Tag: Joe Pantoliano

Quick Thoughts – July Round-Up, Part 1 of 2

‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ (1930)

Of all the armed conflicts in human history, perhaps none was more senselessly brutal than World War I.  Early 20th Century Europe was a powder keg waiting for one good spark, and when it came, the continent (and beyond) was plunged into darkness for four long years.  Worse yet, the battlefields and high seas were the most violent Petri dishes imaginable, as aging military tactics met groundbreaking new technology: airplanes, submarines, tanks, chemical gas; pretty much anything that could be weaponized was put to such use.

Based on the seminal novel by Erich Maria Remarque, ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ is an equally important motion picture, as it captures the madness of “The Great War” from the level of the common soldier; from enlistment, to training, to combat, to back home, and, ultimately, to death.

It doesn’t seem logical that a film made four score and six years ago about a war that happened a century ago would feel at all contemporary, yet ‘All Quiet’ somehow manages to do just that.  The battle scenes, though not filled with the blood and gore we’re accustomed to now, are as harrowing as can be.  What I find even more striking, however, are the characters and their conversations, trying to simultaneously hold onto their humanity while also numbing themselves in order to be effective.  If you’ve seen ‘Fury‘ or ‘American Sniper‘ in recent years, you can draw lines back to ‘All Quiet’.

If I have one major criticism, it’s that you feel the movie’s length (it runs over two hours) and sometimes scenes don’t quite flow together, but given how long ago it was produced, that can be forgiven.

There’s little doubt that this is an all-time great film that everyone should see at least once.

Rating: ★★★★½

 

‘Top Gun’ (1986)

When people ask me what my favorite arthouse film is, I always say it’s the first few minutes of ‘Top Gun’, before “Highway to the Danger Zone” comes in, because it’s nothing but a bunch of long, gorgeous “magic hour” shots of flight deck operations aboard the USS Enterprise, set to that beautifully ambient Harold Faltermeyer score.  Really, until Mr. Loggins comes storming in, my brain tells me this is going to be one of the best movies I’ve ever seen, but then reality eventually sets in, and I retreat to a place of disappointment.

That’s right.  ‘Top Gun’, that awesome movie you loved when you were a kid, is actually terrible.  In fact, by and large, if there aren’t airplanes, Tom Skerritt, or Michael Ironside on the screen, the movie’s a hot mess: the script is bad, the story is dumbed-down, and the romantic sub-plot is horrendous and needlessly log-jammed into the middle of the film.  It’s bad.  It’s a bad movie.

Now, that’s not to say it’s totally irredeemable, because F-14s are awesome, and F-14s taking on other fighter jets are even more awesome, but all that action doesn’t quite make up for the fact that almost every other element is cringe-worthy.

Basically, ‘Top Gun’ is the kind of movie you put on and fast forward through all the boring parts.  There’s absolutely no need to spend all 110 minutes watching the whole thing.

Rating: ★★½

 

‘Risky Business’ (1983)

‘Risky Business’ is another movie I throw in the Overrated bin.  Not unlike ‘Beverly Hills Cop‘, this film lives in the muddled middle: not funny enough to be an effective comedy, and not intense enough to be a cool high school crime drama.

Frankly, the movie is sophomoric, and I get that as a high school story maybe it should be that, but what I really mean is at certain points it feels like it was made by an actual 10th grader.  Perhaps the ultimate example of this is when Joel and Lana (Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay) are attempting to get intimate on a Chicago “L” train and the soundtrack is blasting Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight”; it’s just such a poor creative choice that made me hate the movie in that moment.

However, there is some good work here, especially the Tangerine Dream score, but not enough for me to recommend the movie outright.  Stick to ‘Ferris Bueller’ if you’re looking for a Chicago-area high schooler wish fulfillment movie.

Rating: ★★½

Movie Review: ‘The Matrix’ – You’ll Believe a Man Can Fly

Original Release Date: March 31, 1999
Written and Directed by The Wachowskis
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Gloria Foster, Joe Pantoliano, Marcus Chong, Julian Arahanga, Matt Doran, Belinda McClory, Anthony Ray Parker
Soundtrack: Don Davis

My biggest fear about reviewing this classic (and make no mistake, it is a classic) fifteen years after its release is that there’s nothing new I can say about it, but, as I keep telling people, I do what I want.

I had the distinct pleasure this past Memorial Day Weekend of seeing The Matrix as it was intended to be seen (more on that later), in a proper movie theater, on a proper big screen.  In my case, the theater in question was the venerable Alamo Drafthouse Yonkers, which I’ve now been to a handful of times for special viewings like this (and marathon shenanigans).  If you have an Alamo Drafthouse in your general vicinity, and you’ve not been there, please check one out at your earliest convenience; I promise you, you won’t regret it (unless you’re a terrible person who talks, texts, or does whatever else during movies that doesn’t involve watching them and enjoying good food and drink).

To say that The Matrix is one of my favorite films would be a gross understatement.  In one of my middle school summers, my best friend (with whom I went to the Alamo) told me about this mysterious movie that I had never heard of, and all he could really convey to me was that it was awesome and that I totally needed to see it (he was right).  So my mom took us to the video store to rent it (on VHS; remember that?), and we watched it; and I was hooked.  As it was a 7-day rental, and I had nothing better to do, I watched The Matrix every day for those seven days.  It was like a good book I couldn’t put down, except it was the same book, and it was still awesome no matter how many times I went through it.

Why so awesome?

First of all, if you’ve never seen it, stop reading this right now, go find a friend with a Blu-Ray player and an HD projector (or a movie theater that happens to be playing it) and watch the movie.

Quite simply, The Matrix is a film that demands to be seen on a large screen (you could argue that “it insists upon itself” in this respect).  As much as there are foreshadows and callbacks in the dialogue, there are even more that happen within the frame that you probably won’t quite be able to make out on your TV (spoiler alert: the movie effectively ends where it begins).  Not only that, but the cinematography in general is just fantastic (tons of interesting shot compositions, incredibly effective use of close-ups, etc.), the fight choreography (both traditional and fantastical) is as good as you’ll ever see in a mainstream film, and most of the visual effects are still as jaw-dropping as they were fifteen years ago.  The glaring exceptions to this are the “real world” scenes involving the Sentinels, but they can be forgiven; I actually really enjoy how the first Sentinel encounter feels like a classic “silent running” submarine scene.

One [perhaps underrated] production choice that benefits the film greatly (unless you come from a land Down Under; then maybe you’re less impressed) was the decision to shoot the film in Australia, and specifically Sydney for location shots.  It plays the part of “generic American city” very well, and doesn’t have any giveaway landmarks that make you say “New York” or “Chicago” or “LA” or even “Pittsburgh”, thus taking you out of the movie for just a brief moment  (Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy suffered this problem endlessly, though it doesn’t detract from the greatness of those movies).  The terrific irony of The Matrix is that the “real world” scenes were done virtually, and the virtual world scenes were done as practically as could be (a far cry from the blatant CGI-fests of today…or the next two Matrix films, but whatever).

From a casting perspective, whether the individual actors were first choice or not, there’s not a miscast character in the whole film, right down to the extras:  Keanu Reeves as the wonderfully slightly vapid hero, Laurence Fishburne as the wise zealot, Carrie-Anne Moss as the faithful XO and somewhat reluctant love interest (and owner of the first bullet-time sequence in the film), Joe Pantoliano as the delightfully sketchy Cypher, and Hugo Weaving as the evil G-Man to end all evil G-Men.  Even Marcus Chong‘s performance as Tank the operator is pitch perfect.

One last area I’d be remiss to not address is the music.  Don Davis’s score is perfectly adapted to the action and tension; big when it needs to be, but also small when appropriate.  But the other song choices from artists of the day fit the tone of the film to perfection, from the remix of Rob Zombie’s ‘Dragula’ in the club scene, to The Propellerheads’ ‘Spybreak (Short One)’ in the lobby shootout sequence, to the closing roar of Rage Against the Machine’s ‘Wake Up’.

Really though, when I think of the legacy of The Matrix, I think of it as one of the last great films (maybe the last great film) to not be sullied by the internet age; and by “internet age”, I mean the current broadband state we live in, where every movie, no matter how good, is subjected to endless nitpicking by NERDS to the point that it almost feels like a crime to actually enjoy a movie nowadays.  Yes, The Matrix is derivative of other preexisting styles; yes, there are “goofs” where you can see how effects or stunts were done, or they just don’t look quite right; and yes, there are plot holes (for shame); but, in the end, none of that matters, because the story is well-written, the film is well shot, the characters are well-acted, and, most importantly, you always care about what’s happening on screen and can’t wait to see what’s next.  Lots of great movies have all the deficiencies I listed in the former, but what truly matters is the latter.

YOU HEAR THAT, NERDS?  LOTS OF GREAT MOVIES HAVE PLOT HOLES.  GET OVER IT.

Rant over.

★★★★★ (out of five)

P.S.
In all honesty though, after you watch The Matrix, you should totally check out Dark City.