Mel's Return, the Wolfmeh, and Faltemeyer's Triumphant Return...

I was glad that Mel Gibson returned to the movies after his DUI arrest and subsequent drunken anti-Semitic tirade (which I still feel began in his The Passion of the Christ but I digress...), but Edge of Darkness was a tired effort that alternated between pretty good and smacking of desperation. Despite Mel's public stumbling, I still root for the guy -- he was Martin Riggs, for Pete's sake -- but there had to have been something better than Edge of Darkness for him to return to the movies for...or maybe there wasn't.

The best werewolf movie has yet to be made, and it totally sucks that Silver Bullet still holds the closest to that title in my heart after all of these years. The Wolfman gave it the old college try, and despite featuring wicked make-up by one of my heroes, Rick Baker, great mostly non-CGI special effects, and the heaving bosom of Emily Blunt, the film is slow and the story is weak. And not even the most bugnuts performance of Anthony Hopkins couldn't save this thing. Here's hoping director (a replacement in the first place for another departed helmer) Joe Johnston's The First Avenger: Captain America (a stupid mouthful like X-Men Origins: Wolverine) will be better and fare better.

The best thing about Cop Out (formerly the much funnier A Couple of Dicks) is composer Harold Faltemeyer's synth-score. I don't believe I've heard Faltemeyer's work in a film since 1989's Fletch Lives. Now having said that, Cop Out is a pretty funny movie and a nice homage to the buddy cops of the Eighties and early Nineties. It's also nice to see Bruce Willis' new teeth and I'm so very glad that they fit better and do not impede his speech and voice like Danny Glover's dentures. Tracy Morgan is pretty hilarious in this one, but he's basically playing himself here, but then again, so is Bruce Willis. The sad thing about Cop Out is that it also describes its director Kevin Smith's career trajectory. The master auteur is now a work-for-hire director. Yet, he has proven that he can direct action sequences. Hey, Kev, how about signing onto Fox's Daredevil reboot?