Tag: Charlie Day

This Day in Movie History: February 9

13 years ago Today in Movie History – February 9 – the eagerly awaited sequel Hannibal debuted in theaters. It was the follow-up to 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs, which was an instant classic and won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Director, Actor, and Actress. Silence director Jonathan Demme and costar Jodie Foster chose not to return and it was Ridley Scott who stepped in behind the camera with Julianne Moore assuming the role of Clarice Starling. Anthony Hopkins would return to the title role and that was enough for the picture to open with $58 million – which at the time was the third largest debut of all time. Its domestic run topped out at $165 million. While crowds turned out, they didn’t necessarily love what they saw. Both audiences and critical reaction was mixed and trended toward negative as it currently stands at 39% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, if you want to see Ray Liotta with half his head removed and a truly bizarre performance from Gary Oldman, this is your movie. Hopkins would return to the signature role one more time less than two years later in Red Dragon.

As for birthdays, Charlie Day is 38 today. He’s best known for his work on TV’s cult hit “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” but broke into movies in a big way with 2011’s Horrible Bosses. A sequel to that is on the way this year. Last year, Day costarred in Pacific Rim and his voice can be heard in this weekend’s blockbuster The Lego Movie.

Tom Hiddleston is 33 today. He’s garnered rave reviews for his villainous turn as Loki in both Thor flicks and The Avengers. Other notables pictures include War Horse and The Deep Blue Sea and Hiddleston will soon appear in Muppets Most Wanted.

As for Six Degrees of Separation between the two actors:

Charlie Day was in Horrible Bosses with Kevin Spacey

Kevin Spacey was in A Time To Kill with Samuel L. Jackson

Samuel L. Jackson was in The Avengers with Tom Hiddleston

And that’s today – February 9 – in Movie History!

Pacific Rim Movie Review

Pacific Rim is visionary director Guillermo del Toro’s love letter to giant monster movies of old but updated with 21st century effects that the makers of Godzilla in 1954 couldn’t even fathom. Here moviegoers are introduced to the terms “Kaiju” and “Jaegers” (not the shot you’ll surely regret the next morning). You see, Kaijus (strange creature in Japanese) are giant alien monsters that attack Earth from below ocean level. Jaegers are giant frickin robots that are commanded by two human pilots inside the machine. The pilots, in order to combat the strength of the Kaijus, do some sort of mind meld trick together where they can read each other’s thoughts and memories in order to create a stronger connection. Or something like that.

The heroes of the pic have a little history with those nasty Kaijus. Pilot Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) lost his copilot and brother (played by Mike from TV’s “Homeland”) when they battled one and Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi) lost her whole family in an attack when she was a child. It is Raleigh and Mako who must become copilots in order to thwart Kaiju mayhem in Hong Kong. Their commanding officer is played by Idris Elba in the picture’s strongest performance.

There’s some colorful supporting characters in the mix. Charlie Day of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and Horrible Bosses is a quirky research scientist tasked with finding new ways to defeat the monsters. Ron Perlman (who’s collaborated with del Toro on the Hellboy flicks) deals black market Kaiju organs for profit. And there’s a run-of-the-mill subplot about another Jaeger (Robert Kazinsky) who doesn’t trust Raleigh and yadda yadda yadda.

Let’s be clear: when hearing that del Toro was making a giant monster movie, you figured this would be a visual treat. And there are certainly many moments where that’s exactly what we get. Apparently the director decided that whenever a Kaiju does attack, the weather forecast must call for precipitation. Seriously. I don’t think there’s one action scene that doesn’t feature a torrential downpour. These action spectacles feature cool moments like a Jaeger literally hitting a Kaiju with an enormous ship. Both Jaegers and Kaijus are so massive that they pretty much take a building down with each movement they make. While the fight scenes can have a sameness feel to them (with the nighttime rainstorm theme running constantly), there are certainly plenty of moments of visual awe. This is the level where Pacific Rim occasionally works well. If del Toro was attempting to get you emotionally invested in the characters (and it seems like he often is), it doesn’t quite succeed. The lead characters of Raleigh and Mako are rather blandly written. Day and Perlman have fun with their characters, but the roles aren’t particularly memorable.

Pacific Rim is about spectacle and a filmmaker paying homage to the films he loved as a child. It’s worth mentioning that the movies del Toro is celebrating usually were about 90 minutes long and not the bloated 132 minute run time here. We’ve seen del Toro create imaginary worlds of eye popping splendor before in Pan’s Labyrinth and the Hellboy pics. They were more satisfying and original experiences than what we have here. There is, however, just enough cool effects here to warrant a recommendation – albeit a regretfully muted one.

*** (out of four)