Arts & Entertainment

This Weekend At The Movies

Here Comes the Hammer: 'Thor' Swings and (Mostly) Misses. Also, Mel Gibson Leaves it to 'Beaver' and Rutger Hauer Paints the Town Red

The summer movie season kicked off last weekend with three films featuring characters that appear less like heroes than roommates on Shutter Island.

Of the week’s cinematic selections, I don’t know which is the looniest. First, there’s “Thor,” in which the Norse god of thunder is cast out of his kingdom after fighting "frost giants" and ends up romancing Natalie Portman in New Mexico. The picture, shot in 3D and directed by Kenneth Branagh (!), is obviously one of several setup films for next summer’s “Avengers” movie.

Then, there’s Jodie Foster’s “The Beaver,” which, in case you haven’t heard, features Mel Gibson as an unbalanced man who begins to communicate through the titular rodent hand puppet in an Australian accent.

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Last, but certainly not least in terms of delivering the crazy, is Jesse Eisener’s “Hobo with a Shotgun,” a  gory throwback to the grindhouse cinema of the 1970s during which Rutger Hauer, whose convincing performance is the film’s sole selling point, cleans up the streets of Scum Town after befriending a young prostitute. His mission: to buy a mower and start a lawn and landscaping business.

While each film has its merits, I cannot wholeheartedly recommend any of the three. Suffice it to say, the summer movie launch weekend did not provide the much-needed boost to the (so far) lackluster year in cinema.

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“Thor” is a run-of-the-mill comic book origin story, despite that its hero is a Germanic pagan god of storms, oak trees and fertility. In the film, the titular character (Chris Hemsworth) is booted out of the kingdom by his father, Odin (Anthony Hopkins), for being arrogant and bloodthirsty.

He crash lands in New Mexico, where he is discovered by a group of scientists led by Natalie Portman and Stellan Skarsgard. The military seizes possession of his hammer, which he must retrieve to fight his scheming brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston), who has taken control of Asgard, as well as a race of creatures known as “frost giants.”

The whole endeavor is fairly ludicrous, so “Thor” is at its best when it takes itself less than seriously. It’s the speechmaking and the onslaught of expensive-looking special effects and battle sequences that drag the picture down.

“The Beaver,” which wins the dubious award of being the best of this week’s releases, never quite clicks. It is too serious to be taken as a lark, but is too off-the-wall to be taken completely seriously. Credit is due to Gibson for his commitment to the performance, considering the actor’s own very public personal dramas.

In the film, Gibson plays the depressed head of a toy manufacturing company who attempts to reconnect with his family (Jodie Foster, Anton Yelchin) via a puppet he discovers in a trashcan. Nuttiness ensues. Gibson gives the role his all, but the film feels fractured – part screwball character comedy and part family melodrama.

Eisener’s debut film is an expanded version of a short the director made for Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s underrated 2007 film, “Grindhouse.” It’s a one-note joke, albeit an extremely gory one, and exactly what you’d expect from a film with the title,  “Hobo with a Shotgun.”

The picture’s biggest surprise is Rutger Hauer’s very human performance as the titular vigilante.

Otherwise, “Hobo” is a visual nod to sleazy, low budget films of the early to mid-1980s, complete with nonstop violence, frequent blood splatter, an assortment of reprehensible characters, flying limbs, sex and outrageously horrific sequences. One in which a bus full of school children is set on fire is particularly gratuitous. Eisener has filmmaking talent, but my hope is that he puts it to better use next time around.


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