Classic Movie Review Dazed and Confused

Dazed and Confused (1993) 

Directed by Richard Linklater 

Written by Richard Linklater 

Starring Wiley Wiggins, Jason London, Matthew McConaughey, Parker Posey, Joey Lauren Adams, Ben Affleck 

Release Date September 24th, 1993 

Published September 25th, 2023 

Dazed and Confused captured a moment in time, a transition period for American culture. The last vestiges of the Baby Boom giving way to the start of Generation X. It's the end of the last great period of rock n'roll before it gave way to disco and eventually, pop music. The film is set just before AIDS arrived to rob the world of so many, many souls, both through the death of so many, and the many children who would never be born due to the fear of death by sexual activity. Dazed and Confused lives in this calm before the next storm. 

In 1976 we had a little distance from the turmoil of the 1960s and we hadn't yet seen the rise of the Evil Empire, a.k.a The Reagan administration. 1976 was a brief moment where we were allowed to breathe and relax and wait for the next trauma to visit the nation. Vietnam is a recent wound but one that we have a couple years distance from. Like I said, 1976 is a unique moment in time. Dazed and Confused reflects this moment by showing us a relatable but deeply disaffected group of young people, unmoored, exhausted, and just seeking a little break from the outside world via the various available intoxicants. 

The story, such as it is, of Dazed and Confused falls primarily on Randall 'Pink' Floyd (Jason London), the star Quarterback of his Texas High School. Pink is growing more and more disenchanted with the role of golden boy. When the Head Football Coach sends out a letter that is players must sign a drug and alcohol free pledge, Pink decides that he won't say it. This comes from two points of view, one, he just wants to see what the coaches reaction will be. The other point of view is that Randall doesn't want to play football anymore. Anyone with just a passing knowledge of High School Football in Texas knows that this is not decision that will go over well. 

The second track of story follows the incoming freshman of the school. Wiley Wiggins stars in Dazed and Confused as Mitch Kramer. Mitch becomes the prime target of the new senior class as part of an annual rite of passage in this small Texas town. Because Mitch has an older sister who is going to be a senior, the senior boys decide to punish Mitch extra hard. The tradition is such that new seniors, those going into the final year of High School in the fall, must spend the summer making sure to 'initiate' the incoming freshman. 

The initiation involves wooden paddles and spanking. It's a painful initiation into High School life and one the seniors relish as they've been through it themselves and are eager for the chance to become the aggressors. This is no more true for anyone as it is for now two time senior, O'Banion (Ben Affleck). The most loud and nasty of the senior bullies, classmates theorize that O'Banion failed his senior year just so he could come back and paddle freshman for one more year before he heads off to some dead end job. Ben Affleck invest O'Banion with a blank eyed stare that communicates both a depth of fear of the future and a deep sense of masculine insecurity that underlines the homo-erotic aspect of this bizarre rite of passage. 

Freshman girls don't get off easy either, though thankfully, they are free of spankings. For the incoming Freshman girls, the punishment appears to be voluntary. A group of girls who wish to be accepted as popular by the senior girls submit themselves to being forced to roll around on the ground and be covered in condiments before they are thrown into the back of a truck and driven thru a car wash. It's a different kind of ritual, for sure, one embodied by Sabrina (Christin Hinojosa), a freshman who was selected by one of the seniors and ends up being invited to travel with the Senior girls to various places and parties on this first night of summer. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review The Dark Tower

The Dark Tower (2017) 

Directed by Nikolaj Arcel

Written by Akiva Goldsman, Jeff Pinkner, Anders Thomas Jensen, Nikolaj Arcel

Starring Idris Elba, Matthew McConaughey, Jackie Earl Haley

Release Date August 4th, 2017 

To whomever said that Stephen King’s epic novel The Dark Tower was un-adaptable to the big screen, we owe you a Coke. The supremely silly movie sequel to King’s dense Dark Tower book series is an embarrassment to all involved from King to director Nicolaj Arcel to Academy Award winning star Matthew McConaughey and Academy Award nominated producer Ron Howard, who for some reason passed on directing The Dark Tower himself; golly, I can’t imagine why?

The work of the prolific Mr. King seems to resist adaptation in the same way a country might resist an invading army. Don’t misunderstand, some have managed to pull off the trick; Stanley Kubrick made The Shining, though Stephen King hated his adaptation; Frank Darabont did okay with The Green Mile but again, King hated that one as well and even The Shawshank Redemption wasn’t beloved by the creator even as audiences loved it. Of the 50 or so King properties made into television or feature films, only a handful have turned out watchable and The Dark Tower is not one of those movies.

Idris Elba is the star of The Dark Tower as Roland the Eld, a Gunslinger living on a Middle Earth where everything has been lost to some sort of apocalypse started by the evil Walter (Matthew McConaughey), a sorcerer(?) bent on destroying the Dark Tower which stands in the middle of a dozen or so galaxies and protects from the ultimate evil beyond the stars. Standing alongside Roland is teenager Jake Chambers (Tom Taylor) whose visionary nightmares brought him to this middle earth, not the Lord of the Rings one, a Stephen King one, where he hopes to prevent the apocalypse on his version of Earth(?). (The movie is such a mess it's impossible to say whether Walter is a sorcerer or what Jake's motivations truly are, hence all the question marks.)

The Dark Tower was director by Nicolaj Arcel who seems entirely over-matched by this material. Arcel’s previous effort was the studious period piece A Royal Affair and it showed he could wrangle a sweet period piece romance but I am not sure what producer Ron Howard saw in that film that led them to believe Arcel could marshal the silliness of The Dark Tower into anything other than another abominable Stephen King adaptation.

Poor Matthew McConaughey takes it on the chin for the cast of The Dark Tower. While Taylor has youth as an excuse and while Elba can fall back on the cool Gunslinger persona, McConaughey is adrift as the ultimate evil, Walter. Sure, he’s also referred to as The Man in Black but even then, his costume includes a long coat with shoulder pads that make him look more 80s Dynasty diva than ultimate evil. Why they decided that the ultimate evil, worse than the Devil, Roland claims, should be called Walter is one of several bizarre decisions made by the creators of The Dark Tower. Sure, that could be something from King's book but even then, they could have written that part out of the movie considering how this is a follow-up to the books and not a straight adaptation.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review: Two for the Money

Two for the Money (2005) 

Directed by D.J Caruso 

Written by Dan Gilroy

Starring Al Pacino, Matthew McConaughey, Rene Russo, Armand Assante, Jeremy Piven

Release Date October 7th, 2005

Published October 7th, 2005 

Director D.J. Caruso may have peaked too soon. His feature directing debut The Salton Sea is a gritty noir masterpiece that overcomes simplistic comparisons to Tarantino by out Quentin-ing Quentin. The combination of grit and style is perfect and everything comes together with the career redefining performance of Val Kilmer.

So what happened? Caruso moved up to studio pictures with the thriller Taking Lives and delivered a stylish piece of mainstream formulaic garbage. Now with yet another slick mainstream disappointment, albeit much improved, it is definitely time to return to the indies. The sports gambling melodrama Two For The Money is fast paced and stylish but compared to Salton Sea, it's simply not up to snuff when coming from a former indie auteur.

Two For The Money stars Matthew McConaughey as Brandon Long, a failed college quarterback who, after blowing out his knee in a big game, keeps his NFL dreams alive with failed tryouts in the arena league. While he awaits his return to the field he works as a wage slave at nine hundred number recording service.

Brandon's life-changing moment comes when the guy who records the NFL picks gets sick and Brandon takes his place. His ability to pick winners is Rainman-esqe and earns him the attention of gambling guru, Walter Abrams (Al Pacino). Abrams' sports advisors are a fly by night operation that skirts the anti-sports gambling laws by "advising" gamblers in exchange for a piece of their winnings.

Abrams transplants Brandon from his mother's house to a penthouse in New York City. Soon Brandon Lang is gone and John Anthony 'The Million Dollar Man' is in. Again Brandon's winning streak is uncanny and millions begin pouring in. However, as Jeremy Piven's fellow prognosticator points out; the sports gambling gods are fickle and soon Brandon/John Anthony's win streak is over.

Two For The Money moves at a quick clip and is a slickly organized character piece that falls prey to sports movie cliches even while only on the outskirts of the actual sport. What Fast and The Furious did for fast cars Two For The Money does for sports gambling, capturing the pulse pounding excitement, the visceral high of winning and the cost of losing.

What the film does best is capture the character of a true addict. Pacino essays a performance here with elements of his satanic character in Devils Advocate and his beleaguered publicist in the underappreciated People I Know and crafts one of his best performances of the past ten years. Pacino has not been this on key since Donnie Brasco and while it's not an Oscar worthy return to form-- the film itself is too flawed for that-- watching Pacino on his game is a real delight.

Matthew McConaughey still has a way to go to shed the lightweight image he has earned for onscreen fare like How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days and The Wedding Planner and offscreen for his much publicized love life and bongo playing. Breezy plot free actioners like Sahara have not helped either. In Two For The Money McConaughey strikes beefcake poses and makes goo goo eyes at Rene Russo, as Pacino's wife, but fails to deliver anything below the surface.

A feature narrative at its most basic level follows a character through a life changing experience that should make them wiser in the end. Essentially the lead character needs to learn a lesson. In Two For The Money Brandon begins one way and ends up just the same way. You never get the sense that he learns anything other than you can't trust a man like Walter Abrams. What lesson does Brandon really learn? How is he changed forever? Is he just never going to work for Walter again? Not much of a lesson really.

Pacino's character has a similarly flat arc. In the beginning Walter is reformed from every possible vice. As Russo's character puts it, if there is a meeting for it he goes. Once he takes on Brandon, cleans him up, and starts living vicariously through his winning, he succumbs to his demons and soon is the devil he once was. But was he ever really reformed? The film dangles a number of loose ends as to Walter's many vices and never ties them up.

Despite the troubled plot there is still alot to enjoy about Two For The Money, especially in D.J. Caruso's lightning fast pace and stylish big city setting. Caruso keeps the movie running at a rate that seems impossible to sustain and keeps it going all the way to the finish. The fast pace is probably there to cover up the thin narrative but it also serves to amp up the visceral excitement of winning and losing that pervades every scene. What Two For The Money lacks in depth it nearly makes up for in excitement.

But the best part about Two For The Money is the old school Pacino in rare form. Watch a scene where Pacino and McConaughey attend a gamblers anonymous meeting. Pacino's soliloquy on the gamblers love of losing is a four minute masterpiece of delivery and actorly flair. It's so good he really should have taken a curtain call.

The film captures the high that winning and even losing gamblers feel when in the thick of a big score. With a quick pace and polished look you barely notice that the film is all shiny surface. The filmmaking is so strong I can recommend it simply for the panache and composition alone. I cannot makes heads or tales of a betting line but the mechanics of sports betting are not the subject of Two For The Money but rather a vehicle for creating tension and excitement.

The betting line can make even the lamest sunday NFL contest a tense nail biter. Your team not only has to win the game they have to win by a particular number of points. Sometimes your team does not have to win the game for you to cash in.  They merely must lose by a particular number of points. You can even wager on how many points both teams will score in the game or which team will score first.  All very complicated for someone not in the know like myself.

Two For The Money is not for the recovering gambler, safe to say. The film makes sports betting look incredibly exciting and kinetic and will entice more than a few moviegoers into placing a few bets of their own. If the plot had come together a little better maybe the film itself would be as exciting as its betting lines. As it is Two For The Money is a flawed but always interesting movie that at the very least reinvigorates the moribund career of Al Pacino. For that alone Two For The Money is worth betting the price of a movie ticket.

Movie Review: Fool's Gold

Fool's Gold (2008)

Directed by Andy Tennant

Written by Daniel Zelman 

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Kate Hudson, Donald Sutherland, Alexis Dziena

Release Date February 8th, 2008 

Published February 7th, 2008

Pirates, treasure, gangsters, guns. For the guys? Kate Hudson in a tiny bikini. For the ladies? Matthew McConaughey with no shirt on. The comedy Fool's Gold seems to have everything a movie needs to be a major success. So why does it suck out loud? It's probably because the movie doesn't add up to much more than that checklist of things that I, and I am sure some movie marketing department, just listed. 

Fool's Gold stars McConaughey as Finn, a professional treasure hunter. Living in the Bahamas Finn spends his days in the crystal blue waters seeking shipwrecks containing unimaginable wealth all the while dodging creditors, loan sharks and lawyers, all of whom he owes something to. The lawyers were at first just process servers but once he was served they became divorce attorneys. Finn's wife Tess (Kate Hudson) is finished with his dreams of treasure. She wants a normal life back in Chicago where she can attend school and get her degree in history.

Needless to say, being married to Finn has been a barrier to her goals. Now, as the divorce is being completed he still manages to be a barrier. Incurring  more debt and crossing some pretty severe gangsters, Finn costs Tess the chance to return to Chicago by accidentally blowing up the boat they own, the one she was selling for money to go back to school.

Left with no options she takes a gig working for a wealthy industrialist (Donald Sutherland) on his yacht. His name is Nigel Honeycutt and he is looking for adventure as a way of getting the attention of his daughter Gemma (Alexis Dziena). He finds just the thing when Finn arrives at the boat offering the opportunity to find some legendary Spanish gold.

No points for guessing Tess and Finn fight, make love, fight again and then walk off into the sunset happily ever after. That ending was coming the moment Hudson and McConaughey were cast in Fool's Gold. The only chance Fool's Gold has of being entertaining beyond the gorgeous Bahamian landscapes was to find interesting ways to tweak the form.

Director Andy Tennant is a master of formulaic junk, his last film was Hitch with Will Smith. It was Tennant who crystallized the absolute worst sins of the romantic comedy genre with his abysmal Sweet Home Alabama. Fool's Gold is right up his alley in terms of formula junk. Choosing to follow every expected scene, every predictable plot strand, every manufactured pre-packaged joke, Tennant crafts a movie so predictable you could set your watch by it. Interestingly, Tennant is a not a bad directorial craftsman. Say what you will about his inability to escape formula, he knows how to craft and cut a movie.

The landscapes, the scenery, the Bahamian settings of Fool's Gold are utterly gorgeous and were no doubt a welcome respite from the winter when this film was initially released. As it reaches DVD this summer Fool's Gold may actually inspire a few vacation choices. Unfortunately, movies can't skate on visuals alone. When looked at as a movie, Fool's Gold is far too predictable to be entertaining. Tennant and his cast do absolutely nothing to vary the format, to give the material enough of a twist to differentiate it from a dozen similar movies.

In that way, Fool's Gold floats by and disappears leaving no impression whatsoever. Harmless? Yes, but why would you want to pay for this experience on DVD or otherwise. You'd be better off watching Into The Blue on cable, Blue Crush, or Captain Ron. Each of these films while differing in plot and cast offer the same experience of white sand beaches, buff beach bodies and crystal blue waters. It really doesn't matter which one you watch, it's the same forgettable experience.

If you have the money, you might as well just go to Jamaica.

Movie Review Serenity

Serenity (2019) 

Directed by Steven Knight 

Written by Steven Knight

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Jason Clarke, Anne Hathaway, Diane Lane, Djimon Hounsou 

Release Date January 25th, 2019

Published January 19th, 2019 

Serenity is a highly ambitious and deeply misbegotten attempt to make a modern film noir. Writer-Director Steven Knight has something going for him in Serenity but continues to undermine himself and his movie with bizarre choices that lead to an unsatisfying and almost laughable, laugh out loud conclusion. The film strands an incredible cast in what approximates a Shyamalan level of lunatic aspiration. 

Matthew McConaughey stars in Serenity as, no I am not making this up, Baker Dill. Baker is a fishing boat captain catering to tourists on a mysterious tropical island called Plymouth. Baker has a passion for fishing but specifically a passion for one specific fish, a giant Tuna that he has come to call Justice, and yes it is a heavily tortured metaphor. No points for guessing that as the film hammers the point into your brain pan. 

Baker is seemingly driven only by this giant tuna but lately other things have begun to permeate his consciousness. Specifically, Baker has recently been plagued by memories and visions of a son he left behind when he went to war in Iraq. Upon his return, his then girlfriend and the mother of his child, Karen (Anne Hathaway), has moved on and married another man and cut Baker out of her and her son’s life. 

Baker’s visions of his son are truly bizarre as he appears to be able to hear his son’s voice and vaguely communicate with him with some sort of water based ESP. In one of the film’s epically bizarre scenes, a naked Baker swims in the ocean with his also naked teenage son. Why? There is no good reason, it’s just something that director Steven Knight thought might communicate the strange, water based ESP thing I mentioned before. The nudity is an off-putting choice to say the least. 

Out of the water, Baker is approached by his ex-wife with a proposition. Karen wants Baker to take her husband Frank (Jason Clarke) out fishing and toss him to the fishes. In exchange, Karen is offering $10 million dollars and perhaps the chance to see his son again. Baker immediately rejects the idea despite Karen telling him that Frank has been abusive toward her and toward their son. After meeting the epically awful Frank, Baker still resists but will his psychic connection to his son change his mind. 

No, that last line is not me being snarky… well, not entirely snarky. The plot does legitimately turn on whether Baker’s fuzzy, incomplete, ESP connection to his son will cause him to accept the offer to murder Frank and it is as goofy as that sounds. There is a great deal more however to the connection between father and son including a looney final act twist that left me utterly gobsmacked. The ending of Serenity is surprising but not a good surprise, more of a WTF surprise. 

In an effort to take the classic noir thriller to a place that might appeal to the hip, modern, technically advanced older teen and twenty-something crowd, director Steven Knight has conceived a twist that is remarkably hokey and tone deaf. It’s the kind of twist that middle aged folks like myself laugh at and younger types will straight up ignore in the way you ignore grandpa’s less than helpful comments on Facebook posts. 

It’s a twist that works remarkably well at alienating audiences of all ages, uniting generations in eye-rolls of epic proportions and derisive laughter that will last till we reach the parking lot of the local theater. Honestly, I do admire the sheer madness of the twist attempted in Serenity but I can’t help but mock the result. The execution is so laughable and clumsy that jaw dropping exasperation can only evolve into giggles of sheer schadenfreude. 

I take no genuine pleasure in laughing at rather than with Serenity. These are a group of incredibly talented actors and a director I really do respect. Steven Knight directed Locke, an exceptional and experimental thriller that got the best out of the great Tom Hardy and demonstrated the talent for talking out loud to himself that would make Venom so sneakily entertaining. Knight knows how to make a movie. Serenity is merely an example of a hill too hard to climb to a destination that wasn’t worth climbing to. 

Movie Review Sahara

Sahara (2005) 

Directed by Breck Eisner 

Written by James V. Hart, Thomas Dean Donnelly, Joshua Oppenheimer

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Steve Zahn, Penelope Cruz, Lambert Wilson, Rainn Wilson, William H. Macy 

Release Date April 8th, 2005

Published April 8th, 2005

Author Clive Cussler had vowed never to work with Hollywood again after what they did to his 1982 novel Raise The Titanic. That film was a massive commercial and artistic failure and Cussler was devastated. 23 Years later Cussler has finally returned to Hollywood and once again he has been disappointed. Sahara, based on Cussler's 1994 best seller that continues the adventures of Cussler's signature action hero Dirk Pitt, once again has Cussler fighting Hollywood in court while a movie based on his work stinks up theaters.

Matthew McConaughey stars in Sahara as Dirk Pitt, oceanographer and adventurer. Part Indiana Jones and well... part Indiana Jones, Dirk Pitt seeks buried treasure and occasionally prevents a global ecological disaster. His latest adventure has him and his sidekick Al (Steve Zahn) chasing the legend of a civil war ship stocked with gold that somehow floated from the Carolinas to the Sahara desert.

Parallel to Dirk and Al's adventure is that of a World Health Organization doctor Eva Rojas (Penelope Cruz). The doc is following a virus across Africa and crosses paths with Dirk when she is attacked on the beach by thugs trying to keep her from the source of the outbreak. Dirk saves her life and flirts up a storm and the adventure begins again.

The remaining plot revolves around the virus which is linked to a wealthy industrialist in the middle of the desert, Massard played by Lambert Wilson. The industrialist is dumping nuclear waste with the help of a warlord, General Kazim (Jude Akuwidike) who is involved in a civil war with a group of peasants apparently named after an American car, Tuareg. Dirk and co. must stop the nuclear waste, punish the industrialist and fight Kazim and maybe find the civil war ship that was nearly forgotten amid the goofy environmental plot.

Matthew McConaughey is the ideal actor for this material. With his movie star looks, oozing charisma and quick wit, he is a classic heroic leading man. Teamed with Steve Zahn as his comic sidekick and Penelope Cruz as his eye candy love interest, you have the pieces in place for a solid B-movie adventure. Unfortunately something is lost in the translation of this terrific team of actors into a coherent and entertaining action picture.

That missing element that would turn Sahara into a good movie from a mediocre rehash of action cliches is Director Breck Eisner. Directing as if he were stuck in neutral, Breck Eisner stifles the good things about Sahara, the amazing cast, with bad editing, bad pacing and a bad script penned by old friends of his rather than trained screenwriters.

Given Breck Eisner's industry credentials, you know who his father is, the adaptation of the script by his good buddies T.D Donnelly and Josh Oppenheimer seems like the whim of a charlatan. Who is going to stop the son of one of the film industry's top executives from making a movie, even if he wants to chuck the script in favor of a rewrite by his friends. Clive Cussler's worst nightmares come true in yet another adaptation that makes his already over the top brand of action novel look ridiculous.

The one truly enjoyable aspect of Sahara is the camaraderie of the cast who seem to really be having a good time. So what if the film makes absolutely no sense, the actors are all good looking, funny, charming and they are clearly having a blast. It's like watching a group of friends on the most unique vacation video in history.

Not everyone is in on the fun. Poor Lambert Wilson, The Merovingian from The Matrix sequels, is left with the worst part in the film. As the bad guy he is required to act with the least amount of motivation, logic and most of all the least amount of fun. Where Wilson clearly relished his badness in Matrix Reloaded, he seems in pain in Sahara delivering his haughty threats through gritted teeth, his French accent barely concealing his contempt for the words in the script.

The term Deus Ex Machina is latin and means a contrived plot device in a play or novel or in the case of Sahara, the entire plot of a film. Deus Ex Machina is how all of the lead characters in Sahara are able to adapt the exact knowledge needed at exactly the moment it is needed. Or how characters previously unavailable arrive just in time to make dramatic rescues or add a suspenseful twist. Whether Clive Cussler's novel rested so much on contrivance I don't know, I never read the book, but the film Sahara relies on contrivance in nearly every scene.

Deus Ex Machina is forgivable in small doses, but not when it makes up the entire film!

How acrimonious is the relationship between the makers of Sahara and writer Clive Cussler? There is still litigation pending over the changes made from Cussler's book to the movie. Cussler was given assurances by the producers that he would be able to veto any changes he did not agree with. That agreement was made before Breck Eisner came aboard as Director.

Having never read the book Sahara I don't know how extensive the changes were, but given the flaws littered throughout the film version, I would tend to side with Clive Cussler. Sahara it seems did not turn out the way anyone could have reasonably wanted it to, but for Clive Cussler it is now twice that he has felt such extensive disappointment.

Movie Review: We Are Marshall

We Are Marshall (2006) 

Directed by McG

Written by Jamie Linden 

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Matthew Fox, Ian McShane, Anthony Mackie, Kate Mara, January Jones

Release Date December 22nd, 2006

Published December 22nd, 2006 

College football fans know of Marshall University as the alma mater of all pro wide receiver Randy Moss and quarterback Byron Leftwich. For football fans in Huntington West Virginia however, Marshall football is not just an NFL footnote, it's a way of life. A way of life that in 1970 nearly came to a violent end. In the blink of an eye a plane crash ended the lives of nearly the entire Marshall football team and support staff.

How Marshall rose from the ashes and rebuilt their shattered program is the well examined and moving subject of We Are Marshall from director McG.

In 1970 the Marshall University football team was returning from a loss to East Carolina University when their plane was struck by lightning. All 75 people on board were killed. We Are Masrshall tells the inspiring story of how the school and the town it supports picked themselves up and got back to the business of football and life.

In the fall of 1971 football coach Jack Lengyel accepted the most difficult coaching job in all of college football. Lengyel was named the new head coach of the Marshall University Thundering Herd. Less than 12 months before Lengyel accepted the job, most of the team; along with a few fans and boosters, were killed in a plane crash. The program wasn't expected to survive and now, less than a year later, Lengyel is tasked with rebuilding it from the ground up.

The story of the rebirth of Marshall football and of the small town of Huntington West Virginia that lives for it; has all of the inspirational elements to make a treacly after school special, or worse, another predictable, cloying Disney sports movie. However, thanks to the surprisingly mature and assured direction of McG, the director best known for the goofy, juvenile action of the Charlie's Angels movies, We Are Marshall manages to escape many of the pitfalls of the typical sports movie.

The first act of We Are Marshall is direct and to the point. It engages the audience in the tragedy while establishing the prominent characters including Matthew Fox as assistant coach Red Dawson who gave up his seat on the fateful flight to a fellow coach. Ian McShane as Paul Griffin who was one of Marshall football's biggest boosters until his son was killed in the crash. And finally Kate Mara as Annie whose boyfriend was Paul's son and who also provides the movies narration.

The other members of this terrific ensemble include David Straithairn as School President Donald Dedmon and a pair of players who because of injury did not travel with the team that week, Anthony Mackie as team captain Nate Ruffin and Arlen Escarpeta as quarterback Reggie Oliver. Each of the supporting players is given just enough time to hit the notes they need to hit in order to make this movie work.

Balancing such a large ensemble cast and managing to make each of the characters meaningful and engaging is a trick many veteran filmmakers struggle with. That is why the work of McG is so surprising. In only his third outing as a director, after showing ony light hearted, goofball tendencies in the Charlie's Angels movies, McG shows a great talent for getting all that he can out of his actors and his story with a mixture of quick exposition and smart performances.

Much credit goes to screenwriter Jamie Lindell who paired down a large number subplots into a smart, quick moving script that involves and engages. This is a rare script that manages to take typical genre elements and give them meaning and drama while still hitting the familiar notes. The characters are well established and despite there being so many characters, a mere few could be called underdeveloped.

The lynch pin of We Are Marshall is Matthew McConaughey whose off kilter performance starts out cringe inducing and becomes endearing. As we are introduced to coach Jack Lengyel, McConaughey plays him with heavy voacl affectations and physical tics. He walks funny, talks funny and dresses funny, even by 1970's standards. The amount of detail that McConaughey brings to the role threaten to tip over into parody and upend the strong drama of the first act of the film.

Thankfully director McG and writer Jamie Lindell give McConaughey scenes that go along way to explaining and justifying the coach's oddball personality. In a scene where Jack Lengyel is introduced to the media as the new head coach of Marshall football, Lengyel fumbles questions about whether the program should continue. The scene establishes that this is not just another inspiring figure with all the answers. Later in the film, when Lengyel sits down with Paul Griffin to try and get his support, once again the scene doesn't lead to an inspiring moment but rather Lengyel demonstrating the jockish charm that is his character but is not something that will get through Griffin's grief.

Of course Lengyel has an inspiring speech leading into a big game late in the movie but even here, McConaughey as Lengyel doesn't inspire with simplistic platitudes but rather the speech includes questionable choices that border on inappropriate unless you know Jack Lengyel, which over the course of this movie we enjoy doing.

I wouldn't go as far as to say McConaughey is Oscar worthy in this role but compared to the rest of his rather soft resume, this is a really strong performance. He leads one of the better ensemble casts assembled this year including performances by Matthew Fox and Ian McShane that could in fact be awards worthy. McConaughey's unique and charming performance is the reason We Are Marshall exists, Fox and McShane are why you are likely to love this movie.

We Are Marshall sidesteps the pitfalls of typical sports movies with a smart, charming performance by Matthew McConaughey and an inspiring story that manages to not be a mess of treacly cliches and simple uplift. We Are Marshall is an emotional and invigorating story well told by a director you would never imagine could be so mature and self assured. McG may still go by some ridiculous nickname but here he shows he has real talent and possibly a bright future.

Movie Review: Failure to Launch

Failure to Launch (2006) 

Directed by Tom Dey 

Written by Matt Ember

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Sarah Jessica Parker, Terry Bradshaw, Kathy Bates, Zoey Deschanel

Release Date February 10th, 2006 

Published February 10th, 2006

To buy into the premise of the new romantic comedy Failure To Launch you have to be willing to believe that there are so many men over the age of 30 still living with their parents that a woman could start a profitable business helping parents get rid of them. I just did not buy it and, thus, I felt that Failure To Launch was a failure in making sense.

Sarah Jessica Parker stars as Paula, an expert in removing deadbeats from mom and dad's house. She is hired by the parents of Tripp (Matthew McConaughey) who, despite having a good job selling boats for a living, driving a Porsche, and having his pick of beautiful women, still lives with his mom and dad, played by Kathy Bates and Terry Bradshaw.

Paula’s method for dealing with these momma's boy losers is to pretend to be the guy's girlfriend, build their self esteem in a simulated relationship and urge the men to get out on their own if they want to keep her. Once they are out of mom and dad's place, she dumps them. If you think that sounds ludicrous and, potentially, a little cruel this movie may not be for you.

Essentially, the premise of Failure To Launch is too stupid to support the movie. Things are not helped by the film's many diversions to goofy supporting characters like Paula’s roommate, Kit, played by Zooey Deschanel. Kit drinks constantly and, for some reason, is plagued by a bird that she chooses to hunt with the help of one of Tripp’s friends, played by Justin Bartha. The film gives ample screentime to this bizarre subplot, which has nothing to do with the main romance.

Then there are the animal attacks. For some strange, inexplicable reason Failure to Launch director Tom Dey thinks it is hysterically funny to have a character repeatedly attacked by various animals. A small chipmunk, a bottlenose dolphin and a small vegetarian lizard each randomly attack Tripp in what his buddy Demo (Bradley Cooper) says is nature punishing Tripp for his unnatural lifestyle. If you find these scenes funny you are on a very different wavelength than me.

I get that romantic comedies are often absurd from conception. Pretty Woman posited the lovely Julia Roberts as a grungy L.A prostitute. While You Were Sleeping pushed Sandra Bullock as the fake wife of a coma patient and one of my recent favorites, 50 First Dates, had Drew Barrymore as a woman with a severe short-term memory loss.  That was not the absurd part--finding Adam Sandler memorable enough to fall for, that was absurd.

So I get that logic, reason. and even coherence are not the strengths of this genre. Abandoning these things for a moment to evaluate Failure To Launch on its own terms I will admit that both McConaughey and Parker strike a likable chord. They spark well together in romantic scenes and give off the air of a loving couple even as the film spins out of control.

However the film is too out of control for my taste. Again I return to Deschanel's Kit whose fight with an obnoxious mockingbird interrupts the film's romantic plot once too often. A bizarre example is a scene set in a sporting-goods store where Kit attempts to buy a shotgun and is mistaken by the store clerk (the Daily Show's Rob Corddry in an unnecessary cameo) as someone contemplating suicide. The scene goes on for three or four minutes with this misunderstanding. Why this scene exists only director Tom Dey knows for sure.

Then there is the ending which undoes much of the good work that McConaughey and Parker do by making both look nearly as foolish as the rest of the film. The film plays on one of my movie pet peeves--the argument that would be solved if the characters simply spoke to one another. Tripp and Paula's romantic trouble could be solved with one easy conversation. Instead, the film pushes them together in an elaborately comic fashion, where neither is willing to say the few words that could solve the problem.

And only in a film this absurd could this important conversation be broadcast over the internet so all of the supporting players and more than a few extras can watch and cheer along their friends. One gets the sense that moments like these would work better as parody of romantic comedies and not as a sincere romance. The comedy of Failure To Launch seems designed like another take on what The 40 Year Virgin accomplished last year. A sweet-natured examination of arrested development with broad comic intentions specifically designed for the talents of comic actors accustomed to such material.

The actors involved in Failure To Launch, aside from the oddly well-suited Terry Bradshaw, are too straight laced and earnest for this expansively comic material. Both Parker and McConaughey have cultivated screen personas that make money playing real romance, not broadly comic slapstick with a hint of romance, ala Adam Sandler or Steve Carell.

With a pair of terrific lead actors there was certainly potential for Failure To Launch. But, doomed by an absurd premise better suited to the broad comic talents , Failure To Launch is an out-of-control mess of a film, distracted by its own precious idea of what is funny.

Movie Review How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days

How to Lose A Guy in 10 Days (2003) 

Directed by Donald Petrie 

Written by Kristen Buckley, Brian Regan, Burr Steers 

Starring Kate Hudson, Matthew McConaughey, Adam Goldberg, Michael Michele, Shalom Harlow 

Release Date February 7th, 2003 

Published February 6th, 2003 

In Almost Famous, Kate Hudson blew away audiences and critics with her beauty and talent. She had a charisma that melted the hearts of the audience and she and Billy Crudup had chemistry that melted the screen. Since that 1999 film, however, Hudson has struggled to recapture that star quality. Her latest attempt, the romantic comedy, How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days, is a step in the right direction, though she could have used a little better direction from director Donald Petrie.

Hudson is an advice columnist for a women's magazine, writing in-depth articles about how to get a date and how to shop for clothes. However, she longs to write about important things like politics and religion. When a friend loses another boyfriend, Andie gets the idea to write a column about all the things women do to screw up a relationship, an article that shares the title of the film. She and her friends descend upon a Manhattan bar to find the man who will provide the basis for her research.

At the bar is an advertising exec. Ben Barry, trying to save an account that his boss wants to give to another co-worker. The account is with a major diamond company, which his boss (Robert Klein) believes could be better served by two female execs (Michael Michele and Shalom Harlow). So Ben cuts a deal if he can prove he understands women he can keep the account. He can prove it by convincing a woman to fall in love with him in less than 10 days. Little does Ben know that his competitors know just the girl to choose, and Ben is introduced to Andie.

At first Andie is her cool sexy self, a package that a man who wasn't working on a bet couldn't resist. Their first date is all mind games with both Andie and Ben trying to gain the upper hand. After the first date hooks him, Andie sets her plan in motion. On the second date, she ruins Ben's time at a Knicks game. From there, she becomes the girlfriend from hell - clingy, and whiny and just generally abominable. Still, Ben is game; he refuses to give up. Not only because his professional life is riding on the relationship, but because there is still a little spark of the Andie he first met inside this frightening package.

The first half of the film is its strongest as these two likable, intelligent characters set the stage for their courtship, laying out the stakes and letting the games begin. On their first date as they jockey for position, I was reminded of a couple lines from an episode of Seinfeld where Elaine is talking about her boyfriend who doesn't play games and Jerry's appalled response "No games? But how do you know who's winning".

As fun as the first half of the film seems, there was something wrong throughout it. Some scenes, like a fight outside of a movie theater or an embarrassing scene where Andie decides to name Ben's penis, play like extended takes where the actors continued ad-libbing while waiting for the director to call cut. Then there is the director's odd choice in some scenes, especially outdoor scenes, to cover the actors in this gauzy haze that reminded me of those lame Lifetime movies. It's the kind of haze Barbara Streisand uses to make herself look younger on camera. Why director Donald Petrie would think a woman as beautiful as Kate Hudson would need the help of this Vaseline lens is beyond me.

The film's biggest problem though is its inevitability. Falling into that same romantic comedy trap, the film throws up obstacles that are easy to overcome except that if they were overcome intelligently there wouldn't be a film. If Andie and Ben would be honest with each other after it was obvious that the relationship had grown past what they had intended, we wouldn't have to put up with the big reveal scene that you get in every romantic comedy. The scene that calls for each character to accidentally learn about the other's deception and get hurt and run away from each other only to get over it in the next scene, then cry, then kiss and live happily ever after. Been there and done that.

Director Donald Petrie is a master of this crowd pleasing, easily digestible, claptrap. His resume includes Miss Congeniality, My Favorite Martian and Grumpy Old Men. He is a pro director who knows how to point the camera but needs to pick scripts that are more entertaining. Too often Petrie's films skate on the charm of his actors. Though he is blessed with a pair of wonderfully charismatic actors in McConaughey and Hudson, he gives his actors so little to do that they at times look a little lost and forced to fend for themselves.

Movie Review Reign of Fire

Reign of Fire (2002) 

Directed by Rob Bowman

Written by Matt Greenberg

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Christian Bale, Isabella Scorupco, Gerard Butler 

Release Date July 12th, 2002 

Published July 11th, 2002 

Whilst I must quibble with the film Reign Of Fire being called a sci-fi film (indeed the film contains not one bit of science), what I can't argue with is that Reign Of Fire is a roller coaster ride, action thriller that kicks serious ass. As we join the story, a young boy is visiting his mother at her job on a construction site when some guys drilling a hole accidentally awaken a billion year old fire breathing dragon. Whoops!

The dragons are awake and after a couple million-year nap they are a little hungry, thus begins the near apocalypse. By the year 2020 the dragons are Earth’s dominant species while humans hide in caves and outwit the dragons to grow food and get supplies. The young boy from the beginning of the movie, Quinn (Christian Bale), is now grown up. Quinn is the leader of a ragtag group of humans living in what’s left of the English countryside.

An American army arrives, led by Van Zandt (Matthew McConaughey) and Alex (Iabella Scorupco). Van Zandt does what Quinn and his people have never dreamed of, they hunt and kill dragons. We are quickly treated to Van Zandt's hunting style in a spectacular set of mind-blowing effects scenes. Indeed Reign Of Fire is a special effects movie and the effects are fantastic, rendering very lifelike dragons and a surprisingly lifelike Scorupco.

There is, however, something deeper going on as director Rob Bowman, the man behind The X-Files movie, makes a film that is part western, part war movie. Bowman then tops it off with hints of Herman Melville's “Moby Dick” as McConaughey's Van Zandt's insane obsession with killing the lone male dragon with Quinn as his Ishmael.

McConaughey is a real standout in this film. He oozes machismo and charisma. His insanity is so engaging I would have followed him into battle for sure. Christian Bale is also good as the straight man; he doesn't get McConaughey's swaggering arrogance. Instead he is consummately British; intelligent, levelheaded, but always ready to fight.

I do have some trouble with some of the film’s logic. How when all of New York has been burned to the ground did Newsweek and Time magazine print their issues announcing global apocalypse? Also, if Time and Newsweek have time to print magazines, how is it scientists didn't have time to figure out the dragon's secret weakness? What matters most though is the action and Reign Of Fire more than delivers. Awesome special effects, amazing dragons and a lot of great action. Reign Of Fire is a huge summer movie surprise.

Movie Review: Frailty

Frailty (2002) 

Directed by Bill Paxton 

Written by Brent Hanley 

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Powers Boothe, Levi Kreis, Bill Paxton 

Release Date April 12th, 2002 

Published April 12th, 2002

I have never liked Bill Paxton in a movie. In fact, after watching him destroy any chance I had to enjoy Titanic, I outright loathed him. I've gotten over the Titanic thing but my opinion of Paxton hasn't improved much. Paxton's resume boasts a number of titles that I have panned over the years including Vertical Limit, Mighty Joe Young and Trespass. Some have told me he's very good in A Simple Plan, I haven't seen it because he's in it.

The image of Paxton that I can't seem to shake though is his turn as Chet in Weird Science. For as long as I see Bill Paxton I will see that brutish pig, farting and saying intensely stupid things. It's actually his best performance. This is the bias I brought to my viewing of Paxton's directorial debut Frailty.

On a rainy Dallas, Texas night, FBI agent Wesley Doyle (Powers Boothe) arrives at his office to interview a man who claims to have evidence in Doyle's current investigation of the so-called God's Hand Killer. In Doyle's office sits a man calling himself Fenton Mieks (Matthew Mcconaughey) and he does have a heck of a story to tell. Fenton explains that he knows who the God's Hand Killer is, because he is his brother Adam (Levi Kreis). Of course Doyle is skeptical, but after a small part of Fenton's story is confirmed he decides to hear him out. From there Fenton rolls into a tale right out of a Stephen King novel.

In flashback, we see Fenton and his younger brother Adam walking home from school. The boy's mother is dead and they are raised by their loving father (Paxton). Things turn bad when, in the middle of the night, Fenton's Dad has what he says was a vision from God telling him that there are demons walking in human form, and that the family has been chosen by God to kill the demons. Young Adam believes his Dad without question but Fenton is frightened and believes his father is crazy. From there Fenton and Adam are forced by their father to witness and take part in brutal killings that Dad says aren't murders, because they weren't human.

Young Fenton is played by Matthew O'Leary. Far from his cute villain in Spy Kids 2, O'Leary carries a great deal of the film's drama and carries it off very well. As for Paxton, while many were impressed by his performance, all I could see was that same rock headed lummox he played in Weird Science and Trespass and just about everything else he's been in. McConaughey is strong but undone by the film's ridiculous ending.

It isn't just the ending that bothered me about Frailty. While I must credit Paxton on his directing, which is sure handed and frighteningly good in a number of scenes, the film has a rote quality to it. As the film is telling a gripping story about Fenton's horrific childhood trauma, Boothe and McConaughey are setting up the finale which goes completely off the deep end. Granted that it had very little choice of where to go. With any conventional ending being way too obvious, Paxton and writer Bett Hanley had to do something twisty. Unfortunately, what they chose is so off the charts ridiculous that the film collapses.

Paxton may have a good future as a director, but more importantly, anything that might keep him from acting is fine by me.

Movie Review Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009) 

Directed by Mark Waters 

Written by Jon Lucas, Scott Moore 

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Breckin Meyer, Lacey Chabert, Robert Forster, Emma Stone 

Release Date May 1st, 2009 

Published April 30th, 2009 

In this day and age of mass media marketing it is almost impossible for even the most objective of critics to not form some opinion of a movie before having seen it. Featurettes, commercials, and film trailers and posters are splattered over every inch of the internet and TV. Movie Stars appear on TV talk shows with clips and follow that with a podcast and an audio trailer.

Thus, I was exposed to the terrifically awful trailer for the Matthew McConaughey movie Ghosts of Girlfriends past more than 6 months ago and the stream of promotion has been unfailingly ever present  ever since. The subsequent clips, commercials and trailers have been as bad or worse than that first trailer and I must be honest and admit that I was bracing for a disaster when I finally saw the movie.

These many promotions for the film offer a seriously dopey series of rom-com clichés pitched to the plot of Dickens' A Christmas Carol and a super generic pop soundtrack. Matthew McConaughey's recent track record of bad movie after bad movie does the film's reputation no favors either. So, imagine my surprise when first I chuckled and then laughed out loud and was eventually kind of taken in by this admittedly cheesy but undeniably compelling romantic comedy. Don't get me wrong, this is not a really good movie but it succeeds for not being nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

Connor Mead (McConaughey) is a world famous photographer whose string of sexual encounters would cause Wilt Chamberlain to advise a nap. Having lost his parents when he was just 7 years old, Connor and his younger brother Paul (Breckin Meyer) were raised by their playboy uncle Wayne (Michael Douglas). It was Uncle Wayne who taught Connor to treat women as he does and it will be Uncle Wayne who will teach him the error of his ways.

Conor is attending Paul's wedding to Sandra (Lacey Chabert) where he encounters the one girl who really ever got to him, Jenny (Jennifer Garner). The encounter sends Connor on a bit of a binge and soon he is seeing ghosts. First, it's the ghost of his late Uncle who lays out the plot: Connor will be visited by three other ghosts, each representing the women who Connor's womanizing ways have victimized.

Say, doesn't that three ghosts thing sound familiar? Of course it does, it's Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Instead of the miserly money grubbing Scrooge we have the sex addicted misogynist Connor. In place of his late partner Marley and his rattling chains we have Connor's mentor Uncle Wayne with his glass of whiskey with ice clinking in the glass. The copied plot offers the opportunity for the film to be lazy and at times it is, especially when establishing a timeline for Connor's life. However, thanks to the committed and forthright performance of McConaughey, a lot of the film's troubles go by the wayside.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past is a little coy about exploring what a bastard Connor truly is, the best and lamest example has him breaking up with three girls at once over a conference call while his next conquest watches from his bed. The scene is played for awkward laughs rather than an ominous sign of Connor's troubled soul and the conflict fails to develop. Much of the first act struggles this way but once Emma Stone arrives as the first of three ghosts and Connor is forced to see the wreckage of his life things take a surprisingly compelling turn. Also helping things along is the chemistry between McConaughey and Garner as the one woman who ever to called Connor on his garbage.

Romantic comedy convention will require Connor to be reformed and for he and Jenny to fall in love. What director Mark Waters does well is keep the typical roadblocks thrown in front of them believable enough to distract from the inevitability. Then it becomes the job of the actors to make us want to see them together and McConaughey and Garner pull that off splendidly. Garner's Jenny is just the kind of girl to make a bad dog go good and McConaughey's believable turn from scumbag to reformed good guy is shockingly plausible.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past is a highly flawed film but, by the standard of your average romantic comedy, it's not that bad. Low expectations based on the awful marketing campaign have certainly helped me to this relatively positive conclusion, but nevertheless, I can't pretend I didn't enjoy Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. 

Movie Review: The Lincoln Lawyer

The Lincoln Lawyer (2011) 

Directed by Brad Furman

Written by John Romano 

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Marisa Tomei, Ryan Phillippe, Josh Lucas, John Leguizamo, Michael Pena 

Release Date March 18th, 2011

Published March 17th, 2011 

The Lincoln Lawyer” is fabulous pop entertainment. The story of a slippery L.A lawyer, played by the slick and stylish Matthew McConaughey, “The Lincoln Lawyer unfolds a clever mystery populated with colorful characters and the kinds of twists and turns that one wants from a mainstream pop thriller. The story is well told with unexpected twists, funny asides, and the mild danger of a Hollywood popcorn thriller. 

Mick Haller (McConaughey) doesn’t chase ambulances, he has a chauffeur to do the chasing for him. Most of Mick’s clients however, aren’t the injured more often he is defending the one delivering the injury. His latest case however, is a little different. Instead of some thug or druggie, Mick is called on to defend a privileged twit named Louis Roulet (Ryan Phillippe) who is accused of having assaulted a prostitute.

At first Mick thinks he may have one of those rare clients, one who is actually innocent. There is evidence to suggest that the sex worker, on whom the charges hinge, could have targeted the rich punk and set him up for a payday. But, with a little snooping by Mick’s pal Frank (William H. Macy), evidence emerges that not only rocks Mick’s notion of Louis’s innocence but also the reason why this spoiled rich kid sought out a lawyer like him.

Matthew McConaughey should only play lawyers in movies. McConaughey has mastered the glad-handing, underhandedness of a low rent shyster, all oily charm and dirty tricks. He can be forgiven for cheating a little because he is so damned handsome and fun to talk to. He has that lean in and look deeply into your eyes thing of a classic pick up artist, only he doesn’t use it on just the ladies, he’s seducing whoever is in front of him, especially us in the audience.

When McConaughey isn’t playing a lawyer his vapid, fratboy-ness tends to come out and his acting becomes gratingly nonchalant. For some reason, the law inspires a little passion in this immensely laid back star. Such was the case with his break out role as another slick lawyer in “A Time to Kill” where McConaughey turned the phrase ‘now imagine she’s white’ into a gut punch finale to a closing argument.

Yes, “A Time to Kill” was showy and often mawkish but McConaughey’s performance was an undeniable grabber. The passion in his eyes and the feeling in his voice, it was a combination of Paul Newman’s good looks and Robert Redford’s integrity. McConaughey has never matched that performance and likely never will.

“The Lincoln Lawyer” is inferior to “A Time to Kill” but it does share a pop entertainment sensibility with that John Grisham adaptation, likely because it too is an adaptation of a legal thriller, this one by Michael Connelly. Light on the legalese and heavy on the charm, The Lincoln Lawyer has a familiar, comforting rhythm like “A Time to Kill” and a better sense of humor, it only lacks the deeper emotional appeal.

And then there is the mystery which unfolds with a strong logic with an unexpected twist here and there. I’m sure if you lean a little too hard on “The Lincoln Lawyer” the plot might just crumble but McConaughey’s charm acts like varnish over the cracks in the film’s plausibility. If you love well made pop entertainment, legal thrillers or Matthew McConaughey, you will be endlessly entertained by “The Lincoln Lawyer.”