Movie Web Monday: Alan Tudyk

Movie Web Monday: Each article in the web, I'll look at a specific actor's roles across three good movies. The third movie will in turn tie into the first movie of the next week's actor, whose third movie will continue the pattern. I will go through actors and movies at this rate, with the following limitations in mind: every movie(or television show) invoked will be one I either own, or wish to own; no movie or actor will be invoked twice. So sit back and enjoy as you fall into the nerdery's movie web. (Oh, and I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, telling you just enough to know if you'll enjoy the movie)

Alan Tudyk: Probably Won't Survive This Post

Movie: 3:10 to Yuma (Own it. Minor spoilers ahead)

In 3:10 to Yuma, Alan Tudyk plays Doc Potter, one of the supporting townsfolk who gets wrangled into joining the posse seeking to deliver Ben Wade into the hands of justice. (Man, that sounded a bit like a line from The Tick, didn't it?) He's a minor character, but in true Alan Tudyk form, he instantly charms the audience. While digging into a shot Pinkerton named Byron McElroy (played by Peter Fonda) to prise free a bullet, Byron notices that the doctor's wall is decorated with skinless sketches of horse and dog musculature. Byron of course asks what kind of doctor Potter is, to which the only slightly shaken doctor replies wryly:

Doc Potter isn't an imposing character--neither very outspoken nor terribly useful in a fight, but he sets himself up as stubbornly moral and reliable. In this western, the protagonists stand shoulder-to-shoulder with bullies and cowards, and it's fitting that two of the bravest men in this band end up being the crippled Dan Evans and the soft-spoken doctor. And of course, he ends up dying right in the middle of a punchline.

Speaking of which...

Movie: Serenity (Own it, several times over. SPOILERS SHALL FLOW)

Oh Serenity, how you move me. Between the short-lived television show Firefly and the spin-off movie Serenity, the adventures of Malcolm Reynolds and his crew are some of my favorite fourteen hours of media. The characters are likable, charming, and quirky. The world is worn and eclectically appealing. The events are pure in their anti-classist nobility. And Wash, the ship's lovable pilot played by Alan Tudyk, is completely emblematic of Joss Whedon's beautiful tableau. He's sarcastic and pliable, stubborn and witty, and totally in love with his wife even to the point of embracing a lifestyle you definitely get the feeling he wouldn't otherwise lead. Even in the climactic ship-scramble of the movie, when his superb piloting skills shine for all to see, he reminds us how unsuited to this violent business he is with his simple calming verse:

It's a tremendous contrast to the destruction and danger all around, and it sort of highlights how out of his element he is. And the glory of that moment--and his crushing, sudden demise in mid punch-line--really encapsulates the kindness and childish devotion of his character. Wash was probably too principled and soft to be part of Serenity's crew, but he was also too loving and devoted to ever leave them. It's a really nuanced characterization for Alan Tudyk to bring out in a character we didn't even get to know for a full season.

Movie: A Knight's Tale (Rent it)

A Knight's Tale is a anachronistic teen-oriented fluffy movie about a squire who lies his way into becoming a knight's tournament champion, while picking up an allegedly hot noblewoman along the way as a spare. Now I'm not a huge fan of A Knight's Tale. But that boils down almost completely to the fault of the two main characters and the runny-eggs sloppy romance between Heath Ledger's William and Shannyn Sossamon's Jocelyn, because I love the supporting characters and antagonist. Rufus Sewell doing what he does best with a smirking, sadistic streak cloaked in the velvet of classism as Count Adhemar. And Alan Tudyk as the fiercely belligerent, barely conversant fellow conspirator in the group. He's stutteringly insecure and defensive on his own behalf and that of the group, as is made readily apparent when Chaucer joins their group and Wat decides to threaten the naked wastrel:

His delivery of the line is so energetic and committed to the moment of realizing a barely literate friend raging that it's pretty much impossible not to consider this one of the best moments of the little movie. (Alan Tudyk doesn't buy it in this one, either, so there's always that.)

Oh, and this is the third post this week, which means that's 2 out of 31 for my blog post deficit. And we're only two days into the week, too.

Movie Web Monday will continue next time with a new actor, picking up with some other prolific player from the last movie listed above.

Movie Web Monday: Christian Bale

Movie Web Monday: Each week, I'll look at a specific actor's roles across three good movies. The third movie will in turn tie into the first movie of the next week's actor, whose third movie will continue the pattern. I will go through actors and movies at this rate, with the following limitations in mind: every movie(or television show) invoked will be one I either own, or wish to own; no movie or actor will be invoked twice. So sit back and enjoy as you fall into the nerdery's movie web. (Oh, and I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, telling you just enough to know if you'll enjoy the movie)

Today's actor is probably one of the first that I really started to movie-web consciously. Christian Bale, an infamously great-but-demanding actor, has starred in a whole slew of excellent movies dating back to Empire of the Sun and Henry V in the late 80s, with his mainstream attention ramped up in the past decade after his incomparable realization of Bruce Wayne in Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. With Ben Affleck the mildly controversial replacement to don the cowl in the Superman vs Batman movie, it remains to be seen whether that stays Bale's most recognized role.

Not that there aren't tons of great under-exposed roles in his filmography. I don't feature them below, but I also highly recommend Rescue Dawn, where Bale plays an American fighter pilot shot down in Laos during the Vietnam War. It's brutal, raw, and psychologically draining, but an excellent film. Similarly, The Machinist is one of the greatest psychological films of all time, and Bale's star performance is engrossing in its mundane grotesqueness. The film's inspiration is pure Dostoyevsky, with heavy elements of Crime and Punishment and The Idiot, so that comparison will go a long way to informing whether you might enjoy it or not.

Christian Bale: Unsung Underdog

Movie: Terminator Salvation (Own it)

In the first film to finally focus on the actual Machine War, Christian Bale takes up the role of John Connor, hero of humanity and walking target of the franchise. I'd been waiting to see the Machine War realized on the big screen ever since I saw Terminator as a five year-old (heavily censored by my big brother sitting on me during the objectionable bits). I wanted to see the all-out apocalyptic showdown, firefights in the concrete morass of long-nuked cities, and with John Connor orchestrating it all. Bale's John Connor steps into the grim struggle with the right amount of weight and exhaustion throughout his scenes, even though he's not yet the supreme commander of the human resistance. Action hero gunplay and fighting aside, I think it's the bag-eyed weariness, that drawn and haggard leader of men caught in the midst of successively worse decisions, that elevates the film for me. It's encapsulated in the beat before John broadcasts one of his machine-fighting tutorials over the radio:

The person being referred to is Kyle Reese, John Connor's deceased father and future subordinate thanks to the loopy paradox at the core of the franchise. Setting the causal stupidity of time travel plots aside, it's a superb small moment of Bale pulling back the seams of Connor's armor and showing what drives the exhausted resistance leader--the idea that his loved ones are out there, that he has a family that extends beyond his physical reach that he can't see but that he can protect. Coupled with his wife Kate Connor (played by mesmeric Bryce Dallas Howard) and her baby bump, Bale portrays a man in transition to a point where he is not only about to become a father, but that also his prophetic grasp on the future is catching up to him and he will soon be on his own. It's a chilling thought, in a franchise bound by time-traveling take-backs and cause-effect loops, to imagine being on the verge of true uncertainty once more. If only we could get there--but alas, rumor is that the next Terminator movie will return to the time-traveling format again, and almost certainly retconn this film's continuity.

Movie: Newsies (Own it, but gorram if I can ever find it)

This is the first movie I ever saw with Christian Bale in it, and it still gets trotted out for a viewing every  few months. Heck, as a music kid in high school I knew a lot of girls who liked nothing more than associating with guys able to sing "Santa Fe" soulfully, so this movie has made a lot of hay throughout my life. For those of you who don't know, Newsies is a period musical set in New York City at the close of the nineteenth century and follows the rousers of a strike of newsboys against the mongering gigantic newspapers controlling their fate. Christian Bale plays their charismatic leader, Jack Kelly, and accordingly spends much of the Disney flick brooding in a pop-musical style. Which means, unlike his future Batman brooding, there was a lot of dancing alone and smoldering on iron catwalks and fire escapes--okay, maybe that's a little like Batman, after all. The film is really well done and infectiously catchy if you're even remotely susceptible to the genre, and Bale's portrayal of Jack Kelly is a neat compromise of sort of popular pretty boy charm and self-serving gregariousness--something few actors could capture so easily between musical numbers, let alone a teenager, but Bale does it expertly. It plays so well in the moments where Jack squares off against sinister Joseph Pulitzer, played by Robert Duvall, or even in the scenes where the impoverished gnat rails against the corporate giant. One of my favorite examples of this:

In a movie full of great, energetic and upbeat performances in a really fairly dark plot, Bale stands out and carries his scenes like a veteran despite how incredibly early this was in his career. It's also a nice flick to watch to see a very different side of Bale--even his more artsy roles are still just in contrast to his action movie blockbusters, and there's very little to compare to a Disney lighthearted period musical.

Movie: 3:10 to Yuma (Own it. THE SPOILERS SHALL FLOW)

The 2007 remake of 3:10 to Yuma is one of my absolute favorite films. I mentioned it two years ago as a great Father's Day movie. A relatively cozy (in terms of plot analysis) western about a group of men from a small town trying to escort dangerous robber and gunman Ben Wade to a prison train, it contains great period action, great performances by the lead and supporting actors, and is an insane fatherhood tear-jerker. Christian Bale plays the protagonist Dan Evans, a one-legged rancher and family man on the verge of losing everything who decides to join the impromptu armed escort and try to stay one step ahead of Wade's ruthless gang hunting them. Wade, played by ember-eyed Russell Crowe, alternates between a happy rider and opportunistic murderer as they journey along, and the paradoxical role ends with Wade and Evans having an antagonistic but respectful bond at the end. As the rest of the escorts are killed or scared off, only the hobbled Evans has the courage and stubbornness to stay and try to see things through despite his terrible prospects. There's lots of great moments of ragged beauty in this film, but probably the greatest is the pathetic moment in which Evans explains what truly drives him in his suicidal-but-noble quest:

Oh, the sweet, sweet tragedy of this movie is so beautiful. In this moment, Dan Evans' disarming honesty and wounded nobility finally win Ben over, and in the final run of the two to the train station we see that he's also won over his son, William, making his final, sudden demise so much sadder and at the same time so much more admirable and inspiring. The movie's full of these dry bits of underplayed-but-poignant drama, with Bale the hero of the western without ever really trying too hard. Unique, masterful, and engrossing no matter how many times I man-cry through it.

Movie Web Monday will continue next week with a new actor, picking up with some other prolific player from the last movie listed above.

Movie Web Monday: Anton Yelchin

Movie Web Monday: Each week, I'll look at a specific actor's roles across three good movies. The third movie will in turn tie into the first movie of the next week's actor, whose third movie will continue the pattern. I will go through actors and movies at this rate, with the following limitations in mind: every movie(or television show) invoked will be one I either own, or wish to own; no movie or actor will be invoked twice. So sit back and enjoy as you fall into the Nerdery's movie web. (Oh, and I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, telling you just enough to know if you'll enjoy the movie)

Today we've got an actor that you've probably heard of for the wrong roles. Anton Yelchin began appearing in some top-notch productions at the age of eleven, delivering powerful performances opposite big name actors and still staying under most audience's collective radar. Then he starred in JJ Abrams' Star Trek reboot as the most pathetically endearing iteration of Chekov yet, and that's easily his most recognizable role--and him stammering "nine five wictor wictor two" to the Enterprise's obtuse computer. But the three films I've got below show a good deal more of his acting chops, and I hope he continues to get diverse parts in future movies, as right now he's one of the most underrated twenty-something actors out there.

Anton Yelchin: More Than An Accent

Movie: Hearts in Atlantis (Rent It)

Anton Yelchin plays young Bobby Garfield in Hearts in Atlantis, which puts him in the shoes of the main protagonist alongside acting great Anthony Hopkins as Ted Brautigan. It's not the sort of role I'd envy for an unseasoned eleven year-old actor, but Anton holds his own, thanks in part to the film's magical script and also thanks to the tone of precocious wonder he carries throughout. Precocious wonder is an essential characteristic in a Stephen King nostalgia film--this is a film with brutal bullies, sexual trauma, teary reminiscence, young love, and eerie abilities, all with children as principals. So being able to register and reflect Brautigan's eloquent amazement at the world of children is invaluable. But still he remains a little boy at that age where he exaggerates childish silliness, especially when accused of being interested in his best friend, Carol Gerber. The cootie-shy Bobby retreats from Brautigan, defensively asking:

It's a fun moment that displays the mundane concerns of a child who is trying to fossilize his young notions, even while glossing over Brautigan's supernatural gifts. Which is really very much the central motif of Hearts in Atlantis.

Movie: Charlie Bartlett (Rent it)

I don't generally watch R-rated comedies. Most of the things that qualify a movie for R-ratings either don't interest me in a comedy or--more often--repel me in conjunction with humor. Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz are huge exceptions to this preference, but since they're British and functionally action/thriller movies as well, my rule of thumb holds. Charlie Bartlett really stretches that preference with its dramatic depth, magnificent acting, and exuberant characterization of the title character. As the title character, this has got to be Anton Yelchin's most impressive and enjoyable role. Gregarious, insecure, a compulsive manipulator, Charlie Bartlett is an almost schizophrenic character--ranging from shy to charismatic in scenes that are fun to watch and showcase the young actor's talent. This is really highlighted when he auditions for the school's production of Henry V by vying directly for the attention of Susan Gardner, played by Kat Dennings:

Or even better is when the plot of the movie is established by Charlie's descent into becoming an eccentric prescription drug-dealer and mock-therapist for the kids at school. His first step into becoming his school's pusher? Intimidate, then sympathize with the school's bully and drug dealer with a cleverly practiced speech:

"Maybe you got slapped around one too many times for your lunch money on your way to the bus. Maybe your pop's gotta booze himself up every morning so he can plow roads with a sense of humor, then, when he gets home, you're just a distant third to sloppy joes and a bad sitcom. Maybe the cheerleaders call you a scumbag behind your back. Maybe it's because the school's got you placed on the remedial track and your teachers are really good at making you feel like an idiot..."

This movie is dark, but let me assure you that the divisive-but-good-willed drug dealing quickly falls around Charlie's head, and he's completely devastated when he has to confront his own willingness to fake his own character and pander for the sake of popularity. Also, Hope Davis, who played Anton Yelchin's mom in Hearts in Atlantis, plays mother Marilyn Bartlett in this film, and her bad parenting is even more damning and hard to watch than in the King drama. On the flip side of the coin, Robert Downey Jr. delivers an awesome performance as the school's principal Nathan Gardner and father to love-interest Susan. He's an alcholic, ground-down, depressed wreck of a loving single father, and somehow Downey is able to make the character really fun to watch anyways:

Movie: Terminator Salvation (Own it)

I love the Terminator series without exception. I said it, and I mean it. Terminator Salvation pulls off a plot of epic combat in post-apocalyptia with confidence and consistency--I'm talking consistency of quality, not of plot, so just back off. What's great and unique about the fourth installment in the series, though, is that it's the only movie set in the future and therefore liberated by ham-handed social commentary. There's some ham-handed philosophical commentary thrown in at the end, but that doesn't even hold a candle to Sarah Connor's fatherhood narration in the middle of T2. But the characterization of the principal character is solid, and Anton Yelchin's masterful rendition of a teenaged Kyle Reese is no exception. First of all, he gets the real tagline of the Terminator franchise:

Similar to his portrayal of Bobby Garfield in Hearts in Atlantis, Yelchin's Reese spends his time cautiously absorbing Sam Worthington's heroic courage and worshipping his leader/idol/son's rogue radio transmissions. And in so doing, he straddles the lines of survivalist cynicism and youthful idealistic hope--basically Bobby Garfield with a twelve gauge and no lady friend to help him work out his issues.

Movie Web Monday will continue next week with a new actor, picking up with some other prolific player from the last movie listed above.

Movie Web Monday: David Morse

Movie Web Monday: Each week, I'll look at a specific actor's roles across three good movies. The third movie will in turn tie into the first movie of the next week's actor, whose third movie will continue the pattern. I will go through actors and movies at this rate, with the following limitations in mind: every movie(or television show) invoked will be one I either own, or wish to own; no movie or actor will be invoked twice. So sit back and enjoy as you fall into the Nerdery's movie web. (Oh, and I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, telling you just enough to know if you'll enjoy the movie)

Today's Movie Web entry is focusing on an actor who, while not as prolific as some of the performers I've highlighted so far, is probably one of the most widely recognizable actors whose name you might not know. And, as a further distinction, this is the first Movie Web Monday installment where I don't own even one of the films showcased. And they're all great. Other movies that I do own that feature today's actor: The Long Kiss Goodnight, 16 Blocks, and Disturbia. I just didn't pick those because I wanted the progression to go a specific way, but you can't fault my nerd-cred for not having three movies with him in it.

No, you can't.

David Morse: Big Softie

Movie: The Green Mile (Why the heck don't I own it?!)

David Morse plays Brutus "Brutal" Howell in the prison tear-jerker. At 6'4" he's only an inch shorter than Michael Clarke Duncan, who played John Coffey, Brutal is easily a head taller than the rest of the guard staff in the film, and early on the joke is that John Coffey can't be bigger than Brutal. But his affable and wry sense of humor sets up the movie's motif of gentle giants when set alongside Coffey's exaggerated size. Unlike Coffey, of course, Brutal has a teasing streak in him that he uses as both a tool to torment the cruel antagonists of the film and to cope with his depressing job. For instance, he clearly enjoys tormenting the sadistic guard Percy Wetmore with the revelation that the mouse he had crushed underfoot is in fact resurrected. When Percy insists that it's a hasty prank, Brutal almost breaks out into open mirth, mocking the unhinged little man:

Morse portrays Brutal as very deliberately following the lead of Tom Hanks' character, Paul Edgecomb, to the point where he seems to be uncertain without the protagonist's guidance. While Edgecomb is a pretty typical lead character for a Stephen King story--affable, initially very reactionary, and fairly optimistic when meeting new people--Brutal seems almost like an okay man who is made considerably better by the company he keeps. There's less patience and good will between him and some of the other inmates. When he humors Delacroix's delusions of a mouse retirement community, he takes it almost to the point of mockery, and the glances between him and Edgecomb imply that maybe he would've gone a bit too far in other company: mocking the eccentric rather than setting his mind at ease. It adds a good layer of introspection to the film, peeling back the cast in layers to show how good company and gentleness inspires similar virtues in those around us.

Movie: The Rock (Rent it)

Once upon a time Michael Bay made mindless action movies starring big name, established stars. People didn't seem to mind that so much. Then, when he started making movies PG-13 and tried discovering or spotlighting young talent for his movies, the world cried out in anger and demanded his movies start looking like Christopher Nolan flicks. The Rock was an action movie starring Nicholas Cage and Sean Connery as two men trying to break into Alcatraz island to stop a decorated marine general from detonating bio-weapons over San Francisco in an effort to coerce money to honor soldiers killed in black ops missions. Yeah. And it's pretty enjoyable, too. Don't you feel stupid for complaining about alien ninja turtles now?

Spoilers on the way. But if you haven't seen The Rock by now, are you really going in to see a Bay movie to be surprised by the plot?

David Morse plays Major Tom Baxter, the right-hand man to pseudo-terrorist General Francis Hummel, played by Ed Harris. these two are your classic bad-guys with a heart of gold, which means that in the end they go down like punks, because the script never respects a bad guy with a heart of gold (Serenity's Operative a notable exception). Both marines of honor who plod through their violent, sketchy plot with reluctance and hand-wringing, Morse and Harris give a lot of needed credence to these kind of goofy characters. In fact, they end up forming a sort of opposing bro-mance to the main characters played by Cage and Connery. And I frankly enjoy watching Morse and Harris be all like "I respect you, man" a bit more than the twitchy odd couple of the protagonists. Although the leads make up for it by being almost infinitely quotable. At the end of the movie in particular, as the plot of the bad guys (and the movie itself, really) sort of collapses under its own weight, Morse and Harris shore up the production around their buddy-buddy awesomeness. Faced with three mutinous marines pointing guns at General Hummel, Major Baxter is given the classic ultimatum to pick sides in the middle of a Mexican standoff. Which is a really dumb time to pick sides, by the way. Baxter draws his pistol on his beloved commanding officer, and then gets all misty:

He then shoots Ben from the Night of the Living Dead remake and gets himself peppered for friendship, honor, and good vibrations as everyone starts shooting. Yeah, it's cliched and not well-wrought on paper, but the actors really pull through and make you care about these mind-bogglingly inconsistent characters.

Also, the car chase on the streets of San Fran was nuts. Avengers-level property damage done by a myopic Scot in a hummer?

Okay.

Sure.

Movie: Hearts in Atlantis (Rent it)

Another movie based on a Stephen King novella, Hearts in Atlantis falls into one of King's most popular sub-genres: the nostalgic kid drama. Alongside Hearts in Atlantis, Dreamcatcher, It, and Stand By Me all feature detailed flashbacks or grown-up narrative over particularly poignant childhood trauma and adventures. As the grown-up narrator Robert Garfield in Hearts in Atlantis, David Morse is in just three scenes that bookend the movie, plus a few lines of narration scattered throughout the extended flashback composing the plot. But his scratchy and raw nostalgia, at once reminiscing and romancing his childhood while also grappling with his own regret, does a great job of narrating the movie, and the direction of the movie does a great job of tying the emotional tenor of old and young Bobby Garfield together. As the film closes on a sober note, David Morse anchors his character to the conflicted moment when the daughter of his dead sweetheart snorts at him and relates that her mother, "said he was beautiful." He then snorts in disbelief and hands the girl a picture of her mother when she was a young girl, saying:

Morse is able to sell us on the emotionally mingled confusion Bobby Garfield is feeling. He's mystified by incredible events in his life, flattered by the offhand compliment to the boy he once was, and haunted by his abject failure to nurture the friendships that had meant so much to him as an eleven year-old. And you realize how much they still mean to him, even though he never followed through. Kind of an uber guilt-trip for all those summer camp friends you never wrote to, but with men-in-black and psychics thrown in, too.

Because, y'know...Stephen King.

Movie Web Monday will continue next week with a new actor, picking up with some other prolific player from the last movie listed above.

Movie Web Monday: William Sadler

Movie Web Monday: Each week, I'll look at a specific actor's roles across three good movies. The third movie will in turn tie into the first movie of the next week's actor, whose third movie will continue the pattern. I will go through actors and movies at this rate, with the following limitations in mind: every movie(or television show) invoked will be one I either own, or wish to own; no movie or actor will be invoked twice. So sit back and enjoy as you fall into the nerdery's movie web. (Oh, and I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, telling you just enough to know if you'll enjoy the movie)

Today's entry in the Movie Web is William Sadler. A great actor with a long pedigree of powerful supporting roles, he most recently showed up in Iron Man 3 as President Ellis. You probably are more likely to recognize him from Die Hard 2 as Colonel Stuart, though. The movies I've picked for him today, though, have him run the gamut from convict to sheriff to a broken man leading a lynch mob. Yeah, he rounds the bases of the D&D alignment system, I guess.

William Sadler: Lawful-Go-Round

Movie: Shawshank Redemption (Own it)

While Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman's characters take up all the limelight of the Shawshank Redemption, they are supported by great performances and key supporting characters. Not the least of which is William Sadler as Heywood. While Freeman's character Red is the plain-spoken cynic and man of means in the story and Robbin's Andy Dufresne is the spirit of hope, Heywood comes to the fore of the supporting characters as the most believably constructed of the inmates. Red and Andy are the salt of the earth in two very different ways, both essentially pure and useful in the plot of the film. Opposite them are conspirators, murderers, and rapists. It'd be easy to dismiss the movie as a bipolar and ham-fisted reality tale if it weren't for Heywood and the other inmate friends of Red and Andy he tends to frontline. Heywood is crass and funny, thick and selfish, and pathetically under-educated. From the get-go he's intense and shows a cruel streak as well as an angry sensitivity, as he sways to angry, loud threats at Andy after chirping happily:

Sadler's realization of Heywood--for me, anyways--is one that is much more reasonable and genuine feeling than many of the other almost allegorical characters. In some scenes he seems like the scum of the earth, and in other he's a quivering reactionary trying to protect himself or follow the lead of Red and Andy. And, perhaps most importantly, there's a consistency to his character that doesn't require a neat explanation for what has happened to bring him here. Sadler's Heywood is the perfect support--a believable part of the background, but also a snappy and self-actualized character.

Television Show: Roswell (Rent it)

Alright, let's get this out of the way right now: yes, I watched Roswell. I'm even (gasp!) enjoying re-watching it via Netflix Instant Watch. My mom got me into it when I was thirteen, and I gotta say, when you're a young teenage boy and your mom tries to get you to watch a vaguely sci-fi show starring young Katherine Heigl and Emilie de Ravin, you don't argue. You just enjoy the show and capitalize on being one of the only freshmen in your high school to actually be willing to gossip with girls about the latest episode. Also, I totally thought Tess got a bum rap and they should've had her end up with Max instead of retconning her into a monster. And for those of you who don't know: Roswell was an angsty teen-oriented show in 1999-2002 based on a book series that followed unusual kids who happened to be the survivors of the famous crash in New Mexico.

With that out of the way: Tess' ridiculous and unbelievable transformation aside, William Sadler's character--Sheriff Jim Valenti--was by far the show's most dynamic and well-developed character. As a local law enforcement officer and shamed son to a known alien-hunting kook, Valenti begins the show as a sort of above-board antagonist. While a lot of the plots involved conspiracies and layered secrets, he tried to pin down the paranormal out of a jaded need to wrench the truth out of Roswell in an unspoken need to validate his father. It worked really well, and as the show progressed he became something of a white knight for the teenage protagonists to rely upon. The transformation came in quickly at the end of the show's first season, but it flew really well as Valenti's frustration with official cover-ups and deception pales in the face of his own instincts as a father. When head alien embrid (that's emo-hybrid) Max saves Valenti's son, he realizes that the truth is far less important than his beloved son:

Sadler's single dad portrayal is wry and endearingly pathetic in a middle-aged sort of way. Some of my favorite mundane moments in the show (other than alien bruiser Michael's love affair with the movie Braveheart) was when Valenti would showcase his band of fellow 40-somethings: the Kit-Shickers. That, and when he became a surrogate father to double-outsider Tess, he perfectly played up the awkwardness of a father and long-time bachelor trying to cope with having a darling princess in his life. It was sweet and adorable, and they shouldn't have ruined her character by suddenly having her be a Lannister-esque brain-melter. Dumbdumbdumb. They ruined at least half of their characters in that badly-devised plot twist and all just to justify the stale Max-and-Liz-forever romance that couldn't carry itself in light of Tess' importance.

Alright, I need to stop now. Valenti: good. Tess: adorable. Liz: dumb interstellar dynasty-wrecker.

Movie: The Green Mile (Why the heck don't I own it?!)

The Green Mile is another prison-movie masterpiece based on a novel by Stephen King--I mentioned that Shawshank Redemption is based on a Stephen King novella, right? Oh well, it is. Starring Tom Hanks, David Morse, and Michael Clarke Duncan, it's another beautiful installment the roster of movies about human hatred that nonetheless elevates the spirit. Man, that sounds like a crock if you haven't seen it. But it is true. Set in the 1930s in a death-row cell block, Tom Hanks' character guides his fellow guards through their duties with a certain amount of pomp and dignity that helps give doomed men hope, and all of that before they receive an inmate convicted of disgusting crimes with a supernatural aura. It's funny in a I'll-kill-him-right-after-a-punchline sort of way, leaving you feeling almost guilty for how much you enjoy some moments of such a tear-jerking melodrama.

William Sadler's role in The Green Mile is brief, and you probably don't remember him in it unless you have a celebrity NavComp AI for a brain. Like I do. The father of the two murdered girls that gets pinned neatly on the simple John Coffey, he has to play a huge variety of emotions in a short span. Breathless exhilaration as he assembles a search team and irritably coordinates with his wife. Helpless defeat as he realizes that they're already too late. And blind, futilely-misguided rage at a man more hurt by being close to damned innocence than mere beating could ever achieve.

It's an understated note to leave the Movie Web on, but considering William Sadler's laundry list of supporting roles, that's probably exactly the right way to end things.

Until next week.

(I think I mean that literally--I think I'll continue the blog sprint through this week and next. But don't freak out if it's not there after all.)

Movie Web Monday will continue next week with a new actor, picking up with some other prolific player from the last movie listed above.

Movie Web Monday: Morgan Freeman

Movie Web Monday: Each week, I'll look at a specific actor's roles across three good movies. The third movie will in turn tie into the first movie of the next week's actor, whose third movie will continue the pattern. I will go through actors and movies at this rate, with the following limitations in mind: every movie(or television show) invoked will be one I either own, or wish to own; no movie or actor will be invoked twice. So sit back and enjoy as you fall into the nerdery's movie web. (Oh, and I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, telling you just enough to know if you'll enjoy the movie)

Morgan Freeman: Salt of the Earth

Before I resume the long-neglected-but-popular series Movie Web Monday, let me explain something I said a long time ago. Back in October of 2012, I mentioned that the long suspension of Movie Web Monday could be blamed on Morgan Freeman. And while I love him--more and more it seems--I have to say it really is his fault. Freeman is in just too many movies that I own and love, and he straddles so many genres and functions that it was a terrible pain in the butt to pick just two more movies to link into his cinematic chain. Now, when I first began this series, I wrote down a master road map for Movie Web Monday, which would span fifty-four actors and more than one hundred movies, and Morgan Freeman is not even halfway down the list. So how could I be stumped when I'd already committed, hm?

When I first set out to write this article, I suddenly realized that I hadn't included Dreamcatcher in Morgan Freeman's length of the Movie Web Monday chain. And that movie is a dear one of mine--not just because I enjoy it or I like pairing it up with John Carpenter's The Thing, but also because, like its namesake, Dreamcatcher links together some really great actors that are not currently on the Movie Web Monday road map. Namely: Timothy Olyphant and Thomas Jane. And as it stands, even if I took the road map down Mr. Olyphant or Mr. Jane's side-streets, I'd still be neglecting the other. I hope to incorporate them into this feature on down the line, but the agony I felt and still feel over having to exclude them from the current course was crippling.

But not anymore, so on with the blog post.

Movie: Unleashed (Own it)

Morgan Freeman plays Sam in Unleashed, a blind piano repairman who sits on Danny's other shoulder opposite Bob Hoskins' Bart. Where Uncle Bart is blithely crass and violent, Sam is gregarious, wise, and soft-spoken. But, as with any Morgan Freeman role, Sam is also his most potent when he's soft-spoken. And in delivering a fantastic performance, Freeman also cements the primary dynamic of the movie in opposition to Hoskins--the dueling natures of sweetness, innocence, and kindness standing opposite violence, revenge, and cruel causality. It's a role only Morgan Freeman could fulfill, as virtually any other actor would badly mangle the sappy homilies that he drops on us with pitch perfect droll. Like when he first meets Danny and drops the premise of the film:

Stuck behind sunglasses for almost all of his screen time and playing a hopelessly optimistic single father, anyone else would probably flounder in the role of Sam. But instead he anchors the movie with wry, understated humor and everyday life parables for living simply and honestly, which is exactly what Danny craves. It's really fun watching Danny absorb everything Sam does like a sponge, and in those scenes I find I'm jealous of the surrogate father and the son in those moments. Which is probably Morgan Freeman's greatest contribution to the film--he sells the patchwork family so well, that despite everything Sam goes through and everything Danny goes through, you can't help but feel a little envy for them. And not just because I'd like to one day be able to throw two guys at once by their junk.

Movie: Unforgiven (I keep on renting it, should probably buy it)

Unforgiven is a great western that stands firmly in the deconstruction side of the genre to the point that deconstruction is one of the primary themes of the movie itself. It's a western about four legends of the wild west, all past their prime, and their relationships with who they choose to be and their reputations' take on that. Clint Eastwood directed and played the main protagonist, Will Munny, who after years living as a simple farming widower and father, is forced to take one last job to save his farm. Munny sets out to recruit Ned Logan, Morgan Freeman's character, as they rode in the same gang in decades past. Ned serves as a universal anchor in a movie where most of the characters are full of beans and half-baked legends they concoct about themselves. He's constantly correcting Munny's version of past events and making practical observations about their situation, while Munny himself is so grimly set on his course that everything becomes understatement and assumption to get them one step closer to cold-blooded killings and their reward. Ned also gets a chance to pry some wry humor out of Munny's scenes, as Munny himself as a character is worn down to only two grits of sand rubbing together. As they set out on their journey, for instance, Munny grumbles about Ned being homesick, only to get a curt response:

He briefly elevates the film into feeling like it might slip into a buddy cowboy movie. Heck, if it wasn't so raw, depressing, and thoroughly grim, it'd be Space Cowboys without the space. Really. But when Ned steps out of the bloody business, or tries to, the audience is dragged down to a sad certainty that there is no happy ending for this western, and it's the common charm of Morgan Freeman as Ned that helps to establish him as one of the last good things in the whole dreadful affair.

Movie: Shawshank Redemption (Own it) Minor spoiler ahead

Shawshank Redemption is a period prison movie about human spirit and determination. Which sounds like a crap introduction to a high school English paper, but despite the hackneyed themes the movie tackles, it unveils and copes with all of the characters' baggage so well that it easily surpasses those limits and becomes a movie beyond its tropes and genres. It is simply good. And Morgan Freeman's character, Ellis Boyd Redding, or Red, is the standard bearer for that honorable distinction. Focusing on a group of endearing inmates beneath brutal and hypocritical prison staff, Shawshank Redemption leads us through the lives of the protagonists as though it were a slice-of-life movie in the vein of the Wonder Years, except that Wayne Arnold is a billy-club-wielding thug, Winnie Cooper is replaced by a gang of prison rapists and Paul Pfeiffer and Kevin Arnold's friendship is that of Tim Robbins' and Morgan Freeman's characters. Freeman's character Red is a wizened, cynical old convict who takes Robbins' character, Andy Dufresne, under his wing and into his friendship, and in the process Red finds that the surprising determination and hope Andy displays helps restore his own faith in life and not giving up. In a kind of sardonic way, it totally crystalizes for Red at the end of the movie when he faces his last parole hearing, and he sees that the system has been used to rob him of his hope and dignity rather than empower him to be a more complete person:

Freeman burns throughout the movie with a subdued intensity that makes you feel like he'd ooze Red's history if someone bumped him the wrong way. He at once understands almost everyone in the film, serving as the narrator, and yet his awed descriptions of his friend Andy help to show that no amount of experience can completely sponge away wonder and whimsy--even if we lose it in ourselves, it's possible to find it in the sincerity of others.

Movie Web Monday will continue next week with a new actor, picking up with some other prolific player from the last movie listed above.

Almost 6 months!? OMGWTFBBQ!!!

Alright, this is not even funny anymore.

Nothing since April, really?

That's just wrong on so many levels.

So as you well know, I haven't posted on the blog here in nigh-on six months. Flippin' ridiculous. I haven't even logged on to Blogger in like four months, so early this morning I found a couple of comments with three inches of dust on them, still patiently awaiting approval. That ain't right, folks, that ain't right. Let's run down a few of the essential nerd-rants you've missed out on over the past 180 days or so.

A follow up on the Fire and Ice Convention. Geez, pal, go for the balls why don't ya? This was one of those 'next week' promises that I made that is now officially closer to 'next year' than 'next week'. And what hurts most is that I loved the con and want to be a cheerleader for it in the future.

About 30+ Movie Web Monday installments. Alright, if we want to get technical, those had lapsed from being a weekly feature long before the Great Gap of 2012. And for that, I blame Morgan Freeman. Enough said, for now.

Reviews of Snow White and the Huntsman, Underwhelming Spider-Man, and the Dark Knight Rises Falls Rises Falls, nope definitely Rises. I have a bit to say about these films. I saw them all on either the midnight showing or within the first weekend, and I can just kick myself for missing the opportunity to scam a few hits by dropping the names of more blockbusters on my poor, neglected blog.

Myth holidays. Apparently, I'm not the only one with a little enthusiasm for Bungie's long-past impeccable entry into the fantasy genre. People like that stuff, and by golly I've passed on the opportunity to cover the summer Myth holidays and their early harvest ones as well.

Kickstarter promotions. I've been bitten by the Kickstarter bug. Then it burrowed its head beneath my skin and wormed a long proboscis into my marrow, suffusing my entire being with a constant need to keep abreast of cool projects being presented directly to us, the nerd public. I wanted to talk about a couple of different Kickstarter projects that really got me excited, maybe getting you revved for them too while generating some slim cross-traffic. Well, there will always be more, but the ones that have already gone through weigh heavily on my blog-conscience.

So that's the butcher's bill. Pretty dang infuriating, isn't it? Ok, well, let's put things in proper order. This is the apology post, where I lay out excuses for those past lapses of blog activity and make a case for why you should have faith that this will be the last 30+ day delay in updates. But I'm not going to do that, because I'm cool, proud, and totally original that way.

I could blame the fact that my job in an unspecified tech field involving 3D printing has been progressively more draining on my creativity reserves, but that's BS--my creativity burns with the fire of a thousand suns with Joanne Whalley hues of auburn red hair and pouty lips...hmmm Sorsha...where was I? Oh, right, I'm an unflappable nerd. Seriously, I'm so nerdy that I've used it as a personal virtue in my last two jobs' interview processes. And even though my unspecified contract position is ramping up into an actual, in-company ID salaried job, there's no way it can be blamed for the malaise that has nuked this blogroll for the past half-year.

I could blame it on the house--since, you know, living in even a modest home like ours is a cursed burden on the owner in terms of housework, yard work, and generally deleterious ability to walk away from a problem project for months at a time without looking at it. But that's a load: I've been using my computer everyday for non-bloggy activities in the interim.

I could blame it on family--both immediate and extended. I've taken a trip to Canada, attended four weddings in this posting gap, and my wife and son don't exactly sit me in front of the computer to type a new blog post when I come home from work, now do they? But I'm not blaming them, because all of that stuff was awesome, fun, or eminently necessary. Or, in the case of my first visit to the socialist north, at least novelly eye-opening and a fun opportunity to share my unimpeachable Gollum impression with distantly related in-laws.

Or, if we wanted to look at really negative impulses from the past year, we could blame it on Mass Effect 3. I've been sitting on a 90% completed article about how much Bioware narratively junk-punched its fan-base over 6 months ago now. At first I was waiting for a token update after Bioware's release of the 'extended ending' of the game, which then turned out to be a much more dastardly and nuanced betrayal of the fans with a big obvious middle finger to critical gamers as the jerk-off cherry on top of one of the most half-assed game moments in industry history. But I won't blame them, because being pissed off can, in fact, be a great motivator for writing. As you will see in the future.

But I will level the blame somewhere this time. Really. I blame it on The Avengers. Because, as the polar opposite of Mass Effect 3, The Avengers was a pristine, polished, thoroughly researched and realized culmination of a fantastic series of movies. Sublime, in every glistening nerd-drooling moment. And I blame my long absence from blogging on it for being far and away the best movie in the genre and truly a great movie by any standard. So why blame it? Because The Avengers, hot on the heels on the loin-girding disappointment of Mass Effect 3, was the irresistible nerd-enthusiasm hitting my immovable nerd-rage. And it resulted in a full stop of my ability to rant (usually the outpouring of nerd-rage) or rave (the precipitant of nerd-enthusiasm) on my usual blog topics.

So then, what tipped the scale back towards writing on this blog? Guilt, of course. Guilt, which--like a social diarrhea--is the truest human motivator, that which separates us from the animals. Just last night I was at wedding number four of the year and speaking with family. Because my son was off running around and couldn't be my social shield at the time. Now, I'd just told my wife and my father (who feels it is his mission to serve as a human shot-clock for my blog updates) that I worried that people were still discovering my blog during my absence--that I was failing to hook new readers with fresh content while I dallied in the quandary of opposing forces of nerd motivators. Not ten minutes later, one of my aunts and a cousin began talking to me about my blog, and I felt the urge to purge myself of that guilt.

"...what tipped the scale back towards writing on this blog? Guilt, of course."

So here you have it: a fresh, toasty blog post, leavened with a triple-helping of guilt and left to warm itself on a slab of overly wordy dissertation. In pledge of new and exciting content, here's an overview of things I've done over the past six months that will be appearing in future posts.

Crying way too many nerd-tears and gnashing teeth in nerd-rage over Mass Effect 3. Over the past half-year, I've learned that I can't complain enough about Mass Effect 3's wretched plot turn. In addition to having a nearly prepared post on my first thoughts on the topic, I've been plotting a more thorough deconstruction that involves a complete critical rubric of the abject denouement to the sci-fi epic.

Watching a butt-load of Avengers. First I had three in-theater viewings of the movie over the course of its blockbuster release. Then I've also watched it about eight times on blu-ray since it has come out, including several partial viewings at work while pulling late night hours. And now my boy has gotten addicted to the cartoon version of The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, to the point that when he woke up this morning he ran over to the Xbox, turned it on, and started chanting "I'n Man! I'n Man!" I'll definitely be posting a proper odor-beef-gravy-cheese review of The Avengers.

Playing in a frakkin' Tesla pod, tools! During an out-of-state wedding for one of my wife's cousins, I got to make an epic update on my bucket list by gaming in a Mechwarrior Tesla Pod. That's huge nerd points added to my lifetime total, and ended up being a sweet chance to share the moment with eight or nine family members, too.

http://getinthepods.com/pilot-experience/

Being immensely proud of my son for leaping years ahead in his development of advanced warfare skills. This is another one that is going to get a full breakdown later on, so look forward to an awestruck daddy post in the near future. But the skinny is that my son established a counter-intelligence routine to setup an ambush from an entrenched position and overcome superior opposition through guerrilla tactics, shock and awe, and biological warfare. Daddy so proud.

Actually shooting zombies. That's actually shooting, as in using live-fire weapons, not shooting actual zombies, which, you know, is impossible outside of the Chinese rural countryside. Just last weekend I knocked off another item from my bucket list by schlepping out to a shooting range in central Illinois and firing some real-life guns. Not too nerdy, you say? Well what if I told you it was a zombie-themed event in which I ran four courses firing at zombie-styled targets to help prepare me for holding off hordes of the undead? Yes, that's what I thought. Some cool video of one of the courses below:

Planning on throwing a slammin' Outbreak Party. With our first house bought and moved into, Missus Nerdery and I are planning a zombie-themed costume party at the end of this month. It's going to be an awesome time, and I'll probably post an article about some of the ideas, games, and prep before the party as well as some after-party coverage, as well.

Well, that's it for now. I'd like to get another post up and scheduled for sometime over the next couple of days, so please watch. Oh, and don't be shy about commenting. Getting comment notifications congratulating me on my wit and awesome is a great way to leverage both pride and guilt to keep me blogging faithfully. Filmatleven.

At least I didn't give any excuses, right?

Movie Web Monday: Bob Hoskins

Movie Web Monday: Each week, I'll look at a specific actor's roles across three good movies. The third movie will in turn tie into the first movie of the next week's actor, whose third movie will continue the pattern. I will go through actors and movies at this rate, with the following limitations in mind: every movie (or television show) invoked will be one I either own or wish to own; no movie or actor will be invoked twice. So sit back and enjoy as you fall into the nerdery's movie web. (Oh, and I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, telling you just enough to know if you'll enjoy the movie)

In a major break with recent blog policy, I'm posting two days in a row. And today's article, like many of the posts that will be following, is one that I've been sitting on half-finished for a while. Believe me, the movie web stretches far and wide, so don't make the mistake of thinking that the chain of succession stalled in the gap. This week, we have the inimitable Bob Hoskins in three movies where he plays three engaging villains that each have a plot that involves assuming a sort of distorted father role in protagonists' lives.

Bob Hoskins: Correctamundo

Movie: Enemy at the Gates (own it)

The intro to Enemy at the Gates is a marvelous juxtaposition of savagery. We begin with Joseph Fiennes' narration that quickly sums up the stakes of the battle, remarking that the fate of the world hinges on Stalingrad. (There are few places in World War Two history where such a statement could be supported, but I think it's fair to say that the siege of Stalingrad is one such linchpin.) Then we get to see the brutal, cruel, and apathetic machinery the Soviet Union employed to desperately wage this stage of the war. Men are shipped to the front lines with virtually no supplies in crowded train cars that superficially resemble the popular depiction of Nazi internment cars. Only half of the soldiers are equipped with basic weaponry. They are launched on suicidal wave-attack formations, and then shot by their own officers if they retreat without orders--orders which never come. It's a grim conflation of values from the average World War Two movies that makes the Nazi and Soviet belligerents feel more interchangeable and ambiguous.

And then we get Bob Hoskins as Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev. You first meet him as he gives a Soviet commander a pistol to kill himself for failing to hold the line, and then you revel in his snapping badger of a speech to the remaining officers of Stalingrad's defense. With Hoskins behind the characterization, Khruschev is both wryly funny and deadly--deadly deadly--serious. Plumbing the officers and commissars for suggestions, he listens to a handful of nervous party-line suggestions, all of which fall into the category of 'shoot those who don't fall into line'. When Joseph Fiennes as Commisar Danilov suggests that the Soviet political officers actually try to find good examples, heroes, for the beleaguered defenders to emulate, the Soviet pit-bull creeps up to the beanstalk Danilov and asks in a Brillo-pad-tender voice:

It's such a great, fun little moment, but still played completely straight thanks to the subtle depth of Bob Hoskins in this role. There's sinister anticipation, intimate anxiety, and sadistic humor all commingled in one perfect vignette. This deep introduction colors his later scenes as Khrushchev ingratiates himself as a bullish father-figure in Vassili's growth as a hero of the people, adding an engaging level of tension from another Soviet source in the second act of the film.

Movie: Hook (own it)

Steven Spielberg's Hook is one of the defining pieces of cinema that my generation devoured at a young age. A modern adult-centric sequel to the classic Peter Pan story, Hook follows the mid-life adventures of failed father Peter Pan as he gets dragged back to Neverland. At the bottom end of the intended audience's age, I went through junior high hanging out with kids who'd chant "Rufio! Rufio! Ru! Fi! Oh!" at large events, kids who earnestly worked on their crow, and otherwise enjoyed Hook as one of the few fantasy films accessible to kids in the early nineties. Part of the elegant power of this film--like many of Spielberg's enduring works--lies in the strength of the four principal characters: Robin Williams as Peter Pan, Julia Roberts as Tinkerbell, Dustin Hoffman as Captain Hook, and Bob Hoskins weighing in as the most enjoyable iteration of Smee ever--by far. By liberating the consummate goon from the mindless affirmative support Smee has always embodied, Hoskins' Smee was still mired in comical stupidity, but the actor also made him engagingly charismatic and vaguely devious at the same time. The marvelously unique minion's character is wonderfully encapsulated when he and Hook brainstorm how to get poetic, meaningful vengeance on Peter Pan. With a ding of a bell, Smee announces his own wicked plot with:

With Hook condescendingly correcting his henchman's verbiage, Smee nonetheless outlines a plan to use Pan's children to gain thorough revenge on Peter Pan--a plan that Hook clearly would not have developed on his own. Smee being a productive part of Prosthetic's crew is not just a novel approach, but it is so dynamically and enjoyably developed throughout the film that Hoskins stands shoulder to shoulder with Hoffman as the eponymous villain--even stealing a few scenes. Add to that the charismatic manner in which Smee barks back and forth with the rest of the pirates in the film, and you get a sense that Hoskins' Smee is the real power behind the Jolly Roger's tiller in Hook.

Movie: Unleashed (own it)

Unleashed is the most violent saccharine movie you're ever likely to see. It's a film about a quiet, child-like martial arts prodigy raised to be a human attack dog for a British loan shark, and it sits on the action chops of star Jet Li and director Louis Leterrier as well as on the acting chops of Bob Hoskins and Morgan Freeman. Morgan Freeman plays a saintly, patient, blind piano-tuner named Sam, who stands opposite the man holding the main character's leash: 'Uncle' Bart, played by Bob Hoskins. The juxtaposition of the sweet and the dangerous in this movie cannot be overemphasized--just taking a selection of moments from the movie's three acts illustrates this. Act one includes a scene where a man is killed outright when he's punched repeatedly in the windpipe. The second act has the main character learn about ice cream and his first brain-freeze with a cute girl, and the third act involves our hero tossing two bad guys at once by their junk.

That's right, I said it. I'll just give you a moment to let that sink in.

As with the other two movies, Bob Hoskins plays a character who is interesting and deep even in his most profoundly iniquitous moments. Unlike Khrushchev or Smee, however, Uncle Bart is absolutely vile and it's really only the marvelous realization of the actor that makes his loathsome character bearable on screen. He's a torturous loan shark, involved in blackmail and prostitution, murder, and he's a methodically cruel slave master to the main character Danny. And yet he plays the right moments off with a coy smile and understatement that make the audience actually enjoy the human diaper stain's contribution to the story. A prime example is when Bart is asked how he managed to turn a human being into a mindless fighting machine. His reply: "It's like my saint of a mum used to say..."

Look at that coy smile. Out of context, you might try slapping congenial as a label on that mug, but he's using that old wives' proverb to euphemise the systematic dehumanization of a person. It's boggling to watch, and enjoyable in its powerfully disconcerting subtlety in a movie that is otherwise un-subtly painted in contrasting tones of blood red and shining gold.

Leave it to Hoskins to find that critical transitory element in such an inky black-hat character. And leave it to him to make him smarmy and funny and subtle even when the rest of his on-screen moments involve murder and beatings.

Movie Web Monday will continue next week with a new actor, picking up with some other prolific player from the last movie listed above.