Sucker Punch

"Sucker Punch" is certainly the strangest dance musical of all time.

Each time the female protagonist goes into her bump-and-grind, the routine is depicted as a video gamer's fantasy of violent combat against zombie Germans in World War I, or cyborgs, or dragons.

It's like Roxie Hart of "Chicago" ran off for the weekend with some pimply adolescent Xbox fiend.

The film abdicates so many basic responsibilities of coherent storytelling, even coherent stupid-action-movie storytelling, director/co-writer/co-producer Zack Snyder must have known in preproduction that his greasy collection of near-rape fantasies and violent revenge scenarios disguised as a female-empowerment fairy tale wasn't going to satisfy anyone but himself. Well, himself, plus ardent fans of Japanese-schoolgirl manga comics. "Close your eyes. Open your mind. You will be unprepared," is the movie's ad slogan.

Indeed. You will be unprepared for a film packing this much confusing crud into a little less than two hours of solitary confinement, which feels more like dog hours, i.e., 14.

Unlike Snyder's "300" (which I rather enjoyed) and "Watchmen" (which I didn't), "Sucker Punch," co-written by Steve Shibuya, is by loosest definition an original, not based on a graphic novel. The time is the 1960s. Up in Brattleboro, Vt., a salacious, greedy, quasi-incestuous stepfather commits his stepdaughter to an asylum. With a lobotomy in her near future, this young woman, Babydoll, joins forces with a few other tough-as-nails unfortunates -- Sweet Pea, Rocket, Blondie and Amber -- and plots an escape.

But wait! The movie's really taking place inside Babydoll's incessant dream life. Whenever she dances, she imagines herself and her comrades to be warriors in battles across space and time, taking and meting out all sorts of pain. But wait! Those fantasies are really part of another Babydoll fantasy, wherein she's a kind of brothel employee under the thumb of a sharkskin weasel named Blue, who uses the brothel to front for various illegal activities. The ladies undergo what appears to be dance-therapy led by Madam Gorski (Carla Gugino). When Babydoll "dances," the "dancing" is never shown; the "dancing" is shown metaphorically, as martial arts and "Call of Duty" and who knows what else, all monitored by the leader known as Wise Man (Scott Glenn).

The script seems to have undergone a series of small strokes, and right in the middle of "Sucker Punch" is Emily Browning, an utter blank as Babydoll. Only Abbie Cornish's Sweet Pea and Gugino's Gorski bring any sense of natural authority or charisma to Snyder's private party. "All that gyrating and moaning ... the dance should be more than just titillation," Cornish tells Browning after her first "number." In a film that's largely about thighs and cleavage and blurring the line between fetishized weaponry and other objects of desire, that line is a hypocritical joke. So is the film's rating. "Sucker Punch" got by with a PG-13. I'd like someone to see it, and then see "Win Win," which got an R rating for a few "F" words, and then defend the Motion Picture Association of America's Ratings and Classifications board and their priorities with a straight face.

 

     RSS

 

"Sucker Punch" Movie Trailer

 

MPAA rating: PG-13 (for thematic material involving sexuality, violence and combat sequences, and for language).

Running time: 1:50.

Cast: Emily Browning (Babydoll); Abbie Cornish (Sweet Pea); Jena Malone (Rocket); Vanessa Hudgens (Blondie); Jamie Chung (Amber); Oscar Isaac (Blue); Carla Gugino (Madam Gorski); Scott Glenn (Wise Man); Jon Hamm (High Roller).

Credits: Directed by Zack Snyder; written by Snyder and Steve Shibuya; produced by Zack Snyder and Deborah Snyder. A Warner Bros. Pictures Release.

 

more MOVIE REVIEWS ...

Recent Movie Reviews - Films in Theaters

 

Win Win

Win Win
Paul Giamatti and Amy Ryan

A sports movie in which winning is neither everything nor the only thing. Friendship, honesty and a clear conscience all count for more in 'Win Win' than the triumph of the human spirit, though in its depiction of an underdog wrestling team getting it together, it offers enough of that material -- in a funny, low-key way, that is

 

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules
Zachary Gordon and Devon Bostick

The first 'Wimpy Kid' film did little justice to the books. It did, however, capture enough of the fan base to warrant a sequel. Greg (Zachary Gordon) is heading into 7th grade. His tormenting older brother Rodrick (Devon Bostick) plays drums and has rock n' roll dreams. Rodrick and Greg become enemies, then uneasy allies, then enemies, then friends

 

Copyright © 2011 Tribune Media Services, Inc.