The Spirit (2009)

I had heard a lot about this movie, specifically that it was a piece of crap and didn't deserve a theatrical release so much as it deserved to be burned to a heap of slag and force-fed to the people that green-lighted it. All the critics trashed it and I don't know a single person who saw it in the theater.

My cousin recommended it to me. She routinely has shitty taste in movies and that isn't just my opinion. On a list of the worst films of the decade, she owned 80% of them. She is unrepentant about her enjoyment of these movies, which I actually respect. So I always watch the movies she recommends, I just reserve the right to make fun of her for them (Twilight and Gabriel especially).

The dialogue and expressions which aren't overshadowed by the costuming or Sin City-esque cinematography are so over the top I wondered if it was intentional. I'm fairly certain Samuel L. Jackson decided that it was a comedy because that's how he played The Octopus.

   See that face? Hilarity.

I had read a lot of critics slamming him for wearing Nazi regalia in the movie so I was waiting for that scene. I think they completely over-reacted and didn't appreciate the humor in having a black man wearing eyeliner in a Gestapo suit. My irony gland practically exploded with joy. And his army of retarded clones? They start out all high-tone with names like Logos and Pathos, and as the movie progresses and they get killed, they are replaced with names like Huevos and Rancheros.

By comparison, The Spirit himself was kind of lame. I mean, he's just a garden-variety revenant. No real powers, no compelling backstory, he's just a guy who died and got brought back as a science experiment. The villains are really the only reason to watch this movie. ScarJo is adorably snarly and bitchy, like an angry Persian kitten. Eva Mendes pouts and swishes around in catsuits as the appallingly-named Sand Serif.

I shuddered a little just now, typing that. She makes up for it by being naked in part of a scene, putting her (arguably) best asset out for the world to see. Poor Paz Vega had to be saddled with the name Plaster of Paris and didn't even get to take off her bra.

So, yeah, if you are in on the joke, you might enjoy this movie. Don't get your hopes up too high, though. There's no real plot and the character interaction sucks. It's really a good thing that Will Eisner died in 2005 before he could see the movie that mocks his life's work and all the recipients of the award named for him. But, hell, maybe he's sitting in the afterlife laughing his incorporeal ass off. What do I know?