Movie Review I, Robot

I, Robot (2004) 

Directed by Alex Proyas 

Written by Jeff Vintar, Akiva Goldsman

Starring Will Smith, Bridget Moynihan, Bruce Greenwood, James Cromwell, Alan Tudyk 

Release Date July 16th, 2004

Published July 14th, 2004

Will Smith says he only has a few more years of running, jumping and shooting before he needs to find another niche. Let’s hope it’s more than a few years because he is one of that genre's most-welcome stars. Yes Bad Boys 2 stunk but his latest film I, Robot, makes up for that piece of trash with a smart stylish Sci-Fi action movie.

Smith stars as Detective Del Spooner, your average everyday Chicago Police Detective. Looking around his messy apartment and his old school casual clothes you would never guess he lives in the year 2035. That is until he steps out into the streets that teem with commuters and their walking, talking robot counterparts.

In 2035 robots will be an important part of everyday society, assisting in everyday activities such as cooking, cleaning and various menial jobs that humans would prefer not to do. This might sound good to most people but Del hates it and he hates robots. His prejudice stems from an accident that is hinted at in his dreams.

It is ironic then with Del’s dislike of robots that he would be the detective forced to investigate the apparent suicide of the top robot creator in the world, Dr. Alfred Lanning (James Cromwell). Spooner knows Dr. Lanning, how they know each other is explained later in the film, and Lanning has left him a holographic projection that may hold an important clue to something even bigger than his own suicide.

Spooner, ever suspicious of robots, chooses to investigate the case as murder. He is allowed into Dr. Lanning’s labs under the watchful eye of the company’s owner Lawrence Robertson (Bruce Greenwood) and Dr. Lanning’s assistant Susan Calvin (Bridget Moynihan). It’s preposterous of course that a robot could commit a murder because they are implanted with Dr. Lanning’s three laws of robotics (They are of course the creation of writer Isaac Asimov who wrote the short story “I , Robot” which is part of this film’s inspiration but not it’s direct source).

The three laws are:

1. A Robot may not harm a human being or through inaction allow a human being to be harmed.

2. A Robot must obey the orders of a human being unless those orders violate the first law.

3. A Robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not violate the first two laws.

Of course as Detective Spooner cleverly points out, rules are meant to be broken. Dr. Lanning must have agreed because prior to his death he created a robot he called Sonny (Voice by Alan Tudyk) who can think, feel and make choices that may allow it to reconsider the three laws. The Robots, especially Sonny, are some of the most spectacular examples of CGI that we have ever seen. Lifelike and eminently believable, the robots of I, Robot stand alongside Spider-man and the creatures of George Lucas as examples of what amazing things CGI can do

Director Alex Proyas may be the best director working in the science fiction genre today. If you haven’t seen his Dark City, finish reading this and run to the video store because that film is a must see masterpiece. I, Robot is not a masterpiece but as a genre piece and a Will Smith movie, it is spectacular.

Smith’s charisma continues to mature as he does as an actor. Smith is such a welcome reassuring presence that you can forgive a few screenplay contrivances that manipulate his character into particular situations. You can also forgive a few of those all-to-well-timed one-liners that occasionally feel out of place in this straight-faced film.

Many critics have complained that this film strays too far from Isaac Asimov’s brilliant short story written as part of his Robot Dreams collection. Indeed this is Asimov’s “I, Robot” in name only. This I, Robot is cynical about technology, robots specifically, where Asimov always played the robots as conflicted good guys that may have occasionally struggled with the three laws but protected humanity.

The script for this I, Robot written by Jeff Vintar and Oscar winner Akiva Goldsman has an almost Luddite view of technology. The script shows a fear of technology more in the vein of Osamu Rezuka’s Metropolis than Asimov, though both ask similar questions. Can robots think, feel, or love?

I, Robot, doesn't have the time to answer those questions. It’s a little too busy being an action movie, but it does have its thoughtful moments and the banter between Smith’s cop and Moynihan’s scientist does offer moments of good debate about the nature of humans and robots. The film is not exactly deep but it has more interesting ideas than most big summer blockbusters and for that we should cheer.

Movie Review Ramona & Beezus

Ramona & Beezus (2010) 

Directed by Elizabeth Allen 

Written by Laurie Craig, Nick Pustay 

Starring Joey King, Selena Gomez, John Corbett, Bridget Moynihan, Ginnifer Goodwin, Josh Duhamel, Sandra Oh 

Release Date July 23rd, 2010 

Published July 22nd, 2010 

The movie is called “Ramona and Beezus” but it really could be called just Ramona. Beezus, played by Disney Channel star Selena Gomez, is integral to the plot, but the story is unquestionably about Ramona played by 9-year-old Joey King as whirling dervish of sweet funny chaos. That's not to speak ill of Selena Gomez, she's a charming actress, but up against young Joey King's incredible performance, it's hard for anyone to stand out. 

Ramona Quimby is a precocious kid who doesn't really go looking for trouble but certainly finds it. With her huge imagination, Ramona can turn even the most straightforward activity, like the hanging rings on the playground, into a massive adventure that ends with her nearly missing a class because she has somehow hung herself upside down. There are some who will watch Ramona daydreaming, playing and finding trouble and diagnose her with attention deficit disorder but the movie, directed by Elizabeth Allen, has no time for diagnosing its star. The movie has far more serious and true elements to examine.

In a plot twist that was not part of Beverly Cleary's sunny fun vision of life on Klickitat St. in Portland Oregon, Ramona's dad (John Corbett) loses his job just as the family is building an addition on their already sprawling home. With Mom (Bridget Moynihan) heading back to work, the stress in the house begins to affect Ramona who finds new trouble in trying to help her parents keep their house.

This dramatic plot turn however, does not get overwhelmingly dramatic and for the most part Ramona and Beezus is breezy, warmhearted and sweet. 9-year-old Joey King is wonderful as Ramona, perfectly capturing her unintentional mischievousness and the soulful look in her eyes when she inevitably makes a giant mess of things.

John Corbett is terrific as the father who stays positive, patient and caring even as he seems a little dazed being over 40 and thrust back into the job hunt. Bridget Moynihan has far less screen time but her presence is felt early on. Rounding out the cast is a sweet romantic pairing between Ramona's Aunt Bea played by Ginnifer Goodwin and Ramona's neighbor Hobart played by Josh Duhamel.

Credit Goodwin and Duhamel for putting aside star ego to take minor supporting roles - both could be taking lead roles; Duhamel is in fact hard at work on another Transformers sequel but saw quality in Ramona and Beezus and could not pass it up. “Ramona and Beezus” is wonderful family entertainment. The drama of mom and dad's marriage trouble related to his unemployment is merely the underscore to a story about a big hearted little girl who finds adventure and trouble in equal measure just by being her slightly off-kilter self.

There is a reason that decades after they first appeared on Klickitat Street, courtesy of the pen of Beverly Cleary, why “Ramona and Beezus” are still around. These are quality stories and characters that resonate through time with their radiant, fun loving spirits and big, big hearts. Joey King is wonderfully well cast and though her radiance overshadows Selena Gomez as Beezus, it speaks to Selena Gomez's generosity as an actress that she is such wonderful support to King's lead performance. 

Ramona and Beezus is a delight. 

Movie Review: Battle Los Angeles

Battle Los Angeles (2011) 

Directed by Jonathan Liebesman

Written by Chris Bertolini 

Starring Aaron Eckhardt, Ramon Rodriguez, Michelle Rodriguez, Bridget Moynihan 

Release Date March 11th, 2011 

Published March 10th, 2011 

The sci-fi action flick "Battle: Los Angeles" has me quite torn. On the one hand, it is a brutal exercise in poor filmmaking techniques and terrible writing. On the other hand, the chaotic intensity of "Battle: Los Angeles" builds to a surprisingly rousing conclusion that any red blooded American can only cheer for.

Aaron Eckhardt stars in "Battle: Los Angeles" as Master Sgt. Michael Nantz, a 20 year Marine veteran who has just filed his retirement papers. Sgt. Nantz is plotting life after the marines when a meteor shower begins impacting off the coast of Santa Monica. Unfortunately, these are not meteors but rather alien beings intent on war.

With forces stretched thin Nantz joins a unit led by the much younger and very green, Lt. William Martinez (Ramon Rodriguez). The rest of the unit is populated with war movie stereotypes much older than the actors playing them and is more notable for its PC multiculturalism than for any one of the performances. However, Michelle Rodriguez joins the film late and offers a dash of tough chick vitality.

The unit is tasked with rescuing civilians trapped at a Santa Monica police station. The civilians include a veterinarian played Bridget Moynihan and a father (Michael Pena) protecting his son. Two other children are present as well though the film does a poor job of mentioning who they are or why they are present.

The task at hand for the unit is laid out like a videogame and, as shot by director Jonathan Liebesman (Darkness Falls), it feels a lot like a first person shooter game. The camera whips about as if it were being controlled by a caffeine addled gamer preventing the audience from gaining any perspective on the action at hand. Audience members prone to motion sickness might want to bring medication.

The characters are mostly forgettable; the dialogue is filled with atrocious cliches and malapropisms. The film style is so hectic in "Battle: Los Angeles" that you really don't know what's happening from one scene to the next. So, you're probably wondering: What is good about "Battle Los Angeles?"

Director Jonathan Liebesman makes up for many of the film deficiencies by establishing an intensely chaotic tone that despite awful dialogue and by the numbers characters can be quite compelling. The film's final act in which Eckhardt leads a ragtag crew back into action to take out an alien outpost that controls deadly, unmanned alien drones builds to a rousing finish.

The ending takes advantage, for better or worse, of our inclination toward patriotism. If you cannot be moved by our troops at their bravest readying for the biggest battle the country has ever seen, even if it is against fake aliens, then you are definitely not the audience for "Battle: Los Angeles" which doesn't literally wave the American flag but definitely salutes.

Hectic and at times completely awful, "Battle: Los Angeles" gains its appeal from star Aaron Eckhardt who commits fully to the premise and sells you on his guts alone. He believes in the action around him and because of him you do to, sort of. Most of the movie is pretty terrible but when Eckhardt leads the final battle you will work hard not to be moved to cheer, a little.

Movie Review: The Sum of All Fears

The Sum of All Fears (2002) 

Directed by Phil Alden Robinson

Written by Paul Attanasio, Daniel Pyne 

Starring Ben Affleck, Morgan Freeman, Bridget Moynihan, James Cromwell, Liev Schreiber 

Release Date May 31st, 2002 

Published May 29th, 2002 

SPOILER WARNING!!! 

The City of Baltimore gets blown up by a nuclear in the new Jack Ryan adventure, The Sum of All Fears, during the Super Bowl in Baltimore, and no one cares. That's the spoiler. Aside from this truly bizarre occurrence, The Sum of All Fears is a serviceable action movie with the wrong leading man. It's a fine action thriller bogged down by a performance by Ben Affleck that simply doesn't work. 

Tom Clancy's signature character Jack Ryan has become a sort of everyman version of Batman. He's your average, workaday CIA agent who, on occasion, is called upon to single-handedly prevent catastrophic world tragedies. The parallels extend off the big screen as well with the Ryan character having the same revolving door casting. The role originated with Alec Baldwin and then to its iconic image, Harrison Ford, and now to Ben Affleck. Sadly, Affleck's Ryan is reminiscent of George Clooney's Batman.

Trying to make sense of how Jack has actually gotten younger since his last adventure is a waste of time, just suspend disbelief and absorb yourself in the intrigue of espionage and politics. After the death of the Russian President, CIA analyst Jack Ryan is called upon to profile the new president named Nemarov, well played by the heretofore-unknown Ciaran Hinds. Ryan is an expert on Nemarov, having predicted his ascendancy to the presidency years before. 

CIA head Cabot (Morgan Freeman) has Jack accompany him on a trip to Russia to meet the president and inspect a nuclear weapons plant. While inspecting the plant Ryan notices three scientists are missing. The disappearance of the scientists leads to the discovery of a plot to smuggle a black market nuclear weapon into the U.S. Ryan is then teamed with an undercover operative named John Clark (Liev Schreiber, surprisingly effective). While Clark tracks the weapon, Ryan must convince his superiors that the Russians aren't involved in the plot.

Ryan and Clark are too late and the bomb explodes in the middle of the Super bowl, killing millions and nearly killing President Fowler, played by James Cromwell. Once the bomb explodes, our worst fears are nearly realized as the two super powers amp up their arsenals for worldwide nuclear war. The films nuclear explosion and its aftermath are jarringly realistic in wake of real life events, but the producers bow to political correctness making the terrorists Nazi's instead of Clancy's use of Arabs. I can see the producers point, that maybe Arab terrorists might be insensitive, but then blowing up the city of Baltimore in the middle of the Super Bowl isn't exactly comforting.

Jack Ryan not only has explosions and terrorists to deal with, he is also saddled with a lame subplot romance with Bridget Moynihan, playing the role once held by Anne Archer. In the previous films, Ryan is married to her. In Sum of All Fears it's a burgeoning relationship that lacks depth and purpose. Moynihan's character is entirely unnecessary, she adds nothing to the film except lead to the joke in the trailer where Freeman tells Ben to tell her why he has to cancel their date and she doesn't believe him. 

She also participates in the films tacked on happy ending where evil is punished and our hero picnics in the park across from the White House. The scene is rather casual considering the City of Baltimore was erased from the planet just days before traumatizing the entire country amid The Super Bowl. Despite those problems, director Phil Alden Robinson deftly handles action and suspense and does an admirable job of translating Clancy's mixture of military fact and dramatic fiction. Paul Attanasio no doubt helped the adapted screenplay along with a rewrite by Oscar winner Akiva Goldsman.

The weakest link in Sum Of All Fears is Ben Affleck, one of my favorite actors. Ben just doesn't carry the dramatic weight to be taken seriously as a guy consulting the President of the United States and the President of Russia. Harrison Ford benefited from his past action hero glory as iconic characters Han Solo and Indiana Jones, those roles gave Ford credibility as a guy who could be trusted to save the world and scream at the President, the iconic retort, 'How dare you, Sir!' 

The fact of the matter is there is no reason for Affleck's character to be called Jack Ryan. The name is merely a marketing tool. Just a way to put butts in the seats via something they find familiar. With the character growing younger and Affleck's lack of Ford-like credibility, the film might have been better served by giving him a different name. Keep the title and call him Jim Taylor or some other bland name and keep Jack Ryan for some other story. 

The Sum Of All Fears is a suspenseful action ride that suffers only for it's poor choice in leading man. Though again I must point out that Affleck is one of my favorites, he is just not right for Jack Ryan. Affleck is best known as a smartass romantic from Kevin Smith’s Chasing Amy and as the deeply flawed but likable character’s from Bounce, Good Will Hunting and Changing Lanes. In Sum Of All Fears he's called upon to do things that just don't fit what we know of him. The passion for the part is there but not the “save the world” credibility of Ford.

The Sum Of All Fears with Harrison Ford could have been an exciting summer blockbuster but with Affleck it's a rentable movie if you have nothing else to do.

Movie Review: The Recruit

The Recruit (2003) 

Directed by Roger Donaldson 

Written by Roger Towne, Kurt Wimmer, Mitch Glazer 

Starring Al Pacino, Colin Farrell, Bridget Moynihan, Gabriel Macht 

Release Date January 31st, 2003 

Published January 30th, 2003 

Is Al Pacino's act running thin? An unquestionably brilliant actor for most of his career, Pacino has been uneven at best in his most recent work. His last, the Hollywood satire Simone, was a middling comedy that featured a mugging, forced performance by Pacino. However, the film before that, the ingenious thriller Insomnia, showed Pacino at his best. His newest work continues the spate of uneven performances as Pacino plays mentor/tormentor to Colin Farrell in The Recruit.

In The Recruit, Al Pacino plays CIA recruiter Walter Burke, a grizzled vet whose job it is to find the next generation of agents. Burke has his eye on an MIT student named James Clayton (Farrell), whose father may or may not have been an agent himself. Clayton isn't interested at first, but suspicions as to whether his father was an agent and whether Burke knew him, and how his father died, cause Clayton to join up.

Soon Clayton is shipped off to the Farm, the CIA's highly secretive spy training ground. Burke is the Farm's lead trainer and though he was friendly with Clayton while recruiting him, Burke is quick to let Clayton know that things are different on the Farm. From now on, nothing is what it seems as students and teachers turn tables on each other in a series of testy spy games meant to wash out the weak and send the strong on to the CIA. While at the Farm, Clayton meets Layla (Bridget Moynihan), another potential agent whose alluring chemistry with Clayton may or may not be an act.

The Recruit is a construct of numerous setups meant to lead the audience in one direction and then pull the rug out from under them. Unfortunately, the setups are rather ham-handed and lack any real suspense. Any intelligent audience member can see where the film is going. That is, until the end--which is a minor surprise--but by then, the movie has spent so much time jerking the audience around with one random twist after another, it becomes hard to really care.

Farrell is very good in a role that requires his character to be very smart but yet, easily manipulated by Pacino's character who may a bad guy or may be a good guy. Farrell has the look of a star; he's charismatic and engaging with a strong good-guy swagger. There are moments where he evokes a young Mel Gibson. Like it or not, that Hollywood buzz about Farrell being the next big thing may be more than just hype.

If the rest of The Recruit were as good as Farrell, it would have been a very good film. Unfortunately, director Roger Donaldson takes this intelligent character and buries him with an uninteresting love interest, a hammy Al Pacino, and a plot that twists and turns so much as to exhaust the audience rather than entertain it. Colin Farrell has a very bright future in front of him and The Recruit will do little to slow his momentum as he builds towards bigger roles in Daredevil and the delayed, but much buzzed about, Phone Booth. The Recruit will be just another film on his resume soon enough.