This should have been a horror movie. Tracy Flick is one of the scariest characters ever to appear in a movie. The worst part is that she isn't a caricature. I've actually known people like her. I imagine you have too.
  Election Poster Buy at AllPosters.com |
You would probably like an explanation, since you are probably reading this because you haven't seen the movie. Tracy Flick is a high school student who has that burning desire to succeed. She also seems to view success as her birthright. She is the kind of person who is focused with their entire being on getting ahead. She belongs to countless clubs and is on the committees of all of them. She always knows the right answer in class. She wants to be student body president. This kind of person is scary to watch because apart from that incessant drive to succeed, there's nothing going on upstairs. This kind of person doesn't socialize, they spend their entire life working on getting ahead. Why, I have no idea, because they don't seem to want to do anything else. Which would seem to make the success pointless.
Reese Witherspoon plays this part to perfection. It's rare to see an actress become the part so totally that you are utterly convinced this person is real. Every movement, every word spoken is perfect for the character.
On the other side of the coin is Matthew Broderick's character, Jim McAllister. He is a teacher. His whole purpose in life is to teach, to make kids think and to try and prepare them for life. He takes great pride and satisfaction in doing this well. He is the exact opposite of Tracy Flick. While she is completely focused on her own success, he is focused entirely on helping other attain success. It's no surprise they develop a lot of hate.
The story in a nutshell is about Tracy's run for student body president. She is running unopposed until Mr. McAllister convinces Paul Metzler to run as well. Paul is a jock. He's not terribly bright, but is good kid and very popular. He can no longer play football because of a broken leg. Tracy goes ballistic when she learns she has competition. I won't say more, because what makes the movie so much fun is watching the storyline unfold and twist around. It's an intelligent movie that is far more convincing than any of the (many) recent high school movies. Everything works beautifully from the freeze frames that allow a moment for a character to describe another character to the music. It's a sharp film that never insults the audience and generates plenty of laughs.
- This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Where to begin? There was was once a time when I would look forward to Eddie Murphy's next movie. Now I dread them. I've seen worse movies certainly. It wasn't completely awful. But it was boring. I had to get up midway to find something with caffeine in it to keep me awake. I never get up in the middle of movies. It's just something I don't do. I don't want to miss anything. This time I was more concerned about beginning to snore than I was about missing something interesting.
 |
I think the main problem was that the movie tries really really hard to manufacture cute. Endless numbers of animals parade through the picture full of witty and endearing things to say. That's the theory anyway. It comes off pretty forced. It just doesn't speak well of a movie when they try and give the best lines to a hamster. Now maybe if Richard Gere was involved in the scene you'd have something. Wait, forget I said that.
Murphy isn't given much to do here except yell at the animals. It doesn't exactly cause me to break out the belly laughs. Then there are the forced tender moments with his daughter, which feel even worse than they are because of the earlier forced tension scenes with his daughter. To top it off we get a running commentary on the father/daughter relationship from the dog and the grandfather in case you were completely incapable of figuring this out for yourself. Yes that's right they leave it to the dog to explain the situation. I'd be really annoyed by this if only I could stop yawning long enough to get mad.
The movie does have some pretty good special effects to look at. The animals are fairly seemless and convincing. The only real complaint I had was when a tiger gets out of a car and the car doesn't move. You'd think 800 pounds of cat would make it move a little.
- This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
This is better than most adaptations of Stephen King material, but by no means the best. King's novella is toned down considerably to create a more palatable movie. The story revolves around a high school boy who discovers, through luck and investigation, that an old man in the neighborhood is actually a Nazi war criminal. The boy confronts the man and blackmails him into telling all about the concentration camps.
 Apt Pupil Poster Buy at AllPosters.com |
The movie hinges on morality. The concept is that anyone, if put in the right circumstances, could do unspeakable things. The boy, Todd, through his interaction with the old man, Dussander, finds his own morals vanishing, replaced with the visions of Nazi atrocities. Todd toys with him as if he is a harmless old man, but in so doing he awakens the monster that man once was. Dussander has been living as a hermit, desperate to avoid attention, but Todd pulls him out of that, bringing back the past.
The movie is at its best when we start to see the two change. It gets genuinely creepy as Todd struggles with the images Dussander has brought forth. You can see him struggle with reality as these horrors prey on his mind. The two of them begin to act out as a result, in frighteningly similar ways.
The downside is that the movie hurries through this part. It draws too quickly to it conclusion without enough focus on their efforts to deal with their personal demons. This is also where the movie and novella depart, rather radically. In the novella, both Todd and Dussander become violent killers. They use winos as easy prey. Killing them becomes a means to quiet the demons raging in their minds. The movie has none of this. It instead briefly shows us the two taking their aggression out on animals. The book also includes this, but it is merely the warm up to what follows.
The conclusion starts to bring the movie and novella back together, up until the final moment. Again the movie takes a tamer approach and suffers for it. The novella shines at this point as we see just how warped Todd has become by his exposure to Dussander. This is where it is truly disturbing. The movie gives much less indication of this, showing mostly their efforts to become separated from one another.
The final moments of both versions work very well, considering what happened before. The movie's ending is again much more muted, but very appropriate and chilling for its storyline. Similarly the novella's ending is shocking and extraordinarily violent in keeping with its storyline.
The movie is good, but the novella is much better. This is based entirely on the fact that the book disturbed me a lot more. The acting in the movie is excellent. Both Brad Renfro and Ian McKellen bring the characters to life exactly as I pictured. Both are very believable in their roles. David Schwimmer also deserves credit for his brief role as a guidance counselor. The movie wasn't too successful at the box office. I suspect that this was because the objectionable subject matter made it very difficult to market well. If you think you can stomach the concepts, you will probably find it makes a decent rental.
- This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Page 57 of 58
<< Start < Prev 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 Next > End >>
