REVIEW: Sucker Punch

Sucker Punch (2011): Dir. Zack Snyder. Written by: Zack Snyder and Steve Shibuya. Story by: Zack Snyder. Starring: Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Oscar Isaac, Carla Gugino, Jon Hamm, Scott Glenn and Gerard Plunkett. Rated PG-13 (thematic material involving sexuality, violence and combat sequences, and for language). Running time: 126 minutes.

1 star (out of four)

The world of Sucker Punch is like the idyllic fantasy of a teenage boy who knows nothing of the outside world that hasn’t been presented to him in a video game. It is a world where the women are multidimensional only in their figures, where hackneyed one-liners pass as wisdom, and where gunfights occur not for any purpose but to fulfill the CGI quota. Writer-director Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) has committed such cinematic offenses before but never in such quick succession and with so little in the way of justifiable context (also known as story). If Sucker Punch does have one thing going for it, it’s that the film is unapologetically childish, indulging in its “babes with guns” narrative just because.

In a prologue free of dialogue but heavy on slow motion, we learn that our pigtailed heroine (Emily Browning) – who gets no name other than Baby Doll – has just lost her mother, leaving her and her sister alone with their evil stepfather (Gerard Plunkett). He steals some creepy glances at them at the funeral and when he sexually assaults the sister, Baby Doll takes action. Unfortunately, her shot misses its target and she kills her sister instead, a mistake that lands her in an institution for the criminally insane.

Talk about jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire; the whole institution appears to be run by slimy perverts who take turns ogling the all-female patients. Leading the pack is an orderly named Blue Jones (Oscar Isaac) who asserts considerable authority in the asylum. He strikes a deal with the stepfather to ensure that Baby Doll is lobotomized before the police have a chance to question her and learn about any extenuating circumstances surrounding her crime. Why Blue would do such a terrible thing is baffling, though I suppose there is an unspoken understanding amongst movie pervs in situations like this.

From here the movie muddies up reality and the institution becomes a high-class brothel where Baby Doll and her fellow inmate babes learn to dance from the on-staff therapist, Dr. Vera Gorsky (Carla Gugino). Under the supervision of Blue, Dr. Gorsky prepares her patients for regular performances where they dance and service high-paying clients. Needless to say, the girls want to escape.

Baby Doll turns out to be a mesmerizing dancer, but we never actually see her moves. Whenever she starts to dance, the film transports us to computer-animated set pieces where she battles all sorts of foes. Outside a snowy dojo, she fights giant, mechanical samurai. In the trenches of WWI, she and the other girls slaughter German cyborgs. Next, they break into a castle to kill a dragon. Then they must stop a runaway train that holds a bomb guarded by futuristic robots. A mysterious man (Scott Glenn) acts like the Charlie to their Angels, appearing every time we enter the fantasy realm to explain what they need to do. In each case, Baby Doll must procure a tool that will aid her and her friends in their escape: a map, fire, a knife, a key.

The action scenes, exquisitely rendered though they may be, are all superfluous. The girls go through a lot of trouble to obtain the items in the fantasy worlds but they also have to find them in reality, which more or less nullifies the need for the elaborate action. The action itself often plays out like self-parody – absurd but not quite campy – in a feeble attempt to emulate every style of action present in the post-Matrix, post-Kill Bill cinematic landscape.

Though the movie borrows elements from a number of its contemporaries, this is the first entirely original feature from Zack Snyder, who previously remade Dawn of the Dead and adapted the graphic novels 300 and Watchmen. With Sucker Punch, he tries too hard to assert himself as the new fanboy auteur.

Mr. Snyder is not an untalented director and, for better or worse, he has a style he can call his own, but he could benefit from exercising a little restraint. To emphasize his film’s uncertain hold on reality, he underlines every scene with lyrically resonant songs (“Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” “Where Is My Mind?”, “White Rabbit”). His overuse of slow motion and color saturation quickly grow tiresome. He overcompensates for a lack of substance with an excess of style.

One also wonders, with all the girl-power ass kicking his heroines deal out, if Mr. Snyder believes he has made a feminist film. For those wondering: he has not. Every woman in Sucker Punch is sexualized with scanty clothes and when they’re not firing automatic weapons, they’re giggling and fawning over each other in the dressing room. Mr. Snyder also proves himself adept at creating phallic imagery. The swords, the guns, the knife, the half-burnt cigar, the slit dragon’s neck, the train. Yes, yes, we get it!

There are a few moments, however, when the movie breaks from its self-imposed seriousness and provides some much-needed self-awareness. When asked by Dr. Gorka to rehearse a scene featuring a girl in a mental asylum, a patient named Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish) objects. She gets why she’s dressed up like a schoolgirl and she understands how being drugged up might be a turn-on. But lobotomized vegetable? That’s too much. That Mr. Snyder is aware of what he’s doing to his actresses, however, only makes his degradation of them worse.

Maybe there is a way to view Sucker Punch from a feminist angle though. Let the sadistic orderly Blue Jones stand in for Mr. Snyder; the patients, symbols for the very actresses in the film. Now the movie becomes something of a tragedy where performing women sacrifice themselves to escape the prying eyes of an audience who demands to see their fantasies played out before them. That film might be a little heavy-handed, but it would no doubt be better than this mess.

- Steve Avigliano, 3/26/11

REVIEW: Limitless

Limitless (2011): Dir. Neil Burger. Written by: Leslie Dixon, based on the novel, The Dark Fields, by Alan Glynn. Starring: Bradley Cooper, Abbie Cornish, Robert DeNiro, Andrew Howard, Johnny Whitworth and Tomas Arana. Rated PG-13 (thematic material involving a drug, violence including disturbing images, sexuality and language). Running time: 105 minutes.

2 ½ stars (out of four)

You know how they say we only use twenty percent of our brains? A new, experimental drug called NZT-48 offers you the ability to access all one hundred percent, explains a character in Limitless. All those little bits of half-forgotten information that float through our subconscious are suddenly accessible. You can become fluent in entire languages just by giving a cursory listen to an instructional tape.

According to Wikipedia, that bit about our brains is a myth, but regardless, this is the conceit Limitless, the new thriller starring Bradley Cooper, rests on. The film is clever about its phony science though, and invites viewers not think too much about its plot, even while its hero is thinking overtime.

Cooper plays Eddie Morra, a science fiction writer whose life is in shambles. His girlfriend (Abbie Cornish) dumps him because he can’t get it together. The deadline for his novel is fast approaching and he hasn’t written a word. When his former brother-in-law (Johnny Whitworth) tells him about a pill that will cure his writer’s block, he gives it a shot. What does he have to lose?

The pill works like an extreme Adderall, giving him the focus to finish his novel in four days. But its power doesn’t stop there. On the drug, he has the capability to absorb information at lightning speeds. After one day of studying stock exchange trends, he becomes a Wall Street superstar. And how else should he use his newfound brainpower but for the pursuit of sensual pleasures? One day he’s loafing around his dirty apartment, the next he’s cliff diving and mingling with the cultural elite. No wonder his girlfriend takes a new interest him.

Naturally, Eddie’s sudden success catches a few people’s eyes. There’s an influential business tycoon (Robert De Niro in a now-typical supporting role for the actor), a Russian loan shark (Andrew Howard) and a mysterious stalker (Tomas Arana). We also learn that there is a darker side to taking the pill, which gives the film a dash of Hitchcockian flair. The story twists and turns more than one might expect and the film mostly remembers to tie up all the loose ends. When the credits roll there are a few unanswered questions and if the ending isn’t quite a cheat, it’s certainly lazy.

Still, Limitless moves by at a brisk pace and offers its share of pleasures. As the wily Russian, Andrew Howard is a delight, appearing when we least expect him and chewing up the scenery real good. The film is often also quite funny and is clever in its presentation of the miracle drug. When Eddie is called upon to fight some thugs in the subway, we see how dusty memories of Bruce Lee movies emerge from the recesses of his mind to teach him martial arts. That this particular scene isn’t nearly as goofy as it sounds is a testament to the film’s style, which is as flashy as Eddie’s new lifestyle. Director Neil Burger gives the movie a number of clever, visual touches to bring us inside his hero’s drug-induced super-mind.

Bradley Cooper is great aid to the film and a strong choice for the lead. He’s charismatic enough to stay likable in the character’s most arrogant moments, but he has an inherent everyman quality that makes him relatable as well. Cooper is believable as an ill-groomed slacker in the film’s early scenes and equally convincing as a self-assured playboy after the pill’s effects take hold.

Unfortunately, Limitless isn’t quite as brilliant as its protagonist. The unnecessary voice-over narration, funny though it is at times, tends to over explain the plot. There are also a few wasted opportunities for strong supporting characters. Abbie Cornish isn’t given much to do as the beautiful girlfriend and despite Robert De Niro’s presence as the powerful entrepreneur, there is little memorable about the character or his performance.

The implications of a pill that can make you a genius are vast and there are a number of ways in which the plot of Limitless could have gone. Eddie mentions in the voice-over that he wants to change the world with his powers. Exactly how, he never says. Mostly he seems to be enjoying the good life and the film indulges in his fantasies, making Limitless an exciting, if decidedly limited, piece of entertainment.

- Steve Avigliano, 3/25/11

REVIEW: Rango

Rango (2011): Dir. Gore Verbinski. Written by John Logan. Featuring the voices of Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Ned Beatty and Bill Nighy. Rated PG (rude humor, action, language and smoking). Running time: 107 minutes.

3 stars (out of four)

In the crowded market of computer-animated films, Rango comes as a delightful relief. A clever homage to classic westerns with enough wit and charm for two movies, this is one of the best animated comedies in recent years.

Johnny Depp voices the Chameleon With No Name, a pet who unwittingly ends up in the Mojave Desert after his terrarium falls off the back of a truck. He soon finds the town of Dirt, a relic of the Old West populated by an assortment of reptiles and rodents. The locals at the town saloon quickly size him up as an outsider, but our hero sees this as an opportunity to reinvent himself. He has a penchant for the dramatic – in the opening scene, we see him acting out Shakespeare with his tank accessories – so he invents a persona: the infamous Rango. That he should be called upon to prove his skills with a six-shooter does not initially cross his mind, but of course his big talk is soon put to the test. When he inadvertently saves the town from a hawk, he is promoted to sheriff.

Meanwhile, the town faces a drought. This is particularly troublesome considering the town’s water-based economy. Inside the bank’s safe is a blue water cooler that’s getting dangerously low. A plucky iguana named Beans (voiced by Isla Fisher), however, knows about a pipe where water is being mysteriously dumped into the desert. She suspects the corrupt mayor (a tortoise voiced by Ned Beatty) may be behind the town’s ill fortunes and turns to Rango, the town’s new hero, for help.

Fans of westerns – or Chinatown – know where the film is heading and that’s part of the fun. Rango borrows liberally from a number of films – in particular, the central conflict is directly lifted from that Roman Polanski classic – but never feels stale or familiar. The film wears its influences proudly; its plot is a pastiche of scenes and storylines from the great westerns and Rango takes great pleasure in reinventing these genre conventions. The references to other films aren’t merely in-jokes for the parents in the audience to chuckle at. They infuse the story with energy and humor.

The film is also exceptionally smart. Most of today’s animated fare (not bearing the Pixar brand) is too eager to cater to young audiences by dumbing down the story. Even the good ones have a tendency to move the plot along at breakneck speeds, as if the slightest dip in energy will lose a child’s interest. Rango takes time to develop its characters and allows the plot to twist and take unexpected detours. Admittedly, the film loses a little steam in its midsection, though it quickly picks up again.

The script is immensely clever. There are plenty of one-liners and the film boasts a big vocabulary (this is the wordiest animated film since Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox), but the film is not trapped by its cleverness. Rather than providing slapstick jokes for the kids and innuendos for the adults to catch, Rango’s jokes have universal appeal. This is an animated comedy that is simply very funny.

Johnny Depp’s voice acting is a great aid to the film. I’m often hesitant to embrace big name stars in animated films, but Depp is a strong choice for this sort of piteous everyman character. The actor has played a lot of larger-than-life characters in recent years and Rango reminds us how well he fits quieter roles, even if he only lends his voice here.

Industrial Light & Magic animated the film (a first for the special effects company), and the computer animation looks fantastic. Dirt is a richly detailed town with vibrant character. Its inhabitants have a woebegone charm as they scowl and hobble their way down the town’s main street. One character has an arrow stuck in his eye that pokes out the back of his head but he doesn’t seem to mind.

Director Gore Verbinski, who previously helmed the three Pirates films, appears to have had no trouble venturing into animation. He was also behind the unjustly unloved The Weather Man, and I wonder if his real talent is for comedies and not blockbuster epics.

In the avalanche of computer animated movies continually vying for audiences’ attentions, Rango stands a head above the rest. It offers an inventive story and strong characters over tired retreads and sequels, and intellect and humor over 3D glasses.

- Steve Avigliano, 3/5/11