Today's Movie: Driven

2001's Driven is a weird movie. 

It stars two actors that I've always liked and even wrote about in my "10 Movies Everyone Should See" series, Sylvester Stallone and Burt Reynolds. It's also a sports movie (sure it's Formula 1 racing, but it counts). So I like the film for those two aspects but, overall it is a bad movie. Directed by career-hack Renny Harlin, the movie feels chaotic and unfocused for large stretches which probably contributed to it being a critical and commercial flop.

The story is about a young driver named Jimmy Bly (played by Kip Purdue) who, while in the midst of an impressive rookie season, is having trouble dealing with all the pressure of being a rising star in the sport. This leads the team owner Carl Henry (played by Burt Reynolds) to bring in an experienced, former pro to act as a mentor to Jimmy. That former pro is Joe Tanto (played by Sylvester Stallone) who feels like he should be the hero of this story but isn't because it's about Jimmy. There is also an odd amount of poorly scripted love triangle drama in this movie. Jimmy briefly dates his rival's ex-girlfriend but, she leaves him for the the other guy. Also, Joe Tanto's ex-wife is married to his friend, and Joe starts dating a reporter that the ex-wife seems to dislike for no reason. It's a mess.

Overall, I don't recommend this movie. The acting isn't great, and the script bad. However, by far the worst thing in my opinion is how the film is shot and edited. A single scene in this movie will feature close-up, cut, cut, close-up, cut, whip-pan, cut, close-up of a car, cut, another whip-pan, cut... it never stops. I get that they were going for intense and high-energy but, it just came off a distracting.

I give this one a 1.5 out of 5.

A Week of Kubrick- Day 7: 2001: A Space Odyssey

 After Full Metal Jacket, Lolita, Eyes Wide Shut, Spartacus, Barry Lyndon, and The Shining, the final entry in this 'Week of Kubrick is 1968's 2001: A Space Odyssey. This is probably the film most associated with Kubrick, and for a very good reason; it is a masterpiece. You'll find it on just about every 'Best Movies of All-Time' list and it's easily on of the most influential films in the history of sci-fi.

I could heap praise on this movie all day but there are three key aspects of the film I want to mention. First off, the obvious one, this movie is incredibly thought provoking and it begs to be watched numerous times. There are all sorts of theories out there about what the monolith is, where exactly Dave ended up and how he got there, what caused HAL to do what it did, and what message is the movie trying to get across. Some see it as an apocalyptic view of what's to come and others see it in a more optimistic light. It touches on themes of human evolution, the dangers of technology and artificial intelligence, and existentialism. 

The next thing is, because it was released in 1968 and all of the visual effects had to be done practically, and because so much thought and care was put into every aspect of the film, it's still visually captivating to watch. There are sci-fi films from ten years ago that look very dated but, over 50 years later and this one still holds up.

Final thing I want to mention is the music and sound design. Whether it's shots of space stations set to classical music or quiet scenes with no sound other than breathing, what you hear in this film perfectly compliments the visuals.

It's probably no surprise but, I give this film a 5 out of 5.

A Look Back at the 'American Pie' Films

For those who don't already know, the American Pie film franchise is a series of teen comedies, full of people finding themselves in awkward and often embarrassing situations... with a bit of gross-out humor thrown in for good measure. These are not high-concept cinematic masterpieces and even though I usually don't get into these types of movies, I've always enjoyed this franchise. 

Now, I'm only going to focus on the main series and not any of the spinoffs like American Pie Presents: Band Camp or American Pie Presents: Beta House. This is because;

 A) All those spinoffs were direct-to-video releases and they're all awful, so I don't want to rewatch any of them for this piece.

B) Other than Eugene Levy, none of the core original cast is in the spinoffs.

Now, none of these films were hits with critics for obvious reasons (the first film features Jason Biggs humping an apple pie), but they all did well at the box-office. Looking back, the first three films are pretty dated but a lot of the jokes still get a laugh out of me and the pop-punk/alt. rock soundtrack each film has is right up my alley. I find the core cast of this series to be a bit of a mixed bag with actors Jason Biggs, Seann William Scott, Alyson Hannigan, and Eugene Levy all giving memorable performances, whereas some others like Chris Kline, Tara Reid, and Thomas Ian Nicholas are kind of forgettable.

Let's start, obviously, with 1999's American Pie. This first film focuses on a group of friends who are high school seniors that make a pact that they'll each find a girl and have sex by the end of prom night. It's a premise that worked in '99 but probably wouldn't do so well today. Even though each character gets their own story beats, Jim Levenstein (played by Jason Biggs) is the real standout of the movie, and he becomes the true main character in subsequent films.

Next up is American Pie 2 which was released in 2001 and stars all the same cast as it's predecessor. The film picks up with each of our main characters from the previous film after their first year at college. It's summer break and the guys rent a lake house for a summer of fun and plans to end it with a big party. Alyson Hannigan's character (Michelle Flaherty) has a bigger role in this film, with her and Jim developing a relationship. The best way I can describe this one is, uneven. It has some of the series' best moments, and also some of the most skippable.

The third entry in the series, American Wedding, came out in 2003 with some noticeable absences to the cast. There's no Chris Klein, Mena Suvari, Tara Reid, or Natasha Lyonne, but when rewatching the movie I really didn't miss any of their characters. In this one everyone is done with college and, as the title suggests, they're all preparing for Jim's wedding to Michelle. Of course, shenanigans ensue, and even the characters in the film acknowledge how remarkable it is that Jim gets into all these crazy situations and ends up coming out of it on top. 

Nine years later the cast of the original came back together for one last time for 2012's American Reunion, and this probably the last we'll see of that original cast in an American Pie film (unless all of the actors get real desperate for money in the future). I never went to the theater to see this one and, in fact, only recently watched it for the first time. While I do enjoy the series, I thought American Wedding was a satisfying conclusion so I passed on this one initially. It's been thirteen years since the gang graduated high school and they're all back in town for a reunion. This one is definitely the weakest of the bunch and a lot of the jokes don't land as well as they did in previous films. It's not terrible, but the movie relies a little too much on the viewer's nostalgia for the older films.

Overall, I wouldn't call any of these movies great, but I think they're fun. Maybe I was just at the right age as these movies came out but, despite their flaws, I find myself going back to them every so often. 

A Look Back At "The Mummy" Movies

There have been a ton of movies that have featured mummies over the years. And in that slew of films between the 1932 Boris Karloff classic and the 2017 Tom Cruise one (that no one except for me seemed to like), exists a trilogy of films starring Brendan Fraser. Now, none of these were big critical hits but, the first two were mostly well-received by audiences.

The last of the Brendan Fraser 'Mummy' films came out back in 2008 and because it's been ten years since that series ended, I thought it would be a good time to look back and see if the movies hold up. Also, I'm going to keep this limited to the just the 'Mummy' films, so the 'Scorpion King' spinoff movies will not be included.

What works: Although after rewatching all of these I think it would be hard to argue in favor of any one of the three films being a legitimately great piece of cinema, it's hard to deny that they are a fun bunch of adventure flicks. Brendan Fraser is solid as the likable jerk Rick O'Connell, there is a nice balance of action and comedy, and the supporting cast is (mostly) good. Also, I like the musical score in all of the films, particularly the main themes from the 'The Mummy' and 'The Mummy Returns'.

What doesn't: The CGI effects in these films are really bad. Some will argue that the films came out in 1999, 2001, and 2008 respectively so they don't look great compared to today's standards. However, as someone who saw all of these when they were first released in theaters, a lot of the effects were subpar even for the time. Additionally, each of the three films carries a runtime of about 2hrs and they all feel a bit too long. Like most trilogies, there is one movie that is clearly the weakest of the bunch, and the runt of this litter is 'Tomb of the Dragon Emperor'. It doesn't involve an Egyptian mummy, most of the jokes fall flat, and they weren't able to convince Rachael Weisz to come back, so they just recast Evelyn.

Overall, despite some problems, I still think this is a fun trilogy of films. Are they going to go down in history as all-time classics? No, but if you haven't seen then in a while then they are worth revisiting.


Have a suggestion for a film review? Leave a comment below.
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If you enjoyed this there is, I did another 'Look Back' at the Hellboy films (you can check that out by clicking HERE). 

Today's Movie: Don't Say A Word

Don’t Say a Word is a 2001 thriller with a halfway decent premise and a pretty solid cast. It’s apparently based on a novel of the same name, but I’ve never read it so I won’t be making any comparisons to the book. 

A gang of thieves pull off a heist and steal a $10million gem but, two of the gang members double-cross their leader, Patrick Koster (played by Sean Bean) and take off with the gem. Some years later, a psychiatrist named Dr. Nathan Conrad (played Michael Douglas), is invited by his former colleague to examine a disturbed young woman named Elisabeth Burrows (played by Brittany Murphy) who is in an asylum. After he is released from prison, Patrick kidnaps the psychiatrist's daughter with the hope that he can force the doctor to acquire a 6-digit number from Elisabeth's memory. Elisabeth’s father was one of the gang members who double-crossed Patrick and the number is, of course, the key to finding out where hidden the gem is hidden. So, Dr. Conrad has to earn Elisabeth’s trust, get the numbers from her, and rescue his daughter.

This is one of those movies that seems like it should pretty good, but for whatever reason kinda falls flat. Maybe it’s just too predictable to be a really great thriller, or maybe they just couldn’t get what worked for the novel to translate well in a 2hr film. It’s definitely not horrible, just underwhelming. 

I give this one a 2.5 out of 5.

Have a suggestion for a review?

Leave it in the comments below.

 ...and don't forget to check out my review of Disney's newest film Moana by clicking here.