The Heat

There's a formula to the buddy cop action comedy; the rules of the trade of which cannot be altered.  They are market-tested and machine-proofed and focused grouped to the hilt to which should not and will not ever be forsaken.  By design, one of these cops (usually male) must be a Type-A, controlling sort, one with a mastery of principles, but maladroit at interpersonal contact, who displays a fussiness and overbearing arrogance which presents him as difficult to work with others.  The other of these cops (again usually male), as formula dictates, must exhibit a brazen and unrefined technique at their craft, highlighted by a to-the-wind disregard of the rules and a devil may care work ethic, typically augmented by a disregard to ones personal appearance, all of which makes him, as well, difficult to work with others.  The structure and discipline of the buddy cop action comedy formula dictates that such opposing characters must work together to solve some convoluted caper, only to find themselves, with their diametrically opposed personalities, as not just grand colleagues, but great friends in the final reel.

The formula isn't turned on its head, nor re-invented in the slightest in The Heat, but it's one formidable transgression makes the film ever more watchable than nearly all the Lethal Weapons, Rush Hours and Bad Boyses combined.  For the first time, the cinemas have graced two women in the decades-perfected roles of the buddy cop action comedy formula, and through the graces of the lithe estrogen-enhanced reshuffling and recharging of the bombastic sub-genre, a little dignity is restored, for The Heat, sort of like what a R-rated, George Cukor-directed version of Lethal Weapon might look like, is at long last the female action comedy that men have taken for granted for such a long time.

Holy Cow!!

Since it was announced that visionary mastermind/poet/bringer-of-all-things-good Alfonso Cuaron would be following up the masterful Children of Men with a science fiction lost in space yarn entitled Gravity, there was a palpable rush of adrenaline felt in the cinematic community.  The casting of Sandra Bullock and George Clooney added star luster, but the real treat was always going to be the magic that Cuaron would bring to his 3-D space tale.  It was a disappointment to learn that the film was pushed back a year after brief murmurs it would make its debut in the midst of last falls awards season.  Whatever the wait, and whatever the hype, this already demands to be a must see.  It is said that the film will open with a bravura 17-minute single take opening shot.  Heady, confounding, and potentially genius!  The synopsis is eerily simple:

"Astronauts attempt to return to earth after debris crashes into their space shuttle, leaving them drifting alone in space." 

Here's a first reaction of a someone who alleges to have seen an early cut of Gravity, courtesy of AICN:

This is not just next level shit, this is several levels ahead of next level shit, & quite possibly the highest level shit you could possibly make. This is like if Avatar had been released in 1927 a week after The Jazz Singer. People won’t know how to comprehend what they are seeing. In short, Gravity genuinely makes you feel like you have been to space. It really, really does. And guess what? It’s beautiful, and awe-inspiring, and profound (and a little scary too), everything you thought it would be since you first thought about going to space when you were a kid. The movie exploits dreams it knows every sentient being has had, using the best special effects I have personally ever seen. I honestly don’t know how you could enhance a cinematic experience more. I kept waiting for a cameo from the Tupac hologram.  However, some people might end up saying that Gravity ends up being too light on story & is just an expensive space roller coaster ride, ‘Space Mountain: The Movie’ if you will. But those people would be wrong, stupid & ungrateful. Gravity is an important & subtle character study wrapped up in the guise of the most technologically advanced film of the new millennium… To me the film is about apathy and isolation. It’s about people today not knowing why they should be excited about living but only knowing they don’t want to die. It’s about looking at your own insignificance in the universe (or on Earth, or at your job, or at your school, etc.) & becoming empowered by it instead of defeated. And most of all, it’s about seeing what it would be like to float through space like an astronaut (spoiler: it’s fun).

The Blind Side

I didn't really want to see this, I knew it wasn't for me, but then I hear talk of Sandra Bullock potentially garnering awards talk for this, and the media attention about how well this film is performing, and a boring day, so what the hell! Well, The Blind Side, based on the true story of Michael Oher, is an out-dated, overly earnest sports\social drama that feels about twenty years old. The film even mentions Driving Miss Daisy, and in the back of my mind, I kept thinking this is probably the era where it belongs, as a minor Field of Dreams or The Natural (those are baseball, and this is technically about football, but you see my point.)

It's an over-long tale of a nice a Southern Christian woman (Sandra Bullock), a well-to-do interior decorator named Leigh Anne Tuohy who rebuilds the broken childhood of Oher (Quinton Aaron), a big, homeless, uneducated black guy from the wrong part of town. Thankfully, the rich white lady drove her fancy car down the road one day to find the pitiful black boy walking down the street in the rain. I can get over the story since it's apparently true, but it's also told in a way that's self serious and overly corny. All of Oher's tragic experiences come across fake and mannered, not rousing and vibrant in the similar themed crappy childhood drama Precious.

I think even Frank Capra might have been snoozing through this one. It's very structured and overly schematic; there's no sense of danger that this might not end well, which drags the story and performances; all of which are perfunctory and well-intentioned, but aren't allowed to go anywhere. The Blind Side was directed by John Lee Hancock, who also made the fine 2002 baseball film The Rookie (allowing a great performance to be built up by Dennis Quaid), and the costly failure The Alamo. As the box office returns have noted, Hancock has a hit here, and thus is out of movie jail, but never does The Blind Side ever breathe-- it's a very connect-the-dots film. The most illogical part of the film is that after one successful high school football game, Oher is suddenly in demand for college schlorships, c'mon!

As for Bullock, I really don't see that Oscar nomination happening, or perhaps that's wishful thinking, she's always been a warm performer and has had a hell of year (The Proposal earlier this year was her biggest box office sucess ever), but she's very mannered and oddly restrained, especially for playing a ballsy no-nonsense Southern gal. And her accent is more than grating. Plus she really doesn't get any great Oscar-bait histrionic scenes, in fact the way Bullock plays her it seems her biggest conflict in the way her society friends treat her new "charity." C-