Classic Movie Review Hamburger Hill

Hamburger Hill (1987) 

Directed by John Irvin 

Written by James Carabatsos

Starring Michael Boatman, Don Cheadle, Dylan McDermott, Courtney B. Vance 

Release Date August 28th, 1987 

Published August 29th 2017 

There are those who claim that Hamburger Hill is the least remembered of 80s Vietnam movies, a niche genre all its own in that decade, because it was a right wing, reactionary movie intended to defend soldiers. Time has a way of changing perceptions and now that Hamburger Hill is turning 30 years old, it’s interesting to look back on the film and talk about the perceptions of the film and how they’ve evolved over the years and the ways in which guilt, shame and history have altered the way many view Vietnam.

Hamburger Hill tells the story of one company in the midst of a battalion ordered to take a single hill from the North Vietnamese. The hill would come to be called Hamburger Hill because meat may be all that’s left of a soldier after he gets blown away while climbing this ungodly, muddy, and eventually blood-soaked hill. It’s grisly and part of the film’s reputation comes from what the title implies, a gruesomeness that put audiences off just from the title.

The film is gruesome as director John Irvin doesn’t hold back on the blood and guts but where the film’s reputation is somewhat misguided is the notion that that is all Hamburger Hill was, just blood and guts. The film actually takes time to build toward the blood guts. Hamburger Hill has a slow build where you take the time to get used to the young faces and personalities preparing to die on the hill. It’s not until the film’s remarkable third act that the gruesomeness moves to the foreground.

Until the third act the film is relatively tame in terms of violence. Instead we get a warts and all look at these soldiers whom we watch become more and more detached from life back at home and unmoored from the reality around them because death seems so close. The film shines a harsh light on the reality of Vietnam, the way the soldiers were mistreated to the point where us against the world was the only mentality that made any sense.

While people back home accused these soldiers of being bloodthirsty killers, the reality was so much more complicated than that. These were men who were abandoned in Vietnam. Whereas people like Patton, McArthur, and Eisenhower had the weight and experience to give soldiers courage and purpose, the soldiers of Vietnam are rudderless, tools of the government abandoned by a society crumbling from the optimism of the 50s into the greed infested era to come where the divide between rich and poor was often defined by those who went to Vietnam and those rich enough not to have to.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review White Noise

White Noise (2022) 

Directed by Noah Baumbach 

Written by Noah Baumbach 

Starring Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Don Cheadle 

Release Date November 25th, 2022

Published November 18th, 2022 

Netflix 

I've never read Don Delillo's much heralded 1985 novel, White Noise. Others have told me it is quite brilliant. I'm told it has a visionary quality that makes it quite worthy of being adapted at any time. From what I know about White Noise, Noah Baumbach, director of intimate dramas about awkward families and spiky characters, would not be the most likely choice to direct this material. The story carries elements of science fiction, high minded satire ala Joseph Heller, and a borderline unfilmable obsession with death. Unfilmable in that most audiences won't find the theme one they want to watch play out in a movie. 

It's rather perfect that an iconoclast like Baumbach would choose something so seemingly impossible as his first big budget directorial effort. It's also kind of perfect that he's taken millions of dollars of Netflix money and made an indie movie on a blockbuster budget. White Noise is filled with showy, dramatic speeches, and wildly strange moments of action fitting of a director of esoteric human drama. White Noise is filled with numerous themes but none of which seems to stand out or find any satisfying resolution.

Adam Driver stars in White Noise as J.A.K or Jack Gladney, father of 5 children from 4 marriages to five different women. His new wife, Babette (Greta Gerwig), shares with Jack a despairing fear of death. What begins as a somewhat romantic, fatalistic conversation about how they can't live without each other and making the case that one should die before the other in order to save them from comparative states of horrific grief. 

Babette's fear of death manifests in her beginning to take an experimental drug that is supposed to relieve her of the fear of death. Instead, the drug just effects Babette's memory in general making her forgetful but still deeply in fear of death. For Jack, he expresses his fear of death through his work as a professor at the fictional College on the Hill, located somewhere in Ohio. Jack has earned fame in Academic circles for his intensive course, Hitler Studies, where he opines on the evils of the dictator and the culture that made him possible. 

At one point, White Noise comes to a complete halt for a dueling speech between Driver's Jack and his best friend, Professor Murray Siskind (Don Cheadle). In an incredible verbal dance, Jack and Murray each pontificate about the area of their expertise. Jack, of course, knows all about Hitler while Murray's unique field of study is Elvis Presley. The pair find strange and fascinating parallels between Hitler and the King of Rock N'Roll in each having attachment issues related to their mothers, their absent fathers, and their incredible ability to draw and compel a crowd. 

Neither Driver and Cheadler nor Jack and Murray are competing here. Rather, the pair is improvising a intricate dance of intellects that dovetail off of one another, building on each others points, coming to the point of interrupting each other but never seeming to steal the attention away. At one moment, Jack recedes into the crowd of gathering professors and students, mesmerized by their tete a tete and then he re-emerges in a different part of the crowd, rising from a crouch to take hold of the scene, and Murray steps back in awe to enjoy his fellow Professor's presentation. 

It's the best scene in White Noise and it is so good that I want to recommend the movie solely based on the quality of Driver and Cheadle's magnificent duet. I want to recommend it but I am not sure that I can. You see, what remains of White Noise following this bravura effort is far too strange, obtuse, and esoteric that I am not sure who the audience for this is meant to be. White Noise has director Baumbach tapping various styles from other directors from Altman to Wes Anderson to Mike Nicholas and Stanley Kubrick. The homage throughout White Noise is fascinating but I am not sure it adds up to anything in the end. 

I'm told that Delillo's novel actually thrives on trainwrecking the narrative into some inescapable place and leaping to a new narrative thread. White Noise, in fact, depicts an actual trainwreck that serves the purpose of shifting the narrative from quirky academic satire to an equally quirky survival thriller. The family is forced to flee from their home after a train is hit by a semi-truck carry flammable chemicals. The train was carrying toxic waste and the result is what the book and film call an 'Airborne Toxic Event.' Jack ends up being exposed to the Toxic Event and assumes that it is going to kill him but that is only used to underline his ongoing obsession with death. 

The Airborne Toxic Event portion of White Noise includes a chase scene and chaotic, end of the world preaching and then just peters out into the family returning home and going on with their lives. It's weirdly clever and provides yet another narrative trainwreck into another story, though slightly less successful than the actual trainwreck scene. The final act then becomes a domestic drama as Jack investigates Babette's experimental drug. I doubt that I can spoil the movie but I am nevertheless going to end my description there. 

White Noise is a particularly unsatisfying experience. On one hand, I love some of the ambition that Baumbach demonstrates. The stuff with Driver and Don Cheadle and Hitler and Elvis is genuinely riveting. Driver's performance is weird, as is Cheadle and Greta Gerwig's performances but they are entertainingly weird, they match the weird tone of White Noise. The acting is really first rate in terms of how it marries with the wild ideas of White Noise. That said, I can see where a more mainstream audience than myself, might be put off by the theatrics, the showiness, and the un-ironic bigness of these performances. 

I also love the film credits which encompasses the final scene of the movie to the very end of the last credit on screen. It's essentially a music video reminiscent of the wildly anarchic and inventive style of a Spike Jonze video. The lengthy choreographed sequence marries dancers and non-dancers a like in a series of coordinated movements that mimic and mock the daily mannered pleasantries of grocery stores in our obsessive consumer culture. Actual dancers glide amid the coordinated movements of shoppers, smiling, everyday consumers, going about the business of selecting their varieties of brands and filling carts to overflow with item after item. 

Consumer culture is among the many broad targets of White Noise though what point is being made about consumer culture is far too broad to determine. That really is the defining quality of the movie White Noise, it's a scattershot blast of vague commentary on modern life, some of it quite interesting and entertaining and quite a lot of it presented without much insight, humor, or meaning. I could excuse that as being just like life where not everything has a deeper meaning but that feels like a cop out by both me as a writer and critic and by the movie which appears incapable of settling on any kind of point. 

Click here for my full length review at Geeks.Media. 

Movie Review: Traitor

Traitor (2008) 

Directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff

Written by Jeffrey Nachmanoff

Starring Don Cheadle. Neal McDonough, Guy Pearce, Said Tagmaoui

Release Date August 27th, 2008

Published September 10th, 2008 

Traitor has a complicated premise that is difficult to describe without taking some of the suspense out of it. This may explain why Traitor arrived in theaters with little promotion and to confused and mostly indifferent potential audiences. Studio marketers simply could not turn the trick of enticing audiences without giving away the films most satisfying twists and turns. The marketing then comes down to star Don Cheadle and while he is a respected actor, the star of Talk To Me and Boogie Nights is still not a household name.

When Samir Horn (Cheadle) was a boy he watched his devout Muslim father killed in a car bombing. Taken from his home in Sudan to the United States by his mother, Samir was a brilliant student who joined the military, made special forces and then disappeared. After years off the grid from Chicago to various points in the middle east, Samir is captured in Yemen while building and selling bombs to a group of jihadists.

After befriending the terrorist leader Omar (Said Tagmaoui) Samir, is invited into the terrorists' inner circle and eventually is asked to take part in an major attack on US soil. On the heels of the terrorists are a pair of FBI agents, Roy Clayton (Guy Pearce) and Max Archer (Neal McDonough), both of whom believe that Samir is the key to cracking the plot but for different reasons.

Directed and adapted for the screen by Jeffrey Nachmanoff, Traitor is a smart suspense flick with the popcorn thrills necessary of good entertainment and the top notch performances of a high end drama. Though the plot grows convoluted as more and more of the story unfolds, Nachmanoff keeps audiences engaged by highlighting the performance of Don Cheadle who commands the screen with an actorly presence.

The cast of Traitor is the glue that holds it together. As the plot grows a little weedy near the end, Don Cheadle and Guy Pearce keep things in line with their incredibly engaging performances. Cheadle especially has a talent for getting an audience in rapt attention. See his performances in Boogie Nights and Hotel Rwanda, Cheadle is among the most fascinating and compelling actors working today. 

Pearce, though he has acted sparingly since his blistering debut in L.A Confidential, makes exceptional use of his weary eyes and measured monotone voice, tinged here with a slight southern accent, to give his words greater import. Scenes between Pearce and character actor extraordinaire Neal McDonough, crackle with energy even as the two are just laying plot groundwork.

Traitor is not without flaws, the terrorists are weak characters and some of the twists and turns don't pay off as well as they should. Nevertheless, Traitor hits enough of the right notes to be a compelling often exciting pop entertainment. Don Cheadle may never grow into a box office titan but his talent cannot be measured in box office dollars.

See Traitor for Cheadle and Pearce, performances worth the price of admission.

Movie Review Hotel for Dogs

Hotel for Dogs (2009) 

Directed by Thor Freudenthal 

Written by Jeff Lowell, Mark McCorkle, Bob Schooley

Starring Emma Roberts, Jake T. Austin, Lisa Kudrow, Kevin Dillon, Don Cheadle

Release Date January 16th, 2009 

Published January 19th, 2009 

Is there any hotter movie star in the world right now than the pooch? Dogs are a big box office hit these days. From the Beverly Hills Chihuahua to the animated Bolt to the box office king Marley, the dog is boffo box office. The latest example of doggie dominance, Hotel For Dogs, hasn't lit up the box office quite as well as its predecessors but it's coming around, hence why I have gone back to actually complete this review.

Hotel For Dogs tells the story of an orphan brother and sister, Bruce (Jake T. Austin) and Andi (Emma Roberts). They are a pair of troublemakers who make trouble to get out of bad foster homes. The latest one has them living with a pair of wannabe rock stars, (Lisa Kudrow and Kevin Dillon) who refuse to feed them anything but scraps and cereal.

They are scheming a way out until their kind, caring social worker  Bernie (Don Cheadle) tells them they will be separated if they can't make this home work. The biggest obstacle for Bruce and Andi is hiding their beloved pup Friday, a gift from their late parents.

One day, when Friday runs away, Bruce and Andi track him down in a rundown hotel where several other dogs are hiding out from the no good dog catchers. Bruce and Andi decide that all the dogs need to be cared for and using his wizard-like skill with gadgets, Bruce begins building ways for the dogs to get help when they can't be there.

Meanwhile, Andi befriends Dave (Johnny Simmons), a boy who works in a local pet store. He and his friend Heather (Kyla Pratt) agree to help out and provide the puppy chow and all four agree that there are other stray dogs out there that need their help and a caring roof over their heads. The Hotel For Dogs is born.

Are there any cheaper ways to achieve sentimentality than orphans and puppies? Really? Director Thor Freudenthal and crew have built a gadget of a movie meant to play on any and all sympathies. Surprise, surprise, it works. Sure, it's cheap, tacky and sentimental but Hotel For Dogs is also undeniably sweet, cute and fun.

Emma Roberts is a winning little star with a big bright smile and energy to burn. She is the perfect heroine for a movie like this, combining the innocence and gumption needed to keep the movie from becoming treacly. Jake T. Austin is also perfect casting. The star of Disney's Wizards Waverly Place could play this role with his eyes closed; everything about Hotel For Dogs matches the modern Disney model of pre-teen live action TV shows like Wizards, I-Carly or Hannah Montana.

Sweet without being cloying and sentimental without being pushy, Hotel For Dogs is great family entertainment built to make dog owners cry and everyone else just say awww.

Movie Review Reign Over Me

Reign Over Me (2007) 

Directed by Mike Binder

Written by Mike Binder

Starring Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Liv Tyler, Saffron Burrows, Donald Sutherland

Release Date March 23rd, 2007

Published March 22nd, 2007

I've never been a fan of Adam Sandler's big screen work. If Will Ferrell's work sometimes feels like a series of SNL skits, Sandler's work is like Mad TV in comparison. Jokes so obvious that the audience chuckles before the punchline, dirty sight gags that only Sandler and his team hangers on find funny, and story's so blindingly dumb that you lose IQ points watching them unfold, Sandler is the ultimate in movie flotsam, for the most part.

However, after his turn in P.T Anderson's wonderfully quirky Punch Drunk Love, I was forced to admit that, when he is directed, Sandler has some real talent. Now with his turn as a 9/11 widowed husband in Reign Over Me; I am forced to once again reconsider Sandler and his talent. As the only good thing in an otherwise shallow wasteland of male midlife whining, Sandler manages to steal the show from none other than Oscar nominee Don Cheadle. Impressive, if you're also an award winning actor, mind blowing if you are Mr. Sandler.

Allen Johnson's (Don Cheadle) life has grown stagnant. Every night is spent at home with his loving wife Janeane (Jada Pinkett Smith) and everyday spent in the office of his quiet dental practice which, though he started it, has begun to treat him as just another employee. Allen's boring life gets a charge of excitement from two very strange sources.

Driving down the street one day Allen sees his old college roommate Charlie Fineman (Adam Sandler). Though Charlie is so scattered that he seems not to remember Allen the two decide to get some coffee and soon they are spending a lot of time together. Charlie was once just like Allen, only happier. He had a beautiful wife and 3 daughters. Sadly, Charlie's family died in one of the planes that hit the world trade center. Since then Charlie has receded into a childish fantasy world of rock music and video games.

The other source of chaos in Allen's life is a wacky dental patient named Donna (Saffron Burrows). She arrives in his office asking about a cosmetic procedure though there is nothing wrong with her teeth. Soon she is offering Allen no strings attached oral sex. When Allen rebuffs her advances, she sues him and yet still wants him as her dentist. If you guessed that she and Charlie will eventually cross paths, well you are not as psychic as you are a student of plot mechanics.

Reign Over Me is the latest aimless, masturbatory exercise in arrested development from writer-director Mike Binder whose scattershot resume includes the exceptional drama The Upside of Anger and the brutal TV series The Mind of the Married Man. Binder is funny and sometimes very insightful. He's also full of shit, navel-gazing, meathead who can't seem to grow up.

Reign Over Me falls somewhere in the middle of Binder's oeuvre. It's at times quite full of shit and at times; honest and insightful. The most truth comes in the pain etched in the performance of Adam Sandler who doesn't so much shed his well worn comic fratboy persona as temper that persona with deep sadness and desperation.

Sandler makes the material work and pulls the character of Charlie away from the grandstanding grief monster written by Binder and into truer, more thoughtful territory. Sandler's own history with arrested development, perpetual child types actually serves him well in giving depth to Charlie. When we see the ways in which Charlie has regressed, with video games and his obsession with the music of his youth, it's very easy to follow Sandler into this territory.

Where the full of shit aspects of Reign Over Me come into play are in any scenes featuring women. Binder does a poor job of writing realistic women and though Liv Tyler and Jada Pinkett Smith struggle to try and give depth to their poorly written characters, they are undone by Binder and his boys club mentality. That ludicrous Binder mentality is especially on display in the character of Donna played by model and actress Saffron Burrows.

Burrows plays a mentally unstable woman who expresses her insecurity and instability by offering oral sex to Cheadle's Allen. She then irrationally sues him but wishes to retain his dental services and again offers sex. Why does this character exist? What does she bring to Allen's journey in the film? These questions are unanswerable, though the explanation could be Binder's inability to avoid shoehorning sex jokes into a film that is lacking them.

What's good about Reign Over Me is Adam Sandler's nuanced and affecting performance. Sandler hasn't been this good since his quirky, oddball performance in Punch Drunk Love, a film that grows more maligned by every Sandler performance. Punch Drunk Sandler and Reign's Sandler have a great deal in common. They are socially inept, damaged souls seeking something bigger than themselves but emotionally stunted to their very soul.

Reign Over Me Sandler is edgy and daring, willing to risk audience sympathies with his rash, childish outbursts and more daringly by allowing the film to use this character to exploit the sadness of 9/11. This is where Sandler truly shines. In a lesser performance writer-director Mike Binder's grandstanding would seem shallow and callous. Sandler makes it work by establishing the grandiose, over the top sadness of this character that carries over the terrific scene where he breaks down.

The rest of Reign Over Me is just another full of shit episode of Binder's former TV show with Don Cheadle dulling his skills to play to Binder's level of myopic male arrested development. The way the character of Allen is written, it is as if he doesn't need a reason to be unhappy and seeking release, he's a dude and dudes need to get out of the house and away from their wives sometimes. That is; literally, the level of Binder's insight into this character.

Reign Over Me is two different movies. One is a shallow exercise in male pattern selfishness. The other is a dark tale of sadness and loss featuring a shockingly good performance from an unexpected actor. If I told you that Don Cheadles was starring alongside Adam Sandler and that Sandler was the one delivering the knockout performance, would you believe me? Well that is what I am telling you and, trust me; I'm more shocked than you are.

Movie Review Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2 (2010)

Directed by Jon Favreau 

Written by Justin Theroux 

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Mickey Rourke, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Samuel L. Jackson

Release Date May 7th, 2010

Published May 6th, 2010 

Star power is that intangible quality that can turn even a bad movie into a brilliant one. Imagine Pirates of the Caribbean without Johnny Depp, Independence Day without Will Smith or any of the Ocean's 11 sequels. Star power can drive any movie to brilliance without the audience ever realizing that what surrounds the star is mostly a giant mess.

Iron Man 2 is not exactly a giant mess, but imagining it working without the incalculable star power of Robert Downey Jr is impossible.

When last we saw Tony Stark he was revealing himself to be the superhero Iron Man in his usual ostentatious fashion. Since then, Tony has run about the world privatizing world peace in our time. And boy is he ever aware of his power. Called to testify before Congress, Stark has no trouble humiliating Senators with his ever present wit and tech.

Even as his pal Major Rhodes (Don Cheadle in the military garb once worn by Terrence Howard) is called to testify against him, Stark flips, dodges and eventually walks out to cheers and applause.

Watching on TV in Russia is Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), a man that Tony Stark is not aware has a connection to his father. Vanko's own father was in business with Tony's late father, together they invented the very arc reactor that Tony now uses on a smaller scale to keep him alive. Vanko's father was banished before he could reap any rewards and Ivan wants payback.

As for Tony, while he seems to be having a great time, he is growing ever weaker. The arc reactor is slowly killing him and if he cannot find a new power source he and Iron Man are finished. Keeping this fact from his longtime assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and his new assistant Natalie (Scarlett Johannson) is only a minor subplot meant to keep the ladies busy.

Plot aside, Iron Man 2 is about attitude, it's about cool and it's about big time action. Taken on these terms it is impossible not to enjoy. Robert Downey Jr has perfected the swagger of Tony Stark and found the sweet spot between ego and hero. Arrogance is his stock and trade but Downey's ability to make us part of the joke and not the subject of his arrogance is the paper thin difference between charisma and just being a jerk.

Jon Favreau's direction is mechanical and somewhat perfunctory but he knows how to keep his massive special effects under control while allowing RDJ to carry the weight of the movie with his persona. It may not be anything remotely related to artfulness but Favreau knows how to make Iron Man 2 what it is supposed to be, Robert Downey Jr’s magnum ego opus.

Iron Man 2 is not a work of art, it's not major cinema, its hardcore popcorn entertainment in the most joyous sense. Downey and Favreau and their cohorts deliver what fans want of Iron Man's big swinging ego, massive explosions, and inside baseball allusions to the planned Avengers movie, by the way, stay through the credits.

Movie Review: Brooklyn's Finest

Brooklyn's Finest (2009) 

Directed by Antoine Fuqua 

Written by Michael C. Martin

Starring Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Lily Taylor, Ellen Barkin 

Release Date March 5th, 2010 

Published March 4th, 2010 

There is sluggishness to the alpha male posing of Brooklyn's Finest the latest in a long line of troubled cop movies. Richard Gere, Don Cheadle and Ethan Hawke play a three headed monster of ethically compromised cops in one of the toughest precincts in New York City. Stop me if you've heard that story before.

Richard Gere plays Eddie in Brooklyn's Finest, a depressed cop seven days from retirement. An inveterate drunk, Eddie plans on not getting killed in his last week as a cop and if that means letting a few calls go by so be it. Bad luck for Eddie that he gets stuck breaking in rookies in a week in which his Brooklyn precinct is all over the headlines.

A cop has been arrested for robbing what he thought was a drug dealer but turned out to be an honor student. Meanwhile another cop, Sal (Ethan Hawke) has just murdered and robbed an informant (Vincent D'Onofrio) and is ready for more robbing and killing as he looks to move his growing family, 5 kids with twins on the way, out of a rickety row house.

While Eddie longs for retirement and Sal risks his life in more and more dangerous fashion, Tango (Don Cheadle) seems safe by comparison, working undercover on the streets hoping to take down a major drug gang. Sure, he's dealing with deadly thugs on a daily basis but his cover is so strong he seems impervious to the danger.

In fact, Tango's cover is so good one might wonder which side he's on, especially after he gets close with Caz (Wesley Snipes) a major drug dealer fresh out of prison. Caz saved Tango's life when Tango began his undercover stint in prison. Now, as Cas is getting acclimated to the streets again, Tango questions whether he can take him down.

There is drama to be found in director Antoine Fuqua's violence fueled narrative but not much of it resonates beyond what has come before it in other, better cop movies. Fuqua's own Training Day, with Ethan Hawke no less, is a far more interesting and daring film in comparison to the well worn path walked by Brooklyn's Finest.

Don Cheadle delivers a standout performance as the least conflicted of the conflicted cops. Cheadle is a compelling actor whose intense gaze brims with calculating intelligence. To look at Cheadle is to want to know what he's thinking and follow his every deliberate move.

Ethan Hawke and Richard Gere are far less successful. Hawke is among the least convincing Italian cops in movie history putting on accent only when calling out to his stereotypically named kids Vinnie and Joey. Gere's Eddie is merely pathetic. One can argue that he is pathetic with a purpose, his redemption will rely on rock bottom dwelling, but a scene in which he proposes to a hooker is more laughable than sad.

A mixed bag of cop movie clichés, New York stereotypes and the occasional bit of hardcore violence, Brooklyn's Finest holds promise for fans of Don Cheadle and little else. One would be better served picking up Cheadle's exceptional performance in Out of Sight for a similarly smart and more nuanced performance.

Movie Review: After the Sunset

After the Sunset (2004) 

Directed by Brett Ratner 

Written by Paul Zbyszewski, Craig Rosenberg 

Starring Pierce Brosnan, Salma Hayek, Woody Harrelson, Don Cheadle, Naomie Harris

Release Date November 12th, 2004 

Published November 11th, 2004 

Director Brett Ratner has a flair for escapist action junk.  He is the man behind the Rush Hour series. His latest escapist mainstream popcorn fare is After The Sunset, a heist comedy that is lacking a good heist and some comedy but does feature a supremely hot Salma Hayek in various stages of undress. Sometimes even bad movies have a bright side.

Pierce Brosnan stars as Max, a master thief with a particular affinity for the very rare Napoleon diamonds. What he seems to enjoy even more than the diamonds however is humiliating FBI agent Stan Lloyd, (Woody Harrelson) who is guarding the diamonds and who was held responsible when Max lifted the first one. As the story requires, Max once again humiliates Stan in a convoluted little plot with remote control cars, cat and mouse antics at a basketball game, and finally a gunshot wound for Max, though nothing serious enough to keep him from the diamond. 

The heist would not be possible without Max's better half Lola (Hayek) who runs important interference on the heist and even gets to wear a neat costume. It is Lola who decides that they are now retired and she who chooses their retirement home on a gorgeous unnamed Caribbean tourist trap island. She's happy but Max is miserable with no loot to steal and no agent Lloyd to mess with.  He is bored stiff.

Then out of the blue pops agent Lloyd and a cruise ship that just happens to be carrying the third Napoleon diamond, the only one Max hasn't stolen....allegedly. Can Max resist the temptation of the complicated and once again convoluted and over-wrought pilfering opportunity and another chance to show up Stan or will he follow Lola's admonition that they are retired and it's not worth the risk. Whether he steals the diamond or not he is guaranteed to be involved because of a local gangster (Don Cheadle) who threatens to kill him if he won't help lift the diamond.

Pierce Brosnan is trying hard to settle into post-Bond  life, though he still has one more Bond yet to come. Sadly Brosnan once again misfires on his image makeover. Brosnan is a stiff and casting him as a colorful thief in colorful surroundings only serves to show off his weakest qualities. He's charming and handsome and so very, very boring when compared to his co-stars and even the sunrise of the title is far more interesting than anything Brosnan brings to this film.

If they really wanted to have some fun with After The Sunset they should have switched a few of the roles around. Have Cheadle play the thief, Harrelson the American gangster running the island and Brosnan the straight-laced FBI guy. That at least would give Don Cheadle something more to do than just show up when the plot needs him to look mean. For some reason I can really imagine him sparking with Salma Hayek as well, something Brosnan fails at miserably.

For his part Director Brett Ratner is his calculated mainstream self. Always well aware of what test audiences are looking for, Ratner ratchets up the formula story, the recognizable faces and the entirely "lowest common denominator" plot that only few will find complicated or surprising. I will say this for Ratner, his camera loves Salma Hayek and finds new and wonderful ways of capturing her magnificent form.

As the plot clicks away through poorly executed buddy humor and lazy action setups with little if any payoff the one thing that is clear about the making of After The Sunset is that everyone on the crew must have gotten a nice tan and plenty of umbrella drinks. Otherwise there isn't much reason for this film to exist at all. This is a vacation for all involved, a chance to go to paradise on a studio dime. Can't say I blame them for living it up but would it have killed them to make a halfway decent film while they were sunning themselves?

Movie Review Ocean's 13

Ocean's 13 (2007) 

Directed by Steven Soderbergh 

Written by Brian Koppelman, David Levien 

Starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Don Cheadle, Al Pacino, Ellen Barkin 

Release Date June 8th, 2007 

Published June 7th, 2007 

The breezy filmed cocktail party atmosphere of the first two Ocean's pictures continues to charm in Ocean's 13. However, even as the stars remain witty and charismatic and director Steven Soderbergh's direction becomes more confident and experimental, there is a fatigued quality setting in. Like a party beginning to wind down, Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta Jones have already left, Ocean's 13 has drifted late into the night and it's time to lock the doors and send everyone home. But, hey, we did have a good time.

Al Pacino sets the plot of Ocean's 13 in motion as a jerky hotel financier named Willy Bank. Having entered into a deal with our old friend Reuben (Elliott Gould) to open the biggest new resort on the strip, Willy has decided to renege on the deal. Reuben is out, his steak of several million dollars is gone, but mostly he has lost his pride. Not long after Willy rips him off, Reuben has a heart attack that leads to severe depression and a nearly comatose state.

Enter Reuben's old pals Danny (George Clooney) Rusty (Brad Pitt) and Linus (Matt Damon) seeking vengeance. Reuben was a surrogate father to Rusty and Danny and after helping the Ocean's crew in each of their largest ventures, Reuben is family and so the plan is set in motion to ruin the casino and find a way for Reuben to get his cash back.

The plot set in motion is... complicated. It involves kidnapping a group of high roller gamblers, putting down a workers revolt in Mexico, and generating an Earthquake in Nevada. If that isn't complicated enough, how about throwing in Super Dave Osbourne as an FBI agent ready to throw the whole scheme into uproar, seeming to trip his way into Danny and Rusty's deeply complicated con. 

Director Steven Soderbergh is one of the busiest, most involved directors in the game. Even in the slick trifle that is Ocean's 13; Soderbergh not only directs, he slaps the camera on his shoulder and shoots the picture (the credits say Peter Andrews but that is just Steven Soderbergh's alias). Soderbergh is also the executive producer on the film and is seemingly involved in every aspect of the film down to the dice chosen for a pivotal scene.

It is Soderbergh's attention to detail that keeps this bloated cast party from becoming just a star vehicle. Don't get me wrong, this is still predominantly a star vehicle, but Soderbergh's herculean efforts lend the production a little artistic credibility.The film doesn't need it but it doesn't hurt to have it. Soderbergh crafts a dynamic look for Ocean's 13 that is perfectly fitting of the Vegas setting. It's what he's done throughout this franchise but it remains a notably positive element. 

Ocean's 13 is a charm factory. The glint in the eyes of this group of actors is why we turn out and why we have such a good time. When Clooney, Pitt, Damon and the gang are obviously having a great time the vibe is infectious and it radiates from the screen. Whether it's Pitt and Clooney's clowning on one another or the way Matt Damon is very much the little brother of the three, we can't help but feel like we are being let into the inner circle of our favorite stars, even for just a moment.

It's unfortunate that neither Julia Roberts or Catherine Zeta Jones could not stick around for the end of the extended cocktail party that are the Ocean's movies. Those knockout stars are replaced in Ocean's 13 by Ellen Barkin, a beautiful actress whose career has languished in B-movie leads the last few years. Reunited with her Sea Of Love co-star Al Pacino, Barkin's role is sadly underwritten and she plays things overly broad to cover.

As for Mr. Pacino; he seems invigorated by this role. He gets into the spirit right away with good humor and quick wit. If only his casino owner character were a more formidable foe for Danny and company. Despite what we are told is the most sophisticated security system in the world, Willy Bank's casino gets knocked over by the most outlandish scheme imaginable. It reduces Pacino's villain to merely a plot hanger, a reason why things happen and little more. 

Keep in mind however, dear reader, the scheme is not the point of Ocean's 13. Rather, the heist just provides the setting for the charm assault of this exceptional group of actors. Whether it's Casey Affleck and Scott Caan leading a worker revolt in Mexico or Bernie Mac flashing that sneaky bright white smile undercover as a domino dealer, every actor in the Ocean's crew has at least a moment where they delight the audience. And then there is David Paymer as a Hotel critic who gets wrapped up in the Ocean's 13 scheme. Keep an eye on him because his few moments of sad sack humor are priceless. Paymer is a small but welcome addition to the Ocean's canon. 

Ocean's 13 is yet another superfluous, throwaway blockbuster; entertaining in exactly the ways that all throwaway blockbusters are. Perfectly aware of its charm and good looks, Ocean's 13 proceeds from one scene to the next with supreme confidence and great humor. The good vibes are infectious and while you are unlikely to remember much of what you saw later, you will be entertained in the moment and with this kind of blockbuster, that's all you can ask.

Movie Review: Ocean's 11

Ocean's 11 (2001) 

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Written by Ted Griffin 

Starring Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Bernie Mac, Julia Roberts

Release Date December 7th, 2001 

Published December 8th, 2001 

It's been years since I've seen the original Ocean's 11 starring the Rat Pack and there closest friends, but I can remember the film wasn't so great from the standpoint of filmmaking as art. It was great though as filmmaking from the standpoint of a filmed moment in history, the last gasp of a generation in Hollywood who knew their time to just have a good time was nearly up. The original Oceans 11 can be described as a heist movie but it's not really about the heist it was about how cool the Rat Pack looked pulling off the heist and that worked for me. 

The new Oceans 11 is as much about the heist as it is about how cool the cast, headed up by George Clooney and Brad Pitt, look doing it and for me it didn't work as well. Clooney plays Danny Ocean, a con man fresh from a prison stay in Jersey. He's ready to score and score big, but first he needs a crew. Cut to LA where cardsharp Rusty (Pitt) is showing some young WB stars including, Barry Watson and Josh Jackson, how to play poker for a movie. Enter Danny Ocean setting up a fun scene where the young actors smartly allow Pitt and Clooney to make them look stupid, while Topher Grace from That 70's Show shines with hilariously self-effacing humor.

From there we move to Vegas and filling out the crew with scenes that reminded me of Gone in 60 Seconds, a sort of where are they now ex cons montage. These scenes are slick and humorous but a little too familiar, which seems to be the problem with the whole film. The original Ocean's 11in retrospect has a sort of camp feel to it, of hepcats and martini's and oh yeah there's a movie in there somewhere. Mostly, they're just hanging out and drinking and the plot occasionally interrupts them. 

The new Ocean's 11 struggles with that, it wants to be a hang out and a movie. The new Ocean's 11 wants the atmosphere of cool and gets it for the most part, but it also wants to be a real movie as opposed to the filmed cocktail party that was the original. It's the movie stuff that gets in the way. The plot to take the casino in the original is where the actors hung their hats. In the new version we're given computers and cameras and electronic wizardry and the old video tricks seen many times before in many lesser films. 

On the bright side, the actors pull some of it off with the sheer force of their charm, especially Clooney who has grown into his star status like a comfortable suit. Brad Pitt shows a new side to his persona each time he's onscreen be it Ocean's 11 or an episode of Friends. The film's best performance however, comes from Matt Damon as Linus, the ace pickpocket and late addition to the crew. Damon has made it clear in previous films that he's not comfortable in comedic roles but he really is very funny and has a great scene with Bernie Mac late in this film that was by far my favorite in the film. 

Oh yeah, Julia Roberts is in the movie too. She plays Tess, the arm candy of casino owner Terry Benedict, played by Andy Garcia and she's also Danny's ex wife, thus adding an extra level to the heist but also a convenient way to shoehorn a huge star into a film already overflowing with star power. Roberts isn't given all that much to do, she has a scene with Clooney, set in a hotel lounge very reminiscent of a scene in Out Of Sight which was also directed by Steven Soderbergh and starred Clooney opposite Jennifer Lopez. The scene is well played but the chemistry of Clooney and Roberts pails in comparison to the chemistry of Clooney and Lopez who nearly set the screen on fire with sexual heat. 

The main problem with Ocean's 11 is not its cast, they are all great. It's just all been done before: the heist, the techno trickery, and the Robin Hood heroes. Ocean's 11just isn't very original. I expect more from director Steven Soderbergh. He's a brilliant talent who usually can spice up a genre piece like this with clever ideas. He did that in Out of Sight, a movie with similar goals as Ocean's 11. Sadly, it seems that Soderbergh is coasting on cliches in Ocean's 11 whereas in Out of Sight, he was having fun messing with genre conventions and delighting in what and his cast came up with.