"The Grand Budapest Hotel": Grander Tales Are Rarely Told

Now In Theaters

Personally, I'm a big fan of having a bit of strange in my cinematic diet.  If a director is capable of affecting some ludicrous dialogue with some fantastically surreal visuals, you can consider my ticket purchased.  That's some of what we have here in The Grand Budapest Hotel.  This is a film that is delightfully witty, completely visually distinct, amazingly heartfelt, and uniquely memorable.

The story is told through a series of flashbacks as perceived by current owner of the Grand Budapest, Zero, as he is interviewed by an author interested in his life story.  In this story, Zero is a young lobby boy under the tutelage of Mr. Gustave, a kind relic of times gone by whose decorum only thinly veils a vain, perverse, arrogant, but ultimately immensely lovable man.  The interplay between these two characters is the heart of the tale, and watching them grow close through an odd combination of fiendishly silly hi-jinks and constantly interrupted poetry is a delight to see.  The film's plot revolves around the murder of one of Gustave's patrons, as well as the inheritance of a prized piece of art.  As benign as this story sounds, it's anything but, featuring a cast of immediately memorable characters that both thicken the plot and fall victim to it.  It's a wonderfully unique tale in its quirky execution, if not in its originality.

And that execution is simply beautiful.  Scenes are framed with a breathtaking amount of precision.  The sets are vibrant and bizarre, yet still reminiscent of Europe at the dawn of the second World War.  The character designs are archetypal so as to be instantly recognizable, yet completely unique due to their strange mannerisms and costumes.  The actors' performances of those characters is always fresh and often quotable.  The whole production seems to fall somewhere between a stage performance and an adult cartoon, and I wouldn't have it any other way.  The cinematography is stellar, the acting is superb, the dialogue is witty and immensely funny, and there's even an undercurrent of melancholy as a fascist Not-zi army threatens the existence of the Grand Budapest Hotel.  Even though the film is a comedy at heart, and a damn good one at that, it still manages to pluck at some heartstrings along the way, and quite effectively at that.

So do I recommend The Grand Budapest Hotel?  I was laughing throughout the whole thing.  I was in awe at the cinematographic tricks director Wes Anderson used to frame his shots.  I geeked out at the fact that the freakin' aspect ratio changed when the story cut from interview to flashback.  I found it difficult to wipe the giddy smile from my face even after leaving the theater.  This is a film where a smart directorial vision gives us an incredibly bizarre and funny film that both doesn't take itself seriously and delivers its lack of seriousness with a professional and artistic polish.  Do I recommend this film?  I can't recommend it enough, dear readers.  Not nearly enough.

So what are you waiting for?  Get to your local theater and see it before it leaves the big screen.  Then leave a comment below and share your favorite moment.

"Captain America: The Winter Soldier": The Hero (Movie) America Deserves

Now In Theaters

I went into Captain America: The Winter Soldier excited, but with some reservations.  The first Captain America was a fun enough flick, but it didn't do anything really interesting or new.  I was intrigued with how Marvel planned to integrate the Cap into modern society, but I was afraid it might come off as campy as the original.  Thankfully, those fears have been assuaged.  More than that, I was thoroughly impressed by what could have been just another generic superhero movie.  Instead, we're treated to a tense and thoughtful thriller that is not only really fun, but actually contains some literary subtext that transcends a genre that's becoming increasingly more defined by its mindless action.

The story centers on SHIELD, or, more specifically, the fact that not everything is right within SHIELD.  Not everything is what it seems, and, unfortunately, that means I can't really reveal much of the plot without this review spoiling the ride.  However, I do want to comment that it's quite invigorating to see a superhero movie that doesn't just show us an antagonist and then pit the hero against them.  This feels much more like a spy thriller dressed in a Captain America costume, and it's an interesting and completely believable take on his character in the modern era.  The only downside is that the mystery plot gets resolved much too quickly in a giant dump of exposition, and even though that doesn't destroy the suspense the film had been building to that point, it does cheapen it slightly.  However, throw in some fantastic fight scenes and a remarkably well thought out allegory for American foreign policy, and this movie excels at being much more than just another installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Speaking of the fight scenes, can I just say how refreshing it is to see superhero action scenes performed by real people?  Sure, there's still plenty of explosions and CGI effects, but they all play second fiddle to the fantastically executed fight sequences, almost all done with actual stuntpeople.  It makes the stakes of each battle much more grounded in reality, which is much more relatable that the endless cacophony of flashes and bangs that many movies take to be good action.  The Winter Soldier's fight scenes are almost all a joy to watch, and sometimes they even have some literary significance beyond the events of the battle itself.  If a movie rewards you for having a brain not only with its plotting, but with its action, that's immediately in its favor.

If I have one small gripe with the film, it's with the Winter Soldier character.  His presence in the movie is what provides the literary subtext I mentioned earlier, but when I look at the plot as a whole, his presence isn't really necessary.  This is odd, considering, ya know, his name is in the freakin' title!  That said, he doesn't detract at all from the film, and he is the focus point of most of the film's action scenes, so I don't think I can blame the choice to include him.  He's still a welcome addition to Marvel's world-building efforts, and his presence makes me excited to see what other characters from comic mythos Marvel is prepared to bring to the screen.  If they were handled as faithfully as the Winter Soldier, I think we have some good things in store.

So, as you can probably already tell, I loved this movie.  It is the best Marvel movie since the original Iron Man, potentially even on par with it.  It transcends the superhero formula that has been quickly growing stale and would have been a smart and entertaining movie even without the Marvel branding.  It's well worth the price of admission, and I look forward to seeing it again with the Blu-Ray release.

Did you find The Winter Soldier as stimulating as I did?  Or do you see some problems that I'm overlooking?  Let me know your thoughts in the comment below!  (Just please don't spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.)

"Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues": It Certainly Does

Now Available on Blu-ray and DVD

Anchorman 2 is a film that really wasn't necessary.  It's already been over ten years since the original film came out, and it would be impossible to entirely recreate its fresh, nonsensical charm with a sequel.  But here we are with Anchorman 2, and inevitably it has to be asked: Is it as good as the original?  The short answer is no, but that doesn't mean that this movie isn't really funny in its own right.

The plot is actually pretty genius.  Ron Burgandy, the dumbest newsperson to ever get behind a teleprompter, is the founder of the type of newscasting now popularized by 24-hour news networks.  It's a page taken right out of The Daily Show's playbook, and it works perfectly at satirizing that entire genre of news.  The majority of the film's laughs come from seeing just how the Action News Team establishes the tropes that make 24-hour news so mockable, and it's a joy to watch.  However, the film does recognize itself as an Anchorman sequel as well, and it spends a lot of time re-establishing the Action News Team and what they've been up to since the events of the first film.  While this stuff is funny at times, it feels like it takes forever to get to the satire, which is where the heft of the movie's comedic gold lies.  The third act also drags a bit after some events put Ron out of commission, but it's fairly forgivable when taking in the movie as a whole.

Speaking of the comedy, the movie is thankfully not just a series of references to the jokes that made the previous film so great.  It actually comes up with some original material to tell an originally funny story, as well as, oddly enough, Ron's personal journey to become a better father.  I think Will Ferrell has been taking notes from Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, because the film's tone is also much more awkward than the first film's was.  Long pauses, strange interruptions, and uncomfortable statements are much more prevalent.  Usually, this works amazingly, particularly in the sub-plot about Brick finding love.  Believe me, Steve Carrell and Kristen Wiig have some of the most hilariously strange on-screen chemistry, and not only is it fun to watch, but it's actually a believable romance.

However, the film does have its failings.  First of all, though the film doesn't rely on them, there are some poorly executed attempts to reclaim the first film's glory, particularly in retreading Brian Fantana's sexual advice jokes and having another jazz flute scene.  They're still funny scenes, but it feels a bit too much like the movie can't escape its predecessor's shadow.  What isn't funny, though, are some really offense attempts at humor made a few times throughout the film, including a transphobic rant and an incredibly ableist blindness joke that lasts for way too long.  However, I'm willing to forgive the film as a whole for these faults, especially considering the amazing climax the film puts together.  I won't give it away, but trust me when I say it is hilariously epic.

So Anchorman 2 doesn't really capture the success of the original, but I think you would have to be pretty naive to believe that it would have.  For the most part, the sequel does try to be its own animal, and I do have to applaud that experimentation.  It may fail in some respects, but that's the nature of trying new things, and this film doesn't fail so much that I can't recommend it.  So go ahead and enjoy a good sequel to a great movie.  You're sure to get some well-deserved laughs out of it.

How do you think Anchorman 2 compares to the original?  Can you think of any comedy sequels that were as great as their forebears?  Let me know in the comments.