I am not the Robot Tourist

I wasn’t looking forward to Marley and Me, but I was looking forward to the company, so I went anyway - and enjoyed both.

Marley and Me is the story of the American dream for today. In fact, it’s almost like the anti-Trainspotting, not that the characters choose a big ******* TV, but they do start a family, get bigger and bigger houses and at every stage in life choose life rather than drugs, because of a dog.

Apart from that you can’t really compare it to Trainspotting, but you can compare it to Click and I think Marley and Me is by far the better film.

Marley and Me is sweet, but not too sickly, though I thought it was a little light on drama. There is a little tragedy for Wilson and Anniston’s characters, but overall they had it pretty good compared to most characters in most films. I was sure Owen Wilson’s character was going to have an affair at one point because modern drama has conditioned that expectation into me. Maybe the writer was making a point in keeping Wilson’s character faithful: not everyone has a dramatic life, so why should movie characters have to have unbelievable roller-coaster lives?

Jennifer Anniston was good because she didn’t completely remind me of Rachel from Friends. Her main role was by turns to look totally hot, then stressed by motherhood and then totally hot and I felt she did it well. The script didn’t give her a whole lot of room to develop her character, since nearly every shot of her was in her house or beside her husband. By contrast, Wilson got lots of screen time either on his own with the dog or with his friends or with his boss. I’m no arch-feminist, but the writer could have done a bit more for Anniston.

The film could also have done with a few slightly stronger characters than the lead pair. Wilson’s boss is excellent as the archetypal Mentor, and his friend Sebastian is good as the perpetual bachelor, but no one other than Wilson and Anniston stood out enough.

My biggest criticism though, is that there isn’t enough Jamaican music in the soundtrack. The dog was named after Bob Marley of the Wailers because one of his songs came on the radio on the drive home from the puppy farm. After that, nothing. There was some good music, but no other reggae and certainly no ska. Not even any american third wave!

There are few compelling reasons to watch Marley and Me, but on the other hand there are few compelling reasons not to watch it and for me it was an enjoyable way to pass a couple of hours. Most dog owners will enjoy it and many will shed a tear at the end. Non-dog owners might even be tempted to get one. Hopefully more people will be inspired to have lots of children and love them deeply.

I was stupid to say Orange County was the 2nd best film (though it’s still great). Heat is the second best film. It shouldn’t be, but I’ll explain that later.

The film centres on the showdown between two men. Both are leaders, who might have been heads of rival tribes in another setting. Michael Mann’s story sets them in the broken city of 1990s Los Angeles. One man is an hard-bitten police detective who is married more to fighting crime than his current wife, or either of his past two wives. The other man is an armed robber, head of a small gang of highly successful criminals, ruthlessly focussed on doing the job and getting out.

The main plot is interesting and pushes the story on well, but is actually largely unimportant. This film is really about women and family and how men, particularly men driven by career ambition, resolve the timeless, universal inner conflict. On the one side there is the love of a woman, the love for their family and ultimately their own sense of humanity, all set against the masculine idea of loyalty to friends, workmates and ultimately their sense of eternal purpose.

The criminal has chosen his path of crime, but fears getting caught, and if he has any soul he builds a family, but then fears dragging them into his dark world. At any risk of being caught, the criminal must be prepared to walk away from the job or even his family, both to save himself and them. But the policeman equally has chosen the path of fighting crime, and fears also his family being dragged into his dark world, risking his relationship by withdrawing from them to spare them from the horrors he has seen.

The criminal we are shown is the mythical ‘honourable’ thief, who may perform brutal armed robberies, but he only does the job and gets out. He wants to retire some day. The policeman just wants all the crime to go away. He loves his job, but he’s only human. The whole way through, the film alternates between showing the criminal’s life and the policeman’s life. We see family, loyalty, friendships and how the criminal’s life mirrors the policeman’s. They even meet for coffee at one point, having what some may see as an almost homoerotic conversation, sharing personal stories and showing their respect by saying they would kill the other without hesitating.

Which is more pretentious? Me, or the film? If the film is pretentious, though, it doesn’t matter. Director Michael Mann somehow lifts the film above the pseudo-intellectual, bringing out superb performances in the stellar cast. Except Robert De Niro, who can’t do love and has an annoying facial tick, though as the stoic criminal he is quite good. And the president from 24 acts his part well, but he just doesn’t sound like a criminal. The soundtrack is perfectly wrought and songs are well-chosen. The cinematography is lusciously epic, though the lenses are a little wide for my taste sometimes.

Finally, the action is not the best I’ve seen, but it is suitably dramatic and the firefight after the bank job is even almost believable, being a metaphor for the war between two men that wrecks the lives of those at he centre of it and threatens all those not directly involved.

My next task is to watch LA Takedown. It’s the same film, only made for TV six years earlier for probably a tenth the budget.

Can I get the non-special edition?

I love madcap comedy, especially at the expense of NASCAR, but the bits they put back in to Talladega Nights for the ‘special edition’ DVD should have stayed on the cutting room floor. At least that’s my opinion without seeing the original theatrical release. I’m sure it’s very tempting for the producers to stuff as much material is possible into the DVD version, but i) madcap comedies shouldn’t be much longer than 90 minutes and ii) the extra material should be funny. There was a reason it was cut from the cinema release! It wasn’t as good as the stuff left in. Out-take reels? Good. Pointlessly extending scenes until the whole film loses its focus, punch and direction? Bad. If they wanted to add anything it should have been the Dennit racing boss’ funeral.

Anyway, rant over. Sort of. I liked certain bits of Talladega Nights. There is comedy, but the whole film was overlong. Possibly the excellence of Anchorman spoiled me. Plus, one of the highlights, Amy Adams was woefully underused. Then again, one part of one of her scenes they could have cut was the bit where she seduces Ricky Bobby and he warns the rest of the bar they’re about to make animal noises. Perhaps they put it in to mirror the scene at the family dinner with Bobby’s first wife, but they should have cut it too.

My final gripe (well, the last for this review, I probably have others, especially about characters just appearing) is that the Dennit racing team owner’s son (who went on to inherit the team) was played by Greg Germann, possibly best known as the boss of the law firm in Ally McBeal. It is therefore a CRIME that Calista Flockhart was not cast as his wife.

Sorry. I’ve been quite negative, but Talladega nights should have been a great film. It’s about car racing. Gary Cole was great as Ricky Bobby’s father. I enjoyed Michael Clarke Duncan’s performance as the race team manager. As I said, I particularly enjoyed Amy Adams. The redemption of Ricky Bobby’s kids and their relationship with their grandfather was funny. But. The DVD version shouldn’t have been extended. Maybe I can get a bootleg of the cinema version from Brody. Hopefully Jerry came out of retirement to do it though.

Overall Talladega Nights is about on a par with Dodgeball, but not just as good as that other Apatow production, Celtic Pride.