Walk Hard &Timeline Double Feature

No I did not actually see these two films on the same bill, but it wasn't until I saw Timeline that I understood what was wrong with Walk Hard. Well wrong is harsh, I mean to really say I finally understood why I didn't enjoy WH. The idea behind WH is hysterical... a film with no subtext whatsoever mocking out biopics like Ray and Walk the Line. It has a great comedic cast and terrific songs. Really, really good songs. But it is done in such a forced over the top manner that it didn't tickle my funny bone. It had some laughs and yes I wanted to be in on the joke but it was just too much and too forced. Then I saw Timeline. Now Richard Donner et al know how to make comedy gold out of no subtext. This film has such fine lines as "We've got 650 years of knowledge on these guys. If we put our heads together, there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to get out of here and home in 20 minutes." and "So are you saying that they could be stuck back there forever?" and "We just step on that machine and wiz back to 1357? " Gold I tell you. The film is made so earnestly with tons of special effects, Caleb Deschanel's world class cinematography, and completely without subtext. The effect is pure entertainment. Walk Hard was forced, Timeline goes down like sugar. Funnier than the WH motion picture is the Fresh Air episode where John C. Reilly and Jake Kasdan discuss the film with Terry Gross. Terry laughs non-stop and the songs are very funny. The episode seems to prove the idea of the film is funnier than the film itself.
Memorable moment in Walk Hard: Dewey cutting his brother in half.
Memorable moment in Timeline: Gerard Butler taking his shirt off.

Leon

If for nothing else I love this film because of the stillness of the camera. What a relief from the Bochco/Bay shaky/flying camera work that has become so commonplace. Yes it has a role in some work but it is so overdone Dramamine should be sold at the movie concession stand. Luc Besson thankfully chose stillness to tell this action filled tale of a professional hit man and the child he first protects and then comes to love. But there is actually much to love beyond just the cinematography of thus film. Jean Reno, Gary Oldman and Natalie Portman are all terrific. Each has carved such a distinct character in this piece and yet as they interact with each other they are perfectly synched. The love story between Leon and Mathilda could have been creepily unconventional, but Reno and Portman artfully portray the grown man and the 12 year old who are emotional peers due to the circumstances of their upbringings. And then there's Gary Oldman's Stansfield who is determined for business reasons to doom the romance. The film is shot in New York City, I am guessing in 1992 or 1993, due to the release date. The city looks especially cavernous and sunlit. It has the vague feel of a clean version of 1970s New York. I love how Besson and his cinematographer, Thierry Arbogast, captured the life and architecture of the city from this key transitional time for the City. At that time we were living in a city that still had lots of raw rough spots that gave an edge to daily life but money was starting to pour into the city via the financial services sectors, the sour economy of 1992 was turning around and the Tyrant Giuliani was on the verge of becoming the Mayor in order to tell us all how to behave. We were unknowingly about to enter NYC's most prosperous era and bear witness to its Disneyfication. Oh Christ I didn't realize till I saw this film how nostalgic I am for the early 1990s in the City. Besson has memorialized on film my ideal view of NYC while telling this story of his two cleaners.
Memorable moment: Mathilda's brother making a break for safety.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Outstanding all round! The marriage of Tim Burton and Stephen Sondheim seems so obvious to me now having seen the film, but it was visionary on the part of whoever put this deal together. I also never would have guessed that Burton could sustain a full blown musical translated to film. He did an exceptional job and created an immersive universe where these characters thrive, murder and sing. The only other version of Sweeney Todd I had seen was the George Hearn/Angela Lansbury one that shows up on PBS now and then. A great 2D version but now we have a 3D edition. The cast is all terrific, the design is dark and haunting and the musical production wonderful. The scene which really highlights all of this is the number "A Little Priest." Burton's camera swings in and out of the storefront and creates a fishbowl from where they imagine the passerbys as pies. Delightful and inventive! Timothy Spall is especially entertaining as Beadle Bamford. It's as if he peeled himself from the pages of a Dickens novel.
Memorable moment: "A Little Priest"

The Golden Compass

Entertaining while I was in the theatre but oh so empty in retrospect. Chris Weitz lost the meat and heart of the book and merely created a dazzling visual experience. Had high hopes considering the heart of About A Boy so maybe I am being unfair. Did enjoy the heartless Nicole Kidman as Lyra's Mom and didn't get enough Danial Craig as Dad. Loved seeing Tom Courtenay on the big screen again.
Memorable Moment: Armored polar bears fighting to the death. How could it not be!