Is 007 More Respectable, Or Are Movies Catching Up In Nastiness?
It says something, although I’m not sure what, that four of the five new video releases are R-rated., I’m even less sure of what it means that the week’s sole PG-13-rated movie is a sexy James Bond spy thriller.
Has 007 finally become respectable or has the rest of the industry finally caught up to nasty Ian Fleming’s imagination? The probable answer: It’s a little of both.
This Bond creation doesn’t break with tradition, and in some respects it could even be considered a throwback after the grim-faced Timothy Dalton episodes. It features a little cleavage, a little gunplay, some well-intended humor and a suave double agent thrilled to be smashing bumpkins - in a tank, no less.
But, too, like all the Bonds, it is an entertainment. It has as much to do with real life as Pussy Galore does with subtlety. And in that respect, it isn’t worth an R rating.
Of course, maybe Fleming was never that nasty to begin with.
Les Miserables ****
French filmmaker Claude Lelouch adapts the classic Victor Hugo novel into a sweeping look at the first half of the 20th century. Tackling the Holocaust, the myths of the French Resistance and the notion of justice among other heavy topics, Lelouch sets his three-hour film up against Hugo’s tale of one man’s crime, punishment and ultimate redemption. Starring the great Jean-Paul Belmondo, “Les Miserables” may be the epitome of melodrama, but it never hides its intent - to be both art and entertainment at once. Rated R
GoldenEye ***
This latest version of the continuing saga of super spy James Bond, Britain’s agent 007 with a license to kill, is among the best of the genre. It has all the familiar touches, including exploding toys and shapely women, just the right amount of campy humor and a Bond in Pierce Brosnan who, with the exception of Sean Connery, is the epitome of Ian Fleming’s creation. Rated PG-13
Casino **1/2
To some reviewers, Martin Scorsese can’t make a bad film (to which I would reply, what about “New York, New York”?). But two things have to be said about this near-three-hour-long study of Las Vegas gambling: 1. It’s at least a half-hour too long; 2. It isn’t half the work of art that the similarly themed “GoodFellas” is. Scorsese has never been known to make films that audiences want to embrace (they arouse admiration, not love), but this look at the downfall of a casino operator (Robert De Niro), his hustler wife (Sharon Stone) and his boyhood pal (Joe Pesci) is virtually bereft of sympathetic characters. The overall narration technique has been used before (in “GoodFellas,” naturally), and it ends up being a cheat anyway (one of the characters telling the story, after the fact, ends up dead). Beware: Some scenes of violence are particularly hard to stomach. Rated R
Nick of Time **
If you don’t think much about the essential ridiculousness of the plot, this John Badham thriller about an innocent man (Johnny Depp) forced into an assassination attempt feels pretty enjoyable. At least, unlike “Casino,” it moves quickly. Depp’s character is coerced by a mysterious hitman (Christopher Walken) to either kill the governor of California (Marsha Mason) or watch his own daughter be gunned down. Interesting idea, especially as Badham films it in real time. In the end, though, there are just too many holes. Good performances by Depp and, in particular, Walken, are wasted. Rated R
Total Eclipse *
American actor Leonardo DiCaprio, so good just a couple of years ago as a developmentally disabled adolescent in “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape,” is virtually unwatchable in this look at the relationship between 19th-century French poet Arthur Rimbaud and his mentor/friend/lover/ultimate enemy Paul Verlaine (David Thewlis). The problem isn’t so much the production, which authentically captures the worlds of Paris and London, but the limited plot and even more limited characterizations of the two men. Containing little that would let you know how important these two were to French letters, the film is just an exhausting study of obsession and self-loathing. Rated R
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