Cast: Shia LaBeouf has the most screen time of anyone, so I guess that makes him the lead. He's a pretty textbook character, but plays it as well as one could hope. Tom Hardy is a pretty eloquent guy. It's a shame he keeps picking roles like this one where he's the strong, silent type (or Bane, who's, well, you know). Jason Clarke is the third brother. I don't actually know who he is. The imdb page looks impressive enough and he plays a good, albeit underdeveloped drunk. I'm finally understanding why Jessica Chastain was the talk of the town last year. I would really like to see Mia Wasikowska in another major lead role again soon. Guy Pearce is good in this, I suppose. I've seen that character so many times before. When is a new model for a bad guy going to come along?
Plot: The one danger of a proper parody is that it really calls attention to the formula of a given genre. As a result, the great movies are still great, but the examples that are only good seem kind of stale. Having seen the Community episode "Contemporary America Poultry" hurt my ability to watch this movie. The rural setting for a Prohibition movie is a refreshing angle. Everything else was a little too familiar. There's a couple times when Shia LaBeouf starts doing narration to a montage when I started hearing it in Abed's voice. Killed the mood a little.
Elephant in the Room: I don't go to the movies to listen to Hillbilly speak. Agreed. It's gets a little annoying, and there's a couple times, especially with Tom Hardy when it's damn near unintelligible. It's not too bad most of the time though, and it's certainly a new perspective on for a familiar story.
To Sum Things Up:
I liked it. It's definitely one of the best releases in a while. I'm a fan of the gangster sub-genre though, so I'm not in unbiased judge. The movie exists in the middle ground where it's not quite Hollywood shoot 'em up and also lacks award season polish.
In Other Words: 5 years from now, this will be sold in a bundle with Public Enemies for $12.99 at Target. I'll consider buying that.
Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend
No comments:
Post a Comment