Everybody's Working for the Weekend

211) Born on the Fourth of July (1989) Dir: Oliver Stone Date Released: December 20, 1989 Date Seen: July 5, 2012 Rating: 4.25/5

212) Tales from the Quadead Zone (1987) Dir: Chester Novell Turner Not Yet Released Date Seen: July 6, 2012 Rating: 3/5

213) Ted (2012) Dir: Seth McFarlane Date Released: June 29, 2012 Date Seen: July 6, 2012 Rating: 1.75/5

Leading up to that weekend, I saw a couple of films that I vividly recall the experience of seeing but only have vague impressions of what I specifically saw. I watched Born on the Fourth of July with my friend Matt Zoller Seitz at MoMA. And both the film itself and the conversation we had after the film made me think I needed to see movies by Stone (recommendations welcome). Stone's version of Ron Kovic's experiences post-Vietnam are moving, scary and very effective. The twinges of surreality and the distinguishing details that made Kovic and his story relatable were extraordinary. I was bowled over by the film and it seems that Stone and Kovic, both of whom were in attendance at the screening, were, too. Which was nice; it felt like we had all been through something together in that theater, even Matt, who had already seen the film multiple times!

Tales from the Quadead Zone was seen when I was down in the dumps after a low day at work. I bought some new comics at Midtown Comics, had some craft beer and a turkey meatball sub at Whole Foods and then went to see the film at the Museum of Arts and Design alone. I'm very glad I went. Quadead is not as charmingly delirious as the late (?) Turner's Black Devil Doll From Hell but it is winningly eccentric and corny in ways that remind me of Robert Rodriguez's brand of DIY pastiche. Quadead is much less self-conscious however and is hence more exciting than most Rodriguez films I've seen, but yeah, it's not exactly going to win any major awards or anything.

And Ted is just top-to-bottom sucky whenever Sam Jones is not on-screen. Even then, McFarlane's creative constipation is more than apparent. Still, I laughed at that particular non-sequitur/running gag because I am a nerd and Jones was clearly more than game. I can't say that anything else in this film really won me over. I strongly disliked its phoney "grow up, stupid" moral. But honestly, what should I have expected from a Seth McFarlane film, right? Saw this at the nearby Alpine at an 11pm screening with my roommate Bill Best. Bill hadn't been out that night and also wanted to see the film and I wanted to check out the theater. Fuck that theater and fuck that movie, too. But! I'm glad I went.

Now We Sound the Drums of War!

207) Savages (2012) Dir: Oliver Stone Date Released: July 5, 2012 Date Seen: July 2, 2012 Rating: 3.75/5

Lil Pocahontas humor for you folks in the cheap seats. Anyway, yeah, I liked it. See my review for Capital New York.

300) Stone (2010)

300) Stone (2010) Dir: John Curran Date Released: October 2010 Date Seen: September 23, 2010 Rating: 3.25/5

Not sure I should run my review of this since it belongs to Wide Screen and they haven't run it yet nor have they killed it. It may yet show up in another installment of "From the Archives," in other words. In the meantime, I did review it for them and was pleasantly surprised by it. 

290) The Town (2010) and 296) Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010)

290) The Town (2010) Dir: Ben Affleck Date Released: September 2010 Date Seen: September 15, 2010 Rating: 3.75/5

296) Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010) Dir: Oliver Stone Date Released: September 2010 Date Seen: September 20, 2010 Rating: 2/5

Two of my first reviews for Wide Screen: ah, memories. Check these out at (you guessed it) Wide Screen.

167) Wall Street (1987)

167) Wall Street (1987) Dir: Oliver Stone Date Released: December 1987 Date Seen: May 8, 2010 Rating: 3.5/5

There are two main things that make Wall Street one of my favorite of the admittedly small number of Oliver Stone's films* I've seen. Firstly: I love Michael Douglas's performance. I saw this a couple of months after rewatching Basic Instinct and I have to say, I really like Douglas when he's in sleazy smooth operator mode. There's that one scene in Basic Instinct where he's just had sex with Sharon Stone and he psyches her jilted lover out with a line as happily squalid as, "I think she's the fuck of the century. What do you think?" He says it so well. It left me begging for more, made me want to revel in that kind unibrow decadence just a little longer. And voila, just the thing for me.

Just so we're all on the same playing field: I don't think Wall Street works as a drama. Stone is self-consciously tackling zeitgeisty themes, scads of contemporary research and his ceaseless tyro's need to prove himself all at once. And while I know that's his M.O, that makes the script for Wall Street, which he co-wrote with Stanley Weiser, clogged with stiff, unconvincing and sometimes perplexing dialogue that sticks in the throats of all of the film's performers save for the better/more experiences ones. Charlie Sheen and John C. McGinley both gag a bit every now and then but Douglas never does.

Douglas's Gekko is flat-out convincing: I could see myself buying a used car from him, any used car, just gimme the lease now, please. There's gravitas to his Gordon Gekko and a fearful inevitability to his actions. I'm especially thinking of the scene where Sheen's Bud Fox is practically begging Gekko to stay interested in him while the two men take a ride in Gekko's posh limo (or was it a town car? I seem to remember a limo but I could be totally wrong). Douglas's lines are more than a little convoluted but they're ultimately inconsequential as he radiates such easy menace throughout the scene. He single-handedly saves the scene from devolving into a mess of ridiculous high-handed dreck with an exact but seemingly improvised show of nonchalance . That's Douglas at his best, effortlessly oozing charisma on command. A lot of papa Spartacus's charm rubbed off on him and boy does it show here (Gosh, I loveWonder Boys as much as the next guy but a man cannot subsist on Curtis Hanson alone).

The other thing I love about Wall Street is how absurd the film's concept of technological marvels is. I'm not talking about the fact that I'm watching Wall Street 23 years later from its original release date, which in technology years is pretty vast (like dog years, except smaller). Obviously, Wall Street is plenty dated and the thing that ties it to its specific place and time the most is the portable tv and the tape recorder Fox proudly and strategically whips out at just the right moments, as if he invented the damn things just for those moments.

But you don't have to be George Jetson to know that there's something inherently fishy about the idea that Fox is able to confidently walk up to anyone, let alone Gekko, in an open field in Central Park, with a clunky tape recorder down his pants (I know, I know, it's in his waistband but c'mon, humor me, will ya?) and do it with some swagger while doing it. Those things were massive. Just massive hunksa gadgetry. And Fox is strutting up to Gordon Gekko with one dangling around his crotch like he were the Mozza himself. Ah, such kitsch.

*At the time of this writing, I have only seen this, Platoon, Nixon, Alexander (director's cut) and W. I own VHS tapes of The Doors and Salvador though. And I'd love to see The Hand. Recommendations, preferably ones that try to take my taste into account, would be appreciated.