Movie Review The Four Feathers

The Four Feathers (2002) 

Directed by Shakur Kapur 

Written by Michael Schiffer, Hossein Amini 

Starring Heath Ledger, Wes Bentley, Kate Hudson, Djimon Hounsou, Michael Sheen, 

Release Date September 20th, 2002 

Published September 19th, 2002 

Director Shakar Kapur splashed on the scene with 1998's spectacular Elizabeth. While Cate Blanchett made the movie brilliant, Kapur's production design made it beautiful. In Kapur's new film, The Four Feathers, Kapur's lush visual style is in place. Unfortunately, he doesn't have Cate Blanchett to save the film’s weak dialogue and characters.

Heath Ledger stars as Harry Favisham, an up and coming British soldier under the command of his father and soon to marry Ethne, played by Kate Hudson. American Beauty's Wes Bentley plays Harry's best friend Jack Durrance. Also a soldier, Jack is nursing a jealous crush on Ethne. When Harry and Jack's regiment is told they will be shipping out to war in the Sudan, Jack is excited to finally have the opportunity to fight for his country, Harry isn't so sure. 

Deciding that his fear of death outweighs his love of country, Harry resigns his commission and leaves the Army. After learning of Harry's actions his friends, except for Jack, send him 3 feathers. The feathers are a symbol of cowardice. The fourth feather, as mentioned by the film’s title, comes not from Jack, but from Ethne who decides social status is more important than love.

Disgraced and alone, Harry follows the troops movements through community bulletin boards where the army places lists of soldiers who have died. After hearing that his former regiment had taken heavy casualties, Harry heads for Sudan to help them. Once in Sudan Harry nearly dies trying to find the British troops. He is saved by an African slave named Abou Fatma (Djimon Hounsou). We’re not certain why Abou saves Harry, nor do we know why he stays with him to keep him safe, Harry does nothing to earn Abou's loyalty.

There are other plot strands in The Four Feathers but nothing very memorable. It's mostly filler, something to do while Kapur and cinematographer Robert Richardson make a lovely Sudanese travel video. If it weren't for endless civil wars and lack of clean water, Sudan might be a beautiful place to visit. At least as it looks, according to Kapur and Richardson. Actually the film was shot in Morocco, so who knows what Sudan actually looks like. The cinematography, no matter where it took place, is at times breathtaking.

The performances and story of The Four Feathers are the film’s weakest points. Ledger, desperately trying to break out of the teen hunk mold, never paints a realistic portrait of a British soldier. He is at times too goofy or too emotional. His traits are too Americanized to be British. Both Hudson and Bentley, who are actually Americans, have the same problems Ledger does though to their credit their accents weren't bad.

The film’s biggest problem is the narrative, which asks the audience to root for a character, Harry, who is a coward. Harry has no conviction and no politics; he is simply a coward too afraid to lay down his life for his country. Some Hero! Had Harry had some real intellectual reason as to why he would not go to war he would be easy to identify with, as there were numerous good reasons to not go to war. For one, why Sudan? It's not like it served any strategic purpose, it's just a desert. Why fight a war in which the sole purpose is killing enough people to be able to claim useless desert land? These however are my reasons for not going to war, not Harry's. He was just a chicken.

Bentley's Jack is no better. While he didn't condemn his friend’s cowardice with a feather he does use it as justification to make a move on Ethne. Even after learning of Harry's going to Sudan to save him, the weasel hides the information from Ethne whom he intends to marry. As for Hudson, her Ethne might have better been named “plot device,” as she is merely in place to provide motivation to the male leads. Hudson, who was spectacular in Almost Famous, never creates a real character in The Four Feathers, her role could have been played by anyone and had the same impact.

The Four Feathers has the visual style of a sweeping desert war epic, but lacks the heart and ingenuity necessary for epic filmmaking. The Four Feathers suffers in comparison this weekend to the limited re-release of Lawrence Of Arabia, the template for sweeping war epics. Lawrence Of Arabia makes The Four Feathers look like a high school production.

Movie Review P2

P2 (2007) 

Directed by Franck Khalfoun 

Written by Alexandre Aja, Franck Khalfoun, Gregory Levasseur

Starring Wes Bentley, Rachel Nichols

Release Date November 9th, 2007

Published November 8th, 2007

Alexandre Aja has been undistinguished in two outings as a writer-director, High Tension and The Hills Have Eyes. Still, Aja does show a sense of how to work in this genre and that shows in his work as a producer and co-writer of the new horror thriller P2. Handing the directorial reigns to talented newcomer Franck Khalfoun, Aja's hands off approach works and the best instincts of his work show through.

Angela (Rachel Nichols) never thought staying late at work was a bad thing, even on a holiday. Sure, her whole family was waiting for her but she had numbers to crunch and no boyfriend waiting to go with her. She could afford a few more minutes, or so she thought. On this night, Christmas Eve, staying late was the worst idea possible. The last to leave among her office mates, Angela will have to walk through the creepy parking garage all by herself, save for that one parking attendant with far away stare. 

That parking attendant is named Thomas (Wes Bentley), and unbeknownst to Angela, he has had a secret crush on. Moreover, Thomas has decided that tonight is the night he will reveal his feelings. Did he buy her flowers? Candy? Make her a mixtape? No,Thomas is something of a social misfit. His idea of courtship involves a chloroform soaked rag and some handcuffs. Whether Angela likes it or not she is joining Thomas for a holiday meal.

What director Frank Khalfoun does in P2 is take strong advantage of the one unique thing about this plot, the setting. Parking garages are inherently creepy places, all dark corners and echoes. Khalfoun makes this underground garage into an underground maze of darkness and disturbing noises. Also, the garage setting turns the classic cliche of a cellphone with no signal into a necessary plot point as opposed to a merely convenient one.

The holiday setting, the movie takes place on Christmas Eve, is also a clever trick. It closes the parking garage and gives our main characters plenty of uninterrupted room to run and play hide and seek. The film also makes great use of Elvis' Blue Christmas turning the hacky holiday classic into a creepy, funny running gag.

We haven't seen Wes Bentley much since he exploded on to the scene with his touchingly oddball performance in American Beauty. He failed to take advantage of the buzz following that film and has since picked up his highest profile paycheck as the lame bad guy in Ghost Rider. Strange to say, this is the best performance of Bentley's career since American Beauty. What Bentley gives Thomas is this odd sort of cornpone romantic crossed with a Johnny Depp style antic psychopath.

He's also quite funny. Keep an ear out for one of the best lines of the year when Thomas whines about not wanting to lose his job. Rachel Nichols, heretofore unknown to me, isn't given much to play but give her credit for not making all of the cliched choices of a victim in this situation. Her Angela is smart but she's not McGyver, she doesn't adapt to this situation as if it were second nature. She is no match for Thomas's brand of crazy but she has luck on her side.

The closer of P2 features yet another funny line featuring that one thing a man should never say to a woman. The ending is all too typical, but I never said the film broke the mold. This is just a director and cast that takes on genre conventions and simply performs them slightly more entertainingly than the several thousand genre clones before it. Franck Khalfoun doesn't remake the genre he just makes good use of his genre tools. P2 is just a little smarter. The film has a bit more polish than the dozen or so directors who have worked with the same genre material. P2 is an exceptional thriller/horror genre movie.

Movie Review Ghost Rider

Ghost Rider (2007) 

Directed by Mark Steven Johnson 

Written by Mark Steven Johnson 

Starring Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Wes Bentley, Sam Elliott, Peter Fonda 

Release Date February 16th, 2007

Published February 15th, 2007

Hiring Nicolas Cage to play Ghost Rider is strange for a few different reasons. The oddest thing about the choice of Nicolas Cage for this role is that he is simply too big a star for this. Any film producer would tell you that you don't hire a well known star like Nicolas Cage and then cover his face with computer generated effects. 

Ghost Rider requires that the star, in some of the movie's biggest and most important scenes, will be covered by CGI bones and flames. This is natural for a lesser known actor, not for one as well known as Nic Cage. Nevertheless, Cage campaigned for the role and got it and now Ghost Rider is out there and though Cage is missing from some of the film's biggest moments, I can't imagine the movie being as fun or entertaining without him.

When Johnny Blaze (Matt Long) was a kid riding motorcycles in carnivals with his dad, Barton (Brett Cullen), he made a deal with the devil (Peter Fonda). Johnny's father was sick and dying so Johnny made a deal that he thought would save his dad's life. In exchange rescuing Dad, the devil told Johnny that some time in the future he would return to collect on Johnny's debt.

Nearly 30 years later, Johnny (Nicolas Cage) is a world famous motorcycle stunt rider. His jumps over lines of cars, trucks, even helicopters are pay per view sensations. The life he gave up after selling his soul seems to be coming back into focus as  his childhood sweetheart Roxy (Eva Mendes), who he had once planned to run away with, comes back into his life.

The sparks ignite once again between Johnny and Roxy but unfortunately it is then that the devil returns to collect his debt. Seems the devil's own son, Blackheart (Wes Bentley), has escaped from hell and is planning on taking over the world. It will be Johnny's job as the devil's new bounty hunter to bring down Blackheart before he can get his hands on a legendary contract full of souls that could destroy the world. Thus, Johnny becomes the Ghost Rider, a flame skulled super-hero who does the devil's dirty work. Riding a flaming motorcycle and carrying a flaming chain, Ghost Rider battles evil and collects their souls for Satan.

Directed by Mark Steven Johnson, the man behind Marvel's Daredevil movie, Ghost Rider is a big time action spectacle with outsized special effects and a good deal of goofiness. Johnson knows this material well, he is clearly a fan of the comics, and his love for the material really shines through. The detail and the humor of Ghost Rider comes from Johnson's familiarity with the material and a bit of his own wit. The effects of Ghost Rider, headed up by special effects supervisor Kevin Mack, leading a team from Sony Imageworks, are exceptional. The flaming skull, the flaming motorcycle, and Ghost Rider's fiery ride up the side of a skyscraper are all very impressive computer generated effects.

Nicolas Cage campaigned hard for the role of Johnny Blaze and got it despite the fact that it was written initially for a much younger actor. Cage is a huge fan of Ghost Rider and even had to have a Ghost Rider tattoo on his arm covered with make-up for the movie. Cage brings a sardonic, off kilter charm to Ghost Rider and Johnny Blaze. The fact that the character loves Jelly Beans and Karen Carpenter are odd character details that Cage plays with gusto.

Less interesting is the supporting cast who, aside from Donal Logue's comic relief as Cage's pal, are underwhelming. Eva Mendes is smokin' hot but in an underwritten role she struggles for screen time and is made to look foolish in more than one scene. She, at least, comes off better than Wes Bentley as the film's villain. The American Beauty actor, who has done little since that Oscar winner in 1999, is too slight and affected to be a believable foe for the powerful Ghost Rider. Essentially, Cage's charisma and star power blows Bentley off the screen.

Ghost Rider is flawed and is certainly not in the class of comic book legends like Spiderman or Batman but it is a rollicking, exciting action adventure B-movie. Nicolas Cage is a big star, bigger than the character he plays, and he makes this unusual role work with quirky details and comic book cool. Ghost Rider is funny and exciting, even a little scary for younger audiences. Most important, Ghost Rider is just damn entertaining and that is what it's all about.