Kong: Skull Island

                          

This could have worked as either a more serious film or as a sillier one, but it walks the line between the two, and walks it awkwardly. I could see where they were going with the silly B movie elements, but they contrasted jarringly with the violent deaths and Vietnam scenes, and the characters themselves often didn't seem to be taking the situation seriously enough. 

The human characters were boring and simple. They usually had some bland background that's gotten out of the way quickly and really just lets us know if they're going to end up dying rather than making us care about them. It's a shame, because where are several great actors here, and they've gone to waste for the most part. There were too many characters too - especially the endless soldier guys, but also the confusing multiplicity of main characters. There were also a few dull exposition scenes that I feel could have been worked into the story a little better.

               

                 

Don't worry though, everything else I've going to say will be positive. The action was pretty great. It was well staged with good effects, and the camera didn't jump around or wobble as much as it could have. There were some really nice shots actually, mostly of the island or Kong wading through water or the Vietnam style helicopter/explosions/shades imagery. 

Unlike all other King Kong movies (that I can think of at present) this one actually stayed on the island the whole time - always my favourite part of the story. This is clearly a set up for a sequel (possibly fighting Godzilla? Kong gon' get his ass beat), but I forgive it as the film still works as a sort of Jurassic park style get off the island story.

               

            

Fun and flashy, with imaginative monsters and interesting well shot action, 'Kong: Skull Island' lacks much depth, but this likely doesn't matter for true big monster fans.

                          

Kong: Skull Island: 41.1

Good Morning, Vietnam

   

"GOOOoooooooooooOOOOOOOOD MORNING VIETNAAAM!!!"

      

Damn that was funny. I regret not having seen this earlier, as I'm a big fan (much of the time) of Robin Williams and had this recommended to me years ago. Possibly my favourite Williams movie, and that's saying quite a lot. He plays a fast talking comedian DJ who's been dumped in Vietnam just as that war that there are tons of movies about is starting to heat up. It's a true underdog story - both 'Good Morning, Vietnam' and the Vietnam-American war.

He's got that classic insecurity thing going on that seems to afflict anyone trying to be funny (erm) and so rattles off jokes to just about anyone that he comes into contact with. This gets him in trouble repeatedly, but also makes him a lot of friends. As the movie chugs along he begins to mature as he sees the seriousness of everyone dying around him and whatnot, and by the end he's contemplatively silent for minutes at a time, without loosing his good nature.

    

   

So it's a movie about growing up, really. When a bomb goes off right at his local pub its a bit of a slap in the face from reality, and then the images of the dead and dying combine with those of the news type writers writing up the event, showing that what they're putting out is really happening to real people. This is where he starts going against orders for a reason. Where before, he was just making mildly offensive jokes (though comedy isn't comedy if there are any lines that can't be crossed, as far as I'm concerned. Otherwise it would almost be like it was taking itself seriously - imagine. Oh and comedy awards are ridiculous too, for the same reason) and doing impressions, now he's reporting on news that's now allowed. And making jokes.

The following scene was excellent, and as Adrian (Williams) is cut off the room falls into silence save the crazed tapping of the type writers as the camera slowly pans out through the glass wall into the com room. Speaking of 'com', wasn't Lt. Hauk great? With his abbreviations and his crap comedy and all.

  

"Excuse me, sir. Seeing as how the V.P. is such a V.I.P., shouldn't we keep the P.C. on the Q.T.? 'Cause if it leaks to the V.C. he could end up M.I.A., and then we'd all be put out in K.P."

    

He helps the film feel light and upbeat, even while dealing with serious issues. A viewer could watch 'Good Morning, Vietnam' and come out of it thinking it was anything between a dumb comedy akin to 'Police Academy', or a more serious story with some comedy flavouring sprinkled over it. In fact, the rest of the cast were all fantastic, and they all added such strong characters to a movie already underlined by the big heavy base of Robin Williams that I'd have expected it to be over-hammed. It's a bit like a mac and cheese pie (yes, we have those here - come to Scotland! If you were wondering why England is so flat and so crowded, it's because all the fat Scottish people can't help but roll down the "mountains" here into England. Soon there either won't be anyone left here, or Scotland will be flattened until it becomes as boring as our closest neighbor). Really heavy on the starch, but somehow still tasty. You don't feel guilty after watching this movie though - unless you're American, but I doubt that, and you're taught a neat lesson about growing through failure and thinking of others along the way.

Without a doubt some of the best bits are his monologues on air. He just talks to himself for minutes at a time, doing different voices and junk, and it's hilarious. They're dispersed throughout the movie, and have me grinning every time:

    

"Hey, uh, hi. Can you help me?' 'What's your name?' 'My name's Roosevelt E. Roosevelt.' 'Roosevelt, what town are you stationed in?' 'I'm stationed in Poontang.' 'Well, thank you, Roosevelt. What's the weather like out there?' 'It's hot. Damn hot! Real hot! Hottest things is my shorts. I could cook things in it. A little crotch pot cooking.' 'Well, can you tell me what it feels like?' 'Fool, it's hot! I told you again! Were you born on the sun? It's damn hot! I saw - It's so damn hot, I saw little guys, their orange robes burst into flames. It's that hot! Do you know what I'm talking about?' 'What do you think it's going to be like tonight?' 'It's gonna be HOT and WET! That's nice if you're with a LADY, but it ain't no good if you're in the JUNGLE.' 'Thank you, Roosevelt." 

  

    

I also loved the scene where he was entertaining a few truck loads of soldiers who were stuck in the road. nothing sad was said - it was all jokes - but we can see the hurt is his eyes as he waves goodbye to the soldiers. he knows that soon many could be dead. Then 'what a wonderful world' plays as bombs fall and civilians are executed in a beautiful montage, and I say "aw man" and sit upside-down for a while to take my mind off it. The romantic elements fell a little flat for me - partly because of her somewhat wooden acting - but I liked the unhappy conclusion. I also liked the conclusion of her brother and him. I think the brother story line could have stood alone, as they were both aspects of the same lesson for Adrian, but the romance doesn't take anything from the movie, rather it fails to bring a whole lot.

    

"The Mississippi River broke through a protective dike today. What is a protective dike? Is it a large woman that says "Don't go near there! But Betty- Don't go near there! Don't go down by the river!"... No, we can't say "dyke" on the air, we can't even say "lesbian" anymore, it's "women in comfortable shoes. Thank You."

   

This is a great one though, and I'd definitely recommend it. It generally feels a whole lot lighter than I've let on here, as some of the more serious stuff stays under the surface for much of the movie. Ebert did an excellent review of it, which I'd also read if I were you (says what I'm trying to better, and doesn't go off on ranty tangents. Speaking of ranty tangents, if I were to go off on a ranty tangent about shanty town it would be a ranty shanty tangent).

     

(Doing Cronkite) "I just want to begin by saying to Roosevelt E. Roosevelt, what it is, what it shall be, what it was. The weather out there today is hot and shitty with continued hot and shitty in the afternoon. Tomorrow a chance of continued crappy with a pissy weather front coming down from the north. Basically, it's hotter than a snake's ass in a wagon rut."

     

Basically, bad things happen to you repeatedly but you learn from them. Kind of like if you hit a child it won't start fires or something. That's nice, right? We're all growing as people, growing on a framework of emotional scars (that sounded good, might use that for proper writing). I'm honestly not trying to be a downer here, it's a sort of nice/reassuring message really, and it's definitely something to feel good about. As Jez from 'Peep Show' is wont to say; "it's all basically fine".

     

Good Morning, Vietnam: 81.2

Tropic Thunder

  
The rat pack of dumb American comedies is back, and they're all having a lot of fun. Which means this is a delight to watch. Some of these movies work better than others (I didn't love 'Zoolander'), but more often than not they deliver both piles of laughs and an engaging story.

Ben stiller seems to have put this whole thing together, and the majority of the film features him, Robert Downey Jr, Jack Black, Brandon T. Jackson, and Jay Baruchel tramping around the jungles of Vietnam and maybe Cambodia later on. They're all playing actors who are playing soldiers who are fighting in the Vietnam war, and this play within a play aspect creates a fair amount of comedy all on it's own. An added difficulty is that many of the actors have serious problems with self esteem, and knowing who they are. As Lazarus says at one point "I'm a dude playing a dude disguised as another dude". That's actually the truth outside of the movie that we're watching, but it's difficult to notice at the time.
  

  

It's a funny movie all the way through, though the first half is better (as usual), as in the second the plot is burdened with having to support the usual Hollywood "everyone lives happily ever after" conclusion. Many of the scenes are based around a single joke, with a little character and plot development thrown in. I like that in a movie like this, as we don't really have to worry too much. I particularly liked the bit where a bat randomly steals Jeff's heroin and eats it, and he totally freaks out until it drops out of the air and he shouts "aha! You've OD'd! Now you're dead!" as he jumps on the bat and starts eating it alive.

All the characters are pretty great. The fake veteran, the English director, the explosives "expert", the cable obsessed agent, and the producer. Tom Cruise is particularly funny as Les Grossman. You often can't tell it's him, as he's wearing a bald cap and has a huge amount of hair on his arms. The final scene during the credits of him dancing is hilarious.

With a great cast, funny characters, a dumb but engaging plot, and piles of inside jokes, 'Tropic Thunder' makes for very enjoyable viewing.
  

   

Tropic Thunder: 64.0

Tigerland

Bozz is too smart for his own good. In fact, he's officer material.

'Tigerland' is a quietly moving, washed out, boot-camp drama. It follows the story of a young man who is capable, yet not inclined towards killing people, and his progress through the American armies' training program in the early 70s to a Vietnam theme park called Tigerland. He uses his smart-assery and basic knowledge of law to help get his friends kicked out of the army and in so doing save their lives.
I was surprised when I found out that Joel Schumacher had directed it, as I mostly know him from 'Batman Forever - which was, in a weird way, kinda my favourite Batman movie (hey, Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones are the villains. It's brilliant). It's surprisingly un-cringy though, and though it covers themes that have been gone over so many times the colours fading, it covers them well. Oh yeah, and the colours are literally fading, as the whole thing was shot on 16 mill. It also features few stars (often a good thing as far as I'm concerned, so long as the acting is still good) and was filmed over just 28 days.
It's more alike to the first half of 'Full Metal Jacket' than to anything that's all war, and the front doesn't even feature. The reduced colour range works very well, blasting everything into a muddy green tinge. This acts as a great backdrop for the acting, which is great. Some cliches are fallen into, though some are possible nods to past classics. Occasionally it gets a bit sentimental, but I forgive it, as the characters effectively wring emotion from the viewer.

Tigerland: 40.1