Movie Review: Tsui Hark's Vampire Hunters

Tsui Hark's Vampire Hunters (2002) 

Directed by Wellson Chin

Written by Tsui Hark

Starring Danny Chan, Lam Suet, Michael Chow

Release Date 2003 

Published February 4th, 2003 

Tsui Hark must be Hong Kong's answer to Wes Craven. The new movie Tsui Hark's Vampire Hunters was not directed by the legendary Mr. Hark but bears his name. Unlike Craven though, Hark doesn't just slap his name on a project, and Vampire Hunters is proof of that.

The film is written by Hark and is as exciting, gory and funny as if he had made it himself. As another critic brilliantly cited, Vampire Hunters is Crouching Tiger meets Evil Dead, in a combination straight out of Hong Kong.

We begin in a darkened monastery where a master explains to his young charges that the legends they have heard about vampires are true and that it is their duty to stop them from devouring humanity. Oh, but not just vampires, there are also zombies who become vampires when they taste human blood. The master, with the help of his four most trusted students, Thunder, Lightning, Rain and Wind (each named for the element they control), search for the Vampire King. Once found, the King Vamp kills a number of the students and seemingly the Master as well. Rain, Thunder, Wind and Lightning survive and continue seeking out and destroying vampires.

Some months later the boys arrive at the home of Jiang, a strange old man who is celebrating the marriage of his oafish son to the beautiful Sasa. The odd thing is that the son has been married several times before with each of his wives meeting a strange end. This gets our hero’s attention, and using a unique vampire tracking compass find that the Vampire King could be the cause. Oh if only it were that easy. 

Unfortunately there is also an angry snake somewhere in the house, Jiang's odd-looking wife, and the collection of well-preserved dead people in Jiang's barn. There is also Jiang's legendary stash of gold which Sasa's brother has had his eye on since he allowed his sister to marry into Jiang's family. Jiang claims he invented the vampire myth to keep people from his gold.

The narrative of Vampire Hunters is muddled with romantic subplots for two of our heroes, a few red herrings to throw the audience off and couple of twists that seem either unnecessary or highly contrived. However, none of that matters in the least because Vampire Hunters is one of those films that is not about it's story or even it's characters (Who by the way never use the powers their names imply they have).

Vampire Hunters is about goofiness and gore and Director Wellson Chin delivers. Cheesy effects abound in Vampire Hunters, from hopping zombies to wire fights and tree jumping lifted from the Yuen Woo Ping school of movie fighting, though not nearly as fluid as the man behind the Matrix fights. The fighting in Vampire Hunters is played for laughs especially the climactic battle with the Vampire King, who looks like an oriental scarecrow.

The film isn't all laughs. some of it is excruciatingly gory such as the Vampire King's ability to suck the soul out of his opponents, leaving them a pile of used up bones and a small puddle. Eeewww. Tsui Hark's Vampire Hunter has cult classic written all over it. Though some will be left wondering if it might have been better with Hark himself behind the camera.

Documentary Review: Touching the Void

Touching the Void (2003) 

Directed by Kevin MacDonald 

Written by Documentary 

Starring Brendan Mackey, Nicholas Aaron, Ollie Ryall

Release Date December 12th, 2003

Published December 12th, 2003 

I am not much of an outdoorsman. I am especially not much of a climber, I once damn near killed myself on one of those plastic climbing walls, don't ask me how. So reading the book Touching The Void by Joe Simpson, detailing his unreal ascent from a mountain in Peru with a broken leg and a climbing party that assumed he was dead, was quite an experience. The book, however, is surpassed by this amazing docu-drama that combines the best of documentary filmmaking with re-enactments of what happened on that mountain in 1985, a story that was nearly never to be told.

In 1985, two friends from Britain were looking for a challenge. Having only been climbing for a little while Joe Simpson and his slightly more experienced partner Simon Yates felt they were ready for a real challenge and chose a large, snowy peak in the Andes mountain range in Peru. With a climbing party consisting of just them and another man, Richard Hawking, who remained at the base camp, the two made for the top of Siula Grande 21,000 feet high.

Climbing to the very top of the mountain was quite a challenge, especially with the constant snowstorms and freezing temperatures. However, Joe and Simon's real challenge would came on the way back down. Having made the peak in two days and looking down on the world, they were ready to go back to camp. There are no maps on the top of a mountain to tell you what is solid and what is just lightly packed snow. One false step and you could fall a long way. That is what happened to Joe Simpson.

Searching for the safest route to climb down, Simpson walked to the edge of a snow shelf to look over the side when the shelf broke and Joe fell. Thankfully he was tied at the waste with Simon but that was not enough to keep him from hitting the ground hard and breaking his leg. This is a serious injury at any altitude but on this high peak, in this weather, it's a veritable death sentence. Simon could leave Joe and go for help but by the time he could get to base camp (it's a three day walk back to the main road and still a few hours drive to get to civilization), it might be too late.

Simpson tells us that he would not have blamed Simon for leaving him and was in fact a little surprised that he didn't. Instead, they attempted a very complicated descent that put both their lives in great danger. Simon, using all of the rope they had, slowly lowered Joe as far as the rope would go. Then, he would climb down to where Joe was and lower him again. Having to cover some 20,000 feet of mountain with three hundred feet of rope, this took a while. They worked through the night, with no sleep and even colder temperatures.

Things get worse when another snow shelf causes Joe to fall, this time with Simon too far away to know what happened. Joe is dangling over the side of a snow shelf unable to reach the wall and brace himself. Simon is left to wonder if Joe has succumbed to the cold or blood loss from his injury and is forced to make a difficult decision that pits his life against that of Joe's. Should Simon assume Joe is dead and cut the rope, thus saving his own life? Or, hope that Joe is alive and can correct the problem and continue the climb? Simon's decision has been debated ever since among climbers and laymen alike.

What is most amazing about Touching The Void is the combination of documentary-style narration of Simon, Joe and Richard alongside actors Nicholas Aaron, Brenden Mackey and Ollie Ryall re-enacting the climb on the actual mountain in Peru and the slightly safer Alps. Yates and Simpson narrate the action, which shows that they survived this amazing ordeal and yet the action is so well-directed by filmmaker Kevin McDonald (Oscar winner for One Day In September), that the suspense is still palpable.

People have been trying to turn the book Touching The Void into a live-action feature since it was published in 1990. Sally Field had once been in line to direct the film with Tom Cruise as Simpson but something about this story escapes a traditional narrative. Invented dialogue and traditional movie structured storytelling just doesn't seem right for this.

Kevin McDonald's docu-drama approach is the clearly the perfect way to attack this material. The actors resemble Yates and Simpson so well and the situations described in the on camera interviews and voiceover so well rendered you can't escape the feeling of actually being there. You feel as if you are inside the memories of Yates and Simpson and that is a truly amazing feeling.

Movie Review The Core

The Core (2003) 

Directed by Jon Amiel

Written by Cooper Layne, John Rogers

Starring Hilary Swank, Aaron Eckhart, Delroy Lindo, Bruce Greenwood, Richard Jenkins

Release Date March 28th, 2003

Published March 29th, 2003

It's not often when screenwriters make the news. When John Rogers, the co-writer of The Core, wrote in to Ain't It Cool News to dispute a review that questioned the film’s science, more than a few of us took notice and had a little laugh at his expense.

Granted, no one wants their work made fun of, but when you make a movie as unabashedly out there as The Core, you can't expect it to be welcomed as if it were written by Carl Sagan. Sci-fi films have a horrible track record of including actual science in them and the aspiration to put real science in a movie like The Core is like asking Beverly Hills Cop to include real police procedures. No one goes to disaster movies for a science lesson, they go to watch landmarks explode. The Core blows up Rome and San Francisco, mission accomplished.

Aaron Eckhart heads up an ensemble cast as Dr. Josh Keyes, a physics professor at some anonymous college. In the midst of a lecture on the layers of the Earth, Dr. Keyes is called out of class by a pair of humorless G-men. Taken on a jet to Washington D.C, he reunites with a fellow scientist and friend Sergei Levesque (Tcheky Karyo, in a rare non-villain role). The two are asked by an army General (Six Feet Under dead guy, Richard Jenkins) to theorize what environmental factors could cause a group of people with pacemakers to simply drop dead without warning.

The answer, after much lucky guessing by Dr. Keyes, is that the Earth's core has stopped spinning causing it's electromagnetic field to go haywire. Not only has it caused pacemakers to stop, but also birds have lost navigating ability and are falling from the sky. Also falling is the space shuttle which has flown off course and nearly crashes in L.A, saved only by the wits of its plucky navigator Major Rebecca Childs.

So now that we know what's wrong, there are two questions remaining. Number one, how did this happen? And number two, how do we stop it? Thankfully, the film’s trailer has already told us both of those things. A weapon that causes earthquakes has gone too far thanks to the miscalculations of its inventor Dr. Zimsky (Stanley Tucci). Conversely, crazy scientist Dr. "Braz" Brazzleton has a vehicle with the ability to tunnel all the way to the core. Once there, nuclear weapons can be dropped to kickstart the core. Apparently, no one had jumper cables.

To the science issue, I have no idea and really don't care if the science is real. What matters is if the film is any good. Some geologist writing somewhere said that the film has as many accuracies as inaccuracies and that the inaccuracies are those that are necessary for dramatic purposes. WHATEVER!

Let's get to the important stuff, how cool are the explosions. Well let me tell you in the words of the late John Candy in an old SCTV sketch, stuff blow'd up, blow'd up real good. The special effects aren't spectacular but they are entertaining in a modern day Ed Wood sort of way. The Golden Gate Bridge explosion is a cheesy treat and when Rome blows up, watching the reactions of the extras running from the Coliseum is priceless.

The Core is a bad movie but in the camp sense it's genius. Whether intentional or not The Core is full of laughs from the effects to the characters. I especially liked Stanley Tucci who seemed to be channeling Dr. Smith from Lost In Space with his whiny smugness. And kudos to Delroy Lindo for assuaging his usual calm cool persona for a geekier frazzled genius demeanor that you don't expect from him.

The Core is just plain goofy and in that sense it's a lot of fun. Though it needs to be greatly pared down from its two-hour plus runtime, it nevertheless delivers a fun little distraction.

Documentary Review The Stone Reader

The Stone Reader (2003) 

Directed by Mark Moskowitz 

Written by Documentary 

Staring Mark Moskowitz 

The name Dow Mossman may not stir the average man on the street. Other than the unusual nature of the name Dow, the name has little cache.

That is, except for a one man fan club named Mark Moskowitz who knows everything there is to know about Dow Mossman. Why? Because in 1972 a then 18 year old Moskowitsz read a New York Times review of a book called The Stones of Summer. The review caused Moskowitz to seek out this book that was described as the novel of its generation by Times reviewer John Seelye. Thus began a series of events that some thirty years later became a documentary called The Stone Reader, a paean to the art and craft of reading and appreciating a great book.

As a 17-year-old, Mark Moskowitz got very sick. His weeks of bed rest left him with little else to do but read. It was during this time that he discovered a number of books including The Stones of Summer by Dow Mossman. Unfortunately for Mark, Stones was a little too dense. The pack rat in Mark however caused him to hold onto the book and nearly thirty years later he picked it up again. What he found was a transforming literary experience, a book that spoke to him in a way that few books ever had.

Assuming that since the book had been written so long ago that the author must have a number of books available, Mark began to scour the internet for the works of Dow Mossman. To his surprise, however, there were no other books. There was in fact no information about Dow Mossman at all, as if he had disappeared completely.

What began as a curiosity quickly grew into a passion. Why had such a brilliant writer simply stopped after one incredible piece of work? Mark, now in his late thirties and working as a director of political commercials, decided that he would put his behind the camera skills to new use in the medium of documentary filmmaking, find Dow Mossman and discover why he had stopped writing.

That is the story of The Stone Reader. Without giving too much away as to what Mark Moskowitz discovered in his work and whether he ever found Dow Mossman, you'll have to see that for yourself. This is a truly magnificent documentary. The film has traditional documentary elements like talking head interviews and narration but what is unique is the way that Mark Moskowitz makes the search for Dow Mossman more about himself than Dow or his book. Moskowitz has an aggressive almost abrasive personality and yet as the documentary moves along he wins you over with his passion.

Moskowitz narrates the film himself as if he were reading a book on tape and it's a really great book. The images on the screen often have nothing to do with the narration and yet it feels right. It's as if you were in his head as he reminisces about books and his journey with Dow. One particularly striking sequence, Moskowitz discusses another author whose work output was limited to one brilliant novel, Joseph Heller, author of Catch 22.

Moskowitz goes on for something like 15 minutes discussing military novels that he discovered as a kid and happening upon Catch 22. Heller died just as the documentary was being made and that fact likely inspired this bit of stream of consciousness. As this narration goes, the images on the screen are of Moskowitz's son at an amusement park riding the Ferris wheel, winning toys and eating cotton candy. The camera is Mark's perspective watching his son and it's as if the narration is happening in his head.

There are a number of shorter sequences of the same kind and they all have a quality that draws the audience closer to the subject. Combined with interviews that piece together the clues of Dow Mossman's disappearance, it’s like a Sherlock Holmes novel but with a lighter tone. Moskowitz tips his hand a couple of times that finding Dow might be easier than he lets on and almost admits a couple times that he is dragging things out, but it's such a terrific journey that I didn't mind.

Documentary Review Stevie

Stevie (2003) 

Directed by Steve James

Written by Documentary 

Starring Stevie Fielding, Steve James 

Release Date April 11th, 2003 

Published July 4th, 2003

In 1994, Steve James took us inside the lives of a pair of rising basketball stars in Hoop Dreams. We watched as these two naive kids tried to navigate the world of big time college basketball, all the while still in high school. Roger Ebert called Hoop Dreams the best film of 1994, and it's difficult to argue with that. Now after a brief respite in the world of fiction directing, James returns to the documentary field with a very personal story that draws from his own past and brings him out from behind the camera and into the story.

Before launching his career in documentary filmmaking, Steve James was a college student who volunteered for Big Brothers/Big Sisters, an organization that pairs volunteers with needy kids who need guidance and a good role model. It was here that Steve came across Stevie, a young boy from a troubled home. It wasn't long though before circumstances intervened that caused Steve and Stevie to part ways. Some ten years later James is back home to promote Hoop Dreams and takes time to drop in on Stevie. What he finds is ten years of sadness, pain and familial strife all centered around Stevie.

Originally, James didn't plan on being on camera with exception of the film’s introduction. He had planned on hiding behind the camera and not getting overly involved. However what he found upon visiting Stevie was a kid that needed someone to talk to, who desperately needed guidance and with no father figure in Stevie's life, James unwillingly accepts the role.

In the time James spends with Stevie, learning about his past and all that happened since they last saw each other, we find out the horrors that awaited him. In those ten years, Stevie bounced from foster home to foster home, he was beaten and molested and has become very bitter towards his mother who gets most of the blame for his wrong turn in life. To be fair, James interviews Stevie's mother who explains her side, though she doesn't come off very sympathetic. Stevie also expresses some bitterness toward James who he feels abandoned him.

Over the course of months and years of off and on contact, James chronicles Stevie's odd life. From battles with his sister and mother to Stevie going to jail on a charge that James isn't sure is true. The final scenes culminate in a jailhouse interview in which James has to accept some hard truths about Stevie and excise some of his guilt, however unfounded that guilt is.

Stevie as a character is truly shocking and sad. The stereotype of white trash may have started with Stevie, he's violent, crude, ignorant, lazy and a racist. He's also occasionally sweet and caring, especially with his mentally handicapped girlfriend even if that relationship is as dysfunctional as any in Stevie's life. Stevie is impossible to like and especially care about. Even so, he's been through a lot in his life and certainly a lot of people let Stevie down throughout his life.

As for Steve James the filmmaker, he does earn our sympathy and watching his reaction to Stevie is truly emotional and sad. It's easy to see why James gave up on little Stevie and you don't blame him for walking away from him at the end. James did everything he could for Stevie but now with a family of his own, especially having his own little children, he can't continue to help Stevie. No good deed goes unpunished yet James seems to get nothing but punishment from his relationship with Stevie.

Movie Review Nemesis Game

Nemesis Game (2003) 

Directed by Jesse Warn 

Written by Jesse Warn 

Starring Carly Pope, Adrian Paul, Ian McShane 

Release Date September 16th, 2003 

Published September 16th, 2003 

With all the trash that gets dumped in the direct-to-video market, it's rare when you find one that is not a poorly-crafted action knockoff or a T & A soft-core porno. Nemesis Game, directed by up and comer Jesse Warn, is neither of those things. Though Nemesis Game isn't exactly theater quality, it shows the potential this young director has to do great things in the future.

The story begins in your typical police station interrogation room where a detective (Ian "Lovejoy" McShane) is questioning a woman named Emily Gray (Rena Owen). Emily is famous for having attempted to drown a small child with seemingly no motive whatsoever. It's years later and Ms. Gray has been recently released from psychiatric care only to have killed a college freshman, again with seemingly no motive. Her only answer to repeated questioning is the quixotic "What if I told you I knew the meaning of life?"

From there we switch gears to a comic shop run by Vern (Adrian Paul), a comic book philosopher with a love for riddles. Vern runs a side business where he takes suburbanite nerds out to an abandoned building and leads them on a D & D style quest by having them answer riddles that lead to a particular conclusion. In all honesty I have know idea what the purpose of these scenes are, only that they set up the connection between Vern and the first woman to ever play his little riddle game, our heroine Sara played by Carly Pope.

For years, Sara has been obsessed with riddles and thinks maybe Vern can lead her to a series of riddles that when solved can tell you the meaning of life. Ian McShane's cop also happens to be Sara's father and Emily Gray happens to be linked to the riddle Sara is searching for. Jay Baruchel from TV's short lived “Undeclared” has a small role as a victim and Brenden Fehr has an equally small but more meaningful role as a pothead skater and customer at Vern's comic shop.

With Vern's help, Sara seeks the answers to the meaning of life riddle while her father attempts to determine why Emily Gray snapped after seeming to have recovered while in care.

The two stories dovetail in an ending that is the film’s strongest point for its suddenness and bravery. Honestly, even as the credits rolled I kept waiting for the film to start again and undo itself from what I had just seen.

What doesn't work though is the casting, especially former “Highlander” TV star Adrian Paul. His lack of charisma and horribly wooden action style threaten to cave in the film’s momentum in the moments when it desperately needs it. Paul is especially undercut by the far more charismatic but limited performances of Baruchel and Fehr, who's acting and youth make Paul look like an old man desperately trying to act cool. Nemesis Game cries out for a more charismatic actor or at least persona than what Paul provides.

As for the star of the film, Carly Pope, she has just the right mix of wits and cuteness to make her character work. She perfectly mixes naive curiosity and survival instinct to make her character's purpose seem plausible.

The cast member who makes the best impression though is Rena Owen as Emily. She has a mystical, beatific quality that makes her seem almost supernatural. Each of the other actors always say her full name and say it with reverence as if speaking it were an incantation. It works in making the audience uncomfortable in her presence, as if she really does know the meaning of life but if she tells you she will have to kill you.

Jesse Warn both directed and wrote the screenplay for Nemesis Game and with a bigger budget he could have really done something with this concept. With a better actor in place of Adrian Paul, improved cinematography and set design and a better film score (The current score is a mishmash of screechy thriller music from every other direct-to-video thriller ever made), and Nemesis Game could have been a career maker. As it is, the film is a signpost of a hopefully bright future for this talented filmmaker.

Movie Review May

May (2003) 

Directed by Lucky McKee 

Written by Lucky McKee

Starring Anna Faris, Angela Bettis, Jeremy Sisto

Release February 7th, 2003

Published June 10th, 2003 

The pitch meeting for the movie May could have gone something like "It's Carrie meets Dahmer". But a film as wildly original and scabrously horrifying as May defies such a simplistic description. This horror film from newcomer Lucky McKee is a terrifying portrait of sweet, sensitive madness. Imagine Norman Bates in the body of that gawky shy chick who never talked to anyone in high school and you will get a vague idea of how sickly strange and twisted this movie really is.

Angela Bettis is May, a shy, seemingly innocent veterinary assistant. As a child, May had a lazy eye that made her an outcast throughout her school years. Her outcast status caused her to develop a rather unhealthy attachment to a doll her mother gave her. A doll she cannot remove from a glass case.

While off work one day, May comes across a good-looking mechanic named Adam (Jeremy Sisto). It is not Adam's face, butt or abs that attracts May but his hands. As Adam nods off in a coffee shop May sneaks up on him and indulges her hand fetish by pressing her cheek into his hand. He of course wakes up, and though slightly weirded out, is far more intrigued. As Adam professes, May is weird but he likes weird things. He has no idea.

Meanwhile at work, May's co-worker Polly (Anna Faris) has a similar attraction to the weird shy girl. Polly exudes sexuality with a number of rapturous stares and a couple funny double entendres. May's seeming innocence is an attraction that the voracious Polly can't resist even as May's behavior gets stranger and stranger.

May starts out like a perfectly normal ugly duckling story. Still, as the script, written by director Lucky McKee, presses forward, May's strange qualities melt into an exquisite madness that goes from unsettling to horrifying in slow, broad strokes of plot. McKee knows the best, most horrifying of all horrors is what the audience sees in its own head and like Jaws he leaves some of the film's gore off screen or slightly off to the side. That is, until the end when he drops a pair of bombshell scenes that will have you twisting in your seat and covering your eyes in classic horror movie fashion.

Angela Bettis is magnetic, she quickly earns our sympathy with her quirks and maintains it right up until things get really out of control.

Sisto brings charisma and charm to his character who purports to be strange in his own right with his love of Dario Argento horror films, and his own student film which features a loving couple and cannibalistic sex. When confronted with May's weirdness his iconoclast quickly becomes prudish and runs for the hills.

Anna Faris is surprising in a difficult role. In what would have been a throwaway role in any other horror film, she and McKee never let her character exist solely for titillation. The minor sex scene between May and Polly is sexy but smartly kept off screen so as not to distract from the real story.

I can't praise Lucky McKee enough. He and his star have created a character so devastatingly nuts that the Norman Bates allusion I made earlier is quite valid. This is a classic, cult horror character. Psychotic behavior has never been so sad and damn near sympathetic. I'm not saying I sympathized with May, but I could see moments throughout the film where one simple turn and the girl could have been normal. Even my jaded cynical approach to horror movies couldn't prevent this movie from freaking me out. I can't say I was scared, but May was pretty damn disturbing.

Movie Review He Loves Me He Loves Me Not

He Loves Me He Loves Me Not (2003)

Directed by Laetitia Colombani 

Written by Laetitia Colombani 

Starring Audrey Tautou, Samuel Le Bihani 

Release Date February 14th, 2003 

Published March 15th, 2004 

Since 2001's sweet, romantic fable Amelie, star Audrey Tautou has fought being typecast as a pixie-ish romantic. The gritty Stephen Frears movie Dirty Pretty Things about foreigners skirting the edges of British lower classes was a complete and welcome departure. In the movie He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not however, Tautou uses her perceived romantic flightiness to sell us a character who by the end of the film is almost completely different. The film turns entirely on Tautou's believability and almost works save for a ridiculous ending that flies completely off the rails.

Tautou stars as Angelique and when we first meet her, she evokes the memory of our beloved Amelie by being surrounded in roses and flashing those signature saucer eyes. Her smile is so sincere as she plots to send one single rose to her beloved, a doctor named Loic (Samuel Le Bihan) who accepts it happily without reading the card. Angelique is a ball of romantic fantasy as she shows up late for work buzzing with euphoria. In her art class forgets the model she's supposed to sculpting and instead sculpts Loic from memory. At this point, her devotion seems to border on obsession but we have little idea of what we are in for.

There are problems in the relationship, not the least of which is that Loic is married. According to Angelique, he has repeatedly promised he will leave his wife but he can't while she is pregnant. Loic continuously stands up Angelique on dates, except for a party where the two avoid each other save for a little eye contact so as not to arouse suspicion among his colleagues. The couple’s only interaction is a quickie bathroom tryst that oddly happens off-screen. In fact, we have yet to have seen the two speak to each other....hmm.

Hold that thought because half way through the film co-writer/director Laetitia Colombani pulls the rug out from under the story switching the perspective from Angelique to Loic and the entire tone of the picture with it.

It's a gimmick unquestionably and a slightly unfair gimmick at that. If it works, it's only because Samuel Le Bihan as Loic is so believable. Le Bihan sells the film’s central gimmick with his controlled, logical, natural performance. Le Bihan doesn't react like your typical clueless movie character, save for one of those boneheaded scenes where he goes somewhere he is not invited.

Director Colombani and co-writer Carloline Thivel take a huge risk hanging their entire story on this one gimmick that could come off as showy or annoying. I thought it was an intriguing way to toy with genre convention and film structure. If the ending had a better payoff, I could be more definitive in recommending the film. However, the overly creepy ending they chose cheapens the characters and undercuts the drama.

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not is an interesting exercise in how writers and directors can toy with an audience and manipulate their perspective and rooting interest. Rent it for it's experimental nature. You may be disappointed in the ending or even annoyed with the central gimmick but at least it's different from most modern films.

Movie Review Gerry

Gerry (2002) 

Directed by Gus Van Sant

Written by Gus Van Sant

Starring Matt Damon, Casey Affleck 

Release Date February 14th, 2003

Published February 8th, 2004 

There has always been a hunger for films that challenge traditional cinematic form. Films that break with convention and deliver something that is diametrically opposed to Hollywood filmmaking. For the most part these challenging films came from Europe where the avant-garde arose as an artistic movement and a reaction to the encroachment of Hollywood formalism into European film markets. These challenging films are still being made but the hunger for them has died down, beaten back by the invention of the blockbuster and the big business that is Hollywood.

These films, however rare, are out there and Gerry from director Gus Van Sant is one of the most fascinating.

The film begins without credits. We simply open with light classical score and a long shot of a car on a lonely highway. This shot lasts for three or four minutes before switching to a shot of our two protagonists played by Casey Affleck and Matt Damon as they continue to drive. No words are spoken. Finally, they reach their unspecified destination, a hiking trail through the desert. Still no words are spoken.

It isn't until the 8-minute mark that a line of dialogue is spoken but it's not very enlightening except as a minor sign of things to come. A sign that says this is not a film where dialogue is going to explain, enlighten or entertain. As the two friends continue their journey, they bail on the hiking trail for a supposed shortcut before finally becoming lost in the desert. All of the film’s dialogue act as conversations that have already started before we met the two characters. There is a joking conversation about Wheel Of Fortune, some odd conversation about what I think was a video game, but not anything that is going to lead to a conventional plot.

The lost in the desert situation is no Blair Witch exciting fight for survival or wacky slice of life ala some ridiculous sitcom. It simply is what it is, two guys lost in the desert looking for a way out. The two characters never react the way you would expect from a conventional plot. There is very little whining or carrying on. Indeed neither character seems all that concerned about surviving or dying. If they are concerned they keep it to themselves, it's up to us in the audience to fill in the blanks.

In it's minimalism of one handheld camera, sparse dialogue and characters, Gerry is a direct challenge and reaction to the typical explain-it-all-style of the Jerry Bruckheimer era. No obvious explanatory dialogue that leads the audience to obvious conclusions, no quips and no filler before the next explosion of bullets. Gerry has none of those elements and goes to the very opposite extreme. For that I was willing to stick with and feel rewarded at the end. Challenged to create much of the movie in my own mind I was mesmerized by the film and it's techniques.

The films title is odd and not just in it's spelling of the oft-used name. In the film, both characters refer to one another as Gerry but one suspects that it is neither of their real names. In fact, Gerry is an in joke amongst Damon and Affleck's circle of friends. A “Gerry” is a fuck-up, someone who constantly screws up. A fitting title for two guys who manage to get lost in the desert in this day and age when everyone everywhere has a cellphone, pager, blackberry, and any myriad number of other electronic leashes to the outside world.

In that sense, what if the whole film is one big in-joke? What if Damon, Affleck and Van Sant simply went to the desert, film absolutely random shit and called it a movie? They put it together professionally with technical prowess in editing, shooting and scoring to make it look legitimate. Then released the film so that people like myself could rhapsodize about it's minimalist genius and it's influences garnered from Bela Tarr and Fassbinder and other people only snobs have ever heard of.

Whether or not we have been made a fool of, we will never know. I for one don't care if I have been duped. I enjoyed the opportunity to so actively watch the film. To take my mind in odd directions in order to fill in the empty passages that are filled with shots of the two actors walking and the sound of rock under foot. Gerry is a form of film meditation and I dug that about it. 

Movie Review Gacy

Gacy (2003) 

Directed by Clive Saunders

Written by David Birke, Clive Saunders

Starring Mark Holton, Charlie Webber Glenn Morshower, John Laughlin 

Release Date May 13th, 2003 

Published May 13th, 2003 

You have seen them all over your video stores New Release shelves over the last year, serial killer movies. Movies about real life killers that take the killer’s name as the film’s title. Films such as Dahmer, Bundy and Ed Gein amongst others. The latest addition to this growing genre is Gacy, about the legendary Chicago serial killer who stashed the bodies of 27 teenage boys in the crawl space beneath his home.

The film begins with Gacy as a young man on a fishing trip with his father played by Adam Baldwin. As this opening sequence goes on, the tension between father and son grows, with Gacy's Dad challenging his son’s manhood to provoke a physical attack. Finally young Gacy does fight back but can't bring himself to actually hit his father. This encounter haunts him the rest of his life.

Cut to 1976 in the suburbs of Chicago where the neighbors of John Wayne Gacy are complaining about the awful smell coming from underneath the Gacy home. John Wayne Gacy (Mark Holton) seems to be a gregarious, apologetic family man. On the surface he's a loving father of twin daughters who let's his doting mother live with his family. So just what is that awful stench coming from underneath his house?

Late at night after his wife and children are asleep, Gacy sneaks away from his home and into the city of Chicago. Once there he pretends to be a police officer and busts teenage runaways who turn tricks to survive. Part of his gimmick is to offer the kids a chance to not be arrested, if they do favors for him. Then he knocks them cold and either strangles or stabs them to death. Although occasionally, for some reason unexplained by the film, Gacy let's some of his potential victims go. One potential victim he merely has sex with then drops him off in the park, an act he would come to regret when the kid goes to the cops.

The film doesn't get much into the police investigation of Gacy's activities, only that detectives were following Gacy and at one point, even camped out on Gacy's lawn as they waited for cause to search the house. The film focuses mostly on Gacy's real or imagined relationship with a kid he hires to work in his house painting business. When the kid confesses to Gacy that he is having problems with his father, Gacy offers him a room in his home, taking the room of his daughters who by this time have left with Gacy's suspicious wife.

Mark Holton, best known as the fat guy from Teen Wolf, or Pee Wee Herman's nemesis Francis in Pee Wee's Big Adventure, plays Gacy as a troubled, closeted homosexual. The film posits the theory that Gacy killed teenage boys as some kind of psychic revenge on his father. The psychology of the film is somewhat muddled to the point where armchair psychiatrists will have a hard time coming to any conclusions about Gacy's mental health except for the obvious, he's a nutball.

Clive Saunders wrote and directed Gacy and doesn't bring much to it other than a couple stylish camera setups and narrative inertia. As a movie, Gacy fails to interest audiences because it plays as a mystery with no mystery. We know going in that Gacy murdered 31 people, we know going in that most of the victims were buried beneath his home, the only mystery is why Gacy did it and the film brings no new insight to that mystery. 

Movie Review The Flower of Evil

The Flower of Evil (2003) 

Directed by Claude Chabrol 

Written by Claude Chabrol 

Starring Natalie Baye, Benoit Magimel, Bernard Le Coq 

Release Date October 1st 2003

Published April 25th, 2004 

Master director Claude Chabrol first came to prominence during the nouvelle vague, the French new wave of the 1950's and 60's. In his long and illustrious career, Chabrol has directed fifty films. Each of those films mixes death, sex and family in ways that can be funny or disturbing or both. Mr. Chabrol's most recent work is no departure from his usual themes. In its familiarity and the director’s comfort with the material, it is a mellow, acceptable work of art from a master artist.

The Vasseur and Charpin families have a history that goes back more than 60 years. Sons and daughters of each family have married for generations and seem perfectly comfortable with what outsiders would find a more than a little disturbing. It's not just outsiders that have some trouble with this incestuousness, young Francois Vasseur (Benoit Magimel) ran off to America when his attraction to his cousin Michele Charpin (Melanie Doutey) became too much to bare.

It's important to note that the two are not necessarily blood relatives, his father Gerard (Bernard Le Coq) married Michele's mother Anne Charpin (Nathalie Baye) after their respective spouses were killed in a suspicious but little discussed accident. Now Francois has returned to the family mansion to find that his attraction to Michele has not changed and despite his qualms about continuing his family's dubious tradition, he and Michele fall into bed and back in love.

In the film’s opening tracking shot, a shot so long it could make Brian De Palma jealous, we see Michele on her knees crying in one room and a body on the floor in the next room. The story of how that body got there is entirely unexpected and involves the family's eldest and most secretive member, Aunt Line (Suzanne Flon). Aunt Line has witnessed the entire history of the Charpin-Vasseur family and holds every secret. She has watched for years as the families have repeated the same mistakes over and over and there are more to come.

The Flower of Evil has a distinct visual feel that seems like digital video but is in fact more a trick of lighting and film stock. Chabrol deliberately underlights most scenes, using only candlelight when he can get away with it. The lighting and cinematography give the film a timeless feel, it looks like it could exist at any time in history. The film looks as if it could have been made at any point in Chabrol's career because of its themes and look.

The acting is somewhat flat, save for Suzanne Flon as Aunt Line. Flon is elegant and heartbreaking, especially in her voiceovers that lay out the family backstory. Chabrol loves this character and lingers on her dialogue and memories. You expect a flashback but instead Chabrol holds on a close-up of Ms. Flon that is far more powerful than any flashback could possibly be.

The Flower of Evil is one of those films that could not be made in Hollywood. A strange amalgamation of suspense and family drama that doesn't fit neatly into any Hollywood package. The film develops as a straight drama but Chabrol drops in a film score from a Hitchcockian suspense film. It's a device that would quickly be axed by confused Hollywood executives, which of course means it works perfectly. A master stroke from a master director. This film is not on par with Chabrol's best work, which is admittedly some ten or fifteen years past. However, as compared to most of the hacks making films today, it's a terrific film.

Movie Review The Cat in the Hat

The Cat in the Hat (2003) 

Directed by Bo Welch

Written by Alec Berg, David Mandel, Jeff Schaffer

Starring Mike Myers, Alec Baldwin, Kelly Preston, Dakota Fanning, Spencer Breslin

Release Date November 21st, 2003 

Published Published November 20th, 2003

Like any kid born after 1957, the books of Theodore Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, were an important part of my childhood. From Green Eggs and Ham to How The Grinch Stole Christmas to The Cat In The Hat, the Dr's rhyming wordplay and gloriously odd drawings are what helped form my imagination from the time I was able to read.

When The Grinch was turned into a blockbuster starring Jim Carrey, director Ron Howard was able to retain some of the magic of the book while still allowing Jim Carrey to do his thing. The Grinch wasn't a great adaptation but a skillfully crafted one. The same cannot be said of Bo Welch's adaptation of another Seuss classic, The Cat In The Hat which is neither great nor skillful. Rather it's a dreadful exercise in Hollywood blockbuster cynicism.

Mike Myers steps into the fur of the Cat in the Hat, the six foot feline who simply appears out of thin air to reek havoc and entertain a couple kids trapped at home in the rain. The kids in the film adaptation are Conrad (Spencer Breslin) and Sally (Dakota Fanning), brother and sister and different in every way imaginable. Conrad is destructive, messy and out of control. Sally is fastidious, organized and uptight. Their mother (Kelly Preston) works as a real estate agent and is having a party at their house tonight and the house must be perfect for her boss Mr. Humberfloob (Sean Hayes).

Mom has to work and must leave the kids with the narcoleptic Mrs. Kwan, a woman who could sleep through a train wreck in the living room. After a serious scolding from mom the kids agree to keep the house clean while mom works, but once she's gone the plan goes out the window with the sudden arrival of the Cat In the Hat. Thus begins an adventurous day of trying to keep the house from falling down around them and learning a lesson about how to have fun.

Mike Myers is almost indiscernible under piles of fur and rubber. His schtick however, is unmistakable as he bounds from character voice to character voice as if channeling Robin Williams at his manic worst. Myers plays the Cat as a combination of his Austin Powers persona and former flamboyant center square Charles Nelson Reilly. Myers never for a moment resembles the Cat you remember from the book, save of course for the signature red and white stovepipe hat. Aside from the hat however this Cat is a complete creation of Myers and makeup artist Mike Smithson. Much like the recent Austin Powers films, the performance is very hit and miss.

Director Bo Welch, helming his first feature, shows a terrific flair for set design which is not surprising because that is where he got his start. The Cat In The Hat has spectacular sets, production design, costumes, and makeup. If only the same attention had been paid to the script and especially the jokes. The script is credited to three former Seinfeld writers, Alec Berg, David Mandel and Jeff Schaffer. Odd choices to begin with but then the script received a number of uncredited rewrites by Myers who likely wasn't credited because his work was all improvisations on the set.

Being that The Cat In The Hat was not a long story to begin with, the writers had a lot of time to fill. The unfortunate choice to fill that space with fart jokes and other forms of low humor are a deathly decision that destroys any chance the film had to be entertaining. Modernizing the story, allowing Myers to riff on pop culture is fine. Those elements worked to a point with Jim Carrey in The Grinch, but Carrey was at least somewhat restrained by Ron Howard's skilled direction. Bo Welch seems completely at a loss to reign in his star and can think of nothing better than the dreadful grossout humor that would turn Theodore Geisel's stomach.

Adding to the pain is producer Brian Grazer and his Imagine Entertainment marketing staff who cram every frame with disgusting product placement. The producers have already put the Cat in every imaginable commercial from pop to pregnancy tests and the commercials don't stop even after the movie begins. Myers even does a riff reminiscent of his Wayne's World product placement bit. In Wayne's World it was a wonderfully knowing incisive joke. In The Cat In The Hat, it's overkill.

Watching this film’s producers prostitute this wonderful piece of literary history is almost as disheartening as it's disgusting and unnecessary bathroom humor and scatology. In fact, I'm not sure which is worse. Thankfully, there is the lovely young actress Dakota Fanning who gives another terrific performance in a film well beneath her talents. Dakota Fanning deserves a far better film and the book The Cat In the Hat doesn't deserve this treatment. 

Movie Review Afropunk: The Rock N Roll N***** Experience

Afropunk: The Rock N Roll N***** Experience 

Directed by James Spooner

Written by Documentary 

Starring Matt Davis, Tamar Kali, James Spooner 

Release Date November 6th, 2003 

Published November 6th, 2003 

German philosopher Georg Hegel defines alienation as the unhappy consciousness. He continues on saying that alienation is typical of philosophical skepticism as an alienated soul which is conscious of itself as a divided being, or a doubled and contradictory being whose aspirations towards universality have been frustrated.

The subjects of James Spooner's fascinating documentary Afropunk know all about alienation as defined by Mr. Hegel. Being black in the predominantly white punk scene and a punk in the black community is to be a divided soul. However, as this documentary shows these divided souls are making a way for themselves in a growing community of artists.

Shot over a year on a minuscule budget Afropunk is a collection of interviews with fans and artists in the punk scene. This is not the whitewashed MTV punk scene as identified by the Good Charlotte's of the world. Rather this is the true punk scene of tiny clubs and rowdy hardcore fans. As well as near poverty stricken artists who don't do punk to get on MTV but rather as their only true way to express themselves artistically. Artists who found something in the angry thrashing rhythms and screeching riffs of Punk that can't be simply explained.

Among these artists is Matt Davis from Iowa City Iowa, who performed in a number of punk bands over his short life including the well regarded Ten-Grand. Living in near poverty with his band-mates, Davis personified the duality of the punk lifestyle. He lived for the music and the energy of performing, even if it meant selling blood to make rent. Davis died before completion of the film.

Tamar Kali well known in the New York underground scene for combining hardcore rock and soul identified with the aestheticism of punk. The punk look and the angry lyrics stirred something inside her. After years of struggle with her identity as a punk and a black women, her fully formed personality leaps off the screen with great strength. Don't be surprised when she brakes through to wider audiences.

Moe Mitchell is the lead singer of the hardcore punk band Cipher. The band with its three white members and Moe at its lead is known for its black power lyrics. Whether Moe's audience has an understanding of his message seems unlikely, the audiences are almost entirely white. Moe doesn't seem to care. After attending Howard University and becoming involved in the black power movement, Moe has found peace with his duality and his friends in the band are aware that when the revolution comes they won't be on the same side.

Finally, my favorite person in the documentary is Marika Jonez, a punk DJ in California. Her strength is organization. She runs a website that promotes punk shows in her California locale and DJ's at punk clubs. Her struggle as a young black punk is the most poignant of the stories in Afropunk because she is the youngest and most vulnerable of the people profiled. She isn't as comfortable with herself as the others and is only at the beginning of her self-discovery.

The documentary intersperses the stories of it's four leads with interviews with the people who kicked down the door and made it easier for African-Americans to thrive in the Punk scene. There are interviews with the members of Bad Brainz, Fishbone and the Dead Kennedy's amongst many other pioneers.

Director James Spooner weaves a remarkable story in Afropunk. One that combines the history of a scene with a philosophical exploration of identity and humanity. For anyone who thinks Punk is just loud angry noise, Afropunk will teach you that Punk is one of the few musical forms where discourse thrives. Expressions of anger and frustration over politics religion and race are just some of the topics that Punk tackles that all other music stray from.

Afropunk is difficult to find, currently Director James Spooner is taking it around the country on his own dime. But if you get the chance, you must see this terrific documentary.

Movie Review Intacto

Intacto (2001) 

Directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo 

Written by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo 

Starring Leonardo Sbaraglia, Max Von Sydow 

Release Date January 3rd, 2003 

Published June 2nd, 2003 

Luck is a funny thing. It's defined as a force that brings good fortune or adversity. But what kind of force? Does not the word force imply something can be controlled? Luck is something seemingly intangible that it can't be controlled. Or can it? The characters in Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's first full length feature believe not only that luck can be controlled but that the luck of others can be controlled as well, alternately taken away and given to others. It's this unique premise that plays out in Intacto.

In a casino seemingly in the middle of nowhere, high rollers drop big amounts of cash. But underneath the casino, far bigger wagers are being played against the casino's oddball owner known to many as The Jew (Max Von Sydow). With his top advisor Federico (Eucebio Poncela), The Jew manipulates the luck of the players in the casino. If by chance someone gets on a hot streak, Federico is dispatched to simply touch the player. The touch takes the player’s luck and gives it to Federico.

However, when Federico decides he wants to go out on his own, using his abilities for his own gain, The Jew takes his luck away. Some years later Federico is working for an insurance company, or at least, that’s his cover. In reality, the insurance industry is a way for Federico to find people who have the gift he once had. He finds what he is looking for in a plane crash survivor named Tomas.

Tomas happens to be a thief who was on the plane escaping from the pursuit of a police detective named Sara (Monica Lopez). She too has a gift for luck, having survived a car crash that killed her husband and child. As Federico helps Tomas escape from the police, they enter a strange world of gamblers who trade in luck rather than just money. With the help of another of these gamblers, a bullfighter (Antonio Dechent), Sara follows them into the games.

The games are dreamlike in their strangeness. In one scene, regular everyday folks are chosen by the gamblers. They take photographs of these people and then touch them, taking their luck. The photographs of these people are then used as cache for the bigger bets. The goal of it all is to get to The Jew for the biggest chance game of all.

All of this is shot by Fresnadillo with a sharpness that belies the film’s small budget. The crispness and clarity of the DVD is remarkable. The desert landscape that surrounds the casino, shot in the opening from a mini helicopter equipped with a camera at night is striking and attention grabbing.

The story does have its minor contrivances, such as what happens when you beat The Jew? Then what, wait until someone beats you? The Jew's life isn't exactly exciting. As played by the magnificent Max Von Sydow, he is a paranoid old man who spends his days locked in a small, poorly lit room wearing a mask in fear that someone might see his face or take his photo.

That minor quibble aside Intacto is a fascinating and unique picture that combines the cool of modern Hollywood storytelling with the beauty of an art film. For a director working on his first feature, Fresnadillo has an amazing confident style that comes from a kid who doesn't know what can't be done. 

Movie Review Buffalo Soldiers

Buffalo Soldiers (2001) 

Directed by Gregor Jordan

Written by Gregor Jordan, Eric Weiss, Nora Maccoby 

Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Ed Harris, Scott Glenn, Anna Paquin 

Release Date July 18th, 2003 

Published November 11th, 2003 

We have been waiting for quite awhile now for film adaptation of Robert O'Connor's caustic military novel Buffalo Soldiers. The film version is one of the last films delayed by the tragedy of September 11th.

It gathered dust on the shelves of Miramax because of its decidedly unpatriotic look at military life. The soldiers of Buffalo Soldiers are not the patriotic stick figures trotted out for numerous war movies dating back through all of Hollywood history. These soldiers are drug dealers, murderers, racists and pimps. So it's not surprising that after September 11th and subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that the film stirred enough controversy to be dumped into limited release and essentially disowned by it's studio.

This decidedly nihilistic look at military life on a German base in peacetime stars Joaquin Phoenix as PFC. Ray Elwood. From his smirking demeanor, he looks like any other acerbic rebel of a number of different military movies. However, on closer inspection, Ray Elwood is no one liner spouting caricature but rather an amoral drug-dealing, wheeler dealer with few if any redeeming qualities. Bill Murray-lovable loser type this is not. 

Ray runs the military base from the office of Colonel Berman (Ed Harris). As Berman's assistant, Ray can requisition any and all material goods and what he can't get he can trade for on the black market. Ray is also the best drug cook in the military, a skill that landed him in the military when a judge offered him the choice of the army or jail. Ray acquires and prepares heroin for the base's top drug dealer, a military police officer played by Sheik Mahmoud Bey.

Elwood's operation is thrown into jeopardy when a new top Sergeant (Scott Glenn) decides to put Elwood out of business. A former Vietnam veteran, the top sergeant has a reputation as a killer. This doesn't stop Elwood from pressing the Sergeant's buttons, even going as far as dating his daughter Robyn (Anna Paquin), a wild child in her own right, who introduces Elwood to ecstasy. The rivalry between Elwood and the Sergeant is the crux of the film.

From a story standpoint, it's interesting to consider what it must have been like for our military for the number of years between Vietnam and the first war in Iraq. Aside from the minor skirmish here and there, our military guys had a lot of time on their hands, and you know what they say about idle hands. Try idle hands with access to a lot of weapons and drugs.

The problem with Buffalo Soldiers however, is that it never establishes a rooting interest. Phoenix's Elwood is nearly charming enough for us to buy into his anti-hero bit. However, he just doesn't quite have the offhand charm of a good movie scoundrel. The performance is all too earnestly nihilistic to care about.

Director Gregor Jordan seems to go out of his way to separate Buffalo Soldiers from obvious genre movies. He isn't making straight drama or comedy but he seems to go out of his way, especially to avoid comedy. The film’s funniest moments come from Ed Harris playing against type as the bumbling Colonel Berman.

Imagine Stripes as envisioned by Chuck Pahlaniuk and directed by David Fincher and you get an idea what Buffalo Soldiers is going for. It's a take it or leave it portrait of questionable behavior, death, machismo, and murder. No one liners, no forced perspectives or lessons to be learned. Buffalo Soldiers is more of an interesting concept than it is a great movie.

Movie Review: Basic

Basic (2003)

Directed by John McTiernan 

Written by James Vanderbilt 

Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Connie Nielsen, Taye Diggs, Giovanni Ribisi, Tim Daly 

Release Date March 28th, 2003 

Published March 27th, 2003 

Just over a year ago, director John McTiernan hit a career low point that made The Last Action Hero look like an Oscar winner. The 2002 remake of Rollerball was a painful cinematic experience for the audience and probably the filmmaker as well. McTiernan soldiers on, literally in fact, with his new military thriller Basic. Re-teaming Pulp Fiction partners John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson, McTiernan has improved on his last effort; then again, how could he not?

Travolta, back in military mode for the first time since 1999 trash thriller The General's Daughter, here plays another troubled outsider called into the military fold to investigate a murder. Sergeant Nathan West(Jackson) and a group of six recruits went into the jungle training grounds of Panama and only two people came back. Both men, Lieutenant Kendell(Giovanni Ribisi) and Lieutenant Dunbar (Brian Van Holt) say Sergeant West was killed, but that is where the similarities in their stories end. While Travolta's Tom Hardy--who is paired with a military investigator, Lieutenant Osborne (Connie Nielsen)--interrogates each man, two very different stories evolve as time ticks away before the FBI and military police step in and take the case over.

The camp commander, Colonel Styles (Tim Daly), needs the case cracked before the Feds get there or the camp will be shut down. Of course, his motives come into question, as do the motives of everyone in the film, as the plot begins to spin out of control with flashback on top of flashback. The film's plot is based on so many lucky guesses and well-timed confessions, that by the time it arrives at its final twist, you're too exhausted to care. Whether it was too much editing and settling for shorthand clues that the audience never sees or simply a poorly-constructed plot one is left to wonder.

If you are looking for a Pulp Fiction reunion, there isn't much to get excited about Travolta and Jackson share very little screen time. However, Travolta is well teamed with Nielsen. The two spark with flirty dialogue even while at each other's throat over who is in charge. Travolta is in full-on cool mode, much like his performance in Broken Arrow--all swagger, bravado, and charisma. Jackson, on the other hand, though he is played up as a star, really only has a cameo in the film. He's barely there. In typical Sam Jackson manner, he still manages to make an impression.

Of course, if one is to compare Basic to any of Travolta's past films, the obvious one is The General's Daughter. In both films, Travolta plays a cop on the outskirts of the military called into an investigation that could lead to a scandal. Both are murder investigations with mysterious circumstances and witnesses with conflicting accounts and there is even a soldier with a powerful general for a father who wants things to keep quiet. Thankfully, the general remains off screen. The difference between Basic and The General's Daughter is entertainment value. 

Where Basic tires you with twist after twist, The General's Daughter has the advantage of salacious subject matter and trashy novelizations to titillate the audience and distract from the formula thriller twists. Basic doesn't have that to fall back on and thus, outside of Travolta, it's just no fun. The further I get from the film, the more the cracks in the plot become big gaping holes. Unlike many critics though, I cannot lay all the blame with screenwriter James Vanderbilt because some of these ideas, especially the ending, seem to have been made up as they went along.

Basic is an improvement for John McTiernan over Rollerball. (Then again, repertory theater versions of Rollerball would improve over that film.) McTiernan is in a slump and rumors of a Die Hard sequel are out there. Maybe a return to such familiar ground is what the man needs. That or maybe just a nice long vacation.

Movie Review Peter Pan

Peter Pan (2003) 

Directed by P.J Hogan 

Written by P.J Hogan 

Starring Jeremy Sumpter, Jason Isaacs, Rachel Hurd Wood, Olivia Williams, Lynn Redgrave 

Release Date December 25th, 2003 

Published December 24th, 2003 

There is a tradition on stage and in televised versions of Peter Pan that has Peter portrayed by a woman. I can’t pretend to understand why this is but it does remove some of Author J.M Barrie’s more uncomfortable suggestions about Peter and Wendy’s attraction to one another. In director P.J Hogan’s new film adaptation of the more than 100-year-old fairy tale, a boy rightfully portrays Peter. Though somewhat muted, the Peter-Wendy dynamic is once again in play. Whether or not it is to an uncomfortable degree is up to the viewer.

The legendary fairy tale about the boy who refuses to grow up stars Jeremy Sumpter in the role of Peter. However, from the beginning it’s clear that the real star of the show is Wendy played by Rachel Hurd Wood. When we meet Wendy we, like Peter, float to her window and listen in as she dazzles her younger brothers John (Harry Newell) and Michael (Freddie Popplewell) with stories of pirates, Indians and swordplay.

Their revelry is broken by the arrival of their aunt Millicent (Lynn Redgrave) who informs their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Darling (Jason Isaacs and Olivia Williams), that it is time for Wendy to begin training for marriage. This means moving her out of her shared bedroom with her brothers and beginning training in elocution and manners. Essentially, it means it’s time to grow up.

Spying on this scene, Peter decides to reveal himself to Wendy and invite her to Neverland where she won’t have to grow up. This choice is made much to the dismay of Peter’s best friend Tink (Luvigne Sagnier). The scene is filled with meaningful looks and gestures of tentative flirtation and almost uncomfortable sexual tension. At Peter's invitation, Wendy with her brothers in tow is ready to fly off to Neverland.

Once in the pink clouds and green jungles of Neverland, Wendy hears the legend of Captain Hook (as tradition holds, Jason Isaacs, who also plays Wendy's father) and his band of pirates. Of course, Wendy's clumsy little brothers are immediately captured and it's up to Peter and Wendy to save them. In a wonderful action scene filled with terrific humor and exciting swordplay, Wendy and Peter save her brothers and introduce us to Hook's other nemesis, a giant alligator with a ticking clock in its stomach. The gator was previously bitten off Hook's hand as the result of a previous fight with Peter.

All of this happens very quickly. Director P.J Hogan keeps the pace and humor moving all the way through the film slowing down only momentarily for romantic interludes between Peter and Wendy. Despite what a number of critics have said about the sexual tension and romance between Wendy and Peter, it's not as creepy as it sounds. In fact, what director P.J Hogan really captures is the breathless exhilaration of first love. What Wendy and Peter experience is the first rush of the pubescent realization of romance and you can read a lot more into that if you like. I prefer the chaste impression of two kids for whom a kiss is the most sexual idea in the world.

Many films have attempted to capture the essence of that transition from adolescence into puberty, but few films are this successful. Entirely through the use of metaphor, Peter Pan is more true to the confusing emotions and careening hormones of puberty than most films that tackle the subject head on.

To top it off the film also is one of the best looking films of the year. The special effects and production design are as spectacular as anything you've seen this year and bring even more magic to this already magical story. Credit Cinematographer Donald McAlpine and Production Designer Roger Ford with fully realizing Neverland like never before.

At the helm of it all is Hogan who comes out of nowhere with a surprisingly confident rendering of this usual material. Hogan, with the help of Michael Goldenberg, also tackled the adaptation of the screenplay giving the whole production an unexpectedly auteurist vision.

The acting by these novice young actors is also spot on, especially young Rachel Hurd Wood who is spectacular as Wendy. She brings some amazing, unspeakable quality to Wendy that I can't quite put my finger on. Call it star quality or presence, whatever it is, it's something special. She and Jeremy Sumpter, best known for his work in 2002's Frailty, have a chemistry that many adult acting pairs would envy.

This film is a terrific surprise. An exciting, visually spectacular family film. A film that never panders and never pulls back from its rich subtext the way most cookie cutter Hollywood films in the same vein do. This is a film for the whole family, a story that will entrance children with its safe but exciting action and entertain adults with its rich subtext and storytelling. Peter Pan is one of the best films of the year.

Movie Review The Company

The Company (2003) 

Directed by Robert Altman 

Written by Barbara Turner 

Starring Neve Campbell, Malcolm McDowell, James Franco 

Release Date December 26th, 2003 

Published January 12th, 2004 

The appeal of Robert Altman has always been somewhat esoteric. Not since MASH in 1970 has Altman had a film that could be called a commercial success, yet he continues to work steadily turning out quality work every other year or so. The delightful Gosford Park was Oscar nominated which is one of the reasons why studios and financiers are always willing to take a chance on him. Altman's work always has a prestigious feel as if just because he directed it the film has a shot at an Oscar. Altman's latest work, the ballet drama The Company has that same air of prestige to it but lacks the narrative coherence and sharpness of wit that made Gosford Park an Oscar nominee.

Neve Campbell stars in The Company as Loretta Ryan, Ry to her friends and family. Ry is a rising star at the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago where the manic artistic director Alberto Antonelli or Mr. A as he's called (Malcolm McDowell) runs a somewhat out of control ship. Managing everyday on the edge of financial chaos, and more importantly the ego chaos of his stars, Mr. A must train his dancers and hold financiers at bay all the while flitting in and out rooms to avoid serious confrontations.

Ry has just broken up with one of the dancers in the chorus and is beginning a tentative romance with a chef at a local restaurant, Josh (James Franco). In one of the film's most fascinating scenes, set in a bar around a game of pool, Altman lays out Ry and Josh's courtship without words. The two communicate only with their eyes until the next scene when Ryan and Josh wake up next to each other in Ry's apartment. It's not entirely wordless, it's just that Altman has little interest in what the characters have to say to each other, he just wants it all implied and accepted so that he can get back to the ballet.

Aside from Ry, Josh and Mr. A, the cast is made up of the dancers from the real Joffrey Ballet in Chicago. Not actors by training, Altman smartly gives them little dialogue and defines them thinly as stereotypes and archetypes. There is the aging star who can no longer keep up with the younger dancers. There is the teenager with the superstar attitude, talent and stage father and then there are just members of the chorus who struggle to get by and fill in the background.

Altman's camera simply floats through this film without ever really settling on a story that interests him. This may be why there are so many extra plot strands that are begun and tossed aside. A sign that Altman was searching for a story to carry the plot but just never found one, thus he explores as many as he can and then cuts away to a practice or a performance to get away from the plots that just don't appeal to him. This makes the film feel rudderless, like a documentary without a voiceover narration to fill in the blanks of the plot.

The Company is a difficult film to explain. It has a conventional sound to it but Altman is not interested in any of the conventional elements of the script. He's not interested in the romance plot between Campbell and Franco. He is not interested in Mr. A's struggles to raise money and manage his ego backstage. Really he's not interested in anything that isn't happening on the stage.

I cannot speak for Mr. Altman but I got the feeling that he received a rather conventional drama script with romance and the backstage drama of a ballet troupe and decided to do the film despite not being interested in the script. Altman simply sets up his camera and lets it fall on whatever grabs his eye, meanwhile in the corners of the screen behind overlapping, extraneous dialogue there is a conventional Hollywood film going on with a three act script and average dialogue. Altman sets up his camera on a rolling tripod and then walks away to await the next performance on the stage.

Not being a fan of ballet I am in no position to judge whether the performances in the film are any good. We can assume that since these are real dancers for a real and well respected ballet company that they must be pretty good. I can say that Neve Campbell looked pretty good. Campbell conceived the idea for the film and co-wrote the screenplay with Barbara Turner. Campbell does her own dancing in the film and seems to hold her own opposite the pros. Campbell is particularly good in an outdoor performance early in the film. As rain, lightning and thunder kick up she and her partner continue their performance all the way to the end despite the weather.

In the end Robert Altman comes off as a dilettante whose fan interest in ballet overcame his ability to tell a compelling story. That said, I feel there is something deeper in The Company. Indeed Altman seems to really love ballet to the point of ignoring everything else but there is a unique element of experiment here that is interesting. A risky attempt to make a film with as little plot as possible, a minimalist anti-narrative that is antithetical to anything Hollywood would be willing to make. In that sense I find Altman's approach appealing though not the final product of that approach.

Movie Review: Big Fish

Big Fish (2003) 

Directed by Tim Burton 

Written by John August 

Starring Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange, Steve Buscemi, Alison Lohman, Marion Cotillard, Danny Devito 

Release Date December 10th, 2003 

Published December 9th, 2003 

Tim Burton is a grand storyteller with a painter’s eye for color and depth. His films are often beautifully rendered and smartly written, a very rare combination. When his talent is fully engaged, as it was on his masterpieces Edward Scissorhands and Sleepy Hollow, he is an auteur that ranks with the all time greats. 

However, there are occasions when Burton seems less than engaged with his material, such as in his blockbuster works Planet Of The Apes and Batman Returns. His latest effort, Big Fish, looks like his kind of material but has moments when Burton doesn't feel fully committed to what is onscreen.

Ewan McGregor and Albert Finney portray Edward Bloom at two very different times in the man’s life. McGregor is the upstart Edward having grand adventures on his way to being something big. Finney's Edward is an old man on his deathbed, endless recalling the exploits of his young self.  Edward's son Will (Billy Crudup) has heard all of his father’s wild tales over and over again since he was a child. Now as his father's life is coming to an end, Will longs to know the truth. Instead, all he gets are more wild stories.

These dream sequences of young Edward Bloom are the kind of wild fantasies that Burton feels perfectly at home in. These stories include a real life giant played by Matthew McGrory, a circus with an eccentric ringleader (Danny Devito) and a city lost in time where there are no streets, just grass, and no one wears shoes. All of the stories are told with a magical veneer and there is slight sheen over the picture in these scenes that add to the dream imagery.

The central story to the flashbacks is Edward's romance with his wife Sandra, played by Alison Lohman and Jessica Lange. The romance is sweet, sincere and lovingly old fashioned and easily the film’s strongest subplot. What surrounds that story however, is somewhat unsatisfying.  We in the audience are like Edward's son, looking for a little bit of the real Edward Bloom. Listening to Albert Finney wheeze through a flashback setup, its not hard to see why Will is so exasperated with his father.

For his part Tim Burton isn't all that invested in his non-flashback scenes, preferring to put his artistic focus on the fantasy elements of the film. He seems to treat the other stuff as filler that give the flashbacks just enough context to get by. This makes for half of a very satisfying film.

The dreamlike fantasy flashbacks are artfully crafted fantasy, eye candy, humor and beauty. Unfortunately the other scenes, the non-fantasy scenes, are unsatisfying melodrama and good deal of screen chewing by Albert Finney. Billy Crudup does his best to ground these scenes, doing so well that he darn near saves the film with a terrific scene that takes place in a hospital room. It's a touching scene but not enough for me to give Big Fish a full recommendation. It’s not bad but this is not Burton at his best.

Movie Review: Cheaper by the Dozen

Cheaper by the Dozen (2003) 

Directed by Shawn Levy 

Written by Sam Harper, Joel Cohen, Alec Sokolow 

Starring Steve Martin, Paula Marshall, Richard Jenkins, Bonnie Hunt, Tom Welling, Hillary Duff

Release Date December 25th, 2003 

Published December 21st, 2003

I should have seen this coming. The warning signs were there. A preview screening nearly a month before the film’s release. A script adaptation credited to eight--yes, I said eight--writers. And a director who aspires to mediocrity because mediocre would be an improvement over what he's done before. Nevertheless, I still happily attended the screening of Cheaper By The Dozen because I thought Steve Martin can't possibly make a film that bad. I could not have been more wrong.

The plot description for this film is somewhat difficult because it's essentially a series of sub-sitcom level moments of family comedy. Martin stars as a football coach in a small Illinois town. He and his wife, played by Bonnie Hunt (also one of the eight credited writers), are unique because they were high school sweethearts who have been married for 22 years, and they have 12 children. Their family farm house is an absolute mess of toys and small animals and sporting equipment. Meanwhile, each of the kids have a handy little quirk to help us tell them apart. The archetypes are classic ABC TGIF kids: the tomboy, the prissy one, the really smart one, the fat kid and so on and so forth. It saves the time of having to write 12 individual characters.

The plot, such as it is, has Martin's character accepting a new job at a big college. So, the family packs up and moves to a Chicago suburb where they meet their neighbors, played by Alan Ruck and Paula Marshall. (Poor Marshall has the thankless task of playing the only-in-the-movies type of bitch character that says horribly insensitive things and will get her comeuppance by the end of the film.) However Marshall isn't nearly as abused as poor Richard Jenkins. Slumming from his role as the coolest dead guy on TV on HBO's Six Feet Under, Jenkins play Martin's best friend and new boss who is required to be inhumanly stupid. It is poor Mr. Jenkins’ character who forces Martin to choose between his job and his 12 kids. Well golly, what do you think he will choose?

Hunt's character writes a book about her family that lands on the bestseller list, forcing her to leave the family for a few days for a book tour. Golly, do you think dad can handle taking care of all of those kids by himself? I don't know about you, but I think we’re in for hijinks here. The kids trash a neighbor’s birthday party by accidentally releasing a snake in the house. Again it's poor Marshall who takes the brunt of that beating.

Oh it gets worse.

Teen stars Hillary Duff and Tom Welling play the family's two older children. In adjusting to their new high school, these two actors who look like fashion models are required by the script to be outcasts at their new school. It reminded me of the movie She's All That where Rachel Leigh Cook was considered a nerd because she wore glasses and baggy clothes, except that Welling and Duff never look like anything but the Gap models they are in real life.

Martin stretches and strains all over the screen trying to make this forced, stupid material work and the strain shows in every moment of the film. If you thought his Bringing Down The House character was forced, you will be shocked that this character is actually worse.

Director Shawn Levy cut his teeth on Nickelodeon and Disney Channel TV series’ until getting his big break directing 2003's very first worst movie of the year, Just Married. So how fitting that he should bookend 2003 with its final worst movie of the year. Cheaper By The Dozen is an awful movie. A sub-Brady Bunch sitcom, full of forced jokes and cheap contrived melodrama.

In the words of my hero, Roger Ebert, who used this phrase to sum up his feelings about the film North, "I HATED, HATED, HATED, HATED, HATED THIS MOVIE".