2008 - LEATHERHEADS, attempt at a Capra type comedy

George Clooney can't get a break particularly from this writer.  Leatherheads is yet another directing attempt that falls flat.   The film is about the early days of football before it became a recognized professional sport.  Clooney is one of the players and the captain of a team called the Bulldogs.  The story bounces between the rough and tumble go for it early games, a love story and a romantic triangle which as it turns out is an awful lot to shovel into one film.

Clooney is his usual amiable movie star presence.  The love interest is played by Renée Zellweger in a not so hot performance.  John Krasinski turns out to be Clooney's chief rival for Zellweger and a rival on another football team the Bulldogs play against in the big game at end of the film.  Seen all this stuff before.

 

As a director, Clooney is for the most part good with working with actors.  The film has a nice 1930's look to it even if the film is at times drenched in sepia, a favorite of directors and cinematographers who want to create a look of what the good old days looked like.  But you can be fairly certainly people weren't constantly bathed in sepia light during the 1930's.  

 

As with a lot of Clooney's films the script is the main issue as it sandwichs in football field slapstick action and a wisecracking 30's movie style romance.  Clooney appears to be going for a Capra type of film lots of frenzied action and romance.  However it’s all just to much as the film loses focus from the football games to the not very interesting romantic moments.

The film was written by Duncan Brantley and Rick Reilly, the running time is 114 minutes.

2011 - THE IDES OF MARCH, sort of interesting politial drama

 George Clooney directs a little better than usual for him.  Clooney also plays a very liberal Democratic governor running in a president primary for the party nomination.  Ryan Gosling is a supposedly idealistic junior campaign manager.  Phillip Seymour Hoffman is Clooney’s campaign manager.  As you can see Clooney pulled together a good cast for this political drama.

The performances are at a high level, the story telling is fairly good for a Clooney film.  In his other films, Clooney has not always been the best judge of the scripts that he picks.  But with the Ides Of March he seems a little more engaged in the plot this time.  Clooney has donated a lot of money to Democratic candidates in past campaigns so he probably knows a thing or two about back room political manipulations.

If there is any criticism of the film, it would have to be of the character Ryan  Gosling plays.  He suddenly seems to switch from political idealist to hardened political operation mostly because of the one indiscretion of the candidate he is trying to get elected.  Also Clooney's very liberal governor seems just a little too over the top politically to be a viable candidate running for president.

Still the film is not without interest.  It didn't do well commercially possibly because the general public is already extremely pessimistic about the political process and doesn't need a film to tell them that.

The film was written by George Clooney, Beau Willimonn and Grant Heslov.  The running time is 101 minutes.

2023 - THE BOYS IN THE BOAT, another boring true life story

Another boring true life story.  This makes two in a row I've viewed.  I could probably just cut and paste my last post about Big Eyes into this post and save some time. But I march on.  The Boys in the Boat is about the 1936 University of Washington junior varsity rowing team who went from being considered underdogs in the sport of boat rowing to competing against the Germans in the Berlin Olympics.  Will these plucky lads beat out those nasty Nazi's?  The bigger question should be doesn't anyone remember the film Chariots of Fire anymore?

This film is based on a well regarded book but you would never know it. Apparently the incidents in the film are mostly true but the screenplay presents them in such a way that they come off as a bunch of uninspired cliches.  The film is photographed in that usual movie way where the color is kind of dull.  The intention is to give the film the feeling of watching an old movie. However  I just kind of doubt people in  the Depression walked around looking like they were color de-saturated characters.  

 

This rowing team is presented like the "Great White Hope" of the Olympics against the Hitler bunch.  However the real star of the 1936 Berlin Olympics was runner Jesse Owens who is only mentioned in passing.  So where's a film about him?

 

I've listened to interviews with the director George Clooney on podcasts.  He seems like a thoughtful smart guy.  He's also a very fine actor in films like The Descendants, Michael Clayton and the funny O Brother, Where Art Thou?.  But for some reason he doesn't seem to be able to bring the intelligence he has shown as an actor to directing films.  When he was planning this film didn't he take a hard look at the story and ask what can I do to avoid the usual cliches in this type of sports story?  Once again this is another film where the production design and costumes are more interesting than the story.

The screenwriter is Mark L Smith, the running time is 124 minutes.

2014 - MONUMENTS MEN, interesting and disappointing.

Kind of a letdown.  Considering the subject matter and the cast this should have been a much better film.  George Clooney starred, directed, co-wrote and co-produced this film and he probably took on more than he should have.  The film at times really strains to get from point A to point B.

Clooney put together a real charismatic cast, Matt Damon, John Goodman, Bill Murray, that guy from Dowton Abbey Hugh Bonneville, Bob Balban and smiling Frenchman John Durjadin.  Cate Blanchett is also in the film as a French art historian but I'm not really sure why.  She doesn't really bring a thing to the film and her subplot could have been easily cut out of the film.

The whole idea of a group of middle aged art scholars rushing across Europe during World War II to prevent the Nazi's from destroying the cultural history of Europe seems like a great idea for a film.  However the screenplay can't seem to establish a clear story line and and splitting the group of art historians up for some mini adventures just dilutes the film.   

 But, this is a film that is certainly very watchable.  The actors are all very enjoyable  and I have to admit that George Clooney does have a lot of screen presence.

118 minutes.