Movie Review: Changing Lanes

Changing Lanes (2002) 

Directed by Roger Mitchell 

Written by Michael Tolkin 

Starring Ben Affleck, Samuel L Jackson, Toni Collette, Sidney Pollack, William Hurt, Amanda Peet 

Release Date April 12th, 2002 

Published April 11th, 2002 

Each and every one of us has been there. We've all done it. All of us have done something that to this day we still regret. Be it cheating, lying or stealing, often all three at the same time. Ethically there is no justification for these actions but at the time it was what suited our needs and we were able to rationalize it to the point where we can live with the consequences. It is such a moral quandary that is at the heart of the gripping drama Changing Lanes.

Lanes stars Ben Affleck as high-powered attorney Gavin Banek who, while on his way to court to file some very important papers, has a minor fender bender with a man named Doyle Gipson played by Samuel L. Jackson. Gipson is also on his way to court, he is trying to save his marriage by buying a home and therefore convincing his wife that he has changed. You see Gipson is a recovering alcoholic. Fate is a funny thing and Gavin, in a hurry, tries to pay Doyle off to forget what happened. Gipson refuses, so Banek takes off and leaves Doyle on the side of the road. When Doyle asks for a ride Gavin replies "better luck next time". What Gavin doesn't know is that he has lost his precious file and Doyle has it.

This setup could have lead to a series of action movie clichés like gunplay and fistfights and vows of revenge, but director Roger Michell and writers Michael Tolkin and Chap Taylor choose instead to make a more grounded film. They allow the characters bruised egos and bravado to carry the story through its series of plausible arcs.

Affleck has never been better. I thought I might have a hard time taking him seriously, as by reputation he doesn't take himself seriously. And for the first half of the film I was having a hard time believing him. However through a series of well written scenes and strong supporting actors (Toni Collette as Gavin's colleague and former lover, Amanda Peet as Gavin's wife and director Sydney Pollock as his boss), Affleck proves he can carry a drama as well as he can do comedy.

Sam Jackson is easy to take for granted. Myself, I walk into his movies and assume he'll be great and he hasn't proved me wrong yet. In Changing Lanes, Jackson plays a man who desperately wants to be a good person but can't resist trouble. As William Hurt as Doyle's AA sponsor says, Doyle is addicted to chaos.

Changing Lanes shows the thin line between right and wrong and does so with honesty and a clear vision. Right and wrong are merely choices with morals and ethics as the lowest common denominator. The film never allows anyone to become a villain. Each character is able to explain the motivation behind their seemingly unethical acts and they do so in ways that are actually very understandable. 

Amanda Peet's character is most effective at getting this point across, explaining her motivations that are on the surface sad and depressing but the underlying reason is a plausible decision she has made to be comfortable instead of happy. In the end there is very little black and white just a lot of gray. We would all like to do the right thing all the time and expect others to do so as well, but we don't live in a fairy tale.

Changing Lanes is no fairy tale, it is an honest observation of humanity, wart and all. Few films have the courage to do what this film does. It avoids formula and actually attempts to say something. For those of you who are just looking for a popcorn movie you may think this to be a little heavy but trust me, the film as a whole is as entertaining as it's message is resonant.

Movie Review: Captain Marvel

Captain Marvel (2019) 

Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck 

Written by Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck, Geneva Robertson Dworet 

Starring Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Jude Law, Lashana Lynch, Gemma Chan, Annette Bening, Scarlett Johansson

Release Date March 8th, 2019 

Published November 9th, 2023

When Captain Marvel was released in 2019 it managed to beat the hype of being just the latest entry in the smoking hot Marvel Cinematic Universe. Brie Larson came into full movie star form playing Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel. Larson’s chemistry with the cast was off the charts, the direction was kinetic and exciting and as a puzzle piece in the long term planning in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it was an incredibly satisfying fit. On top of all of that, it was just a great action movie.

Now, with The Marvels debuting and Captain Marvel back on the big screen as part of her own superhero team, it's the perfect time to reflect back on Carol's unique introduction to the MCU. With the Marvel Universe in flux, a lot bad press surrounding the most recent movies in that cinematic universe, it's nice to be reminded just how good Carol's introduction to the MCU really was.

Brie Larson stars as Captain Marvel, aka Carol Danvers, aka Vers to her fellow Kree Warriors. When we meet Carol she has been training as a Kree Warrior with a mysterious and forgotten past for several years. Flashes of memory keep popping up in her dreams but the pieces don’t fit. With the aid of her mentor and commander, Yon-Rogg (Jude Law), Vers attempts to keep her memories at bay while focusing on her training and managing her remarkable abilities.

After meeting for the first time with the Kree ‘Great Intelligence,’ Vers gets her very first mission. Under the command of Yon-Rogg, Vers will go to an alien planet and rescue a Kree spy in the midst of a Skrull controlled planet. The Skrulls are a race of dangerous aliens, the greatest foes of the Kree, who have the disturbing ability to morph their features into those of anyone they see down to a DNA level of mimicry.

In her first mission, Vers is captured and her memories are accessed and she is forced to confront her past. When she eventually makes her escape, her only way out is a Skrull escape pod programmed to go to Earth. Here, Carol will be forced to confront her true identity as she battles the Skrull leader Thalos to keep him from retrieving technology created by a figure from Carol’s past, Dr Lawson (Annette Bening), tech that could change the course of the war between Kree and Skrull forever.

Along for the ride, and discovering aliens for the first time in his career is Nick Fury (Samuel L Jackson). Captain Marvel may be the origin story for Carol Danvers but it also provides a little more of the origin story for the future leader of Shield and the man behind the Avengers’ initiative. Captain Marvel is set in 1996 and the picture we get of a young-ish Nick Fury is pretty great. Baby-faced rookie Agent Phil Coulson is another standout treat.

The chemistry between Brie Larson as Carol and Sam Jackson’s Nick Fury is off the charts fantastic. These two actors have a comfort, familiarity and ease that would be more expected of actors who had worked together for years rather than having never met before. Larson and Jackson have a comic connection that never fails to charm and when it comes time to fight that same natural chemistry increases the fun and excitement in that arena as well.

Captain Marvel was the first major big screen release for the indie darling director duo of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck and they proved themselves more than ready for the spotlight. The action is exceptionally captured and exciting, the special effects are flawless, the script is tight and focused and the character work is some of the best in the MCU. Much of this can be traced to the steady creative hands of Boden and Fleck.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2 (2010)

Directed by Jon Favreau 

Written by Justin Theroux 

Starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Mickey Rourke, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Samuel L. Jackson

Release Date May 7th, 2010

Published May 6th, 2010 

Star power is that intangible quality that can turn even a bad movie into a brilliant one. Imagine Pirates of the Caribbean without Johnny Depp, Independence Day without Will Smith or any of the Ocean's 11 sequels. Star power can drive any movie to brilliance without the audience ever realizing that what surrounds the star is mostly a giant mess.

Iron Man 2 is not exactly a giant mess, but imagining it working without the incalculable star power of Robert Downey Jr is impossible.

When last we saw Tony Stark he was revealing himself to be the superhero Iron Man in his usual ostentatious fashion. Since then, Tony has run about the world privatizing world peace in our time. And boy is he ever aware of his power. Called to testify before Congress, Stark has no trouble humiliating Senators with his ever present wit and tech.

Even as his pal Major Rhodes (Don Cheadle in the military garb once worn by Terrence Howard) is called to testify against him, Stark flips, dodges and eventually walks out to cheers and applause.

Watching on TV in Russia is Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke), a man that Tony Stark is not aware has a connection to his father. Vanko's own father was in business with Tony's late father, together they invented the very arc reactor that Tony now uses on a smaller scale to keep him alive. Vanko's father was banished before he could reap any rewards and Ivan wants payback.

As for Tony, while he seems to be having a great time, he is growing ever weaker. The arc reactor is slowly killing him and if he cannot find a new power source he and Iron Man are finished. Keeping this fact from his longtime assistant Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) and his new assistant Natalie (Scarlett Johannson) is only a minor subplot meant to keep the ladies busy.

Plot aside, Iron Man 2 is about attitude, it's about cool and it's about big time action. Taken on these terms it is impossible not to enjoy. Robert Downey Jr has perfected the swagger of Tony Stark and found the sweet spot between ego and hero. Arrogance is his stock and trade but Downey's ability to make us part of the joke and not the subject of his arrogance is the paper thin difference between charisma and just being a jerk.

Jon Favreau's direction is mechanical and somewhat perfunctory but he knows how to keep his massive special effects under control while allowing RDJ to carry the weight of the movie with his persona. It may not be anything remotely related to artfulness but Favreau knows how to make Iron Man 2 what it is supposed to be, Robert Downey Jr’s magnum ego opus.

Iron Man 2 is not a work of art, it's not major cinema, its hardcore popcorn entertainment in the most joyous sense. Downey and Favreau and their cohorts deliver what fans want of Iron Man's big swinging ego, massive explosions, and inside baseball allusions to the planned Avengers movie, by the way, stay through the credits.

Movie Review: The Spirit

The Spirit (2008) 

Directed by Frank Miller 

Written by Frank Miller 

Starring Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Eva Mendes, Sarah Paulson

Release Date December 25th, 2008 

Published December 24th, 2008 

The Spirit began as an insert in the Des Moines Register newspaper. Noticing the popularity of comic book superheroes the newspaper syndicate behind the Register and several other papers across the country launched their own comic book hero. They turned to in house artist Will Eisner who quickly turned out The Spirit. Fifty some years later The Spirit has been turned into a post-modern comic book movie in the hands of comics master Frank Miller. The adaptation is nearly as slipshod as the original creation was rushed.

Gabriel Macht plays The Spirit, a dead cop returned to life by his arch enemy as an experiment. The Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson) invented a potion and used the dead cop's body as a guinea pig. It worked, turning the cop into an unkillable but still human, crime fighting hero. Of course the Octopus dosed himself with his creation as well and as we join the story the two are in a futile, unwinnable battle of knives, guns and other such murderous implements that only serve to slow each other down. The Octopus however, has a plan.

He seeks an ancient vase that contains the blood of a human god. That blood will make him all powerful and finally able to kill the Spirit. Complicating his plan is a woman from The Spirit's past named Sand Serif (Eva Mendes). She is seeking a different ancient box with a different treasure when she comes to possess the vase. Will she give it to the Octopus or will she reunite with the Spirit? It's not as dramatic question as you might think.

The Spirit is filmed in the exact same black and white with color elements style as Sin City. In fact, it is fair to say that The Spirit is entirely derivative of Sin City. From the look to the hard-boiled dialogue to the timeless setting, The Spirit apes almost every aspect of Sin City minus the skilled direction of Robert Rodriguez. Before you try and correct me comment section, I am aware that Frank Miller's comics work inspired the look of Sin City, but that doesn't change how Miller brings nothing new or fresh to The Spirit.

Frank Miller learned direction at the side of Robert Rodriguez and you can definitely see Rodriguez's influence in The Spirit. Unfortunately, that's all you see. Miller brings no innovation, no new wrinkles whatsoever to The Spirit. Miller phones in the look of The Spirit, copying every aspect of Sin City. Without the cool of Sin City we are left with a pretty lame story of a bland undead cop and an over-acting Sam Jackson that wears through the camp appeal really quick. Gabriel Macht is so non-descript that his name is nearly forgotten before the credits roll.

The sight of Sam Jackson in ninja garb and a Nazi uniform loses its humor fast, choking under the weight of Jackson's scene chewing. Jackson has chewed the furniture before but never with such vigor as this. It could be campy fun but Jackson is far too earnestly snarling that the camp factor goes out the window and the just plain bad quickly takes over.

If you can figure out why Scarlett Johannson is in this movie you are a better man than I. Johannson is the biggest star in the cast and yet she is at best the fourth lead in the movie; playing second fiddle Jackson and his bellowing and gesticulating. Johannson remains the most appealing element of The Spirit but her choice of roles is monumentally puzzling.

The Spirit is a lame knockoff of Sin City with all of the style and none of the appeal of that modern classic.

Movie Review Jumper

Jumper (2008) 

Directed by Doug Liman 

Written by David S. Goyer, Simon Kinberg, Jim Uhls 

Starring Hayden Christensen, Jamie Bell, Rachel Bilson, Kristen Stewart, Michael Rooker, Anna Sophia Robb, Diane Lane, Samuel L. Jackson 

Release Date February 14th, 2008

Published February 13th, 2008

David Rice (Hayden Christensen) can be anywhere he imagines in a moment's notice. Surfing in Hawaii, lunching atop the sphinx, or across his apartment without having to step around the coffee table, David has the ability "Jump" anywhere. It's a cool talent to have. David uses this unique talent to rob banks. Don't fret, he leaves IOU's. That is the premise of Jumper the latest from director Doug Liman starring the perpetually quivery Hayden Christenson.

As a teenager David Rice fell through the thin ice of a lake and was nearly killed. At the last moment he imagined the local library and was transported there. Slowly coming to grips with this new ability to go anywhere he wants with a single thought, David starts by using his new ability to escape his angry bitter father (Michael Rooker). Needing a getaway location, David takes off for New York and is soon robbing banks to finance a comfortable lifestyle. It is then that he meets Roland Cox (Samuel L. Jackson) who is some kind of supernatural cop. Roland explains the plot, David is a Jumper and Roland is a Paladin. Paladin's hunt Jumpers and kill them.

Narrowly escaping his paladin encounter, David meets a fellow Jumper named Griffin (Jamie Bell) and is warned that Paladins will kill everyone he has ever known in their attempt to find him. This leads David back home and to the girl who he left behind, Millie (Rachel Bilson). While David watches out for the Paladins, he and Millie rekindle their childhood romance. Once the Paladins arrive however, it kicks off a worldwide war between Jumpers and Paladins. 

It's not a bad comic book premise really. The problem is it's underdeveloped as a movie. The rules for Jumpers and Paladins are vague and are sloppily made up as the movie goes. along. Rules then are disregarded when the plot requires them to be. The idea is merely a hanger on which director Doug Liman and his effects team can hang a number of huge special effects shots and a travelogue of worldwide locations from Tokyo to London to Rome to whatever other touristy location a majority of the audience might recognize. The effects aren't bad, for the most part, but who cares. If I wanted to watch the world go by I would watch the Travel Channel.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review Glass

Glass (2019) 

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan 

Written by M. Night Shyamalan 

Starring Bruce Willis, James McAvoy, Samuel L. Jackson, Anya Taylor Joy, Sarah Paulson 

Release Date January 18th, 2019 

Published January 17th, 2019 

As the biggest fan on the planet of M Night Shyamalan’s Split, I had a bias in favor of Glass. I was deeply excited for this sequel to two movies that I absolutely adored in Unbreakable and Split. So, for me to say that Glass is a bizarre, cheap, sloppy mess of a movie is really saying something. I tried to like this movie, I attempted to will Glass into being a good movie. I tried to rationalize it into working as a narrative. Nothing I tried worked as my logical brain overwhelmed my fanboy instinct, forcing this admission: Glass is terrible.

Glass picks up the story of Unbreakable and Split in the wake of the revelation that the two are in the same universe. David Dunn (Bruce Willis) has been fighting evil since the day he sent Elijah Price, aka Mr. Glass (Samuel L Jackson) to prison for his terrorist acts. Using his super strength and extra-sensory perception, David has turned his attention to The Horde, the name given to the multiple personalities of Kevin (James McAvoy).

The Beast, Kevin’s most violent and dangerous alter-ego, has been feeding on those who he believes have never felt real pain. He’s murdered several more teenagers in the time since we met him in Split but finally, David Dunn, known in the media as ‘The Overseer,’ for reasons never determined, has a lead on The Horde. David has tracked Kevin's location with the help of his son, Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark), to an empty factory in Philadelphia.

The confrontation between David and The Beast is cut short by the arrival of police and a doctor, Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson). How did the police find them? Your guess is as good as the movie’s guess, as the movie offers no notion of how the police got there. How they got there with the one doctor in the world who has created a machine that can stop the superhuman qualities of Kevin and David, even though they had no idea where or who they were, is one of many contrivances of the idiot plot of Glass.

David and Kevin are taken to a psychiatric hospital where, waiting for them, unwittingly, is Mr. Glass. It seems that Dr. Staple has a very particular specialty: people who believe they are superheroes. She believes that the three men are delusional and sets out to prove to them their seemingly superhuman abilities can be explained through science. Naturally, Elijah Price, the ultimate ‘True Believer’ won’t be easily convinced.

The trailer for Glass spoils the fact that Mr. Glass and The Horde/Kevin become a team and that David and The Beast will go head to head in the yard of the hospital. One thing the trailer doesn’t tell you is how cheap and unfocused these scenes are. The final act of Glass is reminiscent of Shyamalan’s The Village, a film where the final act completely destroys what was not a bad movie until that point. Glass is bad throughout but the final fight does manage to make things worse. 

Glass isn’t that bad headed to the third act, it's relatively watchable, and then things go completely off the rails. In his attempt to recapture past glory as the king of the ‘Twist,’ director M. Night Shyamalan packs a ludicrous number of twists into the third act of Glass. There are so many twists at the end of Glass that it becomes downright exhausting. It’s as if Shyamalan was so desperate to fool us that he hedged his bets and put in as much craziness as he could think of in order to convince us that at least one of these twists would legitimately surprise us.

I mentioned that Glass was cheap and boy howdy, for a movie that is a sequel to a pair of blockbusters, this movie looks as if it were a Sweded version of a sequel to two blockbusters. Glass has one location for the most part and while it promises a big showdown at a high profile location, that location is revealed as CGI that somehow looks like a below average matte painting. The biggest twist in Glass is how M. Night Shyamalan turned a blockbuster movie into a cheap, forgettable failure. 

The number of corners cut in the making of Glass are rather shocking. The makeup used in many scenes is below average for even a modestly budgeted movie and the costumes are shockingly low rent. The production is stunningly mediocre and reflects the fact that Shyamalan no longer carries favor of a major studio, or studio budget. The former blockbuster director is now in the strictly low rent district, working with indie outlet Blumhouse, home of cheap, shlocky horror movies. 

No one was more excited for Glass than I was. I was endlessly excited for this movie. I ignored how the trailer appeared to reveal important plot points. I ignored the cheesy lines made just for the trailer. I was completely blind to these flaws out of fealty to my love for Split and Unbreakable. Glass was going to have to fail so remarkably for me to dislike it. The failure of Glass would have to be undeniable and complete and it truly is. Glass is undeniably terrible. 

Movie Review: The Other Guys

The Other Guys (2010) 

Directed by Adam McKay 

Written by Adam McKay, Chris Henchy

Starring Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne The Rock Johnson, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Keaton 

Release Date August 6th, 2010

Published August 5th, 2010 

The “Saturday Night Live” influence on modern movie comedy cannot be underestimated. Yes, the movies based on SNL characters are, more often than not, miserable failures but that is not where the influence lies. The specter of Lorne Michaels lingers in the careers of those comic actors he plucked from relative obscurity and trained into comic athletes who chase the biggest laughs the way linebackers chase down running backs.

Will Ferrell and writer-director Adam McKay were both borne of the laugh competition environment of SNL and their most successful work reflects the instincts honed in a high pressure, big gag business. In three successful comic pairings, and “Step Brothers,” Ferrell and McKay have perfected their own SNL off-shoot, the sketch movie. It has the same characters acting in a series of context provided big gags that forcefully coalesce to something of a story-line that can be called a movie.

The latest Ferrell-McKay brand sketch movie is “The Other Guys” and while some will call the whole thing a send up of buddy cop movies; its success lies in the strength of each individual sketch that, because they include the same characters throughout, can seem like a real movie. In “The Other guys” the sketch by sketch constants are played by Ferrell as a forensic accountant turned vice detective and Mark Wahlberg as a would be big time detective busted down to desk work after he shot Derek Jeter of the Yankees right before Game 7 of the World Series. 

That's the premise each proceeds from, what happens from there is a lot of improv, some vain attempts at creating a story that exists from sketch to sketch and the energy with which both actors pursue a laugh. Credit Mark Wahlberg for being able to keep up with the veteran Ferrell on his turf. Many other actors would be reduced to tears by Ferrell's astonishing ability to riff on the same sketch idea. Wahlberg succeeds by not caring about what Ferrell does, he finds a beat of his own for each sketch and plays that to its comic height.

The Supporting actors in “The Other Guys,” including Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Samuel L. Jackson, Eva Mendes and Michael Keaton are each given a single beat to play and each succeeds in finding their very particular kind of funny. Dwayne Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson play the action hero cops whose glorious death scene is a wonderfully dark send up of buddy cops in movies.

Mendes’ joke, not surprising, proceeds from how gorgeous she is and how not gorgeous Ferrell as her husband is. Finally, Michael Keaton plays the oddest beat as Ferrell and Wahlberg’s boss. His joke is that he refers to songs by girl group TLC at random and claims not to know he’s doing it, and what’s great is; the joke works. I wanted to see Keaton from scene to scene just to hear how he would reference another song.

That is the whole of “The Other Guys” each actor taking their cue, finding their particular rhythm and if they happen upon something resembling a story drop it in so we can move somewhat seamlessly to the next sketch. The stuff about corporate espionage and bank bailouts that are jammed in at the edges of “The Other Guys,” that might in another movie make up the story of the ‘movie,’ are mere afterthoughts in “The Other Guys.”

”The Other Guys” like “Anchorman,” “Talledega Nights” and “Step Brothers” before it are movies about comedy. They are feature length attempts to find the most punchlines in the shortest amounts of time. They feature actors and writers whose main goals are cracking each other up and in the process cracking up the audience. Story is an afterthought; something to be picked up in reshoots.

This sounds awful and can be quite bad when not done right. Ferrell and McKay however are pros and they find so many laughs in this sketch movie formula that you can forgive the lack of movie-ness in their movies. “The Other Guys” earns so many big laughs that I forgot about whether there was a story progressing behind it all.

As a movie it's a bit of a disaster but as sketches riffing on the classic Hollywood buddy cop genre, “The Other Guys” is hilarious. Don't ask for anything more than the laughs and you will be just fine.