Movie Review Letters from Iwo Jima

Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) 

Directed by Clint Eastwood

Written by Iris Yamashita 

Starring Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya 

Release Date December 20th, 2006

Published December 18th, 2006

Clint Eastwood's bold decision to take on both sides of the battle of Iwo Jima, one of the bloodiest and most devastating battles of World War 2, has paid off with not one but two extraordinary films. Flags of Our Fathers covered the American side of the war from the battle on the field to the battle at home. Now Letters From Iwo Jima has arrived with the story from the Japanese perspective. If Iwo Jima is slightly more successful than Flags it's because it is more battle focused with a cleaner narrative line. Together they mark a cinematic achievement that only a true master could have created.

With the Americans closing in on the Japanese homeland a tiny sliver of land is all that keeps the Japanese from being overrun. The tiny isle of Iwo Jima is a strategic spot in the pacific where the American forces hope to launch a full scale invasion of Japan. If the Japanese army can somehow hold Iwo Jima that may not win the war but they could stave off the invasion.

Leading the defense of Iwo Jima is the great General Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe). Having been trained by the Americans, General Kuribayashi is ideally suited to counter the American invasion. Rather, he would be ideal under better circumstances. On Iwo Jima, the general will find himself desperately outnumbered with no air support and reserve troops withheld to protect the next island in the chain.

On the opposite side of the command structure is a draftee named Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya) who was a humble baker and now finds himself facing death on Iwo Jima. Saigo is a terrible soldier. It's not that he doesn't love his country, just that he was never bred to be a soldier.

The General and the grunt tell the story of Iwo Jima in letters they mail back to the homeland. The letters of the real life General Kuribayashi were the basis of Iris Yamashita's book Letters From Iwo Jima. With an assist from Oscar winning screenwriter Paul Haggis, Yamashita adapted the letters into the story of this legendary battle in all of its terrifying, doomed glory.

The look of the film has the same washed out, dreary, grays of Flags of Our Fathers. The bleakness of battle is conveyed by the lack of color, aside from the red of blood which, while it isn't enhanced by effects, is the only color that really stands out. Working with cinematographer Tom Stern, who did the same job on Flags of Our Fathers, Clint Eastwood tells the story of Iwo Jima as much with his visuals as with his compelling human drama.

Ken Watanabe was a natural to play the honorable General Kuribayashi. His face is a map of dignity, grace and stern steadfast dedication, qualities that the real life General, no doubt, would have had. His voice overs in the letters begin with a resigned courage and patriotism and slowly evolve with the courage intact but an increasing amount of sadness and disappointment. These are all extraordinarily subtle touches and Watanabe makes them all count.

Setting the story entirely on the battlefield gives Letters From Iwo Jima a tighter focus than Flags Of Our Fathers which limped a little when telling the story of soldiers at home after the battle. The few brief sojourns off the battlefield, flashbacks to the General's time in America, are brief and serve the purpose of deepening this already fascinating character.

Taken together Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima are the kind of bold cinematic achievement that only a great master could conceive. Clint Eastwood was already a legend, now he is truly an auteur. Even those audiences that are opposed to war movies will be moved by the compelling and very human drama of both sides of the battle of Iwo Jima.

Flags of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima are movies that demand to be seen.

Movie Review The Pursuit of Happyness

The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) 

Directed by Gabriel Muccino 

Written by Steven Conrad

Starring Will Smith, Thandie Newton, Dan Castellaneta, Jaden Smith

Release Date December 15th, 2006

Published December 14th, 2006

Will Smith is the biggest box office star in the world. His golden touch has extended from big time action movies (Bad Boys, I Robot) to light hearted comedy (Hitch). Now he looks to extend that golden touch to the genre of the golden statue, the oscar bait drama. However, do not mistake The Pursuit of Happyness, Smith's take on the inspiring life story of Christopher Gardener, as merely an attempt at Oscar glory.

The Pursuit of Happyness stands on its own as a solid crowd pleasing drama that just happens to feature a career best performance by the biggest box office star in the world. That the role happens to be in just the kind of film the academy loves to honor is a bonus.

Christopher Gardener was convinced that sinking his family's savings into a sales venture involving medical supplies would be a great idea. It wasn't, the medical community was resistant and Chris struggled to make enough sales to put food on the table. Meanwhile, his put-upon wife (Thandie Newton) worked double shifts and became more and more distant until finally she gave up and left.

Chris took their five year old son Chris Jr (Jaden Smith) and set about making a better life for himself. That better life meant accepting a difficult, if not impossible, job at Dean Witter investment services. The position was in the training program and it paid nothing and didn't even guarantee a job when the training was over.

This meant that Chris and his son would have to go without a regular home. Sleeping in fleapit motels, homeless shelters and on subway trains, Chris stayed up most nights studying and spent his days on the phone hustling while his son languished in a low rent korean daycare.

The story of Christopher Gardener was featured on 20/20 and was written up in newspapers across the country as the homeless man who became a multi-millionaire. It's an inspiring story but as played by Will Smith and directed by Gabriele Mucchino, in his American film debut, The Pursuit of Happyness avoids becoming yet another feel good, inspirational story, and develops real, heart rending drama.

Mucchino and writer Steve Conrad take the risk of making The Pursuit of Happyness a rather dark slog through economic insecurity. The bad things that happen to Christopher Gardener happen repeatedly, to the point where he becomes a jobian figure of woe. The fears that I'm sure many of us share about the possibility of losing everything, of falling so far behind that you can't get out, are what makes Christopher's story so compelling  and hard to watch.

Anyone of us could be where Chris Gardener was. A bad investment here, a lost job there, a large unmanageable medical crisis and we could find ourselves hustling for a place to stay and a warm meal. The Pursuit of Happyness has an edge of relatable fear to it that makes Chris's situation so much more dramatic and at times hard to watch.

The film, in fact, threatens to collapse under the weight of Christopher's oppressive situation. This is where the casting of Will Smith becomes so integral to making this film. Only an actor with Smith's charisma and strength of character, and massive cache of audience goodwill; could keep The Pursuit of Happyness from becoming so oppressively sad that even the happy ending couldn't raise the specter of gloom. We  like and enjoy Will Smith so much as a personality, as a persona that the ever present gloom of Christopher Gardener's struggle never settles.

Will Smith's performance in The Pursuit of Happyness is the most nuanced and complex of his career since his fondly remembered debut as a gay hustler in Six Degrees of Seperation. As Christopher Gardener, Smith uses his starpower to establish our sympathies with him and then opens the role up to scrutiny, to sadness and to some harrowing self examination. It's a profoundly touching performance that never gives in to treacle or simple sentimentality.

Working opposite Will Smith, in an impressive screen debut, is Jaden Smith, Will's son with wife Jada Pinkett Smith. Young Jaden, at only five years old, is already showing some of his dad's wit and natural charm. His is a naturalistic performance that is never cloying or typically kid cute. It likely helped Jaden to be working comfortably with his dad, but there is clearly a lot of natural talent in this kid.

The biggest flaw in The Pursuit of Happyness is the poor use of the very talented actress Thandie Newton. In a thankless role, Newton is shrewish and unreasonable and it's a real shame because her character offers a number of interesting dramatic possibilities. There is a chance to quickly examine how romantic love is often sublimated by practical concerns. Clearly, theses two people loved each other once, sadly real life intruded on that romantic fantasy and drove them apart.

That is an idea for another movie. It's just a shame that with an actress as talented as Thandie Newton that director Garbriel Mucchino and writer Steve Conrad couldn't write a better, more complex role. As it is, Linda Gardener is treated as a one note villain character in a movie that really doesn't need a villain.

The Pursuit of Happyness could have devolved into a simplistic, inspiring and uplifting story of a man pulling himself up by his bootstraps. Thankfully, because of the caring, nuanced performance of Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness is so much more than that. This is a movie that directly confronts the economic insecurity so many people have felt at one time or another. It's a movie about a father and a son, a movie about grit and determination and a story about an extraordinary man who overcame exceptional sorrow.

Movie Review: Blood Diamond

I believe a movie can make itself valuable simply by telling an important sory. The new action thriller Blood Diamond starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Connelly tells the story of diamonds mined in Africa by rebels and terrorists and sold to fund dictatorships, genocide and terrorism. This is a story that has been ignored to long and just telling it lends a certain gravitas to Blood Diamond.

That said, the film is still, for the most part, a packaged Hollywood product. An action thriller with plenty of bullets, blood and bombs going off. The action is high octane but because the story is so true and so sobering it's difficult to accept the giddy thrill that such slick Hollywood action often elicits. This leaves one with a mostly mixed impression of the well intended Blood Diamond.

Leonardo DiCaprio stars in Blood Diamond as Danny Archer; a diamond smuggler who acts as the go between for terrorists and warlords and the diamond syndicates in London and America who purchase the so called "Conflict Diamonds", diamonds often covered with the blood of innocent africans. As the movie notes, more than 15 percent of diamonds sold in world are conflict diamonds and the billions of dollars made off of the sale of these diamonds is funding terrorism and genocide throughout Africa.

Danny Archer does not take much time to reflect on his ethics. The opportunistic Danny is constantly searching for a score and when he happens on a farmer named Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) who escaped forced labor at a rebel diamond mine after he stashed a rare pink diamond, Danny seizes the opportunity. Offering to help reunite Solomon with his family, made refugees by a rebel attack, Solomon reluctantly agrees to lead Danny to the diamond.

Joining the search is an idealistic journalist named Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly) who is after Danny in search of proof of the link between conflict diamonds and the world's leading diamond dealer. Using her connections, Maddy gets Danny and Solomon back to the jungles where Solomon hid the diamond, in exchange Danny gives her the story she is looking for.

Ed Zwick, the director behind The Last Samurai and Courage Under Fire, directs Blood Diamond with a great care for the reality of this disturbing story. That means he had to be true to the horrific violence that surrounds the African diamond trade. Blood Diamond is brutally violent in depicting how rebel forces recruit their slave labor workforce. Women and children are murdered indiscriminately while able bodied men are either tortured or forced to work in the mines. Limbs are lopped off at will and children are recruited to become warriors with machine guns.

These images are disturbing and shocking and yet; as presented by  Ed Zwick they have a certain Hollywood slickness to them. There is a puncturing of the reality of these scenes because Zwick and cinematographer Eduardo Serra choose to shoot the film on traditional film stock. If ever a subject called for the gritty realistic look of handheld digital it's Blood Diamond. Shot as a traditional Hollywood picture the highly stylized and clean photography of Blood Diamond undercuts the brutal story being told.

The disconnect is jarring. At once you are watching a classic Hollywood action film with guns and explosions that usually illicit giddy thrills but here are tempered by a very serious sobering subject. Blood Diamond is an experience that is difficult to enjoy and indeed may not have meant to be enjoyable as a typical popcorn program picture. Yet the film looks; and the action feels like a typical Hollywood action epic.

Aside from the important subject, the reason to see Blood Diamond is the performance of Leonardo DiCaprio. Evincing a tough guy menace that is unexpected of him, even after his similar tough guy role in The Departed, Dicaprio delivers a powerful performance that is far more complex and unique than most action movie heroes.

Really; DiCaprio's Danny Archer is no hero, he is as much a villain as he is a brave man. When he decides to go for the diamond he is opportunistic and cold blooded and when called upon to be heroic, DiCaprio plays the conflicted nature of Danny Archer extraordinarily well.

Director Ed Zwick preached his way through The Last Samurai and Courage Under Fire and The Siege, hammering home ham fisted points about the complicated measures of patriotism with in your face earnestness. He can't resist doing a little more preaching in Blood Diamond, even when preaching about a seemingly unrelated topic like the war in Iraq.

In a minor and slightly humorous scene, Djimon Hounsou has a brief conversation with a lost villager who laments the violence of the diamond trade but hopes they never discover oil in Africa or else they will be in real trouble. A darkly funny exchange but an entirely unnecessary scene.

I am recommending Blood Diamond based on the important story it tells and the performance of Leonardo DiCaprio. His is a performance that is worth of the the buzz that has Leo vs Leo at the Oscars in March; with his performance in Blood Diamond versus his performance in The Departed. I don't see that happening but both performances are more than worthy of Academy consideration.

Blood Diamond is a flawed Hollywood action picture that garners unwarranted importance from its subject matter. That is a subject that desperately needs public attention does manage to redeem what is otherwise just another Hollywood action movie.

Movie Review The Fountain

The Fountain (2006) 

Directed by Darren Aronofsky

Written by Darren Aronofsky 

Starring Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz

Release Date November 22nd, 2006 

Published November 22nd 2006 

With its gorgeous sci-fi visuals and promise of a grand love story, I expected The Fountain to be an epic of film technology and a grand love story. Maybe I was expecting too much. The visuals are there, lushly beautiful sci-fi vistas, mind blowing uses of color and light and technology. However, the love story is simply tedious.

A mopey, dopey Hugh Jackman wanders through this eye popping sci-fi set piece weeping and falling over and just generally ruining what might otherwise be the closest anyone has come to evoking the genius of Kubrick's 2001, or at the very least the minor pleasure of Roger Corman's The Trip.

Izzie Creo (Rachel Weisz) is dying. She has an inoperable brain tumor but that has not stopped her research scientist husband Tommy (Hugh Jackman) from spending every waking moment trying to find a cure. So driven by his quest that he has begun neglecting what little time he and Izzy have left, a point well made by his boss  Dr. Guzzetti (Ellen Burstyn), who visits Izzy while Tommy continues working.

Tommy and Izzy have a connection that seems to have lasted through time. In a story written by Izzie, the two are cast as Spanish conquistador and Queen in the search for the fountain of youth. And in a future that we see but Tommy and Izzie are seemingly unaware of, another version of Tommy has for thousands of years traveled the universe with what we can only assume is Izzy's body buried within the bark of an ancient tree. His quest is for a dying star that may be able to restore Izzy's life and allow them both to live for eternity together.

It's a grand idea but in execution The Fountain is a somewhat sappy take on eternal love with a performance by Hugh Jackman that leaves one to wonder whether this really was the guy who played the tough guy Wolverine in the X-Men movies. Clearly this teary eyed , mumblemouth can't be the same man who brought life to one of the comics' manliest superheroes.

Jackman's performance notwithstanding, there are a number of stunningly beautiful images in The Fountain that make me wish I liked this movie more than I did. Darren Aronofsky and cinematographer Matthew Libatique craft some awesomely psychedelic visions that will dazzle your eyes even as your brain rebels against the lame love story.

I could watch Rachel Weisz make a sandwich, she is that interesting as an actress. Her Oscar winning role in The Constant Gardener was tiny compared to star Ralph Fiennes and yet she steals the entire picture with her wounded toughness and vulnerability. Even her roles in mainstream fluff like The Mummy, Constantine or Runaway Jury are given weight by her appearance.

In The Fountain, Rachel Weisz plays second to Hugh Jackman and is too often left on the sidelines. Though I find it easy to imagine a man wanting to follow Rachel Weisz through lifetimes, and attempt to conquer death on her behalf, her character here is too thin to provide the dramatic motivation needed to justify all of Hugh Jackman's weepy determination.

Much has been made of The Fountain and its appeal to the stoner crowd and though I have never used psychedelic drugs I would like to imagine the experience to be something akin to watching The Fountain. Not an entirely satisfying experience but one of mind melting visual excesses that might inspire great art and great thought. The film is so wonderfully visual that it may have been a masterpiece had there been as much care given to the story as to the trippy visuals.

I was reminded throughout The Fountain of the Robin Williams movie What Dreams May Come another visually stunning film that dies on the vine of melodrama. Both films are about men who attempt to conquer death by crying uncontrollably and both films are gorgeous boundary pushing exercises in visual virtuosity. If you were a fan of What Dreams May Come you may find similar pleasure in The Fountain.

Darren Aronofsky is a visionary with an uncompromising will to tell this story. Unfortunately he seems to have become dazed by his own visuals and lost in the morass of the lovely sci-fi landscapes of The Fountain. He gets little help from star Hugh Jackman who delivers a weak kneed, weepy performance, more suited to a daytime soap opera actor than to the man who was Wolverine.

The Fountain is a lovely example of the visual aspects of filmmaking. As a story however, it's a teary and bleary chick flick dressed in sci-fi clothes.

Movie Review Happy Feet

Happy Feet (2006) 

Directed by George Miller 

Written by George Miller

Starring Elijah Wood, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, Robin Williams, Brittany Murphy, Hugo Weaving 

Release Date November 17th, 2006 

Published November 18th, 2006

The trailers for Happy Feet have been in theaters for more than a year ahead of the release of the film. The trailers promise a big, brassy, pop musical with a cast of celebrity singers with impressive range. Now that the film has arrived the promise has not been delivered. Happy Feet has music but is no musical. Rather, Happy Feet is a sweet, well intention-ed, environmental parable about over-fishing in the world's oceans that will have little kids fidgeting in their seats and mom and dad struggling to stay awake.

Mumble (Elijah Wood) is the only penguin among thousands who doesn't have a heart song. He simply cannot sing, a terrible embarrassment to his mother (Nicole Kidman) and father (Hugh Jackman) who met through a beautifully sung medley. Mumble however, does have a unique talent, he can dance. Unfortunately his Happy Feet are not something the older penguins appreciate.

The penguins are in trouble. As we join the story; there are less and less fish in the ocean and the situation is getting desperate. Mumble has heard from a bird that aliens have been stealing most of the fish, leading some birds to even attack penguins, a fate that Mumble just barely escapes. On his first fishing trip, Mumble separates himself from the group to search for the aliens. He wants to reason with them and get them to share the fish.

Joining Mumble on his quest are a group of latin infused penguins lead by the hot blooded Ramon (Robin Williams). Also coming along is a penguin shaman named Lovelace (also voiced by Robin Williams). Together this ragtag band braves the coldest portions of Antarctica and the dangerous sea lions out to make them into lunch, to get to the alien encampment where Mumble's dancing skills might just make all the difference.

Directed by George Miller, who made the Oscar nominated kids flick Babe, Happy Feet is gorgeously animated but extraordinarily dull. The trailers promised music but aside from an opening mash-up of Prince's Kiss and Elvis's Heartbreak Hotel sung by Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman and Brittany Murphy crooning a lovely rendition of Queen's Somebody To Love, the music is scant throughout Happy Feet.

The real thrust of the film is an environmental parable about how humans are overfishing the oceans and how it's affecting wildlife. That is a relevant environmental issue well suited to documentary filmmaking. Happy Feet is obviously not a documentary but an animated movie aimed at small children. Now, environmental responsibility is a lesson I wish more kids were taught but if Happy Feet is the vehicle; most kids won't remember the message.

The message is delivered in such a slow moving, serious minded fashion that the message is likely to go over the heads of the target audience of Happy Feet who are more likely to spend their time climbing on the theater seats or trying to keep mom and dad from dozing off. As forgettable as they are, the Ice Age pictures deliver an environmental lesson far more effectively and entertainingly than does Happy Feet.

The animation of Happy Feet is exceptional. It really is a work of art in some moments. If the story weren't so trudgingly dull, Happy Feet might have been a masterpiece. I loved George Miller's lovely watercolor landscapes and the animated dancing penguins is a real dazzler. If you love great animation, from a technical perspective, you might find something to love about Happy Feet.

The soundtrack to Happy Feet is also tremendous, if only there had been more of it. Prince contributes a brand new song, "Song Of The Heart", that plays over the closing credits. The soundtrack CD features Pink, covering Rufus and Chaka Khan's "Tell Me Something Good", The Beach Boys and the long forgotten but much loved Brand New Heavies. Songs sung, all too briefly, by the cast are also included on the CD.

If this were a music review it would be a rave.

Great animation, great music, and yet a sleeping pill of a film, Happy Feet is one of the more disappointing films of the year. The trailer promised a pop musical, the movie is a lesson in overfishing around Antarctica, even an environmentalist like myself found it difficult to keep my eyes from rolling. If you want to send an environmental message to little kids at least dress it up with some great pop tunes, Happy Feet tried that and abandoned it far too quickly in favor of dull preaching.

Movie Review: Casino Royale Starring Daniel Craig

Casino Royale (2006) 

Directed by Martin Campbell 

Written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Paul Haggis 

Starring Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Mads Mikkelsen, Jeffrey Wright, Dame Judi Dench 

Release Date November 17rh, 2006 

Published November 16th, 2006 

I've never been a big James Bond fan. I have always perceived OO7 to be my fathers kind of hero not mine, I'm more Han Solo than Bond. So I didn't get all that worked up over the controversy that surrounded the selection of a new James Bond and the unceremonious ouster of Pierce Brosnan. The most recent Bond flicks had begun to devolve into kitschy exercises in gadgetry and snark.

The new James Bond is a little more my style. Grittier, more violent, darker in tone than any of the other Bond pictures, Casino Royale, starring Daniel Craig, is an action packed, quickly paced thriller with more in common with Jason Bourne than James Bond.

In this version of Ian Fleming's legendary spy series, James Bond (Daniel Craig) is a rising star in British Intelligence. Having just attained his double-oh status, James is a prickly thorn in the side of his superior M (Dame Judi Dench). On a mission in Africa, Bond killed a government witness in full view of witnesses and a security camera and, though the death was justifiable in context, the tabloids want someone to blame.

Rather than feeding the junior spy to the media, M sends Bond on holiday; knowing full well that he is not finished with his current mission. Tracking a terror target to the Bahamas, James reveals his talent for hold'em poker and his charm with the ladies by showing up a terror suspect at cards and then seducing the man's wife.

Eventually this trail leads Bond to a high stakes poker game in Montenegro where the world's leader in funding terror groups, Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelson) is holding court. Le Chiffre is a highly competitive and seemingly unbeatable player. It is up to Bond and his government accountant Vesper Lind (Eva Green) to stop Le Chiffre from winning the money he needs to continue supporting terrorists.

That is a semblance of the plot of Casino Royale. The plot, of course, is superfluous to a movie so much more interested in looking cool. Director Martin Campbell and star Daniel Craig are the perfect combination of style and cool. With his cold blue eyes and chiseled physique, Craig is the most intimidating Bond in the franchise history. Director Martin Campbell makes great use of Craig's assets, placing him in more hand to hand combat than ever before and eliminating the series' stale reliance on gadgetry.

Danish actor Madds Mikkelson is a Bond villain not unlike Charles Gray's Blofeld, at least early in the film. Mikkelson's Le Chiffre is a hands off villain whose talent is moving money for far more dangerous villains. He's unlikely to get physically involved with Bond, especially one on one. As demonstration of his vulnerability, Le Chiffre cries blood when he's frustrated.

There is however, a torture scene where Le Chiffre shows a more sadistic side than any Bond villain has likely ever shown. I won't detail what happens in this scene, let's just say it involves that most sensitive part of the male anatomy. The torture scene along with some of the violent hand to hand combat left me wondering just how the MPAA gave Casino Royale a PG-13 rating. The hand to hand battles are brutal and bloody and the torture scene is nearly unbearable, not anything you want to take the kids to see or allow your young children to see on their own.

There is much that I enjoyed about Casino Royale; but, the film is not without noticeable flaws. At two hours and 20 minutes, Casino Royale desperately overstays its welcome. The movie ends atleast twice before finally resolving with a major sequel tease. Just as the film seems to be over for the first time, new villains are introduced out of the clear blue sky and with little to no connection to the main plot. That's irritating enough but when the film continues on with a second false ending, I nearly walked out in disgust.

There are a good 20 minutes, at least, that could be cut to make Casino Royale a leaner, more focused and far better film than it is.

The most exciting thing about Casino Royale is the absolutely extraordinary chase scene that opens the film immediately after the credits. As Bond and a fellow agent scope out an African bomb maker, Bond's partner accidentally tips off the bad guy and Bond is forced to give chase. The chase is one of the most mind blowing action sequences ever filmed as stuntman/actor Sebastein Foucan demonstrates a style of free running called Parkour that shows off his abilities as a human special effect. Foucan's leaps, jumps, dives and twists and his incredible speed make Jackie Chan look like Jackie Gleason.

I wanted more of Sebastien Foucan and would love to see him get together with Tom Tykwer for a Run Lola Run sequel. Foucan really steals the show in Casino Royale.

As always one of the most eye-catching things about a James Bond picture is the Bond babe and Eva Green, the sexpot star of Bertolucci's The Dreamers, really fits the bill. Though little is required of Green in terms of plot, character or action, she is terrific eye candy and that is the very least you can ask of a Bond babe. Yes, I know the term Bond babe is passe in this day and age, but what about Bond is not anachronistic in the age of the techno thriller.

An excellent debut for new Bond Daniel Craig, Casino Royale is a rollicking, old school action flick that could have ranked amongst the best action pictures of the decade with a little more work in the editing room. At nearly150 minutes Casino Royale is a chore to sit through, especially the irritating triple ending.  Still, Casino Royale contains just enough action and sex appeal to make for some terrific popcorn entertainment.

The film received a PG-13 rating but I do not recommend the film for kids under 18 years of age. The film is darkly violent with a callousness and brutality that belies the teen friendly rating. Parents use your discretion.

Movie Review: A Good Year

A Good Year (2006) 

Directed by Ridley Scott

Written by Marc Klein

Starring Russell Crowe, Albert Finney, Marion Cotillard, Abbie Cornish, Tom Hollander, Freddie Highmore

Release Date November 10th, 2006

Published November 10th, 2006

Can I recommend a movie based on one lovely line of dialogue? I'm serious, there is a line of dialogue in the new romantic comedy A Good Year starring Russell Crowe, that put an uncontrollable smile on my face. I was so excited by this one line that I sent it as a text message to a friend while the movie was still on because I wanted to make certain I did not forget it. Other than this one line of dialogue, A Good Year is an entirely underwhelming, by the numbers, romantic comedy with less weight than the film it's printed on.

Max Skinner (Russell Crowe) is in the business of making money. As a stock broker in London he gets up early in the morning to game the bond system and earn the ire of every other broker in the country. As we meet Max he has just made millions of dollars in some sort of shady bit of business. Max has no remorse for his actions, he proudly takes a victory lap at a bar frequented by fellow brokers. After things on the market calm down, Max receives a letter informing him that his Uncle Henry (Albert Finney) has passed away. Max hasn't seen his uncle in nearly a decade. However, since Max is Henry's only living relative; he gets all of Henry's estate including a sizable vineyard in Provence France. Seeing an opportunity to cash in, Max leaves for France intending to sell the vineyard.

Max spent many wonderful summers at his uncle's vineyard. His greatest childhood memories are linked to this place and to his beloved, larger than life uncle. As these memories begin to flood back, as Max works with his uncle's long time employees, Du Flot (Didier Bourdon) and his wife Ludivine (Isabelle Candelier), to restore the vineyard, Max begins to wonder if he should keep the place. The plot of A Good Year is as predictable as a sunrise in the east. Max, the soulless stock broker, regains his soul at the vineyard. Wacky supporting characters help and cause trouble in equal portion and a beautiful French girl, Fanny Chenal played by Marion Cotllard, will steal Max's heart. Oh and yes, there is the obligatory roadblock; in the form of Christie (Abbie Cornish) who may or may not be uncle Henry's daughter and the rightful heir to the vineyard.

As the mechanics of the plot click away on rusty gears, star Russell Crowe does all he can with the material, not least of which includes a little of the kind slapstick humor more suited to Adam Sandler than to a former Oscar winner. There are moments in A Good Year where Crowe bounces from dignified and classy to Benny Hill style goof to Tom Hanks romantic. The schizphrenic performance still manages to be rather entertaining and when it comes time for Crowe to deliver the romantic zinger that seals the movie's good vibes, he nails it, belts it all the way to the back of the room and takes a bow.

Director Ridley Scott is far better known for the histrionics of Gladiator than he is for his soft and cuddly side. Much unlike the director who piled up the bloody bodies of Gladiator or Kingdom Of Heaven, the Ridley Scott of A Good Year is a purring pussy cat, lying in the sun and lounging on windowsills in A Good Year. Scott's efforts here don't extend much beyond an opening scene in which he tosses in an odd, out of place camera trick that would be more at home on the Gladiator battlefield than in this cookie of a romantic comedy.

Ridley Scott's joy in filming something as superfluous and lightheaded as A Good Year comes through in the little touches. The softly lit flashbacks to Max and his uncle (young Max is played by the terrific child actor Freddie Highmore), Russell Crowe's bouts of uncomfortable slapstick -awkward but fun- and of course the filming of that one line of dialogue that I love so much. So should I give you the line that makes this movie? No, I think you should actually see the movie. Get your significant other, get some popcorn and some candy, sit in the dark and marvel at the simple, elegant ease of such a predictable romantic comedy plot. Then when you hear that line that I'm talking about, and I honestly don't see how you could miss it, kiss your date and smile.

A Good Year is movie candy, empty calories, nothing but sugar. It has the potential for an upset stomach but it tastes so good going down. A Good Year for all intents and purposes is not a very good movie. It is however, modestly entertaining and then there is that one line. That amazing, lyrical, poetic, romantic line of dialogue so well delivered by Russell Crowe. This one line made me smile so much I can't help but forgive the many minor flaws of the softhearted, slightly softheaded A Good Year. Watch the movie and let me know if you catch the line I'm talking about.

Movie Review: Flushed Away

Flushed Away (2006) 

Directed by David Bowers, Sam Fell

Written by Dick Clement, Ian Le Frenais, Chris Lloyd, Joe Keenan

Starring Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Bill Nighy, Andy Serkis, Jean Reno 

Release Date November 3rd, 2006

Published November 6th, 2006 

Aardman animation, the home of Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run, makes its first foray into computer animation with Flushed Away. This comedy about a rat borne London in the sewers beneath the city combines the charmingly flawed look of Aardman's traditional claymation characters with computer animation from the home of the Shrek movies, Dreamworks animation.

It's quite a successful transition for Aardman who move seamlessly into computer animation that remains true to the artistry of the company's past.

Flushed Away stars the voice of Hugh Jackman as Roddy a pet rat indulging in a high class lifestyle while his human owners are out of town. With the humans gone Roddy is up and out of his cage, watching the big TV and even satisfying his sweet tooth. Roddy's high class vacation from the humans is interrupted by the arrival of a disgusting sewer rat named Sid (Shane Richie) who soon ends up sending Roddy on a shocking trip

In trying to get Sid to leave, Roddy tries to convince him the bathroom toilet is a Jacuzzi. Sid, however, knows a toilet when he see's one and sends Roddy careening down the pipes himself. Finding himself in the shocking midst of a bustling rat metropolis that replicates real London using found materials, Roddy seeks help to get himself back to his high class home.

The person who can help Roddy get home is Rita (Kate Winslet) a fearless independent ships captain who knows every inch of the London sewer. Before she can help Roddy, however, Rita must escape rat mobsters and their boss; the toad (Ian McKellen) who want Rita to give them a jewel she recovered that may or may not have falled from the crown of Queen Elizabeth herself.

After some friction, Roddy and Rita form a good partnership; fending off the mob as they navigate Roddy's way home and Roddy discovers that the toad has more sinister plans than merely retrieving the Queen's jewel from Rita.

Flushed Away was directed by first time directors David Bowers and Sam Fell who tell a lively and fun adventure story. The real success of Fllushed Away however, is the animation which seamlessly combines computer animation with Aardman's signature claymation look that despite having been digitized manages to retain that flaws in the clay charm ala Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

Much of the enjoyment of Flushed Away comes from the voice cast lead by Hugh Jackman and Kate Winslet. Jackman gives a playful and fun vocal performance that is reminiscent of his self deprocating work as the host of the Tony Awards. Winslet is pitch perfect in giving Rita's voice strength and vulnerability. The supporting cast, which features Bill Nighy, Andy Serkis and Jean Reno really liven things up with Nighy and Serkis delivering terrific comic relief as mob rats.

There is a hint of romance in Flushed Away between Roddy and Rita. However, because directors Bowers and Fell are making a movie for kids they seem unwilling to commit to a romance between the lead characters. Despite great vocal chemistry between Jackman and Winslet, there is a great awkwardness in the writing and directing of this romance plot. The filmmakers seem to want to make it romantic but because this is a kids movie they just couldn't commit to it.

I can't escape the idea that Flushed Away should be funnier than it is. The film is pleasant and safe for the kids but it lacks the kind of big laughs that a movie like Cars or Shrek provide. That doesn't mean it's not humorous, rather that the humor is rather timid and riskless. See again the romance plot to which the filmmakers can't seem to commit. The romance has a lot of potential, comic or otherwise, but becuase the filmmakers can't decide if they want it or not the whole thing just sorta sits there.

As a product for kids you could do far worse than Flushed Away. The film is a technical marvel in its combination of CG technology and Aardman claymation. The story is pleasant and inoffensive which is a double edged sword. It's safe for the kids but far too safe to be really interesting and funny. I recommend Flushed Away for family audiences but for movie fans looking for the next Cars, Incredibles or Shrek, Flushed Away is not for you.

Movie Review: Flicka

Flicka (2006) 

Directed by Michael Mayer

Written by Mark Rosenthal, Lawrence Konner

Starring Alison Lohman, Tim McGraw, Maria Bello, Ryan Kwanten

Release Date October 20th, 2006

Published October 22nd, 2006

My Friend Flicka starring Roddy McDowell is a family movie staple. The story of a troubled boy and the horse who saved his life and inspired him is a staple of the family movie genre, a story reformed and retold in a number of different ways. More than 50 years later Flicka returns to the big screen, a different gender at it's center, but the same basic story of family, growing up and beautiful horses in place.

Empty and uninspired, this new Flicka is, thankfully, not a total rehash of the original film but is not much of an improvement either.

16 year old Katie (Alison Lohman) has just flunked her end of year exam. Rather than writing the essay required of her, Katie spent 2 hours staring out the window dreaming of her horses back on her family farm. She is returning home when the test is over and will once again get to feel the wind in her hair on the back of a horse, her favorite feeling in the world.

Katie returns home to a loving family that includes her father; Rob (Tiim Mcraw), Mom; Nell (Maria Bello) and older brother; Howard (Ryan Kwanten). Her father soon finds out that she has failed the important test and the testy dynamic of this father-daughter relationship is set. Despite dad's admonitions, the first chance Katie gets she is on the back of a horse and hitting the backwoods trails.

It is on this backwoods jaunt that Katie comes across a wild black mustang that she comes to call Flicka. Her father, fearing a mustang that might rattle his domesticated quarter horses, orders Katie to stay away from the mustang. However, when the mustang rescues Katie from a cougar attack, he is brought to the farm. Can Katie train Flicka and come to ride her or will dad sell Flicka to a rodeo manager (Nick Searcy) who has developed a dangerous new sport around wild horses.

If you think that the horse's wild, untamed spirit matches that of our heroine, well, of course your right. That is the most basic distillation of the plot. The horse and Katie are one in the same and that is the movie's fundamental premise. That, along with dad coming to understand his rebellious daughter and Katie beginning to grow up and reign in her wild ways make up a very simple three act structure as predictable as the alphabet.

Director Michael Mayer, whose Home At The End of the World was a lovely paean to a unique dysfunctional family, directs Flicka as if he were a factory film director his whole career. The film is machine made and polished, lifted from typical family movie molds and reaching theaters seemingly untouched from screenplay to screen.

Little girls love horses and Flicka bursts at the seams with loving shots of horses in stride. Flicka herself is a beautiful black horse with a gorgeous untamed mane and a wild spirit. Scenes of Alison Lohman riding Flicka framed against the mountain ranges of Wyoming with the sun beaming down are truly splendid images that will dazzle any horse lover.

Country star Tim McGraw acquits himself well as Katie's strict but loving father. His contribution to the films soundtrack however, the single My Little Girl, is one of the most gut wrenchingly sappy tunes this side of Barry Manilow. My Little Girl is the first song in McGraw's career that he has written and produced himself, he may want to consider never doing that again.

Rote family movie conventions rendered against a lovely sunlit, mountain background, Flicka is quite attractive but still an empty vessel. As the coming of age story of a troubled young girl; Flicka hits all of the expected notes and hits them about as well as they can be hit. If you can endure predictable, manufactured family movie devices meant to elicit tears and hugs, then Flicka is the movie for you.

Movie Review: Flags of Our Fathers

Flags of Our Fathers (2006)

Directed by Clint Eastwood

Written by William Broyles Jr, Paul Haggis

Starring Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford, Adam Beach, Paul Walker, John Slattery, Barry Pepper

Release Date October 20th, 2006

Published October 18th, 2006

Clint Eastwood has always been one of our most beloved and respected artists. However, it wasn't until recently; with the release of Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby that Eastwood rose to the rank of auteur alongside men like Scorsese and Altman, directors whose work is awaited, debated and more often than not breathlessly praised.

Clint Eastwood's latest effort is the most ambitious of his career. A two part film series that takes on the extraordinary battle of Iwo Jim from the perspective of both the Americans, in Flags of Our Fathers and the Japanese, in Letters From Iwo Jima. First up is Flags of Our Fathers, an epic of heroism, sacrifice, sadness and war.

When his father passed away James Bradley -on whose book and real life experiences the movie is based-began searching thru his things and found that his father was one of the flag raisers at the battle of Iwo Jima. The artifacts lead James Bradley to seek out Iwo Jima veterans and tell his father, Doc Bradley's (Ryan Phillippe) story.

Ostensibly, Flags of Our Fathers is the story behind, arguably, the most famous photo ever taken; the raising of the flag atop mount suribachi during the battle of Iwo Jima. What many may not realize is that the flag raising was not a gesture of having won the battle. The flag was raised a mere five days into what would become a 35 day conflict.

The photo was not what it seems either. The first flag raising wasn't captured well and when a politician who saw the photo requested to have the original flag a col, played by Robert Patrick, asked to have the original flag brought to him and a new flag raised. That second flag raising is what Joe Rosenthal immortalized but that was not the story that was sold to the American people.

Of the men who raised the flag; only three survived the remaining battle. The fame of the photo leads the three survivors, Doc, Rene (Jesse Bradford) and Ira (Adam Beach) to a modicum of celebrity. Plucked from the pacific theater and plopped into the middle of the war machine ad campaign, the so called 'heroes of Iwo Jima' became a rallying point for renewed American support for the war.

In 1945 support for the war was flagging. The economy was reeling from the expense and the treasury needed to raise 13 billion dollars to fund the war or risk giving in to Japanese demands. That was when Joe Rosenthal's iconic photo landed on the front page of every newspaper and reassured a weary country that this war was being won.

Becoming spokesman for the war and being hailed as heroes wherever they went was not as easy for the flag raisers as it might seem. Each man is haunted in their own way by what they witnessed and what they did during the battle. Most troubled of all is Irv who slowly comes apart at the seams over the horrors he witnessed.

Adam Beach gives a heart rending performance in Flags of Our Fathers. In war he was brave but overwhelmed. On the tour to raise funds for the war the horrors, combined with heavy drinking, begin to catch up with him. He eventually is given the chance to return to what is left of his unit but nothing could ever relieve him of the nightmares and his life is a tragic one. Beach's performance is nuanced and heartbreaking and the stuff Academy awards are made of.

The rest of the cast struggles to be separated from one another. Ryan Phillippe does a credible job as Doc Bradley, however, during the battle scenes you struggle to tell doc from any of the other soldiers on the field. The same could be said of Jesse Bradford as Rene who never saw much in the way of action as he was more often kept to the rear of the battle as a runner.

Rounding out the cast are a few more recognizable faces. Jaime Bell gives another riff on the clueless but loyal manchild he played in King Kong as Doc's loyal pal Iggy. Paul Walker and Barry Pepper give effective performances simply for showing up and being so recognizable. Because the battle scenes are so chaotic there is no time to meet everyone. Our psychic connection to these men is sympathy for their basic humanity but it is deepened by these recognizable faces.

Structurally Flags of Our Fathers bounces around time periods from modern times, where veterans recall the battle, to scenes prior to and during the battle that are intercut with scenes from the heroes tour of America. The lurching about can be confounding but this is not fatal flaw. Clint Eastwood's work is far too extraordinary to be damaged by some minor editing choices.

The battle scenes in Flags of Our Fathers rival the carnage and heroics of Speilberg's Saving Private Ryan, and Speilberg is a producer on Flags. The carnage, the torn and tortured bodies of thousands of American soldiers who gave their lives for this sliver of land, no bigger than New York City, is exceptionally and stunningly rendered.

Clint Eastwood's calm and assured direction of Flags Of Our Fathers helps us settle in to an unsettling and violent experience. Brilliantly balancing honoring our heroes while not overly sentimentalizing them, Eastwood crafts a film that pays tribute without begging for your love and your sympathy. Never falling back on patriotic asides, Flags of Our Fathers earns your admiration by telling a true story in a most compelling and heartbreaking fashion.

Letters From Iwo Jima, Eastwood's Japanese based follow up to Flags of Our Fathers will be released in February. Ken Watanabe stars as the leader of Japanese forces in the battle. The verisimilitude of this venture only serves to deepen the stories being told. On it's own Flags of Our Fathers is a powerful, moving even heartbreaking story. Imagining what it will be like once we see it from the other side makes Flags of Our Fathers even more fascinating.

Flags of Our Fathers is a must see movie.

Movie Review Man of the Year

Man of the Year (2006) 

Directed by Barry Levinson

Written by Barry Levinson

Starring Robin Williams, Christopher Walken, Laura Linney, Lewis Black, Jeff Goldblum, Amy Poehler

Release Date October 13th, 2006

Published October 20th, 2006

Robin Williams is not hip. He's funny, energetic and a legit star but he is not hip. That makes his role as a star political comic, ala the undeniably hip Jon Stewart, in the new movie Man of the Year more than a little ill fitting. Williams is quite funny in notching a number of smart and quite pointed political barbs but also a number of jokes that are a little past their sell by date.

Of course, if Williams' hit and miss jokes were the film's only problem with Man of the Year it would not be so bad. Unfortunately, director Barry Levinson throws in one terribly awkward subplot that takes Man of the Year from merely flawed to flailing.

Tom Dobbs (Williams) has a top rated cable show on which he talks about the issues of the day with edgy, politically incorrect humor. One night before the show an audience member gives Tom a crazy idea, why doesn't he run for president. Floating the idea on the show, Tom gets a huge response on the internet that leads to him declaring his candidacy and getting on the ballot in 13 states.

On the campaign trail with his showbiz manager Jack (Christopher Walken), and his head writer Eddie (Lewis Black), Tom's approach to the campaign is serious and joke-free. Tom desperately wants to be taken seriously as a candidate. That plan goes out the window when Tom gets into the presidential debate and begins riffing on the hot button issues of the day as acerbically as he might on his show.

His debate performance garnered a lot of attention but there is no way he could possibly win. Or is there? Somewhere out in the San Fernando Valley a computer company has earned the contract nationwide to provide electronic voting systems. The system has a serious bug in it that is discovered by Eleanor (Laura Linney), the company's lead programmer. On election night when Eleanor realizes the bug she found was not fixed; she decides she must blow the whistle, something the company will not allow to happen (cue ominous music).

The computer company subplot is a thriller element that this film absolutely botches. After launching an interesting concept, a comedian elected president, director Barry Levinson gets distracted by the details of how such a thing could happen. Tossing together this computer voting/thriller plot, Levinson gives us a plausible reason as to how a comedian could get elected president but misses the more interesting plot, how would a comedian run the country.

Watching Man of the Year I kept hoping that Levinson would cut through the thriller plot and show more of Tom Dobbs comedian figuring out how to be the most powerful man in the world. His thoughts on this rather momentous occasion beyond the jokes might be some place to start. But Levinson, I gather, just didn't believe audiences would buy Tom getting elected without some chicanery.

It's a fair bet that many people might not buy the premise without the computers, but that really isn't the point. We are at a place right now where most of the country is in the center and the rest are divided to extremes and make most of the noise. The idea that the center might rally to a centrist candidate, say a charismatic comedian, is an interesting and timely idea. Man of the Year has that idea but tosses it in favor of a dull thriller plot.

In early 2002 Robin Williams did a standup special on HBO that absolutely killed. His comedic skills having been tarnished by a few years worth of really bad movies, Patch Adams-Jack-Bicentennial Man, he bounced back with a tremendously funny concert set. That concert, in which Williams mixed his wildman schtick with some very smart and pointed humor, is the template for the character of Tom Dobbs, wildly energetic and very smart.

Part of the genius of Robin Williams in that HBO special and here in Man of the Year is the risks he takes with his humor. Always on the edge between funny and cringe inducing, Williams rides that razors edge in Man of the Year by recycling Clinton era humor that makes you snore while making timely references to the middle east quagmire, gay marriage and racism. When he's on, Williams rivals Jon Stewart and Bill Maher in irreverence and smarts, when he's off however he's Carrot Top crossed with Richard Jeni.

Thankfully, Williams is on far more than he's off in Man of the Year. It's just a shame he doesn't get more time to be on or off. Williams is forced off screen far too often in Man of the Year to make room for the thriller plot. I love Laura Linney but there is nothing that even someone of her tremendous talent can do with this ill-fated material. The way that Barry Levinson brings her and Williams together in the film, marrying the thriller and comedy plot in a romantic subplot, is almost less believable than the crappy thriller plot.

Robin Williams hasn't been this good in awhile. It's a shame that his efforts are often squandered in a film that just can't commit to a good premise. Politicians need courage of convictions, at least the few good ones do, and the Man of the Year too needed a little courage. The courage to craft a comic idea that is timely and relevant. Unfortunately, Barry Levinson lacks that courage and instead falls back on plot mechanics and thriller beats that interrupt what might otherwise be a pretty good political farce.

What a shame.

Movie Review: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre The Beginning

Texas Chainsaw Massacre The Beginning (2006)

Directed by Jonathan Liebesman

Written by Sheldon Turner

Starring Jordana Brewster, Matt Bomer, R. Lee Ermey, Diora Baird, Andrew Bryniarski

Release Date October 6th, 2006

Published October 7th, 2006

The title Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning is a little bit curious. Tipping the fact that this is a prequel to the 1974 original (and that films 2003 remake) removes a little tension from the films central story of four 20 somethings captured on the backroads of Texas by the family that would go on to be famous for their brutality and depravity.

If any one of these four kids were to escape from Leatherface and clan it would negate the films that follow The Beginning in the timeline. Removing the tension from the storyline leaves only the grindhouse brutality which director Jonathan Liebesman delivers by the bucketload, but in service of what.

Any one who knows anything about horror movies knows the legend of the Hewitt family. Sadistic Texas cannibals who from the late sixties to the mid-seventies prayed on people who made the mistake of passing through their god forsaken part of the Texas flatlands. Their poster boy, the maniacal Leatherface (most recently played by Anthony Bryniarski) wielding a bloodsoaked chainsaw which he wields like a butchers tool to cut human meat.

In Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning director Jonathon Liebesman gives us an origin story for Leatherface and his creeptastic backwoods family lead by Uncle Charlie (R. Lee Ermey). When the local slaughterhouse closed down; let's just say that their one employee -Thomas "Leatherface" Hewitt- did not take it well. Murdering his former employer he walked away from the slaughterhouse and into the life of a cold blooded maniac, with a little push from his equally crazed Uncle who murders the town's one and only cop when he attempts to arrest Thomas.

Meanwhile, on a lonely stretch of highway, not far from this carnage, two brothers; Dean (Taylor Handley) and Eric (Matthew Bomer) and their respective girlfriends; Bailey (Diora Baird) and Chrissie (Jordana Brewster); are on a road trip that will culminate with the brothers arrival at a military base and from there a trip to the jungles of Vietnam. What Dean, however, has not told his older brother; is that he is not planning on going to Vietnam and is in fact on his way to Mexico.

These plans take a massive and horrific detour when a biker runs them off the road and into a cow and a major accident. All four survive with Chrissie having been thrown from the car. When the sheriff shows up, now Uncle Charlie calling himself Sheriff Hoyt, he sets the tone for the nightmare to come by killing the menacing biker chick with no provocation. He then loads three of the friends into the cop car for a trip back to the Hewitt homestead and some unimaginable terrors.

No points for guessing that Chrissie will follow her friends in a vain attempt at rescue. What else could she do as a moronic horror movie character? Run until she is able to locate someone who isn't a backwoods psychopath?

This set up takes far too long to get started and by the time the carnage begins you really don't care. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning has already established itself as a vehicle for gruesome, blood soaked carnage and thus the heaping of one body atop another fails to elicit anything new aside from a minor admiration for whomever it was that had to craft that much fake blood. That was a big job.

Director Jonathon Liebesman is not without style and professionalism but his various depictions of brutality are meaningless to an audience already desensitized to such depictions by far more skillful horror films like the Saw pictures and The Descent and even less skillful exploitation pictures like Hostel or Wolf Creek which are just as bloodsoaked and even more sadistic in terms of the brutality presented.

What The Beginning needed was some tension in the storytelling. That went out the window, of course, when the producers, including Michael Bay who also commissioned the 2003 remake, decided to make a Texas Chainsaw Massacre prequel. Right away all of the possible tension as to whether the young gap models lined as cannon fodder for Leatherface might escape is gone. You know everyone is going to die; the only question is how gruesome that death will be.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning relies entirely on brand loyalty. If audiences are loyal to the Texas Chainsaw brand they will turn out for anything. The red meat promised in The Beginning is the origin of Leatherface. That, unfortunately, is not all that interesting. Leatherface was always a hulking, personality free, brute and simply showing us how he picked out that ugly mug of his, made from human flesh, is not all that compelling. As origin stories this is not exactly of mythic quality.

The one slightly entertaining element of TCM:TB is former drill Sergeant R. Lee Ermey as crazy Uncle Charlie. Ermey bites into the role with the same violent relish he brought to his foul mouthed drill sergeant in Full Metal Jacket. My appreciation for his work in TCM:TB is admittedly more camp than it is honest appreciation of his acting talent. I got a kick out the over the top way he played this character and how convincingly bonkers the host of the History Channel's viewer mail show could be.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning never really had a chance to be successful. With the tension sucked out by it's title and premise and only its gore to rely upon, the chances that this film had to be a compelling and truly frightening horror film were next to nothing. Director Jonathon Liebesman gives it the old college try and delivers a skilled presentation of blood soaked violence but his efforts were futile from the start.

Even diehard Leatheface fans will have a hard time finding anything to enjoy about Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning.

Movie Review: Employee of the Month

Employee of the Month (2006) 

Directed by Greg Coolidge

Written by Don Calame, Chris Conroy 

Starring Dane Cook, Jessica Simpson, Dax Shepard, Andy Dick, Harland Williams

Release Date October 6th, 2006 

Published October 5th, 2006

Dane Cook is a comedian whose energetic style often masks some pretty mundane material. That may be why he was cast in the comedy Employee of the Month. The humor of Employee, written by Don Calame and Chris Conway and directed by Greg Coolidge, is lethargic to the point of non-existence. It needs a charismatic comic presence to make it even moderately humorous.

Unfortunately Cook delivers a performance as lazy as the comic material in the film and thus Employee of the Month is a tedious moviegoing experience.

In Employee of the Month Dane Cook stars as Zach a ten year member of the Super Value family. Ten years he has worked there without ever advancing beyond the role of box boy. Meanwhile, his arch-nemesis Vince (Dax Shepard) is in line to become assistant manager someday. Vince is a superstar cashier whose speed with a pricing gun has earned him Employee of the Month 17 months in a row, not to mention lines of cashier groupies.

The feud between Zack and Vince comes to a head when a new cashier joins the team. Her name is Amy (Jessica Simpson) and the rumor mill has it that she only dates the employee of the month. Now; slacker Zack, who has only existed to this point to be unnoticed, must become a model employee if he is to defeat Vince for employee of the month and win the affections of the smoking hot Amy.

That is the basic gist of Employee of the Month a factory produced comedy from Lionsgate meant to take advantage of the rising starpower of comedian Dane Cook. Unfortunately for Lionsgate, the film they made does nothing to take advantage of Cook's style. Dane Cook is a comic whose energy often masks material that is kind of weak. Cook is a relationship comic who uses clever twist of phrase and his lanky physicality to sell material that is kind of funny but not exactly brilliant.

The material of Employee of the Month fits Cook's style but the performance coaxed from the comic by director Greg Coolidge is lazy, something that Cook doesn't do well. Cook can pull off slacker but lazy he is not. His stage shows are marathons of energy and charisma and because he is not a very good actor; sticking closely to what Cook does well would have been better than trying to shoehorn him into this character.

There is one funny thing about Employee of the Month but, unfortunately, I don't believe it was intended to be funny. Jessica Simpson earns all of the biggest laughs in the film but not because she can deliver a terrific punchline. Simpson, more often than not, is the punchline. With  her plunging neckline arriving in many scenes well before she does, Simpson is like a dimmer version of Pamela Anderson; who at least has the awareness to know why people are staring at her.

Simpson's every line delivered with a slight girlish giggle as if every word were a new kind of embarrassment. This is a performance of spectacular awfulness, the kind of performance the Razzies were created to honor, point and laugh at. On the bright side, at least Simpson gives us something to laugh at in this otherwise humor free comedy.

Dane Cook could become a big time movie star with the right material. While I don't believe he is that great a comic, he is charismatic and clever. Women seem to find him attractive, they make up a large part of his mostly college based following. He has all of the basic elements of stardom and only needs the right vehicle to break out of the pack.

Employee of the Month is bad material combined with a director who doesn't quite understand how to get the right performances from his actors. Cook needed more energy and Simpson needed to not be cast at all. Then, maybe, Employee of the Month might not be the complete waste of film stock that it is.

Movie Review The Departed

The Departed (2006) 

Directed by Martin Scorsese

Written by William Monahan

Starring Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Vera Farmiga, Alec Baldwin

Release Date October 6th, 2006

Published October 5th, 2006

I know that when you hear some critic say that such and such movie is the best movie of the year you must roll your eyes a little bit. Take it with a grain of salt and what not. But I am telling you honestly that thus far in 2006 I have yet to see a film as accomplished, entertaining, shocking and moving as The Departed, the latest from the brilliant mind of director Martin Scorsese.

A remake of the Hong Kong classic Infernal Affairs, The Departed is no simple retelling of someone else's story. Scorsese takes the sketch of Infernal Affairs and makes the story his own, shifting the action to South Boston -surprisingly not his home turf in New York City- and casting a large group of well respected actors, The Departed separates itself from its inspiration, and becomes pure Scorsese.

In a snaky two pronged plot Leonardo DiCaprio stars in The Departed as Billy Costigan a Boston native with ties to the tough crime ridden streets of south Boston and the upscale side of town as well. This dichotomy has led Billy to the state police academy where his background comes to the attention of the undercover unit headed up by Capt. Queenan (Martin Sheen) and his right hand man Sgt. Dignum (Mark Wahlberg).

Costigan is perfect for the undercover unit's needs because his father and uncle were well known in the south Boston neighborhood where mobster Frank Costello runs things. With his lineage people in the neighborhood would have an easy time believing him as a criminal freshly released from prison looking to find an in with Costello's crew. The assignment still however, requires Costigan to spend three months behind bars, deep undercover, in order to sell the story.

Costigan's job is to get in close with Costello, catch him with some big criminal enterprise and help put him away. Not an easy task however, given Costello's crafty paranoia and a mole in the police department that keeps Costello a step ahead of the cops. Luckily for Costigan, Queenan works apart from the rest of the department, thus his identity remains a mystery to the mole.

The corrupt cop inside the department is a fast rising, ambitious south Boston kid named Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon). Colin was raised under the wing of Frank Costello and bred to become a cop specifically to help out Costello sometime in the future. When Costello suspects there is a cop in his crew he turns to Sullivan to find him.

Working from a very smart script by William Monahan, Martin Scorsese crafts a gut wrenchingly violent thriller that twists and turns in cat and mouse fashion and keeps audiences on the edge of their seat before devastating them with stunning violence. This is some of the smartest and most violent work of Scorsese's career and never before has he kept his audience more off their guard.

Leonardo DiCaprio keeps getting better and better as he grows further away from the teen idol persona that was thrust upon him even before Titanic. DiCaprio and Scorsese work so well together with Scorsese bringing out Dicaprio's masculinity and DiCaprio bringing vulnerability to Scorsese's tough guy world. It's a perfect match in The Departed where DiCaprio perfectly balances the conflicting bravado and fear of an undercover officer in the midst of a highly volatile situation.

Being a native of Boston Matt Damon brings an authentic accent to his role but it is his darting eyes and cutthroat wits that make Colin the complicated, cold blooded, center of The Departed. Damon is ice cold, reminiscent of his serial killer in The Talented Mr. Ripley. The characters are both ambitious and eager to please on the surface, hiding a dark side capable of just about anything.

For popcorn entertainment in The Departed it's all about Jack. Jack Nicholson's charismatic wacko mobster is outsized and yet believable. The ruthless, hard edge, nature of Frank Costello matched with the wildly charming Nicholson persona is both horrifying and fascinating. Combining elements of his own well crafted persona with elements of his wildly diverse characters of the past, Nicholson plays Costello as part Cuckoo's nest, part Shining and part L.A Lakers courtside peacock. It's a wonderful and terrifying performance.

The most entertaining thing about The Departed however, is watching Scorsese return to the genre that he made great, the gritty from the streets thriller. While I loved both Gangs of New York and The Aviator for their grand ambition and exulting scale, both are at times desperate and cloying. You can see where Scorsese got the reputation for courting the academy with these pictures. Having Bob and Harvey Weinstein produce both pictures only exacerbated the issue.

There is nothing desperate or cloying in The Departed. This is Scorsese telling a story with smarts and guts. Spilling blood, firing bullets and crafting tough guy characters that we haven't seen since the last time Scorsese hit the streets with his iconic gangster flick Goodfellas. If Scorsese never made another picture The Departed would be the perfect film to truly capture his legacy, a smart, tough, rough-hewn gangster epic.

The Departed is unquestionably the best film of 2006. Scorsese finally stepping out from under the influence of the awards greedy Weinstein clan, returns to his roots for a story he truly knows how to tell. A potboiler from the streets, with great dialogue and extraordinary violence. This is Scorsese's milieu, his home turf, and he takes full advantage in The Departed.

This is an absolute must see picture.

Movie Review The Guardian

The Guardian (2006) 

Directed by Andrew Davis 

Written by Ron L. Brinkerhoff

Starring Kevin Costner, Ashton Kutcher, Sela Ward, Melissa Sagemiller, Clancy Brown, Omari Hardwick

Release Date September 29th, 2006 

Published September 29th, 2006 

Kevin Costner is maturing quite well into his elder statesman role. He has turned in a series of strong older leading man performances in Open Range, The Upside of Anger and he was the only appealing element of the abysmal romantic comedy Rumor has It. Costner's latest picture may be his most obvious transitional work. As a coast guard trainer to upstart Ashton Kutcher's rescue swimmer trainee, Costner is seen in The Guardian as passing the torch to a new generation.

If that last line isn't indication enough of the cheeseball nature of The Guardian wait till you hear the Bryan Adams tune that closes this eye rolling action adventure.

Kevin Costner stars in The Guardian as Senior Chief Ben Randall, a coast guard rescue swimmer. It is Ben's job to jump from helicopters into the roiling waters of the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska and save lives. As a near 20 year veteran, no one has saved nearly as many lives. Sadly for Ben his latest mission led to a tragic accident that killed his entire crew, including his closest friend.

Washed out to the Coast Guard's elite training facility called A School, Ben is forced to give up rescue swimming in favor of training the next generation of swimmers. Amongst the new recruits is a brash former high school swimming champion named Jake Fischer. A hot head who lacks leadership and teamwork skills, Fischer clashes immediately with his new mentor.

No points for guessing that the adversarial relationship between Ben and Jake eventually comes to grudging respect to fatherly protectiveness before they are finally ready to save lives together. Yes, The Guardian as directed by Andrew Davis (The Fugitive); is as predictable as a road map. That said, the action on the high seas, the dangerous windswept life saving moments are more often than not very exciting.

Andrew Davis knows his way around great action from the train escape sequence in The Fugitive to the explosions of the otherwise awful Arnold Schwarzenneger flick Collateral Damage to the high seas action of The Guardian. It's the other aspects of direction, character, plot, tone, where Davis struggles as a director.

Working from a script by Ron Brinkerhoff, whose only other credit is the straight to video Sly Stallone pic D-Tox, Davis crafts a film that is part big action and part cheeseball kitsch. Every critic in the country has mentioned the obvious parallels between The Guardian and other military male bonding flicks like Top Gun, An Officer and A Gentleman and the oft forgotten De Niro flick Men Of Honor. The Guardian does nothing to separate itself from these films, heavily lifting from each with no regard for originality.

The Guardian had me rolling my eyes early on as we met Ben Randell's wife played by Sela Ward. If you guessed that Randall is one of those married to his job types and because of that his wife is leaving him; well, of course, you're right. This is such an obvious and obligatory scene, Ward's character moving her things out of their shared home, that it almost seems intentionally humorous. Almost.

Despite the predictability, despite the cheeseball way that director Andrew Davis rips off other similar films, I still found myself wrapped up in The Guardian. The action on the high seas is edge of your seat stuff with some terrifically well integrated CGI effects and a pair of game if waterlogged stars. Costner and Kutcher play well off of each other in the action scenes, really playing up the father-son dynamic of their relationship.

The film also has a credible, if not exactly smoking hot, romance for Kutcher's Jake Fischer. Melissa Sagemiller plays Emily; a school teacher who falls for Jake despite knowing that he will be shipped far away from where they meet, at the training school. The scenes between Kutcher and Sagemiller  begin with yet another of those predictable, been there done that moments, one where the cocky cadet bets his pals he can pick up the hottest girl in the bar in under a minute. It's a cheesy, eye rolling start, but these likable actors manage to make the romance work because they have pretty good chemistry.

Movie Review: Flyboys

Flyboys (2006) 

Directed by Tony Bill 

Written by David S. Ward 

Starring James Franco, Martin Henderson, Jean Reno, Jennifer Decker, Tyler Labine

Release Date September 22nd, 2006 

Published September 23rd, 2006 

The story of the Lafayette Escadrille was a passion project for producer Dean Devlin. But, even the man whose resume includes Independence Day and The Patriot could not get a major studio interested in spending the money necessary to make a movie about American pilots who fought for the French in World War 1. Enter David Ellison; the scion of Oracle founder Larry Ellison, who had a few million dollars burning a hole in his pocket and a love of flying.

Together with director Tony Bill, Devlin and Ellison raised 60 million dollars, mostly their own money, and made Flyboys. The investment was not a great one. There is a reason studios did not commit to this picture and it involves a script that is lightweight, a romance that is far from grand and a lack of the star power necessary to make Flyboys a sell to mass audiences.

On the bright side, the flying scenes turned out really cool.

With Europe in chaos and Germany preparing to take the whole of France a call went out for pilots to join the French army in fighting back. It was 1916, more than a year before the United States officially declared war on the Austro-Hungarian alliance, and though their country was not part of the war, a few American boys were offered the chance to go to France and become fighter pilots.

Known as the Lafayette Esquadrille; these American flyboys arrived with all of the cock and swagger of your typical American and found a war lilke none had ever seen before. In the film Flyboys, a fictional depiction of the Lafayette squadron, James Franco takes the lead role of Blaine Rawlings a texan on the run from debts that have taken his family ranch.

After seeing a newsreel advertising the chance to become a pilot and fight the Germans, Rawlings jumped aboard a steam ship to France, just ahead of the cops on his tail. Arriving in the outskirts of France, far from the glamour of Paris, Rawlings is joined by several fresh faced americans with similar hopes of becoming pilots and of escaping difficult pasts.

There is Beagle (David Ellison) a cocky but secretive wannabe pilot whose past is even more complicated than Rawlings'. Briggs (Tyler Labine) would seem to have the easiest life as a son of privilege however, it was his pushy and unrelenting father (Timothy Pigott Smith) who pushed him to this fight against his will. Eugene Skinner (Abdul Salis) was a successful boxer in France who left America in hopes of finding a society more accepting of African Americans, now he hopes becoming a pilot can find him acceptance back home.

There is, of course, the obligaory romantic subplot and this is where Flyboys crashes into cliche. The romance between James Franco's Rawlings and a girl from the French countryside played by Jennifer Decker is truly insipid, beginning with a meet cute where Rawlings mistakes Decker's Lucienne for a prostitute. What follows is a dull, passionless courtship, further complicated by the couple's inability to speak each others language.

The language barrier reminded me of the terrifically funny movie Better Off Dead in which the mother of the nerdy kid who took in the beautiful french exchange student told everyone that her son and her guest spoke 'the international language'. If Franco and Decker's characters in Flyboys were speaking 'the international language' they were not communicating it very well, the romance is just awful; worse yet it's an anchor that drags out the films runtime, achingly over two hours, and keeps the film out of the skies.

When Flyboys is in the air, indulging the action that inspired it, the film often soars. The dogfights with German pilots in cool looking tri-planes, greatly augmented with CGI but often making use of real period aircrafts, are well shot, compelling, even exciting at times. Director Tony Bill, best known for the Emmy nominated TV movie Harlan County War, does a spectacular job combining digital effects with real period aircrafts and delivers some really exciting moments. If only he had had the guts to cut the romance and stick to the action, we would be talking about a much better, and thankfully; much shorter film.

So many directors, studios, and producers have tried to turn James Franco into a star that it is starting to become a sad joke. With his James Dean eyes, pout and brood; Franco has the tools for teen idol-dom but seems to lack either the will or the talent to make the move to real stardom. I enjoyed Franco's performance in the period romance Tristan & Isolde earlier this year but his dour brooding persona, the one he has carried from his supporting roles in Spider-Man to 2005's The Great Raid and the abysmal boxing picture Annapolis, is getting really tired. Someone find this guy a lighthearted romantic comedy before his face freezes in that sad puppy pout.

The most interesting member of the cast is one the films financiers, or atleast a financiers son. David Ellison, the son of Larry Ellison the owner of Oracle who sunk a good chunk into the making of Flyboys, plays Eddie Beagle the jovial but secretive member of the squad who is suspected of spying because he just can't seem to hit anything during fire fights.

Now, before you say nepotism landed David this role keep in mind; this is not his first acting gig. He played student number 1 in the indie flick Chumscrubber and produced, directed and starred in his own indie short called When All Else Fails , unseen and thus unjudged by me. Ellison brings some lovable charm to his role in Flyboys and the fact that he is, in reality, a trained pilot doesn't hurt either.

The supporting cast might actually have made better leads. Jean Reno does as well as he possibly can with the limited role as the French captain in charge of training the Flyboys. Martin Henderson, another actor Hollywood seems intent on turning into a star based on cheekbones alone, registers better than Franco in the role of the cocky veteran flyer who you just know will clash with the equally cocky Franco character before coming to respect him and maybe even fly with him as his wingman.

Poor Jennifer Decker. This lovely young French actress is made to look quite the fool in Flyboys. The scenes of Decker and Franco attempting to communicate but not understanding each other make her look as if she is mentally challenged. And while she is nice looking, the film needs her to be the kind of beauty that a man would be willing to give his life for; a face that would launch a thousand dogfights if you don't mind the illiteration.

Sadly Decker is not quite as attractive as the film wants you to believe. She needs to be supermodel gorgeous because the time that the couple spends together does not establish the kind of emotional or intellectual bonds needed for the kind of commitment that is asked for here. Young lust is really the only thing that could drive this relationship and Decker is not the type to inspire a lust one might give his life for.

When it's flying Flyboys is a pretty good action picture. On the ground however, Flyboys is awash in cliches, predictibility and a couple of truly dreadful performances. James Franco has the looks of a matinee idol but he had better find himself a role that consists of more than just brooding and dimples if he really wants to become a star.

Director Tony Bill aquits himself well as an action director but he needed more discipline and nerve in the editing room. Had he the guts to gut the romance and focus on the Flyboys we would be talking about an entirely different and far more entertaining picture.

Movie Review The Last Kiss

The Last Kiss (2006) 

Directed by Tony Goldwyn 

Written by Paul Haggis 

Starring Zach Braff, Jacinda Barrett, Casey Affleck, Rachel Bilson, Harold Ramis, Blythe Danner 

Release Date September 15th, 2006 

Published September 14th, 2006 

Having turned 30 years old this year I had not really thought about it as a milestone. When I was a kid 30 was old but now that I'm there I don't feel old. In fact I don't feel that much different than the little kid who thought 30 was old. Other than living on my own and having to clean up after myself; I still have some of my childhood hobbies, X-Box, baseball cards and such. The characters in Tony Goldberg's latest directorial effort The Last Kiss are just about to turn 30 and they are terrified. Facing things such as marriage, kids and mortgages, the characters in The Last Kiss face the kind of crises that most men save for their 50th birthday not the 30th.

Zach Braff leads a terrific ensemble in The Last Kiss as Michael; an architect who has just found out his girlfriend Jenna (Jascinda Barrett) is going to have a baby. The panic written on his face is masked by his good humor but is still quite apparent to his pals, Izzy (Michael Weston), Chris (Casey Affleck), and Kenny (Eric Christian Olson).

Michael's friends, like Michael are just about to turn 30 and are also facing grown up issues. Izzy just lost the girl he has loved since high school and is planning an escape to Mexico. Kenny is thinking of going with Izzy on the road trip, a desire that arises after a woman he met and had one night stand with tries introduce him to her parents. And then there is Chris; the only married man in the group. Chris and his wife Danielle (Lauren Lee Smith) have been struggling since having their baby boy and Chris thinks he wants out.

For Michael the troubling grown up thought has coalesced around one thing. If he commits to being with Jenna for the rest of his life she will be the last woman he will ever kiss, a haunting prospect for a 29 year old who feels his best years are still ahead of him. When a college girl, Kim (Rachel Bilson), approaches him at a wedding he see's her beauty but it is her youth that reminds him of his past. He still feels college was the best time of his life. When Michael chances a tryst with Kim it's out of fear of the future as much or more than simply lust.

Directed by Tony Goldwyn from a script by Oscar winner Paul Haggis, The Last Kiss is smart in the ways it draws out these characters and their conflicts. The problems come from the fact that these characters, are childish, selfish and petulant, not exactly the kind of people you go to the movies to meet. Now, there is something to be said for how truthful these characters, true to themselves and their established natures, that still does not make them enjoyable.

Then there is the ending that employs a gimmick in order to resolve the conflict between two central characters. Because neither Goldwyn or Haggis could think of a smarter more mature way to resolve the picture we are left with a character resorting to extreme stubbornness to bring the movie to its conclusion. It's not an egregious issue, nothing that would keep me from recommending this otherwise likable film but it does keep the film from rising from a good movie to a really good movie.

Zach Braff is is quickly becoming a welcome presence on the big screen. His debut in Garden State was a revelation as Braff shows chops as an actor and director. As an actor for hire in The Last Kiss, Braff is rumored to have punched up his dialogue a bit at the behest of director Tony Goldwyn. Whether it was Braff or writer Paul Haggis, the writing of Michael is the smartest thing in the film. It's a difficult role because Michael rarely does what we in the audience want him to do. He more than risks being likable but because he is played by Zach Braff we forgive easier than we might with another actor.

Jascinda Barrett is a rising star who I first noticed in the little seen drama The Human Stain. Since then she was a small but winning presence in Bridget Jones 2 and she managed to survive the abysmal remake Poseidon. It's not just her lovely spokesmodel features, Barrett has a real talent for finding the depths of her characters. In The Last Kiss she wonderfully plays Jenna's contentment early on and her stunned sadness later as he entire world crashes around her.

Barrett's Jenna is central to Michael's plot but she is also deeply inolved in the films best subplot. Veterans Blythe Danner and Tom Wilkinson play Jenna's parents. Wilkinson's therapist believes everything is fine as does his daughter but Danner shows that everything is not okay when she decides to reveal an affair she had three years prior to the films timeline and decides to leave her husband. Danner has a fabulous moment where she meets up with the man she cheated with and is sad to find he is now happily married.

Watching Barrett play off Wilkinson and Danner is lovely and grounds the film in maturity when it desperately needs it. Without this subplot the film would be nothing but childish posturing and male pattern whining.

Arrested development is a popular theme in 2006. Characters in movies as varied as the stoner comedy Grandma's Boy, the romantic comedy Failure To Launch, Owen Wilson's Dupree in You Me and Dupree and Vince Vaughn in The Break Up, are all examples of men with severe fears of commitment and growing up. It is as if adulthood has replaced Freddy Krueger as the boogeyman of modern times.

The Last Kiss is the most mature of the group of films which make what used to be called Peter Pan syndrome their subject. These characters are no more willing to grow up but are more thoughtful about the subject than the examples I cited before. By that measure; The Last Kiss is a worthy effort. It helps to have such a naturally funny cast to pull it off.