Robert Downey, Jr. Ouevre #10 - Sherlock Holmes

It took five months but I finally watched another Robert Downey, Jr. movie. Sherlock Holmes was the movie that sort of inspired me to want and do this whole project. When it came out in theatres last winter, it held appeal to me. I started to have some doubts as I heard reviews that there was little resemblance between the movie and the short stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that I have enjoyed so greatly (and yes, I appreciate the hypocrisy of me liking Sherlock Holmes stories but bashing formulaic novelists. I counter with three things. One, a short story takes far less time to read than a 450 page "novel". Two, there are not a lot of decent short story writers around nowadays. At least not like in days of yore. Three, Doyle was writing for syndication. His stories were published in magazines and were designed to be short and formulaic. I don't know the reason for cranking out novel after novel of the same thing outside of making a buck), I began to be a bit concerned.

One of the things we tried to do this summer for the internship was to have a baseball movie night every Tuesday. It had mixed success and near the end (I write this during week 9 of 10), few people were attending. We were to watch Bull Durham but for some reason, the movie was a no-show. The guy coordinating the movies had some non-baseball flicks and since I was the only one who had shown up, I got to pick and I went with Sherlock Holmes.

In theory, I should have enjoyed this movie. Robert Downey, Sherlock Holmes, Guy Ritchie directing and Hans Zimmer doing the soundtrack. Somehow the sum of the parts equaled something far less. The movie really had little to do with Sherlock Holmes. If you called it Myron Stoltzfus, it wouldn't change the story at all. Downey was solidly average. He could have done so much more with the part but it wasn't there. There were obvious Guy Ritchie traits to the flick. The bare-knuckled fighting with the whooshes and the zooms. The weaving of the different storylines. It all felt hamohocked and poorly done, though. And the Zimmer soundtrack, good googly moogly. If this isn't the worst soundtrack he's done, I don't know what is. The instrumentation had nothing to do with the tone of the movie, the style of the flick, or the era in which it took place. I could almost hear Christopher Walken yelling "More banjo!". Just awful.

The story was largely illogical. There were a bunch of things that weren't explained and some of the things that Holmes "figures out" are pretty darn outlandish.

I've certainly seen worse Robert Downey, Jr. movies but I've certainly seen better.

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Robert Downey, Jr. Ouevre #9 - Only You

I've been to Europe once. I spent a couple of weeks in the Netherlands about five years ago and loved it. I can't say, though, that I've had a tremendous urge to see other parts of Europe. Would love to return to the Netherlands but the rest of the continent....eh.

Or so I thought until I watched this movie. The majority of the film takes place in Italy and my oh my is it beautiful. Of course, cynical ol' me cannot help but think what fifteen years of growth and tourism has done to ruin the beauty but the scenes of both the countryside and architecture made me think it just might be nice to head over there some day.

In the meantime, I watched a tale of Destiny and Faith. Or Faith's Destiny. Faith is the main character and is played by Marisa Tomei. When she is 11, she and her brother are playing on an Oujia board where she finds that her soul mate is one Damon Bradley (oh, the spookiness if it had been Damon Rutherford). Years later, she goes to a fair and asks a fortune teller about her future and the fortune teller tells her that her soul mate is Damon Bradley.

Fourteen years pass and we find Faith is engaged to....a podiatrist named Dwayne. She's as excited about marrying a podiatrist as most people are about seeing one. But he's nice, wealthy, stable. Why not? It's just marriage.

So she and her best friend (who is also her sister-in-law) are at home when the phone rings calling for Dwayne. It is a former college classmate of his who is calling from the airport just before he leaves for Italy. The classmate is Damon Bradley. Faith and friend race to the airport and fly to Italy (the sister-in-law suspects Faith's brother is cheating on her and needs to get away). They run around trying to track down the elusive Bradley and finally stumble across him and it is none other than our hero, Robert Downey (this is about forty minutes in).

Downey falls for Faith, Faith falls for Downey (this after just a few hours of knowing one another). Faith wants to call home and cancel the engagement and Downey breaks the news that he is really named Peter Wright. Faith freaks out, gives Downey the heave and plans to go home and get married. Her sister-in-law, meanwhile, is fooling around with a guy named Giovanni.

The next day, Downey shows up, tells Faith that he has found the real Damon and they trek further south in Italy where they find that the real Damon Bradley is a hunk of burning love played by Billy Zane.

I need to interrupt the review here to say that I may have gone with the wrong actor with this film project. Billy Zane is a hoot. I thought he was great in The Phantom. He became an icon in Zoolander.

In this flick, he's a riot. Sort of a dim pretty boy. But if you look at the credits, you find that Zane is credited as "The False Damon Bradley" (which has to be one of the neatest credits going). Yes, Zane is not the real Damon Bradley either.

Faith heads home despondently but as she's about to catch her plane, she hears an announcement for Damon Bradley to report to the information desk. She races there and finally finds her true love.

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this movie. The opening dialogue (when Faith is a kid) is extremely stilted. There are some sequences which are really cheesy. Bonnie Hunt plays the sister-in-law friend. You may recognize her from when she reprised the role as the man-hating wet blanket in Jerry Maguire. Mostly, though, it's a cute story with a lot of laugh out loud moments (some of which don't involve Billy Zane).

Downey does all right. He comes off as creepy and clingy at times when professing his love for this woman he hardly knows. But she's racing all over Italy looking for a name so who is crazier? Downey also is charming and gentlemanly and extremely tolerant. He shows a nice bit of range and is humorous.

Lastly, I thought the airport scenes were pretty entertaining. Back when this was released in 1994, the terrorists had not already won and you could race through airports to try and catch the man of your dreams before he boards the plane. The first time Tomei does this, in America, she is too late, wants to get on the plane before it takes off, but the TWA (was it really that long ago that that airline existed?) guy at the gate calls security on her.

Later, in Italy, Tomei does the same thing but this time, the full of amore Italians halt the plane and get her on it.

Fun movie, worth watching. Probably better with female companionship on a sofa and some popcorn.

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Robert Downey, Jr. Ouevre #8 - Iron Man

This was one of the movies that made me want to do this whole project. I had heard a lot about this movie and how it was two parts, the fun Robert Downey as Tony Stark part and the overdone special effect laden Iron Man part. I was disappointed with both parts.

There's not a lot to say about the special effects. Even someone like me, who isn't big into movies, especially the blockbuster CGI action flicks, has become jaded by them. As for the acting, Downey had has moments, maybe even was a bit better than that. I just thought the dialogue was weak, the wit too forced. Give me a David Mamet or Guy Ritchie script for this and the movie is a zillion times better.

Plot is pretty simple. Tony Stark co-runs a gigantic weapons manufacturing outfit. Stark is demonstrating a new weapon in the Middle East when he is kidnapped by a militant group that wants him to make them some rocketses. During the kidnapping, Stark is seriously wounded but is given some electromagnetic device to keep the shrapnel in him away from his heart.

Instead of building the rocketses, Stark builds the Iron Man suit and escapes. He returns to the states with a mission of ridding the world of the weapons. His co-partner disagrees. Battles ensue.

The movie is mighty predictable. It was entertaining enough. And even though my expectations were high for Downey, he did a nice job carrying the flick, the first movie in this project where he has had to do so.

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Robert Downey, Jr. Ouevre #7 - Wonder Boys

Had to watch something to get the bad taste of In Dreams out of my eyes so I went with one of my all-time favorite films, Wonder Boys. Based on the Michael Chabon book (which I reviewed in October), it is about a writer/professor in Pittsburgh and one of his students.

The professor, Grady (Michael Douglas), published a critically acclaimed book, The Arsonist's Daughter, but has spent the seven years since trying to bring his second novel to completion. Now in excess of 2000 pages with no end in sight, Grady is overwhelmed and seeks solace in marijuana. On top of that, he is in love with the college's chancellor (Frances McDormand) despite both of them being married.

The student (Tobey Maguire), James, is a talented, despondent, strange lad with quite an imagination. Grady becomes an unlikely role model for the kid.

Having watched this movie several times in my lifetime, I tried to watch it this time with a very critical eye and I had a hard time coming up with much of which to be critical. There is a lack of consistency with the weather, especially in the final scenes. Drug use in the form of marijuana and pharmaceuticals is prevalent (along with language is why it is rated R) of which I'm never a fan.

The scene in the chancellor's bedroom with Grady and James is a little off (how does James get Marilyn Monroe's jacket from the closet and why is there so little blood when the dog is shot (how's that for a teaser?)?). And unlike other movies which I enjoy immensely, I don't feel the soundtrack adds anything. It's decent but doesn't stand out.

Other than those things, I like everything about the movie. It's well-acted. The dialogue is great. The characters are all flawed but likable. Terrific ending with all the loose ends tied up.

As for our hero, Downey plays Grady's editor Crabtree. He comes into town, supposedly for the school's annual literary celebration, but mostly to see how the book is doing. Downey is not well-regarded in the publishing community and is considered a washout. He makes his appearance early in the movie when Grady goes to pick him up at the airport. Crabtree arrives with a transvestite with whom he is very flirtatious until Crabtree sees James and becomes enamored with him.

Downey's character is quirky, funny, a tad on the conniving and despicable side. There's a lot of depth to him. He obviously could be a good writer (witness the bar scene) and despite being washed up, manages to hold onto a job. His sexual preferences aren't clear outside of variable. There's a lot to him that makes you wonder more about his past. The only reason I'm not giving Downey five stars for the role is because he's not a main character and is not on screen enough.

I just love this movie. I will be shocked if any other work Downey does approaches this.

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Robert Downey, Jr. Ouevre #6 - In Dreams

I knew when I started this project that there would be a clunker or two but I never imagined anything like this. At the risk of seeming hyperbolic, this was the wrost movie I've ever seen. The best thing you can say about this movie was Robert Downey, Jr. was adequate.

Annette Bening plays a woman who is plagued by these bizarre dreams throughout her life. As the movie begins, the dreams are getting worse. Children in the area of her home have been abducted and found drowned in the reservoir (which we learn in the beginning of the story was formed by flooding the town that existed there). Bening's dreams are of the children being abducted. Her husband goes to the police (the chief is That Guy from CSI (not Grissom, the head honcho guy) and he is told that the most recent girl, who Bening thought she was dreaming of, was found drowndeded.

We find, though, that Bening's dreams are actually of the future when her daughter gets abducted by this mysterious serial killer. When her daughter turns up dead, she goes off the deep end (pun intended). The dreams get worse. She dreams her husband's death. She gets locked up. We discover that her dreams are being fed to her by the serial killer who had been chained up as little boy and left to die when the town was flooded.

That's really enough of the "plot" to share. This movie was messed up. Very far-fetched. Very stressful. Probably my biggest problem with the film (and there were many, many problems) was the way that mental health institutions were portrayed. Just horrible.

As for Downey, he plays the serial killer. He appears in fragments in the dream scenes but we don't really get to see him until minute 70 (of 100). He's not really convincing as insane. He's supposed to be a redhead (to feed a stereotype (another problem)) but the dye job is horrendous. There's supposed to be some family issues that have contributed to his insanity but it's just not well done. He's really more goofy than insane. And he's the best character in the flick. Ugh.

I'm not even putting a link up for it. I don't want you looking for it or watching it. There is ANYTHING that you can do to make better use of 100 minutes. I think watching 20 minutes of Carlos Mencia five times in a row would be better. I'm not sure if sticking my finger in an electrical socket for 100 minutes would be better. See, I was being hyperbolic. It's just really, really, really, really bad.

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Robert Downey, Jr. Ouevre #5 - Chances Are

I didn't have very high hopes for this one. It looked like a cheesy late eighties romantic comedy that relied on the overused Hollywood reincarnation theme to carry the flick.

I was right and wrong. It is a cheesy late eighties romantic comedy that relies on the overused Hollywood reincarnation theme. But it's still good and very watchable.

Best of all as far as this project goes, Robert Downey has the lead although he doesn't appear immediately.

The movie begins with Corinne (Cybil Shepherd) marrying Louie (Chris McDonald (who despite acting in almost 150 vehicles will ALWAYS be Shooter McGavin to me)) and the best man Philip (Ryan O'Neil) expressing his love of Corinne to Louie as Corinne is walking down the aisle. A tad bit odd and inappropriate, don't you think?

The movie jumps forward a year to Corinne and Louie's first anniversary where we find Corinne is pregnant. Philip swings by to give them a cherry tree as a gift and is just too uncomfortably buddy-buddy with the both of them for my liking. It's a tight relationship.

Corinne and Louie are to have dinner together that evening. Louie is crossing the street to get to the restaurant and he is struck and killed by a car. He goes to heaven where he throws a tantrum about having to go back. Heaven accommodates him by allowing him to go back as a newly born baby boy in Cleveland. The bonehead administrator fails to give Louie the inoculation that will erase the memories of Louie's life.

Louie is reborn as Alex (Robert Downey). The movie fast forwards 20+ years where Alex is graduating from Yale (of course. No movie character ever graduates from St. Olaf College). He works as a page at the library (liking him already) and he helps out the always attractive Mary Stuart Masterson (who plays Miranda) by waiving an $83 fine (not as big a fan all of a sudden). Love the line where he gets the head librarian to go check out an emergency where someone is messing around with a Shakespeare tome ("They are fooling with the folio! And fiddling! Fooling and fiddling with the folio").

Alex gradumatates and goes to D.C. to try and land a job as a reporter with the Washington Post (apparently mailing resumes hadn't been invented yet). He is turned down but it turns out Philip is a writer there (and has won a Pulitzer! who woulda thunk it). Philip mysteriously befriends him and invites Alex over for dinner at Corinne's house where, it turns out, Miranda is Corinne's daughter.

Miranda falls for Alex. Being in his old house triggers Louie's memories and Louie sort of possesses Alex's mind. Corinne still pines for Louie, even seeking psychiatric help to try and get over him. So Alex, as Louie, still wants Corinne. Corinne wants Louie but isn't so sure about Alex being Louie. Philip has been sitting patiently for 20+ years waiting for Corinne to stop mourning and wants Corinne. Alex wouldn't mind having Miranda but as Louie is, appropriately, very much against the idea. Crazy antics ensue. The five of them get everything worked out.

It's a cute movie. I don't care much for Ryan O'Neal's character. The inability to make people average bugged me (forgot to mention that Corinne is a big whig at the Smithsonian). The clingy behavior of Philip rubbed me wrong, too.

Downey was good. He had to sort of play two roles. He could at times be convincing as Louie and he did alright balancing his desire for Miranda as Alex and his being protective of his daughter/not being creepy as Louie. Funny. Extremely charming. Definitely the most developed of all the characters in the film.

It surprised me how much I liked this. The ending seemed thrown together without much thought and there was all the other stuff that I didn't like. I'd recommend it, though.
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Robert Downey, Jr. Ouevre #4 - Zodiac

My first exposure to the Zodiac Killer was in the eighth grade. A classmate of mine, Ken, who wasn't quite right in the head (he once took a stapler to his arm and also burnt the back of his hand trying to make homemade napalm) was a big fan of The Zodiac. So much so that when our grade had a mock presidential election, Ken campaigned for Zodiac and, if memory serves, drummed up a couple dozen votes (which probably beat Mondale). I don't recall Ken moving on to high school and always assumed he was either dead or institutionalized.

Nothing like recalling fond memories before watching a movie on a serial killer, right?

I enjoyed this movie. I have a vague recollection of seeing part of it before. Probably slept through it the first time (I do that sometimes). It is painfully long (162 minutes) which makes sense since Zodiac was never caught and so many, many years are covered in the movie. Despite this, the intensity carries throughout most of the film. The biggest downside is that there are a lot of characters in the movie and they don't get the in-depth treatment they really need to flesh the story out. For instance, one of the cops leading the investigation just hangs it up one night saying he's had too much of being on call and that he wants to watch his kids grow up. It comes out of nowhere, we wonder how much the Zodiac case plays in it, heck, we don't even know how many kids he has or how old they are.

Likewise with Robert Downey's character. Downey plays a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, Paul Avery. Unlike recently viewed movies, Downey shows up early on in this movie, at about eight minutes in. He is very nicely dressed, very professional looking and stylish. This is important to note because as the movie progresses, he battles alcoholism, develops emphysema (which, we find at the conclusion of the movie, kills him) and everything about him deteriorates over the course of the film. But because there are so many characters and the movie takes great jumps in time, we're left to wonder what drives his falling apart. Was it Zodiac? Was it addiction? What?

We see Downey using a respirator (shades of Fur) and we see him as an alcoholic (as in Charlie Bartlett) so there's not a whole lot new here. Somewhere between I-have-my-life-together Paul Avery and I'm-wasting-my-life-away Paul Avery is probably the most entertaining. He's bold, takes risks, pulls off that Downey smarm real well. Solid but because his appearances are scattered throughout and inconsistent, I cannot really give him a great rating.

The movie mostly follows Downey's colleague, cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal), who obsesses over the case and eventually publishes a book about it. Pretty gripping flick but much too long for my liking.

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Robert Downey, Jr. Ouevre #3 - Baby It's You

I thought this one might be a pretty good movie. It was one of John Sayles' first films. Love story set in New Jersey in the 1960's. Rosanna Arquette is an aspiring actress in high school, has friends, president of the drama club, liked by the teachers, apparently a pretty good student. Vincent Spano is the guy from the wrong side of the tracks. A greaser, he dresses nattily, got kicked out of a private school and is supposed to be attending a new one but his only presence at the institute of learning is to stalk Arquette. He goes by the moniker Sheik (because of the prophylactic of the same name).

Despite Sheik being a crazy stalker guy, Arquette can't resist him. Their off-again, on-again relationship through senior year of high school ends in an off-phase when Sheik robs a tuxedo rental shop and leaves for Miami to pursue a singing career. Arquette goes off to college at Sarah Lawrence.

Neither adjust well to their new settings. Aruqette visits Sheik out of loneliness. Sheik reads it the wrong way, stalks her back at college, they decide they must split for good but the movie ends with them dancing to their song at a college mixer.

Point? Beats me. The movie states it is a "fresh and funny comedy". Once again, I failed to see the humor. A crazed ne'er do well stalks a young lady. Hysterical!

Music plays a big part in the movie. In a trend that must have started with this movie back in 1983, because the movie was set in New Jersey, it had to have songs from Bruce Springsteen in it. Also had some tunes from the fifties and sixties. Nice soundtrack if you're into that sort of thing (which I'm not, really).

What about our hero? This was his first credited movie appearance not counting his role as Puppy in his father's 1970 movie, Pound. How did he do? Well, maybe the "fresh and funny comedy" on the case is an outright lie because the movie case also states "Also a featuring a star turn by Robert Downey, Jr.". Do you know what a star turn is? Apparently it is when someone who is a star from other movies has a fleeting appearance where he turns and faces the camera. Seriously. The movie ended and I did not recall seeing Downey. I checked the credits which were in order of appearance. He was Stewart. Who the hell was Stewart? Went back to the spot where some of the other names in the credits around that area occurred. Could not find him. Scanned through another section. Nothing. Finally found him. He makes his first appearance about fifty minutes in at the senior prom. He is dancing with his date and turns and is in the camera's sight. Thus, the star turn. He then has a couple lines in a bar after the prom where he discusses his fake ID. His face and body are partially blocked and there are other people talking so it is hard to even tell it is him unless you are really looking. He could be anybody.

Very difficult to believe that over the following five years John Sayles turned out such fantastic films as Eight Men Out, Matewan and Brother from Another Planet.
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Robert Downey, Jr. Ouevre #2 - Fur

I had checked Fur out from the library last year but never got around to watching it. I wasn't really missing much.

This movie is supposed to be "an imaginary portrait of famed photographer Diane Arbus" but it could have been about anybody. We never see any photos that Arbus took, the movie is fictitious, so why not say it's an imaginary portrait of Eleanor Roosevelt or Joan of Arc?

Nicole Kidman plays Arbus and the movie begins with her arriving at a nudist camp. Nudist camps are never good things for viewing pleasure. You never see a nudist camp populated by Arizona Cardinals cheerleaders, for instance. It's always people who don't look that great in clothing, let alone nude. Why is Arbus at a nudist camp? Good question, and one that is quickly not answered by sending the story back three months. Arbus is married to a fellow who does photography, largely marketing shots for Arbus' parents who run a fur business. Ah, fur! Thus, the title! Nope. She helps out as her hubbie's assistant but is pretty unhappy with her lot in life.

Arbus becomes interested in her mysterious new neighbor who has just moved into the apartment upstairs. She first sees him from her window. He is standing in the street and is wearing a shroud over his head and has a bad cough. Arbus works up the courage to see him and when she does, she discovers that he is covered in hair, part of some disorder he has. Thus, the title. She tells her spouse that she wants to be a photographer and do portraits of people in the apartment building. Instead, she spends all her time with furry Lionel (Downey's character) who asks her bizarre questions and takes her to places where they hang out with fellow freak show performers (as Lionel once was).

We find out that Lionel is dying from a respiratory problem. Ironic, in that every other character smokes. Not only do they smoke but whatever they smoke sizzles. Every time someone inhaled, whoever was working the soundboard went nuts and made it sound like bacon frying. Drove me bonkers. Anyway, Lionel breaks the news to Diane, Diane gets sad, Lionel asks her to shave him, she does, they have sex, they go to the beach and Lionel drowns himself in the ocean. Diane then leaves her family and goes to the nudist camp.

This was just an odd flick and I didn't much care for it. It was over two hours and Downey doesn't speak until a half hour has passed (he has the appearance in the street several minutes before that). We don't really understand why Kidman is so attracted to him and the others although we can speculate since her parents are asses and her husband is dull. She's not much of a mother. She's really not much of anything which I guess makes up part of her being attracted to Lionel. Nothing in her life was anything to write blog posts about.

There is a good deal of nudity in the flick but that is as irritating as the cigarette sound. Kidman disrobes a couple of times but it is blatant that a body double is used. This bothers me from a vanity standpoint. You have people in this film who don't look good naked. You're Nicole Kidman. Your body is above average and compared to everyone else in this, you're going to look sexy regardless. But no, a double has to be used. I don't know. Not really worth being bothered about, but it did bother me.

As for our hero, well, when you're covered in hair, it doesn't really matter how well you act. No facial expressions can be viewed. Seeing him next to Kidman was odd. She towers over him. Downey was solidly average in a part that really didn't allow him to do much.

The best part of the movie was the soundtrack. Carter Burwell composed it and brought a nice blend of selections to the table, fitting the mood changes very well. His music is very understated (I always felt that the work he did for Fargo best exemplifies his style). Here, check out a smidge:

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Robert Downey, Jr. Ouevre #1 - Charlie Bartlett

My lack of interest in watching movies is well-documented. Nonetheless, I find my attitude changing a little bit. I watched a number of good ones in November and decided that maybe I'll expose myself to some more. Being as I like to have projects and objectives, I thought it would be fun to try and watch all of Robert Downey, Jr.'s movies this year.

Why Robert Downey, Jr.? I just like him. He's been around a long time, has been through some tough spots in his life, and is entertaining. So why not?

I picked up Charlie Bartlett at the library. Fun movie. A kid, Charlie Bartlett, played by Anton Yelchin, finds himself dismissed from yet another of a long list of private schools. His father is in prison for tax evasion and his wealthy mother (Hope Davis) is a nutjob. Charlie isn't a bad kid, just misguided. He has had to step up to be the man of the house and has lost his sense of being a kid.

Charlie falls for a girl (Kat Dennings) whose father, played by our hero, is the principal of the public school in which Charlie is now enrolled. Downey is an alcoholic and a single father, his wife having passed away. He's quirky, maybe even neurotic, and has a difficult time keeping the kids in his school under control.

The movie is pretty funny. I laughed out loud in several spots. Charlie is a little ridiculous in his precociousness. I also thought he looked much older than the character he plays. Turns out he's much closer than I thought. The bully-nerd play gets a nice twist. A little too heavy on the psychobabble which ultimately brought down my rating.

Downey is solid but is definitely a tertiary character. I thought he did a good job pulling off the role of the difficult role; father of teen daughter. Add in the extra difficulty of being the school principal and he would have had a tough life. I think he showed that.

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