Welcome back readers. Sadly, our next venture into the realm of cinema is not as exciting as hoped.... For my next review, I watched "Passion Play", a film written and directed by Mitch Glazer in 2010 and starring Mickey Rourke, Megan Fox, and Bill Murray (a seemingly interesting cast within itself).
This movie tells the story of down-and-out trumpet player Nate Poole (Rourke) who gets himself in trouble with Happy Shannon (Murray) who is a ruthless, unemotional gangster type. When Happy orders Nate to be killed, Nate, by pure freakin luck in the weirdest way possible, manages to not get executed. He stumbles through the desert where he comes across a travelling freak show and meets Lily Luster (Fox), an ostensible angel of sorts who has giant bird wings (in one of the worst CGI effects I've seen since the 80's). She decides to run away with him (after knowing him for a whopping 5 minutes and trying to throw him out for 3 of those) and he makes a deal with Happy; his life for hers. He ends up regretting the decision (shocker, I know) and sets out to win back the girl of his dreams.
This movie is, from start to finish, one big discombobulated mess. There is no explanation of the setting (you think Mexico, but no one speaks Spanish) or of the time (you're left to assume present day but who really knows). The movie jumps from scene to scene without explaining the current (or previous) one before moving on. Random characters are introduced along the way, but they have no real relevance and often times don't even have names. As previously stated, I often end up disliking endings, but this one was just terrible. It looped back to the original scene, but made no sense in any way and struck me as a desperate attempt to add a little extra pizzazz, but there was nothing exciting to build off of. I won't tell you the ending, but don't hope for much....
Every movie I've seen has a love interest. Literally. Every one. It doesn't always have to be between people; sometimes animals, creatures or things are the object of one's affection (think "The Red Balloon" or "Citizen Kane" or "Monsters Inc." However, they always exist in one form or another. Sadly, sometimes that flame of... let's say Passion...isn't always that great. This movie lacked in chemistry between the characters to a new level of lackosity. The only REAL romantic chemistry in the film takes place in the last 10 minutes or so, and even then, is just viewed as a desperate attempt. That is unless you count the incredibly awkward sex scene in the middle of the film. And trust me, I don't. The idea of Megan Fox and Mickey Rourke having sex is just unappealing, but then you add in her wings and the eroticism they try to play into that, and you my friend have just put me (and the viewers) at a new stage of awkward uncomfortableness.
Two things a movie needs in order to be successful; a solid plot and strong character development. Again, this film flopped on both accounts. As stated above, it jumps from scene to scene without much explanation and random events happen that seemingly have no place nor justification for happening. When Nate sells his trumpet for some money and drugs, you think, "WTF mate?" and then he keeps the mouth piece and you see him play a trumpet later on and you just give up. As for character development.... I got nothing. You get about 13 seconds of background for the two main characters (Nate and Lily) and then almost a whole 2 minutes of Happy explaining the origin of his nickname (Whoopee!). Seriously, you couldn't be less connected to the characters in this movie if you watched it on mute... And none of the characters are acted out well (when Megan Fox has the most on-screen presence, you know you're doomed). Happy Shannon comes across as a really interesting character (Bill Murray as a gangster? C'mon people, that's just good old fashioned entertainment there) except there's a problem; he's borderline insignificant throughout the film, which disappoints to say the least.
Overall, I'm gonna rate this movie a 2.5 out of 10. There were some interesting parts, but really, unless you're bored and have seen everything else available, don't waste your time... The whole movie is a befuddling piece from start to finish with little bits of enjoyment here and there. When Nate (Rourke) says in the film, "Since when does normal win a goddamned prize?", I loved the line. But in actuality, a little bit of normalcy would've saved this film...
Until next time, happy viewing.
I don't give Megan Fox much credit to do anything well... except maybe look hot and run around with robots and shia lebouf... but even then she pissed off the director enough to be replaced!!
ReplyDeleteThe way you describe the movie reminds me of Momento, which also is completely discombobulated. I hate movies like that, except pulp fiction....
We've had the conversation before about "love interest" in a movie. And the fact that you will generalize anything into a love interest to justify the point. What love interest was there in Monster's Inc.?? They ended up loving the little girl?? So what! OR the pagemaster? he ended up loving the books?? thin. What about solitary man?? Happily divorced and you don't know if he went back to his wife or on with his bachelor life. This discussion needs to be continued....