W-a movie review

W-a Movie Review

By Darrell J Banks

CR 2008

All Rights Reserved Worldwide

( For More insight read Eddie Vedder’s article in Interview Magazine November 2008 pp 52 ff.)

I do not know why I went to see W.  He is the most dissd. president in awhile. Yet, this movie made me understand and like W.   Let me give you some perspective on my relationship with W.

A few weeks after 911 in 2001 I went to DC to obtain and interview with Danny Glover and Vivica Fox.  The interviews never happened Danny left before the party. I learned through third hand sources it was the world trade protesters. While I stood next to Vivica Foxes PA, personal assistant and provided a card and resume. The interview never took place.

How does this relate to W. Well I was tired of interviews so I  walked past the white house that day and prayed for the Nation. That is the premise of W. God can change anything including a future president.  Oliver Stone and Stanley Weiser, present a Bush to be proud of at least for some of us. Bush was a f up, unable to accomplish anything on time or in accord with his father’s wishes.  Stone presents a theme in every father son movie.

Act 1 S 1.  We find Junior immersed in ice, wine and fraternity brothers. He is pledging and remarkably has memorized the names of everyone in the room.  This seals his fate through a series of odd jobs that his father George I is not proud of.  But unlucky for us,  Junior wants nothing to do with the family business of politics.  He continues to fodder through life then things change, he gets a vision, several visions to be precise.

Act 2 S1 George Porgie finds true love with Laura, learns to pray and decides to accept his father to Hortonized the election. Spin it up a little and he’s running for governor. W has matured and wants to out Texan and out Christian anyone in his way.

Act 3 S1   I got a phone call and missed a few minutes, but Jeffery Wright does his best Colin Powell tries to talk W.out of a war. This part of the move gets really funny. In his to be or not to be moment. W. decides that the war is about oil revenge for his father and of course history.  Its worth the 4.75 to relive this moment of American history.

I give this film 9 smoke stacks

Tropic Thunder- A Movie Review

Tropic Thunder- A Movie Review

By Darrell J Banks
CR 2008

All Rights Reserved Worldwide

Most black faced movies like Charlie Chan from the thirties is an acquired taste. I remember when Bamboozled was released and the controversy black face bought Spike Lee. Fast forward 2008, potential black president and well we get Tropic Thunder.

Premise, can actors really deep into their art, meet the words on the page and use the great “If” to stand and deliver a great performance.

Act 1 Scene 1 The credits tell us their was only one great Vietnam novel ever made into a movie. From this still we know this is satire. ( Read the 13th Valley by John DelVechio to truly experience the Nam in words)

The year 1969 Tropic Thunder has a British director who cannot get Robert Downey Jr. and Ben Stiller to emote. The jets are coming in and a four million-dollar pyrotechnics explosion is about to go belly up. With parodies of Saving Private Ryan, Platoon and Apocalypse now this movie develops into a superb comedy. With great performances by the great Danny R. McBride ( Red in Pineapple Express. This movie delivers. The supporting cast expands with Matthew Mc and Tom Cruise filling in this Hollywood parody respectively as an agent and super producer.

Since they cannot emote, the writer on set Nick Nolte suggests that the actors be given a dose of the actor’s studio, Stravinsky technique. What if you put two used up superstar actors in a real war zone. Tom as producer tells the writer to stfu.

But the director feeling the pressure of the suits and the possible end of his movie career dumps his actors in the middle of the drug triangle.

Act 2 S1 As in the movie previews. Downey an Australian actor who delves into true form beyond wigs and makeup has been injected to become black. His dialect coach the Jeffersons.
Showing pure genius, his mannerisms are a combination of sarge from the Halo 3 games but with more gusto.
Stranded the actors must adapt as the Asian drug Lords seek to destroy them.
They suspect DEA agents. With a parody on Rambo, Stiller moves off on his own to find himself captured and forced to give the performance of a lifetime.

Act 3 S1 Are heroes must escape, and trust me when you rent this movie you will find this escape better then any Delta Force performance by Chuck Norris

Act three concludes with the best performance by TC in a while he hips and hops and struts as this surrealistic movie winds to a bombastic close.

I give this film 9 smoke stacks.

Burn After Reading- A review by Darrell J Banks

CR 2008

All Rights Reserved Worldwide

Critics rate this a seven. I think it’s a ten. Here’s why.

First the movie features a stellar cast who must have taken a gross to participate  in this great Coen Brothers films. While I am a fan of their earlier works (Fargo/ Raising Arizona) I didn’t like No Country For Old Men. ( great acting just too much psycho for me)

This film will in twenty years rank as a classic similar to Kubrick’s masterpiece on the nuclear/cold war.  The premise what do spies do after the cold war.   Answer they cheat on their spouses and make imaginary stories evolve into the insane world of spy land.

Act 1 Scene 1 to Act 1 Scene 3 move very slow but lead up to a great Act 2.
Frances McDormand wants a new body. Brad Pitt well he’s just existing in the world of the gym.
We find ourselves at a party. George Clooney, plays a goofy agent enthralled with Tilda Swinton who plays Malkovich’s wife.

We don’t know what she does for a living, but like in other movies she plays the ice princes to perfection. George, is bored, his hobby sex with anything that walks.  Later on his basement project.

Theoretically this movie was to portray an analogy of the CIA.  Enter ( Sledgehammer )
David Rasche   who takes the movies to another level. He portrays a case officer who well doesn’t know what the f. is going on. He’s monitoring, Malkovich a mid level analyst who has just been sacked.  John  wants to rewrite a book, his memoirs that lead to this classic, subtle comedy. His wife Tilda wants something altogether different.

By Act 3 three things have gone awry. McDormand still want her breast implants. Pitt well, like in Thelma and Louise he obtains the fame and stardom he always wanted..  Clooney finds out  that his membership in the spy kingdom  requires a transplant elsewhere to a place far far away.  No one like in Kubrick’s film really gets what he wants, well maybe the CIA.  Oops, I lied but for that irony you will have to see this great film.

10 smoke stacks

J K SIMMONS born in Detroit MI. Yeah baby like WRIF he rocks.

To Live and Die In LA a film review

To live and Die in LA- A review

By Darrell J Banks

I saw this movie when it was released. I loved it then, bought the soundtrack fell in love with Wang Chung and I will admit this review is biased. I give it ten smoke stacks.

If you want to find out why keep reading. I am on my third copy of the DVD I love this movie so much. For over thirty years I wanted to move to LA, since well 1977. How does this movie reflect the city.  Well on the cover it says Freidkin’s best. I believe it is. Now this is the guy who directed the Exorcist.

Friedkin  directed several other great films including the French Connection. He was born in the Midwest and according to IMDB.COM worked in the mail room. I once worked in the mail room at McGraw Hill.  Perhaps this is where he learned his gritty style. LA most days is full of heat.  Thus, the orange hot soaked trees and mountains are used here to perfection.  Lights off.

Act 1 Scene 1 We are shown a presidential motorcade, card games and a want to be terrorist. Time frame the Reagan era, mid 1980’s. Friedkin also wrote the screenplay. And his words  form the basis of this movie that moves at light speed. We have CSI’s William Pertersen, Platoon’s Willem Dafoe and the great John Pankow ( Mad about You).  This trio of good, bad and indifferent, shifting roles as the film moves through its three act structure make this movie.

Along with a sly bi role played by the future Daphne of Fraiser fame Jane Leeaves. You have to see her in underwear. We find ourselves in a movie that focuses on fake money, love, betrayal and self righteous greed,

Act 2 The secret service agents Petersen and Pankow find themselves trapped by their own plan. They seek the destruction of Dafoe and well will use any means necessary. Here the genius of Friedkin uses the myth and reality of LA, its freeway system to perfection. The car chases, the concrete river bed, all set against the heat of the city ( no pun intended Mr. De Niro) takes on a journey between right wrong and redemption.

Act 3 All is wrong, the lies have been told, and the concept of right verses wrong, friend verses betrayer are blurred by the orange/red glow of the LA sun. I think if you rent this film you will find like the two coffee servers  said when they saw me carrying the DVD case a great movie.

10 smoke stacks

Movies 24/7

I’ve written several screenplays. This pathos or should I call it athos  started with an action thriller. I caught the Hollywood flu. Interviewed some directors,  producers et. al.  Learned that Hollywood was a closed shop when I went out there. Continued to write a few more scripts. Switched to plays, I found out they wanted  their plays produced by anyone else first.  Received some correspondence, I had talent;  But. Went back to writing movies, reviews etc, simpler and no release form/ interview time was needed. I only had to pay the entry fee, which is slightly cheap at $1 to $5 per movie.

Currently I’m writing a n/f book on character. Selling my photos and after nine years trying to sell another screenplay searching for another agent/lawyer/manager. I live movies I see several a week, thus this blog. It’s intent to stop you from going or buying something, that well sucks. I hope you enjoy it. Some of the posts arise from my blog on rottentomatoes.com. Ciao.