The Garod Effect

The Bank Job

2008-08-08T15:58:00.003-05:00

Sometimes I want to watch a film strictly for who is directing it. The Bank Job only made my Netflix queue because of the great director Roger Donaldson (13 Days, No Way Out, White Sands, Species, Cocktail) was the man behind it. Donaldson has a way of making movies exciting...even Cocktail... and Dante's Peak for that matter. He specializes in thrillers so when the halfway point of The Bank Job rolls around and the shit hits the fan... boy does it ever.

Our story begins with the lovely Martine (Saffron Burrows) asking her old flame Terry (Jason Statham) if he is interested in doing a little job with her. A sort of last heist so both of them can get out of the business. Terry isn't really in the heisting business and is skeptical of the offer. He finds out that Martine is really being asked to cooperate for a British MI5 agent that got her out of a drug smuggling charge. You see the British lads need to get some compromising photos out a safety deposit box in order to charge an upstart young hood Michael X (Peter De Jersey). As I said before... halfway through the light tone takes a hard turn. Things get veeeeeeeeeery complicated when it goes into thriller mode.

All of the actors are impeccably well chosen no matter how small the part... and boy there is a lot of speaking parts here. I got quite a few twists and turns including two WTF moments... one involving a sandblaster. Donaldson does a great job of getting the entire look too... the costume dept and everyone on the film deserves high praise.

The only downside is perhaps there are a few too many threads to be woven together here. The last 45 minutes gets very deep into the details. Not a lot of loose ends either. How much of the story is actually true is questionable as well. No matter what the answer to that may be, The Bank Job is flat out entertaining. In a marketplace with so many stupid films (eyeballing you Vantage Point), it is a pleasure to see a great director work with this much talent.

90/100

X-Files: I Want to Believe

2008-08-08T15:35:00.003-05:00

This film hasn't been given a fair shake at all. I think a lot of the criticism has come from non-fan reviews and casual fans. For the hardcore fans of the series, I Want to Believe delivers the goods on what we realy want: Mulder and Scully. The plot takes a backseat to their relationship.

Let's get to the plot first. Mulder (David Duchovny) has been living in exile when a young FBI agent is kidnapped. Another agent in charge (Amanda Peete) reaches out to Scully (Gillian Anderson) to help her locate Mulder so he can use his unique skills to find the missing girl. The audience (and Mulder) is lead to believe that suddenly the FBI is all forgiving and will let the the two back without consequences. Mulder decides it is worth the chance to help sort out the mystery. Here is where it gets a little foggy. The only lead the FBI has is a reformed molester who happened to be a priest that still goes by the moniker Father Joe (Billy Connolly). Father Joe claims to have pyschic abilities and in fact led the FBI to a field with a maimed arm. Whether or not the good Father has a hand in this is the mystery.

Much of the plot was kept on the down low for reasons unbeknownst to me. Nothing in it is that original other than you do have a legitamite WTF moment half way through. The real story is Mulder's attempt to reconcile who he is and Scully's questions of faith in a fucked up, apeshit world. Ultimately those of the two major themes of the series so to say this is unexpected would be to reveal you to be a nonfan.

I think if you go into the film knowing that it is very low budget(Half the original film's budget) and expect a good longer episode you'll be fine. The interplay between the leads is still some of the best you can find. It is also a pleasure to see Duchovny in something smarter than the lackluster Californication. Series creator Chris Carter wrote/directed the film with a limited feel for visuals. It might have been better to obtain someone a bit more skilled with the camera to make the film look a little bigger. This one looks and feels small. Carter also makes a horrible casting decision with Exhibit as another FBI agent...terrible terrible. What was TI doing...oh yeah he's in jail.

70/100

The Year of Living Dangerously

2008-08-07T16:16:00.002-05:00

Some movies start out with a deeper meaning or rather to come across as deep and fail miserably. Some strive for big ideas and are mediocre. This is a mediocre tale from awesome director Peter Weir (Mosquito Coast, Master and Commander, Truman Show, Dead Poets Society). Guy Hamilton (Mel Gibson) is a young journalist on his first real foreign assignment in Indonesia around the same time that whole conflict in Vietnam was starting up. Hamilton is teamed with a freelance camerman Billy Kwan(Linda Hunt playing a dude). Billy has adopted a woman and her son as his own and believes Guy could be the one journalist to blow the lid off the tragedies taking place there. Along the way Guy meets a hottie working in the British Embassy (Sigourney Weaver) and falls in love. Their relationship is compromised when a story comes between them that could not only destroy them, but get Guy killed in the process.

All of this makes The Year of Living Dangerously sound a lot more glamorous and high minded then the resulting film. Weir clearly loves the humanity of the project, but you never really get a true sense of the plight of the people. Only vague moments provide you a small glimpse into the true atrocities going on. Everything else is a young Weir trying to find his filmmaking self. The actors are fine especially Weaver who classes up a somewhat thankless role.

Nothing special here unless you want to see the evolution of Weir as a director. For this is the only reason I gave it a shot in my Netflix queue. Slight thumbs up for the solid talents behind a subpar script.

60/100

Wristcutters: A Love Story

2008-07-23T15:00:00.002-05:00

No doubt Wristcutters sat on the shelf for a long time because really... how do you market a long story about two people who committed suicide? And again the cut that director Goran Dukic finally released was probably not quite what he wanted. Dukic actually adapted his screenplay from his father's short story so that is probably why the characters seem to actually have a depth and feeling to them.

Zia (Patrick Fugit from Almost Famous) kills himself after problems with his girlfriend Desiree (Leslie Bibb from Talledega Nights). He finds out that suicides are condemned to live in a world much like the one he left "only a little worse." The fact that this world is made up of only suicides probably has something to do with that. Zia befriends a young immigrant Eugene(Shea Whigham from All the Real Girls) whose entire family has killed themselves. They talk and commiserate about their stories until one day Zia gets info that Desiree has too killed herself. Eugene and Zia set off on a road trip and that is where the story really gets going. The first person they encounter is Mikal (Shannyn Sossamon from A Knight's Tale and every man's wet dream) who is on the road trying to find the people in charge to inform them that she is in this work by mistake.

The story takes some twists and turns with other nice moments from John Hawkes, Tom Waits, and Will Arnett as the story comes to an end. The subject matter of suicide is a tough one to tackle and Dukic manages to craft a near brilliant tale of remarkable originality. His stark vision of the afterlife limbo in which the characters are habitating was missing only the lonely voice of Billy Corgan ala Spun. Suicide is treated with a bit a humor, but never so that is lessens the message of the film. The ending... the ending is just right.

Wristcutters will rightfully become a cult film one day much as Donnie Darko (tepid response in theatres) did in the last few years. One can only hope a true director's cut will come out with the many deleted scenes back in the film where they belong. If that happens my 90 will be a 100.

90/100

Angel Heart

2008-07-23T14:30:00.003-05:00

Angel Heart is one of those odd films that has somehow lived on through the years despite it not being very good. It is almost mythical for the ruining of an American sweetheart Lisa Bonet from the Cosby Show. The nudity and sex scene she has later on in the film seem to be the sole reason why anyone remembers this Alan Parker film. Rumors were about too that the scene wasn't simulated... always one of those every few years in the urban myth variety. On to the movie...

Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke) gets a visit from a potential client (Robert DeNiro) one day. Angel is more accustomed to finding cheating husbands than missing persons, but Cyphre (DeNiro) wants him to track down an old singer who has gone missing. Not much of an explanation or reason why just a thread to start with. Essentially this turns into a series of meetings Angel has with various associates of the singer that ultimately end with them showing up deceased. Angel feels a constant pressure to solve the mystery before he joins them in the morgue. Throw in an old girlfriend (Lisa Bonet showing up a long ways in) of the singer who seems to practice voodoo and you've got a glossy trash film noir.

Director Alan Parker has always been an overrated hack with far too heavy of a hand for me to take. Midnight Express got a lot of attention and probably is the only reason he was still making films by the time he got to Angel Heart. Parker would follow this trash up with an undenialable masterpiece Mississippi Burning. It was tough for him to mess that one up just as it is too much for him to elevate this material above standard genre crud. Much later on, Parker would do a string of so-so films culminating with Angela's Ashes and the godawful The Life of David Gale.

Bonet is extremely hot and underused, much like a walk on by British actress Charlotte Rampling. Of course, there is Mickey Rourke who has always been one of the finest actors working depending on how he feels about the film he is in. Here is seems to be trying to make the best of what he has got. Film noir is something Rourke was born to play, tis a pity he couldn't find a better script to do. The interviews with Rourke on the DVD lead you to believe his heart was never in this film and was more into his boxing around this time. I can't figure out for the life of me what DeNiro was doing here... and all the extras seem to point to the fact that he wanted nothing to do with it afterwards.

I'm giving this an average grade and you have to understand, without Bonet and Rourke, this would get a 0.

50/100

The Grifters

2008-07-15T13:19:00.003-05:00

Sometimes it is fun to revisit a film that you don't bust out too often to see how well it holds up. The Grifters is a drama from 1990 featuring the talents of director Stephen Frears (Hi-Fidelity, Dangerous Liasons) and producer Martin Scorsese. Essentially it is a story about three grifters (con men) and their relationship to each other. Each one looks at the other as a potential mark despite their closeness. Lilly (Anjelica Houston) runs odds down at racetracks for the mob and is sent to LA for some quick work. She drops in to visit her son Roy(John Cusack) who is hurting from a con he tried to pull in a bar. These two all ready have a contentious relationship when Roy's girlfriend Myra (Annette Bening) enters the picture.

Revisiting this film now, I can clearly see that is set up as a creepy love triangle. Cue the scene where Myra confronts Roy about his work. A wisecrack early about Roy selling matchbooks provides a clue that she knew along what he did, but only later on after she witnesses it does she bring it up. At this point, Myra tell Roy that she is of the same ilk. Roy becomes immediately more intrigued by Myra since there is already that sexual tension between him and his mother.

Cusack is a master at the scenes with Lilly providing the viewer with way too much info with his eyes. They dart back and forth from breast to leg in a manner unbefitting of a mother-son relationship.

Strange that the film would come full circle from a line earlier on in the film. A woman always has one thing...

The Grifters was adapted from a novel by the great Jim Thomson that is less about the script as it is about the perfomances and direction. Cusack has the least showy part, but perhaps the most difficult overall. Houston has always been a fine actress, but most people didn't even know who the hell Bening was before this film. This is an excellent showpiece for one of the best actresses of all time. The daring and ballsy-ness is amazing.

Frears is always the consumate professional who might someday get the word auteur attached before his name. Each of his films has his fingerprints all over it. His work with the camera has a definite feel of the producer Scorsese. Each scene is done with such precision you can't help but feel excited just seeing what he is going to do next. Movies like this are an absolute pleasure to rewatch no matter what the subject matter.

100/100

Cameo alert for the great Pat Hingle as Lilly's mob boss. He was the original Commissioner Gordon in the Tim Burton Batman!

Geronimo: An American Legend

2008-07-15T12:49:00.004-05:00

The second half of Walter Hill was much better thank God. You get a good script from excellent screenwriter/director John Milius (Rome, Red Dawn, Conan the Barbarian) with limited chances for Hill to fuck it up. Though the title would lead you to believe it is about Geronimo (Wes Studi), the story is told from a 2nd Lt. Davis (Matt Damon) fresh from West Point. He is put under the direct command of 1st Lt. Charles Gatewood (Jason Patric). Gatewood and Davis are charged with bringing Geronimo in to Brig. Gen. George Crook (Gene Hackman - the fuckin') to surrender. Geronimo's warriors would be the last to go into the reservation system while the US continued to push the American Indians away from their homes. Something happens on the reservation to start a revolt and soon Geronimo is back on the loose.

Altough you never really get to the heart of the Indian exploitation, you do get an excellent surface piece that manages to hit all the main points. Hill is able to sit back and not do anything too distractive to the narration. This represents a great change from his earlier work that would later again be touched on in Broken Trail.

In the description of the film, I wasn't even able to get to the greatness that is Robert Duvall as the tracker Al Sieber. Duvall manages to create a compelling character out of what seems like a stock role. In fact, each performance propels this film out of run of the mill status. For Gatewood, Patric brings the same underplayed, gentleness to the character as he lent to August March. Patric has become the king of understated roles, but that's for another column... Even Damon shows flashes of why, given the chance, he can really act. Also... look for a nice cameo from Kevin Tighe as a general who takes up the search for Geronimo later on. You'd probably recognize Tighe best as Locke's father on Lost or as the bar owner in the action classic Roadhouse.

Geronimo was Hill's follow up to the bomb Trespass. Both films did poorly in theatres despite being worthy of viewing. I liked Trespass a little bit better no doubt due to Bill Paxton and the Demon Knight himself William Sadler as the leads. Still Geronimo marks a key point in Walter Hill's career of direction.

75/100

Speaking of cameos... I almost forgot about Stephen McHattie popping in as well. McHattie is the diet Coke version of Lance Henriksen... right down to the gravely voice.

Wild Bill

2008-07-15T12:16:00.004-05:00

It must have been Walter Hill flop month on AMC because I caught two of his biggest. Wild Bill came at a productive, flop-tacular time for Hill: the 90's. I had heard awful, scathing reviews about Wild Bill, but I thought there wasn't anyway it could be that bad... oh dear God I was wrong. It was absolutely worse. The movie starts with Bill (Jeff Bridges, but I'm the dude) hitting Deadwood (which covered all this better later on with some direction from Walter Hill...hmmm) to try and hit it big during the gold rush. The story is juxtoposed with too many annoying side characters and flashbacks. You never get a real sense of story with all the backtracking. Gunfights litter these for no particular reason other than to spice up the dull narrative.

Everybody is miscast. Ellen Barkin as Calamity Jane, Christina Applegate in anything, and The Dude sleepwalking through the lead all are enough to turn the film off immediately. Everything from the look to the direction just smacks of awfulness. This isn't even so bad that it is fun to watch. Even Diane Lane isn't fun... and lemme tell ya that is a hard thing to accomplish.

One wonders if Hill was just in a drug/alcohol stupor until his comeback with an episode of Deadwood and the pretty great tv western Broken Trail. Hill would follow this up with Last Man Standing, Supernova (a long story there...), and Undisputed... all turd sandwiches. Here's your DVD quote... Wild Bill is even WORSE than you would have thought!

0/100

Casablanca

2008-07-15T11:54:00.003-05:00

There's not a lot to say about this classic film that hasn't already been said... but in case you've been under a rock or adverse to black and white I'll give a brief rundown of the plot. Rick (Humphrey Bogart) is minding his own business running a little night club in Morocco some time after the Germans rolled into Paris when the love of his life Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) walks through the door. Although the story weaves between the political climate and a plot regarding exit visas, this is essentially a love story about a man who is forced to take a side. Rick is friends with Chief of Police (Claude Rains) and knows that is a dangerous time to do so.

The plot is hardly revolutionary, but the script was for the time. The rapid fire, smart dialogue is something quite lacking in most older films and surprised me the first time I watched Casablanca. This is probably the chief reason this film holds up so well over time compared to it's comtemporaries. All the leads are well casted and devour their roles. Director Michael Curtiz never oversteps his boundaries with flashy shots... preferring to keep the camera as an outsider to the intrigue going on inside of Rick's club.

Casablanca is absolute masterpiece and is a firm reminder why older films can still be as important as newer ones. Forget the rubbish about Citizen Cane and catch this one instead. I'm glad I finally got around to it.

100/100

7 Years in Tibet

2008-07-01T15:51:00.004-05:00

Not gonna lie to you... 7 Years in Tibet starts out as a bit of a mess. You have to stick with it for about 40 mins before you start getting to the good stuff. This time coincides with the mess in Heinrich Harrer's (Brad Pitt) own life. Heinrich leaves his pregnant wife at the train station after a fight to head off to climb a mountain in the Himalayas. The time period is just around the point that Britain was pulled into WWII. Harrer and expedition lead Peter Aufschnaiter (David Thewlis) are captured by the British (Since they are German citizens) and placed in a prison camp.

Many escapes later... the two find themselves trying to seek passage into Tibet. Eventually they make their way to the capital city where they catch the eye of a government official (B.D. Wong from OZ) and the young Dalai Lama. Soon the Dalai Lama becomes fascinated with Heinrich and they become friends. Certainly this is to echo the fact that the child that Heinrich created seems to want no part of Heinrich in his life. Waiting out the war in Tibet allows our lead character to find who he really is and wants to be. Later on you get the rumbling of China into Tibet and the backstabbing that takes place... but this movie is at it's heart a tale of a man lost in the world.

Director Jean-Jacques Annaud (Enemy at the Gates, In the Name of the Rose) has done his best in cramming a story of about 10 years into the 140 min of run time. You feel a race at the start of the film to get to Harrer's time in Tibet. The story wants to be a bit more than that and that is a well intentioned goal. Annaud always gives his films a distinct look too... here you get Tibet as mostly a dirty, ugly place with the only glimpses of beauty being the people of the land. All of the actors are quite suited for their roles.

Not everything works here with the storyline. An effort was obviously made to keep this film under 3 hours. This causes the viewer to only focus on this period of time. This leaves you with the disctinct feeling that the most fascinating things might have been what Harrer did with the rest of his life... and not those 7 years in Tibet.

70/100

Untraceable

2008-06-27T14:40:00.003-05:00

"He's hacked into my car's computer!"

So exclaims Diane Lane's character in the thriller Untraceable. I had heard all kinds of awful things about this film in the weeks around it's release, but I was surprised at how watchable it turned out to be. No doubt director Gregory Hoblit should get the credit for that after nice turns with Primal Fear and Frequency. Hoblit tried to class things up with a boring film Fracture that boasted the acting chops of Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling. He (Hoblit) feels much more comfortable here with semi-implausible-land and a certain lack of decorum. Untraceable could've gone a different way and made this a sleazy whodunit that could creep into cult land, but instead you get a middling thriller.

Lane is on the case as Jane Marsh who is in the FBI cybercrimes division. Teamed with partner Griffin Dowd (Collin Hanks in all his post pubescent dorkiness) they mostly deal with losers who steal credit card info before stumbling onto a site where a cat is brutally killed live. Marsh wants to get the sonabitch on general principle, but the game is soon changed when the cat is replaced by a man. Enter Det. Box (Billy Burke - a Hoblit fav) as the Portland cop trying to find the missing man. The victim is being streamed live online where the more hits the site gets, the faster the man will die. The public start eating this shit up and the man soon dies. Will the cyberteam catch the killer or will the killer catch them? Probably both in a movie like this.

I have to agree with a writer from the AVclub in that this film would have been better served if the bad guy's identity was kept to the very end. And you also get that Untraceable was gonna get a little dirty with Lane's character spending a lot of time with the Detective. Random nudity from Diane Lane could only help differentiate between the rest of the ho-drum thrillers of this ilk.

A lot of talk was also given to the implausability of the plot... well duh it is a movie. Most of the twists require the same suspension of disbelief that you had to have to enjoy prior Hoblit films. What the film lacked was that complete go for the throat attitude that could have made this a perennial watch. Instead you get an average thriller that has a crush on the Saw films. Not as bad as you think... they should put that quote on the DVD box.

60/100

Very Bad Things

2008-06-26T15:20:00.003-05:00

Four friends:Moore(Leland Orser), Michael(Jeremy Piven), Adam(Daniel Stern), and Robert (Christian Slater) take their soon to be wed friend Kyle(Jon Favreau) on his bachelor party to Vegas. And next thing you know after a lot of booze and coke, Piven kills a hooker. Isn't that always how your Vegas trips end? The five friends fearing comdemnation of all of them decide to dispose of the body and act like nothing ever happened. Only things don't work out so easy.

Peter Berg's writing/directing debut Very Bad Things is a rather auspicious one. Berg is determined to make this a dark comedy no matter what... only the dialogue feels ad libbed and the situations seem forced. Whether or not the film works for you will no doubt be based on the assinine behavior of the friends the rest of the film. I didn't buy into any of it. Throw in some overacting from Cameron Diaz and an underuse of Jeanne Tripplehorn...and you get a mess!

Berg would later go on to make The Rundown, an adaptation of Friday Night Lights, and a not bad political action film The Kingdom. So it would seem he just needs someone else script to do. I'd be hard pressed to say any of the actors were that good, but I will say that Christian Slater does just about everything he can do to make his part work. Still... the second half just doesn't make any sense and is rarely funny. It does have a bizarre ending... and I'm not sure if that helps.

40/100

Delirious

2008-06-26T14:00:00.004-05:00

Toby (Michael Pitt) had been living for awhile off the street. He is running away from some sort of abuse when he meets Les (Steve Buscemi). Les is a papparazzi and at first wants no part of Toby. Soon Les likes having a guy to talk to and brag a bit about his work when in reality Les is just barely getting by. So Toby becomes Les's assistant on a job working the "Music Awards." Toby gets caught up in an entourage of popstar K'harma (Alison Lohman) and soon the two strike up a relationship. Toby finds his friendship tested as he wants to follow his love, while not losing his best friend.

Mostly this is the same song and dance about a loser who find someone who looks up to him. Toby has no other friends so he looks past the parasitic nature of his collarboration with Les. A talent director (Gina Gershon) soon "discovers" Toby on the basis of his tryst with K'harma. The story takes a dark turn later... that maybe doesn't completely jive with the tone of the earlier film. It seems from the convo with writer/director Tom DiCillo and Buscemi accompanying the film might shed some light on that. Some of the script was toned down and perhaps that is why it comes out of nowhere.

DiCillo and Buscemi first collaborated in Living in Oblivion back in the early 90's which was the toast of film fests everywhere. He has since whiffed on many a fastball with the failures of The Real Blonde and Double Whammy. Clearly DiCillo knows what is ripe for satire in show business. The problem with Delirious is that the jokes aren't all that funny and doesn't go for the jugular. Buscemi has just done something similar with Interview - which takes on a budding actress being interviewed by a "real" journalist.

What really works for Delirious is the cast. Buscemi is always spot on so put that aside. Michael Pitt and Alison Lohman are both at the top of the list in terms of good young actors. They both can bring a realness to the characters that you just do not get with most of the souless names coming out of Hollywood. Both Pitt in The Dreamers and Lohman in Where the Truth Lies, have staked their claim in the role of serious actors. Here they get the tone of the film and try to give more than the perfunctory performance called for from the script. You actually want these two people to end up with each other.

75/100

Sherlock Holmes and the Scarlet Claw

2008-06-24T11:33:00.003-05:00

More old school films here at TGE... this Sherlock Holmes tale come all the way from 1944! I was a fan of Sherlock Holmes stories since I was barely old enough to read. I've only seen some movie versions of Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous character and none of them were very good. On the advice of a collegue of mine, I decided to look back a few years. Directer Roy William Neall made a bunch of Sherlock stories in the twilight of his career and I selected The Scarlet Claw to start with. Sherlock (Basil Rathbone) recieves a letter from a dead woman (she was alive when she wrote it) and things are set in motion. Joined by Watson (Nigel Bruce), Holmes sets off to Le Mort Rouge in Canada. The town believes a monster is killing people on the swamps outside of town.

Of course in older stories it was logical to set up each character as a suspect. So you get led around through Sherlock's search from character to character with the full intention of red herrings everywhere. The climatic finish takes a turn from modern movies where the killer is not a major character... but I will leave it at that since there is more to it than just that.

The two leads are both accomplished actors and the direction is solid. The set pieces used are quite good for 1944 with some nice moody atmospherics. Even with modern effects today, there is nothing like a black and white film with some big ol' smoke machines. Filmgoers with an appreciation of older films with no doubt be satisfied with this film. However, if you are still b&w adverse, perhaps you should try something else.

70/100

Murder on the Orient Express

2008-06-24T11:12:00.003-05:00

Going old school back to 1974 with Sidney Lumet's adaptation of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. Lumet managed an all star cast including Sean Connery, Ingrid Berman, Lauren Bacall, Martin Balsam, Jacqueline Bisset, Vanessa Redgrave (who was hot once?), Michael York, Richard Widmark, Albert Finney, and Anthony Perkins. Each plays a character that winds up as passengers on the Orient Express when a murder occurs. Albert Finney is Poirot - a detective for hire that finds himself asked to investigate the murder by his friend played by Martin Balsam.

Essentially this is a whodunit for the last hour plus. In the movie intro you get a sad story of a kidnapping gone wrong that would seem to figure into the movie's plot. As Poirot starts his inqury you begin to understand that previous crime even better. The actors are universally good except for Perkins and Bergman - which is strange coz Ingrid picked up an Oscar for her role.

Lumet is again quite simple in his presentation of the story. He never does anything too fancy with the shots. Lumet's technique is usually to cast right and then get the hell out of the way. This way of thinking works well here where the story is really the director. The climax isn't anything too mindblowing, but it does throw you something different.

The Orient Express sputters a little out of the gate, but once the murder happens things come to life. Nothing revelatory here, but a excellent chance to see so many great actors together.

70/100

Dog Soldiers

2008-06-20T12:25:00.005-05:00

Director Neil Marshall made everyone's list of hot new directors with The Descent. A lot of people don't realize that he actually made a little gem of a horror film before that. Dog Soldiers succeeds as the same kind of small cast, small environment element that made The Descent work.

A squad of British soldiers are out on maneuvers in the Scottish highlands when they encounter a camp of slaughtered commandos. What could possibly do such horrible butchering? Oh yeah... it's werewolves. The soldiers are quickly on the run when they find a local woman (Emma Cleasby) who seems a little too quick to help. Everyone retreats to a small house in the woods to try and hold out til morning.

People might be turned off by the low budget. You aren't going to see cool effects or big action sequences, but you will get a throwback to old horror films like Night of the Living Dead. Actors Sean Pertwee, Liam Cunningham, and Kevin McKidd are all solid as the co-leads for the budget. You never get a feeling that Marshall skimped anywhere except on the blood and guts.

So bottom line, either you can handle or embrace low budget horror or you can't. If it is your thing you are gonna love Dog Soldiers. It lacks the nice cinematic eye Marshall would later show, but for 100 mins you get a good time.

75/100

Second Skin

2008-06-20T12:15:00.003-05:00

Sometimes you give a movie a chance for no particular reason. I can't really say one thing made me watch Second Skin. My boy Angus McFayden stars as Sam and the gorgeous (but not so good as an actress) Nastasha Henstridge is Crystal. Cystal applies for a job at Sam's bookstore and is promptly hit by a car. With the trauma to her head, Crystal is left not sure who she is or where she is running from.

This type of film is only gonna work if it goes one of two ways. Either you've got to be exceedingly clever with the narrative ala Memento or you have to go erotic-thriller. Director Darrell Roodt decides to split the difference and completely miss everything. One only has to look at Roodt's filmography to know that this is his forte.

Natasha has not real nudity of any kind and Angus seems to be sleep walking through his character. The plot has no surprises... so in the end. There's no reason at all for this film to even be made.

0/100

Rambo

2008-06-18T21:37:00.003-05:00

As a child of the 80's, I was raised on Arnold, Chuck, and Stallone. The first three Rambo's occupy spots on my DVD shelf and are for me a national treasure. Thou shalt not speak ill of Rambo in my house. With that being said, I was pretty pumped when Netflix delivered the newest addition to the series. I knew in my head not to expect too much coz after all its been 20 years since Rambo 3.

The fourth film finds out disallusioned vet working in some shit infested town along a river outside of Burma. Two missionaries (The Soprano's Paul Schultz and Dexter's Julie Benz) hire John to take them up river to help the people of Burma. Rambo warns the do-gooders that the only help the people need is guns. Of course, our hero's prediction comes true and the missionaries are caught up by the local military. So what's a killing machine to do? That's right... kill ever fucking Burmese soldier around and save Dexter's girlfriend.

R4 was directed by Sly himself... which explains why a lot of the killing is done by some mercs he knows. Matthew Marsden earns a top spot in the mercs no doubt due to his awesome performance in Anacondas 2....or not. The main problem is that Rambo has always been about one man versus everyone. This film seems to acknowledge the fact Stallone is getting old and lets some nameless characters have most of the fun. The action scenes are probably the most graphic you are ever going to watch. Limbs and heads explode everywhere... Dawn of the Dead has nothing on Rambo. Even the bad guys aren't established in any real way to get you rooting against them. For a film trying to create a "message" about the atrocities they sure don't spend a lot of time on that.

So I guess you'll enjoy Rambo 4 based on your expectations. If you are looking for a mindless action film with lots shit blowing up - you will probably like it. However, if you are looking for that same magic in the first 3 - that's not hanging around here.

50/100

The Deer Hunter

2008-06-10T12:50:00.004-05:00

So after that mad dash to finish the 2007 movie season via DVD, I got a little sidetracked by Lost. Seriously that show is like crack and I've fallen behind on actual films. I thought The Deer Hunter would be a good place to pick up the beat with it's longstanding status as a classic. Twas the winner of 5 Academy Awards and is largely to blame for director Michael Cimino's ability to get Heaven's Gate made. Most of the film nerds know that Heaven's Gate turned out to be a flop and a fiasco thus spiraling Cimino's career into the toilet. After watching The Deer Hunter for the first time, I have to wonder why people thought so highly of him. All the faults of TDH are largely to blame on the director.

Essentially this is the story of three friends from a small town in Pennsylvania that join the Army together to go fight in Vietnam. Michael (Robert De Niro), Steven (John Savage), and Nick (Christopher Walken) all seem unsure of their decision during Steven's wedding the weekend before their Army careers start. Complicating Michael's close friendship with Nick is their love for the same gal played by Meryl Streep. The three friends reunite in Vietnam right before they are captured behind enemy lines. The trials in the prison camp and ensuing escape will each affect the soldiers in different ways that will last forever.

Cimino takes foreeeeeeeeeeeever to get this story going with the opening act being 45 minutes of the fellas last weekend together at home. The wedding sequence is way too long with very little if anything happening except to establish minor characters in roles that do not matter to the overall story. Sure John Cazale and George Dzundza are terrific actors, but they have no importance to the main storyline and should have had their parts trimmed down.

The leads are all quite excellent in their respective parts. It is a pity that the opening sequence with all the great actors suffers from bad sound, innane dialogue, and bits of the wedding celebration that do nothing but draw attention away from them. If you get this kind of cast maybe you should... I don' know... FOCUS on them. John Savage to me is the most underrated actor of this bunch. His part is overshadowed here by the central friendship to this story. Savage is truly wonderful with the scraps the script gives him. DeNiro is pretty much just De Niro and he does do that well. Walken's part feels cut down too much with never allows you to understand the change in his personality. Which leads me to...

SPOILER ALERT

While taking all the time in the world with the first 45 minutes of film, Michael's trip over to Saigon to try and get his dear friend Nick back is done in barely 15 minutes. Plus you never truly establish that Nick's character would go into this life with the Russian roulette sect. I don't buy that the most grounded character, Nick, would suddenly become addicted to that life of one bullet, one kill. What may have seemed profound in 1978 feels very forced in 2008. This has to be one of the weaker entries in the Best Picture Winners in the grand scheme of things. Clearly the ending captured people and made this memorable, but alas the journey there is barely worth the ride.

65/100

The Best of 2007

2008-05-30T13:12:00.005-05:00

Ok... I never got around to Sweeney Todd and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is never going to get shipped via Netflix... I didn't see all the talked about docs Taxi to the Dark Side, In the Shadow of the Moon... but here is more or less the best of 2007.

1. Into the Wild - Just an incredibly emotional movie watching experience. Sean Penn was actually able to turn a great book into an even better film. Penn was finally able to follow up the promise of his debut masterpiece The Indian Runner.

2. Zodiac - David Fincher is borderline obsessive compulsive to detail and his adaption of Graysmith's novel shows it. Top notch all the way around and it begs for rewatches.

3. There Will Be Blood - I think this is a prime case of rewatching a film to realize it's greatness. The second and third watches of TWBB have convinced me of director P.T. Anderson's stunning brilliance.

4. The Bourne Ultimatum - Kind of a curveball here. I was quite impressed with Paul Greengrass's follow up to his disappointing first turn in the Bourne chair. The last hour is an action junkie's dream.

5. Starting Out in the Evening - 4 great actors doing a real movie for adults...a foriegn concept I know.

6. The Assasination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - Well done debut from Andrew Dominik. The actors almost seem secondary to the beautiful cinamatography and music. Not for the faint of heart.

7. No Country for Old Men - Business as usual from the Coen brothers with the excellent Tommy Lee Jones and ...Josh Brolin? Not quite perfect, but very watchable.

8. Charlie Wilson's War - A well done film from Mike Nichols/Aaron Sorkin that uses Philip Seymour Hoffman to his fullest... that Tom Hanks guy isn't bad either.

9. Rescue Dawn - Another solid adaptation... only this time from a documentary by Werner Herzog. The realism will stay with you long after the film is over.

10. The Savages - Acting tour de force courtesy of Laura Linney.

I grade films rather harshly and there weren't a whole lot of them that made it over the 80 mark. Plus I'm necessarily recommending these films for anyone who isn't a hardcore film fan. Chances are if you like the Dane Cook garbage, you will not like any of these.

Starting Out in the Evening

2008-05-30T12:38:00.003-05:00

It always amazes me when a well done film for adults slips through the cracks. People always complain about the lack of product aimed at a non PG-13 Brett Ratner crowd, but seldom put their dollars where it matters. Starting Out in the Evening currently boasts a 78 on metacritic and just under a 7/10 on IMDB, yet no saw it. Apparently even Oscar voters didn't see this strong effort from director Andrew Wagner who adapted this from a novel by Brian Morton.

Essentially this is a story revolving around 4 characters with writer Leonard Schiller (Frank Langella) in the middle of it all. Leonard is approached by a grad student named Heather Wolfe (Lauren Ambrose) to help her with her master's thesis on his life and his books. The interest of a young lass brings up a conflict with Leonard's daughter Ariel (Lili Taylor) who has relationship problems of her own with on-again off-again romance with Casey (Adrian Lestor). Heather is trying to bring out the real reason why Leonard has spent the last decade trying to finish just his fifth novel.

The dual storylines actually go together quite well especially if you figure out that Ariel and Casey's relationship is suppose to contrast the two sets of books that Leonard wrote. You see Leonard's characters were very different in the first books as told by Heather than the latter two. Those represent the two sides of Ariel's relationship. All of this is handled quite superbly by the director. You never get a sense that one half of the film lags in any way that would drag the other down with it.

Lauren Ambrose could play this role in her sleep and Adrian Lestor is always good. The two performances to talk about are Langella's and Taylor's Generally I have a disdain for the sterotypical character that Lili Taylor always plays perhaps best illustrated by the series Six Feet Under. She has limited range and a narrow comfort level it seems... but here she tones down the weepy put upon performance she always turns in. Instead she is able to craft an actual character with the help of a great script. For Langella, this seems a complete departure from his usual role as the man wearing the black hat. He gives a well thought out peformance that is every bit the opposite of something splashy like Daniel Day-Lewis's in There Will Be Blood. This much more subtle and nuanced. Langella lifts what could be a stuffy role with the wrong actor into something else.

All of this praise aside... I did have a problem with the ending. I don't want to reveal anything, but there is one scene that didn't play quite right. I can see how this would be accurate when you thing of the whole rather than the sum of it's parts... it is just that the tone feels off and the scene incomplete. I nitpick though and the average film goer might not even notice. This is a terrific movie for people who want more... expect more from their films.

100/100

The Andromeda Strain

2008-05-30T11:32:00.003-05:00

Going a little old school today with the 1971 sci-fi classic The Andromeda Strain. Curiously enough it was written in book form by a young medical student named Michael Crichton and brought to the big screen by 4 time Oscar winner Robert Wise (The Sand Pebbles, The Sound of Music). Of course, even a big budget thriller looks dated thirty years down the road no matter who the director of the film... but you have to look at those things objectively.

So the basics... a satellite crashes to Earth in a small New Mexico town. Locals decide to recover it and try to open it. This unleashes a deadly strain of virus this world has never seen that causes the blood to clot rapidly causing quick death. Members of the Army's project SCOOP call in the Wildfire team to contain and investigate the dangers of the virus. The team (Kate Reid, Arthur Hill, James Olsen, David Wayne) is made up all all solid actors, but names you'd never recognize right away. Wise said he did that as to not distract you from the film and it's message. He wanted you to believe that this was a real situation that could happen.

While those four actors are more than capable, the real star is the sets. Wildfire is based a elaborate facility that has been made to look like a cross between the biolabs we have nowadays and something more Kubrickian. A scene toward the end shows just how far the set design people had to go to get a shot of James Olson racing through the core.

I have no doubts that when The Andromeda Strain came out that this film was about as perfect as you can get it. However, with pacing, special effects, and just advances in science in the last 30 years you do feel as this story is diminished some. Although actors of today would do well to take a note on not trying to oversell a role. Not a bad watch... unlike the new miniseries that changed a good deal around to add more of a military thriller aspect to it.

The new miniseries adds too many faces you'll recognize. Only Benjamin Bratt and Andre Braugher have the chops to bring the goods in. Christa Miller (Scrubs), in particular, is awful in her role as part of the Wildfire team. The military aspect is played up more to create the government conspiracy plot. All of it takes a timeless story and reduces it to Sci-Fi original movie territory. I didn't make it through the second half of the new Andromeda Strain, the first half left me with the distince feeling of a turd sandwich with garnishes.

Old Andromeda Strain 80/100

New Andromeda Strain 10/100 (10 for Braugher)

Indiana Jone and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

2008-05-23T12:36:00.004-05:00

Henry Jones, Jr. (Harrison Ford) is back at it again in this fourth film in the Indiana Jones franchise. Jones is approached by a fellow named Mutt (Shia Lebeouf)to help him locate his mom's boyfriend (John Hurt). The boyfriend was an old friend of Indiana's named Howard Oxley. Oxley believed he had located a crystal skull which is the key to a secret to a lost city of gold. Throw in Mutt's mother (Karen Allen) is really Marion Ravenwood from Raiders and you get a family get-together much like the second National Treasure. I don't necessarily mean that as a compliment. Oh and don't forget a miscast Cate Blanchett as a Russian general trying to get a piece of the crystal kingdom too.

I'm a bit late reviewing this because essentially my heart was broken. I knew it was gonna happen, but I hoped that somehow Spielberg could rescue this film from the evil clutches of George Lucas. Lucas is the man that came up with this lame-brained storyline. The setup for the film is actually quite well done all the way up til the crystal skull is revealed - then it is bye bye to logic and the world we knew of in the Indiana Jones series. It turns into a shotty episode of something resembling X-Files - without the brains. David Koepp was asked to create a screenplay based on this Lucas abomination and to be fair he does what he can.

Spielberg's elaborate stunts seem small in scale. The camera feels like it is only capturing a small bit of screen unlike the epic feel of say Raiders. Much of this has to be blamed on absurd CGI effects. Lucas is no doubt to blame for the dumbing down of this series. The latter Star Wars films suffered from the, "Hey look what we can do with CGI even if it doesn't fit with the rest of the film!" attitude. Everything feels cheap and small. I know Harrison can't do everything he used to, but that doesn't mean you have to CG other parts that could be done by stuntmen.

All that being said, you the audience get a horrible tacked on ending. I'm sure Lucas/Spielberg wanted to tie things up in a way to make to please the crowd, but more people I knew at the screening were angry since it went against everything the first films had established. Maybe it's not Indiana Jones that needs to hang it up, maybe it is George Lucas.

30/100

P.S. I Love You

2008-05-20T14:46:00.004-05:00

For your standard rom-com, P.S. I Love You has some pretty dark moments to the storyline. Holly (Hilary Swank)loses her husband Gerry (Gerard Butler) to a brain tumor. Soon after his death, she starts receiving letters Gerry wrote before he died. Gerry has a everything plotted out to help Holly through the first year after he passes away. Holly's mom (Kathy Bates) disapproves of the lettters. She believes her daughter is never going to get over it with all the constant reminder of her lost husband. Throw in a strange dude (Harry Connick, Jr) and some friends (Gina Gershon and Lisa Kudrow), and you have a film.

Director Richard LaGravenese is man all over the creative map. He has made in interesting chick flick in Living Out Loud, a spellbinding doc on American cinema in A Decade Under the Influence, a contribution to Paris J'taime, and a generic teacher film in Freedom Writers. Before directing, LaGravenese made some coin and a name adapting chick novels to chick flicks. But for his writing debut, he scripted the wonderful Terry Gilliam film The Fisher King. Overall though, you'd have to say he should know his vaginal audience. This film raked in a fairly respectable total at the box office.

Back to the film at hand, I found myself wondering why this film was constructed the way it is? You get a very anticlimatic double ending that leaves you with questions... and not in a good way. You basically follow Holly through the story with flashbacks to explain how she fell in love with Gerry. In real life, Holly sleeps with Gerry's friend from Ireland seemingly with his blessing from beyond the grave and maintains some sort of thing with the Connick, Jr character. It all feels awkward...

That is probably the best way to describe the entire film: awkward. The tone is all over the place...the characters are all over the place... the script is all over the place. Somehow I think I did like it. I say I think because I had a ton of issues with it. Butler and Swank REALLY work their asses off here.

60/100

The Ballad of Jack and Rose

2008-05-15T16:37:00.003-05:00

Writer/Director Rebecca Miller tells a strange story about a man named Jack (Daniel Day-Lewis) raising his daughter Rose (Camille Belle) in a 1980's commune. The commune is pretty much dead except for the title characters. Jack is an idealist who tries to keep the island on which his commune resides free of riff raff. The plot starts unwinding when Jack, who has a heart condition, invites his quasi-girlfriend (Catherine Keener) to live with them and baggage. The baggage being her two teen sons. One of which named Thaddius (Lewis's future costar in There Will Be Blood Paul Dano) who has designs on young Rose.

Basically it is a reverse Oedipal tale where the daughter finds it impossible to love any other man than her father. Jack realizes it too late to fix things. The rest of the plot is mostly cliche stuff. The real reason to watch The Ballad of Jack and Rose is for Miller's eye for the camera and her real life husband Lewis's work. This is by no means a great or even original story, but you are engrossed in this family's life and feel sad when it is over. In the end I liked more than I hated.

65/100

Iron Man

2008-05-08T11:40:00.004-05:00

Iron Man has always been at it's core a story about a drunken, spoiled genius. So it seems perfect that director Jon Favreau fought to get the perfect actor for the role: Robert Downey, Jr. Obviously the parallels in the personal life of Downey echo some of those for this legendary comic book character who out of the suit in Tony Stark.

Stark is the son of a famous industrialists who built the family empire around weapons manufacturing. Tony has a close call with Afghani rebels on a business trip. He mananges to escape by constructing a crude suit made up of various parts stripped out of the rebel weapons. Upon learning that most of those weapons were made by his family's company, Stark tries to change his stripes by shifting the focus into another avenue. This action is met with disapproval by his top adviser Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges). Something seems to be going on under the surface and of Stark Enterprises...

Favreau wouldn't be anyone's first, second, third, etc to direct a big budget action film. In fact his last project, Zathura, had a large budget only to fall flat at the box office. Thankfully, Marvel felt as if he was the right guy to add a little more than we usually get from a comic book story. Favreau is an expect at adding humanity to his projects and that comes in very handy for this dark story. The special effects are well done even if the action sequences might need a bit more work in the next one.

Downey is always a wonder to behold, but alas sometimes his projects aren't. Here, he gets a meaty role almost tailored to his every strength. Terrence Howard and Jeff Bridges are also excellently cast in the supporting roles. The only problem is Gwyneth Paltrow as Stark's assistant Pepper Potts. I've said it before, but Paltrow is like listening to a robot with dialogue. You barely even get the Dunst Effect (two emotions) as someone forgot to change the microchip in her head.

In the end, you get a very well made MOVIE. I think that is the key with so many people having fawned over brainless trash like Transformers. Iron Man deliveres a story with convincing characters ACTORS playing them. The bar has been set high for the summer.

90/100

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

2008-05-02T15:42:00.004-05:00

A comedy directed by Jack Kasdan (The Zero Effect) and written by Kasdan and Judd Apatow (Knocked Up) has a lot to live up to. Maybe that's an unfair expectation to put on a well intentioned film, but it is what it is. Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly) is more or less a knock off of Johnny Cash with Darlene (Jenna Fischer) his June Carter. Most of the film is a direct spoof of the Cash biopic Walk the Line with a few added changes later in the story. Such as when Cox tries to revive his career as a protest singer ala Bobby Darin in Beyond the Sea. The film sticks with straight up spoof for most with very few gags requiring a set up. The songs were all composed by the writers (and some friends) with only one of them really working in "Let's Duet".

If it sounds like I'm not that excited about the film then you get my point. There are plenty of laugh out loud moments scattered throughout the film... it is just that there is so much dead space between them. The ending doesn't quite work that well either. Kasdan can do satire well as in his remarkable skewing of the television industry The TV Set. Unfortunately, Walk Hard falls squarely in the assine genre of Talladega Nights and Semi-Pro. Props do have to go to star John C. Reilly who keeps the whole thing from sinking. Having an actor who can do all his own singing ensures you are taken out of the story by bad lip-syncing (Streets of Fire hello?). I can only give this a modest recommendation.

60/100

Charlie Wilson's War

2008-04-29T10:42:00.004-05:00

As someone who watches a lot of films, I must admit I expect more from a film from writer Aaron Sorkin (West Wing, A Few Good Men) and director Mike Nichols(Closer) than say a Mark Walhberg action flick. So while I greatly enjoyed watching Charlie Wilson's War, I did want it to be more overwhelmingly good.

Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) is a morally bankrupt Congressman from Texas. One of his supporters, a socialite from his home state named Joanne Herring (A terribly miscast Julia Roberts), asks that he look into the current invasion of Afganistan by Russia. Wilson, who sits on a Congressional subcommittee, checks into the "black ops" budget to find that the CIA is is barely doing anything to help the rebels fight the Russians. Since the story takes place during the Cold War, fighting Russia was the thing to do only you have to keep it on the down low to prevent a full scale war. Wilson, with the help of a CIA operative named Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman), starts doing what he can to fund and supply the war.

Everything moves along very quickly which is key for this sordid of a topic. Whether or not you can believe all of this (based on a true story) or not is up to you. Hanks is dialed down the entire film allowing him to play off the entire cast. Hoffman steals the show once again in his supporting role. The chemistry between his character and EVERYONE is top notch. Alas, Roberts is once again exposed as an actress. Other than Closer, I can't really think of a time when she actually did something outside of her comfort zone AKA shitty, big budget comedies and succeeded(Erin Brockovich was a piece of shit). Her accent alone sends a shiver up your spine. However, the rest of the supporting cast is excellent led by the wonderful Amy Adams as Wilson's assistant.

As for the puppeteers, Sorkin is right at home with this political tale. He gives it enough comedy as to not reduce the meaning of it, but to lighten what is at it's center a very serious story. On the other hand, it is hardly groundbreaking as a whole. Mike Nichols does what he does best: gets the hell out of the way and lets the script do the work. I'm not sure Mike is a good director as much as he just picks good material. Whichever the case, the two have collaborated on a very entertaining movie. It is disappointing that Charlie Wilson's War was oddly forgotten (for a Tom Hanks movie) about after it's brief run in theatres.

90/100

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

2008-04-28T12:37:00.004-05:00

Sidney Lumet has been an acclaimed director for as long as I can remember. His films Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico, Verdict, etc have won him a legion of followers even though he hasn't had a good one since 1989's Family Business. So maybe the critics missed him so much that his most recent effort Before the Devil Know's You're Dead became a much beloved darling of the film world. Truth be told, I've always found Lumet's work to be overrated. The stories are mostly character pieces long on "acting" and short on plot. With the exception of Deathtrap, I wouldn't classify any of films as a masterpiece. So it would seem fitting this his new film is much the same as his prior "classics" from the 70's told from a slightly different narrative.

BTDKYD is the story of two brothers Andy (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) and Hank (Ethan Hawke) who plan a heist on their parents' jewelry store. Both need the money for different reasons and figure since the store is insured that no one with get hurt from this transgression. Complicating both Andy and Hank's life is Andy's wife (Marisa Tomei) whom is having an affair with Hank. That's enough of the plot since you are gonna want some surprises in this film... in fact you need them because the story is pretty straight forward.

One thing that sets this film apart from Lumet's other films is the fractured narrative style he uses here. The heist and it's aftermath are told out of order and from different points of view. It shifts from Hank to Andy to their father (Albert Finney) and back through again. Unfortunately, it feels more like a gimmick than necessary as in something like Memento. It feels concocted to add a bit more punch to a story we've seen before.

What elevates this film has nothing to do with the plot or the direction... it is in the performances. Just as Dog Day Afternoon and Serpico would have been nothing without Pacino, BTDKYD would've have been the same without Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Hoffman shines yet again here as the brother who is leading a far more complex life than you initially might think. The journey his character takes should have nabbed him a best actor nomination at the Oscars. (He was rewarded with a nod for Charlie Wilson's War) His work here is far superior than Capote for which he won Best Actor. Finney is also strong here albeit with less of a part to work with... he plays a bit against type here as the flawed father to nice results. Hawke and Tomei (mostly nude, not that I am complaining) are more than adequate in their roles.

Lumet keeps the shots simple to illustrate the characters with the world around them. It's less about the closeups and more about framing each shot like you are watching a play. This simplicity has always been the best things about Lumet films. So while you are gonna get a lot of twists and turns, you will get good actors getting a chance to shine. (excluding Vin Diesel's awful performance in 2006's Find Me Guilty) Not a great film here, but a must watch for Hoffman fans.

75/100

Interview

2008-04-28T11:53:00.004-05:00

Steve Buscemi was approached to help the remake of a Dutch film of the same name as a tribute to the slain filmmaker. It was to be one of three films to be remade in American as the final wishes of Director Theo Van Gogh. Buscemi had mostly directed a few indies and some episodes of TV (The Sopranos , OZ)so this seems easily in his wheel house.

Buscemi plays Pierre Peters, a political writer for a mag, that gets assigned to cover a b-list soap style actress Katya (Sienna Miller). The two are set to have an interview together that gets off to an odd start. Soon after the two retire back to Katya's flat.

What follows is much like a play with just the two main characters after that. The two play a cat and mouse game that wants to be something clever, but never quite builds to anything significant. You do get two very capable actors taking lots of verbal jabs. And I'm shocked to say this, but Miller steals the show from director Buscemi. Although, I'm sure you could argue that was what he intended. I've seen one other film Buscemi directed film in 1996's Tree's Lounge. Both of these films felt light on story. You can see the attraction to the simple setups and stories, but I want more from this fine actor.

60/100

The Savages

2008-04-24T15:53:00.003-05:00

Wednesday at the TGE's house was Philip Seymour Hoffman day. Inadvertantly or subconsciously, Netflix gave me 3 of his films at once. The first of which was a critically adored effort from writer/director Tamara Jenkins (The Slums of Beverly Hills) that didn't find an audience in theatres.

Linney plays Wendy the sister of Jon (Hoffman)that finds out their father's girlfriend has passed away. The father, Lenny (Phillip Bosco), had been living with her family for years and now they want him out. This forces the sibling back together when they have to travel to Arizona to get him. Lenny is unfortunately going through late life dementia and needs to be placed in a nursing home. The rest of the film is a character story of two underachievers. Wendy has never been able to have a healthy relationship and feels in the shadow of her brother. Jon has achieved a PHD, but hasn't ever really figured out life. The plot device of the father returning enables the two to deal with things they have been ignoring.

The Savages is at it's core a character study of two somewhat dysfunctional adults trying to grow up. Hoffman can do this role in his sleep and eats up this material with viracity. It is Linney that is given the juicier role here. Her character is very reminiscent of the role Nicole Kidman played in Margot at the Wedding. Wendy is just a Margot that never hit it big with a book or play. All the performances from the supporting characters are top notch. Phillip Bosco is somewhat of a revelation here in the eldery father role. Bosco is most known for playing heavies, lawyers, judges, etc is an off beat choice for this role, but shows at 77 he can still bring it.

I wasn't a big fan of Jenkin's first film The Slums of Beverly Hills. That film seemed to lack a heart and was terminally obsessed with quirkiness. I talked about that in my review of Juno a few months ago. Here in The Savages, there is a quirk here and there, but nothing that keeps you from believing that these could actually be real people in a real situation. And maybe for once we get an ending that seems real too.

85/100

* By the way, I love Laura Linney so you might have to deduct 10 from that score if you don't

The Hawk is Dying

2008-04-24T15:01:00.004-05:00

I enjoy the fact that Paul Giamatti has achieved a certain level of success so he can get a movie made by simply being in it. I say that because I find his choices of material to very interesting to watch. That being said, The Hawk is Dying isn't an easy film to like or watch. Still... it is fascinating.

Giamatti plays a man named George who runs an auto uphostery shop who fancies himself an amateur falconer. George lives with his sister (Rusty Schwimmer) and her autistic son Fred (Michael Pitt). He also has taken an interest in a young college girl named Betty (Michelle Williams) that he has been discussing his dreams with. Of course George fancies her, but keeps her at arms length. His character has done that with most everyone in his life.

George has already had a disastorous attempt at starving a hawk into submission. This was quite an awful experience and everyone reminds him of that when he and Fred find another hawk. As is the case with this kind of film, something happens to character and forces the lead character to deal with the impact. This is where the meat of the story follows with George's journey of self.

I can't say this ultimately works as a film. It feels more like a good character trapped in a not so good plot. Giamatti does everything he can to make the script better than it is... especially in some early scenes with Michelle Williams. The last 45 minutes manage to make up for the clumsy set up. A must watch only for Giamatti fans.

60/100

This is England

2008-04-18T15:33:00.003-05:00

Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) is kid who never quite fits in. He gets picked on at school for the way he dresses... his hair... his diminutive size. But when Shaun makes friends with Woody (Joseph Gilgun), he feels like he has finally found his place. Woody sticks up for him and shows him how to dress and act... shoot you might not even connect the skinhead culture into this right away until Shaun has his head shaved by a comely lass. Everything seems to be going rosey until Woody's friend Combo (Stephen Graham) gets out of jail. Combo is a hardcore nationalistic skinhead who has greater plans for Woody's group of friends. Combo's rhetoric appeals to Shaun's disallustionment after losing his father in a unnecessary war (sound familiar?).

Under all the pretensions you might have towards skinheads, you find a well crafted story about children growing up with no one in their lives but themselves. Shaun's story probably feels more current with the Iraq War echoing England's 25 years ago. Most of the actors you will have not seen before except for Stephen Graham (Snatch) - all of which feel dead on. There's nothing truly flashy here with writer/director Shane Meadows telling a simple story. The cinematography is solid for a low budget flick and the soundtrack of music is well picked to not draw any attention away from the story. I felt a tinge of George Washington here as well. That was another film about what happens to children without adults around. Both are just as heartbreaking.

80/100

American Gangster

2008-04-17T12:45:00.004-05:00

I am an unabashed Ridley Scott fan. I own 5 of his films and still need to pick up the underrated Black Rain and his classic Alien on DVD. Scott even manages to elevate his lesser material with his skill as a director as in Kingdom of Heaven and Thelma and Louise. I have a distinct feeling that overrated and craptastic Steven Zaillian's screenplay is much to blame here for American Gangster's startling mediocrity.

Our tale is that of Frank Lucas's (Denzel Washington) rise to top of the heroin game in NYC circa 1968. Lucas had great success by going direct to the maker in Thailand and importing it in under the noses of DEA. The other half of the story is about straight arrow cop Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe). Roberts is put in charge of a task force to stop the flow of drugs into the country.

That's probably enough of a setup since there isn't a whole lot of surprises or anything that sets it apart from any other drug/cop stories. Washingston is adequate here although it would have been an interesting to the previously casted Don Cheadle tear into this material. With that being said, Crowe can do this material in his sleep. He and Ridley are good friends and that no doubt drew him to this role, but the fact of the matter he is simply too good for this script. Scott does do a perfect job of casting some of the smaller parts with a TGE personal favorites John Hawkes (Deadwood) and Carla Gugino. Also nice in smaller roles are Ted Levine as Roberts boss and Josh Brolin (who had a Jude Law case of overexposure last year) as a rival cop up to his waist in dirt.

American Gangster is a well made film no question, but there is nothing stand out about it. I'm really surprised how many critics who have lavished this film with praise. With the pedigrees behind this film, I expected more. Don't expect to see American Gangster on my DVD shelf with Blade Runner and Blackhawk Down.

70/100

In the Land of Women

2008-04-14T14:40:00.005-05:00

Carter Webb (Adam Brody) has his heart crushed when his beautiful girlfriend Sofia (Elena Anaya from Sex & Lucia) breaks up with him. When his grandmother (Olympia Dukakis) has some problems in Michigan, Carter uses it as an excuse to get away. While trying to regroup, he meets Sarah (Meg Ryan post plastic surgery bonanza) who lives across the street from his grandmother. Sarah is going through a tough spot in her marriage and with her health. Soon Carter is befriending Sarah's teenage daughter (Kristin Stewart better in Into the Wild) in a bit of creepy pedephile subplot.

In the Land of Women is somewhat a-mess with cliche and narratives that are probably unnecessary. You can tell that this first time effort from Jon Kasdan (son of Lawrence and brother to Jake) is jumbled with changes. The dynamic between Carter and Sarah seems to be the best relationship of characters in the film, but it seems to take a backseat while the other screenwriter devices are used. Even in the ending the film seems to be too tidy for it's own good. You never really get a since that this story has really changed a whole lot in their lives. That being said, I had a reasonably good time watching everything. A lot can be said about good actors elevating subpar material. Kasdan has a nice eye for things in his shots too. Maybe he just needs a hand from his brother Jake on focusing his story.

60/100

Margot at the Wedding

2008-04-10T11:52:00.002-05:00

A Noah Baumbach film with Jennifer Jason Leigh (his wife and my favorite actress) sounds like a good time to me... oh wait unless it is about an emotional wreck of a person named Margot (Nicole Kidman) who is like an infection in the heart of her family. Obviously this woman is damaged and unintentionally continues the cycle onto her son Claude(Zane Pais). JJL plays Margot's sister Pauline who is about to marry a loser in Malcolm (Jack Black). Margot uses Pauline's wedding as an excuse to come visit the man (Ciaran Hinds) who she is having an affair with.

Through the story you learn that both Margot and Pauline had a tough childhood with an abusive father. Pauline has learned to deal with everything through some medication and a supporting boyfriend. Margot on the other hand, breathes nothing but toxicity into everyone she encounters. I do think this is a brave performance for Kidman to take considering how unlikable her character is in every way. JJL is as always top notch with the only real find is Zane Pais as Margot's messed up kid. Jack Black is just fine as the recluse sometimes painter/writer who has captured Pauline's heart.

Baumbach gives the audience a story with no one really to root for... JJL is constantly put upon and the film might work if it was centered around her, but it's not. As always he writes brilliant dialogue, but it gets a little lost in the dysfunction. I think that the slightly more comic tone of Squid and the Whale allowed for you laugh a little more, but here you just feel cold. The scenes with Margot's put upon husband played by John Turturro are heartbreaking. This definitely looked better on the page than on screen.

50/100

Streets of Fire

2008-04-10T11:02:00.005-05:00

Walter Hill was a hot shit director coming off a huge success with 48hrs when he set out to bring action, music, and cheesy 80's fashions together in Streets of Fire. Now I admire a man who thinks big and wants to do something different, but I can't really say that it all works here. First the story is of a rock singer just breaking through to the big time named Ellen Aim (Diane Lane) who gets kidnapped by the nefarious Raven (Willem Dafoe). Raven leads a gang of bikers named The Bombers who have been ruthless on the small town Richmond (which appears to be a small town in Chicago whatever that means). Reva (Deborah Van Valkenburgh) reaches out to her brother Tom (Michael Pare) to rescue the lass. You see Tom and Ellen once dated until he ran off and joined the Army. What follows is an orgy of violence, bad 80's neon lighting, and cheesy lipsynched songs.

The first problem is casting Diane Lane who isn't able to sing her own songs. Perhaps back then the idea of lipsynching was so prevalent, but for this day and age Lane's work is pretty bad. What not just get a gal who can sing? Surely there was another fetching lass who could have brought that to the table?

The second problem lies within the cornball 80's crap thrown in with the costumes and set pieces. Do we really need the neon lighting and the pop not rock music from the day? No we don't especially when you've gone out of your way to make a lot of the set and wardrobe to resemble the 50's.

The last problem is in the music itself. Almost all of the songs represent the 80's style of music when a soundtrack out of Eddie and the Cruisers would have worked much better. Instead you get leftover Pat Benatar material as performed by someone not Diane Lane. Parts of the score by Ry Cooder is good however. Part of it seems to a riff taken from Springsteen's I'm A Rocker that is repeated over and over through the intro. After that you get classic Cooder guitar that was the best thing about the previous Walter Hill/Cooder collaboration Southern Comfort.

The acting is generally solid. Pare is pretty much one note, but he does that note very well. You get a nice side performance from Rick Moranis as Ellen's manager. Look for cameos by Rick Rossavich, Bill Paxton, and Mykelti T. Williamson. All in all, the film just needed a tougher, leaner image for this to work. By the time Raven and Tom duke it out at the end, you never really get a sense of danger on the line. I had a good time despite all over the failures here, but I'm not sure that's a good thing.

60/100

* Got to mention that the movie gets it's title from the Springsteen song and somehow the producers were unable to attain the rights to use the song. One might have thought that would have something you do before you make the film.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

2008-04-07T13:36:00.003-05:00

Finally... I'm saying finally because this movie FINALLY ended. Talk about a bloated mess at 2 hr 49min with a plot that leaves sooooo many strands loose. The basic premise of this film is that Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) finds himself in Davy Jones' locker. The rest of the pirates need his charm to combine with theirs to awaken Calypso. Calypso is some all powerful creature that was once the true love of Davy Jones (Bill Nighy). Plus they need her to stop the evil East India Trading Company which poses a threat to pirates everywhere.

Alright with that out of the way, time to discuss the myriad of problems here. Both the prior Pirate films have had extraneous plot almost to fault. It could be forgiven since it usually seemed pertinent in some way, but here all of the extra crap just bogs down what has traditionally been a spirited good time. The idiotic subplot with Calypso and Elizath Swann becoming the pirate king are wastes of time. Ideally the director Gore Verbinski could have cut everything down to a streamlined two hour film that would have flowed much better.

25/100

Stop-Loss

2008-04-03T12:08:00.005-05:00

Another film with homoeroticism thrown in as a main theme... Stop-Loss tells the story of Bandon King (Ryan Phillippe). King is a soldier who has just completed his obligations in his contract with the Army during the war in Iraq who gets sent back through the stop-loss loophole. That detail lets the gov't ship your ass back to the front if they feel like it is in the best interest of the country during a time of war. It is also referred to as a backdoor draft although that is a rather ignorant idea of it. A draft would take someone who has no plans to join the military and this just another committment that the soldiers who SIGNED UP have to fulfill if our moron-in-chief declares it necessary. So that pity argument is lost on me.

Anyway... back to the film. Stop-Loss tries to be a message film about the horrors of combat. Two of King's friends are also back in good ol' Texas celebrating a little leave. Tommy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is trying to deal with the loss of his best friend in their final month of duty in Iraq. King's other friend of which the homoeroticism emanates from in Steve (Channing Tatum). Steve is due to marry and settle down with Michelle (Abbie Cornish who is sort of a poor man's Charlize Theron). The only problem is his love for Brandon and their bond in the military... well that and the fact he is the kind of loser that can't be left to his own devices like Tommy. These kids joined the military because they didn't know what to do with themselves and now they found something they do well. Leaving it would too much for them to handle.

Michelle soon runs off with Brandon on a pointless trip first to Washington to try and get a meeting with their Senator of whom Brandon caught the ear of... this spirals into more "message" about the underground railroad of stop-lossed soldiers that takes them to Canada to start again. All of this is glossed over with only a glimpse into it. The treatment is much like a tv movie of the week. Ultimately the film finds it has nothing really to say and concludes in an unsatisfactory manner. Timothy Olyphant is wasted in a throw away role as Boot the soldiers' commanding officer.

Cowriter and director Kimberly Peirce made one of the best debuts in cinematic history with the emotional juggernaut of Boys Don't Cry. You see touches of her talent in the first hour with her skill in showing ordinary people in their environment. This film has some potential to really make a statement about the war, but wastes a golden opportunity. I read that there were at least 65 drafts of the script. Guess they should have made it 66 because that is where the real problem lies.

50/100

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

2008-04-03T11:21:00.004-05:00

Jesse James (Brad Pitt) was a mean, bully of a man who found himself slipping into fits of rage late in life. His brother Frank (Sam Shepard) has decided to leave their gang to go back east and get rid of this dishonorable life. On their last score together, they work with the two Ford brothers, Charlie (Sam Rockwell) and Robert (Casey Affleck). James forms an attachment with Robert more so out of curiosity then anything. Robert Ford idolized the James gang growing up and can't wait to join up with them at age 19.

The loose group of hillbillies and thieves put together for their last job soon comes unraveled. Friends start turning out each and causes Jesse to grow paranoid. Especially later when he finds the Ford brothers his only friends left. In should be mentioned that in all of the time during the gang's reign of terror, the good people of Missouri kept them in their bossom. Jesse lived most of his life out in the open knowing that his legend would keep him safe. So the treachery in his own camp makes him spiral into a madness of sorts.

This is writer/director Andrew Dominik's first shot at a big budget film. Dominik manages to make a story of inherently unlikeable characters spellbinding throughout the entire 150 plus minutes. The opening is a bit clumsy and awkward, then so is one of the lead characters in Robert Ford. Affeck plays him with a somewhat homoerotic idolization towards Jesse that confuses and fascinates him. Pitt is fine here in a showy way as the mean spirited man who is used to getting his own way. There is also nice work by Paul Schneider (All the Real Girls) as one of the associates of the Ford brothers. Someday I'll have to write an essay of appreciation for Sam Rockwell - who seems to understand this material more than anyone.

The real brilliance in The Assassination has to belong to the cinematography, editing, and music created for this feature. All of them congeal until the film is left in a dreamlike state that you are never you will wake up from. Obviously this is not a film that will go down easily. It is a meticulously crafted film that perhaps never shows it's true intent until after Robert Ford does the deed.

90/100

* An interest note here, Garret Dillahunt plays an associate of Jesse James here. I was remind of his Robert Ford-like role in the tv series Deadwood of which he plays the coward Jack McCall who shoots Wild Bill in the back at the infamous card game.

* Also this is the 3rd time Paul Schneider and Zooey Deschanel (All the Real Girls) have worked together.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

2008-03-27T14:24:00.005-05:00

So I'm a little behind on my blockbusters. I don't particulary like going to see movies like this with the unwashed masses because... I don't like people. And no matter what you do as a theatre manager, there is always going to be some douchebag in a crowded theatre doing something annoying. Although my tardiness in watch POTC2 is not because I didn't like the first picture. In fact, I thought the original was some of the best entertainment I'd seen in many a summer. I was just unmotivated.

Turns out... it is a pretty decent film. Obviously, director Gore Verbinski needs to work on his editing skills since this film is at least 15 minutes too long. There is plot... and lot of it actually for this kind of film. Basically Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) sells his soul to Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) for the chance to raise his ship from the bottoms of the ocean. This sets off a number of other plot points involving Will Turner (my white-trash cousin as portrayed by Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (more Keira Knightley) amongst others. And since we all know they filmed POTC2 with POTC 3, there will be setup for a sequel.

All right with that being said... you get more or less what you got with the first. This is finally a film that costs a shit-ton of cash and you can see where it went. Unlike some pile o'shite like Transformers, the visual effects in this film are as good as it gets. The tendrils on Davy Jones for example are brilliantly utilized at times as well as stunning to look at. (The wardrobe dept. even gives Knightley cleavage) Excellent stunt work too with some of the island scenes early on in the movie.

All of the actors are fine as well with Nighy stealing the show here. Despite a hefty costume and untold amounts of green screen, he manages to give a performance of utter delight. He has fun with every line much like an Alan Rickman would. Stellan Skarsgard also classes things up with an appearance as Will Turner's long lost father. The three leads are all more than adequate for this light material - nothing extraordinary either. You also get a tease of the third film with the always welcome Geoffrey Rush reprising his character from the first film.

With some trimming to get this closer to two hours instead of 2:40 with credits, this would play a lot better. But for a home on with a good entertainment system and a stop button... just about right.

75/100

The Darjeeling Limited

2008-03-24T12:07:00.004-05:00

Wes Anderson... in the forefront of the hipster douchebag movement of young filmmakers. He of the quirky older music in odd sections of film and who I probably have to blame for the headache of the Juno soundtrack. Anderson has given us: the second and third act failure of Rushmore, a masterpiece of the h/d movement in The Royal Tenanbaums, and a fiasco of a failure in The Life Aquatic. So what the heck did I expect here? The answer: pretty much what I got.

Very much in The Royal Tennabaums feel the story starts off with three brothers Jack (Jason Schwartzman), Francis (Owen Wilson), and Peter (Adrien Brody). The elder Francis kicks up an idea to meet and ride the train also named The Darjeeling Limited around India on a spiritiual journey. The real motivation is for them to finish their journey in Nepal to visit their mother (Anjelica Houston) who in typical Wes Anderson fashion has become a nun. Their mother never showed up for their father's funeral the year before and all of them seem lost now.

All three of the brothers are all going through trials and tribulations. Jack is messed up by his ex-girlfriend (Natalie Portman) - who if you have watched Hotel Chevalier (the short preceding the film) is playing with his head by showing up unannounced and having sex with him. Peter's wife is pregnant and he is still caught in the transition of boy to man... he has retreated into all of his father's possessions for comfort. And never quite addressed in the film, Francis tried to kill himself on his motorcycle. You also get glaring symbolism from all of their father's baggage the brotheres carry with them on their journey.

The real difference between The Darjeeling Limited and Tennanbaums is the lack of sympathy the audience feels towards the characters of the former. Only Jack is ever given a deeper character. You get a look into his life that you are never quite given with Peter and Francis. Besides that the whole script feels very minimalistic and not in a good way. How are you truly supposed to care about these people without knowing anything about them? Brody and Schwartzman do what they can with the roles, while Wilson gives another perfomance he could have done in his sleep.

The overall effect is that of modest enjoyment. You feel fortunate for the little pieces of brilliance you get and yet you long for what you could have had.

65/100

* Wes Anderson needs to try something a little different. He needs to get out of the 70's look with rich, spoiled kids. Only four films in and I'm getting tired of his schtick.

Atonement

2008-03-24T11:44:00.004-05:00

I was quite excited to see Joe Wright's rendering of Ian McEwan's novel after seeing what he did with the classic Pride & Prejudice. It would probably have helped to have read the book to prepare for this film. So many people consider McEwan's work a masterpiece that there has to be something more to it than what we the audience get to see in the movie.

The story is essentially that of a poor young man named Robbie Turner (James McAvoy) who works as a groundskeeper for the rich Tallis family. He has ingratiated himself into the family and finds that the father is going to put him through medical school soon. Alas Robbie is in love with the oldest daughter Cecilia (Keira Knightley) whilst the younger one Brionly secretly has a crush on him. After Brionly sees two different scenes (that is suggested she believes Robbie to be a sex crazed attacker) involving Robbie causing her to think he was the one who attacked and raped her cousin. On the word of Brionly, Robbie is sent away to prison for two years and is forced to join the army during the early days of WWII to excape further jail time.

After the Robbie joins the army, the film loses all perspective and turns into an almost Terence Malick-like film. What was once an intricately told tale of lust and bitterness, deviates into a darker meditation that never quite works. Perhaps this is better told in the novel. Here, you merely get the bare minimum with a nice (or sad) little twist later on. James McAvoy provides the films only strong performance. Knightley and the two Brionly's are adequate, but hardly anything special.

Overall though, I felt quite disappointed with the setup to just have the story peter out the last hour. Obviously, Joe Wright has a lot of talent and that is further evidenced here. He has an eye for shots and backgrounds that is clearly among the top filmmakers. So I would suggest the problem lies in the screenplay adaptation by Christopher Hampton. Hampton's previous work like Mary Reilly and The Quiet American are both good examples of his mixed work. Hopefully Joe Wright finds something better for his next project.

55/100

Drillbit Taylor

2008-03-21T02:00:00.003-05:00

Yes... I'm giving you an advance review. I was forced to watch the on the shelf for the last two years Drillbit Taylor. Let's just say it should have stayed there. Two of the big names of comedy are attached in different ways. Seth Rogen (Superbad) draws a writing credit while Judd Apatow somehow excutive produced this sad retread of every other teen film you've seen. Owen Wilson stars as the title character who is an ex-Army Ranger who has found himself on hard times. Three dorks very much in the vein of the kids from Superbad are looking for a bodyguard to save them from the school bully.

The principal (Stephen Root) doesn't believe that such activity could be going on thus forcing the dorks' hand. Drillbit is a conman looking to exploit the kids while giving them the stupidest advice ever. Eventually he infiltrates the school under the guise of a substitute teacher. Alas, it isn't Tom Berenger so no ass kicking is done. There is also a worthless subplot with Apatow's wife Leslie Mann as a beautiful teacher who exists only to have sex with Wilson's character apparently.

All of the story is cliche and plays like My Bodyguard with a dose of Superbad. The comedy is the lazy kind you get in a lot of Will Ferrell with most of the laughs intended to come on improv. Well the bad news is Owen Wilson is no Will Ferrell... or even a John C. Reilly. The film drags for the last hour as the stupid never stops. One can only wonder how dumb the writers think teens really are... do they honestly believe that they would be sucked in on the con... or even sucked into watching this film. If you catch yourself thinking that maybe this film isn't that bad... well it isn't bad like say an Eddie Murphy film, but it's mediocrity only serves to make you wonder what you could have been doing the last 1 h 45 min.

20/100

Rescue Dawn

2008-03-21T01:45:00.003-05:00

Dieter Dengler (Christian Bale) joined the Navy before the conflict in Vietnam because he wanted to fly. The Navy was offering a chance to fulfill that dream so away he went. Little did he know that poor Dieter would be shot down in his first mission over Laos. The mission was black ops so no official rescue party could be sent in to get him. Dieter is on his own to find his escape after capture by a patrol.

Director Werner Herzog captured this story before in a documentary he did with the real Dieter Dengler. However, both felt the story still needed that visualization to fully appreciate the journey Dieter faced. This time Herzog could show his interaction with fellow prisoners Duane (Steve Zahn) and Eugene (Jeremy Davies). The three along with a few other foreigners intend to make a break with the wet season comes... but can they wait that long?

For a very modest budget of $10 mil, Herzog does a fine job of creating the big picture. The locations are incredbly shot... there are times with they are going into jungle and they barely can cut their way through the foliage. Another positive thing to remark on here is the much better pacing to this film then most Werner Herzog films. At right around two hours, Rescue Dawn never plods. Christian Bale and Steve Zahn are very good here and Jeremy Davies... well he is Jeremy Davies. Bale you expect this kind of physical role from, but Steve Zahn is very effective in this serious acting turn.

Overall you get a well crafted and harrowing tale. An interesting side fact, Rescue Dawn is the first project from a production company ran by Elton Brand... yes the PF for the LA Clippers...

90/100

November

2008-03-18T11:56:00.003-05:00

Okay... we are going to keep it simple with this clunker. Courteney Cox plays a woman named Sophie who loses her husband (James LeGros) in a convenience store hold up. One by one little things start happening that blue the line of what Sophie thought happened and what really did happen.

At only 77 minutes long, November is one of the most boring films I've ever watched. The plot is that of 15 minute student film and plods along at a pace Kubrick would have been ashamed of. Amateurish... hackish... blah blah blah. Absolutely one of the worst movies I've ever seen. A waste of James LeGros.

0/100

Things We Lost in the Fire

2008-03-18T11:27:00.003-05:00

Audrey (Halle Berry) loses her husband Brian (David Duchovny) to a senseless attack while trying to break up a domestic dispute. Audrey turns to Brian's best friend Jerry (Benicio Del Toro) for support even though she has resented him for years. Audrey just wants someone around to keep that since of her husband there for herself and her two children. They are mostly selfish reasons because Jerry is trying to fight his addiction to heroin all the while he provides a father figure.

Jerry starts going to meetings to get help and befriends a younger addict named Kelly (Alison Lohman). He also becomes a sympathetic ear for Brian's other friend and neighbor Howard (John Carroll Lynch taking time off from scaring the shit out of you in Zodiac). As Jerry becomes a bigger part of their lives will he be accepted or perhaps he will relapse under the strain...

Things We Lost in the Fire has a contrived screenplay that puts these characters into a situation and seems lost on what to do from there. Halle Berry is trying way too hard to run the gambit of emotions - which she can do two. Her subpar skills are much more noticable with the power of Del Toro's performance. He plays Jerry with a subtlety that Berry could never grasp. He can provide more depth with a look than with all the lines Halle has in the script. It would have been nice to see someone like Maria Bello or Naomi Watts (very 21 Grams-ish)in the lead... actresses who actually can act. Lynch and Lohman are top notch here in key supporting turns.

The basic idea of a heroin addict staying with a family in a time is loss is quite prepostorous... but if you can get by that detail you actually get an involving story of recovery. Only the Audrey part is flawed with everything else being very well done. It seems frustrating for this film to hinge on an actress who can bring the goods. I think that is my only real problem with the film. It has an awkward start with a slow set up... and a somewhat disjointed opening only adds to this feeling. The overall pacing gets better later on when the story becomes Jerry's. Del Toro should have received a nomination for best supporting actor for his work here and the fact he didn't is frustrating.

65/100

No Country for Old Men

2008-03-13T13:33:00.004-05:00

The Coen brothers lastest opus is an adaptation of a Cormac McCarthy novel so one should keep that in mind when viewing No Country for Old Men. Much of the complaints that I've heard from people are valid, yet I still enjoyed the film and the ending. The obligation to keep it faithful to the book does box the Coens in though.

Basically, this is another tale like A Simple Plan of a fellow named Llewelyn (Josh Brolin) that stumbles onto a drug deal gone wrong. Llewelyn finds the case of cash close by and attempts to start his life over. The only problem is that he goes back to the grant the wish of the last man standing for water. This time, people are waiting for him. So the film quickly turns into chase movie with Llewelyn being persued by the Mexicans selling the drugs and Anton Chigirh (Javier Bardem). Anton is the hired enforcer of a mysterious business man (Stephen Root looking for more than his Swingline stapler).

Soon, the mysterious man determines that his enforcer is off his rocker after Anton racks up an Arnold-like body count in Texas. So he sends ex-army mercenary named Carson Wells (Woody Harrelson) to secure the loot and take care of Anton. All the while, Sherrif Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) is trying hard not to take an interest in all this murder in his county. Ed Tom believes in avoiding sticking your nose into serious cases or else you too could be become involved.

All of the actors, even the small parts (Garret Dillahunt from Deadwood in particular), are well cast and acted. My chief complaint rests in the limits of the book and that is the underdeveloped Woody Harrelson role. The man chews the scenery everytime he comes on screen and you want his character to take care of all the ugliness unfolding, but as quickly as he enters he leaves. Another problem with the film is the climax. Having not read the book, the inevitable clash between Llewelyn and Anton has to take place on screen. In the film, their final battle isn't shown and really isn't addressed. The films does reach a conclusion that is satisfying and rather fitting, but the Coens set us up throughout for what seemed to be terrific climax worthy of LA Confidential like cred. Llewelyn who also was ex-army seems the perfect foil for Bardem's Anton and you want to see it play out. Javier Bardem has the flashy role, but Josh Brolin deserved the Oscar nod. I haven't seen him get a meaty role like this before, but he nails this one.

No Country for Old Men moves swiftly for its two hour running time. I'm not sure how much is cut out of the book, but there seems to be missing some meat on the bones. I definitely would have been okay with another twenty minutes of story. That being said, I did have a good time watching it... maybe too good of a time and that's why I wanted more with the characters. This is a flawed movie... but a good one.

85/100

Sunshine

2008-03-11T14:00:00.003-05:00

Set in the future, scientists are forced to plan a second mission to the sun in order to restart it. Through some science that doesn't quite make sense we learn that a massive warhead is needed to get it going again. A crew of 7 with various jobs is assembled. The important ones are Capa (Cillian Murphy) the payload specialist, Mace (Chris Evans), Cassie (Rose Byrne...God I love just saying her name) the pilot, and Searle (Cliff Curtis) the doc.

Obviously, the first mission didn't succeed so that is bound to be brought up. Just when and how provide some of the meat of the plot for the rest of Sunshine. Unfortunately, Sunshine falls in line with most other space movies with their themes of rebellion and isolation so nothing truly seems a surprise. The two things that set this film apart from others are the outstanding visuals and the strong work of the cast.

Director Danny Boyle again has shown a flair for putting on the screen a tremondous vision. 28 Days Later and Trainspotting both showed off his eye for the shot. Here you get some majestic shots of the sun as the Icarus (the ship) makes its way closer to the star. Later on when you get a full view of the areas around the payload, you truly get an overwhelming sense of scale.

One thing I do have to say is that with great trepidation do I have to give props to Chris Evans for giving a subtle, yet powerful performance. Til now Evans is mostly known for the craptastic Fantastic Four films, but here you get a hint that he could do much more. Cillian Murphy and Rose Byrne have a nice interplay that isn't given a chance to fully play out. And finally I know Cliff Curtis's names... this guy was absolutely terrific in 3 Kings as well as performances in Fracture, Live Free or Die Hard, Training Day, Deep Rising (yeah I went there), and many more. Cliff is definitely in my "that guy" hall of fame. Anyway, he is solid here as the doc that seems to be the one character that gives his role a sense of humanity. That picture in the post would be of him.

I did have some issues with something that happens in the third act that left me wanting more of an explanation. You have to go along with it at the time, but later on you might be left wondering. Sunshine does manage to distinguish itself from other space dramas, although whether or not it is remembered in years to come will be the question.

70/100

In the Valley of Elah

2008-03-10T12:33:00.003-05:00

I wanted to like this film with all my heart. Crash was a solid directorial debut from Paul Haggis and the cast for his follow up was top notch. Everything seemed right for him to just keep swinging for the fences. Alas, the Goliath plot amounts to little more than an actors showcase.

Tommy Lee Jones plays Hank Deerfield a former MP looking for his missing son (Jonathan Tucker) just back from the war in Iraq. During the course of his inquiry, he butts heads with a cop (Charlize Theron) and an army investigator (Jason Patric). The army feels as if they might be trying to cover something up, but what? The plot is the underlying problem. Paul Haggis seems to be trying to make a message film about our country while not chastising our military. It all seems to be too neat and tidy without the satisfaction.

The performance of Tommy Lee Jones was rightly nominated since his is the foundation upon with this film stands. Without Jones, the entire missing son plot would amount to little more than a Law & Order episode. Jason Patric brings his all as well... but it is curious since he is so forceful you might think he actually has something to do with it all. No... he just reminds you of what a good actor can do even in a nonessential part. Cameo performances from Josh Brolin, Brent Briscoe, and James Franco also add some fuel (or red herrings) to the fire.

Haggis seems to have set himself up and gotten lost on where he was going. Yeah we know the war in Iraq is messed up Paul... just like we knew race relations were in Crash... but you've gotta give us more than that. I think of something like Syriana which was able to be a message film, but was so much more in the big picture. Haggis needs to take notes from fellow acclaimed screenwriter/director Steven Gaghan was able to do on his second project. You've got to have that emotional climax or payoff after setting up an audience.

60/100

* This just made me miss Jason Patric even more.

Pride and Prejudice

2008-03-10T11:55:00.003-05:00

Director Joe Wright has done a marvelous job bringing Jane Austen's classic novel to the big screen. The gentle dolly shots through the doorways of the Bennett household work as a graceful introduction to their characters. You feel like that big water alien from The Abyss peeking in to see what is happening and moving on to the next room.

The plot to Austen's novels are rarely intricate are overwhelming. Here we have Elizabeth Bennett (Keira Knightley) the second oldest of 5 daughters trying to find love and a reliable means of income for her family. Her older sister Jane (Rosamund Pike who is more beautiful than everyone's sister )is the more outwardly beautiful and attracts the glances of a rich lad Billingsly (Simon Woods). Except that his friend Darcy (Matthew MacFadyen) has noticed Lizzie and isn't sure what to think of her. Of course it is love and all the Austen complications come up to keep the characters apart til the end happen.

All the performances are strong here with Donald Sutherland and Brenda Blethyn shining as parents of the Bennett household. Each one gives enough comic energy to lighten up the story without adding too much zaniness. Knightley easily gives her best performance ever with her romantic opposite MacFadyen just along for the ride. A gorgeous score from Dario Marianelli only adds to the excellent work of Joe Wright and cinematographer Roman Osin.

The craft behind Pride and Prejudice makes this film what it is... the performances are solid with a nod to the creative casting of Donald Sutherland. If you watched it just for the story the first time, try it again and look for the little things that have been meticulously put together here. I credit Joe Wright's work here for making me want to see his next project Atonement.

90/100

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

2008-03-07T13:13:00.003-06:00

Joseph Sargent didn't know it at the time, but the flop he was making would be looked on years down the road as a classic. Mr. Blue (Robert Shaw) leads a group of four armed gunman onto the subway car Pelham 123 to hold the people hostage until they get one million in cash delivered. Lt. Garber (Walter Matthau) of the Transit Authority is the cop in charge of the situation.

The rest of the plot I will leave alone. It is more fun to watch it happen anyway. The other gunman are very good actors including Earl Hindman (Wilson from Home Improvement), Hector Elizondo, and Martin Balsam. You also get Jerry Stiller as another cop with the TA. Director Sargent keeps the pace moving ahead not allowing the film to drag. The film isn't complex, but it does feel real. There isn't anything too elaborate here just a skeleton plot to show off the terrific actors. Matthau in particular is very strong. He does an excellent job of keeping court of the chaos at the headquarters while talking the audience through the situation.

In the end, you will look back on the plot as rather simplistic, but remember in '74 this was quite different. The pacing allows you to keep going along with a killer score by David Shire (also did the score to Zodiac and won an Oscar for Norma Rae) that keeps you juiced up for whatever is gonna happen next. You can clearly see the influence that Pelham One Two Three had on filmmakers down the road.

90/100

Juno

2008-03-07T12:32:00.003-06:00

For my money there is nothing worse than an indie movie that tries so hard... sooooooo very hard to be quirky. Let's be clear, I liked Juno, but for God's sake... level it off a bit.

Ellen Page stars as Juno which consists of her doing her Diablo Cody (the writer of the film) impersonation at 16. She doesn't talk like a 16 year old, but hey that's what's so hip and quirky about it, see... we're quirky... love us. Juno gets knocked up losing her virginity to her best friend (Michael Cera). Funny thing is (my back is actually on my cock) apparently in a film with characters this smart... we don't use condoms?!????! So... Juno looks through the Penny Saver ads (not making this up) for prospective adoptive parents. She finds Vanessa (the awful Jennifer Garner) and Mark (the always perfect Jason Bateman) who have been trying to have a kid for five years. They seem like the most immaculate couple at first glance.

During all of this, Juno looks to her father (JK Simmons) and stepmother (Allison Janey) for help. The ins and outs of pregnancy are glossed over and basically consists of moments in each trimester before the conclusion. Most of the plot I didn't like at all, however you get a little curveball later on that was both real and smartly handled. Juno feels jumbled together by a first time screenwriter... but oh wait it was... the director Jason Reitman (Thank for Smoking) would've been better off having someone take the script apart an reconstruct it.

Not to harp on it, but Page's performance feels as if she is just doing a SNL sketch of some famous person. She was much better in the underrated Hard Candy. I never got a sense that the film felt "real". Without the completely great supporting cast, I don't see this film eliciting enough laughs to make it worth the watch. Thanks to Simmons, Janney, Cera, and Bateman you get by just that little bit to keep you from noticing all the flaws.

One final note on the music... I've also heard a lot of talk about the "quirky" soundtrack. Watching the film, I found most of the music to be distracting and out of place. I again can see what they are trying to do with it, but it all seems too much. Just quit trying so damn hard to be liked. I feel like an annoying Jack Russell Terrier is jumping on me trying to get me to pet him.

60/100

Take out JK Simmons and Allison Janney and you get a 40/100

Wild Orchid 2: Two Shades of Blue

2008-03-06T15:54:00.004-06:00

Oh yeah... I'm going there. An erotic-period piece from high class sleaze maker Zalman King, Wild Orchid 2 has absolutely nothing to do with the orginal. King starts the intriguing story off with Blue (Nina Siemaszko) following her heroin addicted father (Tom Skerritt) around from town to town as makes a living blowing the horn in jazz clubs. Eventually Blue finds herself selling her body to a family friend for more drugs for her father. The junk catches up to him and Blue finds herself an orphan with no skills to support herself. Elle (Wendy Hughes) comes and gives her an offer to work in her class brothel.

Blue takes her up on the offer and starts her new life. Robert Davi plays the groundskeeper that looks after her during her stay there. They form a father/daughter bond that leads to an escape later on. Wild Orchid 2 veers all over the place after that with Blue having to service a young lad she likes complicating matters and being befriended by a Senator (Christopher McDonald turning up the asshole up to 11) that may have darker motives.

What I like about Zalman King movies is that he usually makes his trash at least erotic. Lake Consequence and all The Red Shoe Diaries are all good examples of this... the start to Wild Orchid 2 is at least interesting with the wonderful Tom Skerritt... but the introduction to the brothel, etc is thoroughly uneventful.

Let's be fair though... I remembered this film for one thing Nina Siemaszko. Unfortunately she doesn't do drama as well as she does comedy (see The West Wing or American President). She is absolutely gorgeous yes, but Zalman never really capitalizes on that. For a film labeled "erotic" shouldn't this be your first task rather than overcomplicating the plot?

15/100

* look for a little pre-ER nudity from Miss Gloria Rueben.

** I as going to add a pic, but all the ones I found had Nina naked...which isn't a bad thing, but not something I want to post here.

Into the Wild

2008-03-04T13:12:00.003-06:00

"Happiness, only real when shared."

Those were the last words of Christopher McCandless as he scrawled them between random lines in a book as he prepared to die somewhere in the Alaskan wilderness. Christopher is played with quiet efficiency by Emile Hirsch who decides to set out on a journey away from his dysfunctional parents (William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden). Most of Chris's trip is narrated by his sister Carol (Jena Malone) from his journal and interviews with the people he encountered that was compiled into Jon Krakauer's book of the same name.

Chris's homelife was difficult growing up with him always looking after his sister while his parents fought. He sets out a smaller trip after he graduates from high school. The audience is left to wonder if maybe that was what put the idea in him later on to try it again. And that is what he does after he spends four years at Emory University to appease his parents. Life seems to going great with Chris planning on attending Harvard Law. A disagreement with his folks over a graduation gift pushes him further out the door.

After driving all the way across the country, Chris decides that he doesn't need all the trappings of the city. He leaves his car and burns the non-essential items. Chris sets out completely alone hitching here and there. Throughout the film he encounters many different people. McCandless has subscribed to the theory that relationships aren't what life is about, but rather it is what you do. This will sharply contrast what he finds out later the hard way.

Some the key people Chris encounters are Jan and Rainey (Catherine Keener and Brian Dierker), who are hippies out on the road getting by on selling books second hand. Jan gave her son up a long time ago and feels very drawn to Chris. By the times their paths cross again, Chris is determined to go to Alaska. This worries Jan as she feels like she might be losing a second son.

The most important character along the way is the last... Ron Franz (Hal Holbrook). Ron has too lost his family along the way and finds a second chance at it when he meets Chris. You can see that Ron's plee to stay and he'll try to adopt him as a grandson to replace the love both of them never had is genuine. I think this moment is what makes Chris decide later on that he had enough of Alaska and set out, presumably to Ron's place.

All of the acting is quite good here. Director Sean Penn has cast not necessarily the best actors, but the best ones for the roles. Holbrook Oscar nominated performance is brilliant, but so are the rest here. Even Vince Vaughn provides a comic charge as a farmer who hire Chris to work his spread awhile. Each actor doesn't try to do too much with the role especially Emile Hirsch. I think he quietly turned in maybe the second best performance of the year behind Daniel Day-Lewis. The physical demands of the role hit Christian Bale-like proportions towards the end with intense shots of the weight loss Hersh went through for the role. On a side note, the Eddie Vedder songs that make up most of the soundtrack, although much talked about, were fine... but nothing special.

100/100

The more I think about Into the Wild, I am reminded of my favorite film of 2006, Down in the Valley. In that film, Edward Norton plays a mentally disturbed young man who goes off his meds named Harlan. Harlan is trying to live the life he watched in movies... a simpler life. He too cannot live in the city any longer and tries to escape it like Christopher McCandless. I mention this only as an observation about my taste in films. Into the Wild would currently be my favorite of '07, but I still have a few left to watch:

Things We Lost in the Fire
In the Valley of Elah
No Country for Old Men
Juno
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
American Gangster
Atonement
The Savages
Before the Devil Knows You Are Dead
The Darjeeling Limited
Charlie Wilson's War
Maybe Sweeney Todd, but I am less excited about that one.

The Cincinnati Kid

2008-03-04T12:10:00.003-06:00

Steve McQueen plays the title character in a good ol' fashioned poker movie AKA cliche movie heaven. The Kid is an up and comer in the 5 card stud game and finally gets a chance to test his mettle agains the legendary Lancey Howard (portrayed by the legendary Edward G. Robinson). Kid also has to deal with his marriage-on-the-mind gal (Tuesday Weld) while fighting off the advances of his best friend's wife (Ann-Margaret).

Before the big showdown, Kid learns that a gambler named Slade (A young Rip Torn) has bet a lot of money on him to win... so much so he has propositioned the dealer Shooter (Karl Malden) to throw a card or two the Kid's way. The only problem is that the Kid doesn't want to cheat and Shooter doesn't want to test his friendship.

All the acting is fine. McQueen looks a little bored at times with the boring romance between his character and Tuesday Weld's... can't say that I blame him. The real problem here is the script. You never really get a true since of the characters. It would have been nice to see some backstory on the Kid's relationship with Shooter. Ann-Margaret's character should have been cut out completely. Just because you are hot doesn't mean you need to waste valuable camera time. Edward G. Robinson has the only real solid performance here. He is quite good in the few scenes he has with McQueen.

Director Norman Jewison spends an achingly, long time to set up the final meeting. I suppose he did have the constraints of a book to deal with, but it would have been nice to see the Kid in more action before that. Isn't a poker movie supposed to be about poker? The Cincinnati Kid comes right at the beginning a long stretch of success for Jewison that included The Thomas Crown Affair. Although for my money, he didn't hit his peak until 1984's A Soldier's Story.

The Cincinnati Kid was a real let down. A lot of praise has been heaped on it over the years and to find it is just another one of those old "classics" that really isn't, makes me tired. So many times pictures during the 50's and 60's get a pass because at the time they were something, but films like this would get a drubbing from today's critics.

40/100

Gone Baby Gone

2008-02-28T11:44:00.004-06:00

Director Ben Affleck tries to bring to the screen a very moving novel by Dennis Lehane. Unfortunately much like Mystic River, the book doesn't translate as well here. The young daughter of a coke whore Helene (Amy Ryan from The Wire) is taken from her while she is out getting high with her boyfriend. Her brother Lionel (Deadwood's Titus Welliver) and his wife Beatrice (Amy Madigan) look to out investigators for help. They turn to Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and his partner Angie Gennero (Michelle Monaghan) as a last gasp attempt to find their niece. Patrick starts poking his nose around the case while forming an uneasy relationship with the two cops (Ed Harris and John Aston) assigned to the case. Also, Morgan Freeman is the head of the task force trying to find the missing girl. Of course everything is not as it seems or else why would there be a movie?

Ok I wanted to get all that plot out of the way so I can talk about the problems and there are many. The first problem is that since Gone Baby Gone is not the first book in the series, you don't have a real idea of Patrick and Angie's relationship is like. Ben Affleck never really gives you that since of it which is key in the book towards their effects felt by the case.

Secondly, the two leads are horribly miscast here. Casey Affleck doesn't have the physicality that the character needs and Monaghan seems completely lost here. In the book, Patrick is a presence as soon as he walks into a room and much better dressed. Apparently (Ben) Affleck feels like trotting out his extra wardrobe from Good Will Hunting. Monaghan has had one solid performance in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and filled up her resume with craptastic parts in MI3 and The Heartbreak Kid.

But for the mistakes in the leads, casting Ashton and Harris as the cops is dead on. Both of these wonderful actors haven't had a chance to do something this juicy in a long time. Finally, the tone is all wrong. Anyone who has read the Kenzie novels knows that while the cases can be very dramatic the overall tone is much more light. Ben Affleck seems to try and milk the story for drama and completely throw out everything else.

The revelations in the book just does not translate onto the screen. Most of that could be blamed on Affleck since he adapted the screenplay. Like Mystic River (the film version is overrated), the people behind the camera do not seem to get what is compelling about the books. Martin Scorsese is taking a crack at Lehane's novel Shutter Island in '09 so we will see what he can do.

50/100

* Wire fans should look for a cameo from Omar.

The Baxter

2008-02-28T11:19:00.003-06:00

A "Baxter" is classified as a fellow likely to get hay fever, have an aversion to dancing, and is ultimately the guy a woman ends up settling for instead of true love. Or as Cecil (Michelle Williams) says in the film, "Something is better than nothing." Ah but I get ahead of myself. The Baxter is a creation of writer/directer/actor Michael Showalter of the sketch shows The State and Stella.

Showalter plays Elliot Sherman, a man seeminly in the prime of his life who seems to have finally found the right gal in Caroline Swann (Elizabeth Banks). Their pending nuptials are put in down when her old boyfriend Blake (Justin Theroux) comes back into the picture. Elliot finds solace in his former secretary Cecil. He explains his sad-sack life of woman never quite falling for him and ultimately his disappointment. Cecil seems to identify with him as her own relationship to Dan (Paul Rudd again) seems a sham. So the question is will Elliot figure out he wants and go after it?

Showalter gives quite an earnest performance here that smacks a bit of an obsessive compulsive rather than a nerd. He gives Elliot some very defined mannerisms that might drive some crazy. The two female leads are in the spotlight here. Showalter's acting and direction really lend themselves to letting his fellow actors shine. Banks has been delivering quality performances for the last 5 years in small parts so it is no surprise there. Although, Michelle Williams is quite a revelation here. I've never seen her get a chance to really shine in a role.

So if like something different in your romantic comedies, you'll probably greatly appreciate The Baxter. The third act drags a bit as you go through the normal rom/com headaches, but Michelle Williams in particular makes you forget about that.

75/100

* Is Paul Rudd in every movie now? Not that I'm complaining.

The Bourne Ultimatum

2008-02-26T14:17:00.005-06:00

I was very critical of the last Bourne entry after the directing chair was handed over to Paul Greengrass, but I had no idea was he had planned for Bourne 3. The movie starts off as Bourne (Matt Damon) continues to have partial flashbacks of how he when he was recruited. Bourne sets out on an attempt to reclaim his identity and runs right into the plans of the Deputy Director of the CIA played by David Strathairn. Obviously shit hits the fan as Strathairn tries to cover his ass and his project Operaton Blackbriar.

Blackbriar built on the Treadstone Project of which Bourne was a participant. Joan Allen is back Pamela Landy. Landy thinks that maybe Bourne isn't who she thought he was and tries to help him. Also back is perpetually wooden Julia Stiles (she lost some thigh weight)and their are hints to a possibly relationship between her character Nicky and Bourne. Thank God Bourne couldn't remember that - I don't need any flashbacks to sex scenes with Julia Stiles. Scott Glenn joins the cast as the head of the CIA and unfortunately doesn't get to do much.

The Bourne Ultimatum gives you about 45 minutes of setup that is nicely paced and well acted. The next hour gives you as solid as of an action film as you can get these days. Greengrass seems to have heeded my advice (impossible, but it inflates my ego) and goes all out here. The budget clearly shows for example on the sweeping motorcycle chase through Tangiers. Spectacular sound and editing show you why this film picked up three Oscars on Sunday. Greengrass still has that shaky cam, but does a much better job of pulling out and showing the bigger picture.

I was very impressed with this film overall. It isn't too often that you get a film in the sequel category that winds up as good or maybe even better than the orginal. Wisely casting David Strathairn helps too with the loss of the indispensible Chris Cooper of the first film. Greengrass goes out guns blazing here with an exciting film that neither lags or lacks. This film feels like how Crank should have been.

100/100

* Eventually I'll get through all the films I want to watch from 2007 and get the best list out there. This will no doubt be on it.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

2008-02-26T12:25:00.003-06:00

In the 1980's, Billy Mitchell set several video game records that transformed him into a nerd God. He liked the notoriety it brought and used it as a side project from his successful restaurant/wings sauce line. By 2006, most of his records had been broken except for his Donkey Kong score.

Steve Wiebe lost his job working for Boeing (sound familar). Weibe decided that he was going to break the Kong record. Mitchell learns of his challenger and starts trying to discredit Wiebe's record breaking attempt. When one of Weibe's attempts breaks the record, a crew from Twin Galaxies (a reknowned website that verifies and tallies up video game records) comes out to investigate. They find a substance on the game board (more nerd references) in Weibe's machine that they feel could be compromised since it came from Mitchell's rival Roy Shildt.

TKOK is at it's heart an underdog story of the unemployed father Wiebe trying for once to succeed at something. Wiebe's backstory is heartbreaking and inspiring. Mitchell has since fired back at the makers of the film charging them with painting him in a unfavorable light. Whether or not that is the case, TKOK is a breezy film that never overly complicates things. It has a clear story and does a nice job of showing you a world that most of us didn't know existed. The dvd is loaded with lots of extras as well as what has happened to the rivalry since the filming.

90/100

Blades of Glory

2008-02-26T11:48:00.003-06:00

After just having sat through the thoroughly uninspired Talledega Nights, I was a little reluctant to catch Blades of Glory. Then something happened after I put it in the dvd player: I laughed... a lot.

Will Ferrell plays Chazz Michael Michaels and (assclown) Jon Heder plays his rival Jimmy MacElroy in this tale of two male figure skaters forced to compete as a doubles team. Their rivalry led to an embarrassing incident at their last gold medal event. We pick up their characters 3.5 years later as Ferrell is performing in a kid's show on ice and Heder is working a sporting goods store.

Craig T. Nelson costars as the simply named (and inside joke) Coach. Nelson is perfect here as the somewhat batshit crazy obsessive who feels they can compete with anyone with his "Iron Lotus." Ferrell and Heder are at their best here. Heder plays the straight man off of Ferrell's great improvisation. You also get William Fichtner, Will Arnett, Jenna Fischer, and Amy Poehler for added punch.

Blades of Glory is from first time feature directors Josh Gordon and Will Speck. They are veterans of commercials and some short films, but this is their first time trying to tell a full story. What makes this work is their full on over the top stupidity that radiates from every scene. The film wouldn't work if it was somewhat based in reality and the directors know it.

80/100

William Fichtner

2008-02-26T11:41:00.002-06:00

Ya'll recognize his face, now go read a cool interview with William Fichtner right here.

The Bourne Supremacy

2008-02-23T13:50:00.004-06:00

The Bourne Identity was pretty much the perfect action movie and it set the expectations very high for a sequel. Unfortunately, the bastards at the studio couldn't convince Doug Liman (Swingers, Go) to come back and follow up his masterpiece - enter Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday). Greengrass is a departure from the skillful camera shots of Doug Liman. Liman would set up and do these clean sweeping shots that captured everything. Greengrass tends to do that annoying steadicam crap because he isn't used to working with the budget of something like The Bourne Supremacy. Lots of critics seem to be lauding him for it although when I watch an action picture with some dollars behind it I want to see everything. If I wanted quick cuts and half shots I'll watch some shitty Seagal film.

That being said... Greengrass manages to not completely ruin the film. Watching now on a tv instead of the big screen, you don't get quite as jarred from the constant cuts. Bourne finds himself the target of Abbott (Brian Cox) who is trying to tie up the loose ends from the Treadstone project. Abbot sends an assassin (Karl Urban) to kill Bourne, but he fails and instead kills Marie (Franka Potente). This provokes Bourne to come out of hiding to find out what is going on.

Damon is still up to the psysical task, although when the hack director Greengrass... you don't really see everything. In fact, all the action sequences are toned down. There is a ridiculously boring car chase late in the picture that has you checking your watch.

Practically the only thing that saves this mess is the actors. Joan Allen is quite effective as an agent trying to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding Bourne. Brian Cox always classes up a film - heck if he can do that with Super Troopers he can do anything. Urban is always better when he doesn't talk unlike the Chronicles of Riddick - which exposed his terrible acting. But you do feel the lack of Chris Cooper here. Cooper is that rare actor who always gives you more than what is in the script.

So bottom line... the film is watchable, but hardly worthy of the accolades given to it. I thought it would be wise to rewatch the second installment so I can try to enjoy the third one. Hopefully, Greengrass learns you can do more with an $80 million budget than the half-assed effort he gives here.

60/100

Gunshy (No not that gawdawful Sandra Bullock movie)

2008-02-22T16:33:00.004-06:00

Jake Bridges (William Peterson) is a down and out writer who has just lost his job at his paper. Bridges was once one of the top journalists out there, but seems to have lost his drive along with his wife. Bridges finds her in bed with another man one day and decides to move to where the losers can turn into turn into winners or wind up dead.

In Atlantic City, Bridges befriends Frankie (Michael Wincott) and his lovely girlfriend Melissa (Diane Lane). Frankie wants to help Jake by getting him a job as his assistant... it's just that Frankie is the muscle for a small time mob crew. All Frankie wants in return is for Jake to teach him a little bit of culture. Frankie longs for his break out of Jersey to experience more of what life has to offer. Needless to say, things aren't what they seem plus Jake falls in love with Melissa.

There are a lot of cliches floating around in this film from director Jeff Celentano. The setup is tremendously boring and a mess, but once you get in you do find some good stuff. The relationship between Frankie and Jake gives you at least 30 solid minutes of unique interplay. Peterson reminds you that he is heads and tails the best actor in the cast with a solid performance here. Wincott is stuck doing a cheap accent while lousy Springsteen wannabe music plays in the background. Lane sleepwalks through most of the film. It almost feels like a few scenes were written for the leads while a craptacular plot was added on to make it a movie.

Gunshy tries to toe the line of drama and dark comedy. It would have been much better if it wouldn't have pulled it's punches and went all out dark. To see Peterson go into a downward moral spiral would've been hella interesting considering his substantial acting chops (See Manhunter or To Live and Die in LA). You get a sense of Jake starting to like the life of Frankie, but by the time you get to the good stuff you've sat through a hour of setup.

50/100

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

2008-02-22T15:57:00.003-06:00

I've put off watching this film for some reason. I didn't have the greatest expectations for it despite it featuring John C. Reilly as second fiddle to Will Ferrell. Anyway...Ferrell is Ricky Bobby - a Nascar driver who believes that winning is the only thing that matters. He has a tendency to wreck his car trying and eventually he has a bad enough crash that causes him to re-examine his life.

Reilly is quite good as Ricky Bobby's best friend. He has a sense of comic timing that that only makes his costar Sacha Baron Cohen look worse. Cohen has to be the most untalented assclown working in films today. His work here is atrocious... but he is hardly the only one to blame for this film. Adam McKay (Anchorman) lets Ferrell roll on the improve and while that worked for Anchorman, it seems to fall flat here. Even Amy Adams (pre-Enchanted) as Ricky Bobby's assistant can't make this completely unwritten script funny. Only Gary Cole (Office Space) as the patriarch of the Bobby family can elicit a laugh here and there.

I don't watch Will Ferrell for plot and escapism, but I do expect to laugh. Talladega Nights barely kept me from falling asleep... the funny stuff is in the trailer... in fact some of that didn't even make the movie.

40/100

Michael Clayton

2008-02-21T14:16:00.003-06:00

Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is the so-called janitor for a giant law firm representing some of the biggest companies in the world. Clayton gets called in to clean up the problems real lawyers don't want to touch. In the case of this film, Clayton is out to fix a problem when their top litigator Artur Edens (Tom Wilkinson) strips down during a deposition. It seems Edens has gone off his medication and could compromise the defense of a class action lawsuit against the makers of a weed killer. It seems multiple people have died from complications from it, although those are never really gone into in any great detail.

Clayton's other subplots for strickly for subplot sake. There is a mess with his loser brother and the debt they incurred over the failed opening of a restaurant. Money is further complicated as he has a giant apartment left over from before his divorce and a gambling problem. All of these elements are completely unnecesary for the plot. It is just all padding in an attempt to try and make this simple story seem like there is more going on.

The underlying plot is straight forward with director Tony Gilroy aping producer Steven Soderbergh's style down to a T. Robert Elswit (Oscar nominated for There Will Be Blood) is called on to class up the film with his DOP work. Elswit does what he can with what he has... the cinematography is tremendous for a movie of this limited depth. His work almost feels wasted here.

The actors are fine - Clooney for Best Actor is quite the stretch though. I found his turn as a man who regrets his past 17 years and wants to get out to be quite pedestrian. There's nothing extra he brings to the table, which can also be said of the rest of the cast sans Tilda Swinton. Swinton is the head of the legal team for the lawyers representing the company in trouble. The problem with Swinton is that there just isn't enough of her.

Gilroy spends way too time setting this film up with extraneous characters and back story for Clooney. By the time you do get to a solid ending, you are just left wishing it had come earlier. Saved by the last 20 minutes.

60/100

3:10 to Yuma

2008-02-21T13:53:00.003-06:00

Christian Bale plays a down on his luck rancher named Dan Evans. His spread is getting ready to be foreclosed on and sold. So Evans decides to take his chances in bringing outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) to justice for $200 promised to him by an official from the stage coach line Wade has brutally victimized. The bad news is no one wants to help Evans out of fear of reprisal from his gang led by Charlie Prince (Ben Foster). Evans soon finds himself in over his head.

Crowe plays Wade as a charming, somewhat intelligent man even flirts with the idea of running off to Mexico with barmaid (Vinessa Shaw from the legendary Ladybugs). Crowe is at the top of his game, but there isn't a whole lot he or Bale can do with their characters. For such a long film (two hours... and it feels longer), you neither learn anything remarkable about them nor do you get a lot of action. Ben Foster has the flashy role of the expert gunfighter, but it is hard to take someone serious in that way when he looks like a stiff breeze could knock him off his horse. Peter Fonda is a highlight though as the cagey old hired mercenary assigned to guarding the stage line.

Director James Mangold (Walk the Line, Copland) seems trapped in the narrow restraints of the original. This movie begs for the streamlined approach. There is way too much exposition in the story, which causes a lag in several spots. Couple that with an idiot ending and you are forced to not really enjoy the experience. Mangold echoed this film in modern times for Copland, but he gets lost here. I wanted to like this film...

50/100

There Will Be Blood

2008-02-21T13:09:00.003-06:00

Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) is working a few wells in the Coyote Hills when he gets an unexpected visit from a young man named Paul Sunday(Paul Dano). Paul tells the story of how the oil is so abundant in his small town that it is leaking onto the surface soil. Daniel quickly grabs his son H.W.(Dillon Freasier and goes to investigate the claim.

Plainview finds what he has dreamed of... oil in close proximity to water so he can avoid the transportation charges that shipping by train takes up. Quickly, he buys up all the ground he can after convincing the community he wants to help all of their lives with this discovery. Paul's twin brother Eli (also played by Paul Dano) makes it perfectly clear that the key to the people in the town is through his church. Plainview finds the church to be only a distraction to his employees and wants nothing to do with it personally.

Eli wants to do a blessing for the opening of the first well, but Plainview snubs him. This seems the key moment for the rest of the film. When it is all said and done, you will look back at this as the start to the main theme of the film: greed.

All of the acting is top notch and it would be hard to believe that anyone other than Daniel Day-Lewis taking home the Best Actor on Sunday. His performances always are meticulously crafted with an attention to every little detail. Something also has to be said about the cinematography of There Will Be Blood. DOP Robert Elswit does a remarkable job framing each shot while editor Richard Tichoner does wonders putting the sequences together. None of the shots are flashy just extraordinarily captured. Elswit and Tichoner should be set to pick up Oscars as well.

P.T. Anderson has crafted a third great film alongside his debut of Hard Eight and his masterpiece Boogie Nights. Anderson seems to be back on track after the uneven, but inspired Magnolia and the mess of Punch Drunk Love. It is obvious that this filmmaker is going to have a long, brilliant career ahead of him.

90/100 - this could change in time.

Transformers

2008-02-21T12:04:00.001-06:00

Generally when I go into a movie like this, I like to set my expectations low. That way I can just sit back and try to enjoy a big budget special effects monster like Transformers. However, the entire film is a mess of Michael Bay like proportions. Director Michael Bay has been bringing you shite since 1995's Bad Boys crapped onto big screens. Bay's films rarely have an once of reality in them and often feel like the dialogue was made up by frat boys on a bender.

Transformers does little to disinguish itself either with special effects or story. The plot revolves around the two warring races of robots trying to find the "all spark" which is said to create new Transformers through some sort of mystical power. The "all spark" was thought to have crash landed on Earth and now both sides are trying to retrieve it. Shia Labeouf and Megan Fox play teenagers who get caught up in the struggle. Their scenes together are some of the most excrutiating I've ever endured. Fox is completely wooden and Shia just clowns his way through depending on the effects to save him.

Oh but wait... the effects are awful. I can't think of a film with the kind of budget Transformers had that just out and out had lousy visual effects. All the Transformers look similar when in their robot form not counting Bumblebee or Optimus Prime. And wtf Megatron is an airplane now? The CGI is obviously spliced in with the scenes to an almost comical way.

Ugh that's enough... if you are a fan of the old series or the comic books, you will be sorely disappointed. There is nothing here to like except for John Turturro. He manages to achieve a frantic level of comedy that is lacking throughout the rest of the film. If I could though, I would give this a negative score.

0/100

King of California

2008-02-15T13:09:00.003-06:00

King of California is from first time writer/director Mike Cahill... and you can tell that. The uniqueness of his voice is balanced out by the somewhat unpolished script. We shall get to that later...

Evan Rachel Wood plays Miranda as a 16 y/o that has had to grow up much too soon. Her mother ran off when she was little and her father Charlie (Michael Douglas) is just getting out of the psychiatric hospital after a 2 year stay. Miranda has had to drop out of high school to work in order to barely hold onto the family house. She has no one else in her life and seem a little excited to finally have some interaction even if it comes with consequences.

Charlie is a washed up blues musician that wasn't there as much as he probably should have during Miranda's childhood. He feels the guilt and wants to make it all right by finding a lost bounty of gold that he learns about through a priest's diary from the 17th century. Charlie becomes convinced he has cracked a code and takes Miranda on the hunt with him. Clearly this is the most bonding they've ever done and Miranda seems okay with humoring him.

King of California sounds like a breezy comic adventure and in some ways it is, however there are some very serious moments mixed in from Miranda's childhood along with a darkly comic scene involving an alternative lifestyle. There is an unexplained scene of Charlie trying to committ suicide that is never fully explained or addressed. That is where some of the inexperience seems to show in Mike Cahill. Several passages seem to be the victim of the cutting room with the whole film at barely 93 mins.

The two lead actors are quite experienced with these types of roles. Michael Douglas could do this role in his sleep with that being a compliment. He does succeed in giving Charlie that little twinkle that he needs to have to keep this story from being kind of a sad fable. Wood is marvelous as always even if she has a momentary bout of Kirsten Dunst Syndrome (AKA I can't act well enough to emote this scene so I'll just talk louder and move my hands a lot) during an intimate scene with Douglas in the middle of the film. For the most part though, she is quite good.

The film could have been better... but it has a lot of charming things about it. It almost feels like one of those Project Greenlight films that no doubt looks a lot strong in scripted form. Then the film gets made you start noticing the little imperfections in it. King of California has got a few of those sure...but Cahill gets a pass this time. Time will tell if he can truly stand out in this world as a filmmaker. It was probably using the Woody Guthrie/Wilco track "California Stars" that did it, but who knows...

70/100

Racing with the Moon

2008-02-14T14:27:00.003-06:00

Richard Benjamin has never impressed me with either his acting or directing. He earned some early aclaim in acting with maybe his best turn in Westworld. Benjamin's directing resume reads like a list of flops and never-should-have-been-made messes. So call me surprised to find that he just gets out of the way of his three leads and lets them go in Racing with the Moon.

Racing with the Moon is about two friends in 1942 who are about to turn 18 and ship out to WWII. Hopper(Sean Penn) and Nicky (Nicolas Cage) seem to be content with working at the bowling alley while waiting for their destiny in the war. That changes when the two find women in their lives. Hopper sees the lovely Caddie (Elizabeth McGovern) dancing one day in a meadow. She works at the movie theatre, but somehow lives in one of the houses on the hill. Needless to say, this will provide some tension later on.

Most of the plot is just recycled cliches, but Benjamin doesn't let that slow the film down. He keeps things straight-forward and lets the film hang on his young actors. Penn is always game for a angsty role and fits into the role of Hopper like an old pair of shoes. Cage gives a glimpse of his potential as the one friend who always seems to be getting Hopper into bad situations. McGovern continued her run of token cute girl roles here, but does manage to add a little something to the part.

Racing with the Moon is still at the heart a sappy, sentimental indulgence from Benjamin. The flow of the film does make it superior to many of the same trite studio crap that was thrust upon movie goers om the 80's. Not a bad film overall. Benjamin's directorial career would reach its apex with 1988's Little Nikita - a minor masterpiece starring River Phoenix and Sidney Poitier.

70/100

* It is worth noting here that this was Steve Kloves's first screenplay. He would later go to adapt a masterpiece (Wonder Boys) and all the Harry Potters for the big screen. Kloves would also do the much heralded 1989 film The Fabulous Baker Boys.

The Hunting Party

2008-02-12T13:25:00.000-06:00

Few films these days manage to create an intense desire to watch them. The Hunting Party just sounded like a great film to watch. Based on an article in Esquire, THP is a story about three journalists who go to post-war Bosnia to hunt for one of the biggest war criminals in the world. The lead, Duck (Terrence Howard), gets guilted into helping his old partner Simon (Richard Gere) go on this crazy journey. The two used to share a bond in war torn situations with Duck being that cameraman who always got the shot. Now Simon is down on his luck and needs a favor. Jesse Eisenberg is the comic relief going along with the duo because his dad is a vice president.

The journalists are all shocked when it seems that the U.N. personnel that are supposed to be looking for the criminals after the war seem to be turning a blind eye. An exchange with the U.N. creates a side story that is very well done. Along the way, the audience learns that Simon has an altogether different motive for his madness.

I certainly wasn't bored at any point during THP, but I had a nagging feeling that this could have been presented better. Writer/director Richard Shepard directed a marvelous film in The Matador that did a great job juxtaposing the different tones in the story. The Hunting Party seems to lack that touch. One never gets a sense of the journalists life's being at stake until much later in the film.

Terrence Howard is an immensely likeable actor. He never tries to do too much and rolls with the situations his characters are placed in. Richard Gere has the flashy role which seems to fit into his repetoire of asshole roles quite well. Gere does manage to squeeze some feeling into a guy who no doubt regrets his mistakes as his life went off track during the Bosnian war.

Not a bad watch by any means, but The Hunting Party never really hits the full potential. Look for a cameo from Diane Kruger late in the film.

65/100

Ocean's 13

2008-02-12T13:00:00.000-06:00

It is amazing how bad sequels can be when all the same creative talent is in place for follow ups as were in place for the original movie. Ocean's 12 was one of the biggest wastes of time I'm ever seen in a theatre. My hopes for this one were slight at best. What I got was at least a return to Danny Ocean's stomping ground of Vegas. Unfortunately, the magic among the actors isn't there anymore. The snappy dialogue has gone the way of the Stardust. Everybody is going through the motions here.

The plot revolves around their friend Reuben (Elliot Gould) getting screwed over on his partnership with Willie Bank (Al Pacino) involving a new casino being built. Ocean (Clooney) vows to get revenge on Bank. Blah blah blah. Two hours later the film thankfully ends.

Kudos has to go to Ellen Barkin who does manage to show at 50 you can still be a fine looking woman. Not much else to praise here. Pacino continues his paycheck collecting and only a cameo from Super Dave Osbourne could elicit a smile from me. This isn't a terrible movie, but a joyless exercise that left me watching the clock

50/100

A little part of me just died

2008-02-11T02:25:00.001-06:00

Actor Roy Scheider Dies at 75

Actor Roy Scheider, a two-time Oscar nominee best known for his leading role as the water-phobic police chief in the smash blockbuster Jaws, died Sunday in Little Rock, Arkansas, at the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences hospital; he was 75. Though an official cause of death was not released at press time, a hospital spokeswoman stated that the actor had been treated for multiple myeloma at the hospital's research center for the past two years. Born in New Jersey, Scheider pursued a career in boxing before turning to acting, and won an Obie award for his work with the New York Shakespeare Festival in the late '60s. His first major film appearances also began in the late '60s in such movies as Star! and Paper Lion, and it was in 1971 that he truly gained fame for his roles two popular thrillers, Klute and The French Connection; the latter earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. However, it was his role four years later in the Steven Spielberg thriller Jaws for which he became most well-known, playing a local lawman in a tourist beach town who must contend with the sudden appearance of a great white shark; his line, "You're gonna need a bigger boat," became one of the most well-known lines in contemporary film. Scheider also appeared in the ill-fated sequel Jaws 2 (after dropping out of the lead role in The Deer Hunter and in order to be let out of his Universal Studios contract) and the thriller Marathon Man before embarking on his most acclaimed performance, that of Broadway director and choreographer Joe Gideon in Bob Fosse's All That Jazz. The role, closely based on Fosse's life, brought Scheider his second Academy Award nomination in 1979, this time for Best Actor. Though none of Scheider's later films would reach the heights of his movies from the '70s, he continued to work steadily in both film and television, with diverse roles in such films as Still Of The Night, Blue Thunder, 2010, The Russia House, Naked Lunch, The Peacekeeper, The Myth Of Fingerprints (for which he received an Independent Spirit Award nomination) and the TV series SeaQuest DSV and Third Watch. Scheider is survived by his three children and his second wife, actress Brenda King.

- from www.imdb.com

Roy was quite a nontraditional actor. He wasn't your normal leading man, yet he found himself in some of the biggest films around. I'll remember him best as Popeye Doyle's partner in The French Connection. The last thing I saw him in was The Punisher as Frank Castle's dad. The acting world has just lost one of it's best. I feel as if one of my very old friends has past away. My heartfelt condolences go out to his family as another great man finds his way home.

-G

Overnight

2008-02-03T05:06:00.000-06:00

Troy Duffy was an "overnight" success after he met Harvey Weinstein. Harvery liked his screenplay pitch at the bar so much he signed him. Troy would never make his movie at Miramax because he let it all go to his head and became an asshole. Troy would later snap up financing to make The Boondock Saints, but the damage had been done. The collegues that he alienated had recorded it to be shown as this documentary.

Troy Duffy is an asshole and no one has worked with hims since TBS. We get that... but the filmmakers think we should care about it more coz they got screwed out of profits. The real loser is Duffy - who didn't sign a contract that gave him residuals from rentals or sales from the dvd, which is where TBS made as shit ton of money. Couldn't happen to a nicer moron.

This documentary is nothing more than a thinly veiled attack on a jerk filmmaker that was an asshole to the makers of the movie. A waste of time for everyone including me. Can I sue to get that 85 minutes back?

0/100

Once

2008-01-31T15:34:00.000-06:00

I never really thought much of Glen Hansard's band The Frames. I listened to one of their cds (Burn the Maps) to see if I wanted to stay and watch them after Josh Ritter. The disc was awful and I decided that an early retreat from Lawrence was a better idea. About four years later I watch Once which is directed by the former bassist (John Carney - not the former NFL kicker) of The Frames starring their lead singer. The story of Once is very simple and yet it works. A street musician (Hansard) meets a girl (Marketa Irglova) who can play the keyboards. A friendship is forged through music - which is surprisingly great.

Once doesn't go much deeper than the surface. The two leads seem to have a chemistry of great proportions, but the writer/director seems determined to subdue it. Tis a pity a couple of unnecessary f-bombs are thrown, coz nothing else is stopping this from being PG. Hansard comes across as clone of Hugh Laurie (House), while Irglova (who has never acted before) never really gets a third dimension. The script leaves their relationship feeling boxed in.

Clearly the film is a showpiece for some marvelous musical collaborations between the two. The soundtrack is a must buy. The film is ok, but leaves you wanting more out of this little movie.

65/100

The Kingdom

2008-01-31T14:57:00.000-06:00

The Kingdom is from actor/director Peter Berg. Berg made a name for himself in directing for his last two efforts: The Rundown and Friday Night Lights. Both turned a little profit allowing him to go nuts here with a big budget political-action film. "The Kingdom" refers to the a section of Saudi Arabia with a lot of westerners live. A series of violent terror strikes kills 70 plus people. One of Foxx's best friends was killed in a blast prompting Foxx to use his connections to go investigate.

His team includes the surly Chris Cooper (Don't placate me like I'm your mother boy!), the out of her element Jennifer Garner, and the cheap comic relief Jason Bateman. When you get down to it, The Kingdom is just another fish out of water story with an overly complicated first 80 minutes culminating in a fantastic climax. Berg clearly knows how to direct an action film. The final sequence is one of the best choreographed action sequences I have ever seen.

All of the actors playing the Saudi's are excellent especially Ashraf Barhom as the liason to the FBI. Cooper is criminally underused here. If I had it my way, Cooper would be in every film along with Michael Rooker, William H. Macy, William Sadler, and Andre Braugher. Foxx is fine as the lead who does a solid job with the action scenes.

I clearly would like to see Berg do some more material. Word is he has some crappy Will Smith/Charlize Theron film coming out later this year. I like both of those actors, but they have a terrible history of picking films. The Kingdom is fairly decent flick that's not very memorable.

60/100

The TV Set

2008-01-29T15:45:00.000-06:00

From producer Judd Appatow and writer/director Jake Kasdan, The TV Set is satire on the tv industry. It follows a writer named Mike (David Duchovny) trying to get his script made into a pilot and the horrible influence a network has in that. The network big wig Lenny (Sigourney Weaver) makes her decisions on programming based on the opinions of her 14 y/o daughter.

You go through all the crap with Mike from having to cast an actor you hate to having to changed the basic premise of the show. There are some hilarious stuff with Duchovny trying to get through a simple scene with the less than desirable lead. Judy Greer does excellent work here as Mike's business manager Alice. Alice tries to keep the ball rolling by softening the blows from the network.

This is film for people who know a bit about tv and film. The network seems to be loosely based on the Fox Network and their reputation for bawdiness. (Slut Wars is their top show) Lots of on target criticism makes The TV Set a must watch. Duchovny does his best work since Fox Mulder. I was really happy to see Jake Kasdan rebound to greatness after the box office sell out of Orange County. I look forward to catching Walk Hard soon. On the dvd, you not only get a commentary from Jake and David, you also get one from Jack and Judd! Lots of good talk about Freak and Geeks.

90/100

The Ten

2008-01-28T14:08:00.000-06:00

If you are in the mood for a batshit crazy movie then look to The Ten. Written by the fellows who did The State and Stella, The Ten brings together 10 stories veeery loosely based on the The Ten Commandments. And the best part, well they got Paul Rudd to introduce each one. All of the stories have interlocking characters - mostly in unexpected ways.

This is the kind of film where if most of the stories work, then you enjoy it. Not every single one did work, but I like 8 out of the 10. My favorite being when co-writer Ken Marino is sent to prison following a death of one of his patients. Inside Marino's character is quickly claimed as a bitch by Big Buster only to fall in love with The Daily Show's Rob Corddry. I promise you it is hilarious.

Two other stories that were solid included Liev Schreiber (?) as a man trying to one up a neighbor to bizarre proportions and Winona Ryder (who is in two stories) who falls in love with a dummy - the puppet kind. Ryder goes all out and I was disturbed by her decication, but yet oddly turned on since it involved her in very little clothing... hmmm. When did she buy new breasts? Anyone?

Anyway, The Ten is a quick, little movie. If one story bores you, it is quickly over and you move on to the next one. Look for a HILARIOUS cameo from Oliver Platt. I can almost forgive him for the Ice Harvest.

80/100

We Are Marshall

2008-01-28T13:36:00.000-06:00

We Are Marshall tells the story of the 1970 plane crash that killed 75 people, including the Marshall football team, and the recovery the town makes over the next year. Already a great story and it is hard to mess that up unless you do a TV movie of Into Thin Air or you let director McG have his way with your story.

McG is a very ambitious filmmaker in terms of his broad shot selection and his bag of camera tricks. This works very well when you are trying to dress up a 2 hour pile of shite like Charlie's Angels, but when you are doing a character study about a very sensitive subject... it doesn't work. In fact, the camera stunts are right out of an asinine episode of CSI Miami. Okay... with that being said, WAM is actually a fine film once you get through idiot camera movements.

The story revolves around 6 main characters. Matthew McConaughey is top billed for his performance as Jack Lengyel, the only man who take over a program that lost almost it's entire staff and players. The real lead is Red Dawson's (Matthew Fox) character. Red was the only coach not on the plane thanks to a recruiting trip he had to do after the final game of the year. Anthony Mackie plays the only returning starter who feels survivor guilt for having missed dying on the plane with his friends thanks than injury that kept him home. Kate Mara plays the young fiance of Ian McShane's son who died in the plane crash. Mara also serves as the narrator... Last but not least, David Strathairn plays the interim President of Marshall U. that is trying to pull everything together so the town can have football again.

All the performances are fine, even if McShane's and Mara's are almost completely unnecesary to the plot. Matthew Fox and McConaughey are adequate here, but hardly revelatory. Mackie and Strathairn shine when given the chance. The best acting of the bunch is the ten minute cameo that Robert Patrick has at the beginning of the film. Now that man can play a football coach! The rest of the plot is simple with the normal "conflicts" thrown in to complicate things now and again.

This most certainly is not a "football" movie. There is three small sections of games that punctuate the acts of the film, but this is more a character story. McG just doesn't have the chops to bring it all together perfectly, but it is enjoyable. After watching it though, you wonder what a Peter Weir or Steve James could've done with this material?

75/100

The Hoax

2008-01-25T12:41:00.001-06:00

Clifford Irving (Richard Gere) was just another rejected writer when he decided he had enough. Irving constructed a premise to write a book on recluse Howard Hughes. Everyone wanted to know more about the famous billionare, but he hadn't been seen in public in a decade. Hughes couldn't come forth in court room since there was a pending lawsuit in regards to TWA. With that in mind, Irving decides that is the perfect chance to cash in, especially if Hughes can't sue him. Irving gets his editor (The wonderful Hope Davis) to bite that he and his friend (Alfred Molina) were picked by Hughes to write his autobiography.

What follows is a story of a man, Irving, who wants the spotlight at all cost. His lies get him in deeper with his wife (Marcia Gay Harden) and his publishers. Lots of nice cameos including Eli Wallach, Stanley Tucci, and Julie Delpy (And one of her boobs).

The director Lasse Hallstrom is quite an enigma. Reading his Imdb page is a scattershot of failures and vanity projects since his big screen debut of What's Eating Gilbert Grape? His biggest triumph was the superb Chocolat. I'm very intrigued to see the bomb Casanova with it's late star Heath Ledger. In The Hoax, Hallstrom keeps it simple and moving along. The story is so strong you don't need a stong hand to mess it up. Molina is especially terrific here as Irving's collegue Dick Suskin. Gere is perfectly casted as a showboat that craves attention. Only Harden falters here with her awful generic European accent. Why didn't they call Nadtassja Kinski? The role screams out for her!

It is kind of an odd proposition that The Hoax didn't do better in theatres. It received mostly positive reviews, but seems destined for better days on DVD. This film is wildly entertaining that goes down even better if you don't know anything about the event. This would be a marvelous double feature paired with Scorsese's The Aviator afterwards to really get an idea of Hughes.

85/100

Inland Empire

2008-01-25T12:10:00.000-06:00

Ok... the new David Lynch film stars Laura Dern as Sue/Nikki. Nikki is an actress who gets a part in a new production that she learns has been cursed and is based on a Polish folktale. The previous attempt at making the film led to both of the leads dying. So with her director (Jeremy Irons) and costar Devon (Justin Theroux), they begin work on the film. Devon goes to investigate a mysterious sound on the set one day and finds a double of Nikki looking into the studio...As filming begins, Devon and Nikki start having an affair.

Soon, the reality between the characters becomes blurred. Nikki/Sue ends up going into a parallel universe to where the prior production was in Poland. And you also get a homage to Alice in Wonderland... So you end up with the actors reality, the movie reality, the reality of the prior film, and the people outside of the film watching it. All of this nonlinear of course, Lynch seems desperate to make his films almost impossible to follow. At just under three hours, there is a lot of bloat to this film.

I can't really say I enjoyed Inland Empire. I don't mind a film that makes me think long afterwards about really what happened, but the blatant disregard for the audience bugs me. I can't decide whether Lynch is a bitter genius or a drugged out maniac. This, is not a film for the average movie watcher.

50/100

I hope Herbie put some food on the table Michael Keaton

2008-01-22T12:14:00.000-06:00

Keaton is trying to sell his new film at Sundance. The strange thing is he also directed it... read about it here.

Eastern Promises

2008-01-21T13:09:00.000-06:00

Viggo Mortensen reunites with his History of Violence director David Cronenberg with Eastern Promises. Mortenson plays a man self described as merely the driver for some Russian mobsters in London. Of course, there is much more to the tale than that.

Naomi Watts plays a midwife that has a 14 yo Russian prostitute come in and die giving birth. She finds a diary that chronicles her tough life and the events that lead to her pregnancy. In the process of trying to get the diary translated and finding the child's family, Watts stumbles into a Russian mob run by Semyon(Armin Mueller-Staal). Mueller-Staal has got to be in the conversation for most overlooked actors ever.

Viggo works for Semyon's less than desirable son Kirill (Vincent Cassel). He has learned to have Kirill's back, but when a murder sets into motion a riff with a rival group - the shit starts hitting the fan.

Eastern Promises has a very basic storyline with strong actors throughout the roles. I, for one, always enjoy seeing Cassel living it up as the resident asshole of the picture as in The Brotherhood of the Wolf. Mortensen always gives a good turn, but I couldn't help but be reminded here of Robert DeNiro. Bobby usely tries the minimalistic route with much being conveyed with looks and well timed dialogue. It's as if Mortensen studied this aspect of DeNiro's craft and brought it all to the table here.

The storyline does have a couple of twists towards the end that don't feel forced. They seem like natural details that come to light only when necessary. By no means is this a perfect film. See the annoying narration from the prostitute while her diary is being read. They seriously could've gotten a better actor or method to express the words on paper to the audience. Despite the few problems I had with the storyline, Eastern Promises has a way of seducing you into watching it. Cronenberg does accomplish something very important: he leaves you wanting more.

75/100

Thunderheart

2008-01-21T12:09:00.000-06:00

"Run for the stronghold Thunderheart. The soldiers are coming."

Thunderheart was a somewhat well reviewed film in 1992 from the well regard director Michael Apted. Apted, is a fellow much like Stephen Hopkins that has made a few mistakes in choosing his material, but he finds one he knocks it out of the park. Apted directed one of my favorite movies of all time in 2000's Enigma. Apted has done blockbusters in 007's The World is Not Enough and some commercial drek in Enough. Looking at his sheet on IMDB is a very interesting glance.

Ah but back to Thunderheart. Val Kilmer plays a part Sioux FBI agent Ray Lavoi brought in to investigate a murder of an officer on tribal grounds. He is partnered with Frank Coutelle (Sam Shepard) who is a legend in the FBI. Frank quickly decides that it is the work of a local movement trying to advance Indian rights on the reservation. Complicating things in a militia group working for a man named Milton (Fred Ward reuniting with fellow castmate Shepard from The Right Stuff) that is interested in expanding his land empire.

Lavoi learns about his past that he was ashamed of growing up as he digs further into the death. What follows is a decent thriller with a lot of well done touches including Graham Greene playing the local LEO also looking into the death of his friend. Graham Greene got noticed in Dances With Wolves and always provides levity in his roles. It always seems a shame that his highest profile roles are because of his skin. Greene is a master in the interplay between actors. I swear he could haven chemistry with anyone even Jessica Alba. (That would be a miracle)

The quote from above comes during a revelatory talk Ray has with a tribal elder. The scene unfolds in a mesmerizing way that I can't quite describe. The usual complications happen in the way that they do in thrillers... but ultimately I felt very satisfied with the product. I miss that Val Kilmer intensity... it is too bad he has decided to take the less traveled way. American movies need him back.

100/100

Linda Cardellini or Samantha Taggert from ER

2008-01-18T13:51:00.000-06:00

Linda was on a great tv show a long time ago called Freaks and Geeks. No one watched it, so it was quickly cancelled. The geeks over at AVClub remember and pester Linda about it here.

I Know Who Killed Me

2008-01-16T13:20:00.000-06:00

This was Richard Roeper's pick as the worst film of 2007 and the the 3rd worst reviewed film of 2007 according to Metacritic. I approached this with the hope that it was so bad it would be fun. Alas no fun is here...

Lindsay Lohan plays Aubrey who is a shy gal who aspires to be a writer. Something tramatic (a kidnapping) happens to her and she starts losing a grip on reality with her fictional persona Dakota. You see Dakota is a tough talking stripper who uses her sexuality to get what she wants. So while the mystery of that tramatic event hangs over everything, Audrey lives out her dark side. (Minus a hand and leg)

I Know Who Killed Me wastes Brian McNamara (Arachnophobia, Caddyshack 2) and Neal McDonough (Boomtown, Ravenous) in inconsequential parts. The second half of the films consists of a horrid guessing game as to who may have been the kidnapper blah blah blah. Lindsay Lohan is absolutely miscast here. Her smoker's voice seems barely able to read aloud the narration at times. Plus, how many strippers don't actually get naked when they strip? Not that nudity would have been the answer, but the director seems to try and add that lurid sexuality to the film, but fails.

Basically all this amounts to is pretentious trash. Look for a cameo from 24's Gregory Itzin midway through the film coz God knows you'll need some reason to stay awake. Pretty bad, not sure if this was the worst of the year. Here's hoping screenwriter Jeffrey Hammond stops for good.

0/100

Brad Renfro dead...

2008-01-16T13:15:00.000-06:00

The kid from The Client dead at 25. Read about it here.

The Science of Michel Gondry

2008-01-15T11:58:00.000-06:00

Michel has directed lots of weird videos including Radiohead and Massive Attack, but the past few years he has been doing feature films. Gondry did one absolutely brilliant film in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and a flawed one in The Science of Sleep. His next film seems to be a step back for him with Jack Black. 95% of all Jack Black films are nothing more than moronic concepts stretched out over 90 minutes. So how do I feel that Gondry's next one smacks of the same stupid Jack Black? I feel dirty...that's how I feel. Check out this article over at Indiewire about the man behind the weird.

First Snow

2008-01-15T11:30:00.000-06:00

Mark Fergus and his screenwriting partner Hawk Ostby have already contributed a strong screenplay in last year's Children of Men. They have another in production for this year with the much anticipated Iron Man... but their first collaboration with Fergus in the directing chair was this tiny film called First Snow.

Guy Pearce is Jimmy Starks; a flooring salesman always looking for the next big thing. Pearce always happens to be a bad driver... he winds up waiting for his car to be fixed one day... he decides to have his fortune told by a roadside psychic (JK Simmons). Simmons tell him of a windfall of money that will be coming his way and a darker event that he will not go into that will come with the season's "first snow."

Starks is convinced that the psychic is telling the truth after a basketball game predicted comes true and so does the riches that were foretold. A shooting target is put in his mailbox... is someone out to get Starks? Is it possibly an old childhood friend who was burned in some scheme by the Feds? First Snow sets up possibilities and follows Starks down the path to his fate. Good supporting turns from Piper Perabo as Jimmy's girlfriend and William Fichtner as his business associate.

Pearce is always terrific and does a wonderful job picking offbeat parts. Every since he stepped on the screen in LA Confidential, Pearce has radiated a quiet superiority over the rest of the characters on screen. In First Snow, this lends an air of doom when the Starks character for once isn't in control.

Mark Fergus does a solid job in his first try as director. The shots are well done without being overly showy. Lingering moments combined with the music by Cliff Martinez (Wicker Park, Traffic) create a haunting trip into madness. I am very intrigued to see Fergus's sophomore effort behind the camera.

First Snow seems to have dissenters in regards to the ending. The final sequence is set up consistently throughout. When you think about it, how else could it end?

80/100

Alien vs. Predator: Requiem

2008-01-11T11:14:00.000-06:00

The first AVP actually worked for me. You could tell that director Paul W.S. Anderson was a fan of the series. It was back to the basics of the first Alien movie: a bunch of humans trapped in confined space with an alien. Only in AVP, you also had the Predators there hunting the aliens down. I think it gets a bad rap for being a soft movie with a Pg-13 rating, but really it was just a well done film for the genre. I expected much less and got something pretty decent. Anderson did much the same with the first Resident Evil and Mortal Kombat films... neither one of those were really good, but they weren't awful either.

So going into AVP2, I thought hey... remember last time... this could end up being kind of fun. Boy was I wrong...not a good time. My gal Reiko Aylesworth from 24 stars as one of the human fodder in the war between the aliens... she is a mom just back from Iraq who's daughter has lost touch with her. Steven Pasquale from Rescue Me is also here as a troublemaker coming home to a small Colorado town to find his way. There are more people, but none of them are worth mentioning.

The aliens have infected the predator from the first film and cause the ship to crash land on Earth. A mercenary predator gets the last transmission broadcast and sets out to hunt down those damn facehuggers. Cue the small town life... bullies ... pregnant women... all are fair game here. Hardly any back story is set up which would be impossible with all the humans here. Pasquale never really gets anything to do except to follow his friend the sheriff around to each new scene.

Reiko, playing a soldier, doen'st get going until the last twenty minutes. One would think being a soldier she would be pretty badass ala Ripley in the first two Alien films... no no not here.

The first time directors, The Strause Brothers, missed out on a big time chance to really establish this franchise here. I know that the budget was slashed from the first film with the effects looking somewhere on par with a SciFi channel film... hell Battlestar Galactica looks better. My friend commented quite accurately that one scene looked like it was from the remnants of a Babylon 5 episode. So the budget isn't there... you can work around that. You've got a badass leading actress who looks as good sweaty as you can find in an action film... you've got a previous film that has gotten a lot of attention and everyone is just waiting for you to do something good... and then you give us this? Action and sci-fi fans deserve better.

0/100
+ 5 for Reiko... we'll always have 24.
5/100

I'm not dead...

2008-01-10T12:57:00.000-06:00

I've just been busy. It seems with the large influx of people to the theatres this holiday season, I've found less time to update this site and watch movies. I'll get crackin' on that this week. First up is Reiko Aylesworth AKA Michelle Dessler of 24 starring in AVP 2 and that poorly reviewed Lindsay Lohan movie that sounds so bad I have to see it.

Here is a feature about my boy Baron Davis's favorite films of the year. Not too bad considering... although he does knock Zodiac.

Closure

2008-01-03T23:12:00.000-06:00

Closure is the tale of a business woman named Alice (Gillian Anderson) who hooks up with her young fellow (Danny Dyer) who is installing her security system. She dresses him up and takes him to a company party where they indulge in some alcohol and steamy sex in the woods. A perfect evening is ruined when the happy couple hit a moose. In the process of moving it off the road, they are assaulted and Alice is raped.

The rest of the film devolves into The Brave One times Straw Dogs times Showtime cable crap. There just isn't any character development at all so when the heinous act happens the audience doesn't care. Very limited dialogue so as not to show the fact that Anderson is using an awful British accent.

Closure is a waste of film. The only thing I got out of it was that Gillian Anderson is now in damn good shape. Otherwise, this was 80 minutes I could have been watching X-Files reruns.

0/100

Ah yeah... here it comes... my top 20 worst films I've seen this year

2007-12-29T23:02:00.000-06:00

The rules:
1. The films do not have to be released this year, just viewed by me in their entirety for the first time.
2. I've probably watched something like 150 films this year and I'm sure Good Luck Chuck belongs on any worst list, but I never watched it.

All right... here we go.

20. Idiocracy - I hate to slam Mike Judge, but this has all the feel of a SNL dragged out for 90 min. There are maybe two laughs from Luke Wilson, but most of the film is spent with such an awkwardness I find myself feeling uncomfortable even now...

19. Georgia - A well intentioned film that was nominated for various awards back in the day. My gal Jennifer Jason Leigh is almost too effective as the annoying hanger-on sister of folk star Mare Winningham.

18. The Italian Job - We are talking the original with Michael Caine. A mess from start to finish with intermediate moments that didn't suck. I actually enjoyed the overrated remake more.

17. The Presidio - Meg Ryan as a sexy window dressing? What? This is a horrible waste of time for Sean Connery and Lee Roy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon to you NCIS virgins). This film is bad on so many levels that I think a new kind of low was achieved.

16. Copying Beethoven - I have to admit... I'm totally smitten with Diane Kruger, but she is miscast here. All I could think about was her legs and not the awful performance from Ed Harris in the lead. I still love Ed, but seriously... you were great once... get it together man.

15. Cache - There is nothing more disappointing then seeing a critically loved film only to find out that is a hack job of a student film masquerading as a thinking person's thriller. Blah...

14. Edmond - David Mamet... I know what you were trying to do, but it didn't work. Julia Stiles is awful... oh let's be honest... so is this entire pile.

13. Rise: Bloodhunter - Lucy Lui doin' some naked time saves this from the top ten. From an awful filmmaker Sebastian Guiterrez. Learn the name and run the other way when you here it.

12. Notes on a Scandal - Another film with lots of awards, but it is still just a glorified TV movie. Cate Blanchett plays a teacher who sleeps with a student... Judy Dench is in love with Cate... and is jealous. This should have been dead before it was made.

11. A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints - Just a cliche film from a first time filmmaker that borrows from everything. When you cast Robert Downey, Jr you have to give him screentime moron... that should be filmmaking rule number one.

10. Without a Clue - Ben Kingsley and Michael Caine go slumming as Watson and Holmes in this spoof of the genre. Absolutely all wit is removed from the screenplay... cringe-worthy dialogue ensues.

9. The Black Dahlia - I guess Hilary Swank and Scar-Jo got mixed up in the casting... plus who wrote this awful script? And hard to belive, but Josh Hartnett isn't the reason this one bites...

8. The Reaping - The advertisements should have boasted the most incomprehensible ending ever in a film NOT by David Lynch. Hilary, this is twice this year... you should be glad I haven't seen Freedom Writers... yet.

7. The Staircase - I haven't the heart to put this well intentioned story of a modern day Job trying to fulfill a dying nun's dreams higher on the list.

6. Into Thin Air - Peter Horton is the best actor here? Wow... at least it prompted a Side Out reference in my review. One of my favorite books though.

5. Live Free or Die - Paul Schneider and Zooey Deschanal reunite after the delightful All the Real Girls in this giant mess of indie film crap.

4. White Noise - Michael Keaton tries his best... but the idiots who wrote the script don't even understand the whole concept of EVP. Morons... morons.

3. Northfork - Another disappointment from the Polish Bros. A lot of critical acclaim is laid upon them for some reason. This is awful and almost unwatchable.

2. Stolen Summer - The first of Project Greenlight's releases achieves bad filmmaking in every way possible. I literally think the plot was written from a dart board of ideas.

1. (drum roll) The worst film by far this year I have watched was Beat. You probably haven't heard of it... good. It is a take on the "beat" poets of the day featuring such craptacular performances by Kiefer Sutherland, Courtney Love, Ron Livingston, and Kyle Secor. Somehow it has maintained a 5.3 on IMDB, but that has got to go down as more Jack Bauer fans stumble onto this little slice of hell.

Papillon

2007-12-25T11:46:00.000-06:00

Franklin J. Schaffner was on a hot streak in the late 60's and early 70's when he decided to make the prison film Papillon. Planet of the Apes and Patton had established him as a commercially viable director with a flair for showing off his lead actors. It seemed only natural he get one of the biggest stars of all time, Steve McQueen, and agruably the best actor of the time, Dustin Hoffman, together for film.

McQueen plays the title character who has been wrongfully convicted of killing a pimp (I thought that was doing a good thing). The French government decided to send him across the sea with hundreds of other prisoners to work camps in French Guinea. Along the way, Papillon meets Louis Dega (Hoffman) who has been convicted of a white collar crime. Dega has money and Papillon soon work out a deal for protection. Papillion needs the money to try and escape his new prison once they get ashore.

The film turns into a story of friendship over many years and more than a few prison breaks. Dega settles in to a cushy job working for the warden, but Papillon is hell bent on his freedom. Schaffner does a masterful job of direction with the shots. The sets are impeccable and you actually feel a little uncomfortable in the heat of the locations. Both of the leads are quite good in their own different ways. McQueen could do this role in his sleep, yet manages a little extra especially in the second half of the film. Hoffman does his thing with the character of Dega with a whiny voice and Coke bottle glasses. All of the elements come together well with just a little bit of pacing issues towards the end. Overall a very worthy watch.

80/100

National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets

2007-12-21T13:42:00.000-06:00

Sometimes you go into a film and you want to like it. Especially if it is a sequel to a film you loved. You want it to just keep it simple and entertaining. The start of National Treasure 2 does keep it rather simple. Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage) finds out his ancestor has been linked to the Lincoln assassination when a mysterious man (Ed Harris) comes out of nowhere with a page from John Wilkes Booth's diary. This sets our leads Gates and Riley (the underappreciated Justin Bartha) out on the chase. You learn that there are problems with Ben's relationship with Abby (Diane Kruger)... no surprise since she is a beautiful, intelligent woman and he is a kid-like dreamer who looks as if his artificial hair is going to fall off at any point.

Anyway... so the chase goes all over the globe with one improbable scene after another. I guess this never really annoyed me in the first film since they all seemed a logical exercise that they never really had to do anything too incredible (Except for stealing the Declaration of Independence which wouldn't even make the top 5 here). This one is just completely idiotic. Plus the fun dialogue between the characters is mostly gone with a seemingly rushed script to capitalize on the huge gross of the original. Add in too many extra characters...I'm looking at you Helen Mirren... and it just feels too crowded for the actors to share the chemistry of the first film.

Filmmaker Jon Turteltaub directed both films and the Wibberleys wrote both, so the problem has to lie with them. All the people involved have VERY spotty track records in the past so perhaps National Treasure was a fluke. Turteltaub did create one of the better tv series of the past few years for the non-cable networks in Jericho. I left Book of Secrets feeling much like I did after The Bourne Supremacy, where did the magic go?

50/100

Maybe you saw one of these piles of crap this year

2007-12-18T16:38:00.001-06:00

I haven't seen any of them, but AV Club has...

Look over here

I will be posting a ten worst films that I've seen this year that weren't necesarily released this year... interested? You know you are.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

2007-12-18T12:42:00.000-06:00

Ok, after taking some time off to start watching The Sopranos, I was able to catch the 1969 classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Legendary director George Roy Hill had his first time working with Paul Newman (Butch) and Robert Redford (Sundance)- which would lead to 1973's collaboration on The Sting (Winner of Best Picture at the Oscars). Hill has also directed two of the funniest films of the last 30 years with Funny Farm and Slap Shot.

With all that being said, there is a tremendous pedigree and hype to live up to for this film. The story follows two crooks who have been making a living getting by robbing the local train and of course banks. Eventually the owner of the rail company gets frustrated and turns it into a personal matter hiring the best around to track down Butch and the Kid.

Complicating matters is their relationship is Etta (Katarine Ross). She loves Sundance, but knows that he like all outlaws is doomed for death. Alas, she goes along with them anyway on their attempt to outrun the posse. This sets up the second part which takes place in Bolivia.

One of the problems I had with the film was the used of two lengthy musical montages. The first has a pop song (Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head) of the day playing while Newman shows off his bicylcle skills. This has absolutely no place in the film, but unfortunately is something older people no doubt remember the most. The second is used a a device to set up the final section of the film where the trio flees to Bolivia. It is an ok idea to use still photos to show them on their journey through NY/NJ to get the boat to South America, but it is far too long. Both are attempts to use more humor to lighten up what is really kind of a downer of a film.

I remember reading that Steve McQueen was supposed to be Sundance and I think maybe that would have helped. Redford is pretty much the silent type. He never really adds much to the role even though he can be quite the actor (See All the President's Men). Paul Newman gives the one solid performance as a old criminal that is more legend than legendary. George Roy Hill also appears to be working too hard at keeping this a lean film with not a lot of meat showing the relationship of the two. I found Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid to be kind of a disappointment overall. The whole film never really works or goes any deeper than the surface. And by no means is there enough humor to say this works as a comedy.

50/100

Paris, je t'aime

2007-12-13T12:30:00.000-06:00

Paris, je t'aime is a collection of short films by some very famous directors and some not so famous ones. All of which tell stories involving Paris. Some of them we find out at the end, connect in a very loose way... while others are out there on their own.

To try and tell the plot of 20 would be fall too much. So let me tell you my favorite two of the bunch. The first of which is about an American actress (Natalie Portman) who falls for a blind man (Melchior Beslon) directed by Tom Tykwer (Perfume). The visuals are spectacular while giving you an entire story of their relationship in 5 minutes. Absolutely a talented director.

My second involves a young couple (Rufus Sewell and Emily Mortimer) on vacation. They are visiting a famous cemetary with several notable people buried there. The woman fears that her fiancee won't make her laugh and doesn't share her love of Oscar Wilde. The segment was directed by the very talented Alexander Payne (Sideways, Election).

There are a few other famous actors including Steve Buscemi, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Elijah Wood, Olga Kurylenko ( Hitman playing my favorite prostitute), and Nick Nolte. The Coehn brothers direct a short, Wes Craven, and so does the gifted Latino Alfonso Cuaron.

Some work, many don't. The overall impression left on me was that under an overall director that his could have worked much better. Too many of the stories just aren't that interesting. Thankfully, you only had to wait 5 mins for a chance at something better.

60/100

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner

2007-12-13T12:14:00.000-06:00

A near classic from 1962, in which Tom Courtenay plays Colin Smith. Smith is a troubled youth from the outskirts of London who spends his days pinching things to get by. After his dad passes away, he finds himself in more trouble than usual. He is picked up for a crime and sent to a boys reformitory school. The headmaster (Michael Redgrave) sees talent in the lad. He wants Smith to lead the track team in their first ever competition with a public school.

The film starts with Smith at the school and tells the backstory through flashbacks. Smith finds himself struggling to do the right thing. Eventually he is put into a decision of how he is going to live his life.

Tony Richardson directed The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner after having a brush of success with A Taste of Honey. His visual style is very distinctive with the stark black and white of England in winter. Richardson would later follow this up with Tom Jones which netted him a couple of Oscars and be credited with the discovery of Albert Finney. Courtenay is quite a find for the lead here. He has a Ewan McGregor swagger that adds quite a bit to what could be a very cliche role.

The story is limited on some fronts. Certain characters are only given the one dimensional view, but overall Richardson is quite effective in his storytelling. For 1962, this film is very well put together. I think I've only seen one other director (Stanley Kubrick) who had at the time such striking vision for cinematography. (You can argue Hitchcock if you want) LOTLDR is worth watching just for the visuals on screen. I'm now moving Tom Jones up on my Netflix.

80/100