‘Leatherheads’ doesn’t score big on excitement
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George Clooney’s romp plays everything safe, offering up all the solid defensive moves it needs. Great period costumes, jazzy music, 1920s slang, all of which combine for a nice re-creation of the feel of the era, with Renee Zellweger a sound choice to play a saucy reporter opposite Clooney’s gridiron grunt.
Yet the movie never takes any risks, never goes on the offensive. It’s all perfectly pat, and sadly, perfectly boring, for the most part.
In chronicling pro footbal’s transition from laughable frivolity to true spectator sport in 1925, the movie proves feather-light. Clooney stars as a schemer who signs a flashy college star and World War I hero (John Krasinski) to revive the fortunes of his failing pro team.
Zellweger is the nosy reporter with a scoop that the boy wonder’s war record might not be so shiny. In this day of tired sequels, it’s a refreshing idea that turns into an often-dull story.
It gets a middle-of-the-road review, 2-1/2 stars out of 5.
‘Shine a Light’
It’s impossible to walk into ‘Shine a Light,’ Martin Scorsese’s Rolling Stones concert film, without decades’ worth of expectations. We simply know too much about the filmmaker and the rock stars and their previous music-doc outings.
Seeing Mick Jagger thrusting and flailing about with his trademark sexuality and sass to “Sympathy for the Devil” calls to mind the violence that erupted as the Stones played that very song nearly 40 years ago at the Altamont Speedway, site of the Maysles brothers’ still-gripping documentary “Gimme Shelter.”
There is no such thing as a blank slate with such cultural icons ‘ too much informs our viewing experience ‘ and that’s both one of the film’s biggest strengths and weaknesses.
Certainly, there’s an allure to the familiarity of watching these guys run through old favorites such as “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” ‘Shattered” and “Brown Sugar.” Yet, now that they’re in their 60s, they (read: Mick) almost seem like parodies of themselves.
“Shine a Light” doesn’t shine any new light on this rock band that has outlasted all others, perhaps because there are no more revelations to be had. Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts have never been particularly keen on introspection anyway. Or perhaps Scorsese just figured, “Why bother?” and mainly wanted to share with us the sensation of seeing the Stones live.
Apparently, he wasn’t after any juicy, raw or candid moments, because they don’t exist in his film; the lone source of tension comes at the beginning, when Scorsese is scrambling to procure a set list from the elusive Jagger to prepare the movie’s first shots. Scorsese is his fast-talking, analytical self and Jagger is charmingly blase as ever, and we all get a good laugh out of it.
They do still put on a tremendous show, after all, and “Shine a Light” derives much of its warmth and energy from the intimacy of its setting: New York’s Beacon Theatre, over two nights in fall 2006.
The Stones get some help on various duets from a star-struck Jack White, a cool Buddy Guy (on the Muddy Waters tune “Champagne and Reefer”) and Christina Aguilera, who initially seems like an odd choice, but she does match Jagger with her on-stage dynamism. About an hour in, the thrill is gone.
But to break up chunks of performance, Scorsese has interspersed old interviews with the band members. It becomes a running joke: Invariably, some reporter asks fresh-faced, young Jagger some inane question about how long the group can keep this up.
By now we know the answer to that. Clearly, this wasn’t the Rolling Stones’ last waltz ‘ this wasn’t even the penultimate waltz. Not by a long shot.
Give it 3 stars out of 5.
‘Leatherheads’
2 1/2 stars out of 5