Movie Review Wonder

Wonder (2017) 

Directed by Stephen Chbosky 

Written by Stephen Chbosky, Steven Conrad, Jack Thome 

Starring Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson, Jacob Tremblay, Mandy Patinkin, Daveed Diggs 

Release Date November 17th, 2017 

Wonder is a real, well, wonder. Rarely do tear-jerkers work as well as what director Stephen Chbosky assembles here. Everything in Wonder seems set to be a clichéd way of sucking out tears. A child with a facial deformity, a pair of goodhearted parents, a sick dog, these are all elements that under the guidance of a lesser director, would be used to physically assault audiences in the search for tears. Stephen Chbosky is, quite thankfully, a terrific director and he employs these elements in the way a good director does.

Wonder stars the exceptional young Jacob Tremblay as Augie Pullman, a boy born with a facial deformity that caused him to go through several life-altering surgeries. Auggie is about to go to public school for the very first time on the insistence of his mother, Isabel (Julia Roberts). Isabel has home-schooled Auggie for the first years of his school life but at nearly 10 years old, she feels it’s time for him to be around other kids, to begin trying to find normalcy.

Auggie is enrolled in a private school run by Dr. Tushman (Mandy Patinkin) who has instructed several students to welcome Auggie and be his friend. Auggie is initially troubled but eventually earns a genuine friend in Jack (Noah Jupe), though not without the pitfalls of youthful struggle. The journey of Auggie toward a normal life at school would appear to be the focus of Wonder but director Stephen Chbosky, who shares screenplay credit with Jack Thorne and Stephen Conrad, smartly breaks up Auggie’s story with those of Auggie’s sister, Via (Izabel Vidovic), Via’s friend Miranda (Danielle Rose Russell), and Jack, each of whom is given the chance to give layers of much needed and welcome life and story to their characters.

The screenplay for Wonder is quite smart about not pushing Auggie’s story so much that it becomes cloying or pushy, and Tremblay does a wonderful job of giving Auggie a life we genuinely care about versus just relying on the facial deformity and a simpleminded face off with a villainous bully. Tremblay is a character beyond the face and the film is smart to let Tremblay explore the space of Auggie. Chbosky gives everyone in the cast weight and care, and the way their struggles underline Auggie’s struggling is exceptionally well-done by all involved.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal. 

Classic Movie Review The Pelican Brief

The Pelican Brief (1993) 

Directed by Alan J. Pakula 

Written by Alan J. Pakula 

Starring Denzel Washington, Julia Roberts, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Hume Cronyn 

Release Date December 17th, 1993

Published December 27th, 2023 

The Pelican Brief stars Julia Roberts as Tulane Law School student, Darby Shaw. Darby is your average 23 year old who happens to be sleeping with her law professor, played by Sam Shepherd. After a pair of Supreme Court Justices, Rosenberg and Jensen, are assassinated, Darby develops a theory as to why these to seemingly opposing judges were killed. It turns out, the two Justices, had one thing in common, the environment. Each voted regularly against major corporations that risked polluting the environment or those that did pollute the environment received significant penalties for doing so. 

Taking out Rosenberg and Jensen reshapes the court in someone's favor and that someone is likely the person who arranged two assassinations of Supreme Court Justices within hours of each other. For some reason, only 23 year old law student who is sleeping with her professor, is capable of figuring out this conspiracy. So, Darby writes a legal brief and gives it to her professor boyfriend. The boyfriend passes it to his pal at the FBI, played by John Heard. From there, what comes to be known as The Pelican Brief, reaches the desk of the President's Chief of Staff, played by Tony Goldwyn, who takes it to the President, Robert Culp, and a conspiracy unfolds to kill Darby and bury the brief.

On a second track of story, Washington Post reporter Gray Grantham, played by Denzel Washington, is following his own theory on the assassinations. Gray has connected with a Washington lawyer who claims to have seen a memo implicating his bosses at a big time law firm in the deaths of Rosenberg and Jensen. The lawyer, calling himself Garcia, reaches out to Grantham for help but ultimately backs out of a meeting with the reporter out of fear for his life. In the midst of trying to follow the bread crumbs left by Garcia, Gray meets Darby and the two begin working together to solve this conspiracy while running for their lives from ruthless assassins. 

There is something ever so slightly off throughout The Pelican Brief. While the film is perfectly watchable, it feels weightless for a movie about the assassination of TWO Supreme Court justices and a college professor. Oops, spoiler alert. There's actually an even bigger body count than that but I don't want to give everything away regarding this 30 year old blockbuster. The Pelican Brief never feels like anything more than a trashy beach read, perhaps because that is exactly what the movie was based upon. Legendary author John Grisham may have had the pretense of a law professor, but his books were straight melodrama inflated with legal jargon. 

That said, I expected a little something more from writer-director Alan J. Pakula. After all, he's the director behind two iconic 70s movies, one of which is the gold standard of political thrillers, All the President's Men, and the other is the remarkable mystery, Klute. Pakula was more than capable of making throwaway blockbuster style movies, even in his heyday, but, paired with the two most radiant stars of the day and a book that had a solid base for an exploration of corruption and politics, I got it in my head that The Pelican Brief should be more than it is. That's on me. The Pelican Brief, away from my expectations and desires, is fine. It's breezy, it moves quickly, and it doesn't overstay its welcome. 

Read my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review: Duplicity

Duplicity (2009) 

Directed by Tony Gilroy 

Written by Tony Gilroy 

Starring Julia Roberts, Clive Owen, Tom Wilkinson, Paul Giamatti

Release Date March 20th, 2009

Published March 20th, 2009

Say what you will about the choices Julia Roberts has made over the years, she is a welcoming screen presence. She has the radiance of a 30's and 40's heroine combined with a very modern sexuality and sensuality. Call her America's Sweetheart if you like and attach whatever wholesome qualities you want to that title, the fact is, no one really likes to ponder what draws a man to 'America's Sweetheart'. Here's a hint, it's the same thing that draws us to the girl next door.

Duplicity is the rare Roberts vehicle to acknowledge, if not fully, take advantage of exactly the qualities I am trying to be vague about. The spy thriller/romantic comedy places Roberts at odds and in bed with the always smoldering Clive Owen and the chemistry is alchemic.

Roberts is Claire, maybe her real name, maybe not. When we meet her she is being scoped by Owen's Ray. They hit it off quickly and soon she is showered and heading for the door with something belonging to him and he is unconscious on the bed. Cut to a few years later, Ray, now fully awake, is in Rome and runs across Claire. He, and now we, know she is CIA. He is MI6, British intelligence. He's a bit ticked off about the obfuscation and the robbery but mostly he just wants to see her naked again.

The two spend three days in a Rome hotel making love and a plot is launched. The two spies will get out of the covert ops biz and go private, corporate snoops. Find an industry, discover the deepest secrets and sell the results to the highest bidder. They finally settle on two companies with somewhat complicated ideas about what they are. All we know about Equikrom and Burkett & Randle is that the CEO's, played brilliantly by Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson, loathe one another. They loathe one another to the point that each keeps a corporate spy team on the payroll to steal the other's R & D secrets. This is Claire and Ray's way in.

Duplicity however, is not really about the corporate types but rather about the unique and duplicitous relations between to well trained spies. Roberts and Owen are given by writer-director Tony Gilroy the opportunity to play a pair of screwball romantics who happen to be spies. There craft is deception and trying to figure when the one they love is deceiving them, for business or pleasure, is what they truly delight in.

Gilroy loves, LOVES writing witty repartee for these two characters. He loves it so much that by the end of the movie he seems to have run out and just stops. After exhausting his way through a timeshifting malaise of plotting, Gilroy comes to a certain point and simply ends the movie. It is as unsatisfying as it sounds. One character wins, the others lose and that's all folks.

What remains is a series of sexy, funny, playful scenes between Roberts and Owen that are nearly enough to make this whole mess work. Roberts matches Owen's constant smolder with the effect of tossing a gas can into a fire. These two actors truly enjoy each other's company and we enjoy them together. If only they weren't trapped in a time shifting maze of plot complications that we just don't care about.

Of course, a filmmaker likely couldn't make an entire movie about Julia Roberts and Clive Owen in bed together, but the idea is ten times moe entertaining as any two scenes in Duplicity. Roberts has always been sexy but we tried to forget that for some reason. She was caught with the label America's Sweetheart which had the effect of neutering her and rendering her more an icon of virtue than as a woman. Tony Gilroy and by extension Clive Owen certainly know Roberts is a woman and each is very interested in further examining her feminine qualities. Unfortunately, there is that whole spy thing that keeps getting in the way.

Movie Review: Ben is Back

Ben is Back (2018) 

Directed by Peter Hedges 

Written by Peter Hedges 

Starring Julia Roberts, Lucas Hedges, Courtney B. Vance 

Release Date December 7th, 2018 

Published December 4th, 2018 

Ben is Back is a day in the life drama about a family dealing with one member's drug addiction. It's about a mother and a son and the lifetime’s worth of trauma that can be inflicted in such short amounts of time because of drugs. Writer-Director Peter Hedges has trod upon this ground before with difficult relationships between parents and children with the wonderful Piece of April being a strong example of his talent. 

Ben is Back stars Lucas Hedges as Ben and Julia Roberts as Ben’s mom, Holly. Ben has been in rehab for about three months and has much more time left there but he’s somehow arrived back home. The tension is immediate as Ben’s sister, Ivy (Kathryn Newton) is alarmed to see him out of rehab. Holly, however, could not be happier to have him home. It’s Christmas and Holly is overjoyed to have her oldest son home, especially after he passes an at home drug test. 

As excited as Holly is to have Ben home she nevertheless hides all of the prescription drugs and valuables. Ben has a history of having broken into the home in the past to steal things to sell for drugs. Holly’s husband, Neil (Courtney B. Vance) is suspicious and thinks Ben should go back to rehab. After some guilty feelings however, he relents to let Ben stay the night and attend a Christmas play that his younger siblings are in at church. 

When the family gets back from church, they find the house has been broken into and their dog is gone. Ben knows who did it and wants to get him back. The film then follows him into a tour of his past misdeeds as he searches through his own history for the person who took the family dog. Mom chases after, concerned that the search could lead him back to drugs, a concern that grows deeper as the hours pass. 

Ben is Back takes place over a single day, Christmas eve. The story is tightly contained and well told. Each of these actors is exceptionally well cast with Julia Roberts giving her all as the grieving, terrified mother. Lucas Hedges continues to be one of our most compelling young actors. He makes smart choices and here, working with his father, Peter Hedges, he delivers a deeply affecting performance. 

Ben is Back is melodrama, to be sure, but it is solid and well meaning melodrama. As this day passes we can’t help but get caught up in the lives of these characters and the small signifiers of their lives together. I really loved the performance of Kathryn Newton whose mixture of fear and hope for her brother is palpable. Newton’s Ivy has the perspective that her mother lacks and she’s a terrific counterpoint to Vance’s character as well as she’s willing to give Ben more of a chance while reserving a good deal of suspicion and fear. 

I have no experience with drugs personally. I have never used drugs or helped anyone obtain them. There is a reason for that: have you seen the places people go to get and use drugs? Honestly, crack houses and dirty cold riversides are the spots in Ben is Back along with a dangerous looking neighborhood and a very shady looking pawn shop. I can’t understand how anyone would want to go to places like these. 

Ben is Back is certainly effective in setting, reminding us of the places that drugs can take even someone like Ben who had every advantage and still could not stay clean. The film doesn’t spend much time analyzing Ben, it’s more about observing Ben and his family and their dynamic and how this one day is unfolding. That tight focus works for the movie and the day in the life style is absorbing. 

Ben is Back is being released in time for the Academy Awards and you can sense that this has the aim of an awards drama. That said, Lucas Hedges is much more likely to get attention for his role as a young gay man forced into gay conversion therapy in Boy Erased than he is here. The Oscar hopes of Ben is Back likely fall on Roberts who hasn’t had this kind of spotlight on her since Eat, Pray, Love. It would come as no surprise to see her name called on nomination day. 

Movie Review: Eat Pray Love

Eat Pray Love (2010) 

Directed by Ryan Murphy 

Written by Ryan Murphy, Jennifer Salt

Starring Julia Roberts, Billy Crudup, Viola Davis, Richard Jenkins, Javier Bardem

Release Date August 13th, 2010 

Published August 13th, 2010

“Eat Pray Love” has one perfect scene. Julia Roberts is staying at an Ashram in India and seeking peace from the love life that has been her obsession, preventing her from finding clarity. Needing to forgive herself for leaving her loving but forgetful husband played by Billy Crudup, Julia as writer Liz Gilbert flashes back to her wedding and imagines an alternate history where instead of the comic dance he'd done at their wedding, the song they intended to dance to, Neil Young's extraordinary "Harvest Moon," plays. T

he Liz of now takes the place of the younger more frightened Liz and tells her husband all that he will not let her say in real life. The moment moves elegantly between New York and India and the song captures the scene beautifully.

It's a rare moment in what is an otherwise pedestrian film but it's so good that it brought me peace with the film and allows me to tell you now that, despite a wave of my fellow critics trashing “Eat Pray Love,” this is not a bad movie. It's no masterpiece but in its mellow, adult contemporary way, “Eat Pray Love” brings an easy smile, a few laughs and that one perfect moment.

”Eat Pray Love” is director Ryan Murphy's adaptation of the Elizabeth Gilbert's real life bestseller. As played by Ms. Roberts, Liz Gilbert left behind a sad marriage to Stephen (Crudup), a bad timing boyfriend named David who she met and moved in with during her divorce and everything else that made her life miserable yet simple in New York.

The plan is to travel, first to Italy, for the food, then to India to live and pray at an ashram and finally a return trip to Bali where at the beginning of the film she met a medicine man who predicted much of how her life would turn out.

Along the way, of course, Liz meets a cast of colorful new friends, finds peace and self discovery and as the title spoils, she finds love. Whether that love can be balanced with newfound peace of spirit is a surprisingly well played and rather unique romantic obstacle. No doubt the best of Liz's new friends is Richard played by Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins. 

Liz and Richard meet in India and he glosses her with a rather precious nickname that sticks only because Richard Jenkins truly believes in how clever it is. Jenkins sells the Pray portion of Eat Pray Love like no other actor could and even saddled with a back-story monologue that strangle many other actors, he makes it work and the movie loses something important when he leaves. 

The last portion of the film is centered on Oscar winner Javier Bardem as Felipe and Liz's willingness to believe in love again. It sounds trite, it is rather trite but you will have to try hard not to like Bardem's big broad smile and his quirky, sweet way of expressing his love. Bardem has rarely been this free and easy on screen and it suits him surprisingly well. 

I don't see why men cannot be comfortable talking about love as a concept and a feeling. Why does this frighten us so much? I will boldly state here and now, I believe in love and while I have had my heart broken more than once, I wouldn't want to live in a world where the possibility of love is not right around the corner. Films made for women, like “Eat Pray Love,” are perfectly comfortable with this subject and part of the pleasure of the film is the ease and grace with which these ideas are assessed, mulled and demonstrated. 

”Eat Pray Love” comes up short as anything more than a minor pleasure. Though Eat Pray Love seeks answers to big questions the answers too often are general and easy on the palette, few hard truths here. “Eat Pray Love” doesn’t challenge the audience, it is neither bold nor aggressive about it's ideals, aside from the love of a great Italian past. 

That said, fans of the book should be satisfied and those who have not read the book can bask in the glow of Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem's beaming smiles and Richard Jenkins' exceptional wit and depth. And don't forget that perfect moment I mentioned. Neil Young fans especially will find themselves bursting with emotions and inspirations, thoughts of lost love. It's one of the best scenes in any movie so far in 2010.

Movie Review The Ant Bully

The Ant Bully (2006) 

Directed by John A Davis

Written by John A, Davis 

Starring Zach Tyler Eisen, Julia Roberts, Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep, Regina King, Bruce Campbell

Release Date July 28th, 2006 

Published July 29th, 2006 

Is Hollywood killing the golden goose? A recent explosion in computer generated cartoons threatens to saturate the market for a genre that came to prominence based on its lovely uniqueness. In the summer of 2006 we have already seen Over The Hedge, Cars and Monster House and soon Barnyard will open. In the midst of all of this frenzy of computer animation comes The Ant Bully, a forgettable but lovingly rendered kiddie flick from the creative minds behind Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius.

Adapted from a book by John Nickle, The Ant Bully delivers perfunctory kids movie messages about friendship, family and working together in a terrifically crafted computer animated universe.

Nine year old Lucas Nickle (Zack Tyler) has been the target of neighborhood bullies for years. His only solace from the constant humiliation is taking his frustrations out on the ant hills in his yard. Little does young Lucas realize that he is not just bullying ants but nearly destroying a very real society of families and friends. With each squirt of Lucas's hose or stomp of his foot years of progress for the large in number but small in stature ant colony is lost.

While the leaders of the ant colony debate how to react to Lucas, whether to pick up and move away from the hill or find some way to retaliate, the ant wizard Zoc (Nicolas Cage) has a plan of his own. Zoc has developed a potion that will shrink Lucas, known to the ants as 'The Destroyer', to ant size. The potion works and Lucas is taken prisoner and put on trial.

Sentenced by the ant queen (Meryl Streep), Lucas is given the opportunity to prove himself. Rather than the ants eating him, Lucas will become part of the colony and if he can work together with the ants and find his place in the colony he will be returned to his family. Aiding Lucas will be Nurse Ant Hova (Julia Roberts) who volunteers to mentor Lucas over the objections of Zoc, her boyfriend.

Obviously from my plot description there is very little suspense in The Ant Bully. If you don't know the valuable lessons about friendship, teamwork and family that Lucas will learn then you have never seen a kids movie before. The story of The Ant Bully, adapted by director John A. Davis from the book by John Nickle, is neither original nor all that humorous. It works because it is comforting, familiar and the animation is absolutely gorgeous.

Because John Nickle's book is a slight 32 pages much had to be added and those additions include a nasty bug exterminator voiced by Paul Giamatti. The exterminator character leads to the film's climax, a bug war with the exterminator that is a visual marvel if only a story convenience. The war with the exterminator as well as ants angst over how to deal with Lucas, leads to an interesting, if not well explored, idea of the doctrine of The Ant Bully.

John A. Davis considers for a moment an idea of an anti-war movement amongst the ants. Many ants oppose confronting Lucas in a war-like fashion. Later when threatened by the exterminator there is talk of whether striking the exterminator before he strikes the ants is a proper course of action. A cartoon debating the ethics of first strike capability, even as briefly and simplistically as The Ant Bully does, is rather ambitious for such a little movie.

The animation of The Ant Bully is some of the best non-pixar computer animation I have ever seen. John A. Davis, whose previous effort was the imaginatively unattractive Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius, here crafts lovely, lush visual landscapes. The characters are candy colored browns, greens and fleshtones that really pop right off the screen. The action is animated so spectacularly that you nearly forget how unnecessary these scenes are.

The voice cast lead by Nicolas Cage and Julia Roberts is first rate. Cage strikes just the right balance of strength and vulnerability in his vocalization. Roberts, honey voiced and beatific, communicates motherly wisdom and a sensuousness that really draws you to the character of Hova. Bruce Campbell as Fugax does most of the film's comic heavy lifting with his tough guy bravura often punctured by pratfalling cluelessness. Finally, Regina King as Kreela is as always the queen of smart sass.

A better, funnier, more innovative plot could have turned The Ant Bully from a typical kids flick into something worthy of the Pixar canon. As it is I can still comfortably recommend The Ant Bully because of it's artistry and good intentions. John A. Davis has a bright future ahead of him in computer animation if he can in the future combine the gorgeous visuals of The Ant Bully with telling a real good story.

Movie Review: Charlotte's Web

Charlotte's Web (2006) 

Directed by Gary Winick 

Written by Susannah Grant, Karey Kirkpatrick 

Starring Julia Roberts, Dakota Fanning, Robert Redford, Steve Buscemi, Oprah Winfrey, Kathy Bates

Release Date December 16th, 2006 

Published December 15th, 2006 

Most people of my generation, Gen-X, were exposed to E.B White's classic children's fable Charlotte's Web by the cartoon adaptation that was a television staple since its creation in 1972. Interesting fact about that adaptation, E.B White hated it. He was wary of Hollywood to begin with and found the adaptation to be lightweight and far too Hollywood.

There is no telling what he would think of the latest incarnation of Charlotte's Web; White died in 1985. However, he did once hope that the film would be given a live action treatment. Under the whimsical direction of Gary Winick (13 Going On 30) with a slightly updated script by Karey Kirkpatrick (Over The Hedge) and Susannah Grant (In her Shoes), this live action Charlotte's Web has the kind of magic that I think E.B White may have appreciated, especially as a fan of talking animals.

Wilbur (voice of Dominic Scott Kay) was a runt pig on his way to slaughter. Thankfully, young Fern (Dakota Fanning) was witness to his birth and stepped in to prevent his execution. The first few months of this spring-pigs life were spent as Fern's pampered pet. However, once school started and the holiday season grew closer, Wilbur's fate seemed to be Christmas dinner.

No longer allowed to be Fern's pet, Wilbur is banished to the barn owned by Fern's uncle, Mr. Zuckerman, where a menagerie of not so friendly neighbors await. Maybe they are just being realistic and not wanting to get close to an animal so likely to be gone by the first snow, but the animals in the Zuckerman barn are a little standoffish.

That is, except for Charlotte (Julia Roberts), a spider who befriends the lonely little pig. Charlotte can relate to being an outcast. As a spider she is not exactly on good terms with her neighbors either. Some are afraid, like Ike the horse (Robert Redford), others are disgusted by her, like Samuel the sheep (John Cleese). Wilbur becomes Charlotte's first friend. Eventually the two become close enough that Charlotte breaks the bad news to him about his likely fate but also promises to find a way to save him.

When I first began seeing trailers for this new Charlotte's Web I was concerned. The trailers featured fart jokes which to me signaled desperation and created the worry that such modern touches would all involve bathroom humor. My memories of Charlotte's Web from childhood are of a classy cartoon that even made the rat Templeton acceptable, even as he rolled in garbage.

Thankfully, my worries were unfounded. The bathroom humor in Charlotte's Web is limited to just a few scenes. What is prevalent throughout this new adaptation is a classy, old school approach to storytelling. Director Gary Winick spins a wondrous tale that is the perfect mixture of sugary sap and honest, touching emotion. The film is at times so saccharine you need to call your dentist but by the end you will find that you've spent the entire film with a smile on your face and maybe even a hint of a tear in the corner of your eye as one of the main characters passes away.

Julia Roberts provides the voice of Charlotte and her soft, honey soaked tones are so soothing you can't help but fall in love with this spider. Soft and sweet, her voice is the calming element needed to leaven the mood of the other voice actors who are either hyper or extremely put on. Roberts brought a similar vocal smoothness to the animated film The Ant Bully earlier this year, another film where her voice-work stands out.

Like the animated version of this story, this Charlotte's Web has a lovely timeless quality. Even with the CGI necessary to create the talking animals, Charlotte's Web has such a classic look and such an old school approach to storytelling that it seems like it could have existed 40 years ago. Director Gary Winick perfectly captures the innocence of E.B White's fable, his characters ,and even the slightly dark undertones of the story that give it such depth and resonance.

Charlotte's Web is at times a little cloying and at times a little too sweet but most of all, Charlott'e Web is a solidly crafted piece of G-rated children's entertainment. The nostalgia factor makes it appealing to adults as well as children but parents will likely be surprised just how much they enjoy  the feel of this film even beyond their memories of the cartoon and the classic book.

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. 

Movie Review: Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002) 

Directed by George Clooney 

Written by Charlie Kaufman 

Starring Sam Rockwell, George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Drew Barrymore, Rutger Hauer

Release Date December 31st, 2002 

Published January 5th, 2002 

You wanna know what my favorite part of the Gong Show was? Keep in mind I was too young to see the show when it originally aired. I watched reruns of the show on cable as a kid. I loved watching these B-list celebrities like Jamie Farr or Joanne Worley stare incredulously at some backwater hick blowing on comb to the tune of Oh Susanna. Then as the humorousness of how surreal the act was began to fade and they slowly raised from their seats reared back their drumsticks and banged that Gong. They would always take their time, they would look at each other to decide who was going to gong the act first before finally relieving the pain of the audience by banging away as hard as they could on that big metal gong.

At this point, Chuck Barris would stumble in from stage left and ask derisively why they would gong such an incredible act. Other than his ridiculous hats and sometimes witty one liners, I never gave Chuck Barris much thought. After seeing the film of his supposed life story, Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind, I wish I would have looked at a little closer at those reruns for a hint of the guy whose life, at least as it is in this film, was so fascinating.

Sam Rockwell, best known for his bad guy role in the Charlie's Angels movie, plays Chuck Barris as a a real creep who's idea of dating is trying to kiss a girl in a movie theater while showing her his dick. A real charmer. The main interests of a young Chuck Barris were blowjobs and bar fights but eventually he settles for a career in television. Beginning in New York City as an NBC page, Barris decides to apply for a management-training course so he can impress a fellow page that he wants to score with. And he does. However neither the relationship or the job at NBC last very long.

Barris moves on to Philadelphia where he takes a job as assistant producer on Dick Clark's "American Bandstand." It's Barris' job to keep an eye on Clark to make sure he isn't accepting money to play certain records, a crime known as payola. Of course Barris could care less what Clark is doing, he just wants to get laid. Eventually he falls into bed with another Clark staffer played in cameo by Maggie Gyllenhaal. It is then that Barris meets his future wife, Honey played by Drew Barrymore. The relationship isn't much more than sex at first but it is Honey that inspires Barris' first endeavor into the game show arena with "The Dating Game."

Meanwhile, as Barris is breaking into television, he also has another life as a hired assassin for the CIA. Recruited by a man named Bird (George Clooney), Barris was sought by the CIA because he supposedly fit the profile of a killer. Barris had a penchant for random violence and was a loner with few real attachments, traits apparently prized by the CIA. As the film progresses, we see Barris reinvent afternoon television with "The Dating Game" and then "The Newlywed Game," we also see him use those shows as cover to fly around the world killing people. With the help of a sexy vixen and fellow assassin played by Julia Roberts and quasi-insane German played by Rutger Hauer, Barris claims that he killed 33 people.

I don't believe that at all.

None of Barris' fantastical stories, as adapted for the screen by the brilliant Charlie Kaufman, has a ring of truth. Each of his supposed escapades have the tawdriness of a guy who has always been able to tell a good lie. Don't get me wrong, these are some very entertaining stores, but they have a mythical feel. Watching Confessions and knowing Charlie Kaufman adapted the screenplay, I flashed back to Kaufman's script for Adaptation which was also a fantastic piece of mythology. Both films are a unique mixture of reality and fiction and the blurred lines in Confessions are just tantalizing enough to make you change your perception of Chuck Barris from weirdo creep game show host to hip Elmore Leonard-esque character.

George Clooney, making his debut behind the camera, shows just the right mixture of sure handed technician and experimental newbie. He never shows the nerves of a first time director. Clooney appears to have a clear vision of what he wanted to film and then toyed with the processes along the way. Mixing actual interviews with Barris' friends and colleagues with different film stocks and unique camera placements, Clooney directs like a kid with a new toy to play with and his excitement comes through the screen.

Confessions of A Dangerous Mind is an exciting, flashy and funny film. It's an excellent debut for Clooney behind the camera, and a mindbender for those of us who only knew Chuck Barris as the guy in the funny hats. It's unlikely to convince you that the host of The Gong Show was also an assassin for the CIA but it's not really trying to convince you of that. Rather, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is about a director and a writer each toying with the idea of how to tell a story. From that perspective, it's a pretty terrific movie. 

Movie Review Full Frontal

Full Frontal (2002) 

Directed by Steven Soderbergh 

Written by Steven Soderbergh 

Starring David Duchovny, Julia Roberts, Blair Underwood, Nicky Katt, Catherine Keener

Release Date August 2nd, 2002 

Published August 1st, 2002 

Whenever a director tries to do something that is stylistically or thematically different from the Hollywood norm, he or she is to be commended. Even when that effort is a failure. Movies as varied as Hal Hartley’s monster fantasy No Such Thing and Todd Solondz’s multilayered Storytelling are examples of filmmakers on the edge and falling over. Director Steven Soderbergh, much like his indie brethren, made his movie Full Frontal with great ambition. Unfortunately for all the style, there is no substance.

A film about the interconnected lives of Los Angelinos in various levels of the entertainment industry, Full Frontal stars Julia Roberts because hers is the biggest name in the credits. In reality it’s supposed to be an ensemble, but I dare anyone to watch it without thinking of what Julia’s character is doing when she’s not on screen.

Blair Underwood, best known for TV’s "L.A. Law," plays an actor in a movie in which he plays an actor. Roberts is Underwood’s co-star in the movie. Underwood’s struggling actor is carrying on an affair with the wife of one of his writing partners. Catherine Keener is the wife and David Hyde Pierce the partner.

Underwood’s other partner is played by Enrico Colantoni. His character is also an actor and director, currently working on a play called The Sound and The Fuhrer. The play is a modernist take on Hitler, imagine Hitler as played hysterically by Nicky Katt, as a self involved artist who breaks up with Eva Braun because he has too much stress at work and doesn’t have time to give her proper facetime. Hitler needs his space. Katt gives the film's funniest performance in the film's least necessary subplot.

Actually there would have to be a plot for there to be a subplot. Steven Soderbergh created Full Frontal as an exercise in style and acting virtuosity. Unfortunately he forgot to give the actors a plot to focus their seemingly improvised dialogue. Occasionally the improv works for some laughs but more often it’s almost scatological, actors with no focal point simply pontificating until they can find an interesting insight or humorous observation, each of which are few and far between.

Full Frontal has the feel of an unedited film school project, with an experimental director instructing self involved actors to be more self conscious. It might make for an interesting exercise but not a very entertaining movie.