Snowden

At a Hong Kong mall in 2013, as Edward Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) meets with media contacts in an attempt to pass classified documents gained from a Hawaii based NSA outpost, his professional career is looked backed upon beginning with an Army stint followed by a CIA run and some contract work that led to a continuing disillusionment at how the U.S. government cataloged its own citizens. Snowden has some of your typical Oliver Stone paranoia, sermonizing, and alternate history, which is all well and good for the iconoclast director, but the movie is way too pat, reverential and largely non-screenworthy and after more than two decades of not being able to craft a worthwhile film, it almost seems like Stone has plumb forgotten how. As for the acting, JGL falls into that trap of resting entirely on impersonation while the rest of the cast is limp and uninspiring except for Nicolas Cage who shines in an all too small walk on role.

** out of ****

Scarface

I attempted to rewatch Scarface, the rise and fall of Castro freed Cuban prisoner, emigre, and eventual Miami drug lord Tony Montana,  without considering its sickening cultural influences and detriment to film and audience tastes, enoying it a little more for awhile before reverting to my initial assessment. Brian De Palma's Oliver Stone Penned remake of Howard Hawks' gangster classic is overlong by about half, extremely preachy and, for a movie that celebrates excess more than any other,  is downright boring in stretches. Pacino's scree gnawing performance is really the reason to see it, but attempts to humanize his character in the end are a mistake, the film's denouement is confusing and muddled, the infamous finale is ill advised and artless. Robert Loggia and Steven Bauer are strong in support and you couldn't ask for two more irritating female performances in Michelle Pfeiffer and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.

** out of ****

JFK

Watching along with a mortified country as the occurrences of November 22, 1963 unfold, New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) develops a curiosity, which will soon turn to obsession, on the questions (or lack thereof) surrounding the Kennedy assassination, a matter which will lead him to be the only person to prosecute the execution, a dangerous expedition which will cost him his reputation, nearly his family, and bring the American public no closer to the truth. Fifty years to the date of the despairing loss of John F. Kennedy, many still harbor doubts about the events surrounding his murder. While director Oliver Stone and his subject, whose book is a basis for the film (the other is a work by Jim Marrs), have become written off in more than a few quarters as paranoid looneys, JFK remains a fascinating albeit exhausting investigatory film, enhanced illimitably by the astonishing, Oscar winning editing by Joe Hutshing and Pietro Scalia. This is most evident during Garisson's lengthy closing remarks, which arrive over three hours into the picture and rehash many belabored points, but still remain exhilarating thanks largely to their labor. The film is too much at times, some of the acting is overwrought as seemingly every Hollywood star big and tall, large and small appears, but Stone must be commended for its sweeping scope, the thought provoking, difficult questions it asks, and (which the director is not too modest to point out) the congressional information act it inspired.

Savages

Two wildly disparate best friends, the brainy humanist (Aaron Johnson) and a belligerent ex-special forces operative (Taylor Kitsch) share the same breathtaking surfer chick (Blake Lively) while catching waves at Laguna Beach and manufacturing the most potent marijuana known to man. Soon, a Tijuana drug cartel  is interested in their services and when they refuse, they soon find themselves embroiled in a nightmare with their girl at the center, being held hostage by the ruthless banditos. It has been nearly two decades since Oliver Stone has made a superior motion picture (I would argue "Nixon" was his last) and he almost returns to form in this gritty violence heavy action picture that shies away from his usual brand of conspiratorial politics. "Savages'" greatest flaw is its central casting. I couldn't have cared about the fates of the two utterly unlikable male leads and frankly the same goes for Lively, who never succeeds at being anything beyond beautiful and whose pretentious, inane narration leaves sour notes on both ends of the film. Thankfully, the pictured is buoyed by its colorful supporting performances which include Benicio Del Toro as a barbarous enforcer, John Travolta as a crooked DEA, and Salma Hayek as the head of the cartel. "Savages" is rollicking for awhile, but doesn't know when to quit and contains one of those reprehensible double backed endings where the only thing revealed is the indecision of the filmmakers. For awhile, this feels like Stone's return to pure movie making, but ultimately it will get tossed on the heap with his mediocre outputs of the last 17 years.

The Doors

"We need a two and a half hour movie about The Doors? No we don't, I can sum it up for you in five seconds: I'm drunk, I'm nobody. I'm drunk, I'm famous. I'm drunk, I'm fuckin' dead!"

Denis Leary hit the nail on the head with the above quote about Oliver Stone's movie about Jim Morrison and The Doors. While Morrison was a talented poet and singer and The Doors had some hits and were a key band of the late 60s, Morrison was such an intensely unlikable figure and his life is not interesting enough to sustain a 140 minute movie. It begins with a childhood memory of Morrison regarding a dying Indian on the side of the road during a family road trip. Cut to Jim (Val Kilmer) in his early 20s where he wanders around Venice Beach and meets lifelong partner Pamela Courson (Meg Ryan). He attends UCLA film school where he makes nonlinear and dismissed films and meets future bandmate Ray Manzarek (Kyle MacLachlan). The two partner up with John Densmore (Kevin Dillon) and Robby Kreiger (Frank Whaley) and thus begins the rise of The Doors, which is actually just a gradual freefall as Jim engages in excessive drug use, sex, alcohol, witchcraft, indecent exposure, and an unhealthy fascination with death. Stone's film is extremely well made and vividly captures the aura of the 1960s. Kilmer, a Morrison lookalike to start, engulfs himself in the role and gives a mesmerizing performance, while MacLachlan and Ryan give fine performances as well as two of Morrison's long suffering partners. The film also makes great use of The Door's songs which play throughout. The problem with the film though starts with Morrison's polarizing effect and continues with Stone's attempt to drag the film out and stuff it with prolonged trippy sequences and unpleasantries. In the end, the film is kind of like Morrison himself, leaving us with some good, but ultimately bloated with excess.