Movie Review Stardust

Stardust (2007) 

Directed by Matthew Vaughn

Written by Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman

Starring Charlie Cox, Claire Danes, Robert De Niro, Michele Pfeiffer, Mark Strong, Sienna Miller

Release Date August 10th, 2007

Published August 10th, 2007

From the wildly inventive mind of Neil Gaiman comes Stardust. The fantasy of Stardust combines science fiction and romance with some wondrous takes on literary legends. On the surface; director Matthew Vaughn may not seem the ideal choice for such light hearted romantic notions. A protégé of Britain's maestro of violence Guy Richie, Vaughn's first outing as a director was the Richie influenced Layer Cake, a mob story with a pre-Bond Daniel Craig.

Nevertheless, Vaughn pulls off a near masterpiece of genre fiction in Stardust.

Tristan (Charlie Cox) is a fool for romance. He has fallen in love with the most beautiful woman in all of the town of Wall, Victoria (Sienna Miller) and will go to any length to win her heart, even if it means crossing the wall. The Wall that gives Tristan's hometown its name is a magical barrier between the real world and the realm of Faerie, a kingdom ruled by kings and witches and ghosts and flying pirates.

Most citizens are unaware of what is beyond the wall, only knowing that they are never to cross that wall. Tristan however, must cross the wall when he sees a falling star crash beyond the city limits and he promises that star to Victoria in exchange for her hand. Now Tristan will cross that wall and embark on a life altering adventure.

Opposing Tristan, without knowing it, is a trio of witches led by oldest sister Lamia (Michele Pfeiffer). She needs the star in order to replenish her and her sister's powers. Also on the trail of the star is Septimus (Mark Strong). He needs the star in order to finally inherit the throne of Faerie; ahead of his brothers, four of whom have met with an ugly fate, something that the others may meet as well if Septimus is to become king.

Meanwhile, the star is actually on earth in human form. Her name is Yvaine (Claire Danes) and when she is found by Tristan, the real love story and a truly grand adventure begins.

My description of Stardust makes it sound like a trifle, however, thanks no doubt to the hard boiled influences of director Matthew Vaughn, Stardust is a good deal more tart than I let on. The early scenes between Tristan and Yvaine crackle with conflict, as any good romantic match often does. She is aware that she has been sought as a gift for another, and though he finds her striking, Tristan longs for Victoria.

The film doesn't let this torturous banter go on to long and indeed doesn't play many of the typical romantic games in order to place roadblocks in the lovers path. Matthew Vaughn and co- writer Jane Goldman do a terrific job of allowing the romance to develop naturally and create roadblocks organically rather than by what is often dictated by the history of Hollywood romance.

With a light hearted take on some rather dark materials, Stardust is classically English in wit. Take for example Prince Septimus and his brothers. As they seek the crown, four have already been disposed of in ghastly fashion, even before we meet them. Each brother sticks around after his demise; left in the final pose of their passing. This provides a number of big laughs throughout the picture as the ghosts poke about.

The film also mines laughs from an unexpected source. Robert De Niro plays Captain Shakespeare, a blood thirsty air pirate who sails the sky stealing lightning and toughening up on anyone who dares board his ship unwelcome. When the Captain encounters Tristan and Yvaine, high in the clouds, the scene is strange not just for its location but for the wit of De Niro playing against type.

Who doesn't love a great romance? Stardust has a really good one in the story of Tristan and Yvaine. It's a story rife with conflicting emotions and grand romantic gestures and a good deal of suspense. The conclusion is not shocking but it's not predictable either, Yvaine is a star and must one day return to the sky. How that is resolved is a clever bit of romantic engineering, and don't forget that the lovely Sienna Miller plays Victoria.

Stardust also has a grand adventure as we take to the skies with pirates who harvest lightning and do battle with kings and witches. It's a wonderfully literate tale that will delight readers and non-readers alike. For the literate; nods to Tolkien and Shakespeare are a treat, while never distracting from the adventure and romance familiar to everyone. This is an artful yet still populist picture that can dazzle the film buff and the parents dragged to the theater by his teenagers, all in the same scene.

Stardust is a big step forward for director Matthew Vaughn. His leap in genre from hard boiled crime to light as a feather romance and broad science fiction; is a leap most directors could not make. His range is only a small example of his talent. Watching Stardust you sense a director of great confidence, poise and imagination. Beneath the surface of sometimes surly dialogue, is the soul of a poet and a big heart. All of which will serve Vaughn well as he strives for his first masterpiece.

Stardust is almost there. A terrific example of a talent on the rise, Stardust is a crowd pleasing romantic adventure for any audience.

Movie Review Reservation Road

Reservation Road (2007) 

Directed by Terry George 

Written by John Burnham Schwartz, Terry George 

Starring Mark Ruffalo, Joaquin Phoenix, Jennifer Connelly, Mira Sorvino

Release Date October 19th, 2007

Published October 26th, 2007

Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Ruffalo engage in a suffering contest in the hit and run drama Reservation. Directed by Oscar nominee Terry George, Joaquin Phoenix stars as Professor Ethan Learner whose son is killed in a hit and run accident. The driver of the blue SUV that drove away into the night after killing the 10 year old boy was Dwight Arnow, a lawyer who was simply driving his son home after a game at Fenway Park. Dwight is divorced and at the time of the accident was answering yet another cell phone call from his ex-wife wanting to know when their son would be brought home.

Leaving the scene of the accident and returning home, Dwight hides his damaged car in his garage. He heads to work the next day in an attempt to pretend nothing is wrong. Meanwhile, Ethan is dealing with the police and finding that there is little that he can do besides suffer. Growing ever more frustrated with the glacial pace of the investigation, Ethan decides to hire lawyers to keep the fire burning under the police. In an unlikely, ironic twist Ethan hires Dwight’s law firm and Dwight’s boss assigns the case to him. Now Dwight is in a perfect position to get away with his crime except that his client is more diligent and determined than most and it’s clear some sort of confrontation must ensue.

Directed by Terry George and adapted by George and author John Burnham Schwarz from Schwarz’s award winning novel, Reservation Road stretches credulity to continuously place Dwight and Ethan on a collision course. As the film begins we are treated to a moving drama about loss, guilt, sadness and despair. Unfortunately, as the story is stretched and twisted to place Dwight in Ethan’s employ and interconnect them in other unlikely ways, the film slowly evolves into a weak suspense thriller. Dark, soulful performances by Phoenix and Ruffalo are wasted as George and Schwartz succumb to the mainstream pressure to make this story something it is not.

Reservation Road should not be a suspense thriller. This is a movie about sadness and loss, fathers and sons, guilt and innocence and the random nature of life. Things that happen in an instance can change lives forever. These are extraordinary themes, more than enough ammunition for a great drama. Combined with a cast of Oscar nominees and winners, Jennifer Connelly and Mira Sorvino join Phoenix and Ruffalo, the themes of Reservation Road should be more than enough to fill a very good movie. Sadly, the crass, commercial pressures of the movie business act upon Reservation Road and turn this moving drama into something people can chomp popcorn to.

Step by step as the film turns away from its dramatic core, it becomes more and more ludicrous and overwrought and it is truly, truly ashamed. With a little more care and concern, Reservation Road could have been something extraordinary.

Movie Review: Things We Lost in the Fire

Things We Lost in the Fire (2007) 

Directed by Susanne Bier 

Written by Allen Loeb 

Starring Halle Berry, Benicio Del Toro, David Duchovny, Omar Benson Miller, Allison Lohman

Release Date October 19th. 2007 

Published November 5th, 2007 

The Oscar curse is over for Halle Berry. After subjecting herself and us to the horrors of mainstream flotsam like Catwoman, Perfect Stranger and Gothika, following her well deserved Oscar for Monster's Ball, Halle Berry is back in stride in Things We Lost In The Fire. This difficult drama, co-starring Oscar winner Benicio Del Toro, brings Halle Berry back from the brink with a character every bit as memorable and deeply affecting as her Monster's Ball award winner.

Steven Burke (David Duchovny) was loved by his family and loyal to his friends. He was the kind of guy who would go out of his way for you, friend or stranger. When he died, he left a hole that would be impossible to fill. Steven's death is the dramatic drive of Things We Lost In The Fire which stars Halle Berry as Steven's wife Audrey and Benicio Del Toro as his troubled best friend Jerry.

Playing out in flashbacks and flash forwards we see Steven as the Mr. nice guy that he was, we see his funeral and its aftermath. The style sounds distracting but under the skilled eye of director Suzanne Bier we are never lost or confused. Bier uses this style to great advantage, setting up dramatic points and paying them off with powerful, cathartic moments.

Benicio Del Toro's Jerry is a heroin addict and yet Steven remained his friend. Taking time week after week to drop in on Jerry, Steven is saint-like in devotion to his old friend. When he dies, Jerry is the last to know and his arrival at the funeral in his rumpled over sized suit and dark circled eyes, is greeted with great discomfort.

Despite her obvious discomfort, Audrey is driven to take up her husband's cause and check in on Jerry. When she see's him honestly attempting to get sober; she does what she thinks Steven would have done and invites him to stay in their garage, easily converted to a small apartment. The conceit sounds strained, she has two kids and brings a virtual stranger and drug addict to live in her home? It's a stretch but Berry and Del Toro make us believe it.

Suzanne Bier is from Germany and she brings a distinctly European conceit to Things We Lost In The Fire. Focusing on her actors to tell the story, rather than employing an arching narrative, Bier gets inside these characters through the eyes of her actors. Tight close ups, right on the eyes truly give us a sense of these characters' pained souls.

Things We Lost In The Fire can be oppressively sad at times. This is a very downcast film. It's about loss and pain and heartache. On the other hand it's also about remembrance, recovery and catharsis. Allison Lohman plays Kelly in the film, a member of Jerry's narcotics anonymous group and she has a moment in Things We Lost In The Fire that is beautifully bold and probing. It's about remembering, it's about forgiveness and it leads to more powerful moments of catharsis.

John Carroll Lynch, so good in David Fincher's Zodiac earlier this year, is a real scene stealer as Steven and Audrey's neighbor, Howard, who adopts Jerry as his new best friend. Desperately unhappily married  Howard is kind of pathetic but in a cheery sort of way. He first meets Jerry at Steven's funeral and after Jerry moves into the garage, Howard insinuates himself into Jerry's daily life, eventually offering to help him get a job.

Like the tremendous star turns of Del Toro and Berry, these supporting turns are nearly flawless in their execution and in the way that director Suzanne Bier reveals them.

Things We Lost In The Fire has a few minor issues. The structure can be a little jarring and there is one scene, late in the film, between Del Toro and Berry involving her asking him about drugs, that is truly wrongheaded, nevertheless this is an exceptional film. The acting is phenomenal. The direction is of near perfect pitch and though it is admittedly grim in tone, the cathartic moments more than make up for the sadness.

Hey, sometimes a good cry isn't such a bad thing.

Movie Review: Fred Claus

Fred Claus (2007) 

Directed by David Dobkin

Written by Dan Fogelman

Starring Vince Vaughn, Paul Giamatti, Rachel Weisz, Miranda Richardson, Elizabeth Banks

Release Date November 9th, 2007 

Published November 9th, 2007

Holiday movies are low art to begin with. Hacky, cheap to produce garbage rendered as cash machines by hungry cable networks desperate for products to plaster on the screen throughout the month of December. The latest holiday film to chum the water is Fred Claus starring Vince Vaughn and Paul Giamatti. The story of Santa's bitter, misanthropic older brother, Fred Claus actually had some potential.

That potential was undone, as so often happens in Hollywood, by commercial concerns. A vain attempt to attract the family audience to what was an edgy Bad Santa-esque comedy, turned out a rather dull PG comedy that manages only minor laughs from its irrepressible star.

Sometime in the 1700's Fred Claus watched from the rafters as his little brother Nick was born. Though Fred vowed to be the best big brother ever things changed as they grew up. Nick's unending generosity and the constant adoration the little guy received turned Fred bitter and jealous. When Nick became the patron saint of gift giving, a divination that offered the whole family spouses included life without death, things became even more strained.

While Nick went off to the North Pole, Fred moved to Chicago. While Nick gave gifts, Fred became a repo-man and began taking things. Christmas became the happiest time of the year because of Nick, and Fred came to hate the season. Despite his overall bitterness, Fred still had a girlfriend (Rachel Weisz) and in order to keep her he needs to finally come through on a get rich quick scheme. Needing money, Fred calls Nick and a trip to the north pole is arranged.

If you guessed that all sorts of wackiness ensues when Fred arrives in Santa's village then congratulations you have basic cognitive abilities. If wackiness did not ensue that would be surprising. Fred hates being in the north pole, especially having to work for the money his brother is loaning him and that leads to Fred disrupting toy production, upsetting his visiting parents, and even drawing Saint Nick into a fight, an actual fight.

Is any of this all that funny? No, not really. The situations are rote and predictable. There are a few laughs in these scenes because Vince Vaughn is far too talented not to trip over a laugh here and there. Most of his humor however comes from rye observation and not from anything relating the undercooked plot of Fred Claus.

The major failing of Fred Claus is the many changes in tone that were necessary to make this a PG rated family flick. Raging beneath the family safe dialogue and slapstick is a story and a group of characters desperate to be the kind of adults that made Bad Santa such a gem. The moments wear Vince Vaughn looks to break out of the family flick constraints are edited painfully to avoid the fun we know he and the movie wants to have.

As a fan of Wedding Crashers and the work of director David Dobkin in that classic comedy, I know that what is on the screen in Fred Claus is not the movie he intended to make. I sense an honest attempt to make a different kind of holiday film, one that could straddle the line between families and older teens with smart, edgy humor.

Sadly, they came too close to the edge and when the studio saw that the film might not play it safe enough for the limp family audience, the clippers came out and much of the good stuff, the truth to these characters' stuff was lost. Maybe I'm giving David Dobkin to much credit, but watching the movie you really sense those missing scenes and the many unfinished ideas that seem like they must have existed in another edit of this movie.

I'm not saying that Fred Claus is some kind of holiday movie version of Blade Runner. Rather, I strongly feel that this talented group of performers had a different and far better film in mind when they started this. Maybe that is just my glass half full side.

Why do I feel that Vince Vaughn, David Dobkin and Paul Giamatti, amongst other talented performers and craftsmen in and around Fred Claus have more integrity than so many others who have used the holiday picture to line their pockets with residuals? Because, I saw the movie and I truly sensed a more interesting idea that was lingering somewhere in the editing.

I can't point specifically to one place in the film that proves my theory but I know it's there. Of course, that is reviewing the film that Fred Claus is not. The film that is actually on the screen is a trite, predictable little movie that will haunt these performers and creators for years to come thanks to the holiday setting.

Movie Review: Beowulf

Beowulf (2007) 

Directed by Robert Zemeckis

Written by Neil Gaiman, Roger Avary 

Starring Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Robin Wright Penn

Release Date November 16th, 2007

Published November 16th, 2007

Allow me to admit my bias against Beowulf right here at the begin of my review. I am not a fan of the technology used to bring this literary classic to life. My preference has been and will always be in favor of real, flesh and blood actors over the computer simulations. The entirely CGI approach of director Robert Zemeckis does absolutely nothing for me.

Some find the technology to be mind blowing, I find it to be lifeless, like watching someone else play a video game. The fact is, this technology hasn't impressed me since 1998's breakthrough animated flick Final Fantasy. That film lacked life as well but was a technical revelation that Robert Zemeckis has been chasing ever since.

Zemeckis' Beowulf like his kiddie flick The Polar Express has done little to improve upon the motion capture animation that made Final Fantasy a breakthrough nearly a decade ago. Though some will say that the eyes of the character are more lively and their movements are less herky jerky, I didn't notice the difference. Then again, I'm biased.

Ray Winstone donned the doodads and googahs to bring himself to CGI life as a gym rat looking Beowulf. All rippling muscle and blustery boastfulness, Beowulf comes to this nameless Danish kingdom in order to slay a demon who hates merriment. Each time the good time charlies of the kingdom get together for some music and some mead, the demon appears and tears them limb from limb.

Enter Beowulf and his army of viking-esque conquerors. Taking time from their raping and pillaging to take advantage of the bounty on the demon's head, Beowulf and company stake out the King's (Anthony Hopkins) mead hall and begin a massive party meant to draw the ire of the demon. It works, but when the demon, Grendel (Crispin Glover), arrive he manages to kill half of Beowulf's men.

Beowulf however, does manage to kill the demon and is soon after named the heir to the king's throne. Not before he is once again pressed into demon killing duty to take on Grendel's mother (Angelina Jolie). Beowulf's showdown with Grendel's mother seems like a success but in reality only maintains a long standing curse on the kingdom that Beowulf soon comes to rule as king.

The last act, with Beowulf as an old man taking on one last battle, is the most compelling of the film but by that point I wasn't all that engaged in this videogame writ large. I simply could not find a way inside this cold, impersonal form of filmmaking. It's not just the creepy looking technologically rendered characters but the storytelling gimmicks employed by director Robert Zemeckis and writers Neil Gaiman and Roger Avery.

The story itself plays like a group of middle aged guys trying to relate to their teenage sons by adopting the hip lingo of the day. Imagine your dad using the phrase 'bling bling' and you get my meaning. Beowulf apes the hip action of 300 but with a tin ear toward why teens went for that blood, guts and technology event.

300 succeeded as a hip music video version of history. Beowulf is classic rock to 300's Finger 11. (Is that a hip reference or what? Hey kids?) 

Putting the ugly technology aside Beowulf, as voiced by the great Ray Winstone, is something of a feckless hero. He boasts of killing copious sea monsters, the number of which changes with every telling of his story. He boasts of killing many demons but even the one he does kill isn't nearly as impressive as the story he fabricates about the killing.

Indeed much of the tale of brave Beowulf comes from his own fantastical storytelling. I get that this is supposed to be his torturous character flaw but it turned me off from the first moment and even when his moment of redemption arrives, late in the third act, I wasn't all that moved. Of course, this could be further attributed to the technology of Beowulf. I can't say whether a flesh and blood actor might have made this character more compelling.

This idea that CGI can compete with real flesh and blood actors is absolutely ludicrous. Take a moment to ponder the lead performance of Ray Winstone in Beowulf and juxtapose it against his minor supporting turn in The Departed and there is no contest. Winstone in person in The Departed is far more interesting than any shred of the fake Ray Winstone crafted in Beowulf.

Frankly, my reaction to Winstone in Beowulf is one of embarrassment. I feel bad for this fine actor that he must be subjected to this treatment in Beowulf. That he must undergo CGI plastic surgery to find stardom in mainstream movies is a sad commentary. Ray Winstone is so much more moving in the flesh than he ever could be in rippling CGI muscle.

The supporting characters are even less interesting. Anthony Hopkins bellows his way through the role of the aging king. Robin Wright Penn's Queen is a lovely CGI rendered beauty but something of a wet blanket in the end. Beowulf's men, including the usually terrific Brenden Gleeson, are colorful but are mostly cannon fodder for the demons.

Only Angelina Jolie as Grendel's mother registers beyond the technology. Though she looks like Angelina Jolie rendered in videogame form, this is a videogame I would love to play. Jolie looks gorgeous in her animated nudity, the naughty bits barely covered by a sheen of gold that forever coats her demon self. Her storyline is undercooked and forgettable but Zemeckis can atleast claim to have created the sexiest cartoon since Jessica Rabbit.

Whether that is something to be proud of I will leave you to answer for yourself.

So what is the point of Beowulf? Reading Roger Ebert's review you get the impression that it is something of a satire. I however, saw the film as deathly self serious, for the most part, with a few moments of ill-conceived humor that feel off key and out of place. Take for instance the extended Austin Powers gag that features a naked Beowulf conveniently placed behind any number of gag props to cover his manhood.

Why must Beowulf be nude? A nod to the underwear models of 300? Maybe, but I don't know for sure. All I know is that Beowulf is quite uncomfortably nude and taking part in scenes that Jerry Seinfeld would no doubt classify as bad naked, as opposed to the Angelina Jolie nude scenes which are entirely good naked in the most gratuitous fashion.

I say nude and yet we are talking about a PG 13 movie. Curious? Somehow the MPAA classifies animated nudity as not being nudity. Of course with Beowulf's little Beowulf conveniently hidden behind a series of props, we have no real test of the MPAA's stomach on the issue of animated nudity. Jolie too is conveniently covered with dripping gold over her naughty bit. This must mean something to the oddballs at the MPAA.

Stranger than the films approach to nudity, and the MPAA's standards for such, is the attitude taken toward violence in the film and by the standard setters. Beowulf is exceptionally bloody and violent in the same blood spurting vein as 300. Yet, without the CGI nakedness, 300 is rated R and Beowulf is PG-13. Beowulf is covered in blood, heads ripped from bodies, limbs and flesh copiously torn and yet the MPAA never feels as if 13 year old children should be protected? What then were they so concerned about with 300?

I must say that I love the kink of CGI nudity and violence messing with the stale minds of the MPAA censors. That they must render a decision on such utter ridiculousness as the sight of animated boobs is terrifically funny.

That I have spent the past few paragraphs discussing things about Beowulf that have little to do with the quality of the film itself should give you a good sense of how little I cared for it overall. I have no interest in discussing the entertainment value of the action or my reactions to the climactic scenes or to the 3D rendering, because my reactions weren't nearly as interesting as the jokey elements on the periphery of this self serious CGI cartoon.

I'm biased. I want real, flesh and blood actors and will accept no substitute. Like the much reviled Jar Jar Binks, Beowulf is an impressive work of technology but he remains lifeless and unmoving to me. Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins and Angelina Jolie do more with the glint in their eyes and the lines of their faces than could ever be captured by a computer. Acting is a physical profession. It is a mind, body, soul profession that communicates emotions and ideas beyond mere words.

The lifeless videogame characters of Beowulf, whether rendered in 3D or flat 2d, can never compel as well as a real life, flesh and blood actor. This is the failure of Beowulf and any film that follows the ludicrous idea that our stars can be replaced with computer chips.

Movie Review Love in the Time of Cholera

Love in the Time of Cholera (2007) 

Directed by Mike Newell 

Written by Ronald Harwood 

Starring Javier Bardem, John Leguizamo, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Benjamin Bratt, Giovanna Mezzogiomo

Release Date November 16th, 2007

Published November 16th, 2007

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's beloved novel Love In The Time Of Cholera has been a cultural touchstone for the faux intellectual since its publication in 1985. Since then anyone trying to prove their intellect might drop in a reference to Love In The Time of Cholera. Filmmakers have long coveted the book as an adaptation prize but most who have endeavored to adapt it had deemed it unfilmable.

Director Mike Newell is the first director unwilling to accept that the book was unfilmable. Despite the talking birds, fifty year span of time, and Marquez's unique dialogue, Newell felt he could make it work as a film. He was wrong. Newell's Love In the Time of Cholera is a mess as a film. Goofy, halting, unintentionally humorous, Love In The Time of Cholera has eluded yet another director, unfortunately this one actually filmed his failed attempt.

Set in Cartagena Colombia near the turn of the 20th century, Love In The Time of Cholera stars Javier Bardem as Florentino Ariza. A telegraph operator, Florentino is not the most desirable husband for a young socialite whose father has ambitions beyond his station. What Florentino does have on his side is the soul of a poet. So, when he falls for the young socialite Fermina (Giovanna Mezzagiorno) he wins her heart with his words, despite the protestations of her father (John Leguizamo).

Carrying on their affair in letters, Florentino and Fermina manage to fall in love even after she is spirited away to her cousin's (Catalina Sandino Moreno) home in the country. Then things get odd. Upon her return to Cartegena, Fermina rejects Florentino. No reason is given, she just decides she is no longer in love with him. Crushed, Florentino vows to love her forever and remain a virgin until she changes her mind and comes back to him.

In the meantime Fermina meets and is seduced by a successful doctor, Juvenal Urbino (Benjamin Bratt), who almost singlehandedly turned the tide on the Columbia's cholera epidemic. Handsome and successful, Urbino is exactly the husband that Fermina's father wants for his daughter. And once again, Florentino is crushed.  His vow to remain chaste is soon foiled while on a boat trip and his discovery of sex leads him to chronicle all of his conquests while he waits for the one woman who can fulfill him.

The script by Oscar winner Ronald Harwood (The Pianist) removes most of the magical elements of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's book. There is no talking bird for one. But, also gone is much of the magic of Marquez's words. His unique patois, the lyrical digressions into scenery description. Many of the things that made people, Mike Newell included, want to adapt Love In The Time Of Cholera into a movie are gone from the movie.

What remains is part weepy chick flick and part goofball male fantasy. Florentino pledges eternal love to Fermina and waits for more than 50 years for his chance to be with her. That kind of romantic devotion certainly won over a few fans. Of course that fifty year wait in the book was built on the foundation of Marquez's unique writing style.

Minus Marquez, Love In The Time of Cholera the movie offers a weepy, whiny hero who actually pales in comparison to the man who actually gets the girl. Watching the film I couldn't help but wonder why any woman would, for a moment ,want Javier Bardem's creepy Florentino over Benjamin Bratt's handsome, successful Dr. Urbino. Indeed, Fermina must have wondered the same as she chose Urbina and stayed with him for 50 years.

Yet we are to believe somehow that Florentino is the hero of this story? All apologies to lovers of the book, but as rendered in the film Love In The Time of Cholera, Florentino is a loser. He's a complete tool. As written by Ronald Harwood, directed by Mike Newell, and played by the very talented Oscar nominee Javier Bardem, Florentino is a drip and a dope and a character who makes even the brilliant and handsome Javier Bardem look like a tool. 

Love In The Time of Cholera is a literary classic for its magical realism and Gabriel Garcia Marquez's fanciful ideas and dialogue. Mike Newell's take on the material is straight and melodramatic and goofy as all get out. Material that Marquez treats with a light satirical passion are given deathly serious takes on film. Poor Javier Bardem is left to carry heavily pained, dramatic moments that audiences are more likely to chuckle at than sympathize with.

Dull, weepy and way too serious about one goofball character, Love In the Time of Cholera is the kind of daft disaster that only a big Hollywood ego can turn out. Well done Mike Newell, well done.

Movie Review Margot at the Wedding

Margot at the Wedding (2007) 

Directed by Noah Baumbach

Written by Noah Baumbach

Starring Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jack Black, John Turturro 

Release Date November 16th, 2007 

Published November 30th, 2007 

Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is getting married and her sister Margot (Nicole Kidman) has relented to come in Noah Baumbach's latest ponderous wade into the world of the over-educated and under-socialized Margot At the Wedding. This oddball little movie about horrible people torturing each other over their shared ugly pasts is one of the more unpleasant movies I've seen in a while, and I've seen two Martin Lawrence comedies in recent weeks. It's not that Baumbach is not talented. Rather it's his use of his gift with words for evil. By evil I mean his characters are constantly manipulative, backbiting. Their whiney self involvement and their constant state of fucked upness.

As he did with his debut picture The Squid and The Whale Baumbach abuses another teenager, young Lane Pais plays Claude the son of the evil Margot and throughout Margot at the Wedding he is treated to abuse after abuse from his mother to a strange neighbor boy to having to hear far too much of Pauline and her fiance Malcolm's (Jack Black) business. This is the kind of mother-son relationship from which serial killers are born. It's a shame because Pais' performance has great potential. That potential is stifled unfortunately by Baumbach's fascination with Kidman's Margot.

Margot and Pauline were abused by their father, abuse that their unseen sister Becky never recovered from allegedly and thus still lives with their unseen mother. Naturally, Margot and Pauline delight in their sisters' misery. Then again, they seem to delight in each other's misery just as much. Margot doesn't just delight in hearing of misery however, she likes to instigate it and watch it unfold. With her own marriage faltering, John Turturro appears briefly as her masochist husband, Margot immediately sets to finding fault with Pauline's soon to be husband.

There is plenty to find fault with. Malcolm is a manchild, quick to bursts of impotent rage. He has no job, music is now his hobby we are told, he's a painter now. Malcolm has zero social skills and tells embarrassing stories. It's actually quite well played by Jack Black who rages in various directions, we assume looking to make us laugh, and occasionally finds a truly funny moment. These moments are rare, squeezed as they are between the palace intrigue of two sisters trying to emotionally decapitate one another. Then you have the poor children thrust into the middle of all of this. Pauline has a younger daughter named Ingrid who somehow manages to remain on the periphery of all of the evil.

There are laughs in Margot at the Wedding and even what passes for insight among these disturbing characters. Unfortunately, the whole thing is so damn repugnant to those who have the will to search for the good in it. Noah Baumbach is a talented writer who has gone over to the dark side. He simply doesn't like people and demonstrates that by crafting characters that reflect how awful he thinks they are. He uses children in his films to reflect that evil and how it is passed on generation to generation. There may be a valuable lesson to be learned there but I can't stand his characters long enough to figure out what that lesson is.

Movie Review: Enchanted

Enchanted (2007) 

Directed by Kevin Lima 

Written by Bill Kelly 

Starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, Timothy Spall, Idina Menzel, Susan Sarandon

Release Date November 21st, 2007

Published November 21st, 2007 

Historically, Disney has not been comfortable having their history poked fun at. Indeed, there have been lawsuits and recriminations when anyone would dare to make light of Disney's fairy tales. Well that was the old Disney. The new Disney attitude arrives with the release of Enchanted a film that doesn't so much make fun of Disney's past but rather is playfully irreverent toward it; while also reinventing and reinvigorating the formulas.

Most importantly, Enchanted brings to a mass audience the charming young star Amy Adams who following this starring role should break out into major stardom.

The kingdom of Andalasia is a cartoon paradise where a beautiful young peasant sings a song with her animal friends and awaits the arrival of her prince and her happily ever after. The peasant girl is Giselle (Amy Adams) and her prince is Edward (James Marsden) a vainglorious but good natured blowhard. The two fall immediately in love and are to married moments after meeting.

The couple's marriage plans are derailed however when the prince's step mother Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) see's Giselle as a threat to her thrown. Taking on the classic look of crone, the Queen tricks Giselle into falling into a magical waterfall that transports her to an entirely different dimension. When Giselle comes around she finds herself in a strange place, New York City circa 2007.

Trapped with no way home, Giselle wanders the streets and hopes for Edward to rescue her. In the meantime she is taken in by Robert (Patrick Dempsey) and his six year old daughter Morgan(Rachel Covey). Morgan is convinced that Giselle is a real princess, Robert is more than just skeptical, he thinks she's a loon.

Enchanted, directed by animation vet Kevin Lima (Tarzan), sends up a number of classically Disney set pieces. From helpful woodland creatures, given a disturbingly New York twist, too characters breaking into impromptu song and dance routines choreographed as if Busby Berkley just happened to walk down the street spilling his imagination all over the place. Everything classically Disney is given a playful tweak.

Shrek tried and sometimes succeed in pulling  off the same irreverent trick but Enchanted is free of the snarkiness of the green ogre's jibes and the baggage of the Jeffrey Katzenberg litigiousness. It's nice to see Disney finally have a sense of humor about it's past and director Kevin Lima and writer Bill Kelly made that possible by not trying to destroy the tradition of the mouse house but reinvent it with a more modern sense of humor.

Of course, the real reason that Enchanted is so enchanting is star Amy Adams. This lovely young actress who burst on the scene with her Oscar nominated performance in Junebug, is the perfect choice to play a princess. With her warm welcoming eyes and her wonderful heart on her sleeve, Adams is exceptional in the role of Giselle. So good in fact is Ms. Adams that she could win an Oscar for this feather light comedy, she's that good here.

Patrick Dempsey, so charming as television's McDreamy on Grey's Anatomy, tones down the charm to play a classic romantic male lead, the hard hearted stuffed shirt who is softened by love and romance. Providing some grounding for the more magical elements of Enchanted, keep an on Dempsey for some of the films big visual gags as slowly but surely he gives into to all of the singing and dancing magic.

Enchanted is one of the best live action family films to come along in this decade. It's also one of the better romantic comedies as well. The magical premise, the bursts of music and humor make Enchanted truly a joy to behold. Best of all, the film delivers Amy Adams to mass audiences that didn't see Junebug or somehow missed her terrific supporting turn in Catch Me If You Can.

The tremendous star turn of Amy Adams combined with the heart filled yet irreverent script of Bill Kelly and the well managed direction of Kevin Lima make Enchanted a delight for families and romantics alike.

Movie Review Hitman

Hitman (2007) 

Directed by Xavier Gens

Written by Skip Woods

Starring Timothy Olyphant, Dougray Scott, Olga Kurylenko 

Release Date November 20th, 2007

Published November 19th, 2007

Have you ever seen somebody who is clearly trying hard to be cool? He looks cool on the surface, but closer inspection shows the strain, the hard work that went into being cool. Hitman is a movie that is trying very hard to be cool, but the strain shows. Desperately aping the sleek style of the Matrix while trying to capture the cool of the sadly overlooked 2002 flick Equilibrium, a film of such effortless cool that even failing at the office does little to diminish it, Hitman comes of as desperate and uncool. 

Timothy Olyphant stars in Hitman as a nameless assassin who is said to be the best killer in the world. Raised in a secret society and trained in diapers to be a stone cold killer, our nameless hitman is given only a number, 47, and a barcode tattoo on the back of his head. Sent to Russia to assassinate the Russian President, a former hardliner going soft toward the west, 47 finds himself wrapped in Russian politics when the man who he knows he killed continues to make public appearances after his death.

On the assassin's trail is a hard charging Interpol agent Mike Whittier (Dougray Scott). His pursuit of the assassin is dogged and determined and yet he carries a grudging respect for the skill and efficiency of the killer. When the two catch up to one another the determined stares are nearly as lethal as the bullets.

Directed by Xavier Gens, Hitman is far from being a bad movie. Rather, Hitman is a thinly premised action flick that looks much cooler than it actually is. Highly stylized, quickly choreographed violence is nothing new and Hitman arrives looking like a poseur. We've been there since The Matrix, and we've done that a few times already this year alone, Smokin' Aces, Shoot'Em Up.

So why isn't Hitman really cool? Because it's too late. This highly stylized, high body count action movie is already becoming out of date. In fact, this action sub-genre has already been sent up and blown away in Michael Davis' Shoot'Em Up. That doesn't mean there are no more thrills to be garnered from the highly stylized action movie but that Hitman simply doesn't do enough to innovate or set itself apart from what has come before it.

Timothy Olyphant oozes charisma and machismo but I'm not sure this is the right role for him. Anyone who remembers his terrific performance in Go or his foul mouthed role on television's Deadwood will find him hard to believe as an asexual hitman monk. Co-star Dougray Scott plays the good guy better than expected in Hitman. Often typecast as a faceless baddie, Scott shows good guy range never seen before in his journeyman career.

No doubt Hitman will satisfy audiences with short attention spans. Only a moviegoer who has already forgotten the last stylized action flick they saw will truly enjoy the derivative action of Hitman. On the bright side, Hitman is the rare video game adaptation that doesn't entirely suck. Director Xavier Gens is a more than competent director. His action is solid, if unspectacular. He's far better than most directors left with the task of interpreting artless video games into movies.

Hitman is too familiar to be great and is far less cool than it wishes it were. Trying to be cool is the most uncool thing you can do. That's the unfortunate place where the makers of Hitman find themselves.

Movie Review: Awake

Awake (2007) 

Directed by Joby Harald 

Written by Joby Harald 

Starring Hayden Christensen, Jessica Alba, Lena Olin, Terrence Howard 

Release Date November 30th, 2007

Published November 29th, 2007

Anesthetic awareness is something that happens to a small percentage of patients placed under surgical anesthesia. The patient is thought to be made unconscious by the anesthesia but for whatever reason they are not fully under. For some patients it can mean recalling conversations that took place between the surgeons for some it's a modest amount of pain.

For a small percentage of patients anesthetic awareness means full awareness of everything from the surgical banter to the pain of surgical steel slicing skin and cutting bone. The new thriller Awake from writer-director Joby Harold takes this concept and builds a surprisingly captivating thriller around it.

Hayden Christensen, yes baby Vader himself, stars in Awake as Clay Beresford. A son of privilege's, Clay has never wonted for anything. Now as an adult, Clay has one thing he desperately needs, a new heart. Clay is dying unless he can get a heart transplant. While his mother (Lena Olin) is maneuvering to get a world renowned heart surgeon (Arliss Howard) to perform Clay's surgery, he has become attached to his own doctor, Jack Harper (Terrence Howard).

Adding to the mother son tension is Clay's secret romance with mom's assistant Sam (Jessica Alba). Clay and Sam have been sneaking around together for months, difficult because mama's boy Clay still lives at home and works for mom's company. When his surgery day finally arrives Clay must tell mom that not only have he and Sam been sneaking around, they married in the middle of the night.

Once the surgery is under way the real twists and turns begin. A last minute replacement anesthesiologist (Christopher McDonald) fails to put Clay completely under. This leaves him fully awake but unable to move or speak as the surgeons begin there work.

Written and directed by Joby Harold, Awake has more twists and turns than you might expect from such a unique and seemingly constrictive plot. The movie has taken nearly two years to get to the screen. Harold and company finished filming in late 2005 but Harold could not find a final cut that he was happy with. Nearly two years later he has found just the right combination of ludicrous melodrama and edge of your seat excitement.

There is a definite B-movie quality to every thing about Awake. This aesthetic however, really works for this slightly goofy material. The story involves a guy wandering around outside his body trying to get someone to help him and then taking an inner journey through his memories to figure out how he got there. There is an even more goofball moment late in the film that works on it's own logic but I won't reveal it here.

So much of Awake has a B-movie thrill from the modest nudity (Side Boob) of Jessica Alba to Hayden Christenson's weird take on existential angst. His harried inner voice as he, paralyzed by anasthetic listens intently to his surgeons is both goofy and engaging. Just the right amount of disbelief and earnest horror mingle in his breathless attempts to move, shout or just squeeze out a tear.

Jessica Alba makes for terrific eye candy but the twists and turns of this plot call for a different actress. To reveal more might jeopardize some of the unique twists and turns of this off the wall but more often engaging little thriller. Without giving to much away, someone like Elisha Cuthbert or Erika Christensen would likely have been more appropriate for the role. For one thing, their star power would not completely overwhelm the already weak draw of Hayden Christenson, as Ms. Alba most certainly does.

Perfect for her role however is Lena Olin. As Clay's shifty, scheming mother Olin is snaky and sexy. Appearing to be the villain of the piece, Olin brings unique shifts in tone and twists you will not see coming. She threatens to bring some civility and talent to this B-movie enterprise. Thankfully, respectability is out the window by the time mommy brings the films biggest and most laughable twist. Yes, it's goofy as all get out, but it works in the logic of this ludicrous universe.

Writer-Director Joby Harold smartly attacks this B-movie material by creating his own unique universe where the ill-logic of the films many twists and turns can exist in their own believable way. There is no attempt to make these situations realistic, the film flows with the ludicrous and outlandish and creates a way for those things to exist and be quite gripping.

Awake is far from great 'cinema' but for cheap, goofball melodrama, existential angst and a tapping of real human fears (awake on an operating table! Yikes!) this is a crafty and fun little flick, more than worthy of a turn in your DVD player.

Movie Review The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) 

Directed by Julian Schnabel

Written by Ronald Harwood

Starring Matthieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Anne Cosigny 

Release Date November 30th, 2007

Published December 25th, 2007 

Jean Dominique Bauby was a remarkable man even before the extraordinary end of his life. A globetrotting journalist who climbed the highest peaks, leapt out planes and lived the life most people dream of, the editor of the French edition of Elle Magazine could never be accused of taking life for granted.

That was the cruel irony of his fateful end. Bauby suffered a stroke at age 42 that left him paralyzed and suffering from what is called locked in syndrome. His mind was clear and vibrant but he was unable to move or communicate. The story of how Bauby in this condition still managed to author a bestselling book is captured in remarkably vivid fashion in Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

Matthew Amalric stars as Jean Dominique Bauby and it is a remarkable transformation. The handsome French actor, glimpsed only briefly, in flashback, as he really looks, transforms completely into the role of a man trapped inside his own body. In the coma however, we catch only a few moments of Amalric as Bauby.

What director Julian Schnabel does so remarkably is use his camera to show us what Bauby's perspective was on his condition, literally and figuratively. Working from the text of Bauby's own bestseller, Schnabel and Oscar winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski show us everything from Bauby's bed ridden and wheelchair bound perspective.

The script by Oscar winner Ronald Harwood (The Pianist) infers from Bauby's book what Bauby's inner monologue was like in all its desperate, often sad, determined and darkly humorous musing. Thus we are inside Bauby's mind and watching through his eyes and we are riveted by his inner strength and struggle.

With the help of his speech therapist (Marie Josee Croze) and the support of his ex-wife (Emmanuelle Seigner) Bauby made use of the only working parts of his body, his left eye and his brain and developed a way to communicate. Making use of an assistant he managed to use a series of blinks to write a book about his struggle and the film of his inner struggle is stunning and compelling.

While you may think that the first person perspective is limiting, Schnabel and Kaminski make use of fantasy and other cinematic tricks of the trade to give us different perspectives and some of the most remarkable cinematography of the last year.

French with French subtitles, if you aren't a fan of foreign films you won't like The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. If you are open minded however, you will get to experience an extraordinary true story crafted by a master director. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a remarkable piece of filmmaking.

Movie Review The Golden Compass

The Golden Compass (2007) 

Directed by Chris Weitz 

Written by Chris Weitz 

Starring Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Sam Elliott, Eva Green, Ian McKellen, Dakota Blue Richards 

Release Date December 7th, 2007 

Published December 6th, 2007

It is the most perfect irony that church organizations are planning to boycott a movie about a Vatican-esque organization that tries to silence those who think differently from them. Church folk are livid over the new movie The Golden Compass from director Chris Weitz. The film is based on the first novel in the "His Dark Materials" series from author Philip Pullman.

Pullman has been accused and has done little to deny that his book series is anti-church with a specifically atheistic bent.  The movie however, is far from strident. The Golden Compass as a movie is not a religious or anti-religious tract. Rather, as a movie this is a family friendly adventure epic with terrific special effects, a compelling story and a star-making lead performance from young actress Dakota Blue Richards.

Lyra Belaqua (Richards) seems like a normal kid, running and playing with the other children like a classic tomboy. Spunky, smart with a rebellious streak, she lives a privileged but not spoiled existence at Jordan College where her uncle Asriel (Daniel Craig) is a welcome but controversial presence. His investigations of parallel universes and a magical dust that connects these universes together have many in power quite nervous.

An organization called the Magisterium feels that what Asriel does in his research is heresy. They go as far as trying to kill him. It is Lyra who saves his life and soon he is off for the north for further investigation. Meanwhile, Lyra is visited by Mrs. Coulter. Not often impressed with the adults around her, Lyra is surprisingly taken with Mrs. Coulter and is taken on as her guest with promises of a trip to the north to see her uncle.

Before she leaves, Lyra is given a gift, a golden compass that allows her to see into the future. Only she can interpret its symbols and make it work and she must keep it from Mrs. Coulter at all costs, Mrs. Coulter is a member of the magisterium. When Mrs. Coulter demands to see the compass Lyra runs away and thus begins an adventure north with the aid of an ancient seafaring race, a flying ace called an aeronaut (Sam Elliott) and a warrior race of polar bears.

The Golden Compass was adapted and directed by Chris Weitz, an ambitious young director with one masterpiece (About A Boy) and one disaster (American Dreamz) under his belt in his short career. A family action adventure fantasy would not seem like material right up his alley but Chris Weitz really pulls it off. This is a terrifically eye catching adventure that combines visual splendor with terrific storytelling to create a rousing adventure.

Though Weitz has never worked with major effects before in his career you wouldn't know it from The Golden Compass. From the awesome polar bears in full combat gear and olde english accents to the icy landscapes of the north country, The Golden Compass is as visually accomplished and daring as anything in The Chronicles of Narnia or even The Lord of the Rings and with a more human voice than either of those impressive epics.

The reality of The Golden Compass controversy is this, if someone walks into this movie searching for an agenda they will likely find it. That can be said about any number of movies but applies particularly here. Those who want the film to have an anti--church agenda will find one, they will have to employ some intellectual dishonesty to get there but they will get there.

The Golden Compass as a stand alone movie however, is no tract but rather an exciting, innovative family action adventure that takes the best of the Narnia and Rings franchises and humanizes them with deeper storytelling and equal visual splendor.

Young Dakota Blue Richards is entirely unaffected by any dark agendas. Her performance is pure joy and excitement. This pre-teen British actress is a stunner in a lead role that would overwhelm most actresses her age. Her spunk and pluck are so convincing and so winning you may forget just how young she is, then her vulnerability is displayed and you are won over all over again.

Even with the stunning special effects, with an icy beautiful Nicole Kidman, even with James Bond himself Daniel Craig on screen, Dakota Blue Richards is without doubt the most impressive performer in the whole of The Golden Compass.

I urge anyone who believes that The Golden Compass is some strident anti-religious tract to see the movie. Unless you really, really force it you will not find this agenda you are searching for. My bet is that half way into this well told, visually garish epic you will have forgotten your agenda and be absorbed by this wondrous story that Chris Weitz has so well brought to the screen.

Movie Review: Alvin and the Chipmunks

Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007) 

Directed by Tim Hill 

Written by Jon Vitti, Will McRobb, Chris Vicardi 

Starring Jason Lee, David Cross, Cameron Richardson, Justin Long 

Release Date December 14th, 2007

Published December 14th, 2007

There are times when the disdain Hollywood has for the common man cannot be denied. In the case of the new CGI-live action collision Alvin and the Chipmunks the obvious disdain rages from star David Cross' condescending performance to the music that the makers of Alvin and the Chipmunks assumes Americans would absolutely love, quality be damned.

On the outskirts of Los Angeles three Chipmunks are filling their tree for the winter when suddenly the tree is coming down. Thrown on to the back of a truck, the Chipmunks now former home is on it's way to the lobby of a record company as a Christmas decoration. Scanning their new digs, Alvin (Justin Long), Simon (Matthew Gray Gubler) and Theodore (Jesse McCartney) find their isn't much of a food supply.

Jumping out of the tree their timing could not be more fortuitous. Leaving the record company, with a giant basket of muffins is Dave Seville (Jason Lee). Dave has just failed his latest attempt to sell one of his rather depressing tunes. His former friend Ian (David Cross), now a big time record producer, has just told him to give up his dreams because neither Britney, Christina or Justin will ever sing one of his songs.

Unknown to Dave, the Chipmunks have stowed away in his stolen muffin basket and are coming home with some big surprises. Not only can they talk, these chipmunks can sing and dance too. Soon Dave is writing them a hit Christmas song and they are so impressing Ian that they have a record deal and a hit record in less than a week.

From there the film becomes a parody on the rigors of the music industry and a typical kids movie about the creation of an unlikely family. Neither of these two competing plots is very interesting. Directed  by Tim Hill, the auteur behind the Garfield sequel A Tale of Two Kitties, Alvin and the Chipmunks rolls off of the kids movie assembly line with all of the typical family movie parts in place.

Bathroom humor, family values and a whole lot of slapstick make for just another upbeat and forgettable piece of kids movie flotsam.

Where Alvin and the Chipmunks is slightly more insulting than the average kids movie is in the films attempts at music industry satire. In these scenes Alvin and the Chipmunks fly up the charts with hip hop infused takes on the 50's and 60's novelty records that propelled them into our pop culture more than 40 years ago.

The Chipmunks Christmas song and Witch Doctor are innocuous enough and such a part of the Chipmunks pop culture cache that their inclusion and update are passable. It's later when the chipmunks begin singing awful hip hop originals that things become insulting. As the chipmunks, Dave and David Cross' slimy record producer Ian each readily admint, these songs suck. Yet each is portrayed in the film as flying up the charts, selling millions of copies and selling sold out tours.

I've never been one to credit our culture for having taste but these songs are so execrable that even a less than discerning public would easily reject them. Nevertheless, the film persists that even though the chipmunks themselves dislike the music the sheep like masses eat it up without question.

The most curious and often insulting thing in Alvin and the Chipmunks is the performance of comedian David Cross. One of the funniest stand up comics working today, Cross is bizarre and even grotesque in his role as a slimy record producer working the chipmunks to exhaustion. His performance begins as a satire of douchebag faux cool. However, as he transforms into the film's lead bad guy the performance becomes more one note and insulting.

Is my taking offense at this little kids movie misplaced? Maybe, but that is my true feeling. If the movie has no respect for its audience, why should I have respect for the movie. Is Alvin and the Chipmunks otherwise inoffensive? Yes, and it's even technically impressive in the way it integrates the CGI Chipmunks with the real world. That doesn't change the fact that the film is disrespectful to it's audience.

Movie Review Rush Hour 3

Rush Hour 3 (2007)

Directed by Bret Ratner

Written by Jeff Nathanson

Starring Chris Tucker, Jackie Chan, Max Von Sydow, Noemie Lenoire, Jingchu Zhang

Release Date August 10th, 2007

Published August 9th, 2007

Chris Tucker has become something of a mystery. After 2001's Rush Hour 2, Tucker could not have been hotter. Tucker was commanding a salary of 20 million dollars per picture. He had offers coming in left and right and then nothing. For six years Tucker seemingly vanished from Hollywood. Six years later, after spending some time as a philanthropist in Africa, Tucker is back and returning to the character that made him a 20 million dollar man.

The endless troubles, budget and screenplay-wise, of Rush Hour 3 likely contributed to Tucker's absence. This sequel has been in the works since Rush Hour 2 opened to nearly 70 million dollars back in August of 2001. However, they just could not work out the many issues, until now, six years later.

It's been six years since Detective Carter (Chris Tucker) and his international partner, Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan) threw down against some bad guys. Today, Carter has gotten himself in so much trouble that he is directing traffic on the busy streets of L.A. Meanwhile, his pal Lee is back in town, protecting the life of Ambassador Han (Tzi Ma) who may have information that could bring down the evil Chinese Triad.

When the Ambassador is shot, though not killed, Lee and Carter re-team to search for the Triad leaders who organized the hit, knowing that if they don't the triad will return to finish the job and kill the Ambassador's daughter Soo Yung (Jingchu Zhang). The investigation takes Carter and Lee to Paris where the triad is searching for a secret linked to a cabaret performer (Noemie Lenoire) and the French Ambassador Varden (Max Von Sydow).

You can definitely see some wear and tear on the Rush Hour concept as the creators and stars have stretched this buddy cop premise about as far as it can go. Carter and Lee have been friends for nearly a decade now, since the original Rush Hour in 1998, and yet we are to believe they still cannot understand each other.

The jokes have run their course and what is left is Tucker trying to motormouth his way through some mediocre improv jokes and an aging Jackie Chan trying desperately to hide his use of stunt men and CGI to help him with the acrobatics that made him a star. To Chan's credit, the action is the film's best asset, even if you can occasionally see the CGI at the seams.

Joining Tucker and Chan in Rush Hour 3 is a motley crew of supporting players and cameo day players. Director Roman Polanski is a standout as an officious French police officer who confronts Carter and Lee at Air France airport security in a most uncomfortable fashion. It's uncomfortable not merely for the joke but for the fact that it is Roman Polanski and this joke. And, of course, the trailer plays up Chan and Tucker's encounter with the former world's tallest man Sun Ming Ming which is about as funny as it is in the trailers and TV commercials.

Then there is Yvan Attal as the snooty French cab driver George. His anti-American schtick takes the film dangerously close to social commentary for all of about 20 seconds before he is tearing through the streets of Paris and screaming I love being an American! Americans by his definition, being the kind of people who are constantly involved in car chases and gunplay.

The problem with Rush Hour 3 is that it just isn't funny enough. You know that when the biggest laugh in the movie comes from a woman with a wig and an oh so timely reference to The Crying Game that the humor is beyond stale. Thankfully, Jackie Chan and director Brett Ratner do well enough with the fight scenes that even the most bored and jaded moviegoer will find themselves compelled, especially in the big Eiffel Tower finale.

The Rush Hour series is tired and running on fumes, like so many third films in Hollywood sequel land. Remember Lethal Weapon3? Ugh!. Rush Hour 3 isn't quite that disastrous but it's not that much better either. Here's hoping that Chan and Tucker move on to bigger and better things. Chan might consider training someone else to take all of those falls that have taken such a toll on him.

As for Chris Tucker, it's nice to see him back on the screen as he does remain a welcome presence. Let's just get past the motormouth cops and get him into something more challenging, or at the very least, something funnier than the retread jokes of Rush Hour 3.

Movie Review Hot Rod

Hot Rod (2007)

Directed by Akiva Schaffer

Written by Pam Brady

Starring Andy Samberg, Ian McShane, Isla Fisher

Release Date August 3rd, 2007

Published August 3rd, 2007

Andy Samberg was the MVP of Saturday Night Live recently thanks to his terrifically funny digital short films Lazy Sunday and Dick In A Box. Samberg has brought SNL the kind of cultural cache that the show hasn't had in over a decade which makes his move to the big screen a well anticipated event. It also unfortunately stokes my disappointment in Samberg's feature film debut.

Hot Rod, the story of a teenage stuntman, is a lame attempt to expand on Samberg's talent for physical humor with none of the wit that made Lazy Sunday a YouTube classic.

Rod (Samberg) dreams of one day becoming a world famous stuntman. For now he is content putting on stunt shows for the younger kids in the neighborhood. Though, as we meet him, his stunts consist mostly of his ugly crashes, Rod never loses hope that one day he will hit the big jump that will make him a legend and earn him the respect of his step-father (Ian Mcshane).

Rod's relationship with his step-dad is strained. The two do battle in hand to hand combat on a regular basis, putting a real hurt on one another; with real weapons and fists, in the family basement while Mom (Sissy Spacek) remains clueless. Despite the acrimony, when his step-dad grows ill and needs an operation to save his life, Rod steps up with a plan to use his stunt skills to raise the money to save his life, if only so he can finally kick the old guy's ass.

Naturally, there is a love interest for Rod. Isla Fisher (Wedding Crashers) plays Denise, Rod's neighbor who remains oblivious to Rod's obvious crush on her. As a plot this typically dictates, Denise has a jerk boyfriend (Will Arnett) who will no doubt lose his girl to the sweet, earnest Rod.

Hot Rod was directed by Akiva Schaffer who is one third of the Lonely Island Comedy team with Samberg and Hot Rod co-star Jorma Taccone. The trio has worked together since they were teenagers and when Samberg got his SNL gig, based on one of their popular internet videos, he brought Schaffer and Taccone along with him as writers.

In their work; Samberg, Schaffer and Taccone have shown a real knack for modern culture and ironic wit. Why that did not translate in Hot Rod likely has a lot to do with trying to meld their talents with what is a rather mundane formulaic concept. Reduced to trying to squeeze their brand of irony in between all of the goofball slapstick, Samberg and company are left with snarky music cues and vague homages to 80's cultural icons, though thankfully no Hasselhoff.

Hot Rod is yet another of those really disappointing Hollywood comedies where the best stuff is the trailer. Searching my memory for one funny scene that I hadn't already seen in the film's ad campaign; I'm at a loss. The ramp collapsed? Funny in the trailer; less funny in the movie. The exploding stunt and subsequent exchange with a malcontent viewer? Funny in the trailer, forgettable in the context of the movie.

And on and on, anything funny in the trailer is all that was mildly amusing in the film itself. What is left of Hot Rod are allegedly humorous bits of music placement. If you think the simple fact that someone listens to the long lost hair band Europe is funny, then you will get a chuckle out of Hot Rod. If you think a character singing a karaoke version of George Michael's One More Try to his stuffed animals is a laugh riot? Then Hot Rod is your movie.

Whoops, sorry, I may have given away this movie's two jokes that aren't in the trailer.

Hot Rod is a real disappointment. Andy Samberg is a talented kid who can and likely will do better. Being that Hot Rod was a script originally intended for Will Ferrell, Samberg would be well instructed to find and develop something of his own. Or, at the very least, something more suited to his quirky talents. Hot Rod is, I hope, beneath the talent of Mr. Samberg and not the definition of his talents on the big screen.

Movie Review I Am Legend

I Am Legend (2007) 

Directed by Francis Lawrence

Written by Mark Protosevich, Akiva Goldsman

Starring Will Smith, Alice Brag, Charlie Tahan, Dash Mihok

Release Date December 14th, 2007

Published December 13th, 2007

Will Smith is the biggest star in the world for a reason. People just love this guy. It's an inexplicable kind of chemistry. He has that indefinable quality that draws people to him and that quality makes a big difference in his latest effort I Am Legend. Playing the last man in New York City, Smith is robbed of the tools that have made him a star. Gone is the charm, the timely quips lost on his only companion, his dog. Of course, he may not need his usual charm and quirks. After all I Am Legend has Will in his comfort zone, saving the world.

Dr. Robert Neville is resistant to both the air borne and blood borne virus that has in just three years wiped out most of the world's population. Those who weren't killed and weren't immune like Robert have mutated into bloodthirsty night dwellers who roam the streets in search of what fresh meat remains. Only Robert remains in New York City and he is a little lonely.

Spending his days hunting deer on Broadway and growing crops by the shore, and his nights trying to cure the virus, Robert is slowly going insane from the human void around him. Like Tom Hanks in Castaway, a movie I'm sure Robert has watched a dozen or so times, Robert longs for human contact and even begins infusing human qualities in inanimate objects.

Of course things don't stay this way. The mutants that Robert had thought were brain dead, bloodthirsty monsters are evolving in their hunt for blood and a confrontation is brewing between the scientist and the evil dead. Eventually, another human does arrive and they will make a stand together.

I Am Legend was directed by Francis Lawrence, a director who knows post-apocalyptic doom from his underrated work on the Keanu Reeves flick Constantine. I Am Legend leaves that film in the dust by depicting a decrepit world in ruins. The New York City of I Am Legend is like a second star of the film constantly vying for your attention.

Seeing the streets overgrown with weeds, the buildings moldered and dust covered, the streets covered in dirt, is truly mind blowing. Lawrence and his effects team create a stunningly realistic landscape for Smith and his undead friends to inhabit.

Ah, but Lawrence did not leave the direction to just the effects. He does a terrific job creating opportunities for Will Smith to do his action thing. The tense confrontations between Will and the bloodthirsty monsters are directed with so much tension and energy that you will watch through your fingers, slumping in your seat as your heart beats quickly.

This is a terrific piece of direction. Early on, as Will and his dog are chasing deer, the dog chases a fawn into a dark worn down building. We intuit quickly that the monsters can only thrive in the dark and that this is a dangerous situation. Using little light and some forced perspective camera work, Lawrence creates a fast paced, tension filled sequence.

I Am Legend is terrifically exciting and smarter and more thoughtful than you might expect from such a genre flick. Will Smith brings a number of fine character touches to Robert that make him real to us, real enough that we fear for him and are thus engulfed in his plight. For fans of both horror and action, I Am Legend is arguably the movie of the year. For the rest, it's a satisfying bit of Saturday night entertainment.

Movie Review Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) 

Directed by Tim Burton

Written by John Logan

Starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Sacha Baron Cohen

Release Date December 21st, 2007

Published December 21st, 2007

Tim Burton and Johnny Depp's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is filled with such self congratulatory irony that one is forced to call it arrogant. Arrogance is often seen as a negative quality and it is certainly nothing less than a pejorative here. However, the line between arrogance and confidence is thin here because of the talent involved.

It grows odd then that some of the arrogance of the creators of this Steven Sondheim adaptation comes from insecurity. Tim Burton is no fan of musicals. He never wanted to make one. He chose to make Sweeney Todd because of the almost anti-musical qualities of Sondheim's creation. This however, leads to a violent form of ironic detachment from the music and sentiment of the songs that leaves the filmgoer outside the emotion of the piece.

In not wanting to make a musical, Burton has attempted to make an anti-musical and as such forgotten that involving an audience is necessary even when you are rebelling against a form many audiences find so easily involving.

Johnny Depp stars as Sweeney Todd, though Barker is his real name, he became Todd in a British prison colony. When he was a young man Benjamin Barker's wife and child were taken from him by the jealous machinations of one Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman). Envious of the young barber, his beautiful wife (Laura Michelle Kelly) and baby, Turpin had Barker arrested on a trumped up charge and sent to Australia, then a British penal colony.

Returning 15 years later as Todd, Benjamin Barker seeks his revenge on Turpin and the hellhole London that has risen up around him. Returning to his old shop where his former landlady Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) has kept his beloved silver razors, Sweeney will pick the shave business and use it as a base of operations for his revenge.

The sub story of Sweeney Todd involves the young sailor Anthony (Jamie Campbell Bower) who rescued Sweeney at sea and brought him to London and who also happens to fall for Sweeney's now teenage daughter Johanna (Jane Wisener), now a captive in Judge Turpin's home staring listlessly from a gilded cage. The teenage lovers work to leave the oppressive violence and sadness of the Sweeney story and the young actors are effective in that.

Now if only Tim Burton gave a damn about them, we'd have something here. Unfortunately, Burton doesn't take much care with the young lovers, bungling their coupling and their involvement with Sweeney to the point that what should be a major revealing moment hits with little flourish and is shuffled quickly offstage in favor of more revenge and viscera.

Fans of Viscera, I'm talking serious blood and guts here, will be more than satisfied with Sweeney Todd. The film is soaked in viscous fluid. However, do not mistake Sweeney for the blood stopped likes of Hostel or Halloween. No, Tim Burton is more humorous in his detachment than the frightening seriousness of Eli Roth or Rob Zombie who come off as real life Sweeney's seeking revenge on humanity in their hateful attacks on audiences.

Oddly enough, Burton would have to be more engaged in Sweeney Todd for that level of commitment to hatred. Thus Sweeney has an ironic detachment that leaves audiences little place to be appalled, repelled or won over by it. We are left merely as observers of rich cinematography, performances of great commitment and songs that offer glimpses of emotional involvement and dark humor.

Tim Burton has always been the disaffected genius working within the system and subverting it with his art-pop. Conversely, at a certain age disaffection becomes an old pose struck with boredom and stagnation. Sweeney Todd is far too big budget busy to be boring but stagnant is not far off. From a creative perspective Tim Burton's imaginative whimsy and his attempt to subvert it by covering it in blood fails to beat away the stagnating emotional distance.

In interviews Burton has discussed how the Broadway approach to Sweeney's blood soaked tragedy, the belt it back of the room, typical Broadway approach, was inappropriate for such dark brooding material. Yet here he seems to demonstrate that a more dramatic, Broadway approach, heightened emotions, heightened reality, may be the only way to render such awesome grand guignol tragedies.

I can tell you that Burton's minimalist approach takes the wind out of the sails and translates what should be grand emotional developments into something we in the audience merely observe without involvement.

Movie Review The Bucket List

The Bucket List (2007)

Directed by Rob Reiner 

Written by Justin Zackham

Starring Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman, Sean Hayes, Rob Morrow 

Release Date December 25th, 2007

Published December 24th, 2007

"Dying is easy, Comedy is hard" the alleged dying words of British actor Sir Donald Wolfitt are somewhat ironic when related to the new to DVD movie, The Bucket List. Directed by Rob Reiner, The Bucket List is a comedy about dying. It's also a comedy that proves just how hard comedy is as a pair of old pros, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, fail to get hardly any laughs at all in this desperate comedy.

Jack Nicholson is Edward Cole and Morgan Freeman is Carter Chambers. Aside from age, Edward and Carter have nothing in common except that they are both dying from cancer. After digging through the perfunctory getting to know you scenes, Edward, a millionaire who actually owns the hospital the two men are in, and Carter, a middle class mechanic, bond and decide not to spend their last days in bed.

Together they will blow off their families and friends in favor of a round the world jaunt that will help each accomplish all of the things on their 'bucket list', the list of things they wished to do before they 'kicked the bucket'. For Carter just leaving the country is one thing, Edward on the other hand wants to climb Kilimanjaro.

So what about their families? Edward is a loner who hasn't seen his only daughter in over a decade (no points for guessing that we will meet the daughter before the film ends). Carter's wife, played by Beverly Todd, is rightfully indignant until Carter plays the 'I'm dying, I'll do what I want' card.' It's a jerk thing to do to the person you supposedly love, leaving them right before you actually die to travel around the world with a virtual stranger, but nothing about these characters is all that likable anyway. 

The around the world journey is filled with charm even as it is slightly offensive in nature. Really, how many people really dying of cancer could just pick up and go around the world? Granted, movies are all about wish fulfillment, but there is something unseemly about the carefree attitude of The Bucket List in relation to cancer and the honest suffering of so many real people.

That aside, from a strictly filmmaking standpoint The Bucket List is a mixed bag. There are laughs, mostly from the two stars bantering off of one another, but The Bucket List is arguably the laziest movie Rob Reiner has ever made. The film moves from one expected scene to the next with little more than the charm of Nicholson and the sturdy presence of Freeman to carry us past the predictability.

Eventually, even these two awesome talents can't prevent us from getting bored with the progression from one expected scene to the next. There is an inevitability to the story, of course it's about two guys dying of cancer, but Reiner makes little attempt to mix up the journey with something we don't expect or that he doesn't tip his hand to several scenes ahead of time.

The dull predictability combined with the overall morbidity of the central story can't entirely dim the charm of these two stars but not even the talents of Freeman and Nicholson can overcome the rote anticipation of The Bucket List.

Movie Review: There Will Be Blood

There Will Be Blood (2007)

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

Written by Paul Thomas Anderson

Starring Daniel Day Lewis, Paul Dano, Ciaran Hinds, David Willis, Kevin O'Connor 

Release Date December 27th, 2007

Published December 26th, 2007 

Sometimes when I am writing an odd thing happens. A review that I initially would be quite positive becomes slightly or entirely negative. When I walked out of There Will Be Blood, for example, I was expecting to sit down at my computer and praise the film endlessly. I was transfixed by the performance of Daniel Day Lewis and I marveled at the cinematography of Robert Elswit and the films stunningly authenitic early 20th century California setting. However, now, as I sit down to write I still have appreciation for certain aspects of the film but I am also more aware of the films many flaws. Hanging strands of plot, sloppy storytelling and unformed ideas and metaphors. I still like much of There Will Be Blood but the initial euphoria has definitely worn off.

Daniel Plainview was a prospector, searching for silver and gold like any other late 19th century gold rusher. However, when Daniel accidentally comes upon a supply of oil in one of his mines, his new calling in life is found. It's not long before he is erecting derricks and hiring workers to pull his black gooey gold out of the ground. After an accident killed one of his workers, leaving behind the man's baby son, Plainview makes the boy his own son and ostensible partner in the new business. You see, having a son and playing the role of family man is just one of the many ways an oil man might seperate the willing sucker from his land and thus his supply of oil beneath that land.

By the time that Plainview meets Paul Sunday, he is already quite well off. He doesn't need the lead that Paul offers him on a supply of oil beneath the small community of Little Boston California. However, when Paul mentions that Standard Oil has been buying up the surrounding towns, Plainview decides he needs to get Little Boston before his competitors do. To get the land Plainview will have to deal with Paul's father Abel (David Willis), a willing sucker, and Paul's twin brother Eli, a preacher who is far more aware than his father is of the value of the land Plainview is trying to fleece from them.

Eli wants to start a church in town and feels that the money from the oil should be used to build and fund it. Cutting a deal with the devilish Plainview, Eli gets his 'donation' and Plainview begins drilling. The two men then begin a battle of wills over the soul of this small town.

That is a simplified description of the plot of There Will Be Blood with the biblical undertones laid out much more specifically than What Paul Thomas Anderson presents in the film. Anderson paints the metaphors much more vaguely than I have and thus leaves the viewer grasping and puzzling over the films intent. Though it would be easy to believe that this is a story of good vs evil, corruption vs virtue and whatnot, at some point There Will Be Blood loses it's grand ideas in favor of being just a portrait of one arrogant, disturbed character and the havoc he wreaks on the lives around him.

That isn't such a bad thing given the astonishing performance of Daniel Day Lewis as Plainview. From the accent to that mustache, everything about Lewis' performance stands head and shoulders above the film. Lewis dominates the screen and shows the true power of a great actor, that even in a movie that is less than the sum of his performance he can still shine. There Will Be Blood is a real mess all around the performance of Lewis but you won't realize it until later because while you watch it you are simply transfixed by the great Daniel Day Lewis.

What may occur to you days later are the hanging plot strands of There Will Be Blood. For one, there is a character named Henry (Kevin O'Connor) who claims to be Daniel's brother. Henry is introduced to us for a moment and then cast aside in stunning and confusing fashion. The great Ciaran Hinds is in There Will Be Blood though you would be hard pressed to notice him. Then there is the questionable casting of Paul Dano as both Paul and Eli Sunday. Some have wondered if there is a deeper meaning to having the same actor in both roles. The reality is, the actor playing Eli quit or was fired a few days into shooting and director Anderson just called Dano back and decided they were twins. Nothing more, nothing less.

As for the brother character, Henry, his introduction is fumbled and confusing. He exists not to further the plot but rather so that Plainview can deliver one of the films most important speeches and have someone there to witness it. Henry is then is dispatched when no longer needed. It's sloppy filmmaking and just one of many examples of where Anderson could have adjusted the film to flow smoother and quicker to his ending. The film is desperately bloated at 2 hours and 30 minutes. Hand off the speech listening to Ciaran Hinds or young Dillon Freasier as Plainview's son, cut the brother character completely and the film might get to it's conclusion in a more timely fashion.

I get that Anderson may have fallen for the performance of O'Connor who is quite good in this small role but then the answer might have been expanding the role so that it matters to the rest of the film. Introducing him and then shuffling him offscreen several scene later without effecting the plot in an important way is just shabby.

Too much of There Will Be Blood is characters just standing around marveling at Daniel Day Lewis. Don't get me wrong, we in the audience do it to, but then when the ending comes and we are to rely on the other characters to deepen the tragic ending, there is nothing there but Lewis. The tragedy is communicated but it lacks depth beyond our fascination with this character. There should be a greater tragedy, There Will Be Blood needs to leave us gasping for air and instead simply ends with a thud. "I'm done".