State Of Films These Days!

Today's free screening is the small film entitled "State Of Play" with very few actors who are familiar at all, and from a director we know nothing about (A certain Kevin MacDonald, who did that documentary Touching the Void, and, er. Erm, he did something else, can't for the life of me remember... Oh, Last King Of Scotland)

Yes, the second fictional feature from MacDonald, one that's had an interesting past. Based on the TV drama off Aunty Beeb, the film was going to be Fight Club 2, with Bradd as the reporter and Ed as the politician, but when the writer's strike hit, and they wanted a re-write, but couldn't get it, both pulled out. So now we have Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck filling the roles in a script not re-written (and boy does it show) and having no chemistry together.

Now, I'm sure most of you are thinking, Ben Affleck? That guy from Phantoms? But he's not good.
Well, first off, go eff yourselves, Affleck is more actor than you'll ever be, and secondly, he does a damn fine job with the little he is given, in fact, when looking at the cast there's only a few who stand out, and for the wrong reasons:
Russell Crowe - Sporting Nic Cage and Tom Hanks' wigs put together, he's duller than usual, and even less interesting as a lead than as any ancillary character should be.
Rachel McAdams - Miscast-ness strikes again. She seems to play the I.Q. level of ditzy reporter, see Katie Holmes' excellent version of twisting that on it's head in Thank You For Smoking, and is also amazingly boring (It's a trend, no one is interesting)

Ben Affleck: Great actor given little to do.
Robin Wright Penn: Even less to do, she's just there to be talked about as a shock that everyone knows she slept with Crowe.
Helen Mirren: J Jonah Jameson in a real kind of film, sweary, angry and wanting Spider-Man.
Michael Weston: Small role of co-reporter, he's Weston, he's awesome, under-rated and unfairly overlooked once more.
Jeff Daniels: Hardly subtle as a villain, and as interesting as watching paint decay after having a marathon fest of watching it dry, followed by re-watching it dry with commentary by two old women.
Barry Shabaka Henley & Viola Davis: An Oscar nominee and a man with presence given I think one speaking line each.

And last but not least, and I schiesse you nicht.
Jason Bateman.
Jason effing Bateman, Teen Wolf Too.
He's a comedy actor! I was already willing to walk out, and when he popped his face in, after a shot of Russell Crowe running in the most parodical way, I thought, good god, this is a spoof, right? Right?
It's not, it's meant to be entirely serious...

Now, lets look at two of the writers:

Matthew Michael Carnahan: Writer of The Kingdom and Lions For Lambs, whilst admittedly not good at home, in the cinema were crackers of films, truly interesting, light but sensible and well crafted.

Tony Gilroy:
Yeah. Tony Goddamn I hope you die painfully soon hack job Gilroy.
You all know what I'm gonna say.

It's got Gilroy all over it, it's predictable, dumbed down beyond belief, slow, exposition heavy with no subtlety, and everything a good film shouldn't be.

Now, I know it might be jumping too far since I've only recently watched the first season, but watching the film, I was thinking about The Wire.

The point where Helen Mirren wanted the story on the paper that day, instead of waiting for it to be complete, and then the reporters claiming it'll scare away potential suspects. This was two episodes of The Wire right there, without the subtleties, the humour, the interesting characters and the Baltimore Pit setting of the dealers, of course, and the dialogue seemed suspiciously similar.

I know it's considered one of the greatest shows on television, but what right do you have to copy and paste from it for a shoddy TV-to-Film remake?

It was the worst 2 hours in cinema since Duplicity, which was as bad as The Spirit, Michael Clayton, and of course, Anything Tony Gilroy has ever touched. I had hoped Carnahan would have ripped the shoddy script up and written one anew with no Gilroy factor, alas, he's a god to most people, he's dumb smart technique for filmgoers with the double digit I.Q.s who want to feel challenged, but for normal folks, he's just a hack who makes shoddy scripts with nothing but exposition until everyone understands.

It's a dire film and hopefully will be looked at like so one day, even as a free screening I want my time, and some compensation, back, a complete waste in every way.
Avoid, avoid and once more, avoid.
1/10 (And barely at that)