Tag Archives: Ben Mendelsohn

Robin Hood Stole from Everyone who Paid for a Ticket

Just what the movie-going audience was clamoring for–another remake of Robin Hood. We’ve only had a couple dozen takes on this, so I guess the Hollywood suits thought we needed another one, complete with all the gimmicky, cliched “edginess” that passes for story in too many movies lately. For those who want to save some time, I’ll just say at the outset that Robin Hood was absolute crap from beginning to end. There was nothing good about this movie. For those who want the gory details, read on.

For starters, this thing must be set in a parallel universe, because it doesn’t even vaguely resemble any time period in our history. Taking liberties is one thing, but having the entire film full to bursting with bizarre anachronisms is quite another. We’re told it takes place during the crusades, but the armor and clothing are all over the place. And no, you don’t have to be a hard-core history buff to notice. The main cast looks like they just stepped out of a high-end boutique. Marian (Eve Hewson) sports a very stylish black leather jacket over a modern-cut, red dress and suede high heel boots. Robin (Taron Egerton) and Little John (Jamie Foxx) look like they just finished a GQ photo shoot. But the worst offender has to be the Sheriff of Nottingham (Ben Mendelsohn), who spends the entire movie in a full-length, dove grey leather coat.

Ben Mendelsohn in Robin Hood (2018). IMDb.com.

Continue reading →

Ready Player One Allows Middle-Aged Nerds to Pretend They’re Cool for a Couple of Hours

Ready Player One takes place in 2045. Life is miserable for most people. To escape their wretched existences, they log into a virtual world called the OASIS. Created by socially awkward genius James Halliday (Mark Rylance), the OASIS allows anyone to become whoever or whatever they want to be. Just before Halliday dies, he channels Willy Wonka and sets up a contest to find 3 keys that lead to an Easter Egg. The first person to find the egg inherits Halliday’s fortune and gains control of the OASIS. Parzival (Tye Sheridan) and Art3mis (Olivia Cooke), avatars of real-world Wade and Samantha, are determined to find the egg and keep the OASIS out of the clutches of evil business executive Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn), who wants to take control and put up advertisements. Yeah, that’s the existential evil the inhabitants of the OASIS are facing. Annoying adds.

If you unplug your brain and don’t think about it, Ready Player One is another soulless CGI-heavy spectacle. We’ve seen a lot of them these past few years. The characters are poorly developed, the story is thin, and the whole thing is just an excuse to cram as many pop culture references as possible into the 140-minute runtime. This film exists to give middle-aged nerds an opportunity to squeal with delight at their ability to spot call-outs to their lost youth. It very quickly crosses the line and becomes downright patronizing. Plenty of movies are all style and no substance, but I had hoped for more from a film directed by Steven Spielberg. Continue reading →

Gary Oldman Shines in Darkest Hour

The biopic, Darkest Hour (directed by Joe Wright), follows Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman) through his early days as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. As the film begins, “Peace for our time” Neville Chamberlain’s (Ronald Pickup) disastrous policies have come home to roost, Hitler is threatening all of Europe, and Chamberlain is forced to resign as Prime Minister. Unpopular among his own party but considered acceptable to the Opposition, Churchill is summoned by King George VI (Ben Mendelsohn) to become the new Prime Minister.

Darkest Hour is primarily a character study of Churchill, and Oldman clearly relishes the role and fully immerses himself in it. He gives the audience an admittedly flawed Churchill, hopelessly politically incorrect by current standards, who nevertheless possesses a passionate loyalty to the British Empire and an unbreakable determination to see the British people through what seemed an almost hopeless situation at that stage of the war.