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 Primeval

Primeval (2007) 

Directed by Michael Katleman

Written by John Brancato, Michael Ferris 

Starring Dominic Purcell, Orlando Jones, Brooke Langton, Jurgen Prochnow 

Release Date January 12th, 2006 

Published January 14th, 2006 

The all consuming maw of the movie release biz requires constant new releases to fill the void. Thus, movies that once would have gone directly to the video stores are making their way to theaters. That is no doubt how a movie as dopey and star free as Primeval managed a wide theatrical release. This goofball giant gator flick has the budget, cast, and effects of a direct to DVD feature and yet took up residence on more than one thousand screens recently.

In the wilds of Africa there is a killer more deadly than even the government versus revolutionary violence that dominates much of the continent. This killer has taken thousands of lives and eluded capture and death with great ease. The killer is an ancient creature, a giant alligator that strikes with the quickness of a cat and the killing power of the shark from Jaws.

In New York one of the world's leading investigative reporters Tim Manfrey (Dominic Purcell) has been assigned to investigate the giant gator in Africa. With his cameraman Steven (Orlando Jones) and a tagalong reporter, Aviva (Brooke Langton) whose specialty is animal stories, Tim will accompany a scientist, Matthew Collins (Gideon Emery) who claims that he can capture the giant gator without harming it.

Leading the expedition into the wild is a grizzled international travel guide named Jacob Krieg (Jurgen Prochnow). Krieg claims that he has seen the giant gator and that it killed his wife. Needless to say, Jacob is a proponent of pouring buckets of bullets and dynamite on the giant gator until its pieces are roasting over an open fire.

You can skip ahead in this plot without much effort. Predicting that we will have a showdown between the animal loving scientist and the great white hunter or that the animal loving scientist will be a whiny wuss about it, is not much of a stretch of your mental muscles. In fact, nothing in Primeval is likely to challenge the intellect, something I'm sure producers would tout.

Primeval is an odd project choice for director Michael Katleman. A TV veteran, Mr Cattleman's best work has been on shows like Gilmore Girls, Everwood and Dawson's Creek. Not exactly the resume of a guy working on a giant alligator movie. That resume may explain why the action of Primeval is awkward to the point of laughable and the special effects are pitched at the level between Ed Wood and classic Star Trek.

Orlando Jones continues to be movie poison. How he continues to find work in feature films after a career that includes roles in The Replacements, Double Take, Say It Isn't So, and The Time Machine, is one of the great mysteries of Hollywood. I'm sure Jones has some kind of talent but when it comes to feature films he seems to seek out the absolute worst material and manages to somehow make it worse. His role in Primeval borders on racist caricature.

Jurgen Prochnow is not exactly the kind of movie poison that Orlando Jones is, though his casting has a similar effect of signaling bad material. The difference is that Prochnow has become such a bad actor that he brings a certain level of camp to his roles. Check him out in the video game movie House of the Dead where he pitches his performance perfectly to director Uwe Boll's level of talent. Prochnow could be Boll's muse.

It's the new movie business paradigm, feed the beast. The beast is the week to week call for new products to populate the hundreds of thousands of movie screens in multiplexes across the country. This new paradigm guarantees that movies like Primeval that you would have wandered past in video stores just five years ago will now pop up on the big screen, feeding the unending crave for new products.

Movie Review: Biker Boyz

Biker Boyz (2003) 

Directed by Reggie Rock Blythewood

Written by Reggie Rock Blythewood 

Starring Derek Luke, Laurence Fishburne, Orlando Jones, Djimon Hounsou, Lisa Bonet, Brenden Fehr

Release Date January 31st, 2003

Published January 31st, 2003 

How many actors have been hailed as the next big thing? Hundreds maybe thousands. How many of them turn out to be for real? Two, maybe three. Derek Luke, coming off his successful debut in Antwone Fisher, is getting that buzz right now. Does he deserve it? Maybe. But what is certain about Luke is that even if the buzz about his star potential wears off he can fall back on his acting, which is unquestionably strong. His first big budget rollout, the motorcycle racing picture Biker Boyz, isn't nearly as good as it's star but is greatly improved by his acting presence.

Luke stars as Kid, the son of a mechanic (Eric LaSalle in a minor cameo) who is a member of California's most successful bike-racing gang, The Black Knights. Kid's dad is the head mechanic for the King of Cali, Smoke played by Larry Fishburne. The title King of Cali signifies that Smoke is the top motorcycle racer in all of California. Kid is an apprentice member of the Knights until one fateful night when Smoke is challenged by a racer named Chu Chu (Terrence Howard) and during the race an accident kills Kid's dad.

Kid drops out of the Black Knight's but doesn't give up riding bikes. A few months after his father's death Kid is back on the underground-racing scene running a scam with a buddy named Stuntman (Brendon Fehr). The scam is that Stuntman pretends to be drunk and Kid, using his previous connections in the underground, tricks someone into believing the drunk guy has challenged him. However, after Kid is spotted with Stuntman, he is called in front of the leaders of the underground racing gangs who inform that if he is caught running a scam in their midst he will be killed. Only Smoke keeps them from killing him right then. 

Kid and Stuntman decide they are going legit and want to challenge Smoke for the King of Cali crown but to do that they must start their own gang and thus the Biker Boyz are born. Kid's riding attracts a large group of followers including a smoking hot tattoo artist named Tina (Meagan Good).  All of this is leading to a race between Kid and Smoke, but not before the film turns in a melodramatic twist that tests the audiences patience and the script's believability. The melodrama is on par with the lamest soap opera at a point in the film where the audience just wants to see the cool bikes and the racing.

Director Reggie Rock Blythewood too often let's Biker Boyz meander into the dramatic subplots involving Kid's mother (Vanessa Bell Calloway) as well as Smoke and Kid's father, when he should be taking advantage of the exciting race sequences.

Unfortunately, the racing sequences aren't even that exciting. Kid's first race has a great moment where Kid stands up on the bike and crosses the finish line first after entering the race well after it started. However, there just isn't enough racing. There are plenty of shots of motorcycles and shots of the gangs riding there bikes in formation down city streets. Still, none of these scenes evokes the energy that made the Fast & the Furious a fun and exciting ride.

One of the films biggest mistakes is it's soundtrack, which employs slow silky R & B tunes that suck the energy out of the racing scenes. In the films climactic race scene the filmmakers go with an orchestral score instead of a more appropriate rap or heavy metal tune. The orchestral score is sleep inducing and derivative. It's the same kind of orchestral flourish that accompanies the winning moment of a sports movie.

The films cast is populated by numerous recognizable faces in small roles including Orlando Jones, Lisa Bonet, Tyson Beckford, Lorenz Tate, Djimon Hounsou and Kid Rock. At times, there are so many recognizable faces it's like a Hells Angel's version of the Love Boat.  Larry Fishburne is beginning to show his age, looking paunchy and tired throughout most of the film. Let's hope he gets his energy and intensity back for the Matrix sequels later this year. 

No such problem for Derek Luke who brings the film an energy it desperately needs. His chemistry with love interest Meagan Good is strong and sexual. Luke is Biker Boyz's one great asset and I don't want to imagine what the film would have been like without him. Biker Boyz has been compared with The Fast & the Furious but the comparison isn't favorable. Fast & the Furious was big, dumb and loud but it had this energetic quality, a sort of kitschy machismo that made it funny and exciting. Furious used it's implausibilities to make the film funny in a stupid unintended way. 

Biker Boyz on the other hand is quiet in comparison. It wants to be taken seriously as a drama rather than capitalize on the hyper kinetic racing scenes and MTV-style editing that made Furious so much fun. Biker Boyz needs less melodrama and more adrenaline. Pump up the soundtrack and drop the subplots. Hire one of those X-Games directors and let racing be the film's focus and maybe Biker Boyz could work.  As it is though it's a dull film that provides a good vehicle for Derek Luke to show off his talent. Still, it isn't as good as it could have been. 

Movie Review: Drumline

Drumline (2002) 

Directed by Charles Stone III 

Written by Tina Gordon Chism

Starring Nick Cannon, Zoe Saldana, Orlando Jones, Jason Weaver

Release Date December 13th, 2002 

Published December 10th, 2002

Every year Grambling University plays a football game against Southern University. The game is notable because it is played in the Louisiana Superdome and airs nationwide on Black Entertainment Television. And even when Grambling was coached by the legendary Eddie Robinson, the winningest coach of a black college team in history, the huge crowds did not come for the football; they came to see the halftime show. The showdown between these two amazing talented bands is worth the price of admission--even if you're not a football fan.

At many traditionally black colleges, the halftime show, where the bands take the field for precisely choreographed musical mayhem that mixes traditional marching band music with modern hip hop and dance, is as highly anticipated as the game itself is. Yet, the movie Drumline--made as a tribute to this unique phenomenon--fails to capture the obvious spirit and emotion that drives it.

Nick Cannon, star of his own Nickelodeon TV variety show, stars in Drumlineas Devon, a cocky freshman drummer who is joining the legendary marching band at fictional Atlanta A&T; University. From the moment Devon steps on campus, his attitude starts rubbing people the wrong way--especially the upperclassman who is the leader of the bands famed drumline, Sean (played by Leonard Roberts.) Soon, the two headstrong drummers are at each other's throats and their pettiness does not go unnoticed by the schools bandleader, Dr. James Lee (former Seven-Up spokesperson, Orlando Jones.)

Soon, Devon's attitude and battle with Sean leads him to be kicked off the team. All the while, Devon has a budding relationship with a dancer named Laila (Zoe Saldana). That relationship is also affected by Devon's problems in the marching band.

It's not long before Devon is reformed and begins to work his way back into the band in time for the battle of the bands. In true sports movie fashion, Drumline comes down to a one-on-one showdown between A&T; and their crosstown rivals, Morris Brown University. (In reality, Morris Brown is a real college with one of the most sensational marching bands in the country.)

The marching band competition is staged well, despite its fictional origins. Watching the amazing choreography and skill of the bands is a treat, but the film as a whole is a pale imitation of the sports movie cliches many critics claim it defies. The fact is that this is another Rocky-esque movie where people overcome great odds to succeed on a big stage. Drumline is like a sports movie without the sports.

The film's biggest problems are its lead performances by Cannon and Jones. Cannon isn't a bad actor but his character is so intensely obnoxious and unlikable, I can't imagine wanting to watch a film about him. As for Jones, something has always bothered me about him as an actor and Drumline exposes that something. There is something in Jones' voice, an affectation that makes every word out of his mouth seem insincere. In Drumline, he is called on to deliver some very straight, very earnest dialogue, but that vocal affectation of his makes him impossible to take seriously.

Drumline is a well-crafted film and a marginally entertaining one when the action is focused on the bands performing. However, everything that happens around performances is all dull cliche and wrongheaded character development. I would recommend it only for hardcore band geeks.

Movie Review: The Time Machine

The Time Machine (2002) 

Directed by Simon Wells

Written by John Logan 

Starring Guy Pearce, Jeremy Irons, Samantha Mumba, Mark Addy, Orlando Jones, Doug Jones

Release Date March 8th, 2002

Published March 7th, 2002 

I have never read the classic story of The Time Machine by HG Wells but the story is so iconic and the idea of time travel so enticing I feel like I've read it. Though now after having seen this film version of The Time Machine I'm glad I never picked up the book.

For the uninitiated The Time Machine is the story of a doofus scientist Alexander Hartdegan, played by Guy Pearce, who after his fiancée is murdered becomes obsessed with going back in time and changing what happened saving her life. Hartdegan accomplishes time travel but finds himself unable to alter the past, for some reason no matter how he changes things his fiancée dies anyway. These early scenes are somewhat effective and setup an intriguing question. Why can't Hartdegan alter the past? Hartdegan, confounded by his inability to change the past, journeys to the future to answer his question.

His travels take him over 800,000 years into a future where there are now two species of human, the above ground and peaceful Eloi and the below ground terrorists, the Morlocks. Singer Samantha Mumba plays Alexander's perfunctory Eloi love interest and Jeremy Irons, chewing any scenery left over from his performance in Dungeon's and Dragons, is the evil Morlock overlord. Irons' character provides Alexander with the answer to why he can't change the past, an answer so unsatisfying I wanted to get up and leave. All of the scenes in this future world are boring illustrations of the missed opportunity The Time Machine truly is. Instead of tackling time travel from an intellectual, moral, or spiritual angle we are given a dull adventure plot that goes nowhere fast.

The film's main problem is it's perspective. I understand that since Alexander is from 1895 he doesn't have much of an idea of what to do with his invention other than to change his past, but what a squandered opportunity. The chance to see history in the making and all he can think of is himself, which doesn't make for a very likable character. It doesn't help that Pearce, plays Hartdegan as perpetually waking from a deep sleep always squinting and confused. Here is the guy who invented this time machine yet he still has no idea what it is he's doing with it.

And is it me or has Jeremy Irons completely slipped into self-parody? I can't watch him without laughing and I'm sure that is not what he is supposed to be going for.

The Time Machine is yet another big budget mess, all bells and whistles and no brain. Now that I think of it that is just typical Hollywood.