Movie Review Opening Night

Opening Night (2017) 

Directed by Isaac Rentz

Written by Gerry De Leon, Greg Lisi 

Starring Topher Grace, Paul Scheer, Alona Tal, Anne Heche, Taye Diggs

Release Date June 2nd, 2017 

Opening Night has the kind of scrappy charm that you want out of a musical. It’s shaggy and flawed but it’s also fun-loving and freewheeling. The story of a Broadway stage manager struggling with personal demons from his own seemingly failed Broadway career, the movie may not have the polish of a Hollywood production but it makes up for it with moxie and the can-do spirit of an underdog production with nothing to lose.

Topher Grace (That 70’s Show) stars as Nick, the stage manager for a Broadway production called “One Hit Wonderland.” The show within the movie stars N’Sync’s J.C Chazez, sending up himself with gusto and a hint of poignancy, playing a one hit wonder singer taking a journey that is part A Christmas Carol and part It’s a Wonderful Life. The theme of the musical is the theme of the movie: can someone bounce back after early success becomes a quick failure?

Relative newcomer Alona Tal shines as Nick’s recent ex-girlfriend and chorus girl Chloe who winds up thrust into the lead role opposite Chasez when the show’s lead actress Brooke (Anne Heche) suffers a blow to the head and is accidentally dosed with Ecstacy in one of a couple plots that stumble their way on stage and quickly off without the best possible resolution. I was hoping Heche would be given something more to play here, she hints at depths of sadness in the character, but sadly she ends up a bit of a plot device before a credits scene sendoff that, at the very least, has a funny punchline courtesy of scene-stealing comic Paul Scheer.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media 

Movie Review: Dylan Dog Dead of Night

Dylan Dog Dead of Night (2011) 

Directed by Kevin Munroe 

Written by Thomas Dean Donnelly, Joshua Oppenheimer

Starring Brandon Routh, Sam Huntington, Anita Briem, Peter Stormare, Taye Diggs 

Release Date April 29th, 2011

Published April 30th, 2011

Detective Dylan Dog (Brandon Routh) has a dark and disturbing past. Yet, as we listen to his bemused voiceover narration, ala classic detective movies of the 40's and 50's, he's remarkably well adjusted. Dylan used to be a paranormal investigator and more importantly, the one human being standing between humans and the undead.

Vampires, Werewolves and Zombies

In the universe of Dylan Dog, settled perfectly in the haunted streets of New Orleans, vampires, zombies and werewolves are real and living mostly peacefully among humans. When one of the undead got out of line it was Dylan who stepped in to investigate and correct matters. However, when things got personal and someone Dylan cared about was murdered he walked away.

Now, Dylan is being called back to action after the murder of a smuggler who has brought to New Orleans a deadly device that could mean the end of human and undead kind. With his trusty sidekick Marcus (Sam Huntington), a zombie after being attacked early on by one of the film's big bad guys, Dylan must re-enter his former life and stop a possible apocalypse.

Noir Mystery meets Horror movie monsters

The premise of "Dylan Dog," which is based on a wildly popular (in Europe) Italian comic book by Tiziano Sclavi, is a tribute to classic noir murder mysteries. Brandon Routh doesn't exactly embody hard boiled detective ala Humphrey Bogart but Routh's off-hand voiceover and quirky approach to the role give the film flavor if not the most accurate homage to classic noir mystery.

The notion that vampires, werewolves and zombies live among us is not new, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," which gets an almost subliminal shout out in "Dylan Dog," carried a similar premise on television to great success. That "Dylan Dog" came along first, the comic book began in the mid-eighties, matters little, the movie is clearly influenced by Buffy and pales in comparison.

Superman Returns wasn't Brandon Routh's fault

So, the noir homage is weak and the premise isn't new, what's left to like about "Dylan Dog: Dead of Night?" The only thing I can recommend is star Brandon Routh. Unfairly maligned for the failure of "Superman Returns" Routh is a clever and handsome actor with a great sense of humor, a strong instinct for deadpan line delivery and the physical presence to dominate a scene.

My affection for Brandon Routh is limited to liking his performance but not the movie in which it's trapped. The premise about one person standing between the world of the undead and the rest of everyday society is derivative and the homage to noir mystery is weak at best. The direction is at times sloppy, as is the script which attempts to honor the comic book but doesn't have enough detail to make any of the references meaningful to anyone but a very small cult.

Maybe catch "Dylan Dog: Dead of Night" on cable someday, late on a Saturday night when there is absolutely nothing else on worth watching.

Movie Review Slow Burn

Slow Burn (2007) 

Directed by Wayne Beach 

Written by Wayne Beach 

Starring Ray Liotta, LL Cool J, Mekhi Phifer, Taye Diggs, Chiwetel Ejiofor 

Release Date April 13th, 2007

Published April 15th, 2007 

I have long been a believer in the auteur theory. The theory goes that the director is the author of the film and it is the director's vision above all others that makes a great film. This has bred within me a love of the writer-director, that rare breed of filmmaker who controls each of the most important aspects of the storytelling process.

Writer-directors, in my experience, make better films because the vision of the film belongs to them and them alone. But of course, just being a writer director does not make you a great storyteller. Case in point writer-director Wayne Beach the auteur behind the thriller Slow Burn. This convoluted mystery is the perfect example of a case where a director could have used a trained screenwriter to clean up some of the more goof ball aspects of an otherwise well directed movie.

Cole Ford (Ray Liotta) has risen through the ranks of the District Attorney's office at record pace. Not long ago he was a homicide detective taking night classes to become a lawyer. Now as DA he has his eye on the Mayor's office and his rags to riches political story has him profiled by a Vanity Fair reporter, Ty Trippin (Chiwetel Ejiofor).

However, Ford's rise to the top looks to come to a crashing end when his top gang crimes prosecutor, Nora Timmer (Jolene Blalock), murders a man in her home. She claims the man, Isaac (Mekhi Pfifer) was stalking her and had attempted to rape her when she shot him. Her story however, is full of holes, mostly poked by an informant, Luther Pinks (LL Cool J), who knows far more than he should.

Turning from the prosecutor to the informant, Cole finds two different stories of murder emerging. Each of the stories links back to a major drug dealer and some kind of event that will take place at 5 Am, some 5 hours from the moment of the murder.

Written and Directed by Wayne Beach, Slow Burn is a stylishly rendered attempt at modern noir. Unfortunately, the script is far too convoluted and utterly ludicrous to be taken seriously. Beach sets up a story of race and politics that has some potential, if he were Spike Lee. Wayne Beach is no Spike Lee and thus his racial material doesn't get much deeper than one allegedly interracial romance.

The racial aspect of Slow Burn is strange because it is so shallow and yet so intricately woven into the story. Jolene Blalock's Nora character passes for black but may in fact be white. The psychology of why she felt the need to pass for black, or vice versa, should have been worth exploring. However, Beach doesn't have any insight into this character.

It doesn't help that Blalock, though strikingly beautiful, is a cypher. Not believable as a strong black woman or as a woman trying to be black, Blalock's performance is wooden and predictable. Her performance is in fact so weak it is fair to wonder if Beach was forced to skim her character in order to avoid her performance. That would explain the lack of depth and how the story is hamstrung by lack of insight.

Of course, it could just be that Beach didn't have much beyond his neo-noir pretension to begin with.

You have to respect the commitment of Ray Liotta. He has made a number of pretty bad movies over the years but each performance is committed and even believable. Liotta has no second gear; he goes at each role for boredom and believes in each character he plays no matter how bizarre everything around him may be. As Slow Burn clumsily ambles to its predictable conclusion, Liotta is often affecting and believable. Sadly, the story, and his co-stars are far too inferior for Liotta to rescue.

LL Cool J certainly seems to be having fun playing a character who may as well have been called Red Herring. His character evolves to fit whatever odd shift in logic the story takes as if his character were being rewritten on the spot so he could deliver whatever necessary expository dialogue needed to make sense of this convoluted mystery. At Least he's having fun; just listen to him deliver such goofball lines as "She smelled like potatoes and every man wanted to be the gravy".

LL has a number of lines like that, "She smelled like an orange, ready to be peeled", and he delivers each with a voice that seems just about to burst into laughter.

There is a large kitsch factor on Slow Burn. Both LL Cool J and Jolene Blalock deliver performances that are laughable to the point of turning the film into a campy unintentional comedy. The script is bad enough with its half baked plot strands and predictable ending. Throw in LL Cool J and Jolene Blalock's performances and the kitsch factor nearly makes Slow Burn so bad it's good.

Okay, maybe not so good; but entertaining in ways that I'm sure writer-director Wayne Beach never intended.

Movie Review New Best Friend

New Best Friend (2002) 

Directed by Zoe Clarke-Williams

Written by Victoria Strouse 

Starring Meredith Monroe, Mia Kirschner, Dominique Swain, Taye Diggs 

Release Date April 12th, 2002 

Published May 15th, 2002

Earlier this year I lamented what made a talented actress like Dominique Swain take such ridiculously stupid roles as the ones she took in Tart and Smokers. I'm still trying to understand it as here she is in yet another teen-oriented, softcore porno aimed at dirty old men too embarrassed to go for the all out porn. Swain just keeps making the same terrible choices and it's becoming rather embarrassing. 

In ``New Best Friend'' Swain is relegated to a supporting role in service of former “Dawson's Creek” star Meredith Monroe. Monroe is Hadley Weston, rich-bitch sorority girl who with her posse of coked up college idiots goes about corrupting an A student loner played by Mia Kirschner. But just who is doing the corrupting? Alicia Glazer (Kirschner) takes quickly to her new social status, indulging in the alcohol and cocaine filled nights of meaningless sex and stupidity.

All of this unfolds in flashback as Alicia lies in the hospital near death and the local sheriff Artie Bonner (Taye Diggs) investigates her new friends whom he suspects of foul play. The film’s flashback style and narrative is a nod to Citizen Kane crossed with Legally Blonde and Cruel Intentions, a concoction lifted directly from the seventh circle of hell.

Meredith Monroe was wonderful as the sweet but troubled Andie McPhee on “Dawson's Creek.” In New Best Friend, however, she is completely overmatched attempting to play the Shannon Doherty-like uberbitch. Swain meanwhile, is her usual nymphet self, this time throwing in a lesbian scene to satisfy her dirty old men fan club. Her role requires no acting whatsoever; just remove clothes and kiss whomever, be it man or woman.

What in God's name is Taye Diggs doing in this film!?! Diggs is a good-looking, charismatic guy who could play any number of lead roles, but chooses to star in this trash. Taye, do yourself a favor and fire your agent. Diggs must have owed the director of New Best Friend a massive favor, or more likely he's suffered from some sort of blackmail. It's the only reasonable explanation. 

New Best Friend is disgustingly stupid, utterly vapid trash, just perfect for the soft core B-movie market. No matter how bad this movie is, it will rent big and likely make a pretty good profit. Yet somehow we are still the greatest country in the world. I'm giving the film one star as a nod to Taye Diggs and because I loved Monroe on “Dawson's Creek.”

What? Oh, like you've never watched it.

Movie Review: Basic

Basic (2003)

Directed by John McTiernan 

Written by James Vanderbilt 

Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Connie Nielsen, Taye Diggs, Giovanni Ribisi, Tim Daly 

Release Date March 28th, 2003 

Published March 27th, 2003 

Just over a year ago, director John McTiernan hit a career low point that made The Last Action Hero look like an Oscar winner. The 2002 remake of Rollerball was a painful cinematic experience for the audience and probably the filmmaker as well. McTiernan soldiers on, literally in fact, with his new military thriller Basic. Re-teaming Pulp Fiction partners John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson, McTiernan has improved on his last effort; then again, how could he not?

Travolta, back in military mode for the first time since 1999 trash thriller The General's Daughter, here plays another troubled outsider called into the military fold to investigate a murder. Sergeant Nathan West(Jackson) and a group of six recruits went into the jungle training grounds of Panama and only two people came back. Both men, Lieutenant Kendell(Giovanni Ribisi) and Lieutenant Dunbar (Brian Van Holt) say Sergeant West was killed, but that is where the similarities in their stories end. While Travolta's Tom Hardy--who is paired with a military investigator, Lieutenant Osborne (Connie Nielsen)--interrogates each man, two very different stories evolve as time ticks away before the FBI and military police step in and take the case over.

The camp commander, Colonel Styles (Tim Daly), needs the case cracked before the Feds get there or the camp will be shut down. Of course, his motives come into question, as do the motives of everyone in the film, as the plot begins to spin out of control with flashback on top of flashback. The film's plot is based on so many lucky guesses and well-timed confessions, that by the time it arrives at its final twist, you're too exhausted to care. Whether it was too much editing and settling for shorthand clues that the audience never sees or simply a poorly-constructed plot one is left to wonder.

If you are looking for a Pulp Fiction reunion, there isn't much to get excited about Travolta and Jackson share very little screen time. However, Travolta is well teamed with Nielsen. The two spark with flirty dialogue even while at each other's throat over who is in charge. Travolta is in full-on cool mode, much like his performance in Broken Arrow--all swagger, bravado, and charisma. Jackson, on the other hand, though he is played up as a star, really only has a cameo in the film. He's barely there. In typical Sam Jackson manner, he still manages to make an impression.

Of course, if one is to compare Basic to any of Travolta's past films, the obvious one is The General's Daughter. In both films, Travolta plays a cop on the outskirts of the military called into an investigation that could lead to a scandal. Both are murder investigations with mysterious circumstances and witnesses with conflicting accounts and there is even a soldier with a powerful general for a father who wants things to keep quiet. Thankfully, the general remains off screen. The difference between Basic and The General's Daughter is entertainment value. 

Where Basic tires you with twist after twist, The General's Daughter has the advantage of salacious subject matter and trashy novelizations to titillate the audience and distract from the formula thriller twists. Basic doesn't have that to fall back on and thus, outside of Travolta, it's just no fun. The further I get from the film, the more the cracks in the plot become big gaping holes. Unlike many critics though, I cannot lay all the blame with screenwriter James Vanderbilt because some of these ideas, especially the ending, seem to have been made up as they went along.

Basic is an improvement for John McTiernan over Rollerball. (Then again, repertory theater versions of Rollerball would improve over that film.) McTiernan is in a slump and rumors of a Die Hard sequel are out there. Maybe a return to such familiar ground is what the man needs. That or maybe just a nice long vacation.

Movie Review Malibu's Most Wanted

Malibu's Most Wanted (2003) 

Directed by John Whitesell 

Written by Jamie Kennedy, Nick Swardson 

Starring Jamie Kennedy, Taye Diggs, Anthony Anderson, Blair Underwood, Regina Hall, Bo Derek, Snoop Dogg 

Release Date April 18th, 2003 

Published April 16th, 2003 

I don't want to be mean but for the life of me I can't figure out what Jamie Kennedy has done to earn an over the title credit on a feature film. His career is dotted by a number of direct to video comedies like the dreadful Sol Goode and strange thrillers like Pretty When You Cry opposite Sam Elliott. Huh? He can't still be riding his minuscule success as the film geek in Scream 1 & 2.

It likely stems from the inexplicable success of his TV show, “The Jamie Kennedy Experience.” I use the term success loosely as it's difficult calling any show on the WB network a success. The show which incorporates sketch comedy and warmed over Tom Green street pranks appeals to teenage boys well enough that it makes sense that a marketer might pick up on Kennedy and see a product he can sell. That still doesn't quite explain how Malibu's Most Wanted made it to the big screen but nevertheless here it is.

Kennedy is B-Rad or really just Brad Gluckman, the son of a millionaire candidate for California governor (Ryan O'Neal). Brad fancies himself a gangsta based on his love of the stereotypical culture portrayed in so-called gangsta rap. B-Rad has just returned home to help his dad's campaign by helping to attract black people to the campaign. Brad's ingenious ideas include interrupting a live press conference with a horrible rap and appealing to a conference with female voters with a sign that states "Bill Gluckman is down with the Bitches and the Ho's).

Sensing that Brad is a liability to the campaign, Dad and his campaign advisor (Blair Underwood) conspire to cure Brad of his poseur ways. The idea is to hire a pair of black actors to abduct Brad and teach him what the gangsta lifestyle is really like. As Underwood's character puts it, they will "scare the black out of him.”

The campaign hires Sean (Taye Diggs) and P.J (Anthony Anderson) to play the gangstas. Unfortunately, neither actor knows anything about the hood. In turn, they hire PJ's cousin Shondra (Regina Hall) to help them learn what the hood is like so they can scare Brad.

Everything goes to plan as Sean and P.J kidnap Brad with Shondra as bait and bring him to Shondra's house in what was formerly known as South Central Los Angeles. Sean and P.J play up gangster personas all the while complimenting each other on how authentic their characters are. Diggs and Anderson are the film's main assets and provide the only solid laughs.

The set up works only in short spurts and only in the scenes with Diggs and Anderson who are so good at times they make Kennedy seem like a co-star in his own movie. Indeed a film taken from Sean and PJ's perspective would have been far funnier than what we get in Malibu's Most Wanted. At about the one hour mark of the 80 minute movie, Sean and P.J are shoved into the background in favor of Brad's forced love story with Shondra and another kidnapping, this time by a real gangsta named Tec (Damien Dante Wayans). It is then that Malibu's Most Wanted loses what little humor it generates.

Taye Diggs is one of the smartest actors working today. Sadly, like Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt, his good looks often prevent people from taking his talent seriously. Because of his boy toy role in How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Diggs will forever be typecast in the role of eye candy for drawing women into theaters. This obscures his work which in films as varied as the cheesy horror sendup House On Haunted Hill to the hip hop romance Brown Sugar has shown great wit and an ability to play off of anyone and hold his own. Most recently, Diggs had a terrific guest turn on the TV show “Ed” where he played himself, or rather what Ed thought Taye Diggs would be like if he met him in person.

You could call early 2003 the year of uncomfortable racial humor. There’s been Steve Martin and Queen Latifah in the tepid Bringing Down The House, Chris Rock's caustic political satire Head Of State and now Malibu's Most Wanted. Only Head Of State manages to do something with its racial content with Rock skewing racism from all sides. Bringing Down The House wants to satirize white stereotypes of black culture but lacks the courage to break from a sitcom formula to take on the subject. Malibu's Most Wanted is even less successful because it lacks the insight into Brad's identity to either portray it sympathetically or skewer satirically. Kennedy seems to want it both ways. He wants the audience to sympathize with Brad and also laugh at his over the top antics.

The elements of the sketch comedy character that B-Rad was conceived from don't translate to an 80-minute feature, and without a perspective, either sympathetic or satiric, you’re left with nothing but a confused character and audience. What this film says about Jamie Kennedy as a viable movie star is very little. The marketing campaign may lure people to theaters but the film itself will leave them wondering why they wasted the time to see it.

Movie Review: Chicago

Chicago (2002)

Directed by Rob Marshall 

Written by Bill Condon 

Starring Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta Jones, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah, Taye Diggs

Release Date December 27th, 2002 

Published December 26th, 2002 

The play Chicago dates back to 1924, a non musical play inspired by a pair of real life murder cases in which woman were accused of murdering their lovers. It was adapted for the screen two times, including a version called Roxie Hart starring Ginger Rogers. It wasn't until 1974 that Chicago the play became Chicago the musical. Bob Fosse and partner Fred Ebb took the story and added sensational song and dance, and Fosse's trademark raunchiness, to make a play that while popular, it wasn't initially the massive hit many had expected. 

In 1996 a revival of Fosse's Chicago, the musical was brought back to Broadway, but slightly tweaked. With a little less raunch and a slightly less cynical tone, the all new Chicago the musical was now a smash hit. The revival went on to earn 9 Tony Award nominations and win 7 Tony Awards over. Now, 6 years later, it is the revival version of Chicago that comes to the silver screen and unfortunately, they may have done better with Fosse's version.

Set in 1924, Chicago centers on a pair of scandalous murders that splash across the front pages of Chicago's trashy newspapers. One case is that of a chorus girl named Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta Jones), who shows up at a jazz club for a performance a little late and without her dance partner. Velma and her sister Veronica were becoming famous for their double act, but on this night, it is just Velma on stage performing their signature routine to the tune of All That Jazz. We quickly realize as the police arrive that Velma has murdered her sister after finding her in bed with her husband.

In the audience on that night as Velma was taken away by the cops, is a starry eyed, dim bulb blonde named Roxie Hart (Renee Zellwegger). At the club with a man who is not her husband, Roxie is expecting her boyfriend will speak to the manager about putting her onstage to perform. Cut to a month later Velma is in jail and Roxie is still waiting for her man to make her a star. However, when he admits he made up the story just to sleep with her, Roxie shoots and kills him.

When Roxie's husband Amos (John C. Reilly) comes home from work she convinces him the man was a burglar and tries to get Amos to take the fall. However after Amos finds out that the burglar is a guy he knows he changes his tune and Roxie is off to murderesses’ row where she will share a cellblock with the celebrated murderers of the day, husband killers whose brief glimpses of fame have dimmed as the gallows loomed over them. Among those celebrated killers is none other than Velma Kelly. 

Though Roxie tries to insinuate herself into Velma's world behind bars, the two are not friends. Velma only sees Roxie as someone trying to take her spotlight. Roxie meanwhile, after being rejected by Velma manages to convince her idiot husband to hire Velma's high profile lawyer Billy Flynn (Richard Gere). With this move by Roxie, it becomes a war between Velma and Roxie to see who can make bigger headlines and hold the attention of their glory hound lawyer the longest. Billy Flynn's only interested in whichever client is on the front page that day. 

Director Rob Marshall, a veteran of the stage making his film debut, crafts a quickly paced and exuberant film that combines the best of old time Hollywood glamour with modern panache and star power. Though unlikely choices for the leading roles, Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta Jones's star quality helps to nail their temptress roles with surprisingly strong singing and dancing, aided no doubt by Marshall's quick cut style.

The biggest surprise in Chicago however, is Richard Gere. Forget surprise, Gere is a revelation. Though his singing could use some work, Gere's vibrant enthusiasm and energy carries you past any reservations you may have about his singing. In his best moments, Gere blows everyone else off the screen. In particular, a courtroom tap-dance near the end of the film is truly spectacular and in a film with a number of standout numbers, Gere manages to craft best performance of the film.

I have a few issues with this Broadway adaptation however, issues that keep me from fully embracing the film as a truly great movie. The first issue is the staging of the musical performance. All of the musical numbers are bound to Broadway style proscenium stages. Director Rob Marshall binds the movie to the stage and fails to take advantage of the dynamic film medium for staging. Marshall seems to think he is tied to the Broadway stage interpretation of each song.

Then there is the film’s tone, which wants to be bawdy comedy but can't go as far as it would like in fear of offending the family audiences. Adhering closely to the toned down revival version of Chicago, the film contains little of Fosse's raunchiness that marked his 1974 version. What Fosse's version did was frame the sensationalistic stories with bawdy comedy and a masterful turn of innuendo. There is little of that fun in this Chicago, save for Queen Latifah's "What Mama Wants.” The comedy in Chicago never finds a rhythm to match the music.

What made Fosse's version interesting, if not great, was its ability to drag the audience into the gutter with its characters. The raunchiness and the fearlessness of the characters was transgressive and exciting. With this toned down version of Chicago, you don't get the thrill that Fosse intended. Instead it's like watching the OJ Simpson trial, you can't help but admire the sheer audacity of Johnny Cochran, but you still hate OJ and you likely weren't rooting for him. 

In Chicago you can't help but admire Gere's Billy Quinn for his Razz Ma Tazz three ring circus, but Zellwegger's Roxie Hart is still a terrible person. This fact about Roxie is confirmed by the film’s only truly sympathetic character, John C. Reilly's Amos Hart. Sympathetic or just pathetic, Amos' big number "Mr. Cellophane" is the films one moment of emotional involvement. The rest of Chicago lingers somewhere in an uncanny valley of toned down dark humor, bloody murder crossed with big brassy musical numbers, all pitched to reach the back of the theater. It's a sloppy tone the film never wrestles into cohesion. 

Comparing Chicago to a similar but far superior movie such as Moulin Rouge would be unfair. Baz Luhrmann is a veteran filmmaker who is aware of all the tools available to him in the film medium. In Moulin Rouge, Luhrmann was working from material of his own creation in a realm he's comfortable creating in. Rob Marshall is still learning about the difference between directing a film and directing for the stage and I believe he has a bright future in Hollywood. Chicago is a good start, a flawed but brave attempt at a big screen musical that demonstrates Marshall's promise as a director while coming up short on the promise of the movie itself.