New Rose Hotel
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Movie Reviews of New Rose Hotel
Movie Review: Interesting premise and fine performances by Walken, DeFoe & Argento, but ultimately unfulfilling
Summary: 3 Stars
Sometimes making a feature length film from a short story can work, as the director can elaborate and add texture to the story. Most of the time, short stories make bad movies, and New Rose Hotel exemplifies why. About half-way through this interesting (but ultimately empty) film, the story noticeably looses steam and goes into "filler" mode, where we get a bunch of flash-backs on things we've already seen. But I've jumped ahead. Here's the story.
Christopher Walken and Willem DeFoe are free-lancers in a sort of dystopia of corporate rule, emotional distance, and meaningless sex. They basically "turn" high-level corporate employees, getting paid for facilitating the "defection" of these "stars" from one company to another - the right people can mean billions to a company's bottom line. Like many movies, we join our "heroes" at a critical point, where they are this/close to either the motherload score or a body bag.
Enter the off-beat, talented and unconventionally gorgeous Asia Argento as the hooker with the heart of gold (or maybe stone), who they task to "turn" a big-time scientist-type genius dud. Needless to say, things start off one way, then twists happen that spin the story in a different direction, all complicated by DeFoe falling for the sexy Argento.
Walken is excellent here, as he's allowed to really go with it, spouting lines only he can deliver, making those faces and even doing a little song and dance. DeFoe is...DeFoe - always solid, but given a character that is not completely realized, and a story that is a little transparent. But Argento is the show - sexy, tattooed and hard-to-take-your-eyes-off in a fairly explicit role (the Euros are so comfortable with their bodies...). Also "stars" Gretchen Mol in what is nothing more than a glorified cameo (I'm guessing some scenes wound up on the cutting room floor). See "much more" of her in the Bettie Page flick inwhich she stars.
Unfortunately, as mentioned, the story runs out of steam, gets very "noire"-ishly conventional, and wraps itself up quickly and unfulfillingly, as if its double-parked. It seems as if its making a statement early on (greed, nations ruled by corporations, etc...), then loses its way.
Would have given this 2 stars if not for the luscious Argento, who brings a raw sexuality to her performance. She makes the first half of this as interesting as the second half (w/o much of her) is as uninspired.
Movie Review: Abel meets his match in Asia Argento
Summary: 3 Stars
New Rose Hotel, based on the short story by William Gibson , is a very confusing yet entertaining film from director Abel Ferrara. You might not be clear on what is actually happening, not at first anyway, but you will be certain of how Abel fell for his leading lady Asia Argento. The two dated for a while after the making of this film. Argento is not only incredibly sexy but she can also act. She's the best thing going for this film which stars Christopher Walken as Fox and Willem Defoe as X. The film takes place sometime in the future and major corporations are stealing top scientists from rival companies. Fox and X are trying to lure a Japanese scientist to their company. They hire a struggling prostitute and dancer named Sandi (Argento) to seduce him. She agrees to do it after they tell her how much they are going to pay her. X starts tutoring her in how to be seductive and the two fall for each other. Several steamy sex scenes follow and Fox gets wind of his partner's new fling. He worries that this will jeopardize their mission but also their friendship. Walken does a good job of showing the fear that Fox has as the older of the two who worries that his young protege is going to leave him. The basic plot is very similar to that of a classic film noir where two guys use a beautiful young woman to get information about a mystery man. One of the guys falls for the girl, the other guy gets suspicious, and someone dies. For the film's first hour it seems like scenes are being cut short and we aren't getting the full story. Abel plays the full scenes during the film's last half hour cluing us in on what he was hiding. This makes that portion of the film the most exciting since we're finally getting the full story and by this time we're invested in what happens to X and Sandi. The acting from the three leads is excellent and there is a lot of humor in the film. Early on there is a scene between Walken and Defoe that starts off scripted and ends on a hilarious rant improvised by both men. It's a nice Abel touch. Many of the people who worked on this film worked on Abel's previous film "The Funeral" including Walken, Gretchen Mol, Annabella Sciorra, and Victor Argo. This film also has a great score by Ferrara regular Schooly D. Definitely worth checking out for Abel fans or for any of the three stars.Movie Review: One of the Best of it's kind but.....
Summary: 3 Stars
As the Cyberpunk genre of Science Fiction writing grew in both authorship and readership, it only made sense that Hollywood would try it's hand at re-creating it in film. The results have been mostly dismal. Johnny Mnemonic and Paycheck might have had the plot elements but were way short of the "feel" so prevalent in the writing. Maybe they suffered from the star power or excessive budgeting or whatever but they were way short of the mark.
Enter Abel Ferrara. I'll say up front I like much of his work, with The King of New York being my favorite. The first time I saw it I was a bit confused as to all the things going on in the plot line, but the feeling of the film stayed with me to the point where I had to see it again. Now it's in my library and I watch it a couple of times a year. This is what makes this film mostly (but not entirely) successful. Of the several movies I've seen delving into Cyberpunk this is the one that comes closest to approaching the feeling of the Gibsian not too distant future, over technologized, over incorporated society. Things are moving at a breakneck pace and the stakes are high. The genius stroke in technology can put one company on top and another in the grave and that's pretty much what is happening here. Chris Walken and Willem Defoe are the primaries in a scheme to get a top engineer from one company to another and things go really bad.
The plot is great to a point but the problem is that it doesn't really end. It stops. The climax comes way too early and there's no reason to keep the movie going but it does for what seems like forever. I won't spoil things but Defoe ends up in a cubby hole at "The New Rose Hotel" replaying the events in his mind and the viewer must now re-watch many of the scenes he's already watched. Was the script that bad or did they simply run out of money. Maybe they thought they had a 90 minute movie and only had 75 minutes after the final cut. Whatever....this is why the film ultimately fails.
This should be seen though because it is one of the only films of its kind to capture the essence of the literature. A great effort if nothing else.
Movie Review: Worth watching for the most part.
Summary: 3 Stars
For William Gibson fans, this movie was not so bad. It was (relatively) faithful to the short story. It was, for the budget and what it was, not too bad an adaption to film. Certainly better than Johnny Mnemonic, from that standpoint. I believe the director also directed Bad Lieutenant (another character study) which, when I realized it, made the format of how the film is more sensical. He went along a similar vein here in terms of studying the people rather than following the events around them.The characters were well-cast in my opinion, based on the short story of the same name. As other reviewers pointed out, it DOES add a lot to the genre. All the cyberpunk stories are _not_ just the Matrix or Blade Runner, or a mishmash of either. (Not that they're bad. In fact, I enjoy both.) This succeeds in presenting a dramatic tale in the shady future Gibson created.
There are problems among the good stuff, make no mistake. [VERY MINOR SPOILER BELOW}
The montage at the end was, well....utterly boring and pointless. It gives the impression (whether or not it was actually true) that one ran out of time before the film was supposed to be over, so a slide show of various images from the hours previous that you've already seen are presented in a confusing cloud of images...which serve no real purpose. Up until that point however, the movie as both a character study and a suspensful tale are not bad at all. It's sort of like A.I. You KNOW when the movie ends, yet a little snippet drags it on well past it should.
Anyway, give it a try, especially if you are a Gibson fan, and if Johnny Mnemonic thoroughly disappointed you. This will give you more faith in future renditions, at least a little (and pray like hell for Sci-Fi to pick up one of his books for a mini series, heh) Another thing to keep in mind with books, especially Gibson, is that the true caliber of his work in many ways can't be put on film. I don't know if there is a way to portray the terror, disappointment and cruelness of the future of his world in a movie....but I'd have to say that this movie made at least a valliant attempt, and a better one than JM.
Movie Review: Seven nights in this coffin, Sandii
Summary: 3 Stars
Make no mistake this is not Johnny Mnemonic or the Matrix in any way. While the story may come from Cyberpunk Guru William Gibson, there is almost no tech to be had in this film.That being said, the film is very true to the source, and it's languid and impressionistic style makes it perhaps the most literary of the works inspired by WG.
The movie is slow and a lot of it is tedious, but that may be because the real story here only occurs in the final act, the whole rest of the film being the back-story.
Its an interesting approach though not completely satisfying, but in a story about loss, self-doubt and paranoia, nothing really should be.