Ya know what?
It's been a while since I've seen a really great movie. "Boiler
Room" was pretty lame, "The
Whole Nine Yards" was cute, but not much else, and "Pitch
Black" wasn't bad, but... I dunno, it's been a while since I've
been jarred. I usually see a movie like that once or twice a month. I had
"Sleepy
Hollow" in November, "The
Green Mile" in December, and in January, I had "Magnolia"
and "Fantasia
2000." The month of February has come and gone, and all that came
out of it was mediocrity. "Reindeer Games" did nothing to improve
February.
Ben Affleck, an actor whose work I like a lot, has become a hot commodity
lately. I'm happy for him, because I remember when he was an obscure actor
in independent films, and then he went mainstream without really selling
out. Besides, he really IS a very good actor. He's also my first choice
to play "Batman"/"Bruce Wayne" in the "Batman:
Year One" movie that's in development at Warner Bros. Anyway, he stars
in "Reindeer Games," and although he's likable enough, I kinda
have a hard time seeing him as a tough ex-con. He co-stars with Charlize
Theron, the incredibly sexy star of the underrated Disney remake of "Mighty
Joe Young." In "Devil's
Advocate," she was phenomenal as Keanu Reeves' wife, and in "2
Days in the Valley," she stole the movie from some pretty big names.
Gary Sinese is also in the movie, and he's good, but he plays the role of
the bad guy exactly as you'd expect him to. On the other hand, Danny Trejo
(a former junkie and criminal, and he looks it... he plays the big, tattooed
Mexican guy in every movie he's in, like "From Dusk Till Dawn,"
"Desperado," "Con Air"...) plays the bad guy the opposite
of what you'd expect. A lot of it does hafta do with how the character was
written, though.
And who WAS the writer? Current flavor-of-the-month, Ehren Kruger. He wrote
"Arlington Road" (I didn't see it, and opinions are varied) and
"Scream
3." I like some of his quirky dialogue, and I like how he throws
in nice twists, but in general, I'm not a big fan of his. However, I think
that he has the potential to be great. The director was John Frankenheimer.
He's best known for his older films, like "The French Connection 2,"
"Black Sunday," and "The Manchurian Candidate." His
recent films, like "Ronin" and the remake of "The Island
of Dr. Moreau," met with lackluster box office performance.
"Reindeer Games" was obviously supposed to be a Christmas release.
I don't know why it wasn't, but I don't think it makes a difference anyway.
I didn't totally hate the movie, it just didn't do anything for me. It DID
have a few nice surprises, but it wasn't enough to get me to like the movie.
Hopefully, March will be a lot better.