Mortdecai
With no snow falling, and me in need of laughter, I took myself to see Mortdecai – as I needed to see Jonny Depp again to erase the memory of his creepy role as the wolf in “Into the Woods”.
Mortdecai is touted as a comedy, Pink Pantheresque in its delivery.
With less than 10 people in the theatre, I knew that Lord Charlie Mortdecai had to be great to give this crowd a chuckle, let alone a real laugh.
And no, it didn’t deliver even a tiny hee-hee (with the exception of the last 10 seconds of the film), this was, from its first moments, a truly awful film, which isn’t even on the top 10 list for weekend box office revenues.
It is a show with a couple of big names..Depp and Paltrow, who either didn’t read the script or were asleep when they signed on for the roles is a big waste of an hour and a half.
I give Mortdecai half a reel.
American Sniper
And so, after the debacle of Mortdecai, I had to see American Sniper to see what the buzz was about.
Now topping the box office money totals (over $60 million this weekend), this over two hour film directed by Clint Eastwood portrays the frantic time right after 9/11 when America sought revenge for the atrocities perpetrated on U.S. soil.
The story of Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) is a real one. Kyle is on record as the most lethal sniper in U.S. military history. To play the role, Cooper himself had to put on 40 pounds by eating 8,000 calories per day to bulk up..and the acting is awesome.
Kyle, the man was all about saving the guys rather than seeing the glory in killing and there is no doubt that he saved countless lives during his four tours of duty. But this film seems to do nothing but show the glory in killing and, personally the emotion that I felt when I left the theatre was one of sadness that we humans have come to embrace killing as a way to solve our problems. As Eckhart Tolle says: “When you have a belief, it means that someone else is wrong”.
Spoiler Alert:
In an incredible irony, Kyle, after seeking and getting help for his PTSD, and going on to help veterans like himself readjust to civilian life, was shot in 2013 by veteran Eddie Routh, himself a former member of the U.S. Marine Corps, who also killed Kyle’s friend Chad Littlefield by shooting them in the back. Routh had been in and out of psychiatric wards for years prior to this horrible crime.
And even more irony, the trial for Eddy Routh begins next month with his lawyers entering a plea of temporary insanity.
I give American Sniper four reels—not for the content, for the special fx and the acting.
