Dick Tracy (1990)

Dick Tracy (1990)

Director: Warren Beatty

Cast:  Warren Beatty, Madonna, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Charlie Korsmo, William Forsythe, Mandy Patinkin, Catherine O’Hara, James Caan, Dick Van Dyke, Kathy Bates

The 90’s brought on the rebirth of the big budget comic book movie (which had been dead since Richard Donner’s Superman films) thanks to the phenomenal worldwide success of Tim Burton’s Batman (1989), suddenly every studio wanted to make a comic book movie, the problem was they didn’t know how to go about it. For some reason, they got the idea in their heads that going with ancient comic book heroes like The Phantom (1996) and The Shadow (1994) was a good idea. And even when they did do original comic book films, they went with a comic book that paid tribute to all those old heroes called The Rocketeer (1991). The studios hadn’t figured out yet that people really wanted the more contemporary heroes like Spiderman and the X-Men, which is probably why a lot of those old school comic book movies tanked at the box office. Batman made kajillions because the character had remained alive in the collective consciousness because Batman has always remained in print, it had its own television show and it became a part of popular culture. Not so with the older characters, which though not entirely dead, were not as recognized by modern audiences. In other words, characters like The Shadow and The Phantom all had their day back in the 30’s and 40’s. Today’s kids aren’t really familiar with these characters. The same can be said of Dick Tracy, Chester Gould’s hard boiled detective that started out in comic strips, on news papers, three little squares of story per week. The strip was such hit that they made Dick Tracy serials, radio shows, b-movies, you name it. Unfortunately, Tracy never got the big screen treatment that Chester Gould wanted. That is until Warren Beatty came along and directed this here picture.

I remember seeing Dick Tracy in theaters, that awesome summer of 1990. It was a big summer as far as blockbuster movies go. Squished in between big action films like Robocop 2 (1990), Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990) and Total Recall (1990), Beatty’s Dick Tracy (1990) seemed tame in comparison, it made my 15 year old mind wonder if it was going to make it a the box office. I remember there was a big publicity push for the movie, Disney (under the Buena Vista Pictures banner) made sure you knew about the film one way or another, right down to selling Madonna’s soundtrack ‘I’m Breathless’, which by the way I really dug and still own to this day. Was the film a huge hit in theaters? Well, it didn’t lose money, but it wasn’t the smash hit that they were expecting either. The smash hit of that summer was Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore in Ghost (1990). Dick Tracy ended up making  162 million dollars worldwide, a figure that didn’t impress its producers and probably the main reason we never saw a sequel. But who cares what producers think right? At the end of the day, what we really care about is if the movie was good or not.  And in my opinion, Dick Tracy was excellent; the problem was that Dick Tracy was a hero from another era, with a big budget film that came many decades too late.

But if you can see past the fact that Dick Tracy is a hero from the 30’s you can actually have a lot of fun with this movie. While I understand why the masses shy away from anything they consider ‘old’ or ‘passé’, I personally enjoy all types of films, I don’t just watch contemporary things, I can appreciate the many attributes that a film like Dick Tracy has to offer, for example, it’s a beautiful film to look at. Warren Beatty aimed to make a film that looked like the comic strips; so he went with a color palette composed of primary colors that leap off the screen; this movie is pure eye candy, a vibrant kaleidoscope of colors! Dick Tracy was made using old school filmmaking techniques and I have a great appreciation for films made using miniatures and matte paintings to create city landscapes, I just love that about films made this way. The interesting thing is that Dick Tracy was made just before computer generated effects were about to take over, so it’s one of the last films to be made this way. I think that Beatty wanted to purposely make an old school film, same way that Coppola purposely used old school visual effects to make Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992). In this way, the director evokes a bygone era of filmmaking; Beatty wanted to take us back in time. And he achieved it if you ask me. We go back to a time when hardboiled detectives were out on the streets trying to solve the crime, getting the bad guys in the big bad city. In this way Dick Tracy is an interesting film because it has elements of film noir, yet it’s also colorful and vibrant, bringing together an interesting mix of genres and styles.

The cast is something truly amazing! Beatty as Tracy is pitch perfect casting if you ask me. Beatty has said that they tried applying fake noses and jaws on him to make him look more like Gould’s sketches and that ultimately they decided not to go with it because it would distract audiences. I think it was a great idea because Tracy’s normality goes in direct contrast to the downright grotesque villains. And while the villains are comic book monsters, Tracy is human, he’s all about heart. He’s Tracy, the ultimate good guy who is in many ways like Superman, the embodiment of all that is good and pure in humanity. He’s loyal to the love of his life, Tess Truehart even though Breathless Mohoney is trying to eat him up every chance she gets. Tracy’s such a good guy; he wants to adopt an orphan he picks up from the streets. He’s all about the law and doing what’s right, he’s honest and hard working, he wants to get the bad guys. He’s the ultimate do gooder. His counterpart is Al Pacino’s Big Boy Caprice, one of Pacino’s most over the top performances, he got an Oscar nomination for this performance. He just goes nuts here. Madonna as Breathless Mahoney oozes sensuality, you have to understand this was Madonna at the peak of her youthful beauty, she was so damn sexy in those days! She exploits that sensuality for all its worth. Every line Breathless speaks is in double entendres. Then we have Big Boys gang, which is composed of a who’s who of character actors like William Forsythe, Ed O Ross and Paul Sorvino. We also get big name actors playing smaller roles, like Dustin Hoffman playing ‘Mumbles’ one of Big Boys men, who, as his name suggests, mumbles everything he says. All these characters make the film an amalgam of craziness straight out of a comic book, made all the more interesting because each and every one of these actors are made up to look exactly like Gould’s original drawings. Which I’m sure made making this film, a huge challenge, I mean, having all those actors in make up at the same time!

The icing on this Dick Tracy cake is the music! The orchestral score was composed by the always excellent Danny Elman. His score is grandiose and epic, similar in many ways to his score for Batman (1989), but then again, that’s the exact reason why Elfman was hired, Beatty was impressed with Elfman’s score for Batman (1989). Then we have the soundtrack, written by Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim and sung by Madonna, it makes for one of Madonna’s most unique albums. It’s fun, retro and heartfelt. So as you can see, many awesome elements came together to make Dick Tracy an extremely unique film, a trip back in time to simpler times when good was good and evil was evil, no place for in betweens; or is there? At the end of the day, while Tracy is always out to get Big Boy and his gang, this film is really about Tracy having to decide between pleasure and sensuality over true love, marriage, kids and possibly becoming a family man. Which one will he choose? Tracy is torn between being a bachelor or becoming a family, some say this mirrored Warren Beatty’s own personal life, after all, Beatty was the ultimate bachelor back in his day. So anyhow, I’ve gone on long enough, bottom line is Dick Tracy is an excellent comic book movie, dare I say one of the best ones ever, an excellent production from beginning to end.  

Rating:  5 out of 5  

    

Alice (2009)

Title: Alice (2009)

Writer/Director: Nick Willing

Cast: Caterina Scorsone, Andrew Lee Potts, Kathy Bates, Harry Dean Stanton, Tim Curry, Matt Frewer

Review:

When you are a kid and you see Alice in Wonderland, you really have no idea what it’s about. At least that is what happened to me. As a child, I had seen countless versions of Lewis Carroll’s story on both television and film. But I never really knew what the hell the story was talking about. To me the story was just a fantasy tale that took place in a totally freaky world filled with talking cats, smoking caterpillars, and drinks and food that turned you big and small. Never did I go further than that. Watching Alice in Wonderland as an adult is a whole other story!

The version of Alice in Wonderland that I will be reviewing today is one that aired on the Syfy channel, it is called simply Alice. And essentially, it is an updated version of Lewis Carroll’s classic. Its more then just a facelift in special effects and story, this film turns wonderland into a futuristic wasteland that looks like it would fit better inside of a post apocalyptic film. On this version, Alice is a black belt in karate; she even has her own martial arts school. She is going out with this guy, and has invited him over for dinner so she could present him to her mom. But there’s something weird about this guy! He is hiding something, somebody is after him. But who? Before Alice knows it, her new boyfriend is kidnapped by a group of guys in white shirts and black suits, and taken away in a van. Soon, they drive up to a building and walk inside of a room that holds a special mirror. They jump into the mirror and disappear! Alice follows! From their on in, the film is about Alice trying to find her boyfriend, and her long lost father in wonderland. Will she ever escape this crazy post apocalyptic wonderland? Will she find her love, and her father?

This film, which was released as a two episode mini-series type of deal over the Syfi channel, comes to us from director Nick Willing. Nick Willing is not a house hold name as a director, but he has directed a few movies that you’ve probably seen like for example, Tin Man (2007), which was a modern take on L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It was also released through the Syfy channel to rave reviews and ultra high raitings. The success of Tin Man was probably what propelled this new take on Alice in Wonderland. Willing even directed a version of Alice in Wonderland that was also a made for t.v. thing, it was released in 1999on NBC. So I guess the guy has done Alice in Wonderland twice! He was more than qualified to direct this new one.

But I welcome it, just as I welcome every new version of The Christmas Carol that comes out. I was pumped to see Burtons take on wonderland, thought I was ultimately disappointed. I’m looking forward to that new take on The Wizard of Oz that’s just around the corner. I love seeing new versions of old tales. Every Christmas, I watch a different version of The Christmas Carol. There’s enough of them for me to be doing that for a while. Some versions are good, some suck, but its always interesting to see how each new voice and vision sees the story. On this version, Wonderland has been devastated by the tyranny of evil rulers. The Evil Queen of Hearts is bleeding the land dry. On Alice, wonderland looks dreadful, lifeless, void of color and happiness. Except of course for the castle on which The Queen lives in which looks modern, clean and livable. The rebels live underground. Plotting a way to dethrone the evil queen and her army of Agent Smith’s. Surviving on whatever scraps they can find.

And that’s the thing about Alice in Wonderland. As a child, I never picked up on the rebellious/subversive nature of the story. It’s all about the rebels vs. the evil government that needs to be replaced. Why does it need to be replaced? Well, because the queen kidnaps people from our world, keeps them entertained in a casino, making them think they are winning the games. Unbeknownst (big word!) to the people, the floor of the casino is siphoning what ever emotions they are feeling, and bottling them all up in a factory below the casino, so these emotions can be consumed by the queen, and also sold on the black market. It’s an interesting idea, and a symbolism for how the powerful feed on the emotions of the masses and the control they have over them. Sucking the people dry, keeping them in a hypnotic state with hollow entertainment and drugs.

Like many subversive films, this one lets us know about the dangers of going against the big old powerful system. The moment you become conscious, and start thinking on your own they whisk you away to a mysterious psychiatric ward, where they then attempt to brainwash you all over again. The Queen has no sympathy for the people. No gratitude for being allowed to be up there governing. She only has that thirst for power. Of course the movie is all about going against that, fighting to recover our minds, freeing the people and bringing justice and peace to wonderland. They captured very well that feeling of paranoia, that you are being watched, that you must obey. That you must playball with the rules or its “off with his head” with you.

The White Rabbitt is a killer android on this version

Alice also has the science fiction element to it that I don’t think we had seen on any Alice in Wonderland film before. On this one, the white rabbit is a murderous gangster type robot that functions as The Queens own personal bounty hunter. There is this whole chase sequence in the film that takes place with Alice flying on these flying scooters that that look like flamingo’s. The men who work for The Queen look like Agent Smith from the Matrix movies. Wonderland looks like something out of I am Legend or something. Buildings upon buildings abandoned and destroyed. I enjoyed the sci-fi angle the series had. It gave this version its own unique look and feel.

The Mad Hatter and Alice fall in love on this one, and parts of the series are about them developing feelings for each other little by little, this love affair is what gives the film one of its worst sequences, the tacked on mega happy ending. But we have to remember that this series was made for T.V., and as such, it has to comply with a few things. Most important among them is having a happy ending. And stretching things out so you can have a two part mini-series. It’s really the only thing I didn’t like about this one, at times it felt like it was just streeetching things out. Still, in spite of these shortcomings, the movie proved to be entertaining for me. I’m curious for that other version of Alice in Wonderland that this director made way back in 1999, I never got around to seeing it. I’m also planning on seeing Tin Man soon, so expect a review of it. This was not the best Alice in Wonderland film ever made, but it was an entertaining and different take on the old tale. Certainly far more entertaining than Tim Burton’s recent 3-D abortion, sorry, I was really dissapointed by it.

Rating: 3 ½ out of 5