Two New Movies: One Silly, The Other Somber

Two new movies (one in theaters already, the other opening Friday) take totally opposite tacts.
One is dark, rather unforgiving and somber.
The other is bright, sometimes shrill and ultimately just as silly as it can be.
Here's what they have in common: The stories of both (and the way they play out) are quite preposterous.

The somber one if the new Colin Farrell flick, Dead Man Down. This movie begins and ends with loud, gutteral, bloody, foul-mouth-laced shootfests. In between these searing action sequences we find a story of revenge-saturated lost souls. At it's core, this is a story about two damaged people and their need for one another.
But it never really becomes a love story. There's nothing romantic about it. Colin Farrell never goes to bed with anyone. There are no naked starlets cavorting about -- just one scene with a hungry prostitute in a tenement.
Anyway, Colin's love interest (such as she is) is a troubled, disfigured working gal (played by newcomer Noomi Repace) who lives in a dingy public housing tower across from Colin. She shares the apartment with her mother and spends much of her time brooding over her misfortune. One day, peering through her window she sees Colin doing something that she should not have seen -- something criminal. And so (in a page torn right from Hitchcock's Rear Window) she's got something on him.
Now, Colin's character is actually Hungarian (but nobody knows that) and he's got a whole back story of his own. But if you spend too much time trying to figure out the complicated story here (involving Hungarian, Philippine and African-American gangs) you'll lose track of what Niels Arden Opley really wants you to concentrate on: Colin's deep, soulful, sometimes sensitive eyes and Noomi's facial scars and hair. These two main characters don't really talk very much when they're together but even though they never climb into bed they do manage to communicate. Call it atmospheric.
The great French actress Isabelle Hubert plays Noomi's mother and F. Murray Abraham is also wonderful in a supporting role.
Local note: Yes, this was the movie that they were filming last year on Walnut St. between 16th and 17th. Though it's all set in New York, a whole chunk of the film (some of the most gripping scenes) were shot in Philly.
Anyway, both Colin and Noomi get their revenge in the end and everything sort of turns out fine but only after plenty of mayhem and lots of angst.
This flick's not in the running for any film honors but it won't win any Razzies either.

The silly one is The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.
And in this movie you will see barely-clad beauties -- statuesque showgirls amidst all the glitter and glitz of Las Vegas. The colors are so bright in this movie that it almost hurts your eyes. And the film is loud and some of the scenes come close to being a complete assault on the senses.
This is a modern day comic fest with Steve Carell, Steve Buscemi (both pictured, above), Jim Carrey, Alan Arkin, James Gandolfini and Olivia Wilde. Do I have to tell you that Carrey eats the scenery in this flick about competing magicians and the derangement of the popular culture?
And yet, Carrey gets away with it. As an "entertainer" whose whole act is based on self-torture, he's downright scary. He's so real that watching him is like watching flesh burning on hot coals -- literally.
Carell plays against type here. He's not the nice guy. In fact, he's an obnoxious, egotistical jerk (Burt Wonderstone).
And Buscemi is not the heavy here. Instead, he's the nice guy and he's got quite a comic touch. He's the lovable sap, the chum.
Gandolfini is not a mobster here but he is a self-centered casino mogul who will stop at nothing to cater to the public's increasingly warped sense of entertainment.
Arkin (who seems to be supporting in every movie this season) plays the seasoned dean of the magicians -- a graybeard who isn't very interested in assuming the role of an elder statesman. He laments the fact that the joy as been drained from the art of magic. In short, there's no longer any magic in magic.
But enough philosophizing.
This is a movie without a serious thought in its head. It's bombastic. And it's all played for laughs -- often too boisterously and sometimes unsuccessfully.
But when it does succeed the laughs are big. We weren't the only ones in the theater howling at some of the pratfalls, jokes, sight gags and absurdities that prevail in Wonderstone. And the actors joyously play off one another to induce merriment even when it borders on the macabre. You're never quite sure what's going to happen and you'll be surprised at some of the moments that have you laughing. There's something wonderfully absurd about the whole thing. And Carrell, Buscemi, Carrey and the entire cast seem to be having a great time throughout.
It's outrageous.
But don't be fooled: While the movie may be about magicians, it's not a family flick. And some of the scenes may make you want to divert your eyes. Definitely not for everybody.