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jstrick1985
Reviews
Major League (1989)
A Very Entertaining Romp
I came across this on television, and had to marvel. It's been 25 years since this band of losers and misfits came together and transformed Cleveland Indians baseball.
Major League may be formulaic, especially in the second half of the film, but it is memorably unpredictable in moments and quite charming. The cast is filled with Eighties TV icons like Corbin Bernsen and future stars, like a young Wesley Snipes. It is a blast to see Tom Berenger and Charlie Sheen, who were at each others' throats in Platoon, as teammates and friends. And maybe it's my old sentimentality, but the throwaway love story between Berenger and Rene Russo feels deeper and more real than it deserves to be. A terrific and fun movie.
Point and Shoot (2014)
Fantastic footage, but fails as a documentary
This movie contains two different stories, jammed together in a tight 83-minute runtime.
The one story, showing remarkable footage of the Libyan civil war, is an unusually privileged window into the Arab Spring.
The other story, the story of Matt Van Dyke himself, is a tendentious and even tedious tale of a privileged American thrill-seeker.
You can sum up Van Dyke's story in three sentences. A bored 27-year-old, with no job and few friends, decides to go on a motorcycle trip across the Middle East and record his adventures. Eventually he joins his new Libyan motorcycle buddies in their war against Qaddafi, although he doesn't accomplish very much other than getting thrown in prison. After he miraculously survives, Van Dyke takes his footage back to America and begins his new egotistical adventure: trying to become the man he always dreamed of being.
The film is a mix of VanDyke's original footage from the Middle East and an interview he did after returning to America. To his credit, he is handsome. But his constant vanity and posing for the camera is tiresome and immature. Van Dyke is especially obsessed with how the media portrays him.
And "Point and Shoot" has some serious problems. Although VanDyke's soliloquy is occasionally interrupted by the director, Marshall Curry, his narrative goes unquestioned and unchecked. For example, Van Dyke is thrown into Libyan prison for months, and says that he spent the time regretting how his actions have hurt his loved ones back in Baltimore, who are worrying over him. But as soon as Van Dyke is freed, he ignores everyone's advice to return to America, and instead decides to stay and fight, further troubling his mom and girlfriend.
Not having anyone push Van Dyke made this movie less a documentary and more of a vanity project. We were left with many, many questions after seeing the film. Van Dyke didn't have a job, so who paid for his long motorcycle trips overseas? How much time elapsed between different trips? Quick Googling revealed some of the holes in how VanDyke's story is presented, too. The film never mentions this, but Van Dyke annoyed many journalists with his decision to stay in Libya and fight. See the story "VanDyke's deception increases risks for journalists." That seemed like a pretty big news event to gloss over.
Having seen "Street Fight," I was excited to watch more of Marshall Curry's work. But while that movie focused on someone trying to make a real difference, activist Cory Booker, this movie only appears interested in making a difference for Matt Van Dyke's fragile ego.
Street Fight (2005)
Politics at its best & dirtiest
Marshall Curry made me believe in the U.S. political system. He also made me hate it.
This film is an eye-opening view of street front politics. In the 2002 election, the young, intelligent, charismatic candidate Cory Booker wants to be Newark mayor. He thinks he can help turn the crime-ridden city around. But old-school politician Sharpe James has been mayor for 16 years, and he isn't going quietly. Curry follows along as Booker tries to play by the rules to win voter support, and James repeatedly tries every dirty trick in the book to stop him. He slurs Booker's ethnicity for not being black enough, he calls in paid supporters from out of state, he gets his team to tear down Booker's signs.
There's a dramatic scene where James's police officers even push around Curry, for attempting to film the mayor!
Booker ends up losing the 2002 election, but the movie closes with him declaring his candidacy for 2006. He would win in a landslide, a deserving victory if I ever saw one.
As a piece of political education, Street Fight is absolutely essential. As a piece of filmmaking, it is absolutely terrific. Marshall Curry is a director to watch.