Movie Review: Chaos Theory

Chaos Theory (2008) 

Directed by Marcos Siega 

Written by Daniel Taplitz, Kathy Gori

Starring Ryan Reynolds, Stuart Townsend, Emily Mortimer, Sarah Chalke

Release Date April 11th, 2008 

Published October 15th, 2008

Ryan Reynolds carries himself as a man who knows he is a star. Reynolds has Confidence just short of arrogance and a real sense of self onscreen, Reynolds, at times, evinces the earnest friendly quality of Tom Hanks and crosses it with a Johnny Depp-like aversion toward anything to conventional. Don't be mistaken, Reynolds makes conventional movies but like Depp he plays his part in a way that gives convention a noticeable tweak. For his latest movie, the conventional romantic dramedy Chaos Theory Reynolds plays his characters tics and fears as physical expressions and gives a performance of grave irritation.

In Chaos Theory Ryan Reynolds stars as Frank Allen, efficiency expert. Frank gives seminars on time management and lives his life with swiss watch precision. That Frank managed to find a woman willing to put up with his maddening lists and schedules is something of an only in the movies miracle. Emily Mortimer is Susan, a wife of infinite patience. The two were friends for years before she decided of the group of male friends she had amassed, Frank was the one she could see herself with permanantly. That was seven years ago, they have a lovely young daughter now and a life of ease and elegance.

Things change drastically and by chance when a finally snapping Susan decides to push the clock ahead 10 minutes. The result is Frank missing his ferry to the city and having to sheepishly reschedule a talk on time management. If you think being late to work is tough, try being a time management guru and show up late.

Nevertheless, Frank powers through the presentation and meets his pal Buddy (Stuart Townsend) in the lobby. They hit the bar and while Buddy chases skirts Frank drinks a little too much, drowning his inefficient sorrows, and ends up back in his hotel room with Paula (Sarah Chalke, Scrubs) trying to keep from cheating on Susan.

Making a run for it, Frank is involved in a car accident with a pregnant woman. He rushes her to the hospital and a couple of misplaced signatures have him mistaken as the baby daddy. When the pregnant girl disappears the next day, leaving the baby behind, a befuddled Susan receives a call to 'return to the hospital and her baby'. Frank has some explaining to do.

The theory of Chaos Theory is that Frank being late, missing his ferry, sets off a series of chaotic events that leave his marriage in trouble. Had Frank been on schedule perhaps, if he had made it to his ferry and given his talk in time, things could have been different. Now, however, because he was later, he is forced to confront the random, uncontrollable forces of fate.,

Director Marcos Siega and writer Daniel Taplitz start from an interesting place but as the chaos sets in on Frank's life so does it set in on a script that is too uncertain of itself. Is it comedy? Is it drama? The balance is even between the two but without a true perspective a vacuum of ideas develops and Chaos Theory becomes a dramatic/comedic void.

The idea of chaos and order fate and chance, are ideas that many filmmakers have explored with relative success. Siega and Taplitz unfortunately bring no depth or substance to the discussion. Chaos theory, chance, fate, all of these are merely building blocks to a mediocre comedy drama with no real driving dramatic force.

Movie Review: Trapped

Trapped (2002)

Directed by Luis Mandoki 

Written by Greg Iles

Starring Charlize Theron, Stuart Townsend, Kevin Bacon, Courtney Love, Dakota Fanning 

Release Date September 20th, 2002 

Published September 20th, 2002 

One would hope that the recent spate of child kidnappings would preclude Hollywood hacks from using that situation as a screenwriting trick. The child in danger plot is the cheapest of the cheap manipulative tricks screenwriters use when they are creatively bankrupt. We, however should not be surprised that Hollywood doesn't care. These hacks have so little ingenuity that the child in danger is the only tool in their box. The god-awful action film, Ballistic: Ecks Vs Sever employs this cliche, and the film Trapped does Ballistic: Ecks Vs Sever one better by basing the entire film on the hackneyed plot device.

Charlize Theron and Stuart Townsend star as a loving husband and wife with a cute as a button daughter. When Townsend leaves on a business trip, a sleazy con artist played by Kevin Bacon seizes the opportunity to kidnap Townsend's daughter and hold his wife hostage. As this is happening, Townsend himself is taken hostage by Bacon's partner, played by Courtney Love. Pruitt Taylor Vince rounds out the cast as the kidnapper with a soft spot for the kid and a softer head who is easily manipulated by the plot. Essentially the daughter will be held for 24 hours, after which ransom will be paid and the child will be returned to the parents.

Bacon is effectively creepy, while Love does a variation of her real life persona, as a drugged out nympho. Townsend and Theron are wooden and surprisingly dull. (Well, at least Townsend was surprisingly dull.) Earlier this year, Townsend starred in Queen Of The Damned, and though that film was very bad, Townsend had some effectively scary moments that, in a better film, could have been star-making moments. In Trapped, Townsend is woefully miscast as a rich yuppie doctor who still dresses as if he were an 18-year old skater with a gold card.

Trapped is undone by its premise and screenwriter Greg Iles, who also wrote the book on which the film is based. Iles and director Luis Mandoki apparently don't read the newspaper, though it doesn't take a genius to intuit how many people might be sensitive to the kidnapping of a child being used as a plot. Films that put children in danger are some of the lowest forms of film--right up there with white actors in blackface and Freddie Prinze Jr.

Trapped is the bastard stepchild of numerous child in danger films, and arguably the worst of the bunch.

Movie Review Queen of the Damned

Queen of the Damned (2002) 

Directed by Michael Rymer 

Written by Scott Abbott, Michael Petroni 

Starring Aaliyah Stuart Townsend, Marguerite Moreau, Paul McGann, Vincent Perez

Release Date February 22nd, 2002 

Published February 21st, 2002 

As I get further away from having seen Queen of the Damned I get more and more annoyed as I realize what a missed opportunity this film is. After having seen this film I find that it could have been made without the Queen of the Damned character and been a far better film. It would probably need a new title. but nevertheless.

Stuart Townsend takes over the role so well inhabited by Tom Cruise in Interview with the Vampire, the role of the vampire Lestat. After sleeping for a number of years, Lestat begins to sense a change in the world that may allow him to walk among the masses, in the open, as a vampire. His opportunity is in the entertainment biz as a Goth rock star.

Lestat finds a band living in his old New Orleans castle but rather than kill them he uses them as his backup band and becomes a huge rock star. Lestat wants everyone to know that he is a vampire, whether anyone believes him or not is up to them. His celebrity doesn't sit well with his vampire brethren who follow a strict code of secrecy. There is more trouble for Lestat because his music has caused the resurrection of Akasha, the queen of the damned (Aaliyah).

Akasha wants world domination and for Lestat to be her King. Lestat, never one for being a kept man, soon chafes under Akasha's attention and conflict arises. All of this is paralleled by the story of a vampire historian named Jessie (Marguerite Moreau) who is obsessed with becoming a vampire and rejoining her family. She sees Lestat as someone who would be willing to help her.

The film would like us to follow Lestat as the wounded antihero, but how could anyone with a conscience identify with Lestat? It's hardly possible but Stuart Townsend's performance is nearly seductive enough to make the audience put aside their morals and follow him.

As for Aaliyah, she suffers from playing a character that is badly drawn and comes off as unnecessary as compared to the missed opportunity in the film. She was saddled with a bad script and because she died just as the film was in post production her brother was called in to dub her voice which may explain the over the top vocalizing.

There is an opportunity here to make a fantastic movie, but not like what ended up on the screen. For one, drop the Queen. The far more interesting story is Lestat the rock star. Think about it, a vampire rock star. Is it just a gimmick? Fans don't know that he really is a vampire. His manager has to cover up all the girls he kills. And for breaking the code of secrecy he's being hunted by other vampires. Much like 2001's Shadow Of the Vampire, where Willem Dafoe plays a vampire playing a vampire in a movie, while John Malkovich as the director tries to cover it up to finish the movie.

Lestat could have done a more modern satire of the same story. The opportunity for satire of the record industry, fandom and celebrity is endless. Unfortunately we will never see that movie and what we're left with in The Queen Of The Damned is a shallow, listless waste of film.

Movie Review The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) 

Directed by Stephen Norrington 

Written by James Dale Robinson 

Starring Sean Connery, Shane West, Stuart Townsend, Peta Wilson 

Release Date July 11th, 2003 

Published July 10th, 2003 

In 1986, Alan Moore blew the doors off of the comics code of the 1950's with his seminal work,  Watchmen. Until that comic was released, the industry was mired in a rut of safe, kid-friendly superheroes that lacked depth and character. The superheroes of Watchmen were not your average superheroes. These characters were morally ambivalent and often indulged in the types of activities that would turn Superman's stomach. Moore’s follow-up book about Jack The Ripper, From Hell, was yet another seedy, enveloping-pushing work of art, and was turned into a sensational film in 2001. Then, in 2003, someone tried to bring Moore back to the big screen and the results were not great. 

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen as a comic was a radical rethink of DC's Justice League series that replaced traditional superheroes with characters from 19th century literature. Using the novels as back story, Moore took characters such as H. Rider Haggard's Alan Quartermain and Bram Stoker's Mina Harker and revised them as superheroes fighting on behalf of the British crown. But the writer of Watchmen could not be satisfied with a straight superhero adventure story; each character was now being shot through Moore's twisted view of heroes. 

In Moore's world Quartermain is an old man with diminished skills. Mina Harker survived Dracula and is now a vampire. (Other characters, like H.G Welles's Invisible Man and Captain Nemo were criminals. The Invisible Man was a rapist.) Nevertheless, they fought evil in an alternate universe. Knowing this, I shouldn't be surprised that the film version of The League is a tame, PG-13 version of the comic, stripped of its lasciviousness and any shred of anything interesting.

Directed by Blade's Stephen Norrington, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen stars Sean Connery as Quartermain, an adventurer living in Africa but only as a legend; no longer the Quartermain of the legendary stories. When Quartermain is approached by an emissary of the British government to help fend off a potential world war, his immediate response is a flat no. That is, until his friends in Africa are attacked, which brings the old lion out of retirement. Quartermain's assignment is to lead a reformation of a legendary crime fighting team, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. 

With the help of Harker (Peta Wilson); Rodney Skinner--The Invisible Man (Tony Curran); and Captain Nemo--high seas Indian pirate and no relation to the clownfish (Nahseeruddin Shah); Quartermain will help the countries of Europe avoid a world war. However, a task this big calls for a bigger team so Quartermain calls on an old acquaintance named Dorian Gray (Stuart Townsend), whose unique ability is not pronounced until gunmen attack his home and he survives multiple gunshot wounds. Gray can't be killed (an ability writer Oscar Wilde hadn't envisioned for his egocentric character). During the gun battle, another team member comes out of the woodwork, an American secret service agent named Tom Sawyer (Shane West).

One more team member is needed, leading the team to Paris where legendary scientist Dr. Henry Jekyll (Jason Flemyng) has been banished because he can't control his monstrous alter ego, Mr. Hyde. With Jekyll and Hyde onboard, it's time to launch into the meat of the film. The character introductions are the best part of the film, but they take awhile. Using Nemo's massive watercraft, the Nautilus, the League heads to Venice, Italy to prevent the bad guy, known as the Phantom, from attacking a conference meant to prevent world war.

From here, the film slips into dull gun battles, loud explosions, and scenes where special effects stand in for dialogue and character development. Director Stephen Norrington has an eye for staging, his background is in effects, so that isn't surprising; however, unlike in his best film, 1998's Blade, he doesn't have a story as compelling as his sets. The film's plot? Well, let's just say I haven't seen this many plot holes since the President's last State of the Union speech. 

The problem with this film is that the edge that made people want to turn The League into a movie is excised to make the film marketable to teenagers. This compromise renders the story un-filmable, unless you do it like every other superhero movie ever made, which is exactly what Norrington does. Aside from its literary conceit, The League brings nothing new to the genre, except maybe a lack of tights. This is exactly the story Moore was reacting to when he wrote Watchmen, which has thus far avoided the Hollywood treatment (and if this is how they are going to do it I hope it remains elusive.)

Just how much does The League movie pander to marketing? The team now has an American member just to improve the box office chances of the movie. Tom Sawyer is added to the cast though he was not in Moore's comic. Sawyer is here because, again, marketers thought the film needed an American character to market to American audiences. Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray is also a new addition though not because anyone saw his potential as a character in this universe. Rather, Gray was added as a replacement  character in place of a Moore character who pushed the boundaries of copyright infringement, a British secret service character named Campion Bond.

If you can't do the source material correctly, just don't do it at all. The graphic novels of The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, I am told,  are spectacularly moody and dark stories told in fascinating detail and rendered artfully on the page. The film is an anathema to its source. There are still rumors of a Watchmen movie out there and I guarantee they will screw it up.