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Story Sunday: Wedding Crashers

March 24th, 2013

Hey, everyone! It’s Story Sunday again! Like I mentioned last Sunday, this has been a weird month. It’s flying by. Anyway, this weekend I’m away for a wedding. A wedding where I’m the best man, so this has been a pretty awesome and exciting process. Since I’m writing these posts at weird times and in weird places, I’ve decided to make them somewhat themed when I can and fun! Last weekend was the bachelor party and I wrote about The Hangover. So this week is the wedding and I’m going to talk about another one of my favorite comedies, Wedding Crashers.

Wedding Crashers has all the makings of a classic romantic comedy, making it a great date movie and whatnot. However, the movie also reached across the aisle to large male audiences because of the male humor between Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson’s characters. If you’ll note the connection between last week and this week, Bradley Cooper plays the antagonist in Wedding Crashers. After this movie, I wasn’t sure he would find work again. He played the part well, but I thought he might get stuck in the role of the unlikable asshole for the rest of his life. It worked out, though, and now he’s a big success, which is great.

This movie, like The Hangover, had a unique premise when it arrived in 2005. These were party guys, party guys who were getting older. That premise by itself isn’t very unique or powerful, but the fact that they always attend parties where they don’t belong, weddings to be specific, is a unique and funny premise. Again, like The Hangover, we have a movie that does tension very well. Sure, there’s the emotional tension that comes with every romantic comedy, the issue of wanting to be with someone that you can’t have initially, but that you’ll probably end up with. This comedy adds another layer, the threat of getting caught. In addition to being a source of tension, it’s also a source of humor. How do they manage to avoid getting caught. It starts as a fun form of tension.

The tension of getting caught, however, builds as they get closer and closer to the main female characters, played by Rachel McAdams and Isla Fisher. The stakes get higher, they male characters want to form relationships but they’ve started to do so under false identities. The truth is in direct opposition with desire and it makes for great tension in the movie.

This movie works, the tension works, the romantic elements work, and it enjoyed a lot of success about that. For a while, there was talk of a sequel and I’m glad that it never happened. This movie hit so many different audiences with a great mix of varied humor, different perspectives, a unique premise, and fantastic tension that added to the humor instead of taking away from it.

Now it’s your turn! What other comedies have great tension or a unique premise? If you’ve seen this movie, what was your favorite moment or scene?

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Story Sunday: The Hangover

March 17th, 2013

Hi, everyone! It’s Story Sunday again! I have to admit that this month has been a bit strange, so my choices for Story Sunday are a little unusual. In addition to a couple of big deadlines, I had an old friend come into town for a week and this weekend I threw a bachelor party. Next weekend I’ll be out of town to attend a wedding where I’ll be the best man. So I’m writing the posts at strange times, surrounded by strange events, trying to keep up with deadlines, and watching March fly by in front of me. In honor of the bachelor party weekend, I’m talking about The Hangover.

Surprisingly, this movie is still pretty relevant since The Hangover III is in the works and (unless I’m mistaken) will be coming out later this year. The Hangover is full of absurdity that slowly unfolds in front of the audience. When this movie first came out, I watched it in a sold out theater. This movie was a huge success and I think there are a few reasons worth mentioning here.

When a movie has an original concept or idea, or a different twist on an idea, it always has the potential to be a huge success. The Hangover is the perfect example of a twist on the classic party movies. This is after the party, after the big night, and these guys need to figure out what they did and where they went. At the time, the market had been saturated with party movies. You know the type, big movies where characters do all kinds of hilarious things because of drinking or drugs. This movie is different. We have a missing person, a wedding to attend, and three characters that are worn out, confused, and trying to use clues from their hotel room and pockets to figure out what they did. We get to experience the humor of the morning after, the humor of watching a couple of wrecks figure out what they did.

Even though it’s a comedy, this movie handles tension really well. There’s the tension of a missing friend, an impending wedding, and the mind game of figuring out how long they can go without calling the bride. There’s tension between the characters, especially with Alan and his loose handle on reality. Then, there’s a constant feeling of suspense, which creates enormous tension. Each step forward is going to pull back the curtain a little further. When that happens, there’s always a new problem to deal with, leading to suspense uncommon in most comedies.

This movie works and it’s fantastic. This is definitely one of my favorite comedies. I couldn’t really say the same about the second one and I’m not sure what to expect from the third. The first one, however, is great and I always enjoy watching it.

Now it’s your turn! What other comedies manage to create great moments of suspense and tension? What’s your favorite moment from the movie? Are you looking forward to a third installment?

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Story Sunday: The Prestige

March 10th, 2013

Hi, everyone! It’s Story Sunday again and this week I’m talking about The Prestige. This movie is an adaptation of a novel with the same name by Christopher Priest. As with all adaptations, the question arises as to which version was better, but this is one of the few cases where I can’t decide. So, for this Story Sunday, I’m just going to take a little time and look at both versions of the story.

The novel has quite a few things going for it. The two main characters, Borden (Christian Bale) and Anjier (Hugh Jackman), are seen reading journals in the movie. Well, in the novel, the reader is actually reading the journals and that’s how the story is told. Anjier’s account, if I remember correctly, is dated and numbered. Borden’s journal is quite different. Rather than being a daily account of his life, it seems to be written in the future and looks back on his life. The style is amazing and the format is truly a different way of storytelling.

In both cases, you have the theme of obsession. Both magicians throw their lives away in a feud but have different ideas about why the feud is taking place. The audience sees that the obsession can manifest itself in different ways. For Anjier, the implications are personal. For Borden, it’s the people around him who suffer. His wife suffers, his daughter, his brother, everyone else suffers for the sake of the performance. Anjier sells himself, his soul, his humanity, to become better than Borden.

Now, there’s a spoiler ahead for those of you who haven’t seen the movie or read the book. In the movie, Anjier’s machine creates copies of himself. However, they’re true copies, they’re like clones. This leads to the conclusion that he killed himself, or his clone, in each show. The novel is different. The novel produces what seems to be a corpse. The new Anjier appears on a balcony and the old body has to be disposed of. The real difference comes at the end. Borden tampers with the machine during a show and the machine turns off halfway through the teleportation. This leaves a physically sick Anjier, and a wraith Anjier. The wraith can actually never die. He’s an incarnation of obsession that will never leave the family of the world. Both versions have amazing moral and personal implications. I really can’t say which one I prefer, so I’m glad to have experienced both versions.

Now it’s your turn! Which version of the story do you prefer? What do you think of these two men who sacrifice everything for obsession?

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Story Sunday: Skyfall

March 3rd, 2013

Hi, everyone! It’s Story Sunday again and this week I’m talking about Skyfall. I saw this movie very recently and it actually inspired me to write a post about prisoners and the balance of power in a scene.

Here’s the risk the film makers took, they broke the usual formula. I like Bond movies, for the most part. However, I’ve never been blown away by a Bond movie. There are good Bond movies, bad Bond movies, but they’re all Bond movies. This one, honestly, didn’t need to be a Bond movie. You could have taken quite a few of the same elements, distanced them from the Bond name, and I don’t think people would have said “oh, this is just like a bond film.” That tactic worked, no question. You had the great elements of Bond mixed with a story that wasn’t made from a pre-packaged Bond recipe.

This movie had a lot of creative action. Sure, it had explosions, but it also had a lot of normal guns. The focus wasn’t on the gadgets, the big bombs, or the special device that will be used at just the right moment. Instead, Bond was on the run with M and they had to get a little creative with some of their weaponry. They had to use their ammo wisely. Essentially, they had to survive and I believed that doing so wasn’t guaranteed.

Just as The Dark Knight feels different from the established superhero standard, Skyfall feels different from the previous Bond films. We didn’t have a Bond girl, though we did have a cut away sex scene. The romance wasn’t quite there, but vulnerability walked through the door, despair followed, and it was truly a struggle for the protagonist to succeed. He was no longer the top agent or the pinnacle of physical fitness and ability. Instead, Bond was the one who persevered, endured, and wouldn’t walk away.

This seems to have turned into a glowing movie review but, in truth, I really liked the movie and can’t say much against it. The plot worked, the pacing was good, the character development felt natural and necessary, and the acting was fantastic. The villain didn’t even have the classic Bond villain feel. Sure, he had theatrical moments, but he was well-written, developed, and carried an interesting reflection of what Bond could potentially become, if he decided to go down a certain path. If you haven’t seen it, check it out. I don’t think you’ll regret it.

Now it’s your turn, what movies “break the formula” of their genre or franchise? Or, if you’ve seen this movie, what did you think of it? Was it what you expected or did it surprise you?

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Story Sunday: A History of Violence

February 24th, 2013

Hey, everyone! It’s Story Sunday again and today I’m talking about A History of Violence. This movie came out in 2005 while I was still in high school. Over the years, this movie has really stuck with me. It’s a story that I enjoy.

The plot is a pretty classic idea and one that occurs fairly often in movies in books. The main character, Tom Stall (played by Viggo Mortensen), is a man with a secret past. He lives in a small town, has a family, owns a little diner, and is known as a man of the community. One day, a couple of people try to rob his store at gunpoint. He’s willing to let the money go but can’t stand by as they begin to threaten other people in the diner. Stall kills them, the media puts his face in the news, and his past begins to catch up with him.

One thing that sticks out in my mind is how he kills the men in the diner. It’s a great scene. He kills the men, obviously reveals some experience with a gun, but does so without looking like Jason Bourne. Too often, in a story where the main character has a violent past, the audience is shown someone who looks like they should’ve been hired by the government for their extreme abilities. Tom Stalls violent past involved being a thug of sorts, and as a thug, he’s familiar with weapons and violence but he’s not James Bond.

Does the story work?

Honestly, I think the story works on some very simple levels. The plot itself is straightforward because the focus is truly on the character of Tom Stall. If you don’t expect a plot with lots of twists and turns, I think you’ll really see what the story has to offer through the main character.

Why does it work?

It’s not complex but I don’t think that’s really the point. The issue on display is who we are clashing with who we may have been. The idea of who we really are, who we want to be, and the conflict of opposing identities. Where does Tom really fall in regard to being a person? Is this new identity truly fake or is it who he really is, who he has become?

David Cronenberg’s style of directing and storytelling resonates with me. I’m sure I’ll talk about a few of his other movies on this blog eventually. I’m also a big fan of Viggo Mortensen. I think he’s an amazing actor and brings a lot to this character in this role. Without giving away the ending, I will mention something about it. There’s very little time spent on wrap up. When the conflict ends, the movie ends. Some people didn’t care for this ending but I really liked it. While some things were resolved, issues of identity and forgiveness were left open. An open ending can be annoying, believe me. However, in this case I think it allowed the reader to come to their own conclusions about the characters and the path set before them. Eastern Promises, another Cronenberg movie, has a very similar ending.

Here’s a link to the trailer… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74FdnDxptH4 If you’ve never seen it, I think it’s worth checking out. The movie isn’t for everyone but I enjoyed it and you might too.

Now it’s your turn. What do you think? Have you seen the movie? Have you seen Cronenberg’s other films? Have you seen Mortensen’s other films? When you see a movie or read a book, do you prefer complete closure from an ending?

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