The Brothers Bloom (2008)

The more I see and hear of Rian Johnson, the more impressed I get. I saw Brick a few years ago and didn't know what to make of it before it just kept growing and growing on me. I enjoyed Looper even while discussing the many flaws that became obvious as the end credits began to roll (flaws that didn't stop me from buying the movie as soon as it was released on Bluray). And now I have been utterly won over by The Brothers Bloom, a charming con movie with a great cast and a taste for the theatrical.

Mark Ruffalo and Adrien Brody play the brothers, two characters who discover the art of a good con at a very early age. Ruffalo is the elder of the two, Stephen, and he loves to plan things so well that when they happen it's all real. His perfect con would be one that really unfurls itself in a completely natural way and one where everyone involved gets what they want. His brother Bloom, on the other hand, wants to put his conning days behind him. He's confused and unhappy, despite the exciting life he leads with Stephen and their near-mute accomplice, Bang Bang (Rinko Kikuchi). Stephen doesn't want to lose the company of his brother and so he comes up with that movie standard, one last big job. The mark this time around is Penelope (Rachel Weisz), a rich young woman with far too much time on her hands and not enough to hold her interest. Bloom, despite himself, warms to the idea and it's not long before he's in character once more and helping a beautiful woman to get some excitement in her life while losing some of her money. Because everyone should get what they want.

Over the years, a great con movie has ultimately become as hard to pull off as any actual con scheme. I suppose it can easily be argued that the con movie is always a con anyway, attempting to wrong-foot the viewer whenever possible, but still leaving them entertained and feeling good about having one pulled over on them (everyone gets what they want). The grandfather of the con movie is, of course, The Sting, but there are many other greats to check out, with personal favourites of mine being The Grifters (if you haven't seen it already then do so ASAP), Matchstick Men and House Of Games (the directorial debut of the great David Mamet). These movies all do a fantastic job, but they also add to the pile of references that movie viewers have to choose from, making each subsequent con movie that little bit harder to get right. People know what to look out for, they know to stay mistrustful of everything and they know how things have panned out in the past.

This is why writer-director Johnson excels with his own contribution to the subgenre. The Brothers Bloom seems to acknowledge right from the very beginning that the well-known history and film presence of cons can make it hard to come up with anything completely fresh, but then it ploughs ahead anyway and wins you over thanks to the performances, the style of the film and a real sense for the theatrical. Mark Ruffalo may play a character who wants to tell a great story, and wants that story to unfold as if it's a natural thing instead of a story being told, but he feels very much like an outlet for the director to voice his hopes and dreams. He's a storyteller in search of the perfect story, which is surely what every writer-director seeks throughout their career.

Mixing comedy and some drama with some wonderful characters and great set-pieces, The Brothers Bloom won't be for everyone, of course, but it's a beautiful, intelligent and cine-literate piece of work that I'm surprised isn't given more praise.

Brody and Ruffalo work very well together and are very believable as brothers, Rinko Kikuchi gets to play one of the coolest characters I can think of in the past decade and Rachel Weisz has one of the best roles of her career. Her character starts off as someone who may just be annoyingly quirky, but soon becomes someone with an infectious joy that viewers won't want to see come to any harm, physically or emotionally. There are fantastic little supporting turns from the likes of Robbie Coltrane, Maximilian Schell, Andy Nyman, Nora Zehetner (onscreen for one brief scene only) and Ricky Jay (narrating). And eagle-eyed fans of Joseph Gordon-Levitt can spot him in the background of a party scene during the first 10-15 minutes. He has no actual dialogue or role, he's just there, hanging out and being cool.

People judging a con movie by how effectively they were conned may rate this one lower than I did because, ultimately, it's not that surprising for most of its runtime. Clues are littered throughout the script and design of each scene. However, they may be missing one important factor. The con works. Viewers will find themselves, as I did, watching for the twists and turns and enjoying each revelation and when the end credits roll they'll realise that, actually, they just enjoyed a great story. Which is what Johnson intended and what left me with such a warm glow inside and an urge to buy the film as soon as possible. Everyone gets what they want.

9/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Brothers-Bloom-Blu-ray-Adrien-Brody/dp/B003YUBZ66/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1364353176&sr=8-2

Vampires (1998)

"Well first of all, they're not romantic. It's not like they're a bunch of fuckin' fags hoppin' around in rented formal wear and seducing everybody in sight with cheesy Euro-trash accents, all right? Forget whatever you've seen in the movies: they don't turn into bats, crosses don't work. Garlic? You wanna try garlic? You could stand there with garlic around your neck and one of these buggers will bend you fucking over and take a walk up your strada-chocolata WHILE he's suckin' the blood outta your neck, all right? And they don't sleep in coffins lined in taffata. You wanna kill one, you drive a wooden stake right through his fuckin' heart. Sunlight turns 'em into crispy critters." 

Many point to Vampires as "Evidence A" in the case against John Carpenter having any kind of film-making talent left in him (with Ghosts Of Mars, of course, being "Evidence B") and there was a time, not too long ago, when I would have agreed with that. It would have saddened me, as I'm a huge Carpenter fanboy, but it would have been impossible to argue against.

Not any more.

Vampires is a messy movie with plenty of failings, but it's far from the unwatchable mess that many people try to label it. In fact, it's actually a lot of fun in places and benefits from an enjoyable opening segment and a grand finale bookending the weaker content in the middle.

James Woods stars as Jack Crow, a tough and skilled vampire slayer who works for the Catholic Church, leading his team into dangerous places to stake bloodsuckers and rid the world of the vampire menace, one nest at a time. Unfortunately, a particularly powerful master (Valek, played by Thomas Ian Griffith) doesn't like that situation and he turns up to spoil the party, killing the vast majority of Crow's group in one sequence of entertaining carnage. Crow is even more motivated than he was before to kill off every single vampire that he can, for his own revenge and also to stop Valek in his quest for . . . . . . . . . whatever it is that he seems to be looking for. Perhaps the church knows more than it's letting on. With the help of his colleague Anthony Montoya (Daniel Baldwin) and a young woman (Sheryl Lee) who was bitten by Valek, Crow sets out to destroy the biggest threat that he's yet faced.

It's got music by John Carpenter, there's a Western vibe to the whole thing and a couple of scenes feature a number of practical gore effects that work really well (including, most notably, a great kill within mere seconds of Valek crashing the party being held by Crow's group). It's far from classic Carpenter - the cinematography isn't as gorgeous, for one thing, and there's far too much crossfading - but it's a solid bit of fun.

Don Jakoby adapted the novel by John Steakly. Many who have read the source material say that it's much better, and I can't help feeling that Carpenter missed a chance to really mix things up a bit and bring a fresh spin to the vampire sub-genre, but the film has enough decent moments and good one-liners throughout (spat out by Woods, for the most part) to raise it just above average.

James Woods chews up every line and spits it out with hilarious effect and the movie is all the better for it. Daniel Baldwin may spend the entire movie reminding viewers of why he's not the A-list star that Alec is, but he does okay. Sheryl Lee isn't the best actress in the world, but she tries her best in a pretty thankless role and she's certainly easy on the eye. Tim Guinee is a lot of fun as Father Adam Guiteau, the priest who will help Crow on his quest when Crow isn't trying to beat up on him and find out just what secrets the church is keeping. People playing the bad guys often have the most fun and Thomas Ian Griffith certainly seems to be enjoying himself each time he appears to cause some death and destruction. Maximilian Schell plays Cardinal Alba and other small roles are filled by Mark Boone Junior, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Gregory Sierra and other people with names less familiar to me.

Don't expect anything like classic Carpenter, that pretty much goes without saying, but give this a watch (or a re-watch) at some point and you might be surprised to find that it's fairly enjoyable. If you think I'm mad for holding that opinion, just wait until I finally revisit Ghosts Of Mars and try to defend that.

6/10

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