Why Am I Excited: Skarsgård and Stormare

I just wanted to drop a quick post to show you all two films I am really excited to see starring two of my favorite character actors. And it's not just because they have awesome sounding names.

Small Town Murder Songs

Why am I excited?

This film is shot in Ontario, and Peter Stormare is the headline actor. I don't know about all of you, but I feel Stormare brings serious gusto to whatever film he happens to be in. Even though he seems to be relegated to secondary roles in other big budget Hollywood films, the character he plays is the character that audiences remember when they leave. Some examples are (in no particular order):

•  Constantine
• While I consider this movie as a whole to be kind of a huge slap in the face to anyone familiar with the source material (re: Hellblazer), one thing I enjoyed watching was Peter Stormare's charismatic Satan. Delightfully morbid!
• Bad Boys 2
• I can't remember anything about this movie, which lends insight into its quality. Again, Stormare pulls through as the Russian mobster who delivers the most only memorable line of this film - "The Russian Grim Reaper is here."
• Armageddon
• While this goofy film is filled with cartoon characters of all types, Stormare again manages to whip out a little bit of dialog that I won't forget any time soon - "American components, Russian components, ALL MADE IN TAIWAN!"

His gusto alone has made him a memorable character in nearly every movie he has been in even though he was surrounded by what would be considered to be "mega-stars". I am very excited to see a film in which the focus is on him to deliver in a dramatic role. Here is hoping for the best. 

A Somewhat Gentle Man

Why am I excited?

Stellan Skarsgard is the kind of actor that can actually get me to watch films that normally would slip under the radar. His mere presence generates interest from my end. I have admired his work in a wide spectrum of movies, big and small:

• Deep Blue Sea
• HA! This one is a doozy that I quite enjoyed. Skarsgard's doctor has the most memorable... dismemberment, and as a bonus his character introduction has him pissing into the wind. Comedy gold. 
• City of Ghosts
• This surreal Matt Dillon directed flick has Skarsgard delivering on the daramatic acting chops that have made him an international star. 
• King Arthur
• I may write about this movie later because I feel it gets an unjustly bad wrap. Antoine Fuqua's excursion into Roman occupied Britain was definetly a leap for the director, considering his forte seemed to be modern urban filmmaking. Despite that, I feel this was a very effective re-telling of the Arthurian Legend, thanks in no small part to Skarsgard's Cerdic, the underdeveloped yet entirely menacing Saxon leader. His mano-a-mano conversation with Clive Owen's Arthur before the final battle was particularly effective. His swagger and line delivery make this a memorable role.
• Insomnia (1997)
• The film that Christopher Nolan re-made has Skarsgard front and center playing a cop with questionable morals. His nuanced delivery makes his character at once despicable and sympathetic at the same time. I recommend checking this film out, you will find many of what seemed to be the most compelling plot and character moments from the Nolan film are lifted completely from this one. 
• Beowulf and Grendel
• I really enjoyed this oddball film. It took the complete opposite approach to both the mythology, as well as the method of film making that Robert Zemekis's motion captured Beowulf did. It told the story from Grendel's point of view, using make-up and the natural beauty of Iceland to its advantage. Director Sturla Gunnarsson (Icelandic names are awesome) crafts a story that is whimsical, savage and quite funny at times. Skarsgard's King Hrothgar is played with an air of desperation that allows the audience to believe that he is truly a man running out of options. His uniquely comedic delivery adds to the oddball nature of the entire film, which is what made it memorable as a whole. 

Peter Stomare and Stellan Skarsgard are actors that no one really knows by name, yet once a movie goer sees their faces, there is an instant recognition. As soon as recognition is established, exclamations of "Oh! he played this character in this movie, and that character in that movie!" seem to steadily stream from any movie-goers memory. Stormare and Skarsgard's ability to remain memorable amongst a sea of top talent is a testament to their acting ability, and that is why I am looking forward to these two films. 

Goemon

Not too long ago, I was looking for my first batch of blu ray's to purchase on Amazon. Some of my searches included films like Mongol and Red Cliff, both of which I ended up purchasing. But Amazon being the magical site it is, managed to catch my eye with some suggested products. The suggestions included two films: Goemon and Casshern. Both films are directed by Kazuaki Kiriya. Goemon is the more recent of the two films, so I decided to check it out.

Watching the trailers of both of these films, it is small wonder they are directed by the same person. Kiriya certainly loves his digital environments and actors. Goemon seems evokes the style of the airbrushed and too-pristine-to-be-real 300 look convolved with the absolute insanity of a next generation video game  cut scene. I would go as far as to say that this is an animated film with real actors in it.

I was not sure whether this was a good or a bad thing at first. I liked Frank Miller's 300 graphic novel, but the movie left me cold with its synthetic environments and hyper-stylized, slow-motion fetish (here's hoping Zack Snyder doesn't pollute Superman with the same level of gimmickry).

"This. Is. Slloooowwwww moootttiiioooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn"

After Goemon's boisterous first scene, it was clear that this film was not trying to bamboozle the audience into thinking this was real. Kiriya not only embraces the insanity of the cartoonish delivery, he revels in it. Make no mistake: this film loves being bat-shit crazy. Goemon manages to use the same tools as 300, while being its exact opposite. Kiriya uses his CG wonders not as a painful exercise in over exposed slow-motion film making; he uses it to speed things the fuck up. His action is breathlessly paced. People are running, jumping, vaulting, chopping and flying through the air with such speed as to leave the audience running to catch up. Goemon himself is a shinobi who can seem to leap hundreds of feet in the air and ride a horse down the side of a mountain that any normal person would call a sheer cliff without pausing for a breathe.

While none of this looks particularly realistic, I personally found this literal change of pace to be the most attractive part of the film. No more over-use of glorifying slow motion. This film has CG environments and actors that keep the action moving exceptionally fast, and can be quite breathtaking at times.

That is, if you can get over the fact that the abilities of the characters in the film seem to be chaotic at best. You would think Goemon himself is a god considering the maneuvers he pulls. There does not seem to be any over-arching explanation as to what these shinobi can do, and when they can do it. That type of logical gap tends to get under my skin. Essentially, it seems to be a film without any rules. When you have a film that doesn't establish any rules, all of the action scenes lose their potency because there is no real element of danger.

The plot of the film is fairly forgettable. It seemed like quite a long film, and I felt it did not have the right to be so. There was at least one action set piece I thought was to be the final scene, but was proven wrong when another scene, the scope of which was even larger, played out extending the run time of the film.

The characters suffer from some of the same issues in 13 Assassins. The chief offender being the one-dimensional antagonist.

Our second one-dimensional Japanese antagonist. Sadly, no nickname was given...

His one-dimensional offense? He throws a baby in a vat of boiling oil.

...

Yeah. What a douche-bag. 

One thing about the action that I cannot go without mentioning are some of the up close, torso-up running shots. There are scenes with Goemon racing through the rain and facing the camera that are shot almost portrait style, while the background zooms by behind him. These scenes induced what I hope to be unintentional laughter from me, due to the fact that it is painfully obvious that the actor is on a green screen set, running on the spot, and probably having water thrown onto his face.

That's right. Running on the spot. It seems to be so obvious that it's kind of hysterical. All of the effects wizardry to create feats bedazzling to behold, and the production had to rely on an actor running on the spot to film these intense sequences? Did they not have a treadmill they could use? Maybe a steady-cam they could have attached to the actors waist and have him actually run to help represent the physical action? 

I appreciate Goemon for what it is: An exercise in style which attempts to separate itself from other efforts by building energy in its action scenes using speed. The plot is forgettable (except for that baby scene, which was ridiculously memorable), and the drama overwrought. Goemon is strictly a visceral experience which is not ashamed of its heavy reliance on its digitally rendered universe. I applaud Kiriya for attempting to do something different with a set of tools that have been abused in the past.