Movie Review Super 8

Super 8 (2011) 

Directed by J.J Abrams

Written by J.J Abrams

Starring Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, Kyle Chandler, Ron Eldard, Noah Emmerich 

Release Date June 10th, 2011

Published June 9th, 2011 

The combined imaginations of Steven Speilberg and J.J Abrams come together to create "Super 8" and it's a glorious combination. With Speilberg's childlike wonder and Abrams's taste in movie monsters, Super 8 is a nostalgic feast for those whose inner child carries fond memories of E.T, The Goonies, Stand by Me or any of the best of the cheesy, late night sci-fi movies of the 1950's.

Let's Make a Movie

In a Walt Disney-esque opening we see 12 year old Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) just after his mother has been killed. Joe is left in the care of his distant but protective father Jack (Kyle Chandler) while turning to his young friends for what modest comfort he can find. Part of his comfort is the distraction of making a movie.

Joe along with his visionary director pal Charles (Riley Griffiths), Martin (Gabriel Basso), Preston (Zach Mills) and Cary (Ryan Lee), are making a zombie on Charles's parent Super 8 camera. Charles has also recruited 14 year old Alice (Elle Fanning) to be his lead actress. Alice's father Louis (Ron Eldard) happens to have an unfortunate connection to Joe's mother.

On a late night on train station platform just outside of town the kids are filming a scene when a train rumbles through. As eager Charles sets up to get a shot of the train for the movie, Joe spots something unusual coming from the opposite direction, a truck has jumped onto the tracks and is driving right at the train.

Part Speilberg, Part Abrams

I will leave the rest of "Super 8" for you to discover, my plot description gets you through the first 10 minutes or so, right up until the spectacular train crash that will leave your jaw on the floor. Director J.J Abrams really loves the crashing of metal on metal and once the kids race to safety amidst the flying debris you will need a moment to catch your breath.

You won't have much time for breath catching however as director J.J Abrams delivers thrilling excitement at a brisk pace throughout. Super 8 is a fascinating mix of J.J Abrams taste for action and Steven Speilberg's childlike wonder. The film is equal parts "Cloverfield," which Abrams produced, and "E.T" and part "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" with a dash of the TV mystery "Lost."

Edge of Your Seat Excitement

Therein lies the only problem I foresee for Super 8 in finding audience; it's difficult to say what audience it's aimed at. Little kids, those under 12 will too frightened by Abrams's taste in alien movie scares while teenagers won't want to go to any movie that appeals to the nostalgia of mom and dad as Super 8 very much does.

Pushing aside the box office and marketing stuff, "Super 8" is quite simply a terrific movie. It has humor, suspense, action and scares in classically Speilberg fashion crafted with the modern imagination of J.J Abrams. "Super 8" is very much in the spirit of classic 50's sci fi movies which reminds me of my favorite line about classic sci fi, one that really applies to "Super 8," buy a ticket for a whole seat but you will only need 'THE EDGE!

Movie Review House of Sand and Fog

House of Sand and Fog (2003) 

Directed by Vadim Perelman 

Written by Shawn Lawrence Otto, Vadim Perelman

Starring Ben Kingsley, Shoreh Aghdashloo, Jennifer Connelly, Frances Fisher, Ron Eldard

Release Date December 19th, 2003 

Published December 17th, 2003 

This time of year we hear a lot of talk about so-called prestige pictures. Art films with opulent production design, heavy on the period detail and generally perceived as over the head of the average filmgoer. With a title like House of Sand and Fog, a pedigree that involves the adaptation of a National Book Award finalist and a starring duo of Oscar winners, it's not surprising that the perception of prestige is all over this film. Look deeper however, and you find a surprisingly populist picture. An Oprah Book Club selection and a bestseller. Also, you’ll find a story that is very compelling even if it is over the head of many filmgoers.

Jennifer Connelly stars as Kathy Lazaro, a recovering alcoholic and drug abuser who's only asset in the world is the home left to her by her late father. That however is taken from her when the city government sends cops to her home to evict her over a tax debt. The debt is bogus but unfortunately, Kathy hasn't bothered to open her mail in weeks and thus it will take months to sort out the problem.

In the meantime, her home is quickly sold to an Iranian immigrant, a former Colonel in the Iranian army named Amir Behrani (Ben Kingsley). The Colonel and his family, wife Nadi (Shohreh Aghdashloo) and son Esmail (Jonathan Adhout), see the home as a mirror of their home in Iran that was on the coast of the Caspian Sea. Amir also sees it as an investment that, if fixed up, could be resold for three times its worth.

With the help of a legal aid lawyer played by Frances Fisher, Kathy is working to get her house back. After some back and forth wrangling, it's agreed that if Kathy can convince the Behrani's to sell the house back to the city for what he paid, then they can give it back to Kathy. Meanwhile, Kathy is being cared for by one of the cops who helped her move out, Deputy Lester Burdon (Ron Eldard). In a short time, the deputy has fallen for Kathy, has left his wife and family to care for her, and is willing to risk his job to help her get the house back.

All of this mundanely sets the table for some very compelling drama well strung together by Writer-Director Vadim Perelman. Having adapted a book by Andre Dubus, Perelman lends the story a visual style that evokes the title of the film without being heavy handed. The title is a double metaphor that ties the story together.

The performances of Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly are the strong points of the film and the Oscar winners are once again award-worthy. Kingsley is especially powerful as the deposed Colonel. Prone to violent outbursts and amazing compassion all brought about by his deep, religious faith. For a good portion of the film, he seems to be the villain but as the film winds to it's inevitably tragic conclusion, Kingsley's performance becomes the emotional center of the film and draws tears without forcing them.

As for Connelly, she is every bit as strong as Kingsley is, She infuses Kathy with the sadness and longing that wins our sympathy even as she acts in less than likable fashion. Her performance is all the stronger for having to carry the lunkheaded Ron Eldard as her love interest. Eldard plays Lester as the dumbest cop on the force. His performance is the weakest of the film and unfortunately, somewhat pivotal near the end. Thankfully, the film does not collapse because of him. Props to Director Perelman for getting the film to its astonishing and powerful finale even as Eldard's performance sinks.

Be sure to bring your antidepressants because as one of my fellow critics said after the screening, House of Sand and Fog may be the most depressing film of the year. Indeed, there is very little light in the film. It works because even depressing emotion can be cathartic and House earns it's awesomely cathartic and emotional ending. The label prestige picture is well earned by this emotional film.

Movie Review Ghost Ship

Ghost Ship (2002) 

Directed by Steve Beck 

Written by Mark Hanlon, John Pogue 

Starring Julianna Margulies, Ron Eldard, Desmond Harrington, Isaiah Washington, Gabriel Byrne 

Release Date October 25th, 2002 

Published October 24th, 2002 

In the last couple years the Halloween Box Office has been quite a let down for horror fans. A year ago it was the dreadfully bad Thirteen Ghosts. In 2000, the awful Blair Witch sequel, Book of Secrets, ruined the franchise. Finally, in '99 there was the not-so-bad House On Haunted Hill, though I stretch to call that a real horror film, it's more of a parody. This year we get our first quality horror release on a Halloween weekend in forever. And yes, I realize I'm stretching the word 'quality' to its absolute breaking point. Ghost Ship has the atmosphere and gore of the best horror films even while having the generic storytelling of some of the worst horror films.

Ghost Ship stars Julianna Marguilies as Epps, a tough as nails co-owner of a salvage tug. Her partner is Gabriel Byrne's Murphy, your typical been-there-done-that salty dog of the sea. Murphy has been on the ocean since he was conceived. They and their crew of doomed character actors, Dodge (Ron Eldard), Greer (Isaiah Washington) and Santos (Alex Dimitriades), are approached by a weather pilot named Ferriman (Desmond Herrington). 

The pilot has found a ship that he believes to be abandoned and he claims that he will tell the crew how to find it for a cut of the salvage. Epps and company agree and the crew, along with Ferriman, go in search of this surprisingly large ship, the Antonia Graza, an Italian ocean liner, missing since its launch in 1966. While everyone is concerned about how a ship of that size could go unclaimed, they agree that "finders keepers'' is the rule of the sea and prepare to tow it to shore and claim their bounty. However before they can claim the ship they must repair it and their own conveniently damaged ship, which means one night on the creepy ocean liner.

Of course, from here strange things begin to happen, each crew member begins to encounter ghosts. Epps is visited by the ghost of a little girl who may or may not be a distant relative. Murphy meets the ghost of the ship's captain who tips him off to the fate of his crew. And Greer has a very interesting encounter with a sexy chanteuse in the ship's gorgeous ballroom. From there each character will be led to their death or potential death depending upon their billing. That said, Ghost Ship isn't about where the film is going, it's about how it gets there. And it's the getting there in Ghost Ship that is a stylish and visually-dazzling ride with a surprising amount of mystery and suspense.

My favorite part of Ghost Ship is the opening 10 minutes. As the film begins we meet the guests and crew of the Antonia Graza on its maiden voyage from Italy to America. The grisly deaths of the passengers is shocking and gory and deserving of a place in horror history as one the most memorable horror visuals of all time. Director Steve Beck, who also directed last year's Thirteen Ghosts, a much lesser movie, shows a real flair for set design and effects. Though Thirteen Ghosts was an awful film, it had its moments of visual splendor.

The surprising thing about Ghost Ship for me is how efficiently the film builds suspense via its excellent score. Composer John Frizzel, a veteran of horror films such as I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, Thirteen Ghosts, and Alien Resurrection, deftly combines horror screeches with the diva-esque singing of the luxury liner's singer and ghostly murderess Francesca Rettondini. Her haunting voice comes and goes throughout the film as an audible clue of the horror to come. Also credit must go to Cinematographer Gale Tattersall and Production Designer Graham Walker for giving the film a unique visual canvas that actually improves the film's generic story and performances.

It's a recent trend amongst horror films where production design has become as important or in this case more important than story and acting. The same could be said of Fear Dot Com, The Ring and even the most recent entries in the Friday the 13th and Halloween franchises. It doesn't work often but when it does, as it does in Ghost Ship, it is spectacular and makes an average horror movie an above average entertainment.

Movie Review Freedomland

Freedomland (2006) 

Directed by Joe Roth 

Written by Richard Price 

Starring Samuel L Jackson, Julianne Moore, Edie Falco, Ron Eldard, Anthony Mackie 

Release Date February 17th, 2006 

Published February 16th, 2006 

In my line of work I see a lot of bad movies. Most are simply innocuous and forgettable. Some are painful but instructive in crafting worst of the year lists. And still some reach a level of awful that seems unachievable in this day and age. A level of awful that only a few, Michael Bay or Uwe Boll or the late great Ed Wood, tread. Joe Roth's Freedomland is one of those, thankfully, rare films. Freedomland is a film that reaches a pantheon of awful next to Armageddon, Bonfire of the Vanities, Hudson Hawk or Howard The Duck. It's a disaster of ineptitude, hubris, and simpleminded idiocy. Freedomland is a shockingly bad film. 

Samuel L Jackson stars in Freedomland as detective Lorenzo Counsel. Respected in the tiny, mostly African American, community of Dempsey, New Jersey, Lorenzo is the wise arbiter of any dispute and the man everyone turns to in times of trouble. So it is, when a white woman, Brenda Martin (Julianne Moore), from a neighboring white suburb, claims she was carjacked by an anonymous black man from Dempsey, Lorenzo gets the job of investigating the case and keeping the peace.

Unfortunately this is no mere carjacking. According to Brenda her four year old son was asleep in the back of the car. Worse yet, Brenda's brother Danny (Ron Eldard) is a cop from the neighboring district and has begun an all out invasion of Dempsey in search of the kid. Shutting down the neighborhood, Danny and the suburban cops have touched off a potential race riot.

Edie Falco later joins the story as Karen Colucci, the leader of an organization that searches for missing children. Though Brenda is difficult to get through to, Karen finally does convince her to let the group search the area where her son went missing. The search leads to an abandoned children's hospital called Freedomland and a revelation that I'm sure was supposed to shock us but instead draws derisive chuckles.

The film's title and trailer points the focus of the film toward the search scenes, toward the abandoned hospital Freedomland. Various characters along the way deliver horror stories about the hospital, about why it was shut down and a few missing children who have turned up there in the past. Then in a mindblowingly idiotic twist.... NOTHING HAPPENS AT FREEDOMLAND!!!

The stunning idiocy of the crafting of Freedomland is difficult to describe. As rational, intelligent moviegoers we have the fair expectation that filmmakers will adhere to a basic logic. Freedomland director Joe Roth, perhaps in a vain attempt to be unpredictable, throws logic to the wind and instead puts stars Samuel L. Jackson and Julianne Moore into an ever devolving series of brain free conversations that lead to one ludicrous twist after another. 

The one consistently entertaining aspect of Freedomland is the amount of derisive laughter it evokes. The film is grimly serious but because it is so poorly assembled and so mindblowingly, offensively, stupid, one can't help but chuckle at the absurdity. How in this day and age does a movie this bad make it to theaters?

I've rarely asked this question in the past. Films like the misguided hip hop comedy Marci X and the bizarre romantic comedy failure Someone Like You with Ashley Judd inspired the question in the past. Those films however, were comedies and comedy is actually quite easy to be bad at. For thrillers it is a challenge to be this horrendously bad. There are so many fallbacks and cliches a director can employ to turn a thriller from horrendous to merely innocuously bad, like say... Taking Lives with Angelina Jolie or another Ashley Judd failure called Twisted. Both bad thrillers but innocuous and forgettably bad thrillers.

Freedomland is so awful it burrows into your brain and begs to be remembered for its badness. I will refer to Freedomland in the future when citing film making at its lowest points. Part of what makes Freedomland so memorably awful is the cast. Samuel L. Jackson has made bad pictures, in fact he was in Twisted with Ashley Judd, but he has never looked this lost and confused on screen. Poor Julianne Moore hasn't been in anything remotely this horrible since Assassins with Stallone and Banderas. Assasins is Oscar material compared to Freedomland.

Both Samuel L. Jackson and Julianne Moore will survive Freedomland, though it will always darken their resumes, and sadly so will director Joe Roth. The man has already survived after directing Revenge of The Nerds 2 and Christmas With The Kranks so clearly the man has a horseshoe up his ass. At the very least he must have good friends to be able to continue finding work after so many out and out disasters and now the fetid, rancid, shlock that is Freedomland.