The Italian Job (2003) - Gray impresses with slick heist remake

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Sexy stars align on this neat poster for F. Gary Gray's The Italian Job

After a violent betrayal in Italy, professional fixer Charlie Crockett gathers a team of experts to carry out an elaborate revenge in Los Angeles with a prize of gold bullion at its conclusion.

 

The Italian Job is written by Donna and Wayne Powers (Deep Blue Sea (1999)) and directed by great New-Yorker filmmaker F. Gary Gray (Friday (1995)), loosely remaking the same-titled 1969 British film by Peter Collinson.

Attractive and entertaining, this heist picture benefits from intelligent heists, a rapid pace and handsome cinematography (by Wally Pfister (The Prestige (2006))) to go with the handsome cast: Edward Norton's (Fight Club (1999)) villain and Charlize Theron (Æon Flux (2005)) are especially commendable, along with the Mini Coopers, which are dope. The soundtrack cements the cool vibe of The Italian Job (excellent use of To Get Down by Timo Maas), and Gray's music video background is seen and felt clearly here. This may also be the film's minor weakness: It is an exciting case of fast in - fast out; cool but easily forgotten afterwards.

 

Related posts:

F. Gary Gray: Straight Outta Compton (2015) - Gray's N.W.A. biopic is excellent 

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Law Abiding Citizen (2009) - Gray and stars are in trouble with this jumbled revenge thriller

 

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

 

Cost: 60 mil. $

Box office: 176 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 2.93 times its cost)

[The Italian Job was released 30 May (North America) and runs 111 minutes. Norton was paid 1 mil. $ for his performance in the film; Jason Statham (The Transporter (2002)) got 450k $. Shooting took place around September 2002 in Italy, Manitoba, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and in California, including in Los Angeles. The film opened #3, behind fellow new release Finding Nemo and holdover hit Bruce Almighty, to a 19.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#4-X-#5), grossing 106.1 mil. $ (60.3 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 12.8 mil. $ (7.3 %) and Australia with 6.9 mil. $ (3.9 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Plans for a sequel never came to fruition. Gray returned with 4 music videos prior to his theatrical return with Be Cool (2005). Mark Wahlberg (All the Money in the World (2017)) returned in I Heart Huckabees (2004); Theron in Monster (2003); and Norton in After the Sunset (2004). The Italian Job is fresh at 72 % with a 6.4/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Italian Job? 

The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000) - Redford and A-listers in major period drama slip

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Two men golf in the dead of night on this mystery-invoking poster for Robert Redford's The Legend of Bagger Vance

When a golf player keels over from a heart attack on the green as an old man, he recalls past memories pertaining to the incredible caddy/golf player Bagger Vance and a tournament in Savannah, Georgia.

The Legend of Bagger Vance is written by Jeremy Leven (Don Juan DeMarco (1994)), based on the same-titled 1995 novel by Steven Pressfield (Last of the Amazons (2002)), and directed by Californian master filmmaker Robert Redford (Ordinary People (1980)).
With the handsome production values, - which is to be expected from a film of the enormous budget lavished on this sports drama, - and elegant photography (by cinematographer Michael Ballhaus (Der Gehilfe (1978, TV movie))), the film lures us onto its pathway. But only for a while, because The Legend of Bagger Vance has the distinct odor of being Oscar bait all around it, coupled with its distinct lack of recognizable reality.
Matt Damon (The Zero Theorem (2013))'s protagonist is a worn-down alcoholic, but that largely remains a postulate; Will Smith's (Men in Black (1997)) mystical Bagger Vance character, (presumably conjured up with inspiration from the Hindu Bhagavad Gita legend, which has a guiding, godly Bhagavan character), is a kind of golf oracle, who supplies wisdom that I simply couldn't receive with a straight face. It seems beyond anachronistic that Vance in the shape of Smith who with his recognizable self-confident swagger waltzes happily and black through the whole film, which is set in the American South around 1930/1931, without encountering a single racist moment whatsoever. Neither he nor Charlize Theron's (The Road (2009)) love interest character for Damon become really human-like at any point in the film.
The Legend of Bagger Vance must be intended as a kind of parable, but it is set in such an elaborately recreated concrete context which it then goes on to fully ignore. It is historically unsatisfying, feels phony - and then it is frankly also enormously dull.

Related posts:

Robert Redford: Pete's Dragon (2016) - Lowery plays Disney remake safe (co-star) 
All Is Lost (2013) - Chandor's Redford-lost-at-sea is compelling filmmaking (star)
Lions for Lambs (2007) - Streep and Cruise's star powers save Redford's boring political drama (co-producer/director/co-star)
A Bridge Too Far (1977) or, Epic Shit Hits the Fan (co-actor)
The Sting (1973) or, Partners in Hoax (co-star)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) or, Friendly Outlaws (co-star)

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 80 mil. $
Box office: 39.4 mil. $
= Mega-flop (returned 0.49 times its cost)
[The Legend of Bagger Vance premiered 29 October (USA) and runs 126 minutes. Redford and Morgan Freeman were initially meant to play the bearing roles, before it was decided to go with a pair of younger stars. Smith was paid 10 mil. $ for his performance; Damon 7 mil. $, while Theron and Redford's salaries are unknown. Shooting took place in Georgia and South Carolina from September - December 1999. The film opened #3, behind fellow new release Charlie's Angels and holdover hit Meet the Parents to an 11.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 30.9 mil. $ (78.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Germany with 1.2 mil. $ (3 %) and Australia with 304k $ (0.8 %). Many foreign markets are regrettably missing from the film's Box Office Mojo gross sheet. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, translating to 3 notches higher than this one. Critics have describes and criticized Smith's Bagger Vance character in the film as an instance of the 'Magical Negro' stereotype. Redford returned with Lions for Lambs (2007). Damon returned in Finding Forrester (2000)); Smith in Ali (2001); and Theron in Sweet November (2001). The Legend of Bagger Vance is rotten at 43 % with a 5.23/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Legend of Bagger Vance?

Bombshell (2019) - Toxic US culture laid bare in Roach's great drama

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+ Best True Story Movie of the Year

Three of the world's best actresses as blond bombshells on the poster for Jay Roach's Bombshell

Fox News is the top cable news channel in the US under CEO Roger Ailes, but as a female anchor gets fired, and a new associate producer meets the sinister office culture under Ailes of sexual favors in exchange for a career there, - that vicious culture is finally about to meet its end.

Bombshell is a fascinating true-story drama written by Charles Randolph (The Interpreter (2005)) and directed by great New-Mexican filmmaker Jay Roach (Zoo Radio (1990)).
The challenge here has clearly been considerable: Make a compelling, entertaining and feasibly structured movie about a decade-long culture of sexual harassment and the downfall of Ailes. Along the way the film succeeds in painting a candid portrait of the very particular workplace that is cable network Fox News, as well as, inevitably, president Trump and his transgressive 'loose-cannon' style as his 2016 election campaign is part of the story. Bombshell succeeds impressively; it accepts that Fox News is not a normal workplace and embraces the sensational aspect of the story; sexy people on TV that were bullied and intimidated. But the Trump mania as well as the settlements that conclude the scandal, (eventually Fox paid Ailes and disgraced anchor Bill O'Reilly more severance money than they did the scores of women that were victimized by them), raise the story to something that points to a toxic climate on a national cultural level. Toxic media-fueled bullying and the lack of a common decency base disintegrates the US. - That could be a radical take from the also acerbically funny Bombshell.
The cast is littered with talent: Charlize Theron (Tully (2018)) is transformed by hair, makeup and prosthetics into Megyn Kelly, who especially gets the ball rolling against Ailes. Nicole Kidman (BMX Bandits (1983)) is a force of thunder as Gretchen Carlson. Margot Robbie (Z for Zachariah (2015)) is terrific as the young associate producer, the fictional composite character that is our closest look into the actual misdeeds that Ailes committed against staff and young women at 'casting' meetings. We never see the deeds, - but we get the picture and degradation it means for the women. The paranoid office tension of a fear culture is palpable, and the women come together memorably in a few elevator scenes. John Lithgow (The Pelican Brief (1993)) is great as Ailes, who isn't a monster here but a man who is powerful and held unaccountable for many many years. The cast also has terrific capacities like Connie Britton (Women in Trouble (2009)), Kate McKinnon (Ted 2 (2015)), Malcolm McDowell (Zombex (2013)), Mark Duplass (The Puffy Chair (2005)), Allison Janney (A Thousand Words (2012)), Richard Kind (Fancypants (2011)) and Robin Weigert (The Sessions (2012)).
Bombshell is snappy and thought-provoking, simultaneously entertaining and depressing like a glittery magazine. It calls Adam McKay's brilliant masterpiece The Big Short (2015) to mind, which Randolph co-wrote, without Bombshell reaching the heights felt in that film. It is a still a great piece of filmmaking.

Related posts:

Jay Roach: 2019 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Trumbo (2015) - Good actors and a thrilling true story make this biopic work 
Dinner for Schmucks/Dinner with Schmucks (2010) - Carell carries Roach's flawed but utterly hilarious comedy 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 32 mil. $
Box office: 59.6 mil. $ and counting
= Big flop (has grossed 1.86 times its cost to date)
[Bombshell opened 13 December (USA) and runs 108 minutes. Development of the film was announced shortly after Ailes' death in May 2017. Shooting took place in Los Angeles, California from October 2018- ?. The film opened #19 to a 319k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #6 and has grossed 31.7 mil. $ (53.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets are Australia with 4.8 mil. $ (13.4 %) and the UK with 2.9 mil. $ (4.9 %). The film's release has been upset by the corona-virus pandemic. The film was nominated for 3 Oscars: It won for Best Makeup and Hairstyling and lost Best Actress (Theron) to Renée Zellweger in Judy and Supporting Actress (Robbie) to Laura Dern in Marriage Story. It was also nominated for 2 Golden Globes, won 1/2 BAFTA nominations and several other honors. Roach hasn't announced his next project yet. Theron returns in The Old Guard (2020, VOD); Kidman in The Undoing (2020, TV-series) and theatrically in The Prom (2020); and Robbie in Megan Thee Stallion & Normani's Diamonds (2020) music video and theatrically in Birds of Prey (2020). Bombshell is fresh at 70 % with a 6.73/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Bombshell?

In the Valley of Elah (2007) - Haggis and a great ensemble succeed with pointed, critical Iraq War homecoming tragedy

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+ 3rd Best Movie of the Year
+ Best Political Movie of the Year + Best Crime Drama of the Year + Best True-Story Movie of the Year

Tommy Lee Jones and Charlize Theron look distraught before a huge US flag, (which is not upside down as in the film), on this poster for Paul Haggis' In the Valley of Elah

  
A young soldier returned from duty in Iraq disappears. His father, himself a retired sergeant, starts his own investigation, and soon the police uncover his son, who has been burned, stabbed and dismembered.

In the Valley of Elah is the third theatrical feature written and directed by great Canadian filmmaker Paul Haggis (Red Hot (1993)). It is inspired by the true story of the death of Iraq veteran Richard Davis in 2003 as described in the Playboy article Death and Dishonor (2004) by Mark Boal (Detroit (2017), screenplay).
This is a deeply disturbing story. It tells of the muzzy sense of humanity that is a frequent side effect of being a soldier at war.
Tommy Lee Jones (Just Getting Started (2017)) underplays the part of the investigating, unsettled father with credibility, adding much to the film's gripping nature. He is well-matched by Charlize Theron (The Cider House Rules (1999)) as the police detective who involves herself in the case. In the Valley of Elah, - which takes its title from the valley known from the Biblical story of the battle between David and Goliath, - also has stellar supporting actors such as James Franco (Yosemite (2015)), Josh Brolin (Men in Black 3 (2012)) and especially Susan Sarandon (Mr. Woodcock (2007)), who is positively awe-inspiring as Jones' wife, yet some of the best parts are acted by acting amateurs, ex-soldiers.
SPOILER The ending with the upside-turned US flag is right on point; it points to the film's implicit societal critique of US war and veteran policies, which is simultaneously quiet and deafening.

Related post:

Paul Haggis: 2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2007 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Flags of Our Fathers (2006) - Eastwood's Iwo Jima portrayal is captivating and profoundly moving (co-writer)

Watch Theron talk of her involvement with the film here

Cost: 23 mil. $
Box office: 29.5 mil. $
= Big flop (returned 1.28 times the cost)
[In the Valley of Elah premiered 1 September (Venice Film Festival, Italy) and runs 121 minutes. Haggis wrote the script with Clint Eastwood in mind for the lead, but Eastwood was busy on other projects. He liked the script, though, suggested Jones for the part instead and reportedly helped get the film green-lit. Shooting took place in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Tennessee and in Morocco from December 2006 - ?. The film opened #35 to a 133k $ first weekend in 9 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #14 and in 978 theaters (different weeks) and grossed disappointing 6.7 mil. $ (22.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain and France, both with 3 mil. $ each (10.2 %). Lanny Davis, the father who Jones' character was based on, has commented in favor of the film. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to a notch better than this one. It was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor (Jones), losing to Daniel Day-Lewis in Paul Thomas Anderson's masterpiece There Will Be Blood. It was also nominated for a David di Donatello award, won a National Board of Review award and 1/2 Venice award nominations. Haggis returned with We Are the World 25 for Haiti (2010, video documentary) and theatrically with The Next Three Days (2010). Jones returned in great thriller In the Electric Mist (2007). Theron returned in Battle in Seattle (2007). Sarandon returned in Mr. Woodcock (2007). In the Valley of Elah is fresh at 73 % with a 7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of In the Valley of Elah?

The Burning Plain (2008) - Powerful actresses elevate Arriaga's flawed debut

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Three generations of graceful women stars collide on this drama-indicating poster for Guillermo Arriaga's The Burning Plain

A young woman learns that her mother is cheating on her new husband. A middle-aged woman head-waitress has sex with random men and is about to meet a consequence of her past ...

The Burning Plain is the debut for writer-director Guillermo Arriaga (21 Grams (2003), writer). 
In the first story, set in New Mexico, Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone (2010)) is good as the distraught daughter, and Kim Basinger (The Informers (2008)) is excellent as the wife and mother, who has re-experienced joy and intimacy with warm Joaquim de Almeida (Our Brand Is Crisis (2015)). And Charlize Theron (Dark Places (2015)) is fascinating in the other story, which takes place up North, in Oregon.
Regrettably, it takes an awful long time before the connection between the two story planes became apparent to me, and then there's the issue of the film's tone, which is permanently set far beneath the floor-boards. unflinchingly dour. The Burning Plain is simply too plain.
SPOILER Theron is plagued at all times, and when her abandoned daughter enters the story, their interaction just isn't very natural, and the ending, in which it is indicated that Theron will now take part in the girl's life, therefore doesn't really settle convincingly.
Arriaga's only feature to date is an advanced bowl of tristesse.

Related posts:
 
Guillermo Arriaga: Babel (2006) or, Everyone's Connected (writer)
21 Grams (2003) or, Hardcore Life (writer) 
Amores Perros (2000) or, People - Bad/Dogs - Good (writer)

Theron gives an interview about her work on the film here. The video has Spanish subtitles

Cost: 20 mil. $
Box office: 5.6 mil. $
= Mega-flop
[The Burning Plain premiered 29 August (Venice Film Festival, Italy) and runs 107 minutes. Shooting took place in New Mexico, Oregon, including Portland, and in Texas from November - December 2007. The film opened #46 to a small 58k $ first weekend in 21 theaters in North America, where it never conquered better numbers and only grossed 200k $ (3.6 % of the total gross). The 3 biggest markets were Italy with 1.8 mil. $ (32.1 %), Spain with 1 mil. $ (17.9 %) and France with 870k $ (15.5 %). The film won Lawrence an award in Venice. Arriaga has retreated from features since The Burning Plain and has instead worked on several short films, both as writer and director. Theron returned in The Road (2009); Basinger in While She Was Out (2008) and Lawrence in The Bill Engvall Show (2007-09) and theatrically in Winter's Bone (2010), her breakthrough. The Burning Plain is rotten at 36 % with a 4.9/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Burning Plain?

Tully (2018) - Theron delivers in Reitman/Cody's candid motherhood dramedy

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+ Most Undeserved Flop of the Year

Charlize Theron as the protagonist who's swamped by motherhood and here has it virtually plastering her face on this lovely poster for Jason Reitman's Tully

Marlo is already the mother of two, of which son Jonah is especially challenging, and is now about to give birth to her and her husband's third, an unplanned child. Somewhere along the way, Marlo has lost connection with herself, as a sprightly night-nanny appears to help her out.

Tully is written by Diablo Cody (Young Adult (2011)) and directed as the 7th feature by great Quebecker filmmaker Jason Reitman (Labor Day (2013)). Tully is the name of the somewhat mysterious, whimsical free-spirit night-nanny, who comes to the rescue for Marlo.
Charlize Theron (Prometheus (2012)) gives a simultaneously courageous, moving and frightening powerhouse performance as Marlo, one that makes it feel as if she really must know about the burdensome plights of motherhood personally, (she undoubtedly does, though not the biological aspect, as her own two children are adopted.) The degree to which Marlo has gotten out of whack mentally and personally sticks deeper than we may think initially, and Theron's wild performance hints at this several times, where red lamps ought to be blinking for the discerning viewer. - Although we constantly also want to give her the benefit of the doubt, as also seems to be the case with her nice but too passive husband, (finely played by Ron Livingston (The End of the Tour (2015)).) Theron touched on the same miserable state in The Burning Plain (2008), but in this case there is more depth and connection to her desperation. SPOILER Tully takes a surprising turn in its third act, which highlights the maternal depression as a phenomenon that needs to be taken really serious, and it makes Marlo's inner pain pungent and moving; becoming a parent isn't only a blessing, it is also a process in which you lose portions of what you thought you were, and Tully resides in this perplexing area with weight and integrity.
Mackenzie Davis (Plato's Reality Machine (2013)) is delightful as the ever-changing, pro-active, insightful Tully, and Asher Miles Fallica (Ozark (2017), TV-series) and Lia Frankland (Betting on the Bride (2017), TV movie) are both natural and lovely as the siblings.
Tully also has several funny moments. One of the best: A running scene, in which Theron, - who reportedly gained an impressive 50 pounds for the role, - overtakes a younger woman, only to collapse before the girl, who seems genuinely disturbed at the sight. Reitman is also a terrific, smart montage filmmaker, and Tully has a great montage of the doldrums of motherhood, and a later car sequence to several Cyndi Lauper tracks. - What a sweet delight that was, and what a great, debate-inspiring film Tully is. It may be especially meaningful for couples dealing with the throngs of parenthood together. Thank you, Reitman and Co.!

Related posts:

2018 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2018 in films - according to Film Excess

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown (but Reitman, Diablo and Theron's latest, and similarly scoped collaboration, Young Adult (2011), had a 12 mil. cost, so we can assume Tully's cost to be in that neighborhood)
Box office: 5.5 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say - but has a long way to go to become profitable theatrically
[Tully premiered 23 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 96 minutes. Cody has stated that she wrote the script as a form of therapy after her third birth, unable to write the Barbie film she was supposed to be working on, and that Tully saved her life. Shooting took place in New York and Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada from September 2016 - ?. Theron has stated that it took her 1½ years to get rid of the 50 pounds again, during which she also experienced her first depression. The film opened #6 to a small 3.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it is playing right now. It will soon open in Sweden (18 May), Indonesia (23 May), Brazil and Thailand (24 May), Germany and Greece (31 May), Norway (1 June), Portugal (7 June), Finland (11 June), France (27 June), Italy (28 June), Belgium (11 July) and Russia (12 July). With a Fall release, Tully might have been an Oscar contender with a stronger domestic gross, but Reitman is scheduled to return later this year with The Front Runner (2018), which may be his big awards bid; it is a political biopic led by Hugh Jackman. Theron returned in Gringo (2018). Tully is certified fresh at 87 % with a 7.7 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Tully?

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) or, Furiosa: Desert Warrior

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+ Best Australian Movie of the Year
+ Best Comeback of the Year: George Miller

Charlize Theron loudly set on prevailing on this poster for George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road

Australian filmmaker George Miller's debut feature Mad Max (1979), which he followed with sequels in 1981 and 1985, now gets a reboot, by Miller himself, now a 70 year-old man.

In a desolate future, two fierce outcasts join forces to reach a green nirvana with the five wives of the tyrant Immortan Joe, whose small army are on their trail.

Miller has tried to get Fury Road off the ground since he got the idea for it in 1998! The film has been scrapped and pushed back due to several factors: 9/11, the second American Iraq war, Mel Gibson's personal travails, Heath Ledger's 2008 death etc. etc.
Now that it's here, it's a glorious, gasoline-pumped beast of a movie; a car chase-action-adventure with some of the most hair-raising action scenes of later years. The film, which was shot on location in the desert of Namibia, Africa, is almost 'just' one long chase, so the action had better work, and it sure does. From the outset, when Max SPOILER eats a two-headed lizard, to the end a couple of hours later, we're strapped onto a hell of a roller coaster ride here.
The film is shot by John Seale (The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)) in ways that make you grab the handles of your seat time and time again, and scored by Junkie XL (300: Rise of an Empire (2014)) to enhance the experience. The stunt work is eye-popping, and the dystopia so grim that it's hard to watch the film and not think about its implicit portrayal of human nature as destructive, exploitative and brutal.
- The punchline to all of this is, of course, that Miller is also the man behind such rosy family movies as Babe: Pig in the City (1998) and Happy Feet (2006) and Happy Feet 2 (2011).

Many have called Fury Road feminist, which is a strange thing to call it, I think, just because it has a strong female and several good female performances in it.
One of the film's many delights is towards its end SPOILER to follow our heroes, who have now banded up with a few old ladies, attack and make their way despite being warred against by a legion of strong males. This may strike some as feminist; I relished it more because it was something I hadn't seen before, and the many people behind the scenario made it seem believable.
Tom Hardy (Bronson (2008)) plays Max, and Charlize Theron (Monster (2003)) is Furiosa, who is actually a much more particular and engaging character. This is a problem for a film that is still called Mad Max: Fury Road. Hardy doesn't have Gibson's natural likability and charm (of the previous three movies), and Max's back-story here only gets presented in some frightening but not very informative flash-backs. Miller has chosen in his script, which he has co-written with Brendan McCarthy (ReBoot (1995-96)) and Nick Lathouris, that Max shouldn't say almost anything, and so Hardy has his work cut out for him trying to form a strong hero here. The film's ending is also a little rushed, but all of Fury Road is actually somewhat rushed, so this may be appropriate.
These things aside, Theron and British Nicholas Hoult (A Single Man (2009)), who plays a drug-crazed but basically good kid, are great in Fury Road, and Hugh Keays-Burne (Kangaroo (1987)) is incredible as the despicable villain, sure to become iconic, because he is so hard to forget. - Great designs also adorn this surprising summer smash.

Related posts:

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Hugh Keays-Burne as Immortan Joe (the villain if you were wondering ...) in George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road

Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 150 mil. $
Box office: 109.4 mil. $ and counting
= Still unsure
[But as Fury Road has only been out for three days, it seems certain that it is set to become a big hit: Although it only opened #2 in the US, behind Pitch Perfect 2 (2015), it still made 44.4 mil. $ in its opening weekend there and opened #1 in 40 other countries with critics and audiences welcoming it with the highest level of enthusiasm.]

What do you think of Mad Max: Fury Road?
And Miller's other films?
Do you think he is the mastermind that the trailers crown him?

Celebrity (1998) or, Stars in New York

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One simple poster for Woody Allen's Celebrity

QUICK REVIEW:

A travel journalist in New York leaves his wife through many years to explore. He subsequently looses his script for a novel and meets with different perplexing developments in his life. Meanwhile, his ex-wife changes her line of business quite happily.

It is certain that Celebrity is not among its master filmmaker Woody Allen's (Broadway Danny Rose (1984)) best films, but it isn't among his worst either. It has enough qualities to still be termed a good film in my opinion. But first the detracting elements:
Despite its master cinematographer Sven Nykvist (Persona (1966)), whose 4th and last collaboration with Allen this was, the visual side of Celebrity, which is shot in B/W, isn't completely satisfying, (among other things it has one truly horrible zoom.) The plot is a little scattershot, and the ceaseless parade of celebrities (Donald Trump, for instance) gives the film a smack of New York-centered show-off from Allen's then well-earned place as the city's King Kong of cinema.
But the lines and scenes of his script are again damned well-written, and Judy Davis (Barton Fink (1991)), Kenneth Branagh (Hamlet (1996)), Leonardo DiCaprio (Titanic (1997)) and Charlize Theron (In the Valley of Elah (2007)) are all excellent. Celebrity is a romantic dramedy that takes a fine look at celebrity, love and life, with some welcome humor.

Related reviews:

Woody Allen:  2014 in films - according to Film Excess
Magic in the Moonlight (2014) - Allen's irresistible French Riviera romance
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
Fading Gigolo (2013) - Turturro's pleasant turn as a high-end NY prostitute  (as actor)
Blue Jasmine (2013) - Allen presents Blanchett, a woman under the influence
To Rome with Love (2012) - Woody Allen's slightest film to date   
Cassandra's Dream (2007) - Allen's well-laid but inconsequentiel English cul-de-sac  
Anything Else (2003) - Perfect contemporary relationship comedy  
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001) - Allen's hypnotic, noirish shenanigans 

1998 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess  

Broadyway Danny Rose (1984) or, Keep Your Heart   
Annie Hall (1977) or, My Relationship with Alvie Singer   
Bananas (1971) - Woody Allen's South American misadventure is still a barrel of laughs   
Casino Royale (1967) - The packed spy spoof frontrunner, a film very much of its time (as actor)

Instead of a trailer for the film, which was only available in French, here is Allen, talking about his personal experience of celebrity

Cost: 12 mil. $
Box office: 5 mil. $ (US only)
= Big flop
[Celebrity didn't spin gold internationally, either. Audiences weren't, like critics, wooed much by the look of Allen's film, (B/W might also have kept many from it), and the theme of celebrity is one that he has arguably tackled better before as in Stardust Memories (1980). Celebrity was, however, a minor hit once it arrived in Spain (for some reason) five years (!) after the US release, where it made 2.5 mil. € in 2005.]

What do you think of Celebrity?