The Spirit

The Spirit

The Spirit - Directed by Frank Miller, starring Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson, Eva Mendes, and Scarlett Johanssen - Rated PG-13

My first crappy classic (it's not old enough to be forgotten yet) is an adaptation about the old comic strip series by Will Eisner from the '40's and '50's. It's about the crime fighter The Spirit (Macht) and his battle with the Octopus (Jackson, hamming it up and loving every minute of it). Along the way he tries to be a ladies man with almost every woman he comes across. This sounds cheesy, I know, and you know it's kind of stupid if you've seen the previews featuring such lines as, "I'm gonna kill you all kinds of dead." (Which I think is hilarious, by the way.) But this is supposed to be cheesy. Remember the source material, this is what that old comic was like. Sure, some of the violence is amped up and Jackson's character goes off the reservation (even though you only ever see Octopus' hands in the comic) but it's all in good, cheesy fun. This may look like Sin City (Frank Miller did direct this) but the story is a bit more light-hearted.

The Sin City reference is a little unfair because this movie does have it's own style, but it is very much like the style of Sin City. That doesn't mean it's a complete copy, though. The visuals are great all around and even a few of the critics who hated the movie admitted that it was interesting to look at at least. I'm just asking for people to give this movie a chance. Just realize that this movie is supposed to be funny. Miller wasn't going for grittiness in this, he was going for a visually impressive and, most importantly, fun movie. Accept that and you may end up liking this.

A warning, though. I can understand why people would hate this so I'll list a few of the dumber things in the movie. Jackson's henchmen are all clones and all appear to be nearly brain dead. They say stupid things throughout the film and are extremely goofy. I thought they were hilarious, but I can see where some people might find them just plain stupid and unfunny. Jackson himself might turn people away, too. He is overacting more than ever here and if he gets on your nerves in his more eccentric roles, then you might want to avoid this. He also talks about how much he hates eggs on his face, or likes eggs, or something...it made no sense to me and I still can't figure out what that reference is about (I will check out the commentary on the DVD, that might clear it up). If the so-called negatives sound like something you might enjoy (as I do), then at least rent this movie. If anything above raises a flag, though, you should skip it.

Oh, and fans of The Wonder Years should at least check it out because the dad from that show (Dan Lauria) is hilarious as the commissioner. It also helps (for the male viewers, anyway) that every woman in this movie is ridiculously beautiful. The dad from The Wonder Years and beautiful women? What more did anyone want from this movie? Seriously, though, worth a watch for most people, I imagine and it is certainly nowhere close to being the worst movie ever, as some critics and message board trolls have been saying.

Eric Harris - www.canneltoncritic.com

the spirit

if you like comic book movies it’s okay.  but if you’re going to one movie this week.  this ain’t the one.  unless you really just have a hard on for frank miller.  because this isn’t a good frank miller.  it’s certainly 300.  it looks a lot like sin city but i think the characters are just miscast.

i mean, it’s a hard core comic book movie that i think would require some big time hollywood chops to pull off.  the main character is good.  i have no idea who he is.

samuel l. jackson is pretty good.  but i just got the impression he was trying too damn hard to pull it off.  he looks worse as the octapus than he did as a jedi.  and that was terrible.  i want my samuel l. jackson dropping f-bombs and intimidating the hell out of people with his profane mouth.

scarlett johanson is a sexy em effer to be sure.  and she looks great.  this was not a good role for her.  something just never quite felt right.   but she does look damn good.  i’m so happy the mid riff is back in style.

eva mendez is upstaged by the actress who plays the young eva mendez character.  and she reminded me more of jessica alba.

the movie looks really cool though.  as far as stylistically and all that.  looks very similar to sin city.  lots of blacks and whites highlighted with color like blood in sin city and dude’s red tie in this one.  it was far less bloody than sin city but still pretty bloody.  and the images on the screen look really cool.  very much like a comic book might look.

so like i said, if you are fan of comic book movies then you’ll probably like this flick.  but there are lots of better things to see at the theater right now.  such as benjamin button, which is fantastic.  i’m a try and catch valkyrie tomorrow.

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Cal Reed

THE SPIRIT (2008)

BOTTOM LINE: “The Spirit” looks very cool and has certain moments of stylish grittiness that are reminiscent of its superior elder brother “Sin City”, but the corny silliness and awkward execution of the story makes the film more of a joke rather than a quality translation of a graphic novel to the silver screen.

THE GOOD: There’s something to be said for displaying a unique visual style and “The Spirit” has that quality in spades. Like the other graphic novel adapted by Frank Miller (and co-directed by Robert Rodriguez) “Sin City”, this film has a look unlike normal films as the combination of sublime cinematography, visual effects and colour correction make for an incredibly vibrant and highly stylised graphic world that looks and feels like a moving comic book. Relying mostly on a black and white picture but with flashes of colour here and there, “The Spirit” is a unique visual experience. Supplementing that experience, at its core, is an age-old story about good versus evil set against the backdrop of a hell-hole city where two immortals with a common link battle each other over the fate of the citizens of Central City. The Spirit (Gabriel Macht) is a man who cannot die, who assists the police as a quasi-vigilante, who has a way with women but whose one true love is the city he protects. The Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson) is his arch-nemesis, an unethical madman hell-bent on becoming nothing less than a god amongst men. With all these elements in place, it is little wonder that there are moments of stylish grittiness, ranging from the sometimes harsh visuals to the dialogue and character interaction. There are also some strange moments of comedy, particularly with The Octopus’ cloned henchman who have no brains and are always smiling, even when they get their heads blown off. “The Spirit” has the elements to make a great film, but unfortunately, they are not used to great effect by director Frank Miller…

THE BAD: “The Spirit” as an exercise in film direction is an awkward mess. The problems start with the character of The Spirit, which is played with a goofy, stilted and silly dimension by Gabriel Macht. His every move and action seem to be from another type of film; a spoof, and as a result, all of the dramatic tension is destroyed. He goes in to internal dialogues that explains his and other character’s motivations, which would work fine in a graphic novel, but die a horrible death on film given that film is a visual medium and the goofily self-delivered speeches that Macht delivers about what he intends to do make the character a self-parody. Samuel L. Jackson, an otherwise fine actor, is not much better as The Octopus. His character seems to suffer from too many long-winded speeches that give The Spirit enough time to get out of trouble. A particularly bad sequence occurs towards the end when The Octopus appears in a Nazi uniform and spends twenty minutes explaining what’s been going on for the past hour and a half. It might not be their fault; Frank Miller had the reigns on his baby this time and perhaps he should stick to writing graphic novels or getting a co-director like Robert Rodriguez to help him as with the much better “Sin City”. Oddly, the supporting cast in Eva Mendes and Scarlett Johansson fare much better but they are not enough to save this uneven mess of story and character that disappoints on multiple levels.

RATING: 4/10

Todd Murphy <br />
http://www.allaboutmovies.net

Moon Minis - The Spirit

Styled in the same vein as director Frank Miller's other comic book film Sin City, The Spirit is shot in black, white, and red, with occasional colors interspersed here and there. The story is adapted from Will Eisner's comic book series, and follows a city's Spirit hero (Gabriel Macht) as he battles Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson); if he succeeds in getting his hands on the blood of Heracles, he will become immortal. But there's also a love story included with one of the women from the Spirit's past (Eva Mendes), who is also after the treasures of Heracles and a golden blanket.

Miller's film is visually attractive, the reds contrasting nicely on the black and white just as Sin City had done earlier. This may be partly the reason why The Spirit fails in my eyes - it's too hesitant to break free from the successes of Sin City to become anything other than a superhero movie directed by "that guy who did Sin City."

But there's more to it than that; for one, The Spirit feels too focused on its witty '40s-noir repartee to do much entertaining otherwise. The dialogue weighs the film down considerably; instead of The Spirit whisking us through an hour and a half, it feels like we're being dragged through the mud by Octopus. There's so much explanation to the drama, most of which we either shouldn't or don't need, that it throws the pacing off. The Spirit just doesn't have the strength to do anything Sin City did right, and so it remains a ghost in Sin City's presence.

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Last updated: 2010-01-18 23:32:08 by user01

The Spirit

Before seeing this movie, I knew absolutely nothing about The Spirit source material. I knew it was a comic of sorts, but other than that, I was in the dark. I watched this movie with a group of friends the other day, and well, I’ll give you my two cents on the motion picture.

“The Spirit” is about this hero guy named the Spirit, who likes to run around the city and stop bad guys. . . I guess. His over-the-top arch-nemesis goes by the name of the Octopus, and he has all these stupid cloned henchmen that are not good for anything other than comic relief . . . I guess. The story begins when a cop is murdered by Sand Serif, an über-foxy chick in this lake. . . .I guess,(Seriously, I’m not short on the details. This is seriously what the movie gives you.) The Spirit rushes to the scene and wants to find whoever did this, and. . .he was in a relationship with the foxy girl a long time ago, and. . or. . .I don’t really know. This has to be the most complicated story of all time, aside from “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”. From start to finish, the film makes absolutely no sense. With scenes that don’t seem to follow and a cheesy faux-noir voiceover, my friends and I were caught scratching our heads (not each other's heads. haha). The plot is irrelevant to what this movie has to offer, and perhaps even the filmmakers knew that. Plot wasn’t important. What was important was STYLE and CLEAVAGE.

The cleavage (sorry feminist side of me) was (absolutely) nothing to complain about, but even massive amounts of (awesome) cleavage couldn’t save this movie. As I watched this film, I continued to imagine what the graphic novel looked like. “I wonder how close to the comic book this is,” said my friends and I as the movie played through mindboggling scene after another. After the movie, I looked online and checked out The Spirit comics. Not only did I learn that a character had been completely omitted from the movie, but the film looked ABSOLUTELY NOTHING like the comics. Although the film looked nothing like source material, it did look like something: “Sin City”. There, I said it. But who can say that it doesn’t look like “Sin City”? It has that same color scheme of dark grays and blacks, sometimes with a strong red color taking up part of the screen. In short, in looks nothing like the source material, and looks like Frank Miller’s “Sin City”.  So. . .what? The chances of making “Sin City 2″ looked slim at the moment so they decided to make “The Spirit” in the same style? That is rather lame.

So, in conclusion, “The Spirit” is a strange, sloppily written and thrown-together movie. It looks too much like “Sin City” and well, yea. . .is trying to be something it is not. I guess the best thing we got from that movie was a whole bunch of cleavege shots, but. . .come on, man. . .that’s cheap. Any movie can put in tons of cleavage shots, and, well. . .I have nothing more to say about this movie besides that it is major lamesauce.

Recommendations: (500) Days Of Summer (Marc Webb, 2009)

The Spirit

THe best way I can describe this film is that it is a mixture of The Shadow and Sin City. I, for one love these type pf film nor films, not to mention those that are filmed almost entirely in green screen, so there’s no real surprise that I loved this film.
Virtually unknown Gabriel Macht really holds his own in what I believe is his first leading man role. If this film is any indication of the talent he possesses, I’m sure there will be more in his future. Did I mention he holds his own against Samuel L. Jackson?
Who better to play an over the top villain than Samuel L. Jackson? He pulls off this character with such ease and finesse that only he can bring to the screen.
Dan Lauria, best known for his role as the dad on The Wonder Years,  gives a good turn as Commissioner Dolan. and Louis Lombardi is hilarious and the Octopus’ henchmen.
How can I go without mentioning the bevy of beautiful women in this film. Eva Mendes gets a chance to have some fun with her body as well as flex some acting chops as Sand Sarif. Paz Vega, who I like to call Salma Hayek-lite, is uber-sexy as always and shows off her dancing moves as Plaster of Paris. Jamie King is a bit mysterious and you don’t really get the chance to see her, but she has a very important role. Sarah Paulson is a beauty as The Spirit’s girlfriend and doctor, as well as the commissioner’s daughter. Lesser known Stana Katic will be steaming up screens (and magazine pages) soon. She is definitely the forgotten bit of hotness among these ladies. Finally, how can I forget the ever-luscious Scarlett Johnsson? Her role as Silken Floss may be the most complex character because it seems there is a major backstory there. I do wish we got to see a bit more skin from her, and we do get a couple of scenes, one where she shows part of her midriff and the other with  her massive cleavage, but for the rest of the film she’s covered up, but still sexy.
I will admit, I’m not very familiar with The Spiritcomics, so for me to sit here and say that this deviated from the source material would do no good, but something tells me that they did, just because every other comic book movie seems to do the same thing.
From the moment I saw this trailer back in the summer, I’ve been eagerly waiting to see this. All the buildup may have cost this film a star from me, though. It wasn’t as good as I thought.
A complaint that I have about many films is that they start off too slow. This is no exception, for the most part, but it did seem like it was going to go somewhere when it first started, but after the initial fight between Spirit and Octopus, it seemed to lose momentum and never really got it back until the end. Even then, it didn’t fully regain it.
Still, this is a beautifully filmed movie. Whether you like it or not, you can’t deny that. Don’t make the mistake of thinking this is Sin City 2, because it isn’t, they just have the same look. Of course, I think The Spiritmay have the hotter women (not counting Olde Towne in Sin City).
I was waiting for them to explain who the woman that kept appearing every time the Spirit got shot or had some kind of fatal injury, and they never did. The last time they do say her name, but that’s about it. I know its a small thing, but I just feel like they could let us know a bit about her, such as who she is and what her importance is.
I don’t want anyone who’s reading this to think that I didn’t like this film. I loved it! However, like many films, it is not without issues. I will be getting the DVD when it is released, and if possible going to see it again in theaters. I suggest you give The Spirit a shot. What’s the worst that’ll happen? Are you scared you’ll like it?

http://thankyounetflix.wordpress.com

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