One Star Classics

I mostly know Jeff Garlin from Curb Your Enthusiasm and Arrested Development, though I believe it was This American Life where I was told he is a «comedian’s comedian». I can see that; the guy has one hell of a comedic presence.

How then, does a movie he co-writes, directs, and star in fare? I suppose it depends on your point of view…

Handsome is not a movie for everyone. It’s a noir-ish murder mystery, not particularly well written or directed. Granted, it’s not a shocker to see a great comedian unable to carry over their craft to a broader medium—Norm Macdonald has repeatedly proven that—but my hopes were high.

It does kind of work for me. Kind of. Because there is a funny backbone here, and the cast is great.

Co-starring Natasha Lyonne — mentioned on this site for her turn in Madhouse — and Amy Sedaris, you’re pretty much guaranteed to get some on-screen shenanigans. But it is Steven Weber who takes it all home.¹ Playing a narcissistic actor who (revealed in the first scene) is the killer, he manages to ham it up so even the biggest hater will get a few chuckles out of it.

That aside, if you don’t like Garlin’s brand of humor, you probably won’t get much more to find in Handsome. It is in no way a great, or even particularly good, movie. You subjectively can get some entertainment out of it, if you like this kind of thing, the Garlin-esque type humor. Otherwise, you probably will be bored.

A sequel is being hinted at, and I assume Netflix—yes, it’s a Netflix exclusive—will go for it, should enough people watch the thing. It’s not a high budget affair, and they did, after all, sign another four movie deal with Adam Sandler. The bar isn’t set particularly high.

I laughed at/with Handsome, and I’m pretty sure any Curb fan will enjoy the film, too.

¹ Per usual!

The Trailer

Is it I slept bad or I slept badly? My take: I didn’t sleep well. Hey, it’s likely the question most people will ponder after watching Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

Anyway! I was going to lead in with, had there not been a Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, there would not have been a Nice Guys, but that is probably not entirely true. See, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang royally bombed at the box office, bringing in a mere $5 million dollars—Robert Downey, Jr. uses more on hair dye these days—and it was up in the air if Shane Black was ever to direct a movie again.¹

Here we are, though, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is, as I mentioned in my Nice Guys write-up, one of my all time faves. The two movies are nigh identical in form, yet still manage to feel different enough to come off as companion pieces, as opposed to rehash.

The foundation of both follow two investigators caught up in a typical noir murder case, with a burgeoning friendship ready to bloom. Yes, the bromance is the backbone here in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, too, right alongside the noir influences present from the first shot. (A loving reference to Sunset Blvd.) Darker undertones are a given, but really… This is Shane Black. Laughter will ensue!

And if general noir surrounds a protagonist with situations out of their control, then Kiss Kiss Bang Bang takes that stereotype, embraces it snuggly, and adds its own twist to it. The route petty criminal Downey Jr. takes to become an actor who gets paired up with Val Kilmer’s PI, Gay Perry, for research? Talk about some inspired scripting and acting. By the time they’re knee-deep in a murder investigation—and a cover-up, natch—you won’t be entirely sure how you arrived there, but you will have enjoyed the ride.

The gallery of characters… What a set of pros! Not only does Corbin Bernsen do his Corbin Bernsen thing, we also get the great Michelle Monaghan as the prerequisite femme fatale. Of course, even when Shane Black has all the ingredients for a noir, he will still go all Great British Baking Show on it, mixing everything up, making sure Monaghan is not a trope. Her and Downey’s chemistry takes second place only to the aforementioned bromance here, and the trio’s relationship is truly both funny and likable.

Which one is the better movie, then? Kiss Kiss Bang Bang or The Nice Guys? That’s hard to say; the latter is grittier, where the former is slicker, and the setting might well be what will sell you on which one to pick. LA in the 70’s or LA in the early oughties? It’s a hard choice, and you owe yourself (and me) to watch both. Multiple times. Then either make your mind up or write long meditations on it like I’m doing right now. Either way, you’ll come off as a better person than those who haven’t watched both.

¹ Of course, the domino bricks started falling here: Downey went to Iron Man, where he got Black to direct the third movie of the trilogy. I assume Iron Man, and not Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, is the reason we saw The Nice Guys.

One of my favorite movies is Shane Black’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Not only is it a great film, but we also get to witness the juxtaposition of Val Kilmer peaking¹ with Robert Downey, Jr.’s post-junkie comeback. They were two ships passing in the night, sailing to two very different destinations.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’s spiritual successor arrived in 2016, with Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling heading The Nice Guys. I suppose one could say the two actors share similarities with Kilmer and Downey, Jr., but in all fairness, Crowe still hasn’t made his Twixt.

Set in the late 1970s, two private investigators get mixed up in a murder case in the seedy underbelly of LA, where the femmes are fatale, and the ups are covered. Yes, this is a neo-noir, paired with the patented stylings of Shane Black’s bromances.

Oh, the bromance… Black pretty much invented the modern-age cop-bromance genre with Lethal Weapon, and I find it a strangely becoming part of his movies. You kind of expect these films going the whole «where men are men» route, but while the male protagonists certainly have their noir-style macho side, Black always give them a normal sensibility. They’re flawed characters, but as is the case with The Nice Guys, they’re also relatable. Gossling’s character’s daughter is more than a comic relief, and it’s downright adorable how much Crowe wants her to like and approve of him.

It gives The Nice Guys that touch of heart you possibly wouldn’t expect, and as opposed to classic noirs, there is a lot less cynicism in the main characters. They are flawed but likable, and the actors have a great chemistry. You get the impression they enjoy being in the movie, and that makes the experience—grim plot aside—enjoyable for us, too.

Other than that, The Nice Guys follows the noir formula from Kiss Kiss Bang Bang pretty closely. The storyline is a bit of a maze, but comes together nicely in the end, and the whole thing is stylishly shot. Very 1970s.

It also ended up losing money at the box-office, which is just a tragedy. I mean, really. In that sense it just seems fitting for 2016 when… Well, we all know what happened.

Now you have the chance to right your sins. Granted, you still have to choose a digital rental (or purchase) service, but that’s a valid charity at this point…

• iTunes
• Amazon
• VUDU

… and it is the only way for America to start its healing.

¹ And boy does he fall far from that summit.

Why I haven’t watched the entire Mad Max tetralogy is a mystery even to me, but here we are, and I’m making up for lost time.

And let it be said: I watch a lot of misunderstood movies. Cult movies. B-movies… Call them what you like, but Mad Max is more often than not put in the cult category. It’s one every movie snob is supposed to love. Me? Clearly I’m not a snob, because good grief… I downright hated this film. It’s not often I say I would watch Twixt over anything, but here we are, and that is what I’m saying.

Where does one even start?

It might not be kind to compare director George Miller to Uwe Boll, but where the latter claims he’s a doctor, the former actually was (is, perhaps) a surgeon. He funded this movie by working extra shifts. Furthermore, Miller has quite the rap sheet and has amassed both Oscar nominations and entries into the Babe franchise. Be all of that as it may, I can’t help but wonder if this is where Dr. Boll got his inspiration.

As far as Mad Max goes, I had no idea what was going on. I have my doubts Miller did either, and this ends up feeling like a somewhat dystopian version of the CHiPs TV show. Something about a cop who’s a night rider, and (as usual) Mel Gibson’s wife is killed, revenge is in the cards, and I don’t even know what.

Mel looks pretty sharp in those leather pants, though.

There are so many odd things here, and the film often plunges into parody territory. There’s a soaring sax solo from Mel’s wife, sensually playing notes one would expect to see in a Leslie Nielsen movie. The badass biker gang? They’d probably seem rougher had they not delayed chases to put their helmets on.

And a dystopian society where Kawasakis are the bikes of choice, and Coke cans are strewn around… That doesn’t really do it for me.

If nothing else, this is a good study of Mel Gibson. Here is a man who has only gone through two stages of aging: from birth to Lethal Weapon, and from Lethal Weapon until now. In Mad Max he doesn’t look much like the Mel we know and love… -ish… today, so consider it a museum relic in that sense.

That aside, I don’t get why this is a cult classic. I really do not. It’s just a mess of half-baked plots, and while the movie is nicely filmed, I cannot figure out Mad Max’s classic status, cult or otherwise. It’s just a dull film.

Yet I will persist. Be it Tina Turner in a shifty costume or Tom Hardy killing his career, I will be there, watching each and every movie in the series. God help me.