p e n g u i n d e v i l

So I finally watched Hollywoodland, a movie that I’d been wanting to see ever since it came out, as I love the clothes from that era. Honestly. Well, and these sort of whodunit movies… I thought it was pretty good. It was based on a real subject that I didn’t really know anything about, the confusions around the suicide of George Reeves. Admittedly, I wasn’t particularly interested in the subject, and the movie didn’t make me any more interested, but the movie itself was good.

The story of a private eye (Adrien Brody) who is hired by George Reeves’ mother to prove that his suicide was actually a murder. Of course, since the case has been closed he has to run a bit counter to the LAPD to do this and there are plenty of potential suspects each out for their own good, including Reeves’ fiance and his lover (Diane Lane as the wife of a studio head, played by Bob Hoskins).

The movie felt a lot like watching L.A. Confidential, though not as good and with no where near as great a cast or story, but it looked good and they did a nice job with the 1950’s thing. I like Adrien Brody fine, but I had a hard time buying his character. Ben Affleck did fine as George Reeves, though he seemed a bit like I would imagine Ben Affleck to really be, but it worked for me. Of course, Bob Hoskins was here playing his usual bad self, but sadly his rather focal character didn’t have enough screen time for me.

And we finally watched Safemen. This was a surprisingly fun little comedy. Paul Giametti (redeeming himself from last week’s Shoot ’em Up) plays Veal Chop, a Jewish mob underling in Baltimore who mistakenly pegs Sam Rockwell and Steve Zahn (a failing music duo) as the Safe Men, the greatest safe crackers of Baltimore. He traps them so that his boss, Big Fat Bernie (Michael Lerner brilliantly playing a very similar character to his role in Barton Fink) can force them to heist some safes for him. Of course, throw in the fact that they don’t know how to break safes and then a love triangle and, of course, the real Safemen and you have comedy hijinks! Adding good direction, some very funny dialogue and then just some odd but very good shots, and you have a pretty entertaining and good-hearted comedy. I don’t watch a lot of comedies, but I would recommend this one.