Sweet Revenge in France and Italy

Due to the life-upheaval that we Houstonians knew as Hurricane Rita, things are just now beginning to settle down. Therefore, I will begin blogging again! Not that I haven’t been watching movies, mind you, for I have watched quite a few while staying with family and then back at home.

For this installment, I have decided to join two movies of similar caliber and overarching plot: The Count of Monte Cristo and The Italian Job.

The Count is the newest one with Jim Caviezel and Guy Pierce, which came out several years ago. Overall, I think this movie is pretty good. I don’t remember seeing Jim Caviezel in anything before The Passion of the Christ, so it was nice to watch him portraying an actual flawed human being. I couldn’t get Jesus out of my head while watching him, especially every time he would brood, and he does aheckuvalot of that here. Yep, this movie is all about revenge. The story is by Alexandre Dumas of The Three Muskateers fame, so this film is a historical action drama concerning the double-crossing of Jim Caviezel and his consumption with revenge.

I’m not sure if the premise translates too well to modern times, however. I felt kind of like I was watching Ethan Hawke’s Hamlet again, even though The Count sticks to its historical premise. Still, when Guy Pierce (spoilers here, but most of you have probably seen SOME version of this film) betrays Jim Caviezel’s character, I’m not sure if the motive really comes through. Supposedly, he does it because he envy’s Caviezel’s character, who is of lowly birth, which Pierce’s character is of noble birth. But that reasoning doesn’t really work nowadays, especially with our American dream and all that crap…I mean, stuff. It’s just that we don’t really believe so much in that—people are not held down by their birth status, at least not to the extent that they were back then. And most rich people don’t begrudge people who work their way up. Yes, I’m simplifying here, and I realize that we do have a kind of embedded class system, but it’s still much easier for a person to make good, even if their parents did not. I could have a whole blog about this, but I’m afraid I will say something upsetting.

So we leave France and go East to Italy, even though most of The Italian Job doesn’t take place in Italy but in L.A. I have mentioned before that heist films are one of my favorite subgenres, so I naturally enjoyed this film, even the second time around. This movie basically wants to be Ocean’s Eleven, and it couldn’t quite do it. The snappy dialogue just wasn’t there. And the heist wasn’t all that compelling, either. They spend just a few hours planning it, and then it happens and that’s really it.

I have two favorite parts here: one is when the jewelry store clerk talks about the mercantilism centered around Venice in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. I enjoyed that historical fact, and I loved the way the guy realized where the spoil was from. It really was a nice touch. My other favorite part is every part with the Russian, who was awesome. I loved the way, it just kept showing him, although we had no idea how he would fit in until the end. That was clever.

The Italian Job is way too much like a long commercial for the new Mini, however, and the film came out right as the Mini came out, which was not a coincidence. I know it’s a remake, and someone told me that the old had the old mini’s in, but this one didn’t even really need the cars. The original idea didn’t even pan out, so it was just three people driving around in supped-up Minis. I didn’t like that aspect.

The Count of Monte Cristo: 6
The Italian Job: 7

Both these films are flawed, but they’re still enjoyable, and I really enjoyed both of them.