Movie Review: The Spirit

I do love movies. I watch a lot of them.  Part of this is a sort of "catch up" or "research" capacity. In that I will eventually, if all goes according to plan, become part of the pop culture through my writing, I think it's a good idea to be aware of what that culture is. 

Within reason. I'd not be caught dead watching 90210, for example.

Anyway, consider this the introduction to one of the "things" I'll be doing on my blog: Movie reviews.  Even though I have all of two readers that I know of, and I know our cinematic tastes are by no means identical (though they're reasonably similar). What the hell.  Like I said. I love movies. 

Yesterday I watched the somewhat anticipated The Spirit.  I wanted to see it because A) It's a comic book movie; B) It's done by the same guy who did Sin City so one could reasonably assume it would look cool.  But most importantly, C) Eva Mendes is in the movie, and I like her almost enough to see a chick flick (i.e. The Women). Almost. 

The Spirit is a pulpy, anachronistic study in monochrome. All the men speak in clipped, gravelly voices; their vernacular, transport and clothing, are all lifted straight out of the 1930s, even as the characters pull out their cell phones, stare balefully at a flat-panel computer screen, or activate the electronic targeting on their Really Big Guns. 

It's a movie that embraces the over-the-top camp of the 30s pulps, a tongue-in-cheek, deadpan homage to the source material.  Don't see this movie expecting The Dark Knight.  The lead femme fatale (Mendes' character) is named Sand Serif, for Pete's sake.  If you don't know what that means, look up "sans serif".  Naturally, as a longtime typesetter, I not only got the joke but loved it. 

Visually the movie is much like Sin City: Filmed through monochrome filters, the remaining stark and lonely colors threaten to burn stylised holes in your retinae; the use of blank white to etch out details, such as the eponymous Spirit's shoes, and unshaded red for his tie, give the film a cartoonish appearance bolstered by the subject matter and some of the goofier characters. 

It's a fun movie, good for light escapism and another chance to see Eva's bum.  Perhaps because I was still feeling way wiped out from my Christmas night ordeal, I couldn't really muster up any strong feelings for the movie, other than getting a little annoyed by the overwhelming use of red.  I loved seeing Mendes be all-out sexy, I enjoyed watching apparent newcomer Gabriel Macht trade blows with the always fun Samuel L. Jackson and it was all cool.  I do recommend it, but I rather suspect it's not going to end up in my DVD collection. 

Although naturally I will see it again so I can watch with subtitles. That may make a huge difference (it did for 3:10 to Yuma, for example), because as usual I missed a lot of dialogue. 

Watch out for a review of Benjamin Button; I plan to go see that sometime this weekend. I've also got a stack of DVDs so there may be other reviews in the days to come.  Hell, maybe I should start another blog just for the reviews!