Movie Review Lakeview Terrace

Lakeview Terrace (2009) 

Directed by Neil Labute

Written by Neil Labute 

Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Wilson, Kerry Washington

Release Date September 19th, 2009 

Published September 20th, 2009 

With a title like Lakeview Terrace one is not out of line to imagine a comedy about neighbors arguing over trees and zoning. Then you take into account the film's horrible poster and ad campaign which make it look like another cheeseball Hollywood thriller. Writer-Director Neil Labute is far too talented to make just another cheesy thriller.

Labute's Lakeview Terrace is a boiling pot of emotion bubbling into a raging inferno. This character based thriller ratchets up the excitement by exploiting the real ways in which people fail one another.

Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson) has been in the LAPD for 27 years. He is a single father of 2 children, his wife was killed 3 years ago in a car wreck. On the surface he seems like the kind of man you would wish for as a neighbor. That is not the case unfortunately, for Chris (Patrick Wlson) and Lisa (Kerry Washington) Mattson, newlyweds who move into their very first home, right next to Turner.

Right off the bat there is tension. Chris leaves the moving van in the street overnight and Turner leaves a warning ticket. Later, Turner pretends to be a carjacker and frightens Chris as he sits in his car. That incident is followed by an uncomfortable conversation where Abel seems to imply his disgust for interracial couples. And things get worse from there.

I don't want to reveal too much of this plot because there are important little insights dropped in along the way that play on the motivations of these characters. Motivation is Labute's muse in Lakeview Terrace. The writer-director goes out of his way to make certain that the actions of his characters emanate from a place of human motivation.

Jackson may be a casual racist and serious hardass but he is not some overarching, mustache twirling, super villain. His motivations are human and believable and because of that, what happens is far more shocking and surprising. The same can be said of Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington who connect well as a couple and engage in the kinds of conversations and disagreements that real couples have.

Those little, spiky conversations where a couple pick on each other in ways that only a couple can are Neil Labute's strong suit and Wilson and Washington are terrific in delivering in those moments.

Arguably, the most thrilling aspect of Lakeview Terrace is Neil Labute's dialogue which is full of rich detail and little of that typically expository dialogue that obviously explains why characters do what they do. The script is free of those moments where characters do everything but turn to the camera to explain the plot. In Lakeview Terrace the important details are woven seamlessly into the story.

The ever increasingly nasty conversations between Abel and Chris are particularly exciting. Listen to the way Jackson leaps on Chris's words. He shifts Chris' context, he has no tolerance for vagary or the kind of faux pleasantries that people use on one another to avoid talking. This confrontational style keeps not just Chris but the audience on edge and contributes to the ever increasing tension of the story.

Breathtaking and edge of your seat excitement are cliches that critics use far too often. Nevertheless, there were more than a few moments of Lakeview Terrace where I was sitting bolt upright staring at the screen at the edge of my seat with my breath caught in my throat. Lakeview Terrace is exciting and surprising even as the conclusion feels a little too easily settled.

Neil Labute is a master who could never settle for the cliches of the thriller. In Lakeview Terrace he shatters the cliches, cuts through our expectations and crafts a devilishly thrilling entertainment.

Movie Review: Tyler Perry's For Colored Girls

Tyler Perry's For Colored Girls

Directed by Tyler Perry

Written by Tyler Perry

Starring Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, Anika Noni Rose, Thandie Newton, Kerry Washington, Whoopi Goldberg, Janet Jackson

Release Date November 5th, 2010

Published November 5th, 2010

For all of his faults as a filmmaker, Tyler Perry has guts. Perry is a principled artist who delivers stories his way on his terms and has made a mint doing it. Critics be damned, Tyler Perry is one of the most successful filmmakers of the decade and he’s never had to compromise his vision to get there, whether you enjoy his vision or not.

Perry’s latest daring bit of storytelling is easily his biggest gamble, even bigger than dressing in drag to play Madea. “For Colored Girls'' is an attempt to corral a 20 piece stage poem into a single dramatic narrative. Nearly a dozen different actresses, often breaking out in poetic verse, going through some of the ugliest trials ever brought to screen for dramatic entertainment. It’s bold, it’s daring and it's a massive failure but it’s Tyler Perry’s unquestioned vision onscreen.

There are seven lead performances in “For Colored Girls.” They include Janet Jackson as a tyrant magazine editor dealing with a distant, possibly gay husband. Jackson’s assistant played by Kimberly Elise is an under-employed woman carrying a jobless, abusive husband and two kids. Her neighbor played by Thandie Newton is bartender who deals with childhood trauma with an endless line of sex partners.

Newton’s sister is played by Tessa Thompson and is an aspiring dancer with an accidental pregnancy. Their mother played by Whoopi Goldberg is a damaged woman whose own childhood drama sent her spiraling toward lunacy in some cultish religion. Thompson’s dance teacher, Anika Noni Rose, is a loving trusting soul who finds herself on the wrong side of the wrong man. Finally, Phylicia Rashad stars as an apartment manager slash den mother.

There are other roles as well for Kerry Washington as a social worker struggling to conceive and singer Macy Gray as a back alley abortionist as frightening as such a figure likely should be. Wrestling all of these characters into one narrative is a Herculean task. Add to that some spontaneous poetry and crushing dramatic turns involving murder, rape, abortion, Aids and spousal abuse and you have movie incapable of withstanding its own weight.

“For Colored Girls” is what you might call emotion porn. Tyler Perry crams every possible trauma into “For Colored Girls” and pummels the audience with poetic glimpses of women in the darkest depths of despair until even the most remote audience member can’t help but shed a tear. It’s the false emotion of manipulation but even if each tear is surgically extracted, they are there.

The cast of “For Colored Girls” is phenomenal with veteran Rashad as the stand out. Rashad’s character is Perry’s own invention, a narrative convenience used to tie otherwise disparate characters together. Her apartment is located right between those of Elise and Newton’s characters and she hears everything. Still, Rashad gives this character a rich emotional life. She is the beating, broken heart of “For Colored Girls.”

The rest of the cast is too busy being decimated by the Jovian burdens each is asked to carry. The despair visited upon these characters is an anchor that cannot be raised. Each actress at the very least is given a moment to shine but because that moment comes in poetic verse it resonates more as a stand alone monologue than as part of a narrative.

This is the bridge that Tyler Perry cannot cross in “For Colored Girls;” trying to make actresses breaking out into spontaneous poetic monologue feel like a natural dialogue in a typical narrative drama. He would have been better off breaking convention; take the poetic moments to a stage and break the fourth wall. Instead, Perry chooses to try to make it just like any other film drama and the effect is disjointed and unsatisfying.

Undoubtedly moving, “For Colored Girls” finds moments of great emotional force. All is undone however by a conventional approach to highly unconventional drama. “For Colored Girls” is bold and daring but fails because it was not bold and daring enough. Attempting to force all of this emotion into a singular narrative, especially one as conventionally staged as this, is a fool’s errand and it sinks an otherwise powerful idea.

Tyler Perry wildly misses his target in “For Colored Girls” but you have to respect the attempt. Few filmmakers would have the guts to even attempt to bring a complex, Female led, stage poem to the big screen. It’s fair to wonder if other filmmakers recognized how un-filmable this material is but it took a lot of guts to try and Perry’s effort has to be praised. Perry fails in “For Colored Girls” but he failed fearlessly and spectacularly.

Movie Review Night Catches Us

Night Catches Us (2010) 

Directed by Tanya Hamilton

Written by Tanya Hamilton 

Starring Anthony Mackie, Kerry Washington, Wendell Pierce

Release Date December 3rd, 2010 

Published December 7th, 2010 

A number of movies have tackled the story of the Black Panthers as they rose and became a force on the national scene. Their charismatic leaders became icons and their movement became a legend. As the civil rights era wound out the Panthers seemed to lose their way and many of their stories faded with the movement.

Director Tanya Hamilton takes us back to the time just after the Panthers heyday and in “Night Catches Us” gives us a composite story of the people who lived the legend and what happened to them in the wake of such astonishing drama, revelation, struggle, sadness and in some cases triumph.

It's 1976 and Marcus Washington (Anthony Mackie) is returning home to his South Philadelphia neighborhood for the first time in nearly a decade. Marcus left under a cloud of suspicion after one of his fellow Black Panther Party members was shot and killed by police. The remaining panthers came to believe that he ran because he sold the dead man to the cops.

Now, with his preacher father having passed away, Marcus returns to find many of the tensions he escaped still boiling. Marcus's brother Bostic (Tariq Trotter, The Roots) has become a devout Muslim who maintains a grudge but is more civil than most. The remaining Panther leader, Do Right (Jamie Hector) has allegedly turned to crime and intimidation as the tools of revolution.

Do Right makes his feelings clear by vandalizing Marcus's car, leaving the word 'snitch' etched into the side of the black caddie left to Marcus by his late father. The one person who welcomes Marcus back, even into her home, is Patricia (Kerry Washington), the wife of Marcus's former Panther brother who was killed by police.

The history between Marcus and Patricia is thick with meaning and in it “Night Catches Us” has a strong romantic/dramatic hook. Sadly, the rest of the plot hinges on characters whose actions are forced and used only as plot drivers, as if director Tanya Hamilton felt she didn't have enough juice in Marcus and Patricia's relationship to move the film forward.

Amari Cheatom plays Jimmy, Patricia's troubled cousin. Jimmy has a painful encounter with local cops that leads him on a path to the kind of militancy he believes the Panthers stood for. You might think Marcus would try to stop him but there would be no point, Jimmy is a creation of the plot meant to push conflict.

Stronger supporting performances come from Wendell Pierce as a corrupt cop holding Marcus's most difficult secret and young Jamara Griffin as Patricia's 9 year old daughter Iris. Pierce brings back fond memories of his performance as a much better detective on HBO's The Wire. Griffin is a young talent to watch, a natural actress with terrific instincts and a distinctive face.

When “Night Catches Us” is focused on Marcus and Patricia, their past and possible future, it is deeply moving and evocative. Setting their story, their past, with that of the Black Panthers, including archive footage to underscore the importance of the struggle they were fictionally part of, gives it a fiery context that encompasses them, their neighborhood and all around them. 

Jimmy, unfortunately, is a dramatic contrivance that distracts from the main story of “Night Catches Us” and leads us to believe that there is not enough in the main story to give the film the drive it needs to get to a satisfying conclusion. Too bad, Anthony Mackie and Kerry Washington indeed do deliver the goods. There was no need for contrivance, no reason for writer-director Hamilton to lack confidence and undermine her main story.

Movie Review I Think I Love My Wife

I Think I Love My Wife (2007) 

Directed by Chris Rock 

Written by Louis C.K 

Starring Chris Rock, Kerry Washington, Gina Torres, Steve Buscemi, Orlando Jones, Wendell Pierce 

Release Date March 16th, 2007

Published March 16th, 2007

President Bill Clinton redefined infidelity in the 90's with his 'the definition of the word is' bit, but it was the great auteur Eric Rohmer who began the most thoughtful and incisive conversation about infidelity with his 1973 film Chloe In The Afternoon. That film wondered if infidelity of the mind was on par with actual infidelity and left audiences to answer that question for themselves.

Chris Rock is a big Eric Rohmer fan and has taken Rohmer's conversation about infidelity and added his own sensibilities to create the new film I Think I Love My Wife. The title is a daring, questioning, plea that I'm sure will make many married couples a little uncomfortable. This story about boring married life versus the constant excitement of what Rock has called in his stand-up routines "new pussy", is at times daring, at times touching and at times maddeningly cute.

Chris Rock is maturing as a filmmaker and this is a step forward but there is a way to go.

Richard Cooper is happily married with two kids but that doesn't mean he isn't bored out of his fucking mind. Richard and his wife Brenda (Gina Torres) have become roommates as much as they are husband and wife. They have stopped having sex and Richard is growing frustrated. It is at this crossroads that Richard gets a visit from an old friend who throws some excitement into his life.

Nikki (Kerry Washington) knew Richard before he got married, she dated a friend of his who had a nervous breakdown after she dumped him. Nikki comes to Richard for a job reference and becomes a fixture at his office, going out to lunch with him everyday so she can enlist his help in getting out of a bad relationship. Nikki can't believe Richard is married and she takes great pleasure in tweaking him about just how happy he is.

Nikki is exciting, sexy and flirtatious and Richard is very intrigued. As Nikki keeps showing up at his office Richard finds himself risking his marriage and his job for the excitement of spending time with Nikki. Will he take the chance for an exciting affair with Nikki or will he return to his comfortable but boring life as a suburban husband and father.

Written and directed by Chris Rock, I Think I Love My Wife wants to be taken seriously while still being funny. Rock nearly pulls that off. However, broad jokes involving viagra and fantasy sequences about women in their underwear on the streets of New York undercut the film's more serious purposes. Similar problems permeated Rock's last directorial effort; the political comedy Head Of State.

In Head Of State Rock played the first African American President of the United states. While much of his satire of race and politics was dead on, Rock could not resist his innate comedian's sense that the audience must laugh every ten to twenty seconds or something isn't right. As he did in Head of State and does again in I Think I Love My Wife. Rock cannot simply stand by and allow the story to be told. He forces in jokes and sight gags and an odd bit of singing that get in the way of an otherwise thoughtful and serious minded examination of marriage and infidelity.

I found an interesting correlation between this film and Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. Both films examine betrayal, apathy and fidelity and though I Think I Love My Wife is more straightforward in terms of storytelling; Eyes Wide Shut is more true emotionally. Where Rock pulls punches Kubrick's metaphors are like body blows landing with impact, especially the ending which has just the kick needed to send audiences home reeling. Rock goes for a very similar ending in his film however, an ill-timed musical number, yes I said musical number, cuts into the truth of the moment and sells it out in favor of a bit.

Gina Torres as Rock's wife Brenda in I Think I Love My Wife delivers the film's truest dramatic performance. Her measured, practical observations of Richard's behavior, belying a naivete of his actions with Nikki, are some of the most compelling moments in the film. Torres takes a character written as something of a cold fish and infuses her with a hidden passion and fire that comes out in quiet, desperate moments that are some of the films best.

Chris Rock's stand up comedy act has always been edgy and insightful. Most people remember his controversial rants on politics and race. However, it is on the topic of relationships where his most insightful work comes from. In his Bigger and Blacker special from 2000, Rock masterfully demonstrated the benefits of marriage over being single with brutal honesty.

Rock talked openly about how marriage is boring. Why don't men want to be married? How easy it is for a man to cheat. But the overarching point was still strongly made by weighing his options. You can be married and bored or single and lonely. Rock chose marriage and boredom and now he's written a movie about this very topic.

I Think I Love My Wife attacks this same topic with similar honesty and openness and though some of his more broad gags get in the way of the film's very real drama, the humor still carries the day in this loving tribute to bored married couples.

Chris Rock remaking Eric Rohmer? It's not as far-fetched as it might seem. Both are fascinated with the same topics, morality, politics, infidelity, women. One just happens to be from the French New Wave and the other is a brilliant stage comedian. I Think I Love My Wife is much more heavy handed than Rohmer's more thoughtful take, but it's also much funnier than Rohmer's Chloe In The Afternoon.

Though there really is no need to compare these two films in terms of quality. Rohmer was a far more experienced filmmaker in 1973 than Rock is today. It's unfair to expect Rock to match Rohmer in his command of the medium. Where the two cross paths well is in insightful examinations of the subject. Both are equally fascinated with the mechanics of marriage and relationships and both have something unique and interesting to say about them.

I Think I Love My Wife adds a good deal of humor to the equation and that is mostly welcome, except when it becomes a crutch. Chris Rock needs to learn to let his storytelling breath and that there is no need to shoehorn in the jokes. The humor can come from the characters and the situation. After watching I Think I Love My Wife I can see that Rock is learning these lessons and I can't wait to see him mature further.

Movie Review Little Man

Little Man (2006) 

Directed by Keenan Ivory Wayans 

Written by Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans

Starring Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Kerry Washington, Tracy Morgan, Chazz Palminteri 

Release Date July 14th, 2008 

Published July 14th, 2008

The Wayans' brothers brand of lowbrow humor is undeniably popular. Having driven the cross dressing comedy White Chicks to box office heights no one expected, the brothers were also the minds behind the Scary Movie franchise before branching out on their own. The Wayans brothers joint is another high concept comedy with a transformational twist. In Little Man Marlon Wayans transforms from a 6 foot 2 inch, rail thin, stick figure to a 3 foot tall, barrel chested criminal dwarf. It's a shockingly good special effect. If only the film's comedy were as impressive.

Fresh from prison Calvin (Marlon Wayans) and his pal Percy (Tracey Morgan) have already landed a new criminal gig. They are to steal a giant diamond from a jewelry store and deliver it to a gangster (Chazz Palminteri) in exchange for 100,000 dollars. To get the diamond Percy packs the diminutive three foot tall Calvin into a gym bag and lets him loose in the store while he distracts the employees.

Things don't go as planned and soon the pair are being chased by the cops and must ditch the diamond. Calvin drops the rock into the bag of a newlywed couple, Darryl (Shawn Wayans) and Vanessa (Kerry Washington), in a grocery store in hopes of snatching it back after the cops have left. Unfortunately for Calvin, the couple leaves the store before the cops and now he and Percy must find a way to get the diamond back without simply busting down the couple's door.

So Calvin launches a complicated plan. Having overheard Darryl and Vanessa in the grocery store arguing about having a baby, Calvin decides he will give them a baby. With Percy placing him in a basket with a note, Calvin will become baby Cal and infiltrate the home and when Darryl and Vanessa aren't looking he will steal back the diamond and make his escape.

Of course if the plot were that simple there would be no movie. Thus, we get scenes of Calvin being changed -surprisingly large penis for a baby, ha ha-, Calvin being nursed -he's got a full set of teeth, hee hee- and a disturbing scene where Vanessa awakens having been fully, hmm, satisfied and finding Calvin in bed next to her, Ugh.

The jokes are the typical low brow variety that the Wayans' brothers have made bank off of in each of their previous efforts so why change now. Just because I don't find anything in Little Man all that funny doesn't mean there is not an audience for this brand of humor and the box office returns for the far more abysmally unfunny White Chicks prove that.

This is why I don't hate Little Man,  I just don't care anymore. The Wayans' have desensitized me to this level of gross out, low-brow humor. So Calvin posing as a baby is inferred to have had sex with Vanessa, I don't care. So, there are numerous diaper changing jokes, I really don't care. The Wayans' brand of humor has become so mundanely offensive that apathy has set in.

The one thing that surprised me and even roused my imagination for a moment during Little Man was the interesting special effects used to turn the 6 foot 2 inch Marlon Wayans into a three foot tall criminal.  On a technical level it's so good that I was able to forget about it and return to being bored into a stupor by the rest of the film very early on. That is impressive in some way.

Keenan Ivory Wayans is not a bad director, just a director with a low standard for humor. A veteran of years of sketch comedy and now several features, Keenan knows how to develop a strong rhythm and coherence to his stories. Now if the stories were funnier maybe his skill in crafting a feature comedy might be easier to recognize.

In the end, Little Man is not awful enough for me to trash in the worst movie of the year kind of way. It is, however, not nearly good enough for me to recommend even to the most forgiving moviegoer. My general feelings towards Little Man are ones of apathy. I simply did not care about the movie enough to like it or dislike it. Critics don't often offer such dispassionate opinions but I offer you one here. I simply don't care about Little Man.

Movie Review Ray

Ray (2004) 

Directed by Taylor Hackford 

Written by James L. White 

Starring Jamie Foxx, Kerry Washington, Clifton Powell, Harry Lennix, Terrence Howard, Larenz Tate

Release Date October 29th, 2004

Published October 28th, 2004 

There is an odd sort of verisimilitude to this week of reviews as we transition from a horror musical review on Wednesday of Rocky Horror Picture Show into a musical biopic which will remain as our theme headed into Friday when we discuss Bohemian Rhapsody, the new Queen and Freddy Mercury biopic being released nationwide this weekend. It’s rather fascinating to consider that these disparate phenomena, Rocky Horror, Ray Charles and Queen were contemporaries of sorts. Each was a facet of our vast popular culture at the same time, available to the same audience in different ways.

The story told in Ray stops well before the stories for Rocky Horror or Queen even begin but by the time they do arrive, Ray is established as one of the stalwart figures of the music business, a warrior who overcomes disability, racism and a drug habit to become an enduring pop institution. The movie Ray gives us that proverbial ‘warts and all’ look at the life and legend of Ray Charles and while the film is on the shaggy side, Jamie Foxx’s lead performance is one of the great performances of this young century.

Ray tells the story of Ray ‘Charles’ Robinson in a sort of a linear fashion. The film is populated by gauzy flashbacks to Ray’s tragic childhood in Northern Florida in the early 1930’s. In the linear story, we meet Ray as he charms and lies his way onto a bus from Florida to Seattle where he has a gig as a pianist waiting for him. Confusingly, the story flips between Ray’s bus ride to Seattle and the gig that got him the cash to go, playing in a redneck country band.

The structure of Ray at times threatens to derail the movie but Jamie Foxx is so remarkable and the music of Ray Charles so indelible and fascinating that it’s too good even for director Taylor Hackford to screw up. We watch as Ray learns valuable lessons about protecting his money, he insists on being paid in singles to assure that his pay was not shortened. We see him learn how not to be taken advantage of by friends and how they should not underestimate him because of his disability.

Finally, we watch with the most fascination as he creates a legendary catalog of hit music. The studio portions of Ray are magical, filmed with an eye for how historic this moment and time must have been. The cuts to Curtis Armstrong’s Ahmet Ertugen and Richard Schiff’s Jerry Wexler as they witnessed Ray cutting legendary songs in a single take capture the pure creativity that infused the music of Ray Charles. You don’t have to love Ray’s fusion of Jazz, Gospel and Pop to recognize music history in the making, his music crossed all possible boundaries.

If it looks easy it’s because Ray Charles always made it look easy. His blindness didn’t matter, he was one of those rare souls infused with music and an untameable talent for creation. In one of the great moments in the film and in music history, we witness Ray improv what would become one of his all time, bestselling classics, “What’d I Say,” as a way of filling time at the end of a gig that had ended too soon in the eyes of the promoter who threatened not to pay Ray and the band.

Some discount Jamie Foxx’s performance as mere mimicry or a broad impression but I don’t think that is fair. Foxx is stuck with a director in Taylor Hackford who has stuck him with a script that undermines him with a series of pop psych level flashbacks to his childhood that are supposed to infuse him with depth but instead come off as awkward and confused. Foxx overcomes this not by committing to those moments but by busting through those moments to get to the heart of Ray Charles.

Foxx captures both the Ray Charles we know, the gyrating, gesticulating, impish performer and the calculating, paranoid addict side of Ray Charles that the public only glimpsed in headlines. Ray could be cruel when he wanted to be, as demonstrated by his marriage and his relationship with various managers and hangers on, people who thought they were perhaps more than just employees but soon found themselves on the outs.

Foxx is incredible at maintaining our sympathy for Ray even as he does terrible things to himself and to his wife, played by Kerry Washington. It’s not that Ray’s behavior isn’t disappointing, along with director Hackford’s lame attempts to explain his behavior via those pop psych flashbacks, but rather that Foxx gives Ray Charles a vulnerability that not only we find irresistible but we can imagine others found irresistible as well. That’s not an easy trick for any actor to pull off, let alone an actor known at the time for sketch and stand-up comedy.

Foxx’s performance is unquestionably rendered better by comparison to the rest of the movie. Taylor Hackford drags out the story with his stumbling, flashbacks and detours, he spends a good deal of time focusing on the homes Ray Charles bought for his family, admiring the architecture and dwelling on the cost in scenes that are rarely necessary for moving the plot forward.

And then there is the treatment of the women in Ray Charles’ life. Taylor Hackford takes a pair of our most talented African American actresses and gives them little to play beyond cliches of the put-upon wife and the neglected mistress. Kerry Washington and Regina King struggle to bring depth to characters that the director appears to view as roadblocks for Ray to navigate in his redemption arc. Foxx doesn’t see them that way but he has no control over how the edit of the movie robs both actresses of moments where they can grow beyond their function to the story as impediments and aids to Ray’s faults and growth.

Ray is thus a mixed bag as a movie and a music biopic but as a showcase for an actor, it’s a remarkable piece of work. Hackford loves Jamie Foxx, he gives his lead actor every opportunity to exercise his limitless ability to capture the Ray Charles of our imagination and something so very real and true about the man. Foxx bites into the role with fervor and a powerhouse level of star-power and charisma. It took an outsized performance to capture the outsized legend and a remarkable talent to bring him into a real life, sympathetic context beyond the legend.

Jamie Foxx delivers a truly iconic performance as Ray Charles. Here’s hoping Rami Malek is able to do the same for Freddy Mercury whose life had some strange parallels with Ray Charles, though Ray was able to overcome his demons in ways that sadly, Freddy never got the chance to do. If Rami Malek can deliver even a fraction of Foxx’s power, we’re in for something great in Bohemian Rhapsody this week.

Movie Review: The Fantastic Four

Fantastic Four (2005) 

Directed by Tim Story 

Written by Michael France, Mark Frost 

Starring Chris Evans, Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, Ioan Gruffaud, Julian McMahon, Kerry Washington

Release Date July 8th, 2005 

Published July 7th, 2005 

What is it that those testosterone freaks from the gym say? Come hard or don't come at all? As overly aggressive as that sounds it's about setting a standard. When a film sub-genre features films as amazing as the two Spiderman movies, the original and new Batman flick and three X-Men movies any film that follows in that genre had, as they say, better come hard or not at all.

In the case of The Fantastic Four the 'not at all' would have been a better choice. Compared to it's superhero brethren Fantastic Four is an outright disaster. On it's own terms it has appeal to small children and the very, very forgiving amongst us. Unfortunately, I'm not all that forgiving.

Comic fans have been familiar with the powers of the Fantastic Four for nearly forty years. For the uninitiated, Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffaud) aka Mr. Fantastic, has the ability to stretch any part of his body. Sue Storm, (Jessica Alba) aka Invisible Girl, as her name implies, can become invisible. Sue's brother Johnny Storm, (Chris Evans) aka The Human Torch, can turn his entire body to flames and finally Ben Grimm, (Michael Chiklis) AKA The Thing, who's whole body is made of unbreakable rock.

The movie tells the origin story of the Fantastic Four as well as their arch nemesis Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon). On a space mission to investigate a mysterious energy field the Fantastic Four and the benefactor of the mission, Victor, are struck by this unique energy field and transformed into their fantastic forms.

Johnny Storm loves his new abilities; taking full advantage of his flammability to make a splash with the media. It is Johnny who gives the team nicknames and dubs them The Fantastic Four. Ben Grimm on the other hand cannot stand his rock formations which cost him his marriage and makes him the target of derision and eventually the police. Reed and Sue take a more scientific perspective as they seek ways to cure the mutations.

Victor Von Doom was also transformed and similar to Ben's rock; Victor is slowly turning to steel. At first he reacts like anyone would; using his billions of dollar to find a cure, but, then a case of movie evil sets in and Victor decides to be a world conquering super villain. When Victor uses his new steel form to control electricity and commit crimes only our fantastic heroes can stop him.

Director Tim Story and screenwriters Mark Frost, Michael France and Simon Kinberg remain mostly faithful to Stan Lee's origin story. In fact Tim Story even incorporates some of legendary comic artist Jack Kirby's visuals, such as a scene in which Ben Grimm stops a semi truck in it's tracks. The scene is shot from behind Ben with the truck coming straight for him and mimics a story board from the very first Fantastic Four comic.

The script also remains faithful to the family dynamic that Stan Lee established in the comics. Reed Richards with his graying temples and maturity is a natural father figure. Sue Storm is more of a de-facto mother character, she seems to young for the role but her romance with Reed makes it necessary. And of course Johnny and Ben with their childish rivalry are perfect bickering brothers. Lee mined this dynamic for humor not often found in the super hero genre.

The film however fails in it's few attempts at similar humor. The romance between Gruffaud and Alba is clumsy and fumbled and the rivalry between Johnny and Ben works only to make both seem oafish and imbecilic. Not helping matters is that each of the actors seems to be playing different beats. Gruffaud is impassive even when given a punch line while Alba just seems embarrassed. Michael Chiklis is playing a serious dramatic vibe which is at odds with the mildly ludicrous tone set by director Tim Story.

Something in Tim Story's direction amps up the comics least appealing aspects. The family humor of the comics was occasionally hokey as is much of the premise of the Fantastic Four. We accept it because of Lee's ability to make us care about these characters and Jack Kirby's exceptional drawings. Brought to physical life; the contrived nature of the comic is exposed by actors who seem unable to grasp the concept of their characters. The acting is far too serious and stern and thus remains humorless, that is except for Chris Evans as Johnny Storm.

Evans seems to be the only cast member having a good time with this material. He captures the goofy spirit and headstrong vitality of Johnny Storm. If the other actors had played a similar vibe Fantastic Four would be a whole lot more enjoyable.

Then there is Julian McMahon who chews the scenery like Jeremy Irons on a bender. To say that McMahon is over the top would be a grand understatement. McMahon plays Victor Von Doom like a silent film era villain, all grand impressive gesticulations and over pronounciations. He needs only a mustache to twirl to make this character a perfect parody.

A quick aside, did anyone else keep flashing back to Mallrats and wondering, like Brody, about whether Reed Richards could stretch his 'entire' body or if the Thing... well you know. It's horribly wrong, but one of the pleasures of a subpar movie is the invoked memories of far superior films. I will take the puerile Mallrats over the over amplified Fantastic Four any day.

I cannot deny that there is one really eye catching series of action scenes in Fantastic Four. The scenes set on the Brooklyn bridge where each of the Fantastic Four demonstrate their super powers for the first time, is a pretty terrific set of actions. Quickly edited, tautly paced, and well executed with CGI effects, these scenes demonstrate the unrealized potential of Fantastic Four.

One great series of scenes, however, are not nearly enough to rescue such a mess of a movie. Director Tim Story, who did a terrific job with the much smaller Barbershop; seems completely overwhelmed by the scope and scale of the Fantastic Four. With all the money and CGI he could ever need, Story fell into the trap of forgetting that his actors and his story need direction as much as his effects.

Fantastic Four demonstrates an opinion of mine that it takes a great director to bring the fantastic elements of a super hero movie to life. Sam Raimi and Spiderman, Bryan Singer and X-Men, Tim Burton and now Christopher Nolan with Batman. Tim Story is a good director but as Fantastic Four demonstrates he is not a great director.

Movie Review: Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer

Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) 

Directed by Tim Story 

Written by Don Payne, Mark Frost

Starring Chris Evans, Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, Ioan Gruffaud, Kerry Washington, Julian McMahon, Andre Braugher, Laurence Fishburne 

Release Date June 15th, 2007 

Published June 14th, 2007 

What is so disappointing about The Fantastic Four and the sequel Rise of the Silver Surfer is that director Tim Story shows a great talent for big time action scenes. The first film had a pair of impressive action and effects scenes that showed the potential of the series. Rise of the Silver Surfer builds on that with bigger and better effects, especially the stunningly rendered CG Surfer.

The big effects and big action act as unintentional commentary on the non-action, non-effects scenes. As great as the action is, the acting, dialogue and storytelling of Rise of the Silver Surfer are sloppy, slipshod and at times embarrassing.

As we rejoin the story of the Fantastic Four, Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffaud) AKA, Mr. Fantastic is about to wed Sue Storm (Jessica Alba) aka The Invisible Woman. Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis) aka The Thing, is Reed's best man and Johnny Storm (Chris Evans) aka The Human Torch is walking his sister down the aisle. Well that was the plan but as the media circus swirls about; a bigger threat has hit the earth.

A silver alien on a surf board is disturbing the environment of the entire planet, creating giant holes all over world. Reed quickly discovers that this is not the first time the Silver Surfer has attacked a planet, his arrival has lead to the end of a planet within 8 days. With the Silver Surfer comes the arrival of a planet eating entity called Galactus.

To stop the Surfer and Galactus the Fantastic Four will have to team with their enemy, a fully recovered Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon) who was the first to make face to face contact with the Surfer. Naturally, Victor has designs on the Surfer's planet destroying powers.

In Rise of the Silver Surfer director Tim Story delivers pretty much the same results he delivered with the first Fantastic Four movie, big action and effects with ill-conceived character bits and shockingly dull witted dialogue. It's an odd result considering that Story came to the Fantastic franchise after directing the smart, funny, character driven comedy Barbershop.

The results become even more curious when you see the script credited to Mark Frost; the same Mark Frost who teamed with David Lynch to create the complicated, layered and slighly loopy Twin Peaks. The talented director and writer seem to never be on the same page in Rise of the Silver Surfer. Frost's twisted approach to the characters combines a fifties style earnest heroism with an attempt at being hip and modern and it fails rather miserably.

As for Tim Story, he directs as if unconcerned about the characters and their awkward, embarrassing moments. Story's sole concern is the action and effects and his attention to detail is really impressive on that front. The effects and action are as impressive as anything in Spiderman 3 or Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. The blockbuster comparisons end their however because where those blockbusters are as character driven as they are effects driven, Rise of the Silver Surfer is an effects only enterprise.

The Silver Surfer, voice of Laurence Fishburne, is a tremendously successful special effect. The CG creation is seamlessly integrated with the human cast to the point where the Surfer suffers as much as the real actors, this awful, awful script. Yes, the Silver Surfer is a bit of a letdown when he speaks, with his windy ethereal voice and vaguely menacing pronouncements. Still, as a special effect, as an example of how the world of CG technology has progressed; the Silver Surfer is among the most impressive things you will see at the movies this year.

As for the human cast of Fantastic Four, the same issues that plagued the first film continue to plague this film. Jessica Alba remains super hot but still miscast as the too young Sue Storm. Ioan Gruffaud continues to be a charisma free leading man noticeably uncomfortable as a comic book superhero. And Michael Chiklis; though he is physically perfect for the role of The Thing, his comic moments are as awkward as the punchlines he's supposed to deliver.

The only one who seems perfectly cast and comfortable with even the goofiest dialogue and most embarrassing attempts at humor and earnestness is Chris Evans. Achieving just the right mix of cheeseball self awareness and cocky attitude, Evans' Johnny Storm is the one character who makes something of this regrettable mess. It helps that Johnny is the only one of the four whose subplot has some juice.

When Johnny confronts the Surfer for the first time he has his molecules scramble to the point where if he touches one of the other Fantastics he switches powers with them. His impulsive nature and desperate need to get his power back leads to more trouble in conflicts against the Silver Surfer but, of course, when the time comes he gets to prove himself. In a terrific showdown with Victor Von Doom, Evans's Human Torch gets the biggest and best action moment of the movie.

The less said about Julian McMahon's fey Victor Von Doom the better. McMahon's performance is by far the most embarrassing of anyone.

The fact is that after a somewhat disappointing domestic launch for the original Fantastic Four many thought the series was through. Somehow the film managed to find a large international audience and the pot of gold proved to be enough to overcome the creative bankruptcy. How unfortunate that the creative bankruptcy continues and engulfs another potential franchise in Rise of the Silver Surfer.

Now, not one but two legendary Marvel comics are wrapped up in one mediocre movie franchise.

Movie Review The Last King of Scotland

The Last King of Scotland (2006) 

Directed by Kevin MacDonald 

Written by Jeremy Brock, Peter Morgan 

Starring Forrest Whitaker, James McAvoy, Kerry Washington, Simon McBurney, Gillian Anderson 

Release Date September 27th, 2006 

Published September 26th, 2006 

Forest Whitaker has long been one of our most respected actors. And yet, the big prize, that signature role, has always eluded him. That gives a little extra juice to his role in Last King Of Scotland. Hollywood has wanted to find a way to honor Whitaker and now they have a good reason for it. As the evil Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, Whitaker is a powerful presence who dominates the screen even when offscreen. The Last King of Scotland overall is a flawed, somewhat messy movie that without Whitaker's mesmerizing performance would have never made it to the screen.

In 1970 Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy) graduated medical school and seemed destined to join his father's family practice in Glasgow Scotland. Seeing his life laid out before him, Nicholas decided to shake things up. Taking on a missionary role in Uganda Africa, Nicholas thought he would spend a year treating the locals, building his karma and then head home. He wound up staying for nine eventful years.

Nicholas's arrival in Uganda coincided with a coup that brought the country a new leader. His name was Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker) and his man of the people schtick worked because of his huge personality and the tacit backing of the British government who had trained him for leadership for years. Nicholas and Amin met by chance when the dictator was injured in a minor car accident. The two bonded over Scotland where Nicholas was born and where Amin was trained as a younger man.

Amin, liking Nicholas's heritage and brash spirit invites him to come to the capital where he is to become the dictator's personal physician. At first he resists, but after being promised the opportunity to shape Uganda's health care industry and advise his friend on all matters, health as well as political and social issues, the offer of power is too much for Nicholas to turn down. His decision is a fateful deal with the devil as Amin's wild mood swings have Nicholas watching people killed and worrying for his own life.

The Last King of Scotland was the inventive idea of fiction writer Giles Foden who got the idea to chronicle the life and crimes of Idi Amin through a fictional character, Nicholas Garrigan. Nicholas is a composite of several different men who held favor with the real life dictator throughout his 9 year reign. It works as a shorthand way of trying to tell the story of Idi Amin. However, as a dramatic device in this movie it's distracting.

Too often the fictional character of Nicholas Garrigan pushes the real life Idi Amin off stage. So much time is spent establishing the stakes for this fictional composite character that we lose focus on the story hof Idi Amin that is the supposed driving force of this movie. The scenes with Garrigan are strong enough but because Forrest Whitaker's Idi Amin is so powerful that when he's not on screen we want to know where he is and what he's doing. 

Director Kevin MacDonald directed the exceptional documentary Touching The Void, one of the ten best films of 2003. That film combined documentary style interviews with dramatic recreations of the events that took place. Macdonald's documentary style approach is often well used in Last King of Scotland, however there are a few too many instances when McDonald's documentary look is at odds with his melodramatic storytelling.

Forest Whitaker nails the role of bloodthirsty paranoid dictator. Unfortunately, the film too often lurches away from his performance for more time with Nicolas Garrigan and we are left wondering what Idi Amin is doing. Granted, a movie that focused more directly on the evil dictator would likely be oppressive and dark given Amin's well chronicled crimes, however it would be more interesting than much of what made up the final cut of The Last King Of Scotland.

The problems with The Last King Of Scotland stem from the Nicolas Garrigan character and not from anything done by Forest Whitaker in the film. The Garrigan character is weak and far less interesting than Idi Amin. Moreover, Garrigan never develops much beyond being a plot device. He is a manufactured character in place so this story could be told. That might be okay if the character were more interesting but as written Garrigan is lightweight and forgettable where Amin is at once horrifying and fascinating.

Forest Whitaker nails every aspect of this role. His Idi Amin is monstrous yet charismatic. He is a horror film character made real. This is a remarkable, transformative performance and yet not surprising. People have been waiting for Forrest Whitaker to find this kind of role and make it his signature and he finally has. That his performance is far better than the film in which it exists is all that holds it back from being the best performance of any actor in the last year.

See The Last King of Scotland for Forest Whitaker