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Movie Review: Dead Man's Wire

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B+

An excellent thriller. 

This movie tells the true story (that happened in Indianapolis in 1977) of a man who feels wronged by a broker and ends up tying a noose with a gun attached to it to the broker's son. By doing this he plans to bring to light how terrible of people the broker and his son were. 

Is this man an evil horrible person, someone who is suffering from mental problems or a hero standing up for the little man? What makes this film work so well is that it never answers this question. It simply tells you the story and makes you reach your own conclusions about it. With such an approach the best well to tell the story is to make it as authentic as possible. Director Gus Van Sant (Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993), Good Will Hunting (1997), Milk (2008)) and writer Austin Kolodney (amazingly writing his first feature film) go to great lengths to achieve this. Austin Kolodney, even did much research on the subject to make sure this movie was as close to the real events as possible. Van Sant gives the movie an almost documentary look and feel to it, making us sometimes momentarily forget that we aren't watching real footage. This includes making each shot look as authentically like the 70's as possible. This was done down to the tiniest detail. Also making this movie feel real is the performances of Bill Skarsgård and Dacre Montgomery, both of whom seem to become these real-life people. Bill Skarsgård's is also incredibly magnetic making it hard to take your eyes off of him, even if his character can be far from likable. He is truly scary in this role because of how natural he feels, and this is what creates the tension needed for this kind of thriller. 

One thing does cut into this movie's feeling of authenticity though and that is Al Pacino's supporting role. When he is on screen, we are too aware that we are watching Al Pacino, and the film no longer feels like a documentary. 

The movie has a subplot involving two reporters who work on small stories but see this crime as a chance to get a big story for the first time. These characters are quite likable, but the story can feel shoehorned in and more than a little like padding at times. 

This is a truly engrossing film. 

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Green Lantern: First Flight (2009)

 

This direct to video animated movie marked the first feature film based on the DC Comics character, Green Lantern and predates the characters big screen debut in Green Lantern (2011). 

In this film, test pilot Hal Jordan is chosen by a Green Lantern ring when Green Lantern Abin Sur dies. With this he becomes the first Earth inhabitant to become a Green Lantern. When he is taken to the Green Lantern Corps, the Green Lanterns from other planets are distrustful of him. Yet he is put under the watchful eye of Sinestro (from the planet Korugar), who trains him how to be a Green Lantern. However, Hal learns that Sinestro is planning to overthrow the Corps and 8), Hal must stop the villain. 

This is a delightful sci-fi adventure. The worlds it takes us to are extremely atmospheric and believable. Even the worlds we only see for a short time are very well detailed and fun. The artwork is fantastic. The background art creates a larger than life feel that is perfect for this type of sci-fi story. The designs of the various beings are delightfully creative and fun. The action scenes are exciting and very well paced and animated. Hal is a very likable hero. Though he has a little bit of an ego, he in many ways is exactly what a hero should be. He is brave, smart, knows how to hold himself back and always does whatever he can to help anyone in trouble. 

This movie benefits from a very strong villain. Sinestro is a complex and well written character. We understand where he is coming from and there are many points with which we are inclined to agree with him. Though his reasons are not evil, his methods are deplorable. We at first find ourselves on his side, until he tortures multiple beings in order to get information out of them. He strongly believes that any means are worth the ideals and those means get increasingly disturbing as the film continues. From this we understand how he transitioned from someone who felt disillusioned by the Green Lantern Corps to a full evil supervillain. He also works because he feels like a massive threat to our heroes. 

Like many of these animated DC movies, this film has one major flaw. That is its length. At only 77 minutes, this film is much shorter than it should be. The start of this film is especially rushed. We barely get to see Hal in his civilian life. We also never get to see him get used to his powers. We see him get the ring and next time we see him, he knows how to use it almost perfectly. This short runtime also makes it so the rather large supporting cast remains underdeveloped.   

This film's director was Lauren Montgomery, who has worked as a storyboard artist on most of these DC Comics direct to video movies (and some of the Marvel ones as well) as well as such DC TV shows as Justice League Unlimited, Legion of Superheroes, Young Justice and Batman: Brave and the Bold. She may be the best director of these direct to video movies, having directed such films as Superman: Doomsday (2007), Wonder Woman (2009), Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths (2010), Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (2010), Green Lantern: Emerald Knights (2011), Batman: Year One (2011) and Justice League: Doom (2012). 

This film was also written by one of the best writers for superhero cartoons, Alan Burrett. He had written for such TV shows as Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show, The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, The New Batman Adventures, Batman Beyond, Static Shock, The Batman, Krypto the Superdog and Batman: The Brave and the Bold. He was also a writer for such animated superhero movies as Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993), Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker (2000), Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman (2003), Batman: Gotham Knight (2008), Green Lantern: Emerald Knights (2011), Justice League: Gods and Monsters (2015), Justice League vs. Teen Titans (2016), Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay (2018), Justice League vs. the Fatal Five (2019). He also served as a producer on many of the Scooby-Doo and Tom and Jerry direct to video movies.