Movie Review: The Time Traveler's Wife

The Time Traveler's Wife (2009) 

Directed by Robert Schwentke 

Written by Bruce Joel Rubin 

Starring Eric Bana, Rachel McAdams, Arliss Howard, Ron Livingston

Release Date August 14th, 2009 

Published August 14th, 2009 

A movie involving time travel is, quite obviously, held to its own logical standard. The film will have every opportunity to establish its own universe and create logic that makes sense to its characters and gives those of us watching something we can invest in without spending all of our time questioning logistics.

The Time Traveler's Wife starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams blows up its own logic and loses much of the audience within its first 5 minutes. This dopey romance that wants to combine sci-fi conventions with The Notebook style melodrama fails miserably at every turn stranding a pair of terrific actors in the wake of one supremely dumb story.

As a little boy Henry DeTamble was in the backseat of his mother's car when suddenly they were in a spin and headed to wicked accident. Then just as suddenly Henry was standing on the side of the road naked. The truck that was to kill he and his mother roars past and then a man emerges from nowhere to wrap him in a blanket. The man is future Henry and he has repeated this scene numerous times.

Henry is a time traveler though he doesn't want to be. He has a condition that causes him to simply disappear and then appear, completely nude, somewhere in time. One place where Henry seems to arrive regularly is a field near the home of wealthy family. What draws him to this spot is a little girl named Claire who, in the future, will become Henry's wife.

Claire and Henry met repeatedly when she was little and up through her teens but when she finally meets Henry when she is in college, he has no idea who she is. This version of Henry has yet to meet Claire and the two share a very confused dinner encounter and some very unexpected, for Henry, intimacy.

Thus begins a very complicated romance and marriage. She wants a normal life and a family and he wants to give it to her but his many trips through time continue to interrupt their life. Can Claire and Henry make a life together despite his time traveling? Will you care by the end?

My description of the plot is far less ludicrous than the way things play out on screen. Director Robert Schwentke and writer Bruce Joel Rubin craft the story in a way that is a little like series television. Henry time travels. He has an encounter where he steals clothes confronts someone and then time travels again. The scenes are ike really dopey episodes of Quantum Leap limited to 2 minute lengths.

What the makers of The Time Traveler's Wife want is for us in the audience to fall for the romance and not notice the many, many logical compromises and outright creepy weirdness that are part of the whole time travel conceit. Henry's encounters in the past and future set up questions about the timeline of his life and Claire's that the movie has no intention, or is it ability, to answer.

When it comes to the subject of Henry and Claire's trouble having children, more unwanted questions arise. And still more questions when Henry and Claire finally have a child and she (Tatum and Hailey McCann play the daughter at different ages) has Henry's talent for time travel.

The logistical questions go from awkward to bizarre to just plain creepy by the end of the movie and then the film manages to find an ending that is even more outlandish and will send audiences home shaking their head. All I will say is, pay attention to Claire's father who is shoehorned into a subtextual role in the movie that really makes very little sense.

Foolishness abounds in The Time Traveler's Wife. Some of it is of the so bad it's funny variety. Most of it is just plain dumb.

Movie Review Star Trek

Star Trek (2009) 

Directed by JJ Abrams

Written by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman

Starring Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, John Cho, Simon Pegg, Zoe Saldana, Eric Bana, Winona Ryder

Release Date May 8th, 2009 

Published May 7th, 2009 

On the great sci-fi divide between trekkies and followers of the force I am squarely in the Skywalker camp. I have nothing against Trek. In the 90's in fact I had a brief love affair with Star Trek The Next Generation. That lasted until Deep Space Nine came along and bored the crap out of me. That was followed by three exceptionally mediocre Next Generation movies that did little to bring me around to the Starfleet way, even as George Lucas was damaging my memories of his holy trilogy with his unholy prequels.

Now, I cannot be sure where I stand. After seeing J.J Abrams revamp the Star Trek legend with energy, wit and edge of your seat summer movie adrenaline, I am tempted to turn my loyalties over to Captain James Tiberius Kirk. Blasphemy? Maybe to Star Wars fanatics, but even those who've fought this battle for years must first see this exceptional new Star Trek before excoriating me for allowing Trek into places in my movie loving heart where only the Force had been before.

Star Trek the reboot begins with the birth of James T. Kirk aboard a starship Captained by his father George. It wasn't initially captained by George Kirk but after being attacked by a Romulan ship captained by the empirious Nero (Eric Bana) it was left to First Officer Kirk to go down with the ship as he evacuated the crew, including his in labor wife (House star Jennifer Morrison in a terrific cameo). George Kirk's heroism will no doubt be the model for his son.

Later in life, James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) is a rebellious Iowa farm boy with little thought of the future despite a knack for leadership and the instincts of a warrior. Thankfully, these traits are recognized by the captain of the Enterprise, Captain Pike (Bruce Greenwood) who challenges Kirk to join StarFleet. His father became an officer in just 4 years, James says he can do it in 3.

Parallel to Kirk's story is that of Spock (Zachary Quinto, TV's Heroes top villain Sylar). The son of a Vulcan elder and a human woman, Spock is the Vulcan equivalent of an outcast, one who is capable of emotion as much as he is subject to the rigorous logic that Vulcan's thrive on. It is the human side of Spock that leads him to Star Fleet and his Vulcan mastery of knowledge and combat that quickly makes him a leader.

These two men are destined to clash but history tells us that great things will come of those clashes, including a timeless friendship. This leads us to the main question many will have about Star Trek, how does it fit the Star Trek canon? The answer will be different for different audiences.

Those with the most strict fealty to Star Trek lore may poke a few holes. Those with no loyalty will set phasers on the film's use of time travel and call it a cheat. People who think like me however, not strictly tied to lore, willing to put aside the laws of physics in favor of a good time, will find clever the ways in which Director Abrams and writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman have found to use Trek lore and yet chart their own path to a whole new franchise.

It's a spectacularly clever device, one I won't divulge here, only to say that it isn't unfair to call it a cheat. That said, if you call it a cheat, summer movies clearly are not your cup of tea. A summer popcorn adventure is not subject to all of the rigors of typical movies. Movies that strive to mean more to our lives, movies that attempt to communicate deep human truths and reveal the soul of man are a different breed from the Star Trek-Star Wars-Iron Man movies which occasionally stumble across truths but are geared more toward the visceral excitement that is just as valuable.

People tend to trash the thrill as a base emotion. Maybe it is, but would you want a life without thrills? Star Trek delivers thrills on several different levels and I couldn't get enough. The film is first an action packed popcorn movie with spectacular effects. It is second a film that takes characters with rich histories and makes functional use of those histories to thrill us with surprise. And on another level, this is an origin story that introduces a group of charismatic heroes and fosters a newfound attachment to them. On one level trekkies will geek over this glimpse into the lives of their longtime heroes. On another level, the uninitiated will find well grounded new heroes with new stories to tell in unique and exciting fashion.

Star Trek is a visceral summer movie experience that will make you squirm in your seat, catch your breath and laugh all in the space of mere moments. J.J Abrams has a mastery of the action movie form that might be unexpected of a television veteran and while I wish he would keep the camera static during the quieter scenes, he is forgiven for likely being overly excited to get to the loud stuff, the loud stuff being so darn fun.

Fun is the operative word here. Pure Summer Movie, popcorn fun from scene one to the very end. Movies like Star Trek are why we go to the movies in the summer instead of being outside where we belong, you just can't have this much fun anywhere else.

Movie Review Deadfall

Deadfall (2012) 

Directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky 

Written by Zach Dean 

Starring Eric Bana, Charlie Hunnam, Sissy Spacek, Kris Kristofferson, Kate Mara, Olivia Wilde 

Release Date December 7th, 2012 

Published December 14th, 2012

Some movies just don't get the support they deserve. The thriller "Deadfall" is a good example. This smart, effective thriller starring Eric Bana, Olivia Wilde and Charlie Hunnam was forced to forgo much of a theatrical release in favor of an On-Demand cable release and has been judged by many as a failure because it's not playing on over a thousand screens nationwide.

That most movies that go this release route aren't very good serves to taint "Deadfall" and that's truly a shame. The fact is, "Deadfall" is better than dozens of so-called thrillers that made it to thousands of screens only to disappoint mass audiences in the same way "Deadfall" is thrilling and surprising the lucky few who've given it a chance.

Knocked Off Balance

"Deadfall" knocks viewers off balance from the opening moment. Three thieves, including Bana and Wilde as brother and sister, Addison and Liza, are headed for the Canadian border when their getaway car strikes a deer and the careens off of a snowy, Michigan back road. The getaway driver is killed and moments later, a bloodied Addison murders a responding State Trooper.

This jarring opening sets an unusual but nonetheless compelling tone for "Deadfall." As Addison and Liza divide their money and part ways with plans to reconnect in Canada another part of this story begins. Jay (Charlie Hunnam) has just been released from prison. We aren't made aware of his crime but it involves his past as boxer and a fraud in the ring. Jay quickly finds trouble again at his former gym and is soon on the run.

A Thriller, A Love Story, A Psychological Examination

These two stories converge when Jay happens upon a near catatonic Liza in the middle of the frozen highway. After rescuing her the two find sanctuary at a hotel bar. A few drinks and minor confessions later they are forgetting their troubles by shedding their clothes in the hotel. For Liza, this is part of a plan to get Jay to take her to his parents home, near the Michigan-Canadian border, a place he mentioned in passing.

After Liza calls Addison and tells him where they should meet up, her plans begin to change. Forced to spend another day at the hotel because of the winter conditions, Liza finds her connection to Jay getting deeper. The damage these two share leads to passion and what could very well be love, even as the two have only just met. It's a testament to the chemistry of Wilde and Hunnam that we barely question this connection.

Near Perfect Logic

The story of "Deadfall" unfolds to include Jay's perfectly cast parents, Sissy Spacek and Kris Kristofferson, and a young rural cop played by Kate Mara who's dealing with familial issues of her own in the form of her over-bearing cop father played by Treat Williams. That all of these characters will arrive at the same place at the same time at the end of the film is a given. How all arrive there and what happens is what makes "Deadfall" such an effective thriller.

There is a near perfect logic to the way the ending of "Deadfall" plays out. Writer Dean and director Ruzowitzky combine the psychological examination of Addison with the brief love story of Jay and Liza, the parental angst of Mara and Williams and Jay's struggles with his parents and his life into a simple, straightforward thriller plot that somehow never feels crowed over-complicated. There should not be a way for "Deadfall" to work so efficiently with so much weight heaped upon each character but it does.

Don't Judge a Movie By Its Release Strategy

So why, if "Deadfall" is as good as I am telling you it is, have you not heard about this film? Some of it has to do with Bana, a movie star who just hasn't become a Movie Star. When Bana was cast in "Deadfall" there was hope that his star-power along with a terrific supporting cast could propel the film. Unfortunately, Bana has simply never caught on with audiences and it was more efficient, from a business standpoint, to forgo theatrical release in favor of a direct to cable route.

While playing in several small theaters "Deadfall" was made available on Video on Demand services and on Amazon.com's streaming service. Do yourself a favor and don't judge the film for its lack of a wide theatrical release. "Deadfall" is more than worth a look On Demand or download.

Movie Review Munich

Munich (2005) 

Directed by Steven Speilberg 

Written by Tony Kushner, Eric Roth

Starring Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Ciaran Hinds, Geoffrey Rush, Hanns Zischler, Matthieu Kassovitz 

Release Date December 23rd, 2005 

Published December 22nd, 2005

Despite my liberal political tendencies, I have always held one particularly conservative point of view. That Israel is justified in its actions in protecting itself from Palestinian terrorists. The Palestinians have, in my opinion, never done a very good job in presenting their case that the land that is now Israel should belong to them. It's impossible for me to sympathize with Palestinians who target civilians with suicide bombers over Israelis who react to such attacks with a righteous military assault.

So when Steven Speilberg set out to make Munich, a film that presents a message about how violence only leads to more violence and that Israel is not as righteous as some, like myself, perceive, I was fascinated. Munich is now part of the public discourse and while it is a thoughtful and well-made film about the futility of violence and vengeance, it is easy to understand why some Israelis might find the film to be little more than liberal hand-wringing.

Munich stars Eric Bana as Avner, an agent of the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad. Avner is a former bodyguard to Prime Minister Golda Meir (Lynn Cohen) and through this connection Avner is offered an assignment like none he has ever been given before. In the wake of the Palestinian terror attack on Israeli athletes at the Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, the Prime Minister has decreed that vengeance must be taken and Avner will lead the covert operation to gain that vengeance.

With a list of 11 names, each somehow linked either to planning Munich or belonging to the Palestine Liberation Organization which assumedly backed the terrorists at Munich, Avner meets his team and sets about his grisly task. Along with Avner are fellow Mossad operatives Steve (Daniel Craig), the driver; Robert (Mathieu Kassovitz), a toymaker turned bombmaker; Hans (Hanns Ziscler), a forgery expert; and Carl (Ciaran Hinds), an expert in covering up after the fact.

Once the team is assembled Munich unfolds like a spy novel complete with covert meetings, shady informants and precisely planned operations. What separates Munich from your average spy movie, however, is the often surprising lack of skill involved in the first few operations. These covert ops are messy and, at times, convoluted. On one occasion Avner himself is nearly killed by a bomb that was much too large for the task at hand. In arguably the film's most breathtaking moment a young girl returns home in time to intercept a phone call on a booby-trapped phone meant for her father.

Speilberg's skill for mass appeal entertainment serves him well in crafting the moments of spy intrigue and operational misfires. The script for Munich by playwright Tony Kushner provides the film's intellectual underpinnings though not as effectively as Speilberg's action scenes. Kushner's taste for speeches that state the obvious and underline the same point again and again grows tiresome by the fourth or fifth time you hear it.

The point that Munich wants to make is that the continuing retaliatory strikes between the Israelis and Palestinians are futile. No progress can be made by continuing to kill one another. As Avner experiences in the film, killing one terrorist means another possibly more committed and horrifying terrorist takes his place. The film questions, quite effectively, the moral grounding of Israel's wont for vengeance. How does one rectify vengeance with their religious beliefs? Not to be too cute about it but 'What would Moses do'?

Eric Bana delivers his first mature and focused performance since his star-making turn in Black Hawk Down. Bana's Avner is nothing like his special forces officer Hoot Gibson, a brash and confident killer who never questions his mission even as it goes horribly wrong. Avner is an efficient killer who is committed to following orders but he is not afraid to question his motivation and express remorse and even guilt for what he does. The two performances together show why so many in Hollywood believe in his leading man talents even after the dual disasters of The Hulk and Troy.

The film's two best performances come from two peripheral characters. Mathieu Amalric and Michael Lonsdale play French operatives who help Avner locate his targets for a price. Where they get the information from, who they work for, and why they do what they do are mysteries the film does not need to solve. Leaving those questions open brings tension to every scene they are in. They leave tantalizing details at every turn like intimations that the Palestinian terrorists at Munich may have been financed by the CIA! The Frenchmen may be the film's most fictional element but also its most intriguing.

Munich works well as a civics and morality play and as a thriller but I would not call it popcorn entertainment. While Steven Speilberg is trying to change the world many an audience member will yawn awaiting the next exciting action sequence. No matter your feelings on the conflict in the Middle East you will respect Speilberg's attempt to contribute to the important discourse, but so much speechifying can turn an audience waiting to be entertained into an audience ready to leave.

Especially when the speeches are repeated and at times extraneous. A scene in which Avner sneaks back to Israel to see his father in the hospital is merely an opportunity for another character, Avner's mother played by Gila Almagor, to underline why it's important for Israel to fight for its existence. It's a well-delivered point but a point made effectively earlier in the film by Lynn Cohen as Golda Meir.

Each of our protagonists, save for Daniel Craig's Steve, is given the opportunity to explain their feelings and qualms, often the same issues, in drawn out speeches that underline the film in ways that take you out of the movie. Ciaran Hinds and Hanns Zischler both deliver similar speeches on the moral repugnance of what they are doing and why they are doing it and while it may be good for the characters to express these points as it deepens them equally, both speeches are delivered as if reading the Cliff's Notes of why the movie Munich was made.

I'm not trying to tell Steven Speilberg to stop trying to moralize and just entertain us. I am saying that there are more subtle ways to underline his points and get them across as effectively. The speeches are not delivered by the actors in ways that are preaching or haranguing but they are written that way and that gets tiresome fast.

Munich is a thoughtful and well-crafted film with its heart on its sleeve. Steven Speilberg truly believes that art can change the world and I respect that. At the same time Speilberg is realistic enough to know that this conflict is too complicated for any one act to change its course. That is, in fact, the point of the film. Both sides should realize there will never be a point in the continuing violence when one side will never strike a winning blow.

On the flip side, Speilberg's Munich may have been more effective in making its points with one speech as opposed to continued speech after speech and finding other equally effective ways to make the same point without stopping the movie to get on a perpetual soapbox. I still recommend Munich on the strength of its well intentioned ambitions and its excellent craftsmanship but I think it could have been much more.

Movie Review Lucky You

Lucky You (2007) 

Directed by Curtis Hansen

Written by Curtis Hansen, Eric Roth

Starring Eric Bana, Drew Barrymore, Robert Duvall 

Release Date May 4th, 2007

Published May 5th, 2007

We all have things we are passionate about. Filmmakers are lucky enough and talented enough that they can expose their passion to the world. For writer-director Curtis Hanson, that passion is for the world series of poker where he sets his latest work Lucky You. Focusing on the intricate ways in which the compulsive poker player assesses the table and bets on the strengths and weaknesses of his opponents, Hanson often creates great tension and rooting interest.

Unfortunately, we could get the same involvement watching Texas Hold'em tournaments on ESPN 2 and without the laconic Eric Bana and miscast Drew Barrymore interrupting the action with clichéd banter that incorporates the lingo of poker into a lame romantic aphorism. 

Eric Bana stars in Lucky You as Huck Cheever, a professional gambler who has won and lost fortunes without flinching. Prowling the Vegas strip on his motorcycle, the one thing he refuses to hock for gambling cash, Huck will do anything to find a game; even if it means hocking his mother's wedding ring for a quarter of what it's worth and then betting the pawn recovery slip when the ante is beyond his means.

Huck's father L.C (Robert Duvall) is also a gambler and they have traded this priceless heirloom a few times since Huck's mother passed away, which was not long after L.C left to become a gambler himself. L.C is the one man Huck can't seem to beat and has lost fortunes to the old man; beyond just the ring. He will, in the course of Lucky You, continue losing to his old man, even when he has the better hand.

Huck's personal life is non-existent until he meets Billie Offer (Drew Barrymore) a tourist in Vegas, visiting her sister (Debra Messing), who falls for Huck's gamblers charm. Billie quickly learns that Huck can't be trusted, he steals from her after they spent the night together, but all too soon she is giving him another chance and then another.

These characters are messy and realistic, something writer-director Curtis Hanson is good at writing. However, when compared to the indelible characters that Hanson has had a hand in creating in the past, the characters in Lucky You are just forgettable. Hanson adapted Wonder Boys with Michael Douglas's career best performance. He directed Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette in a pair of winning performances in In Her Shoes and let us not forget the brilliance of his Oscar nominated L.A Confidential.

Those films were lively and intelligent. Lucky You is laconic and messy and while that may relate well to these characters, that doesn't make you want to spend any time watching it. It also doesn't help that Eric Bana's lead performance is lazy and incomprehensible or that Drew Barrymore is woefully miscast as a wannabe Vegas chanteuse.

Only the great Robert Duvall is able to elevate things to a watchable level but he is only a supporting character. When Duvall is off-screen the film loses the beat and we wait patiently for him to come back or at least for another card game to begin.

When Robert Altman directed The Company I described it as a masturbatory exercise in directorial self indulgence. Altman loved the ballet and wanted the opportunity to film it. He assembled a cast and a semblance of a story and then restlessly waded around the obstacles of his plot to get back to the stage and the ballet.

Curtis Hanson does his best Altman impression in Lucky You, taking the opportunity to indulge his love of Texas Hold'em Poker. Though ostensibly a romance, Lucky You only becomes vital and engaging when the action is on the tables. Hanson sets the film around the World Series of Poker and blatantly abandons his dull romance in favor of a solid thirty minutes of nothing but bluffs, antes and folds.

The poker scenes are involving and dramatic as Huck gets the opportunity to face off with his dad at the final table. However, aside from the father-son showdown, there really is nothing in Lucky You that you couldn't get by staying home and watching poker on ESPN 2.

Curtis Hanson's passions seem to run hot and cold. He was passionate about the corruption and deceit of L.A cops in the forties and fifties and that led to L.A Confidential. He was passionate about Michael Chabon's terrifically unique characters in the book Wonder Boys and that led to, arguably, the best work of his career.

Then again, he was also passionate about the art of rapper Eminem and that led to the lead, un-hip, hip hop movie 8 Mile. In Lucky You, Hanson's passion for Texas Hold'em has led him to another slow-witted melodrama. Let's hope that Curtis Hanson's next passion is more inspiring than that on display in Lucky You.

Movie Review Hanna

Hanna (2011) 

Directed by Joe Wright 

Written by Seth Lochhead, David Farr 

Starring Saorise Ronan, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett, Olivia Williams, Jason Flemyng 

Release Date April 8th, 2011 

Published April 7th, 2011 

Hanna (Saorise Ronan) is a teenage girl living in the forest with her survivalist father (Eric Bana). Eric Heller has dedicated his life to teaching his daughter skills needed not just for survival in the wild but survival in a world where unseen forces are trying to kill her. Eric's motto, drilled into Hanna's brain daily, is 'adapt or die.' The incongruity of such harsh words coming from the mouth of a lithe blonde 15 year old girl is jarring as so much of the movie Hanna is jarring.

Directed by Joe Wright Hanna is an exercise in style and substance. Wright, best known for his Oscar nominated "Atonement," brings a great deal of action movie style to "Hanna" with long, uncut takes that have the camera following characters through complex choreographed fights that are refreshing compared to most other action movie director's affinity for  super fast edits that hide the action behind layers of trickery.

As I mentioned, there is also an experimental substance as well. Unlike the brainless titillation of "Sucker Punch," "Hanna" takes a teenage girl with unique fighting skills and examines the effect such disturbing ability might have on a girl rather than dressing her in fetish gear and exploiting her nubile flesh. This examination does not come with long periods of expository dialogue but rather plays on the extraordinary face and in the actions of star Saorise Ronan.

Matching Ronan's superb performance is that of Cate Blanchett as calculated C.I.A killer Marisa Wiegler. Wiegler was Eric Heller's handler on a black op that abruptly ended. Both Hanna and her late mother were part of this aborted operation and when Heller tried to keep them from being eliminated, Wiegler tried to kill him and did kill Hanna's mother. Blanchett's deep cold performance has odd nuance and a chilling resolution. This is a relatively small role for such a well known actress but Blanchett treats the part with the seriousness of a Bond villain and the complexity of the kind of part that could earn her an Oscar nomination.

The rest of the cast, including Jason Flemyng, Olivia Williams and Jessica Barden as members of a family who befriend Hanna on her journey from Morocco to Germany to the German thugs that Marisa hires to capture Hanna and kill anyone she comes in contact with, are exceptionally well placed within this unique story. Tom Hollander is especially chilling as the constantly whistling killer, Isaacs, whose ungodly creepiness leads to a pair of exceptional final act scenes.

Complex and exceptionally well directed, "Hanna" is a real stunner.

Movie Review: Troy

Troy (2004) 

Directed by Wolfgang Peterson

Written by David Benioff

Starring Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom, Diane Kruger, Brian Cox, Sean Bean, Peter O'Toole

Release Date May 14th, 2004

Published May 13th, 2004 

In this day and age, when you say Homer everyone thinks Simpson. It wasn't always that way. Years ago, colleges turned out erudite intellectuals who quoted the great poet Homer from "The Iliad" or "The Odyssey.” Maybe those people still exist but today more people can quote Homer Simpson than Homer the poet and the new Wolfgang Peterson epic Troy is not likely to change that. This bombastic, outsized blockbuster has the appeal of Brad Pitt and the scope of an age old epic but it lacks the soul of the poet who's work it attempts to revive.

Brad Pitt stars as Achilles, the greatest warrior in history. Though Achilles claims to have no allegiances, he fights for the money of King Agamemnon (Brian Cox). With Achilles’ sword, Agamemnon has conquered several kingdoms and his reach dominates the Greek kingdoms surrounding the Aegean Sea. Save for that of King Priam of Sparta (Peter O'Toole).

It seems that Sparta is unattainable even for someone as powerful as Agamemnon. Even the great king's brother Menelaus (Brendon Gleeson) has acceded that Sparta can't be taken, even going so far as to broker peace with King Priam's sons Hector (Eric Bana) and Paris (Orlando Bloom). The peace accord however is short lived when Paris takes a liking to Menelaus' wife Helen (Diane Kruger) and spirits her away to Sparta.

This development finally gives Agamemnon all the reason he needed to sack the last kingdom that stands in the way of his dominance. However, to take Sparta, a grand feat given Sparta's legendary impregnable walls, Agamemnon must once again call on Achilles to lead his armies. Achilles does not want to fight for Agamemnon no matter what the offer but does finally agree after a visit from his good friend Odysseus (Sean Bean) who promises something more valuable than riches, eternal glory.

That is the setup for massive CGI battles and a great deal of melodramatic speechifying. In all of the film’s nearly three-hour length there are pieces of three different full length movies edited together into Troy and only one of them would be any good. That is the story of Achilles who in the person of Brad Pitt is a charismatic and dangerous presence. Pitt's Achilles is powerful but conflicted and that makes him inherently dramatic. A film about Achilles would be terrific.

The story of Helen and Paris also has the potential as a stand-alone story. The story has love, passion and a great deal of drama. Cut up as it is here to make room for two other parallel stories, it loses impact. Helen is the reason that Sparta is about to be overrun in the greatest war of all time, therefore her importance to Paris needs more time to develop. Why would Paris risk his family and in fact an entire kingdom for her? We never really know. As it is in Troy, the love story comes off as the selfish petulance of a childish boy and his desperate crush.

The final story is the most poorly developed and that is the story of Eric Bana's Hector. It's not the fault of Bana who is a strong presence, nearly the equal of Pitt. Nearly. Hector's story is far more dramatic than what we see here. His conflicts with his father King Priam are given short shrift and Hector's only character traits are heroism. Hector is hardly ever conflicted, he has no great story arc. He begins as a hero and continues through the film as a hero beyond reproach.

In adapting Homer's epic poem, screenwriter David Benioff had to make a number of dramatic sacrifices including some I already mentioned and one that may be the most troublesome sacrifice of the film. In The Iliad, the Gods of Mount Olympus gave the conflict it's context, they provided motivation beyond the grandiose, nation chest-bumping that Agamemnon uses as motivation here. The meddling God's protected Achilles and gave his dramatic ending a bigger payoff.

There are two reasons for the excising of the God's from Troy. First, there just wasn't enough time to fit them in. The film is just too long to add any more characters, especially characters as outsized as the Gods. Secondly, and don't underestimate this one because this may be the real reason, the bad memories of Sir Laurence Olivier's screen chewing menace in Clash Of The Titans. Love or hate Clash, there is no denying the cheeseball nature of all of the scenes involving the Gods.

Director Wolfgang Peterson is a technician as a director. As his budgets have grown his love of technological filmmaking has overcome his sense of story and character. I say that as a criticism but I must also state that as a technician he is a terrific director. Technology however is not what is most appealing about a film. As George Lucas has shown, you can have all of the technology in the world and still not make a movie that engages. Dazzle the eye all day but if you can't reach the heart or mind, you have no movie. Brad Pitt engages both with his tremendous performance but little else in Troy rises to his level. 

Movie Review Funny People

Funny People (2009)

Directed by Judd Apatow 

Written by Judd Apatow 

Starring Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Eric Bana, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman 

Release Date July 31st, 2009

Published July 30th, 2009 

Comics have their own idiom, a way of speaking that is more often than not aggressive and abnormal. Words are their weapons and they wield them with particular expertise. Listen to comedian Patton Oswalt, a shambling, unkempt often alcohol infused comic whose word use is as precise and exacting as your average marksmen is with a high caliber rifle. The brain of the comic is different always, searching at all times for the absurd in the average, that detail that they can see that the average person misses. That brain gets a thorough and exacting examination in Funny People, Judd Apatow's adroit, mature comedy of penis jokes and honest to goodness pathos.

Adam Sandler is the star of Funny People playing a variation on his real life superstar career. His George Simmons is one of the biggest stars in the world thanks to movies like Mer-Man where he plays, you guessed it, a half man half fish and Re-Do where Sandler's soft ball like skull is placed on the body of a baby by cheesy CGI. You can sense the shame he feels over these movies, made only to line his pockets, and purchase cars he never drives and a large, Xanadu-esque mansion that he doesn't need, and one can't help but wonder if the shame applies in real life to dreck like Little Nicky or Billy Madison. Probably not, but I can dream.

The shame can be seen in George when he see's himself worshipped in the eyes of his new assistant Ira (Seth Rogan). Hired to help write jokes so George can go back to where he feels most at home, the comedy stage, Ira becomes George's only real friend, even if he won't admit it. It's a forced friendship with young Ira carrying most of the burden especially after George reveals he has a rare blood disease and may soon be dead. That's a lot for Ira to carry but he does carry it and soon Ira begins to develop his own talents and find his own comic persona through the mirror of George's age and and hard won wisdom.

Outside of his wealth and privilege, George's life is empty and impending death has only magnified the void. He now longs for all the stuff he took for granted as a younger man, things family and children. Ira helps George reconnect with his parents and sister and even a few of his comic 'friends' who are more like fellow former hostages of some unknown captor. They aren't friends, they just share the same trauma it seems and that bonds them.

The one person George really hopes to reconnect with however, is Laura, the only woman he ever really loved. Laura is now married and living in San Francisco. She comes to George after he reveals his illness and the reunion is emotional in the way one might talk to someone who dying, an exaggerated pseudo-truth that takes conversational reality to a heightened emotional realm. Yes, Laura loved him once and, in his dying state, she forgives him his indiscretions of the past but is he really the love of her life? That could just be comfort food for the dying.

Well, George will find out if Laura is for real. The last 45 minutes of Funny People is dedicated to George surviving his illness and deciding to chase the life he thinks he always wanted. What happens then is for you to discover but thanks to the exceptionally smart and true writing and direction of Judd Apatow you are in for something funny and unexpected. For those trained by The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up to expect a lot of foul humor, your training comes in handy. Apatow's verbiage is as scatological and unapologetically foul as ever. The difference is the level of sophistication in the way these words are used. Comics use foul language in such a secondary, comfortable manner that it's less natural when they don't use them.

Adam Sandler has shown in the past that beneath the juvenile mask is an immensely talented actor. He simply cannot often enough restrain his id and allow that talent some time in the sun. In Funny People the mask is off and the talent shines like never before. His George is a stunningly bitter, brusque and off-putting guy who makes no apologies for being repugnant. He is fully conscious of his disgust for himself and in finding death he turns that disgust toward whatever human target is close by. As in his shame for his movies, George loathes the people who love them as much as she loathes himself for making them love him. He lives the old Groucho Marx maxim "I would never be a part of a club that would have me as a member".

Sandler's performance in Funny People is so raw and remarkable that you must wonder how true it all is to the real life of Adam Sandler. Thankfully, in real life Sandler appears to be happily married with children and close friends. It's very likely however, that Sandler knows a George Simmons and shares a deep sympathy with him. Sandler comes at this role with such ferocity and authentic self-loathing and contempt for the world that it just feels real. Then there is the blurring of the lines when George/Adam criticizes his terrible movie roles and that blurring of the lines becomes an uncanny valley between real life and the funny fiction of Funny People. 

As for Seth Rogen, I loved how Rogen's Ira represents all the hope and joy that has seemingly slipped away from jaded George and the way that Ira's youth and enthusiasm enlivens the mentor-student relationship of Geore and Ira. Rogen plays Ira as his usual foul-mouthed man-child, the persona he has perfected in his short but fast rising career. However, Rogen and Apatow take great care to make Ira the heart of the story and use the character as a mirror to highlight the best and worst of George while deepening both characters through their growth together as friends and colleagues. It's a dynamite dynamic and the chemistry between Rogen and Sandler is outstanding. 

With Adam Sandler delivering a career best performance and Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow showing newfound maturity and complexity, Funny People becomes one of the best movies you will see all year. Funny People is also another maddening symbol of how incredibly talented Adam Sandler can be when he wants to be. It makes me dislike Sandler more when he makes terrible comedies because I have seen a movie like this and I can see how talented he is. It's frustrating to watch him make some of the worst movies in the world when he's capable of making movies like this. 

Movie Review: The Hulk

The Hulk (2003) 

Directed by Ang Lee 

Written by James Schamus, Michael France, John Turman 

Starring Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, Sam Elliott, Nick Nolte, Josh Lucas 

Release Date June 20th, 2003 

Published June 19th, 2003 

I don't know much about the comic book version of The Hulk. My only exposure to the big green guy is the goofy live action TV version in which Bill Bixby turned into a green-painted Lou Ferrigno. I'm not familiar with the comic book mythos, his origin story, his powers, and especially his heroic purpose. I'm sure the comic has a dramatic force to it, something that the Incredible Hulk seeks, a goal he hopes to achieve. It is that goal that is missing from Ang Lee's The Hulk, a listless superhero movie without a real hero.

The film version of Hulk's origin begins with Bruce Banner's father David (Nick Nolte, looking worse than his recent mugshot). David is a military scientist working on some potion that, according to the military, is too dangerous to test on humans. Undeterred, David Banner tests the potion on himself. We are not certain what was accomplished until David and his wife have their first child Bruce, who has inherited his father’s altered genetics. David soon realizes he made a terrible mistake, but before he can find a cure for his son, the military shuts him down. So David blows up the facility and returns home where something really bad happens. It's clear to the audience, but young Bruce blocks the memory.

Flash forward and Bruce, in the person of Black Hawk Down's Eric Bana, is working as a scientist on a military base. With his ex-girlfriend Betty Ross and another classmate, Bruce is unknowingly working on the same project his father had begun years earlier, an experiment that uses gamma rays to heal injuries without surgery. What Bruce doesn't know is that his father is back from prison. David Banner has taken a job as a janitor in the lab, not only to see his son but to take revenge on the man who shut down his lab, General Ross (Sam Elliot). Oh, and the General is also Betty's father.

When Bruce's experiment goes bad, he is accidentally sprayed with gamma rays unleashing his heretofore unknown alter ego. Seeing his son for the first time as the Hulk, David Banner sees an opportunity to get his revenge on General Ross. He will manipulate his son's alter ego into destroying everything. That is the basic plot as I understood it, though there is also a quick bit with a military contractor named Talbot (Josh Lucas) who wants to harvest the Hulk's DNA to create super soldiers. However, that is an ineffectual afterthought in a plot full of afterthoughts.

Initially, when I heard director Ang Lee was going to make a so-called art house super hero movie I was excited about the possibility. I was thinking Jekyll and Hyde, a little Frankenstein, maybe even Freud. Unfortunately, I got some of what I was hoping for and I didn't like it. Lee lost the real idea that drives super hero movies and that is escapism. Lee's Hulk is so tortured that I'd rather see him in counseling than a movie. There is this protracted plot point about Bruce's repressed memories of childhood. Specifically about the day his father blew up the army lab. Though we in the audience know exactly what happened, Bruce has blocked it out. The director drags it out so far that we are left screaming the memory at The Hulk. The frustration of waiting for Bruce to unclog his memory lasts almost to the very end of the film.

One of the many problems with The Hulk is its casting of Eric Bana as Bruce Banner and the CGI face of the Hulk. Bana, who was so charismatic and exciting in Black Hawk Down, appears to have had his personality removed. This is likely due to a script that rushes him along even while he sulks like a tortured artist. Bana never communicates anything other than painful exasperation throughout the entirety of The Hulk. Maybe he was attempting to mimic the audience.

My major problem with The Hulk is that there really isn't much of a plot. The Hulk isn't the least bit heroic, save for his fight to save Betty from some vicious genetically-enhanced dogs. For the most part, I was sympathizing with the film’s supposed bad guy, Sam Elliot's General Ross. The General does what any right thinking person would do when a giant superhuman begins going around smashing things and hurting people, he tries to kill it.

Then there is the CGI effects that bring the Hulk to life. Ugh! Sadly the concerns that fans had after the poor showing in the Super Bowl commercial back in January were confirmed. The Hulk never looks like anymore than a video game character. Bana's dull facial expressions on the CGI mug don't help much. It's impressive that a CGI character could be so well integrated into the real life backgrounds but I was far more impressed with the CGI realism in Shrek, where the technology really seemed to be at its peak. Would I have been happier with a big green painted professional wrestler as The Hulk? No, it was dopey looking on the 70's TV show and it would be even dopier now, but this CGI is only slightly more satisfying. 

What The Hulk truly lacks though is dramatic purpose. The film is so wrapped up in Bruce Banner's psychology and Hulk's CGI appearance that they seemingly forgot to give the character something to strive for. Is he looking to cure himself of the Hulk? Does he want to be a superhero? Does he strive to control his new self in order to become a hero? I never understood the reason why I should care about The Hulk. And thus I didn't.

Movie Review: The Other Boleyn Girl

The Other Boleyn Girl (2008) 

Directed by Justin Chadwick 

Written by Peter Morgan 

Starring Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Eric Bana, Kristen Scott Thomas, Mark Rylance, David Morrissey 

Release date February 29th, 2008 

Published February 27th, 2008 

Where most period pieces rely on class and pomp and circumstance The Other Boleyn Girl, from director Justin Chadwick, and based on the bestseller by Phillippa Gregory, indulges modern soap opera crossed with crackling dialogue, dark humor and an all star cast. It works to create a devilishly entertaining period piece that may just reach beyond the typical fans of the period. In The Other Boleyn Girl Scarlett Johanssen, Natalie Portman and Eric Bana spice up period piece stuffiness with a sexy vibe that even overwhelms the constraints of the PG-13 rating.

King Henry the 8th (Eric Bana) needed a son to continue to project his power. Unfortunately, his wife Catherine of Eragon (Ana Torrent) has once again miscarried and will likely never bear children. This news leaks to the Duke of Norfolk (David Morrissey) who senses an opportunity for advancement. Visiting the family of his sister Lady Elizabeth Boleyn and her husband Thomas, Norfolk has a dangerous proposition. He will entice King Henry to visit the Boleyn home. While he is there the eldest Boleyn sister Anne (Natalie Portman) will find her way to his bed and become his mistress. If she is able to bear him a son, the Boleyn family will be set for life.

The plan goes awry however when the king fails to fall for Ann and instead falls for the slightly younger and recently married Mary Boleyn (Scarlett Johannson). Bringing the Boleyn's to the royal court, Henry makes Mary his mistress while banishing her husband (Benedict Cumberbatch) to the outer reaches of the kingdom. Unfortunately for Mary, the king's affections are fickle. Her crowning achievement, becoming pregnant, becomes a problem when the king's eye begins to wander. Now the family turns to Ann. Recently banished to France after a rash, unarranged wedding that the Duke has narrowly been able to cover up, Ann returns changed, more mature and ready to take the king for herself even as her task is to keep his attentions on Mary.

Ann's ambition and cunning beguiles the king and he is ready to tear the country to shreds just to satisfy her. As the king and Ann battle over her wish to be queen, there is still the matter of the current queen as well as Mary and her newborn son, now treated as a bastard and an outcast. And what of Ann's relationship with her brother George (Jim Sturgess) and his marriage to the busybody Jane Parker (Juno Temple).

A great deal of palace intrigue unfolds with all of the sexy twists and melodramatic turns of a great television soap opera writ large for the big screen. Director Justin Chadwick, working from a screenplay penned by the books author Phillipa Gregory, gives this material life by populating it with great actors, biting dialogue, and high stakes chicanery. The Boleyn men, exceptionally played by Mark Rylance and David Morrissey play a high stakes game with these two supposedly teenage girls. The risk is their heads on spikes, dealing with an oafish impetuous king who has already spiked his closest friend for reasons only he understood and called treason.

The future of the Boleyn family rides on these teenage girls ability to manipulate an impulsive, unpredictable and desperate king well played by Eric Bana. With subtle genius, Eric Bana brings about a King Henry the 8th who is both commanding in the presence of men and yet just naive enough to be taken in by the scheming Ann. We learn early on that his true turn on is subservience as he falls for the respectful and bowing Mary. However, he is drawn to Ann by the reflection of his own power. As she becomes the first to deny him anything, he cannot help but wish to conquer her. The plan backfires on all involved and precipitates great melodrama all around.

The Other Boleyn Girl is an exceptional example of the way great melodrama can win over an audience by at once indulging in bad behavior and then standing in judgement of it. The prudishness of Mary is exposed in her falling for the king and then punished when she is forced to watch her sister steal him away. Ann's abhorrent behavior in double-crossing her sister is devilishly fun to witness but just as fun is watching her get what she has coming to her. Portman is better than you might expect as a temptress while Johansson plays the virginal Mary with an edge of sultry sexuality that few actresses could wring from this role.

The Other Boleyn Girl is not a great movie but for pulpy modern soap opera Ala the best of Desperate Housewives, only much smarter, it is top notch entertainment.