Muppets Most Wanted (Review)

March 21, 2014ByTars Tarkas

Muppets Most Wanted

2014
Written by James Bobin and Nicholas Stoller
Directed by James Bobin

The Muppets return again with a new adventure that feels strangely familiar. While it is great to see the Muppets actually being the stars of their movies again, Muppets Most Wanted lacks the emotional depth of some of the prior films to focus instead on a heist caper that features an evil twin and Muppets running wild under no supervision. The center core is buried a bit deeper, showing the Muppets can’t really survive on their own as they need Kermit’s guidance to keep them from drowning in their own excess.

In Muppets Most Wanted a new manager – Dominic Badguy – signs with the group and gets them to go on a world tour that suspiciously is happening in towns needed to get pieces for a jewel heist. More importantly, Constantine, the world’s most dangerous frog, has escaped from his Russian gulag and managed to switch places with Kermit, who finds himself incarcerated while Constantine takes the place of our main frog. Hijinks then ensue.

Muppets Most Wanted shines when it’s doing meta-commentary and breaking the never-present fourth wall. It continues literally from the final seconds of The Muppets, complete with Muppet confusion on what to do next. The opening song will go on to be touted as a manifesto for the film itself, and I particularly like the song Constantine sings as an apology to Miss Piggy, because it summarizes his entire allure to the group and why no one seems to notice anything is wrong. Constantine becomes a Satan character, promising the Muppets whatever they want to keep them happy while he and Dominic Badguy plot to steal the crown jewels of England. The various characters take this to extremes, resulting in increasingly bizarre and disastrous acts. Both Constantine and Dominic use unbridled freedom as a weapon and a distraction, but it soon becomes apparent just why oversight and control is needed. At times Muppets Most Wanted turns into Muppets Needful Things, but luckily things get solved for they start getting Stephen King disturbing.

	Kermit the Frog (Steve Whitmire) – Kermit is the leader of the Muppets and totally is not a dangerous criminal mastermind with a mole.
	Miss Piggy (Eric Jacobson) – The fabulous Miss Piggy may have finally convinced Kermit to marry her. But why does she feel weird about it?
	Fozzie Bear (Eric Jacobson) – No he’s a-not, he’s a-wearin’ a neck tie!
	Constantine (Matt Vogel) – The world’s most dangerous frog has escaped from Siberia and has a plan to go down in history as a master criminal. And it involves the Muppets! Posing as Kermit, Constantine lets the Muppets do whatever they want to distract them from the truth.
	Walter (Peter Linz) – Walter is back and on tour with his new family, the Muppets. Only something is wrong….
	Dominic Badguy (Ricky Gervais) – The French-named new manager of the Muppets who leads them on the world tour that’s just an excuse to get the items needed for a heist.
	Nadya (Tina Fey) – Runs the Siberian gulag that Constantine escaped from and Kermit is now held at. Like everyone there, they know Kermit isn’t Constantine but does nothing because she’s obsessed with Kermit and won’t let him go.

InGood, Movie Reviews

Gangs of Wasseypur Part II (Review)

March 4, 2014ByTars Tarkas

Gangs of Wasseypur Part II

aka Gangs of वासेपुर II

2012
Written by Akhilesh Jaiswal, Anurag Kashyap, Sachin K. Ladia, Rutvik Oza, and Zeishan Quadri
Directed by Anurag Kashyap

Gangs of Wasseypur continues with Part II, thanks to the split the 320 minute film experience just so theaters would take a chance and play it. Part I was an amazing experience, and Part II almost lives up, creating a uniquely awesome long story. It took five writers – Akhilesh Jaiswal, Anurag Kashyap, Sachin K. Ladia, Rutvik Oza, and Zeishan Quadri – to bring Gangs of Wasseypur to life. Anurag Kashyap directs this ambitious project, which is one of many quality and critically successful films. Black Friday(2004), Dev D(2009), and That Girl in Yellow Boots(2011) are among his other well-known works.

When last we left our warring families, Sardar Khan has just gotten Sonny Corleoned (or was it Sonny Corle-OWNED!) and his son Danish Khan is now the defacto leader of the family, and he vows to kill the men who gunned down his father. Sultan Qureshi realizes Danish is trouble and kills him, and the Khan family now is lead by the marijuana smoking Faizal Khan, who neither seeked out nor wanted the leadership role. No one thinks that he can handle being a ruthless leader, but he proves them wrong by beheading a longtime friend who betrayed the location of his father to the assassins.

Faizal now leads the Khans as time continues and other sons of Sardar make waves. Sardar’s fourth son Perpendicular is a maniacal spoiled child who keeps a razor blade in his mouth and spends his time robbing local stores, who let him because he’s Sardar Khan’s son. His actions start to get out of control, and Faizal begins spending more time cleaning up his messes than he would like.

InGood, Movie Reviews

Gangs of Wasseypur Part I (Review)

March 3, 2014ByTars Tarkas

Gangs of Wasseypur Part I

aka Gangs of वासेपुर

2012
Written by Akhilesh Jaiswal, Anurag Kashyap, Sachin K. Ladia, Rutvik Oza, and Zeishan Quadri
Directed by Anurag Kashyap

Gangs of Wasseypur is an epic tale of the rise of the mafia in the Wasseypur region and tells of generations of families in conflict. The massive story originally was a single 319 minute film, but has been split into two parts for release, as few theaters would risk a 5+ hour film. The sweeping tale is consistently entertaining, with memorable characters and a fluid storyline that never seems too complicated despite the massive amount of characters, locations, and history of the Wasseypur region (whose history is just as complicated as the Khan-Singh rivalry!)

Anurag Kashyap is the force behind the Gangs of Wasseypur films, directing as well as helping to produce and write. Kashyap had been interested in doing a gang epic for years, and after hearing about the real life gang warfare and rise of the mafia in Wasseypur, he found a tale to tell. The story loosely follows real events, starting just before India’s independence in 1947 and concluding in near modern day. It is essentially a revenge tale, but not in a traditional sense.

The events spanning time show the economic shifts of India modernizing. In the 1940s, wood is the first item of value, then the real power becomes the coal mines. By the 1970s, it’s gasoline that becomes important, and soon after the Khan family is cornering the iron scrap economy, the conflict over this running through the second film. There is even a takeover of fishing rights just as an aside.

The long tale introduces a huge amount of characters as it passes through the decades, as people enter and exit the lives of the Khan family. Each major character gets a title card, and every character is unique with their own personalities, and just who lives and dies and when and where happens as it would in life, with characters you don’t expect dropping away and others suddenly thrust into larger roles. Everything is done in a manner that just feels like you’re watching true events and not a story punched up to be more Hollywood.

InGood, Movie Reviews

The Lego Movie (Review)

February 1, 2014ByTars Tarkas

The Lego Movie

2014
Story by Dan Hageman & Kevin Hageman and Phil Lord & Christopher Miller
Screenplay by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller
Directed by Phil Lord & Christopher Miller

The Lego Movie constantly refrains the song “Everything is Awesome!” throughout the film, and though the song is presented as a joke because things aren’t awesome, it best describes The Lego Movie. Because everything is awesome. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller took a toy commercial and traditional hero’s journey narrative and turned it into a celebration of tossing out instructions and a collectivist uniting against conformity and conservatism. Also it’s fun and hilarious.

The unlikely group of heroes unite against President Business, who controls the entire world and wants things to stay just the way they are. He gets incensed when things are built that don’t follow the rules or are weird. His reign has seen the Lego city become a virtual police state where everyone follows a huge list of rules and destroys anything out of the ordinary to be replaced with construction that follows the rules. The people are lulled into accepting their reality with glee, thanks to control of television and music, where every show is Where’s My Pants? and every song is the aforementioned “Everything is Awesome!”

The resistance becomes a celebration of individuality vs marching to the same drum beat. The Lego Movie encourages you to build what you want, and not worry about if your projects conflict with what someone expects you to do. While President Business seeks his stagnant perfection, the real progress and fun comes from the chaos of creation.

	Emmet Brickowoski (Chris Pratt) – Emmet is the most average man who ever averaged, and even when he follows all the rules (and there are a lot of rules), no one seems to remember him much at all. But things change when suddenly the Piece of Resistance is stuck to his back, and it looks like he has a prophesy to fulfill. If he can just be interesting!
	Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) – A Master Builder who searches for the Piece of Resistance and finds it on Emmet. She mistakenly thinks he’s much more powerful than he actually is. But despite her disappointment, she becomes part of the inspiration for Emmet to rise up beyond his lot in life. Is dating Batman.
	Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman) – Wise sage who prophesies the downfall of Lord Business and the Piece of Resistance. He’s blinded, and later begins training Emmet, though there is little time for actual training. Has trouble telling Gandalf and Dumbledore apart.
	Batman (Will Arnett) – The best movie Batman since Adam West. The caped crusader joins the mission to save the universe because he’s Batman and that’s what Batman does. He’s dark. Also he’s dating Wyldstyle, in between making his music. FYI, people in the audience cheered when Batman showed up.
	Lord/President Business (Will Ferrell) – Lord Business is President of the Lego city and controls all aspects of it, in a creepy Big Brother way. He’s also a super villain, who has stolen an artifact that he plans to use to end the world (which involves freezing it in place.) That is, unless he’s stopped by The Piece of Resistance!

Minor spoilers below the fold!

InGood, Movie Reviews

Viva Riva!

January 5, 2014ByTars Tarkas

Viva Riva!

2010
Written and directed by Djo Munga (as Djo Tunda Wa Munga)

The chaotic urban life of Kinshasa, the largest city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is the setting as rival factions battle over a cache of stolen fuel. Viva Riva! is a great film, among the best I’ve seen in African cinema. While the stereotypes for African films are weird Nigerian/Ghanaian films involving witchcraft, there is a diverse blend of film being produced that deserves a wider audience, and more funding to produce even higher quality cinema.

Gasoline thief Riva returns to Kinshasa with a truck full of pilfered fuel in the midst of the biggest gas shortage in ages. This basically means he gets a huge stack of cash – and the promise of much more, as his fencer is holding off selling the gas until the price goes up even higher! The large amount of American hundred dollar bills gives Riva access to a fast life that most of poor Kinshasa can only dream of. Riva likes the parties and money and being flashy, it is not in his nature to live in the shadows, but to be large.

Riva’s excess and extravaganza lures past associates to his side. His friend J.M. had settled down from his criminal past, having a family. But Riva’s return means J.M. is now going out all night, drinking and whoring it up. Riva sets his sights on a red headed beauty, Nora, who happens to be the kept girl of the local big criminal thug Azor. Despite the dangers, Riva continually pops up to hit on Nora. His success is due in part to Azor’s own failure, though Nora is far more complicated than just a prize to be fought for. But Nora and Azor are the least of Riva’s troubles, as he is being pursued by a violent and relentless opponent named César.

Viva Riva! excels by having a villain who is thoroughly ruthless, destroying anyone who stands between him and his goal, the gasoline that Riva stole from him. César dresses in all white, wears a fancy hat and wire-rimmed glasses, and speaks calmly, looking the part of an upper class intellectual. Despite the appearances, César is an efficient and brutal boss, quick to order torture and deaths to get to his gas. César manipulates and bribes his way through officials, forcing a female militia commander to help him by holding her sister hostage, and gunning down government officials who detain him over immigration reasons. A cunning and sadistic mastermind helps create a memorable foe.

	Riva (Patsha Bay as Patsha Bay Mukuna) – Riva used to work for César, but has struck out on his own in a very big way. Riva is in a self-destructive spiral while on the cusp of becoming very very rich thanks to a shipment of gasoline he stole. Riva likes parties and money and being flashy, and of course he has a tragic past which has resulted in his living for the now attitude. You can’t run from your past forever.
	Nora (Manie Malone) – A kept woman of the local bad dude Azor, which is a pattern she’s followed since her school days. Riva sets out to make her his despite the ridiculous danger of courting the woman of the local bad dude. Unlike most of the other characters, she came from a relatively stable home, but still managed a fall from grace.
	César (Hoji Fortuna) – A well-dressed man from Angola, who is in Congo searching for Riva and the shipment of gasoline he stole from him. Is not the kind of guy you cross without horrific consequences for you and everyone in the path between him and you.
	La Commandante (Marlene Longange) – Marlene Longange’s female commander (she’s just called La Commandante without an actual name) is roped in to help César due to him holding her sister hostage. Through this, she ends up becoming a wanted fugitive and her life is ruined.
	J.M. (Alex Herabo) – Riva’s old friend who was living the family life before Riva blew back into his life, J.M. all to eager to return to the fast lane of drugs and prostitutes and crime.

InGood, Movie Reviews

Her

January 3, 2014ByTars Tarkas

Her

2013
Written and directed by Spike Jonze

Life is a fraud. Her brings us the tale of a man who falls in love with his computer operating system. But it’s more than some weirdo making out with his iPod, Her is a rare film that explores the modern increase in social isolation and loneliness that no one talks about. Spike Jonze brings his brand of exploring humanity to the near future to look at the state of relationships today, and layers everything with a mix of genuine and hoax that transcends the real.

Theodore Twombly is a lonely writer, recently divorced from his wife, though he’s never signed the papers to finalize it. Theodore’s job has him composing personal letters to people from other people, advertised as handwritten but actually printed by a machine. The entire enterprise is a fake personalization and fake product. Theodore has written for some of the clients for so long he knows their quirks and puts touches in the letters that reference other letters. In essence he has a pseudo-personal relationship with these people, despite never really meeting them or having any contact outside of instructions from work. It isn’t a real relationship, he’s just given access to enough of their relationship to craft a forgery.

Honestly, I am personally horrified at the concept of handwritten letters created by a third party. The entire concept is a whole new layer of deceit and lack of genuine personal connection. I’d be insulted if I was given a letter through that company. Theodore is more connected to the people he writes about than they are to each other, and than he is to anyone else except his friend Amy.

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