Tag Archives: John C. McGinley
1995, ★½, Mystery
Seven (1995, David Fincher)
7 August 2016 Andrew Wickliffe	1 Comment
Seven is a gorgeous film. It's often a really stupid film, but it's a gorgeous film. Even when it's being stupid, it's usually gorgeous. Director Fincher has a beautiful precision to his composition; he works great with photographer Darius Khondji, editor Richard Francis-Bruce and composer Howard Shore (about half the time with Shore). Seven is a visually harrowing experience. Shame the narrative breaks down halfway through when Andrew Kevin Walker's already problematic script shifts leading man duties to Brad Pitt (from Morgan Freeman). It's not just Pitt's inability to lead the film, it also gets really dumb once they use the secret FBI database to find their bad guy. Fincher spends a lot of time setting up the authenticity of his hellish American city. When Seven starts flushing that verisimilitude down the proverbial toilet, well… it splatters on everyone, most unfortunately Freeman.
Freeman's great in the film. He can't do much in the scenes where he inexplicably plays sidekick to Pitt, who's really bad at this particular role. While Pitt doesn't have any chemistry with wife Gwyneth Paltrow, she doesn't have any chemistry with anyone. Sure, her part is horrifically thin, but she's still not good. Her scenes bonding with Freeman are painful. It's good production designer Arthur Max went out of his way to include frequent interesting signage in the backgrounds because otherwise Paltrow's big monologue wouldn't be as tolerable. Even Freeman can't make that scene work.
There's some decent acting from R. Lee Ermey. It's strange how well Fincher and editor Francis-Bruce do with some performances and how badly they do with others. Especially since the second half is just a star vehicle for the completely underwhelming Pitt. But there's also this interrogation sequence (a very, very stupid one as far as cop movie logic goes, but Seven laughs at reasonable cop movie logic time and again) where Pitt's interrogating Michael Massee and Freeman's interrogating Leland Orser. Orser's awful, but clearly going for what Fincher and Walker want. Massee's great in his few moments, the editing on his side. Sure, Massee's acting opposite Pitt, but the editing lets him have his scene, it doesn't give it to Pitt.
Later on in the film, when Pitt's having his big intellectual showdown with Kevin Spacey (who does wonders with a terribly written part), Fincher and Francis-Bruce let Pitt have the scene. They really should. One feels bad for Spacey, acting opposite such a vacuum. Pitt's far better in the first half of the film, whining about being Freeman's subordinate; he lets his hair do a lot of the acting in those scenes. His frosted blond tips give the better performance.
It's a beautifully directed film. Fincher's excellent at whatever the film needs–Freeman sulking around because he's a lonely old cop and it's what lonely old cops do, Pitt doing a chase sequence, even John C. McGinley's glorified cameo as the SWAT commander has some good procedural sequences–but he doesn't actually have a real vision for it. He takes a little here, takes a little there. It ends with an inexplicable nod to film noir and Casablanca. It's dumb. Because Walker's script, in addition to often being bad, is often dumb. It needed a good rewrite and far better performances in Pitt and Paltrow's roles.
Oh, and the nameless American city bit? That choice was stupid too.
Directed by David Fincher; written by Andrew Kevin Walker; director of photography, Darius Khondji; edited by Richard Francis-Bruce; music by Howard Shore; production designer, Arthur Max; produced by Arnold Kopelson and Phyllis Carlyle; released by New Line Cinema.
Starring Brad Pitt (Mills), Morgan Freeman (Somerset), Gwyneth Paltrow (Tracy), Kevin Spacey (John), R. Lee Ermey (Police Captain), John C. McGinley (California), Richard Schiff (Mark Swarr) and Richard Roundtree (District Attorney Martin Talbot).
OTHER FILMS DIRECTED BY DAVID FINCHER
Brad PittDavid FincherGwyneth PaltrowJohn C. McGinleyKevin SpaceyMorgan FreemanNew Line CinemaR. Lee ErmeySe7en
Highlander II: The Quickening (1991, Russell Mulcahy)
18 April 2016 Andrew Wickliffe	1 Comment
Highlander II: The Quickening has had a reputation as a sequel disaster since its release. Outside of "Starlog" write-ups, did anyone ever pretend to be excited about this film? But since its initial release (and multiple home video re-releases with different editing), The Quickening has actually gotten to be a wonderful time capsule of its era and situation.
The film is desperate. It goes all out. People like hoverboards from Back to the Future Part II, let's have hoverboards. The ladies liked stars Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery with long hair in the first one, let's do all long hair in the second one. Highlander 2 ought to be subtitled Big Hair and Big Swords because it's desperate enough to give villain Michael Ironside long hair, presumably to make him… sexy?
Now. Ironside. Real quick. He ought to look embarrassed and he doesn't. He gets through. John C. McGinley not so much, but Ironside gets through. He's the lamest early nineties movie villain–a mix of the savage punk villain from the previous Highlander and Jack Nicholson's Joker from Batman–but Ironside does get through it.
Sean Connery's actually okay enough. Lambert's bad but how could anyone be good. He's so bad he's better under the old age make-up at the beginning than when he's young again.
Virginia Madsen is not good as the love interest. It's a terrible part, but she's still not good. Oh, look, a metaphor for the entire film. It's terrible for multiple reasons, but it could never be good. Even when Highlander 2 does something right for a little while, it gets screwed up. Director Mulcahy has a handful of decent concepts, but they're either too short or ultimately fail. And when it seems like a perfect Mulcahy moment–many of the sets are enormous so Mulcahy can do his swinging crane shots–he never takes advantage. It's puzzling and disconcerting.
Weird score from Stewart Copeland, weirder pop soundtrack. Both are bad, but interesting in their weirdness. Like everything else, they're desperate to appear hip. Peter Bellwood's lousy script apes corporations as bad guys from Robocop and Total Recall, bringing along poor Ironside from that latter as well. Highlander 2 is a sequel to a cable and home video hit desperately trying to be a cable and home video hit.
I suppose it's oddly appropriate a film about immortality is also such a perfect time capsule of a popular filmmaking era. It's such a perfect example of it, I'm only moderately embarrassed to have written over 400 words about it right now.
Directed by Russell Mulcahy; screenplay by Peter Bellwood, based on a story by Brian Clemens and William N. Panzer and characters created by Gregory Widen; director of photography, Phil Meheux; edited by Hubert C. de la Bouillerie and Anthony Redman; music by Stewart Copeland; production designer, Roger Hall; produced by Jean-Luc Defait, Ziad El Khoury, Peter S. Davis and Panzer; released by Interstar.
Starring Christopher Lambert (Connor MacLeod), Sean Connery (Juan Sánchez Villa-Lobos Ramírez), Virginia Madsen (Louise Marcus), Michael Ironside (General Katana), Allan Rich (Allan Neyman), John C. McGinley (David Blake) and Ed Trucco (Jimmy).
HIGHLANDER II: THE QUICKENING, THE INTERNATIONAL VERSION (2010 REVIEW)
OTHER HIGHLANDER FILMS
OTHER FILMS DIRECTED BY RUSSELL MULCAHY
Brian ClemensChristopher LambertHighlander II: The QuickeningInterstarJohn C. McGinleyMichael IronsideSean ConneryStewart CopelandVirginia Madsen
1999, ★★★, Comedy
Office Space (1999, Mike Judge)
12 December 2013 Andrew Wickliffe	2 Comments
Office Space is the model of efficiency. Judge never races through things, he just tells them really fast or implies them. There's the fantastic opening montage of everyone going to work, which ought to be a clue to who is and isn't going to be important in the film, and then things just breeze along as he establishes the ground situation.
I've seen the film multiple times and never remembered Ron Livingston–the lead–has a girlfriend when it starts. I also didn't realize the girlfriend (Alexandra Wentworth) never even speaks to him onscreen.
Judge clearly cut this thing a lot and the result is one of those outstanding examples of how post production can make something shine.
The film has the perfect comedy recipe–great cast, great lines, great plotting. The film only stumbles during the end of the second act, but Judge moves it along as fast as he can, almost like he knew he was in bumpy territory.
Livingston's great in the lead, with excellent support from David Herman and Ajay Naidu as his sidekicks. Diedrich Bader's hilarious. All the work boobs are great–the outtakes of Gary Cole, John C. McGinley and Paul Willson must be amazing.
Jennifer Aniston sadly gets nothing to do. She's the likable love interest. She's good at it but so what.
Obviously, Stephen Root runs off with the picture. Or, more appropriately, shuffles off with it. He's got a really tough role and he nails it.
Judge cooks a great comedy.
Written and directed by Mike Judge; director of photography, Tim Suhrstedt; edited by David Rennie; music by John Frizzell; production designer, Edward T. McAvoy; produced by Daniel Rappaport, Michael Rotenberg and Judge; released by 20th Century Fox.
Starring Ron Livingston (Peter Gibbons), David Herman (Michael Bolton), Ajay Naidu (Samir Nagheenanajar), Greg Pitts (Drew), Stephen Root (Milton Waddams), Gary Cole (Bill Lumbergh), Richard Riehle (Tom Smykowski), Diedrich Bader (Lawrence), John C. McGinley (Bob Slydell), Paul Willson (Bob Porter), Todd Duffey (Brian), Orlando Jones (Steve), Joe Bays (Dom Portwood) and Jennifer Aniston (Joanna).
OTHER FILMS DIRECTED BY MIKE JUDGE
20th Century FoxDiedrich BaderGary ColeJennifer AnistonJohn C. McGinleyMike JudgeOffice SpaceRon LivingstonStephen Root
1994, Action/Adventure, ⓏⒺⓇⓄ
On Deadly Ground (1994, Steven Seagal)
30 September 2011 Andrew Wickliffe	Leave a comment
On Deadly Ground is about a presumably Inuit (it's never clear) special forces guy (also never clear) killing, maiming and beating up oil company goons in a number of creative ways.
Strangely, Seagal makes the audience wait to discover the film's true nature. The first scene is an exceptionally lame and poorly acted explosion sequence. It gets fun almost immediately following, when Seagal beats up a bunch of redneck oil workers who are assaulting a Native American. Besides a really bad spiritual journey thing in the middle, the movie's otherwise just Seagal versus the oil company goons (led by a somewhat restrained Michael Caine).
Apparently, critics at the time dismissed the film as a vanity project, but I'm having a hard time thinking of another movie icon at the height of his or her career who's made something along the lines of this film. There's even a line comparing Alaska to a third world oil producing country… presumably since the governments are so easy to buy.
As a director, Seagal's bad. His composition is on par with any other crappy action movie director and he's awful with actors–though he apparently recognized Billy Bob Thornton's abilities and showcased him–but he's not so bad there's any point in vilifying him.
Joan Chen is weak as the sidekick (her character is along so Seagal can tell her all the "MacGyver" stuff he's doing) and John C. McGinley is awful.
It's too long, but it's vicariously fulfilling so it passes reasonably fast.
Directed by Steven Seagal; written by Ed Horowitz and Robin U. Russin; director of photography, Ric Waite; edited by Don Brochu and Robert A. Ferretti; music by Basil Poledouris; production designer, William Ladd Skinner; produced by A. Kitman Ho, Julius R. Nasso and Seagal; released by Warner Bros.
Starring Steven Seagal (Forrest Taft), Michael Caine (Michael Jennings), Joan Chen (Masu), John C. McGinley (MacGruder), R. Lee Ermey (Stone), Billy Bob Thornton (Homer Carlton), Richard Hamilton (Hugh Palmer), Mike Starr (Big Mike) and Sven-Ole Thorsen (Otto).
Billy Bob ThorntonJoan ChenJohn C. McGinleyMichael CaineOn Deadly GroundR. Lee ErmeyRichard HamiltonSteven SeagalWarner Bros.
The Rocketeer (1991, Joe Johnston)
It's an Adventure, Charlie Brown (1983, Sam Jaimes, Phil Roman, and Bill Melendez)
Eighth Grade (2018, Bo Burnham)