South Texas College of Law Annotations (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 39, No. 6, Ed. 1, April, 2007 Page: 4 of 8
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April
2007
Books, or Blockbuster night?
New releases actually discourage procrastination
Ü
By Ashley McElyea
Staff Writer
As the end of the year approaches, law
students often seek out means to put off
the inevitable exam preparation. An evening
with a rented DVD will undoubtedly
outweigh an evening with your Trial &
Appellate Procedure outline, but be sure to
make your procrastination worthwhile.
Watching TbeDepartedis justifiable; watching
The Holiday, however, is not Based on die
below sampling of recent releases, your time
might in fact be better spent studying jury
charges.
Harsh Times
Rated R
Directed by David Ayer
While this movie as a whole is harshly
disappointing, Christian Bale once again
nails the portrayal of an American Psycho.
Harsh Times is a calculatedly tough drama
about two friends in South Central Los
Angeles and the drugs, violence and women
that come between them. Jim Davis
(Christian Bale) is an ex-Army Ranger who
has recently returned from the Middle East
He and buddy Mike (Freddy Rodriguez)
juggle petty crime, the pressures of their
girlfriends, and Jim's post-traumatic
psychosis in this decisively mean-streets
debacle.
While the theme of a murderous ex-
soldier attempting to assimilate back into a
normal—albeit dangerous—life is
compelling, it isn't enough to save Harsh
Times. Hands down, this film's downfall is
its dialogue. The profanity-laden script is so
deliberately raw that it borders ridiculous.
At one point, Mike actually accuses Jim of
a ''breach of the homie code." I would have
been horrified, had it not fit in with die rest
of die screenplay.
Often, an edge-of-your-seat plot can
compensate for cheesy dialogue. It's true that
a suspenseful, meaningful, or even
marginally unpredictable story line would
have made me forgive "homie code"—but
I was unappeased. Both my co-viewer and I
forecasted the ending in great detail within
the first 20 minutes of the film, and with
remarkable accuracy.
And we grew quite impatient waiting for
that ending Quite simply, save the last ten
minutes, nothing happens in this movie. The
viewer spends the first 106 minutes
cataloguing the characters' use and sale of
contraband until the final undeniable (and
even a little heart-wrenching) crescendo.
Although this story doesn't quite hit the
mark it was aiming for, its one salvaging
factor is Christian Bale himself. Since, post-
Amerkan Psycho, Bale in just about anything
is a little creepy, seeing him as an intense,
deranged and lamentable villain is not a
stretch. He takes an unfortunate script,
however, and plays Jim Davis as best he
possibly could have been played. Bale is a
tremendous actor with undoubtedly more
great things in his future.
The Holiday
Rated PG-13
Directed by Nancy Meyers
Talk amongst yourselves. I'll give you a
topic The Holiday is a disastrous romantic
comedy that is neither romantic, nor a
comedy.
American movie trailer editor Amanda
(Cameron Diaz) and British journalist Iris
(Kate Winslet) switch houses, and thus
countries, in order to take a vacation from
their respective unfortunate love lives.
Whilst "on holiday," Amanda meets Iris's
British brother, Graham (Jude Law), and Iris
meets Amanda's American movie-biz buddy,
Miles (jack Black). Romance (supposedly)
ensues. The film's inadequacies are threefold.
First, it is a cut-and-paste let's-switch-
lives' story of insulting predictability. This
is a movie during which you can take a
bathroom break and not miss a beat, because
in some form, you've probably seen it
before. The plot is a cliché 1 met you on
The only high points are that Jack Black
is characteristically endearing, and the young
characters of Sophie (Miffie Englcfield) and
Olivia (Emma Pritchard) make me want to
move to England so that my kids, too, will
have British accents.
Babel
Rated R
Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu
Although not nearly as grand as I hoped
it would be, babel was the best of the bunch.
With the tagline, 'If you want to be
understood...listen," this film begins with
tragedy striking a married couple on a
Moroccan vacation, which in turn sets off
an intertwining story involving four different
international families. At the heart of each
tragedy is an inability to communicate, and
as such, Babel speaks to the adversity
involved in political, personal, and
international communication and
relationships.
I really liked where the film was going,
but was disappointed when it never got
there. If it succeeded in one thing, it would
be in evoking pure emotion. Every irony and
misfortune was painfully relatable and, due
in no small part to the caliber of the film's
actors (including, Brad .Pitt.and Cate
Blanchett), felt very real. But it was the
vacation, but I love you!' romance that puts resolution of these misfortunes that was
more or less sincere emotion by otherwise disappointingly lacking.
superb actors to poor, generic use. For those
in the mood for a dose of mindless, sugary-
sweet predictability, The Holiday serves up a
tremendous helping.
Secondly, for a romantic comedy, the film
is only sporadically amusing, and is hardly
believable as a romance. Winslet and Black
are a more acceptable pair than their
counterparts, as Winslet's character and
relatable heartache are more developed—
and who doesn't love Jack Black. Diaz and
Law, however, are almost painful to watch.
As if they met during a college Spring Break,
the two very matter-of-facdy decide to
consummate their relationship after only a
few moments of awkward banter, and "I
love you"s are exchanged but a few days
later. Had they left the mess in Cancun—or
rather, suburban London—without forcing
emotion, the whole ordeal would have
actually retained credibility.
Finally, the dialogue is so cliché and
forgettable that the viewer likely can't
remember if they saw The Holiday or Sweet
Home Alabama soon after the final credits
roll. After going to see this movie, youll
likely incorporate parts of it into your mental
conglomeration of happy-ending chick-
flicks, and then go on to have your frozen
yogurt and forget it ever happened. The
latter will no doubt be more satisfying
Thus one problem was that the movie's
great "point" was either non-existent, or so
profoundly metaphorical that I missed it
entirely. I became engrossed in the
interlocking story lines, which in form and
substance seemed very reminiscent of
Crash—and I therefore was hoping to be left
with a similar cultural message. I was,
however, left only with what I'd like to think
was non-gratuitous nudity and an empty
bowl of popcorn.
That leads me to the second problem I
had with Babel—a feeling that the movie had
a tendency of being raw for the sake of
being raw. There is a very fine line between
using abrasively real and uncomfortable
dialogue or imagery for the purpose of
demonstrating humanity, and that used for
the purpose of generating Oscars. While in
Babel it seemed that tough-to-watch
humanity had its place, it also seemed a litde
too intentional.
As much as I wanted to love this movie,
it came up short of my expectations. Each
and every actor gave an outstanding
performance, but Babel was for me a litde
too contrived and without substance to be
worth getting so emotionally involved. If
I'm going to care that much about these
fictional characters, I need a much more
resounding outcome in exchange for the
effort
iisi
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Frazer, Jason L. South Texas College of Law Annotations (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 39, No. 6, Ed. 1, April, 2007, newspaper, April 2007; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth144579/m1/4/: accessed May 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting South Texas College of Law.