MrDreknowsbest Movie Gallery: Film Noir

"What's Up Doc"

PLOT

In 1970, drug fueled Los Angeles detective Larry "Doc" Sportello investigates the disappearance of a former girlfriend

MY THOUGHTS

Inherent Vice is the newest feature film from Paul Thomas Anderson (The Master, There Will Be Blood) that is based on Thomas Pynchon’s 2009 novel of the same name.

The film takes place in a fictional beach town in 1970 California, this very complex, layer, noir follows Larry “Doc” Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) who is a private detective, who on one night gets a visit from his ex lover Shasta Fay Hepworth (Katherine Waterston) she explains to him about where she has been and mostly who she has been with, a wealthy real estate developer Mickey Wolfmann (Eric Roberts). she goes into detail about Mickey’s wife and her boyfriend are plotting to get him committed to an insane asylum and asked for her help, but she wants no part of it and wants Doc to stop it from happening.

Now I went into Inherent Vice blindly with no knowledge of the book or Thomas Pynchon and his works, I kind of wish I didn’t do that because even though the film is very well directed, has a star studded cast, a cool soundtrack there seems to be something or a few things lost about this movie.

Inherent Vice at first glance seems to be a redo of The Big Lebowski and I can see where most people could think that to be the case but where that film is fun and has somewhat of a straight forward narration, Inherent Vice seems to gets itself lose in translation of weather it wants to be a quirky comedy or a dramatic film noir which is where my issues with the film come into play.

There are some good performances here most notable being Joaquin Phoenix as Doc who has to be the most clueless private detective of all time except for one scene near the end which shows what he could be like if he wasn’t high 95% of the time.

Owen Wilson is a surprisingly good as Coy Harlingen a sax player who finds himself caught up in everything that’s going on, the scenes between him and Phoenix are some of the best to me atleast, there is a running theme through out about his character that I thought was interesting and the Last Supper shot really drives it him too.

Katherine Waterston as Shasta Fey the femme fatale seemed to be in an another film altogether with her performance which is not a bad thing, I myself not really knowing who she is and having to look her up on IMDB realized I’d seen her in a few other movies but this was the first movie she finally stood out in for me.

Josh Brolin as tough cop “Bigfoot” Bjornsen has a way of playing the a straight lace character and be really funny all at the same time, the back and forth between him and Phoenix characters are funny and strange all at the same time.

The rest of the star studded cast does good jobs in their roles even if alot of them aren’t fully introduced but I was surprised to see Martin Short show up in a strange but oddly funny sequence of the film and it showed him in a whole new light.

I would’ve liked to have seen more from Eric Roberts, Michael K. Williams, Reese Witherspoon, Benerico Del Toro, Maya Rudolph and Michelle Sinclair(she is better known by her other name look her up) all of their characters and performances seemed to garner more screen time then they actually got makes me wonder how much was left out of the movie because their roles are basically glorified cameos.

The movie like I said before is very complex which hurts it for anyone who didn’t read the book first and the run time drags things down as well, there are more then a lot of scenes that go on far to long which may or may not take you out the film a few of them did take me out the film I must admit.

Paul Thomas Anderson who has made lengthy movies in the past, actually think all of his movies are over two hours long. here he seems to make his first misstep with letting scenes go on far two long and letting stuff happen on camera that never really goes anywhere.

This is the first time in a long time that I watched a movie that I was thrilled about seeing but kind of wish I hadn’t seen atleast not on the big screen, I’m not really sure if I dislike the movie or if it just hasn’t clicked with me yet after a first viewing just like There Will Be Blood and The Master did with me, so maybe on a second viewing knowing what exactly I’ll be getting maybe my view point will change but until then I’m on the fence about it.

It does has potential to reach cult status in the future because there are some good things in the film but right now the negatives for me outweight the good things right now, maybe when released on Blu Ray/DVD there is a extended version that gives it more cohesion.

MY RATING 6/10

CAST
Joaquin Phoenix- Larry "Doc" Sportello
Josh Brolin- "Bigfoot" Bjornsen
Katherine Waterston- Shasta Fay Hepworth
Owen Wilson- Coy Harlingen
Reese Witherspoon- D.A. Penny Kimball
Benicio Del Toro- Sauncho Smilax. Esq
Michael K. Williams- Tariq Khalil
Joanna Newsom- Sortilege
Martin Short- Dr. Rudy Blaynoyd
Michelle Sinclair-Clancy Charlock
Maya Rudolph-Petunia Leeway

"The Law Has Limits, He Does Not"

PLOT
A Homicide Investigator digs deeper into a case involving a trained military sniper who shot five random victims.

MY THOUGHTS:

The opening of Jack Reacher grabs you from the beginning where a sniper kills five random people which sets in motion a lot of twist and turns to follow. the man suspected of the random killings James Barr(Joseph Sikora) is quickly picked up by the police led by Detective Emerson (David Oyelowo) while Barr is in custody and being talked into confessing to the killings, he does say anything expect he writes on a piece of paper "GET JACK REACHER"

Emerson and the District Attorney (Richard Jenkings) does some digging around to find Jack Reacher(Tom Cruise), who isn't all that easy to find at all and only wants to be found if he wants to be, Reacher who is ex miltary himself has been living a off the radar life since living the army altogether, Reacher shows up out of no where to meet Emerson and District Attorney Roden after Barr has been put into a coma thanks to some underhanded police put him in a police transit with some other convicts who beat him up really bad.

Reacher quickly lets every know that he isn't a friend of Barr's and in fact he tried to have him lock up for a crime he did well he was still in the army, Barr's attorney Helen(Rosamund Pike) who is also D.A's Roden daughter wants to know why Barr asked for Reacher, the two in somewhat quick fashion decide to team up to find out what's really going on.

Reacher who does everything his own way goes to the crime scene and find clues that Emerson and the other police never noticed before because of his miltary background and he knew what to look for found a few things that didn't make sense to him, while he is doing his investigating, he is also being tailed by a man name Linsky (Michael Raymond-James) who seems to be involved in some way with the crime as well.

Reacher meets with Helen at his place and they talk about different things, mainly Reacher not believing that Barr is insane since that is Helen's defense for Barr and also Helen's relationship with her dad and why she is really defending Barr, which Helen doesn't like talking about because Reacher is doing a very good job of getting under her skin.

Jack Reacher goes to a bar and meets Sandy (Alexia Fast) who Reacher insults which provokes Jeb (Josh Helman) and some of his friends who all claim to be Sandy's brothers, they go outside to fight Reacher who tells Jeb "Remember you wanted this" before he quickly takes care of Jeb and his friends, a scared Sandy runs off as the police show up and arrest Reacher, who knew that the whole thing was a set up.

The next day Helen and Emerson goes to get Reacher out of lock up, Reacher believing more that something bigger is going on and somebody is behind the whole random killings that aren't really random at all because with some more digging Reacher and Helen find out that 4 of the people were killed to cover up their main target which was a woman Oline Archer who took over her husband's business after he died and she didn't want to sale.

Linsky goes to meet Charlie(Jai Courtney) who we find out was behind hiring Jeb and his friends to get rid of Reacher, Linsky wants to get a second chance to get rid of Reacher but an older man known only as The Zec (Werner Herzog) is the one really in charge and Charlie works for him, The Zec will give Linsky a second chance only if he bites off one of his own fingers, which he can't do and Charlie kills him.

I must say I was really impressed with Jack Reacher, its probably one of Tom Cruise best movies in recent years, he really shows another side of him here as the tough as nails, no nonsense Reacher, I thought him and Rosamund Pike had some good chemistry with the back and forth between them and the sexual tension is really played will between them.

This isn't your typical action movie, its very smart, self aware, doesn't try to play on the audiences intelligence either the movie plays like a modern film noir just minus the main character's voice over narrations.

Director Christopher McQuarrie(The Way Of The Gun ) directs Jack Reacher like a movie that could've easily been made in the late 70s or early 80s with the look and feel of it, by letting the story slowly unfold and come together instead of having everything explained and told to us like most movie have done in recent years.

I think my two favorite things about Jack Reacher are during the action scenes which are done very good, because for anyone who has seen The Way of The Gun knows McQuarrie can do action scenes very smart and here he is a master at it, with a car chase sequence that reminds us that real cars scenes can still be fun when done right and the decision to not have music in any of the sequences like the car chase and also a few of the fight scenes makes them even that more enjoyable for me(I'm very old school when it comes to these things) I don't have a problem with music in movies by any means but when its not needs and what's happening on the screen is enjoy to thrill me then I'm all for no music which sometimes can be very distracting especially nowadays.

Jai Courtney who plays Charlie plays a good bad guy in this I haven't seen him on Spartacus tv series or A Good Day To Die Hard yet but if done right he could have a bright career ahead of him with being in more roles like this and starring along side top talents like Cruise and Willis.

Everyone is good in this movie no weak link actings here from the stars down to the supporting cast which is a good blend of up and comers (Jai Courtney, David Oyelowo, Alexia Fast) and knowns (Richard Jenkins, Rosamund Pike, Werner Herzog) even Robert Duvall re teams with Cruise who co starred with him in Days of Thunder, here Duvall plays a gunsmith named Cash who even gets in on some of the action.

All in all you don't have to be a fan of Tom Cruise, never read the books that the movie is inspired and based off of, because this is just a really good movie that I was surprised wasn't well received when it was released on the big screen last December, hopefully now that its coming to Blu Ray and DVD people will check it out and it will be nice to get maybe a sequel or two but only time will tell with that.

For fans of the books and weren't happen that Tom Cruise was cast as Jack Reacher who in the books is 6'5 and weight some where around 225 pounds, I don't really think two many actors out there with the exception of maybe Dwayne Johnson could've played this role, but I believe Cruise is good in the movie and the movie should be judged solely as the movie and not from what the character was in a book.

CAST

Tom Crusie- Jack Reacher