Nate's March 2019 Streaming Corner
I have often complained about how much I’d get done were it not for Netflix and Amazon Prime. Well now, I’ve decided to write about my relationships with these streaming giants. Lord help my productivity when Disney launches its own, and I’m inundated with a one-stop-shop for the MCU movies, cartoon classics, Pixar, Star Wars, and all those Saturday Night made-for-TV movies Disney movies that were so cheesy but charming all the same (please, Bob Eiger, if you have a heart, put these on the streaming service). I’m still waiting for The 100 Lives of Black Jack Savage to be rebooted or at least put on DVD. That show was crazy town (in a good way).
Here’s what I’ve streamed and enjoyed this month so far.
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
I don’t like overusing hyperbole. I actually find it off-putting, because rhetorically it’s the point of no return. But I would say this movie is the greatest comedic film ever made. I enjoyed it as a child and took great joy at watching my three boys of 17, 13, and 11 belly laugh at it. Think about my claim and hear me out. What other movie has as many aging, contemporary, and up-and-coming stars and character actors in it, and gives them meaningful roles without relegating them to pointless cameos (the Three Stooges’ silent cameo notwithstanding)? What other comedic movie has as much sidesplitting physical comedy while still getting a sophisticated one-liner in there once in a while? What other comedic film has stunt driving (and flying for pancake’s sake!) so superb as this? What comedy plants its heel so firmly on your funny bone and refuses to let up during long intermediate stretches of its run time? Not a one. Try to make this movie nowadays and you’d break the economies of the richest countries. Then try to sell it to modern audiences who only want profanity and vulgarity in their morning cup of comedy. Couldn’t be done.
Watch this movie. At least as many times as the word “mad” appears in the title. Then tell your friends about it and try not to count the “mads” off with your finger.
Mine
No, this isn’t a movie about the mindless seagulls from Finding Nemo. That might have been a better film. This is a little movie in which Armie Hammer’s marine sniper loses his spotter to a mine blast in the deserts of Northeastern Africa. He then steps on a mine himself, and has to call for extraction via EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal). The rest of the movie portrays his struggle to stay alive while waiting for the cavalry.
Don’t watch this movie. If it had only shown the real world struggle, it would have been a fine film. A really good one, actually. Armie Hammer is one of those weird actors who doesn’t have to ooze charm in order to carry a movie. He’s not Sam Worthington (who can be best described as “there” in his movies) but not Robert Downey Jr. either. He sells the stoic and tortured soldier quite well, and has a commanding presence without having to dial it up. But the movie strays into existential territory (think Aragorn’s waterlogged hallucination from LOTR The Two Towers expanded to an entire movie’s length) in which his familial struggles all heavy-handedly symbolize and coincide with his stepping on and arming the titular mine. It’s a dreadful sludge of a task trying to make it to the resolution. This despite some really well done visual and musical sequences involving a sandstorm and a desperate shootout. Wait for some geek to edit this movie down to its real parts and watch the bootleg version.
The Hive
Mix Memento, Outbreak, Evil Dead, Friday the 13th, and whatever satanic-cult-as-villain movie you’d like and make a zombie movie out of it. Then don’t watch this movie. I only got through 20 minutes or so. I bear great love for the genre, even as The Walking Dead slowly marches to its long overdue demise, so Amazon puts zombie movies in my suggestion list. But this one is definitely not worth your valuable time.
Se7en
This is considered one of the classics of its respective genre and much has been said about it, so just some stray observations.
This really is an anti-Christianity movie. It’s at least an anti-Catholic movie, but that suffices to be anti-Christian in the minds of non-believers. I didn’t remember much from the first viewing so many years ago, but Kevin Spacey’s killer doesn’t just find inspiration from the Seven Deadly Sins of the Catholic Church, he believes he’s doing the work of God when he plays them out. That’s more than enough to satisfy my claim.
The movie holds up really, really well, despite being overly dramatic in some of its ways and means. As Moby Dick is considered by many as the first modern novel, this movie seems to be the first (or at least the exemplary) postmodern serial killer movie. Seems like a cop movie can’t be made without someone being a few days from retirement though.
Brad Pitt’s boorish and hard-charging detective character is a weak point, along with some of his retched dialogue. But his character was devised to be the antithesis to Freeman’s so some of this can be forgiven. I once saw Pitt described as a character actor in a leading man’s body. I’ve always admired that insight. Pitt is often boring when he’s a hero lead. He’s mesmerizing when he’s the wacky second fiddle.
As it seems that Kevin Spacey’s body of work is come to an abrupt end, I’d say that he is a good actor but not a great one. His one-note delivery is common across many of his roles.
Wonderfully restrained, judicious with words, and incomparably intelligent is Morgan Freeman’s detective. He even has a few lines of narration at the end. He should have starred in a sequel or prequel. His younger self could be played by Snoop Dogg, as a large part of both performer’s appeal is the southern twang deliciously mixed with Midwest nasality.
R. Lee Ermey didn’t make enough movies, nor was he in them enough.
Body of Lies
Ridley Scott is one of the boldest filmmakers out there. He doesn’t stick to one style, genre, or agenda. He’s had spectrum-style success across all the genres. I’d say that makes him more successful than any peer who sees better box office numbers in one genre. Certainly more courageous. And every few years he seems to strike upon blockbuster success. Body of Lies was a critical and box office disappointment when it came out. And we can add it to the ever-growing list of movies in which Americans shoot and kill Islamic Arab terrorists which get horrible reviews. I’m not saying there’s a conspiracy here, but there is a correlation apparent to anyone who monitors such things.
But there’s some fine work in this film all around. A young pony-tailed Oscar Isaac gets a few moments near the beginning. Russell Crowe is a bit caricatured, but not tiresomely so. DiCaprio, always game when it comes to a suffering and conflicted lead, does a good job once again, though some of his dialogue at the end is stilted and preachy. He actually says to an arrogant, bullheaded, dismissive, racist, southern D.C. shot-caller who prefers to call the shots unilaterally, consequences for his subordinates-be-damned and says that he represents America “Just be careful calling yourself, America”. I mean, he might as well have been looking straight at the camera and addressing all salt-of-the-earth Americans who vote Republican. Mark Strong’s Jordanian intelligence czar of an unflinching and sometimes brutal moral code is a high point. Strong is a villain far too often. Were I a filmmaker, I’d want to put him in every movie. But he’s one of about beloved 50 character actors I’d ask to be in all my movies.
Layer Cake
Success, betrayal, twists, turns, murder, and more murder. Lots of movies centered around drug dealers have these elements. The genre is just a skosh fresher than the zombie genre when it comes to original ideas. But not all of them have British actors with varied accents talking a lot. Call me an anglophile (I do) but I am happier than a pig in plop when I have an entire movie to absorb accents, slang, and different words for the same things we use (ex. lift, loo, telly, etc.). Daniel Craig nowadays, sadly, seems inextricably linked to his role as James Bond. He can’t seem to put out a hit without 007 being in the movie’s title. It’s a shame, really. I’d say he’s the best all-around actor to take on the role, even edging out Timothy Dalton. This movie shows his range even with the constraints of a stiff-upper-lipped Brit fully engaged. Michael Gambon, Tom Hardy, and the other fine actors involved make it so you don’t even need to follow the plot.
The 90’s
George H.W. Bush really is a head-scratcher. He was so very exceptional when it came to foreign policy, and liberated a small, beleaguered nation in a matter of days. He never lost control of his passions or spewed out vomitous invective at his political enemies. But the economy was down during his second run, Bill Clinton could have bottled his sweat and sold it as a homemade distillation of his charm, and Ross Perot was the nail in the coffin. Bill Clinton was extraordinarily successful when it came to working and working with both sides, he was forgiven his sexual indiscretions. Homegrown terrorists were all the rage. Music in the early and mid-90’s was close to perfect. Actual soulful songwriters and storytellers in all genres were selling records. That is until rap hit its glam era and manufactured pop gave us music it was cool to hate but which we all sang along to. Man, did this documentary series really take me back to the things I lived and watched, the things I missed, and the events which lived in my periphery and I only understood (and soon forgot) as ill-defined vagueries. Put the kids to bed when you watch the television episode. There’s a good amount of objectionable content, as the 90’s were an age of innocence lost in television, due in large part to the advent of a quadrillion ca-gillion cable channels. Lots of things come along and make us feel old as we get older. Getting out of a chair. The morning alarm. Needing caffeine after lunch. Low definition footage of Tim Allen giving his signature grunt at his wife and kids will also do the job.
Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul
Breaking Bad became the only show beyond The Office that I’ve ever watched more than once. It’s simply that good. Some have called it the greatest show ever. I won’t go that far but I also won’t argue too passionately. Vince Gilligan is the best of contemporary storytellers. Sometimes he makes you forget who to root for. Walter White’s wife is the good guy in the show, but she’s actually unbearable from the audience’s perspective. Gus Fring is the best villain of the show, but you root for him as he’s obliterating two different Mexican cartels. Walter White just can’t be beat when it comes to morally flexible “heroes”, and Bryan Cranston likely won’t ever top this role. Rewatch the scenes when he lies to his wife. He’s always doing something with his hands and playing nervous humor. But when he’s in control, he shows it with subtle, might I say predatory, gestures of the head. It’s brilliance.
Better Call Saul gives the backstory for all the characters of Breaking Bad along with adding fully realized characters who give hefty dramatic weight to the show along the way. Saul is far from the always-on comedic aside he is in Breaking Bad. He’s a developed character and Bob Odenkirk is so married to the role it is going to be hard watching him in anything else. While not on the level of Romeo and Juliet’s love tragedy, I am eager to see how the relationship between Saul and his deep-voiced attorney girlfriend is going to end. Once again, Gilligan makes the bad guy the good guy, and the good guy who believes in the law the bad guy. It slyly makes the audience question their own moral code, as Michael McKean (sparingly cast over the years, but always a delight) schemes within the boundaries of the law to bring his lesser attorney brother down. The deadpan delivery of Jonathan Banks playing fan favorite Mike Ehrmantrout as he mentors, insults, and outwits less adept criminals can’t be praised highly enough. Binge this show as soon as you’re done reading and sharing this post.
