There are films that get better as you drift away from them in time. Mike Leigh's Happy Go Lucky is such a film - the more time I get to think about the characters, the more dear they become and the more profound Leigh's topic handling becomes. Movies that do that, one should cherish since they are rare. Most movies are entertaining at best. And then there are some movies that manage to get worse the more time you think of them.
The Ramen Girl is one of those. And that is a disappointment; because beforehand, the movie had all ingredients (no pun intended) to be smart and lovely and a feast for they eye. It's a movie about food and the magic of food. That's a genre in itself and usually those movies don't even need a good story, the atmosphere and the lush presentation of beautiful food and preparation are enough to keep me enchanted for an hour or two. And when they do have a good story (Tortilla Soup, Estomago,Woman on Top, Like Water for Chocolate) they're a feast.
Not the Ramen Girl. The director, Robert Alan Ackerman, fails to capture the magic of food and food preparation, he fails to tell a light-hearted story and get in-depth, he fails to even tell a story. Well that is not entirely true, I think I wouldn't have mind the story's single-minded-ness and easy-go-don't-worry simpleness if the magic of the food and food preparation would have been convincing. And maybe I would have found Brittany Murphy's uninspired acting a nice commentary and break-through-the-fourth-wall-intelligent if I could taste the broth and smell the ingredients. These makers don't know how to love food. I doubt if they even know how to make a ramen soup themselves. There is no magic. And then everything goes wrong. Everything.
Yesterday me and my dearlydear went to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. I like men-in-awkward-suits movies and am almost completely uncritical when actors dress up and have silvery blinking things. So yes, I was exited. And yes, I was expecting our own '98 Ford Explorer to shift-click-swoosh-change into an Autobot on the way to Cinépolis.
It was not what I expected.
There are five reasons why my mind started wandering off after about 45 minutes.
The story is not character driven but mapped on a story-grid. It neatly follows Campbell's Journey of the Hero; a little too neatly. The writers copied the necessary steps onto the script. Then they decided 'here we need the Hero to reject his calling' and in that scene, Sam (Shia LeBouef) rejects his calling literally: Optimus asks him and he says no. It is hard to understand why Optimus is there and believe why Sam rejects and what's going on.
There are no characters. Following problem number one, the Autobots and the Decepticons have no character (and are part of the main characters). Especially Optimus Prime who is only noble and really doesn't do much or change.
There are too many not-funny sidekicks. There's the guy from University who joins, the two very-not-funny twin cars, bumblebee, Sam's parents, the general, an old Decepticon and Mikaela (because she is completely useless in the plot besides running sexy beside Sam). Non of these side-kicks develops character, non of them get really funny.
Unnecessary need for speed. There is a lot of fighting, exploding cars and gunfire. The writers needed the movie to get on speed fast and then get even faster. But, again this speed is not growing from plot and character, they just jammed A Lot Of Stuff into everything. It turns out that all that everything ends up as a nothing.
But, the most important distraction from actually following the story is Mikaela's Lip Gloss.
An that's what this review is really about. Because Megan Fox's Lip Gloss is amazing! She runs, she sweats, she gets her head smashed into a dusty desert wall, she tumbles and dives, gets beaten and cries but her lip gloss never fails her. It's intriguing. From the first shot Mikaela is intriguing. The makers tried to match the sexy-bending-over-shot from Transformers 1 - so they got her bending over again, awkwardly paintbrushing a motorbike. Again the writers knew what they had to do (get Megan Fox to bend over something with an engine) but this time the bending-over seems a posed and insane way to airbrush. From that first moment when Mikaela enters the movie the mind goes on an Amazing Lip Gloss Journey.
Wondering about big discussions on the set between Megan Fox and the director. 'You want me to do that in that pose?!' 'Ehm yes please, bend over' 'But but but hold on, I've been studying this character, and although she is sexy, she is also very practical and I've studied on airbrushing. As a matter of fact, I have brought John here with me, he is a professional airbrusher to help me get the most convincing style into my acting. An he says. He says. No no you listen to me! He says that it is virtually impossible to stand like that and spraypaint that.' Oh. I just lost five minutes of action packed nothing...
The Lip Gloss becomes a story on its own. You start following it. Does it change colour? Will it wear off (it must wear off, right)? It doesn't. It does not wear off one little bit. And that is truly amazing. I know, cars that change into robots and tear down a piramid is pretty amazing. But that Liip Gloss!
So I checked it out. On chacha.com they say: 'Megan Fox used Balmshell Lip Gloss Sleep In Beauty cost around $22.00 you can find this at Sephora stores.' The Balmshell site tells us that it is shaded 'Princess Pink' and that: 'This is the story of a Balmshell's beauty sleep. As the scene turns from night to day this Balmshell’s rest continues.' - which I don't understand. BUT! On yahoo answers there is a different suggesting: "Remember also she uses the extreme pout glosses from Isabella Pelle."
And that makes more sense! Isabella Pelle has palmitoyl tripeptide-5 as active ingredient and, according to the website: 'This is the very latest in skincare technology. Highly bioactive, deeply penetrating peptide (palmitoyl tripeptide-5) that stimulates collagen synthesis & actively irons out Sany type of wrinkle (effects on wrinkles was 350% better than placebo in clinical studies), Good skin firming & moisturizing properties, good alternative to collagen injections.' AHA! So there's the secret. And I think Mikaela uses 'kiss my pout(shimmering sheer pink)'.
Then again. In this youtube tutorial by rosefunk88,she uses Sephora lip gloss, raspberry shine (skip to 4:29).
So. We don't know. And it kept me distracted from the movie for about an hour and a half. Which, considering the movie could be a good thing.
Fri, July 24, 2009 at 12:03 PM 
