the groundhog day project

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang again, this time with commentary--Robert Downey, Jr, Val Kilmer and Shane Black. Also, I did see The Hateful Eight today. And, I've got a love/hate relationship with its Tarantino. Not love it or hate it, but more like both at the same time. I mean, take Super Panavision 70mm, use it beautifully for a some landscape shots and a bit of the first act Stagecoach ... homage? ripoff? Then, you set most of the film in an enclosed space where the wide shot really doesn't matter that much. Take the requisite A [insert director's name] Film and turn it into the pretentious the 8th film by Quentin Tarantino and then give us chapter headings as well? Tarantino has these tics that bug the crap out of me. And he's arrogant. (Don't get me started on his tiff with the Cinerama Dome, because, yeah, they want to take Star Wars out after a week.) But, the guy can make a film. I mean, sure, The Hateful Eight hits a lot of beats we've seen before, and Ku...

Let's just start with a frank, honest truth. Roger Murtaugh is not black. And, I don't mean to be a smartass about the color versus the race, that "black" people are generally shades of what we'd call brown or whatever. I mean that, in Shane Black's script, race is not mentioned. Except for the title of today's entry (and one other instance I'll get to in a moment). Alfred says that to Murtaugh. And, the line may resonate a little more in the script because Murtaugh is not said to be black. He's just... Murtaugh. In fact, race is not an issue at all in the course of this film. Murtaugh just happens to have been cast black. Burke--the guy who tells Murtaugh he's breaking in a new partner--is only described in the script as "Rail-thin, nose like a beak." The actor cast as Burke just happens to be black. Okay, maybe not "just happens to be." Maybe the casting director, Marion Dougherty, deliberately chose to cast black actors...

So, consider yesterday a part one to today's part two about the character of Martin Riggs. We are not accounting in any way for Lethal Weapon 2 or 3 or 4 , just the original. Also, consider this a part... whatever part it may be to my original Kozlovik post about Phil Connors in Groundhog Day . Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's that time of the week again in which we compare our protagonist to Jesus Christ. Let us just get into it--taking our list from Kozlovic (2009) as usual. (And stick around for the twist ending.) #1 - tangible... yes, Martin Riggs is a real guy in the movie. (1/1) #2 - central protagonist... he shares it with Roger Murtaugh, but I will give him the point. (2/2) #3 - outsider... Martin Riggs has been rejected by vice, and as he explains, no one wants to work with him. So, check. (3/3) #4 - arrives through outside intervention... this one may be a stretch, but Martin Riggs is transferred into Roger Murtaugh's life just as a new case arrives and he ...

Shane Black's Los Angeles is "a bargain basement Promised Land." He likes sunny days and rainy nights. He likes to juxtapose domestic normalcy with the seedy underbelly. And, he likes to put flawed men at the center--these are the damaged angels for which the city is named. In Lethal Weapon we have two of these men as our protagonists: Roger Murtaugh and Martin Riggs. RM and MR. Mr short for Mister, but one must wonder is Black suggesting that Martin Riggs or Roger Murtaugh is the quintessential male, or at least the quintessential 80s male, or at least the quintessential 80s action male. The interesting thing is, as the story goes, in Black's script--I don't know what draft I have, but it's not the first--a little more than in the film, Murtaugh becomes a little more like Riggs along the way and maybe, just maybe, Riggs becomes a little more like Murtaugh in exchange. Imagine the partnership if Mr. Joshua and the General had managed to kill (after perhaps ra...

(A note or two: I had intended to write about Shane Black's script but I neglected to read it today because, New Year's Day and all, I got caught up in a Mythbusters marathon on TV, dismantling a LEGO thing I made at the end of summer and haven't had time to take apart yet, and playing some Smash Up . Also, I have decided to give Lethal Weapon seven days, and reduce to only six days a different action film later in the month--I won't spoil it completely by listing off every movie... and I had to doublecheck whether or not I had already listed the five action movies in my recap post the other day; I did not. I must interrupt this lame parenthetical to point out that, from what I read, the "car" you see as Amanda Hunsaker falls toward it is not actually a car but rather a painting of a car and part of the street on top of an airbag, so they could film from above as she fell. I read about this when I was looking up Dar Robinson, to whom the film is dedicat...

A few questions must be answered before moving on to bigger things. For example, the obvious one: why Christmas? (And, I need to get my nitpicks out of the way early with this movie because they are actually few.) Shane Black has a tendency, as it were, to set movies around Christmas (from Lethal Weapon to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang to Iron Man 3 ). Ivan Radford at Vodzilla last year, said it like this: In 1987, Lethal Weapon blew Christmas wide open. It turned out that Christmas films didn't just have to be festive and feel-good; they could be both of those things and feature guns, swearing and prostitutes too. Happy fucking holidays. First, a nitpick: Lethal Weapon does not feature any prostitutes. One prostitute, Dixie, has a couple lines at the beginning of the film. That's it. Porn stars and strippers get some screen time, but not really prostitutes. But, moving past that, yeah, a Christmas movie doesn't have to be festive... Except, allow me to nitpick again. Thi...

Start us off with "Jingle Bell Rock" and we know it's Christmas time. Give us a half naked woman who seems a little high and we know... What do we know? Close on the cocaine she snorts and Christmas lights reflected off the glass of the table, and Christmas becomes a setting for something twisted. And, we don't even have dialogue yet in this, one of the greatest Christmas movies ever-- Lethal Weapon . Character introductions: Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) introduced naked in a bathtub, his family comes in to wish him a happy birthday. Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) also introduced naked. Nakedness is important. Present us with dangerous men at their most vulnerable and we should know there is something a little different going on here than your usual cop movie. I think of movies like the Dirty Harry films or the Death Wish films. The suburban life of one of our leads is one notable difference. The lonely trailer life of the other... I'm trying to remember if we eve...

As National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation begins for the last time tonight, I want to enjoy it. I want to find the family interactions inside this package endearing and pleasant. There are moments that achieve this. Audrey’s support of her father when his lights fail, for example. Clark’s conversation with Ruby Sue, for another. Clark hugging everyone after the lights work comes close, but he (and the scene) overdoes it. The question is not, for now, what is the meaning of Christmas or what is the meaning of a Christmas movie. Rather, what do I want out of a Christmas movie? The problem in answering this one is that I am not the audience for Christmas movies. Most any year, if a Christmas movie comes out, I won’t go see it. Most of them are nice, wholesome, family-friendly comedies, stuff like Jingle All the Way (haven’t seen it), Home Alone (saw it in the theater, seen it many times since), Elf (watched it once on DVD, was entertained but not particularly moved), It’s a Wonderful...