So what’s with this ring anyway? Yes, once again I did not read the book on which the movie is based. I’m starting to feel illiterate. Why do so many movies lately involve reading? At least now, after all these years, I know what a “hobbit” is. Well, kind of.
The ring in question is the focus of the movie. If the bad guy gets a hold of it, it’s curtains for the world. The keeper of the ring is Frodo Baggins, a hobbit boy played by Elijah Wood. A hobbit is, well, kind of a Lucky Charms leprachaun thing. Little people who seemed to live a happy, charmed life until this ring messes things up. It’s been “missing” for many years and right about the time Frodo is given charge of it, the supernatural evil thing comes to “life” to retrieve it. If he can do that, his ugly armies will take over the world and we’ll all face the darkness.
Of course, Frodo can’t just smash the ring with a big anvil. It has to be transported to ground zero of the evil empire and destroyed there. That trip is what consumes most of the three hours of this movie. It is a trip fraught with dangers as the goons of the evil guy constantly show up and try to destroy Frodo and get that ring. Frodo is not alone. He’s accompanied by eight others. Among them is Gandalf the Grey, a good wizard, played by Ian McKellan. Also along for the ride is Aragon, a good warrior who wants to see evil defeated. He’s played by Viggo Mortensen. The others are sort of a representation of the rest of the good tribes who seek to destroy that ring. Most of them have funny ears and are either dwarves or elves or hobbits. Collectively, they are known as the “fellowship of the ring”. You got all that?
I’m not sure when it was, but at some point in the movie, probably after the fifth fight between good and evil over that ring, I became bored. I started noticing how the good guys, Frodo and his crew, were starting to resemble Dudley Moore. Well, they’re short and supposed to be cute and comical and a few of them have British or Scottish accents and they have that shaggy haircut he always wore. Then I started looking at the evil goons and they reminded me of Oakland Raider fans. Big ugly guys, dressed up in silver and black, with face paint and bad teeth, it worked for me. So it became the Dudley Moore guys versus the Raider guys. I think it was one of the few times that I realized I’m not really in the target audience for this movie.
I had that problem I’ve had before. Nobody playing the good guys seems in danger, the bad guys start to look very fake and the fight scenes get repetitive. It is, underneath it all, the “Star Wars” story all over gain. Yes, I know these “hobbit” books were written many years ago. But I’m sitting there now getting very bored. I’ll admit some of the production scenes are top notch and the special effects pretty good, but I’m not fourteen years old and a little more depth would have helped. I like to pride myself with the fact that I can judge almost any movie because my tastes are so varied, but that didn’t work this time.
With “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” I went from puzzled to captivated to bored. At least that was a variety of emotions. But the closing scenes of this movie linger on my mind as they end up not with a fantastic finish, but a set-up for the next movie. Yes, they’ll be two more of these coming up. I give this one a “6.0”. At least, for now, the evil Raider fan guys lost.
Friday, December 14th, 2001
I actually heard a commercial for this movie which warned reviewers not to give away the ending! Now, I would never do that anyway but I’m not sure I should even explain the title. Oh well, here goes – it refers to a Monet painting.
With that out of the way, this movie is basically about a New York City wealthy playboy and his journey into the depths of his guilt-ridden, near psychotic mind. Tom Cruise plays David Aames, the guy in charge of a very successful magazine publishing company. He’s got a girlfriend of sorts named Julie and she’s played by Cameron Diaz. One night during a birthday party in his honor, his best friend Brian(played by Jason Lee) brings a date named Sophia who rocks David’s world. Sophia is played by Penelope Cruz. Yes, this is another one of those movies where real life couples are together on the screen and I have to say these two have much better romantic chemistry than I’ve ever seen out of Tom Cruise and that pasty faced woman he dumped, Nicole Kidman. After David and Sophia meet, the movie really takes off. I should tell you it’s told in a flashback form with David telling his story to a psychologist played by Kurt Russell. I can’t tell you much more than that or the studio people will probably come to my house and take me away for giving anything away. Here’s what I will say- it’s a good morality tale about people with too much money and too much guilt. It’s a puzzle- after a while you’ll ask “what just happened?”, followed by “did that just happen?” I generally like that kind of movie.
I did really like this movie a lot until the last half hour or so. Up until then, while it’s confusing as to what’s reality and what’s not, it tells a pretty interesting story of a handsome rich guy’s fall from power and stability. Although I question whether even a rich guy would wear the facemask that David does following a near death experience. He looks like Jason from Friday the 13th. It’s sort of like the wealthy guy with the bad toupee – why bother? Oh, why does David wear a facemask? I can’t tell you – they’ll come and take me away.
But about that last half hour, the one they really don’t want me to talk about. I feel like it took this movie down a notch even though it’s supposed to be a shocker. Until that point, the movie was a great look at the inner mind. With all his money and freedom, he’s truthfully aware of how he treats people. David the happy go lucky playboy had a lot going on inside his head. The ending reduces a psychological drama to some kind of bad science fiction thing. It seemed kind of silly. Especially when I noticed that two of the women who show up only at the end look a lot like the pasty faced red haired Nicole Kidman. But that’s just for my own hoots.
I give “Vanilla Sky” a “7.0” for a really good start and middle. Too bad about that ending I can’t say any more about.
Friday, December 7th, 2001
Well, did you see the original 1960 movie starring the Rat Pack? Yeah, neither did I. Maybe I ought to since this movie did little for me.
I will say this – this is quite a cast. George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt. Not to mention Carl Reiner. John and I met Carl Reiner. He was great to us and didn’t have to be. So I rooted for him in this movie and he does just fine. “Ocean’s Eleven” refers to Danny Ocean, a fresh ex-con, played by Clooney, and his gang of eleven, who are plotting to rip off over $150 million from three Vegas casinos. I was impressed they named the casinos as the Bellagio, the MGM Grand and the Mirage. Why? Because usually in these movies they use fake casino names. Too bad little else in this movie seemed real.
Now I want to be clear about this. This is the kind of movie where a group of con men and techno-nerds outwit and outsmart those who operate the best security systems in the world. I knew that coming in, I just got little enjoyment out of watching it happen. First, it takes over a half an hour just to introduce us to the eleven-plus guys involved in the caper. Julia doesn’t show up until nearly forty-five minutes into the movie. She plays the casino moguls girlfriend. She also happens to be Danny Ocean’s ex-wife. She actually gets to do very little. So the sideshow is whether or not Ocean is doing this for the money or the girl or both. Yeah, not all that interesting, is it?
What is supposed to be entertaining is the witty word byplay between the thieves. Such as Clooney and Pitt, the masterminds. Well, I wasn’t laughing much. They talk in low, deep and cool voices, but it all seems so scripted. And Pitt, who seems to be playing the “Director of Coolness”, is always eating something and that’s not so cool.
Which is why I found myself drawn to Andy Garcia’s character. He plays the casino mogul and the reason his part works so well is that he’s the only one who seems to realize he’s running a business with over $150 million in the vault. He’s tough, focused and in-charge. I actually found myself annoyed that these crooks are stealing from him. I guess if you’re looking for a goofball, cool guy movie, you don’t need him, but I found him the coolest person in the movie. And that’s not a good sign. You should never be looking at a back round character as the prime interest in a movie.
In “Ocean’s Eleven”, everyone does their job. And that’s too bad, because they do it so well, eventually you do the eye roll thing. I guessed the ending but I did it with one of those ”no, it better not be” attitudes. Well, it was. “Ocean’s Eleven” minus 6 equals a “5.0” for this movie.
