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An Extremely Early Look At Steven Soderbergh's THE INFORMANT!
SPOILER ALERT !!
Beaks here...
According to the Warner Bros. release schedule, Steven Soderbergh's THE INFORMANT (starring Matt Damon) isn't due out until September 18th. Please keep this in mind as you read Red Redding's review. There's still lots of time for Soderbergh to tweak this puppy.
That said, it sounds like the Academy Award-winning director is well on his way to delivering a pretty terrific black comedy about one man's mercurial quest to take down the agribusiness giant, Archer Daniels Midland. The film is based on the bestseller by Kurt Eichenwald (who also wrote the Enron expose, CONSPIRACY OF FOOLS). Take it away, Red...
Red Redding here with an early review of The Informant, which stars Matt Damon and is directed by Steven Soderbergh and, according to IMDB, comes out in September. The Screening was held in Thousand Oaks, California.
The basic setup of the movie is that Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) works for a big corporation that manufactures corn based products. He used to be a biochemist, but he was brought up to work the business aspect and he is eventually a higher up (I think possibly vice president) making 350k per year. He finds out that there are many corporations throughout the world that meet with his company and are in agreement on how to fix prices. Because his conscience gets to him, he decides to go to get in contact with the FBI by lying about a mole in his company. He tells them that the head of one of the businesses he associates with calls him at his house, so the FBI comes to his house and wire taps his phone. When the agent (Scott Bakula) comes and taps his phone he reveals the price fixing scheme. The FBI then sets him up with wire taps so that they can bring all of these corporations down.
If this sounds like Breach, don’t worry, it isn’t. Surprisingly this is a comedy, and a pretty damn funny one at that. The movie is not played serious at all and the comedy is subtle and goofy with Matt Damon making hilarious observations through voice over while his character does some ridiculous things. He becomes so caught up he thinks he is part of the FBI and he thinks he is this super spy like 007 (he says he is 0014 because he is twice as smart as James bond). At about the halfway point (the movie in its current, and from the look of it, final form is 2 hours) you begin to see the real Mark Whitacre for what he is.
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD
The whole thing about Mark is that he never really tells anybody the whole truth and we realize that he is a compulsive liar. What everybody else and the audience learn is that Mark has been pretty much playing everybody he meets and he has been embezzling large sums of money (we never know how much money it really is, which is one of the best running gags in recent film memory) for himself all over the world. Worst of all is nobody notices it because of the price fixing scandal. The last 1/4 of the movie is Mark trying to get out of the rut he has created for himself by hiring different lawyers and what not.
END MAJOR SPOILERS
The Matt Damon we get in this movie is the same one from Ocean’s Thirteen when he is playing “The Nose.” It is a very good performance, albeit goofy, which is good because he is in nearly every scene. The supporting cast is great and there are literally 20 recognizable actors playing bit parts here and there (Biff from Back to the Future, awesome). The major negatives really come from the movie’s repetitiveness, in which he is spying for the FBI and the last half hour of the movie which involves lawyers and such (involved in the spoilers section). It was 2 hours and it felt like 2 1/2 hours, which for a comedy is no good. If they cut the movie down to 1 hr and 40 to 45 minutes it would be great. The crowd ate the movie up and I overheard the general consensus was that it was getting mostly 2’s and 3’s which meant very good and good (I put good). If this has the right marketing this could be a big hit because as far as the setting s and such went this movie couldn’t have cost that much to make. Overall, I would say it is a solid 7/7.5. It was damn entertaining and the laugh quotient was pretty damn good.
If I could do a little comparison I would say that it felt like a Coen Brothers story, directed with the stylishness of Soderbergh’s Ocean’s movies.
The basic setup of the movie is that Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) works for a big corporation that manufactures corn based products. He used to be a biochemist, but he was brought up to work the business aspect and he is eventually a higher up (I think possibly vice president) making 350k per year. He finds out that there are many corporations throughout the world that meet with his company and are in agreement on how to fix prices. Because his conscience gets to him, he decides to go to get in contact with the FBI by lying about a mole in his company. He tells them that the head of one of the businesses he associates with calls him at his house, so the FBI comes to his house and wire taps his phone. When the agent (Scott Bakula) comes and taps his phone he reveals the price fixing scheme. The FBI then sets him up with wire taps so that they can bring all of these corporations down.
If this sounds like Breach, don’t worry, it isn’t. Surprisingly this is a comedy, and a pretty damn funny one at that. The movie is not played serious at all and the comedy is subtle and goofy with Matt Damon making hilarious observations through voice over while his character does some ridiculous things. He becomes so caught up he thinks he is part of the FBI and he thinks he is this super spy like 007 (he says he is 0014 because he is twice as smart as James bond). At about the halfway point (the movie in its current, and from the look of it, final form is 2 hours) you begin to see the real Mark Whitacre for what he is.
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD
The whole thing about Mark is that he never really tells anybody the whole truth and we realize that he is a compulsive liar. What everybody else and the audience learn is that Mark has been pretty much playing everybody he meets and he has been embezzling large sums of money (we never know how much money it really is, which is one of the best running gags in recent film memory) for himself all over the world. Worst of all is nobody notices it because of the price fixing scandal. The last 1/4 of the movie is Mark trying to get out of the rut he has created for himself by hiring different lawyers and what not.
END MAJOR SPOILERS
The Matt Damon we get in this movie is the same one from Ocean’s Thirteen when he is playing “The Nose.” It is a very good performance, albeit goofy, which is good because he is in nearly every scene. The supporting cast is great and there are literally 20 recognizable actors playing bit parts here and there (Biff from Back to the Future, awesome). The major negatives really come from the movie’s repetitiveness, in which he is spying for the FBI and the last half hour of the movie which involves lawyers and such (involved in the spoilers section). It was 2 hours and it felt like 2 1/2 hours, which for a comedy is no good. If they cut the movie down to 1 hr and 40 to 45 minutes it would be great. The crowd ate the movie up and I overheard the general consensus was that it was getting mostly 2’s and 3’s which meant very good and good (I put good). If this has the right marketing this could be a big hit because as far as the setting s and such went this movie couldn’t have cost that much to make. Overall, I would say it is a solid 7/7.5. It was damn entertaining and the laugh quotient was pretty damn good.
If I could do a little comparison I would say that it felt like a Coen Brothers story, directed with the stylishness of Soderbergh’s Ocean’s movies.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewj6b2QJ8lo
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oops
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Not really i jest !
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I want to watch it, but it's a long commitment. Watched King of the Hill for the first time a couple weeks ago. Fucking Amazing! People should be more aware of that Soderbergh masterpiece.
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Another couple of non-articles and the Christian Bale thing falls off the page!
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good times.
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Odd.
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That explains why there are so many semi well-known comedians in the movie...Patton Oswalt, Tony Hale, Joel McHale, Mike O'Malley, Scott Adsit, Paul Tompkins, Bil Dwyer
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That's the one I'm dying to see realized by Soderbergh. Of course, now that Jackman has put the kibosh on playing Antony it won't be as good, but still. 3-D! Cleopatra dancing around and singing (especially if played by Catherine Zeta-Jones)! Comedy gold.
But yeah, this Damon movie sounds pretty good too. -
Any other thoughts on cross-movie-pollination?
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zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
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I love you Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
Lashlarue - You totally should watch more King of the Hill. Hank and Peggy and the gang... Oh, the Soderbergh. Can't help you there. IMDB shows that Amber Benson was in it. And since she was in a Whedon project, why hasn't aicn covered KOTH more? -
I'm looking at you, Herc, you sonuvabitch.
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Decatur, IL. They were there shooting it on location (ADM's headquarters is in Decatur) last summer. They had fake snow everywhere downtown because the movie is set in winter I guess, and they were shooting at the courthouse and the local indie movie theater and some downtown restaurants.
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funny thing is i had this film pegged as an oscar contender next year without knowing the details and tone. i just saw soderbergh/damon and the title 'the informant' and a picture of a pudgy matt damon with a mustache and immediately thought, 'oh shit, damon's going for the gold'. but this sounds better than the movie that was in my head, so good news for me!
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Also, this is the first time I've heard that it was a comedy.
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A V A T A R - FUCKING YOUR EYEBALLS IN 2009! Nothing else matters.
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"directed with the stylishness of Soderbergh’s Ocean’s movies" is very worrisome to me. I like Soderbergh, but I think he needs to get as far away from the style and laziness he exhibited in those three movies as is possible.That said, Matt Damon doing comedy can be fun, so I'm somewhat optimistic about this one.
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Oh look, all of our characters are mentally deficient, and half of them kill each other over nothing..hardy har har.
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heykilladookabelladukkahukka a licky boom boom dooooooown!
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How does he continually make movies that by and large are snooze fests? Like that drug one w/Michael Douglas. It had several stories tied together about drug trafficing....TRAFFIC it was called. Anyways, talk about a violent, spooky and harrowing subject. Give to Soder and it feels like trying to stay awake while your paint dries. His films seem like something your SUPPOSED to see, cause theyre important subjects but....Good Lord, they're bland.
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Nah. I really didn't even read this, just skimmed.
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They filmed 'the informant' in my town, Decatur, IL--which is where a lot of this actually went down. The crew and the actors were so friendly to everyone. I got to play an extra in the movie, an FBI agent. Can't wait to see it on the big screen!
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SCOTT BAKULA was AWESOME!
and I have to agree with the 'spy' it was a great flick even with sitting in the front-front of the theater.
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...but it sure smells good!
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I really hope you're joking. if you thought Traffic was bland, you might need to change your meds. I guess Shawshank Redemption was a snoozefest for you too, because there were no girls and explosions in it?don't worry, they'll make Bad Boys 3 for you soon enough...
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http://tinyurl.com/dnyr6u
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Pasadena. One of his agency meetings was filmed at the City Hall. You see a shot of the wall where they hang the portraits of all the former Mayors. It was cool, my pop's pic got an uncredited cameo.
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Feb 04, 2009 9:22:29 PM CST
Soderburg should do a biopic on the guy who wrote the book.
by christopher3
There's another equally crazy story.
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Feb 04, 2009 11:36:04 PM CST
From James Cameron, Director of PIRHANA 2 and TRUE LIES:
by biggusdickus
A V A T A R - CRUELLY DASHING YOUR EXPECTATIONS IN 2009!<p.Get some perspective, fanboy.
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I think I speak for all the eyeballs of the world is saying...STFU.
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...and was so sick of this story for years. Then when they finally make a movie here, it's about this whitaker jerk. Filmed in my hometown and I have absolutely no interest in this movie. If I want to see what a shitty town looks like, I'll look outside.
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Not really
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Anyone who makes a cinematic love letter to a mass-murdering failure like Che Guevara has my vote--to never watch another film...
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I understand you are excited by the deep and important message films of Mr. Soderberg. Though I am happy for you, I want to give you a 'Heads Up' about certain activities and entertainments that could give you a sezuire/heart attack: Bowling. The Price is Right. PBS. Painting anything more stimulating than a landscape. Taking Geritol. Sham-Wow! commercials. C-Span. Soccer. The Golf Channel. The music of Clay Aiken. The novel 'Crime and Punishment. Ballet...any ballet. The films of Merchant @ Ivory. Old ATARI video games (too intense). I could go on, but these are just a few of the entertainments that might put you over the edge.
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you saying True Lies is bad? GET OUTTA EREEEEEEEEEE!!!!
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“Yeah, I went to the set,” said Steven Soderbergh, when Total Film quizzed him recently. “I can tell you that shit was mindblowing. The shit I saw was crazy. Like, craaaazy.I I think it’s gonna be gigantic. It’s gonna be another one of those benchmarks. There’s gonna be Before that movie and After.”
WHAT YA SAY ABOUT THAT MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!! -
you should add guerilla warfare, gunfights, boxing matches, murder, revenge, vicious beatings, bank heists, and sex to that list...except all of those are in Soderbergh movies...I guess they gave him the Oscar for being boring though, yeah?Bad Boys 3, meeting your eyeballs' expectations in 2011...
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Those reprehensible, soul shaking and indelible acts were in a Solderbeg movie? I cannot recall ever seeing them in one of his movies. Sex? Nothing rings a bell there either. I guess the only analogy that I can draw is this: Red is a very bright, dynamic color. However, if after painting ones wall with it said painter is to sit and watch it dry, it becomes rather unremarkable and, dare I say, tedious. Note to Solderberg: It's not the paint-it's HOW you use it. You probably have more sex and violence in one of your films that ALL of the Cohens/Scorsese/Spielberg films combined (from the description provided by Mr. BadWonka), yet I can probably remember every act of violence from their films. Case in Point: The Cohens 'BURN AFTER READING'. That one act has more passion, disgust and shock than anything you have ever done. If you want to tackle 'heavy' subjects, you need to engage and leave a mark. And to Mr. BadWonka: Were the 'BadBoy' films good? Just curious...
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if you can't remember anything from Soderbergh's movies because they don't have enough shocking violence and debaucheries, well...that's a shame. what can I say? I remember them fine.congrats though on misspelling Soderbergh, Scorcese AND Coen all in one post.
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I do believe the point I did make abundantly clear was not that the movies of the Coen bros and Scorcese had ALOT of 'shocking violence'. It is that when they DO show violence, it's SHOCKING because it 1. Feels Real, and 2. You care. Soderbergh? Not so much. Oh, and thanks for Googling the directors and getting right spelling. Cheers!
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and my point was that your viewpoint, which you continue to just state as a self evident fact, is way in the minority. for many people, things stick with them from movies because they are meaningful and perhaps require some mental participation from the viewer, not simple because they are exploitative and graphic.and brother, trust me, I didn't need to Google "Coen"...
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