Monday, March 10, 2008

In the Valley of Elah


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


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

Friday, March 7, 2008

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three


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


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

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Wild Orchid 2: Two Shades of Blue

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.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Into the Wild


"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


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