Okay, I confess, this has become less a weekly thing and more a "whenever the hell I feel like it" sort of a thing, but since we're now two months into the doldrums (better known as summer break) I will try to keep this at a more regular interval. Well, after next week, I've got family crap to do and I will have no internet for that time, but after that I'll try to do an article once a week.
Now, normally when summer comes around my sister and I sit down and pick a theme (well not so much pick as walk into the video store and realize there's a whole section of ridiculous we hadn't sat down and watched yet). Last year it was Spy movies/TV/media. This year it's westerns and Film Noir. Firstly, no, I have no idea how those two got paired together and secondly, shut up.
Why we ended up renting The Spirit, I'm not sure. I'm admittedly a bit of a graphic novel geek, but The Spirit was one of those comics that was way before my time and I had only a basic knowledge of coming into this film. Aside from the general plot (cop gets killed, but his thirst for justice is so great he comes back to life to continue his civic duty as a masked vigilante, hence the title of The Spirit) I knew it was a Frank Miller movie and while I'm not a big Frank Miller fan, I will say that I rather enjoyed Sin City.
Anyway, my point is that, coming into this I was expecting a gritty Sin City styled version of The Big Sleep or something similar. What I got was an over the top comic book-esque action movie that was equal parts awesome and just plain ridiculous.
Firstly, I have to talk about the cast because I would never pass up a chance to be petty and make fun of the fact the Eva Mendes is a mouth breather with Baywatch pontoon lips who can't act. Granted, my most recent experience with her was Ghost Rider, a movie that somehow managed to make one of the coolest Marvel characters lamer than hell, but that doesn't change the fact that she just seems to play the same sort of character in most of the films I've seen her in. In this one she's the Spirit's old flame who happens to be a thief after Jason's Golden fleece (because a super hero film noir movie wasn't weird enough apparently). She sort of sits around, has two guys kill themselves for little to no reason and flirts with the Spirit. Of course the Spirit is played as a skirt chaser of Bond proportions, so I suppose you can't fault the film for being consistently shallow.
Honestly the two best actors in the film are Scarlett Johansson (who plays a deadpan lackey to Jackson and complements him beautifully) and Samuel L. Jackson to my eternal surprise. l Normally I think of Jackson as this guy who's pretty much played the same role his entire career (meaning he's an angry Black guy who's tired of your shit and isn't going to take it any more), but he really went all out as the Spirit's archnemesis, The Octopus. He's ridiculous and over the top while still managing to seem threatening. Plus he beats a guy over the head with a toilet. I'm not joking about that.
He changes costumes that range from slightly normal to completely outlandish, even ending up in a Samurai outfit (complete with topknot and fro sideburns) to cartoonishly hack his henchmen apart (aside from Johansson, but she's the only competent henchperson in the entire flick) to a Nazi outfit complete with a monacle that makes him look like a poor imitation of Rommel. To add to it, Jackson seems to revel in the absurdity he's participating in and proceeds to consistently steal every single scene he's in.
In terms of plot the movie is pretty standard noir fare up until the last half hour or so. The Octopus grabs a chest and some guys show up dead, so the Spirit looks into it. However, it then devolves into some insane plot that's built around the Golden Fleece (which is armor for some inane and arbitrary reason) and Samuel L. Jackson wanting to drink Herakles' blood (That's Hercules to those who aren't so mythologically nitpicky). The latter part of the plot is more in tone with the beginning of the movie where the Octopus and the Spirit engage in an over the top and ridiculous fist fight in the mud that escalates into hitting each other with a toilet and a sink, where the straight up Noir stuff feels way to serious in a movie that doesn't seem to take itself or it's audience seriously.
Overall, I found myself enjoying The Spirit even though I shouted at the screen repeatedly (to the point where my mom actually told me to stop shouting "That's insane!" at the screen or she'd come and sock me). It was insane and over the top, but it seemed to enjoy being so outlandish that you couldn't help but be sucked in. I recommend it, even if it will make blood come out of your ears at points.
(not quite) Dead and loving it,
Jenna Darknight
(the images used here were used for non profit reasons and belong to Frank Miller and Lionsgate Studios...who are nice people and don't want to sue me.)
0 comments:
Post a Comment