's story of Jay Gatsby.
When
Fitzgerald sent Edith Wharton a copy of The Great Gatsby in 1925, his peer sent
a response of wonderment and praise for how Fitzgerald was able to
define modernity. Wharton also commented about an early scene, which
Luhrmann uses to thrust the 1920s into our senses, the New York City
apartment scene. Wharton described the scene as a "seedy orgy", and
Luhrmann captures this in a visually explicit manner. It was a whirlwind
moment in the movie; accented by the blasts of a rooftop
sax player, who appeared to be a poor man's Clarence Clemons rather than
a 1920s jazz swing man. Thus the scene is more a blur of hedonism rather than a stab at the falseness of society which Fitzgerald was pointing out.
And
you can't help but wonder if this visual whirlwind depicts the
filmmaker's desire to attract the youth of today rather than recreate
the Gatsby story. As a New Yorker columnist wrote, "Luhrmann's
vulgarity is designed to win over the young audience, and it suggests
that he's less a filmmaker than a music-video director with endless
resources and a stunning absence of taste."
Yet
once this pivotal apartment scene fades, and more importantly the
second half of the film begins its course, Lurhmann's film becomes palatable. It's almost as if in the first half Baz just wants you to
acknowledge his glitzy 3D party, before sitting
back down in the second half to take in a spellbinding story.
Carey Mulligan told Empire magazine that the eccentric Aussie filmmaker "captured the frenzy of the 1920s, and [that] if anyone knows how to tell a
story, it's Baz". And here in lies the truth about how we can enjoy
this adaption: shut away your literary-policeman and just go along for the ride.
Question: Who
looks good in a pink suit?!
Robert Redford
Pink Panther
Leonardo DiCaprio
How does
this guy do it? He's pushing 40 and still has some of that innocence and
(boyhood) charm we saw in his first film under Baz, Romeo +
Juliet (1996). Not only does DiCaprio pull off the pink suit in this one but he achieves
what Robert Redford never could in creating an overwhelming aura to go
with the character of Jay Gatsby. Yes, this guy stood out no matter who
he was standing next to (except perhaps Meyer Wolfsheim who somehow
morphed from a Jewish gangster into a Bollywood actor - but we'll get to
that).
A superb entrance, old sport!
Gatsby's
entrance is fitting for a man who is the walking metaphor of hope and
greed. And come on - how 'bout that smile! Book lovers all around the
world must've been transported back to that moment when Gatsby first gripped
them.
Unfortunately,
my pale brother-from-another-mother, Tobey Maguire, never seems to consistently hit
the right note as Gatsby's less-dapper chum. Sure, he's cute in his
pursuit of the party host - what with his neat little invitation and all
- but overall I prefer the fury eyebrows of the inquisitive Sam
Waterston to this more dramatic version of
Nick. Margaret Pomeranz (At the Movies) describes Maguire as "boring",
and while he's more animated as Nick than past portrayals, he is in an
odd way boring.
Carey
Mulligan makes an exquisite entrance in a scene which has forever been locked
away in a vault called Literary Perfection. With just a flutter of
her hand we are introduced to the finest specimen to ever hail from
Louisville, Kentucky - Daisy Buchanan. Opposite in nearly every way to her
brutish husband, Mulligan's Daisy
is more cynical and forceful than was once considered kosher for the role. Perhaps not as
dazzling as Daisy is intended to be, Mulligan does however give another
emotional performance in this one. And in a scene to melt all hearts,
she's able to recreate, with just one look, the tension and blissful
joy of being reacquainted with her past "love".
Joel Edgerton tells Empire about the pressures of making Gatsby: "I'm friends with Anthony Tambakis, who wrote Warrior, and he sent me an email warning me not to fuck up another American classic."
If
there is a central villain in this tale of modernist gloom (and I sense Fitzgerald would say they are all villains in their own ways) then it's
found in the double barrelled chest of Tom Buchanan. A man of proper
aristocratic breeding, Tom is hell bent on destroying the world with his
ridiculous views and painful attempts to be philosophic. However, with
that said, Joel Edgerton nails the role which is meant to test the character of Jay Gatsby. And it's in that scene towards the end (in
the hotel) where we find Tom's worth. The stage is brilliantly set for
what turns out to be the best moment in the movie.
Aussie newcomer Elizabeth Debicki plays the troublesome socialite well, but where was the whimsical romance?
The
supporting cast doesn't deliver a whole lot. Myrtle (Isla Fisher) and Wilson (Jason Clarke)? Meh. It isn't until Meyer Wolfsheim (Amitabh Bachchan) gets on
the scene that you raise an eyebrow and notice someone from the
supporting cast... other than Isla Fisher's bust! Was this decision to cast an Indian actor as Fitzgerald's Jewish gangster Baz's concerted
effort to not appear anti-semitic? There's two problems with this: they've kept the character's name as MEYER WOLFSHEIM, and Fitzgerald's character was actually based on a real life mobster from
the period, Arnold Rothstein.
Meyer Wolfsheim's reincarnation is complete.
Visually this was impressive. The attention to detail in the costumes and settings were stunning - and Fitzgerald's East and West Eggs came off beautifully! Your jaw will drop when you catch a glimpse of the polo fields; while your senses will be titillated by the parties and the vroom-vrooms. What's also incredible is that
all the filming of this iconic American story took place in Sydney, Australia. The music was a typical Baz production - a blend of then and now. It's hard to know whether this heavy assault of sound works in the movie itself, for while the soundtrack is fantastic, only Lana Del Rey's contribution (Young and Beautiful) appeared to fit in the movie.
A
visual spectacle, bar none, Gatsby delivers the pomp and excitement the
'74 adaption never could. Yet there still is a bad taste in your mouth
after watching this one - something just doesn't feel right. Perhaps
it's impossible to adapt the heart and soul of this Great American Novel.
6.5/10
Now let me share my favourite passage from The Great Gatsby...
I have an idea that Gatsby himself didn't believe it would come, and perhaps he no longer cared. If that was true he must have felt that he had lost the old warm world, paid a high price for living too long with a single dream. He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass. A new world, material without being real, where poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about... like that ashen, fantastic figure gliding towards him through amorphous trees.
