Movie Review: Flightplan

Flightplan (2005) 

Directed by Robert Schwentke

Written by Peter A. Dowling, Billy Ray

Starring Jodie Foster, Peter Sarsgard, Erika Christensen, Kate Beahan, Greta Scacchi, Sean Bean, Matt Bomer

Release Date September 23rd, 2005

Published September 23rd, 2005

Jodie Foster is an actress of particular tastes. Since her Oscar win in 1991 for Silence of The Lambs, Foster has been very particular about what films she makes, what directors she works with and what actors she co-stars. Few stars are known to be as demanding as Jodie Foster when it comes to even the minor details of her work.

Knowing this makes her latest film Flightplan so surprising and yet not puzzling. It's a surprise that Flightplan is so astonishingly bad but not puzzling as to why it's so bad.

Kyle Pratt (Foster) has lost her husband in what she believes was a tragic accident. Now returning his body to their home in New York from their temporary home in Germany, Kyle and her daughter Julia (Brent Sexton) have a 12 hour flight ahead of them. This, however, will not be a typically uncomfortable flight. Instead, at 25,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean, Julia Pratt is going to go missing.

After catching a few minutes sleep in some empty seats near the back of the plane, Kyle wakes up and cannot find her daughter. Enlisting the help of the crew she exhaustively searched the plane and finds nothing. Soon Kyle is demanding to speak to the captain (Sean Bean) and catching the attention of Air Marshall Carson (Peter Sarsgaard).

Some digging by the crew reveals that no one saw Kyle and Julia get on the plane. Once on board none of the crew members or passengers can remember seeing Julia either. Even a check of the flight manifest reveals that Julia was never processed for boarding and there was no boarding pass in her name. Can it be that Julia died along with her father in that tragic accident and Julia has only imagined her daughter alive and well on the plane?

That is an intriguing setup, but in execution Flightplan, pardon the pun, fails to take off. Director Robert Schwentke, working in his first American feature, has the beats and rhythm of the thriller genre down but the script from Billy Ray and Peter Dowling hinges on one of the single worst screenwriting tricks and hackneyed cliches in the genre.

In attempting to build tension Schwentke makes every other character aside from Foster shifty-eyed and suspicious. Everyone is a suspect, fellow passengers, crew members and such but no one other than Foster's character is portrayed as remotely sympathetic. If it weren't for the goofy thriller music and the shifty-eyed acting everyone on the film other than Foster might come off as rational compared to Foster's wacked mommy.

The super suspicious supporting cast is meant to create isolation which in turn creates more drama, especially considering the already confining location. However, to make such a method work the film needed Jodie Foster to deliver a character the audience feels for and wants to follow. As great an actress as Foster is, her Kyle Pratt is too much of a nut and a flake for anyone to really feel for her.

In her return to the American big screen (she appeared in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's A Very Long Engagement a year or so ago) after a three year hiatus, exascerbated by production delays on her directorial effort Flora Plum, Jodie Foster struggles with a shrill portrayal of a mother on the edge. Foster's Kyle Pratt can be forgiven for becoming unhinged after the death of her husband and disapppearance of her daughter but the character reaches a level of unreasonable behavior that would have had any other passenger sedated and chained to their seat.

Flightplan reminded me in a weird way of the 2000 Harrison Ford-Michele Pfeiffer film What Lies Beneath. Both films were thrillers with big important twists at the end and both films failed in delivering climaxes that matched the intriguing set ups. In What Lies Beneath Michele Pfeiffer delivers half of a great performance before being undone by series of poorly executed twists. Jodie Foster is similarly undone in Flightplan by twists that defy both logic and taste. Unlike Ms. Pfeiffer, however, the problems with Flightplan have as much to do with the scripting as with Jodie Foster's performance.

The most damnable sin Foster commits is simply not being likable. She never connects with the child playing her daughter and without a sympathetic supporting character as backup the audience is always outside the character watching her as if we were one of her highly annoyed fellow passengers.

After some terrific buzz for his performances in Shattered Glass and Garden State  Peter Sarsgaard has failed in attempts at crossing over to more mainstream fare. His dreary performance in the Kate Hudson thriller Skeleton Key and yet another creepy performance in Flightplan have Sarsgaard on the road to some real bad typecasting. Sean Bean as the captain of the plane and Erika Christenson as one of the flight attendants come off a little better than Sarsgard but not by much. Everytime either one of them looks like they might break from the constrictions of the plot and become sympathetic they are shuffled off screen.

It's a classic Hitchcockian thriller setup-- missing person, confined space, suspicious characters all around-- but the plot of Flightplan never congeals into the kind of crowd pleasing tension-fest that Hitch excelled at. Rather, Flightplan is almost laughably inept in creating tension; that shifty-eyed supporting cast for one is a real hoot as they really do seem to all have the same pair of nervous, wandering eyes with evil intent in every glare regardless of whether they actually are evil.

The film is very well shot; watch out for some really terrific maneuvering through the limited cabin space of the plane that will leave you wondering how they managed to do that.  Schwentke makes great use of his setting and the camerawork at times is able to create the tension the script fails to provide. Great camerawork however is not the kind of rousing crowd pleaser that us movie lovers would like to believe and in the end there is very little in Flightplan that would draw anyone in.

There is now a protest in the works against Flightplan that raises an interesting and disturbing point. The protest gives away an important plot point so if you don't want to know about it, skip ahead.....

The union representing flight attendants is objecting to the portrayal of flight crew and air marshals being portrayed in the film as terrorists. This raises an interesting question; in the post 9/11 world is it appropriate to portray flight crew as terrorists or is it simply irresponsible. Certainly no one profession is immune to being portrayed negatively but there's something unseemly about it. I don't necessarily side with the flight attendant's protest, it is just a movie after all, but I certainly see their point.

All controversies aside Flightplan is a disappointment for fans of Jodie Foster, many of whom felt Panic Room suffered from a similarly overwrought performance. There is a pattern of isolation forming in Jodie Foster's work, and I'm not just talking about settings-- panic rooms, airplanes and such. I mean isolation in the sense that she has cut herself off more and more from her co-stars, specifically her male co-stars. The men of Panic Room and now Flightplan are all bad guys or highly suspsicious and only she can protect that which she loves from these evil men.

I'm not pleading sexism against  Jodie Foster but she has played a large role in shaping her characters with a specific rule about love interests, specifically that there are none in her films. This lack of strong support from male or even female characters, aside from children who are more victim than character, is isolating Jodie Foster from the audience. If no one in the film likes her why should we?

Movie Review Jupiter Ascending

Jupiter Ascending (2015) 

Directed by The Wachowskis

Written by The Wachowskis

Starring Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum, Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne, Tuppence Middleton

Release Date February 6th, 2015 

Published February 5th, 2015 

My cynical 30-something armor can no longer be pierced by the earnest arrows of the artist trapped in commercial hell. Yes, while there is a deep seated part of my soul that wishes for a day I could once again appreciate the trappings of those wounded souls willingly baring themselves before us, as they wring their hands over cashing studio checks but alas, it is for naught. I've been too ironically distanced from my own emotions for too long. 

It is, therefore, impossible for me to appreciate "Jupiter Ascending," the latest work of the wonderfully open and earnest Wachowski siblings. Like their previous effort, "Cloud Atlas," "Jupiter Ascending" is a daringly original piece that attempts to elevate pop to art via pop philosophy with a dash of liberal/progressive politicking. It's an effort I can admire but in a package I can't help but mock ceaselessly.

"Jupiter Ascending" stars Mila Kunis as Jupiter, a house cleaner by trade who happens to be the human replicant of a dead alien queen, destined to inherit the Earth. A mostly shirtless Channing Tatum plays Caine, Jupiter's wolf-like, Spock-eared protector in rocket boots. That's a literal translation of who these characters are and their relationship to one another. How am I expected to take this seriously? 

To be fair, Luke Skywalker was a descendant of an ancient race of spiritual ninjas who fights alongside robots, Wookies, and tiny aliens, but I find myself capable of loving the goofiness of "Star Wars." So why not love the goofiness of "Jupiter Ascending?" Maybe I've reached my “goofy” limit. Or maybe "Star Wars" is simply a superior effort from a more dedicated master of earnest goofiness. 

"Jupiter Ascending" grows only more goofy as it rolls along, picking up the story of three goofball villains. Brothers Titus (Douglas Booth) and Balem (Oscar nominee Eddie Redmayne) and sister Kalique (Tuppence Middleton) hope to trick or kill poor Jupiter in order to usurp her birthright as the owner-operator of the Earth. You see, kids, Earth is really just a farm for the universe, where people are cattle used as commodities to be harvested. If poor Jupiter can't stop them, the Earth becomes the beauty product equivalent of Soylent Green. 

One cannot help but admire the wont of the Wachowskis to create something wholly original. "Jupiter Ascending" is that rare breed of modern movie blockbuster that is not based on a comic book or a young-adult novel. The Wachowskis took great care to assemble this brand-new universe, and their dedication is admirable even as the product of that dedication is incredibly risible. 

"Jupiter Ascending" is not unlike the spiritual cousin of “Avatar,” another overly earnest attempt at pop politics. Like that monstrosity, "Jupiter Ascending" is a massive work of pop art that attempts to smuggle politics under the guise of science fiction. Unfortunately, the politics of both films are so obvious and under-cooked that even as I find myself agreeing with both films’ philosophies, I can't help but mock how simpleminded they both are. 

Modern progressives are growing more open and earnest with each new generation. This is both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing in that stances in favor of the poor and those affected by the ills of discrimination now have vocal defenders. But it's also a curse as these most vocal progressives tend to run headlong into the buzz-saws of political commerce without the ironic armor that protected generations before. 

My generation wielded humor as a dangerous and divisive weapon against our political foes. We could swing the hammer of cynical humor at our earnest conservative opponents and expose their whiny cores in the process. The more earnest, modern progressive-liberals are far too quick to believe that their opponents can be reasoned with or shown the error of their ways via earnest conversation. This leads to movies like "Jupiter Ascending," where the progressive message is ladled heavily and humorlessly over easy-to-consume-and-destroy pop science fiction. 

For people like me, raised on the misanthropic, self-protective, liberal politics of the past, I feel the need to destroy "Jupiter Ascending" before my opponents get their hands on such an easy and shallow target.

Movie Review Silent Hill

Silent Hill (2006) 

Directed by Christophe Gans

Written by Roger Avary, Christophe Gans

Starring Radha Mitchell, Sean Bean, Debra Kara Unger 

Release Date April 21st, 2006 

Published April 27th, 2006

Horror movies based on videogames are supposed to suck. They are supposed to be directed by hacks like Andrej Bartkowiak (Doom) or Uwe Boll (Bloodrayne, House of The Dead, Alone In The Dark). They are supposed to incorporate the awful first person perspective that makes video games individual experiences rather than communal ones like.. oh I don't know... movies!

That is what makes the new horror flick Silent Hill such a pleasant and disturbing surprise. Based on a popular late nineties video game about a haunted West Virginia mining town, Silent Hill is a creepy mixture of dazzling horror visuals and a little girl power.

Radha Mitchell stars in Silent Hill as Rose Da Silva whose adopted daughter Sharon(Jodelle Ferland)  has developed a frightening penchant for sleepwalking to the hilly peaks surrounding their home. While sleepwalking, Sharon mumbles about a place called Silent Hill which seems to hold the key to her nightmares.

Sharon's father Chris (Sean Bean) wants his daughter to go to the hospital but Rose inexplicably believes that taking Sharon to Silent Hill will quell her nightmares and mid night strolls. It's a faulty premise that calls Rose's character into question but you have to stick with this film to enjoy it.

On the road to Silent Hill, which is supposed to be closed to traffic, Rose is tailed by a police officer, Cybil Bennett (Laurie Holden) who has a traumatic history with Silent Hill herself. Officer Bennett tries to stop Sharon from going to Silent Hill but before she can both are involved in an accident that leads to Sharon's disappearance. Together, upon waking from their injuries, Rose and officer Bennett must enter Silent Hill to find the child.

The town of Silent Hill was closed off from the rest of the world after what police called a mining accident some 30 years ago. The entire town was nearly swallowed by an underground coal fire that continues to spew ash over the abandoned city.

The few remaining residents are tormented by the spirits of the people who died in the fire and take refuge in a church where their prayers keep the demons at bay. The remaining citizens have a dark secret linked to the fire that killed the town and Rose's daughter's dangerous connection to it as well.

The story of Silent Hill is often convoluted and bewildering but director Christophe Gans escapes the plot issues by dressing the film in some of the most striking horror images in the genre. Gans shows some serious horror chops in creating frightening visuals and startling characters. There are the children made of ash, formless, bile spewing zombies and a killer carrying the largest sharp weapon of any horror villain in history.

Maybe the film's best contribution to modern horror are its two lead actresses. Radha Mitchell and Laurie Holden both deliver strong performances but are more important symbolically as the rare occasion of women in horror who are not merely victims, naked bodies or scream queens. These are two strong fully formed female characters and that they exist at all in the modern horror genre makes Silent Hill a worthy effort.

Visually frightening and dazzling Silent Hill may not be a great film but by modern horror standards it's among the best of the genre. For horror fans Silent Hill is a must see.

Movie Review The Hitcher

The Hitcher (2007) 

Directed by Dave Meyers 

Written by Eric Bernt, Eric Red, Jake Wade Wall 

Starring Sean Bean, Sophia Bush, Zachary Knighton, Neal McDonough, 

Release Date January 19th, 2007 

Published January 19th, 2007 

Just referring to a film as a remake causes the eyes to  roll up. Especially horror remakes. The remake of 1986's The Hitcher I'm sure made many an eye roll as mine did. Seeing the name of Michael Bay as producer gives little reassurance. Bay was responsible for both of the awful Texas Chainsaw Massacre reimaginings as well as the forgettable Amityville Horror remake in 2005. By some miracle however, this remake of The Hitcher works. Director Dave Meyers delivers a tightly focused edge of your seat, horror thriller that features a star making performance from Sophia Bush.

On a trip to spring break Grace (Sophia Bush) and her boyfriend Jim (Jim Knighton) pass a man on a rainy stretch of New Mexico highway. He was standing almost in the middle of the road and was nearly hit but did not move. They chose to leave him there but unfortunately, the hitcher, John Ryder (Sean Bean) caught up with them at a gas station down the road.

Feeling guilty, Jim offers John Ryder a ride to a hotel just down the road. Thus begins a tale of terror that the young couple could never have imagined. Ryder is a psychopath who has killed up and down the highways of America. Grace and Jim are lucky to escape him the first time. However, like a classic horror movie villain, John Ryder is not easy to get rid of.

The Hitcher is a remake of a 1986 horror flick that starred then teen sensation C. Thomas Howell as a good samaritan and Rutger Hauer as his menacing passenger. Hauer's hitcher seemed untouchable as one of the genre's great villains. In the remake, the role falls to character actor and Lord of the Rings star Sean Bean. As John Ryder Bean definitely embodies menacing determination but he's no match for Hauer's Walken-esque killer.

Sophia Bush and John Knighton; on the other hand; more than surpass Howell's whiny teenager. Whily and brave, their Grace and Jim are surprisingly smart, self aware, characters who make rash but correct decisions. One of the reasons this remake works so well is because Bush and Knighton are allowed intelligence. The decisions they make are decisions anyone would make given such outlandish conditions.

What director Dave Meyers, a music video veteran making his feature debut, does so very well in The Hitcher is establish his own logic and stick to it. The situations in The Hitcher are not unlike most horror movies, the difference is that The Hitcher establishes its own level of reality and remains existing within the rules of that reality. That allows us in the audience to suspend disbelief and get into the nervy, exciting tension of this story.

If I have an issue with The Hitcher it is with the slim, almost non-existent motivation of the title character. John Ryder is simply a killer who would have killed Grace and Jim whether they stopped the first time they saw him or after they finally did decide to help him. His motivation is simple bloodlust which I found unsatisfying. The Hitcher seems like it could make this killer more complicated and interesting. As it is, he is menacing but thin.

Sophia Bush is best known for the teen drama One Tree Hill on the CW network; but she is soon to be a very big star. The sexy star of The Hitcher is said to be the lead candidate to take over the coveted role of Wonder Woman when that film series starts up. Based on her tough minded work in The Hitcher, they could not make a better choice. Bush is sexy and vulnerable with a strong backbone and determination. Her work near the end of The Hitcher evokes a touch of Jamie Lee Curtis and a dash of Sigourney Weaver.

The Hitcher gets extra points for featuring actor Neal McDonough in a supporting role. McDonough is one of the more underappreciated character actors in the business. He broke out in the short lived series Boomtown on NBC and from there has been stellar in small roles in Flags of Our Fathers and Minority Report. As a tough as nails sheriff in The Hitcher, McDonough is the perfect measure of small town hard ass and pragmatism. He doesn't believe the horror being unleashed but he is one of the few with the toughness to deal with it.

Director Dave Meyers got his start in music videos but unlike most video directors who make the move to features, Meyers is not tied to that video style of quick edits, bright colors and shaky cameras. Meyers' direction of The Hitcher is smart and stylish in the classic thriller fashion. Using tight close ups, Meyers closes the frame around his actors and creates tension with his camera.

Best of all, he makes sparing use of the typical horror movie jump scene, that scene where things pop up out of nowhere as the music spikes. It's the cheapest kind of scare and Meyers is smart to avoid it, for the most part.

Director Dave Meyers shows terrific chops in turning a horror retread into a surprisingly suspenseful horror experience. The Hitcher should have been just another January programmer; but because of Meyers and the tough sexy performance of rising star Sophia Bush, The Hitcher is a stunner of edge of your seat excitement. Not a perfect horror film; but damn sure an entertaining one.

Movie Review North Country

North Country (2005) 

Directed by Niki Caro 

Written by Michael Seitzman

Starring Charlize Theron, Woody Harrelson, Frances McDormand, Sean Bean, Richard Jenkins

Release Date October 21st, 2005 

Published October 19th, 2005 

Director Niki Caro made a huge splash with her debut film Whale Rider. That sweet, smart coming of age flick not only brought an Oscar nomination to the amazing young actress Keisha Castle Hughes, it also established Caro as a director who could write her own ticket for whatever project she wanted to make. Her choice was to work with another Oscar nominated actress, Charlize Theron, on what is, by virtue of both of their involvement, a serious prestige picture about a difficult and dramatic subject, the very first sexual harrassment class action suit in US history.

With the weight of expectations on North Country Niki Caro had a lot to live up to. That the film nearly meets those lofty expectations is a sign of her talent and the strength of the story she wished to tell.

Charlize Theron stars in North Country as Josie Aimes, a single mother returning to her tiny hometown in Minnesota after escaping her abusive husband. To say that her homecoming is not exactly welcome is a slight understatement. Though Josie's parents, Hank (Richard Jenkins) and Alice (Sissy Spacek), love her deeply, her life choices up until now have been a grave disappointment. Pregnant at sixteen, Josie claimed to not know who the child's father was. Running away with the baby soon after, Josie found herself in a series of bad relationships, and pregnant again.

Now back home and fighting with her father over having left her marriage (despite the husband's abuse, her father cannot abide a divorce and even wonders if she brought the abuse on herself) Josie needs a job and a new place to live. An old friend, Glory, played by the wonderful Frances McDormand, puts Josie on to a job working in the mine that is the town's only source of stable employment. Unfortunately it's also where Josie's father works, yet another source of father-daughter tension.

If her father was the greatest of the resistance Josie faced working in the mines she would be lucky. Sadly, the male workers of the mine have made quite clear ever since women have been allowed to work there that they are not welcome. The sexual, emotional and occasionally physical intimidation of women is an everyday reality for Glory who has weathered it well enough to become a union leader. For Josie, however, the abuse is shocking and terrifying and likely compounded by some very dark secrets from her past.

Eventually all of the abuse and frustrating put-offs from management force Josie to take a bold step. With the help of a local lawyer, Bill White (Woody Harrelson), Josie aims to sue the mine and stop the abuse and if at all possible make the mine a safe place for the women who work there after her.

North Country is an exceptionally well-told story both in terms of scripting and filmmaking. Director Niki Caro showed her adeptness for compelling visual storytelling in Whale Rider and continues to mature in North Country. With Cinematographer Gustavo Santaolalla, Caro washes out the scenery to capture the often grim and gritty feel of the Minnesota winter. The visuals are so strong that the bitter cold of the north country chills the theater.

The script by Michael Seitzman, based on the book Class Action by Clara Bingham, creates a fictional character in Josie Aimes-- a composite of a number of different woman, including Lois Jenson, who was the first and most heroic plaintiff in this historic case. Especially compelling is the backstory that Seitzman and Niki Caro craft for Josie and the way that backstory informs the rest of the movie. Her experiences in the past are something that many women can sadly relate to, though to detail those experiences would reveal far too much I think.

The backstory is weaved into the movie's main story in a way that builds to an emotional flourish that lifts the film's otherwise weak courtroom scenes. If there is a flaw in North Country it is the by-the-numbers battle in the courtroom. Caro does as much as she can visually-- the court scenes are brightly lit but no less cold than the outdoor scenes-- but the scenes never rise above typical courtroom cliches. My opinion of this aspect of the film may be colored slightly by my opinion of the film's ending, which takes place in the courtroom and is a major letdown.

Of course Josie would not be the extraordinary character she is without the exemplary performance of Charlize Theron. At the head of an amazing cast that includes Oscar winners Sissy Spacek and Frances McDormand, as well as Woody Harrelson, Richard Jenkins and Sean Bean, Theron never let's you forget this is her movie. In North Country Charlize Theron essays a tough but vulnerable performance with depth and meaning. It's a performance worthy of such weighty subject matter as the very first and most difficult battle in the fight against sexual harassment.

The improvement of Charlize Theron as an actress in just the last three years is remarkable. Just four years ago seeing the name Charlize Theron on a movie poster was a stomach turning moment. Her shrill, unlikable, over-the-top performances in The Astronauts Wife, Devils Advocate and Sweet November are now a very distant memory. Monster changed everything and now North Country affirms that Charlize Theron is a true actress and a star, not just another pretty face.

North Country is the kind of heart rending cathartic drama people go to the movies to experience. A film that earns all of its emotional involvement and audience participation in the experience. North Country is also the rare modern movie that combines that emotional journey with a visual one that is its equal. Niki Caro and her team evoke not only the freezing cold of the north but the feel of a town caught in a time warp. The men are Neanderthals, the women are repressed and longing, and the whole thing is disturbing for people who lived through similar circumstances and people, like myself, who cannot fully relate to the struggles women have faced in the workplace.

North Country is an education, a history lesson about how far woman have come in establishing themselves in the workplace. It's a lesson that needs to be taught and retaught because as the old adage goes; those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. Our current laws on sexual harassment may at times seem ridiculous or overblown but they stem from a place of necessity because the type of abuse demonstrated in North Country should never be allowed to take place.

For Oscar watchers like myself North Country is a must see. Niki Caro's direction, Michael Seitzman's script, Gustavo Santaolalla's photography and the supporting performances of Frances McDormand and Richard Jenkins are all worthy of nominations. However, it is the performance of Charlize Theron that will have Oscar fans buzzing all the way to the big night. Theron has a very good chance of becoming the seventh actress in academy history to win two lead actress Oscars.

Had the ending of North Country been a little stronger I think a best picture nomination would be assured for North Country. Still, despite my minor misgivings, this is one terrific drama. A moving crowd pleaser with an important message and filled to overflowing with terrific performances. North Country is a must see for the new season.

Movie Review Lord of the Rings The Two Towers

Lord of the Rings The Two Towers 

Directed by Peter Jackson 

Written by Fran Walsh, Phillipa Boyens, Peter Jackson

Starring Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom, Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler, Ian McKellan, Sean Bean, Cate Blanchett

Release Date December 18th, 2002 

Published December 17th, 2002 

With all the hype about the second film in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, is it possible for this film not to be a little disappointing? The first film, The Fellowship of the Ring, overcame the hype to be an impressive artistic achievement. However, the impressive debut only increases the pressure on the follow-up films. So the success of Fellowship raises the bar to nearly unreachable heights for The Two Towers. That this second film nearly meets the hype is an achievement in and of itself.

We rejoin the J.R.R. Tolkien tale (as adapted by Peter Jackson and writer Frances Walsh) to find our heroic Hobbits Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) lost in the hills on the way to Mordor. Hot on their huge Hobbit heels is Gollum, the former owner of the ring Frodo is charged with destroying in the fires of Mount Doom. As Frodo and Sam lay sleeping, Gollum attacks and is quickly subdued. 

Needing a guide to Mordor, the Hobbits draft Gollum and continue their quest. Meanwhile, the remaining members of the Fellowship, Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Gimli (Jonathan Rhys Davies), are searching for their friends Merry and Pippin who have been kidnapped by the Uruk Hai. Under the control of the evil Lord Saruman, the Uruk Hai are pillaging the countryside of the Kingdom of Rohan.

Rohan's King Theoden has, unbeknownst to the members of his family, been corrupted by Saruman leaving no one to stop the Uruk Hai. An army led by Theoden's nephew finally does rise up and stop the Uruk Hai, slaughtering a lot of them and momentarily leaving the fate of Merry and Pippin up in the air.

As it turns out, Merry and Pippin are fine, having escaped into the forest and into the arms of a walking, talking tree named Treebeard, who leads them to an amazing discovery. As Aragorn and company continue their search, they discover what Merry and Pippin had just previously discovered, that Wizard Gandalf the Gray, who was thought to be dead, is alive and after defeating the Balrog, and is now Gandalf the White. This evidently means he is more powerful than before.

Using his new power, Gandalf is able to free king Theoden from the control of Saruman. Even after being freed from Saruman, Theoden is unwilling to go to war and instead flees his kingdom for the seeming safety of the cavern castle in Helms Deep. All of this is leading to the film's centerpiece, the grandiose Battle of Helm's Deep, where Saruman's massive ten-thousand-man army of Uruk Hai fights against the several hundred residents of Rohan who aren't women or children. The kingdom's army, having left earlier in the film, are being retrieved by Gandalf, but will not make it until well into the battle.

The battle of Helms Deep is indeed a spectacle, visually awesome and seamlessly integrated. Peter Jackson's special effects are an amazing achievement; he actually manages to make all of this look plausibly real. Of course, the film's greatest technical achievement is the character of Gollum. Inhabited in part by actor Andy Serkis (but mostly CGI), Gollum is a lively and imaginative creation. Gollum manages to make an impression without being overbearing or obnoxious like his CGI brother Jar Jar Binks. Gollum is a technical masterpiece, very likely to earn the special effects team an Oscar.

As visually exciting as The Two Towers is, it lacks in many ways. The middle of the film drags to the point of being dull and when the action slows down, the clunky dialogue and earnest close-ups slam the film to a halt. The character development is lost in the waves of action and effects scenes. We know who to cheer for and why but the audience's emotional investment in the characters is limited.

Wood continues to be an unappealing actor. His Frodo is all empty gaze and pained expression. Wood is an actor with talent but limited charisma and paired with the equally dull Sean Astin, the film's most important subplot is saved only by Gollum. Viggo Mortensen, on the other hand, is very charismatic and commanding, and Ian McKellan's Gandalf, in limited screen time, delivers the most memorable moments of the film.

The action and effects of The Two Towers are overwhelming, rolling over the audience in waves. Unfortunately when the action slows down, the film drags and the lack of character development becomes more obvious.

Movie Review: Troy

Troy (2004) 

Directed by Wolfgang Peterson

Written by David Benioff

Starring Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom, Diane Kruger, Brian Cox, Sean Bean, Peter O'Toole

Release Date May 14th, 2004

Published May 13th, 2004 

In this day and age, when you say Homer everyone thinks Simpson. It wasn't always that way. Years ago, colleges turned out erudite intellectuals who quoted the great poet Homer from "The Iliad" or "The Odyssey.” Maybe those people still exist but today more people can quote Homer Simpson than Homer the poet and the new Wolfgang Peterson epic Troy is not likely to change that. This bombastic, outsized blockbuster has the appeal of Brad Pitt and the scope of an age old epic but it lacks the soul of the poet who's work it attempts to revive.

Brad Pitt stars as Achilles, the greatest warrior in history. Though Achilles claims to have no allegiances, he fights for the money of King Agamemnon (Brian Cox). With Achilles’ sword, Agamemnon has conquered several kingdoms and his reach dominates the Greek kingdoms surrounding the Aegean Sea. Save for that of King Priam of Sparta (Peter O'Toole).

It seems that Sparta is unattainable even for someone as powerful as Agamemnon. Even the great king's brother Menelaus (Brendon Gleeson) has acceded that Sparta can't be taken, even going so far as to broker peace with King Priam's sons Hector (Eric Bana) and Paris (Orlando Bloom). The peace accord however is short lived when Paris takes a liking to Menelaus' wife Helen (Diane Kruger) and spirits her away to Sparta.

This development finally gives Agamemnon all the reason he needed to sack the last kingdom that stands in the way of his dominance. However, to take Sparta, a grand feat given Sparta's legendary impregnable walls, Agamemnon must once again call on Achilles to lead his armies. Achilles does not want to fight for Agamemnon no matter what the offer but does finally agree after a visit from his good friend Odysseus (Sean Bean) who promises something more valuable than riches, eternal glory.

That is the setup for massive CGI battles and a great deal of melodramatic speechifying. In all of the film’s nearly three-hour length there are pieces of three different full length movies edited together into Troy and only one of them would be any good. That is the story of Achilles who in the person of Brad Pitt is a charismatic and dangerous presence. Pitt's Achilles is powerful but conflicted and that makes him inherently dramatic. A film about Achilles would be terrific.

The story of Helen and Paris also has the potential as a stand-alone story. The story has love, passion and a great deal of drama. Cut up as it is here to make room for two other parallel stories, it loses impact. Helen is the reason that Sparta is about to be overrun in the greatest war of all time, therefore her importance to Paris needs more time to develop. Why would Paris risk his family and in fact an entire kingdom for her? We never really know. As it is in Troy, the love story comes off as the selfish petulance of a childish boy and his desperate crush.

The final story is the most poorly developed and that is the story of Eric Bana's Hector. It's not the fault of Bana who is a strong presence, nearly the equal of Pitt. Nearly. Hector's story is far more dramatic than what we see here. His conflicts with his father King Priam are given short shrift and Hector's only character traits are heroism. Hector is hardly ever conflicted, he has no great story arc. He begins as a hero and continues through the film as a hero beyond reproach.

In adapting Homer's epic poem, screenwriter David Benioff had to make a number of dramatic sacrifices including some I already mentioned and one that may be the most troublesome sacrifice of the film. In The Iliad, the Gods of Mount Olympus gave the conflict it's context, they provided motivation beyond the grandiose, nation chest-bumping that Agamemnon uses as motivation here. The meddling God's protected Achilles and gave his dramatic ending a bigger payoff.

There are two reasons for the excising of the God's from Troy. First, there just wasn't enough time to fit them in. The film is just too long to add any more characters, especially characters as outsized as the Gods. Secondly, and don't underestimate this one because this may be the real reason, the bad memories of Sir Laurence Olivier's screen chewing menace in Clash Of The Titans. Love or hate Clash, there is no denying the cheeseball nature of all of the scenes involving the Gods.

Director Wolfgang Peterson is a technician as a director. As his budgets have grown his love of technological filmmaking has overcome his sense of story and character. I say that as a criticism but I must also state that as a technician he is a terrific director. Technology however is not what is most appealing about a film. As George Lucas has shown, you can have all of the technology in the world and still not make a movie that engages. Dazzle the eye all day but if you can't reach the heart or mind, you have no movie. Brad Pitt engages both with his tremendous performance but little else in Troy rises to his level. 

Movie Review The Island

The Island (2005) 

Directed by Michael Bay 

Written by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Caspian Tredwell-Owen 

Starring Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Djimon Hounsou, Sean Bean, Steve Buscemi 

Release Date July 22nd, 2005 

Published July 21st, 2005 

If you cannot appreciate the exquisite irony of director Michael Bay remaking a film, Parts: The Clonus Horror, that was a feature attraction on the cult TV classic "Mystery Science Theater 3000", then clearly we are not on the same page. Here you have the single most hackneyed director of all big budget directors taking on material that is already bad with the chance to actually make it worse. That is just beautiful.

(Note: According to recent litigation, Michael Bay and Dreamworks are fighting a copyright lawsuit from the Director of Parts: The Clonus Horror)

My enjoyment however is short lived. Because, though I still despise the work of Mr. Bay, I cannot hate his new film The Island, a film that inspires admiration for being the rare remake of a bad film into a moderately watchable film. There is something praiseworthy about not remaking a good film and instead making a bad film better. That doesn't mean The Island is a great film but it is at least much better than I had expected.

Ewan McGregor stars in The Island as Lincoln Six Echo, one of only thousands of survivors of some sort of plague that has contaminated the earth. Forced to live in an underground facility, Lincoln and his fellow white-jump suited neighbors have their every whim catered to and every action monitored. After surviving the plague, with the help of Dr. Merrick (Sean Bean), each of the survivors had to relearn how to read, write and do generally anything that may have come easily to them before.

This is not exactly the most exciting way to live. In between being re-educated, Lincoln cannot eat what he wants, a computer monitors his every action, and he cannot interact with the opposite sex for fear of.... well we aren't sure. It is just forbidden by the powers that be that the survivors cannot be involved with one another. This is hard on poor Lincoln whose best friend is the beautiful Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johannsson) who seems to share Lincoln's forbidden attraction.

The only real excitement in the facility is a nightly lottery where one person is selected to leave for the final unspoiled place in the world, The Island. It's a dreamlike paradise in place to keep people doing their jobs and not rocking the boat out of fear they will never be allowed into paradise. Lincoln, however, seems unconcerned about the island.  That is not to say he is not interested in the outside world, but he prefers the earthy meanderings of one of the facilities utility workers, McCord (played by Steve Buscemi), the rare person with a good memory of the world before the plague

It is while visiting McCord that Lincoln stumbles upon a frightening secret:  there is no island and his life and the lives of everyone he knows are not at all what they believe. The film's commercials give away what should have been a surprise twist.  There was no plague.  Lincoln, Jordan, and everyone they know, aside from Dr. Merrick and his staff, are clones. Lincoln and everyone he knows have been created as spare parts for rich people just in case they find themselves needing a kidney or liver or other body part. A trip to the Island is really a trip to execution after whatever necessary body parts are harvested.

The Island has a very intriguing sci-fi setup that establishes a classic sci-fi story in just the first third of the film. It's unfortunate that Bay abandons this direction after only 40 minutes or so. From there the film reverts to the classic Michael Bay formula: run, scream, boom! Lincoln is able to rescue Jordan right before she is to be shipped to the island and once they escape it's all explosions and chase scenes as Dr. Merrick hires ex-military mercenaries lead by Djimon Hounsou to track them down and kill them before they can reveal the secrets of the facility.

What I cannot deny is that much of The Island is very entertaining even after its most interesting scenes are long forgotten. Bay's explosions and chases are bigger and louder than ever. Stylistically, Mr. Bay has never evolved from his days directing commercials and music videos, however he has become more professional.  His work is tighter and better executed than it ever has been before. Now if he could only evolve past the need to stuff his film with product placement, maybe more of his films would be as watchable as The Island.

Mr. Bay's work on The Island is greatly aided by a story that is better than any Bay has ever attempted to tell. The sci-fi premise is intriguing and though it is too quickly abandoned, the two stars, Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johannsson deliver winning performances that carry the audience through Bay's usual special effects bonanzas. There has been a little buzz about the film having a message involving cloning but this is still a Michael Bay movie and messages or morals are really not welcome.

Working with Bay for the first time on The Island is Cinematographer Mauro Fiore and the teaming is a strong one. Deep cold blues and darkness fill the indoor scenes but it is when the characters leave the sci-fi prison that Mr. Fiore really shines.  Mr. Fiore's sun baked visuals mimic the feeling of the protagonists who have never seen the sun before.  At first it is bright, almost blinding, and then slightly burned but focused.  

Fiore was perfectly prepared to work with Bay after working twice with another music video veteran Antoine Fuqua, first on Training Day and then on Tears of the Sun. Both of those films featured a similar slightly washed out or burned look that played well against the stories being told. As strong as Mr. Fiore's work is Bay's visual style still tends toward the facile perfection of music videos, though that likely owes more to his quick-cut editing style and lemming-like loyalty to slow motion under and up camera moves.

The Island is not a great film but by the standards set by Michael Bay's previous films, it is a regular magnum opus.  I still don't hold a great deal of optimism for Bay's future career, so I might be inclined to even say this is his Citizen Kane.  About as close as he'll get at least.  By realistic standards, The Island is an entertaining but flawed sci-fi action piece with two terrific stars who make the film better by the force of their charisma and star power. For Mr. Bay, hopefully it's a sign that his next movie, an adaptation of the kids cartoon "Transformers", might not completely suck.