Weekend Arena: 11/2
The first weekend in November primes us for awards season with Denzel Washington. Tarantino keeps filling our plates with Kung-fu homages — even if he’s only responsible for its distribution. And, of course, there are vampires. More damned vampires.
The Man With the Iron Fist: It’s hard to knock a rendition of the dying genre of Kung-fu flicks, particularly when it stars Russell Crowe and is presented by Quentin Tarantino. If anyone knows Kung-fu and how to adapt its celluloid homage, it’s Tarantino. At the same time, Rza doesn’t instill hope in the film’s direction. I’m totally open to being wrong here, since he has Eli Roth at his side as a collaborator. Say what you will about the Hostel franchise, but the first two weren’t terrible – and they belonged to Roth. Plus, he was the Bear Jew, whose dirge comes to mind each time I think of Inglorious Basterds. Iron Fist has a lot going for it, and while it will be lost in the shuffle of awards season, it could be a fun ride.
Flight: Ostensibly, this might be the best cast filmed of the year – until we hit Django Unchained. And I’m glad to see Denzel Washington as a deeper characters. He’s an amazing actor, but, since Training Day, many of his roles have been regenerations of Alonzo Harris. He’s awesome at what he does, but he was recently veering toward the Al Pacino curse of Academy Award performance typecasting. In the end, Flight offers a look at perception versus reality; the cause versus the effect.
Vamps: Can, we, please, stop, with, vampire, love stories? I don’t care the Amy Heckerling has been solidly underrated throughout her directorial career. I am not swayed by the fact that I really dig Krysten Ritter – mostly as a recovering heroin addict in Breaking Bad. Adding vampires to trite, predictable stories produces trite predictable stories with a too-often-referenced gimmick. Please, stop.
