Movie Review Funny People

Funny People (2009)

Directed by Judd Apatow 

Written by Judd Apatow 

Starring Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann, Eric Bana, Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman 

Release Date July 31st, 2009

Published July 30th, 2009 

Comics have their own idiom, a way of speaking that is more often than not aggressive and abnormal. Words are their weapons and they wield them with particular expertise. Listen to comedian Patton Oswalt, a shambling, unkempt often alcohol infused comic whose word use is as precise and exacting as your average marksmen is with a high caliber rifle. The brain of the comic is different always, searching at all times for the absurd in the average, that detail that they can see that the average person misses. That brain gets a thorough and exacting examination in Funny People, Judd Apatow's adroit, mature comedy of penis jokes and honest to goodness pathos.

Adam Sandler is the star of Funny People playing a variation on his real life superstar career. His George Simmons is one of the biggest stars in the world thanks to movies like Mer-Man where he plays, you guessed it, a half man half fish and Re-Do where Sandler's soft ball like skull is placed on the body of a baby by cheesy CGI. You can sense the shame he feels over these movies, made only to line his pockets, and purchase cars he never drives and a large, Xanadu-esque mansion that he doesn't need, and one can't help but wonder if the shame applies in real life to dreck like Little Nicky or Billy Madison. Probably not, but I can dream.

The shame can be seen in George when he see's himself worshipped in the eyes of his new assistant Ira (Seth Rogan). Hired to help write jokes so George can go back to where he feels most at home, the comedy stage, Ira becomes George's only real friend, even if he won't admit it. It's a forced friendship with young Ira carrying most of the burden especially after George reveals he has a rare blood disease and may soon be dead. That's a lot for Ira to carry but he does carry it and soon Ira begins to develop his own talents and find his own comic persona through the mirror of George's age and and hard won wisdom.

Outside of his wealth and privilege, George's life is empty and impending death has only magnified the void. He now longs for all the stuff he took for granted as a younger man, things family and children. Ira helps George reconnect with his parents and sister and even a few of his comic 'friends' who are more like fellow former hostages of some unknown captor. They aren't friends, they just share the same trauma it seems and that bonds them.

The one person George really hopes to reconnect with however, is Laura, the only woman he ever really loved. Laura is now married and living in San Francisco. She comes to George after he reveals his illness and the reunion is emotional in the way one might talk to someone who dying, an exaggerated pseudo-truth that takes conversational reality to a heightened emotional realm. Yes, Laura loved him once and, in his dying state, she forgives him his indiscretions of the past but is he really the love of her life? That could just be comfort food for the dying.

Well, George will find out if Laura is for real. The last 45 minutes of Funny People is dedicated to George surviving his illness and deciding to chase the life he thinks he always wanted. What happens then is for you to discover but thanks to the exceptionally smart and true writing and direction of Judd Apatow you are in for something funny and unexpected. For those trained by The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up to expect a lot of foul humor, your training comes in handy. Apatow's verbiage is as scatological and unapologetically foul as ever. The difference is the level of sophistication in the way these words are used. Comics use foul language in such a secondary, comfortable manner that it's less natural when they don't use them.

Adam Sandler has shown in the past that beneath the juvenile mask is an immensely talented actor. He simply cannot often enough restrain his id and allow that talent some time in the sun. In Funny People the mask is off and the talent shines like never before. His George is a stunningly bitter, brusque and off-putting guy who makes no apologies for being repugnant. He is fully conscious of his disgust for himself and in finding death he turns that disgust toward whatever human target is close by. As in his shame for his movies, George loathes the people who love them as much as she loathes himself for making them love him. He lives the old Groucho Marx maxim "I would never be a part of a club that would have me as a member".

Sandler's performance in Funny People is so raw and remarkable that you must wonder how true it all is to the real life of Adam Sandler. Thankfully, in real life Sandler appears to be happily married with children and close friends. It's very likely however, that Sandler knows a George Simmons and shares a deep sympathy with him. Sandler comes at this role with such ferocity and authentic self-loathing and contempt for the world that it just feels real. Then there is the blurring of the lines when George/Adam criticizes his terrible movie roles and that blurring of the lines becomes an uncanny valley between real life and the funny fiction of Funny People. 

As for Seth Rogen, I loved how Rogen's Ira represents all the hope and joy that has seemingly slipped away from jaded George and the way that Ira's youth and enthusiasm enlivens the mentor-student relationship of Geore and Ira. Rogen plays Ira as his usual foul-mouthed man-child, the persona he has perfected in his short but fast rising career. However, Rogen and Apatow take great care to make Ira the heart of the story and use the character as a mirror to highlight the best and worst of George while deepening both characters through their growth together as friends and colleagues. It's a dynamite dynamic and the chemistry between Rogen and Sandler is outstanding. 

With Adam Sandler delivering a career best performance and Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow showing newfound maturity and complexity, Funny People becomes one of the best movies you will see all year. Funny People is also another maddening symbol of how incredibly talented Adam Sandler can be when he wants to be. It makes me dislike Sandler more when he makes terrible comedies because I have seen a movie like this and I can see how talented he is. It's frustrating to watch him make some of the worst movies in the world when he's capable of making movies like this. 

Movie Review Fun with Dick and Jane

Fun with Dick and Jane (2005) 

Directed by Dean Parisot

Written by Judd Apatow, Nicholas Stoller 

Starring Jim Carrey, Tea Leoni, Alec Baldwin, Richard Jenkins 

Release Date December 21st, 2005 

Published December 20th, 2005 

Remakes are an inherently lazy project. No matter how well made and recreated they are, remakes are  still telling someone else's story and making a profit on it. Laziness is the hallmark of the remake of 1977's Fun With Dick and Jane. With a talented cast including Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni and a script polish by the very funny Judd Apatow, Fun With Dick and Jane is an all the more depressing effort for the talent involved.

Dick Harper (Jim Carrey) has a great job working in corporate communications for a massive corporation called Globodyne. Things are just about to get even better for Dick when the company CEO, slimily portrayed by Alec Baldwin, decides to promote Dick to vice president and put him on TV to talk up Globodyne's latest financial numbers on a Moneyline-esque cable show. Unfortunately as Dick is putting a smiling face on the numbers the stock tanks live on the air. Dick, as the new face of the company, is completely screwed. The CEO has bankrupted the company, including all the severance and pension funds, and is in the wind, leaving Dick and the company's chief finance officer (Richard Jenkins) to take all of the heat.

This could not be worse timing for the Harper family because Dick's wife Jane (Tea Leoni) has just quit her job as a travel agent to spend more time with their son who is being raised by the nanny (the kid had even adopted the nanny's own broken English accent, in an ugly, awful gag).  Now with both Dick and Jane out of work, and Dick a virtual pariah in his chosen field, the family faces losing all of their accumulated wealth and their home.

After unfortunate attempts by both Dick and Jane to work at new jobs, Dick at a Wal-mart clone and then as a day laborer, in yet another awful gag, and Jane as an aerobics instructor and product tester, the frustrated couple turn to armed robbery to solve their money troubles. Using their son's toy weapon and the rationalization that they were screwed by the system, the couple sets about robbing convenience stores, coffee shops and eventually even an attempted bank heist before finally turning to revenge against the CEO that put them in this predicament.

Fun With Dick and Jane fails because director Dean Parisot and writers Judd Apatow, Nicolas Stoller and Peter Tollin fail to establish whether they are attempting broad slapstick or dark satire. Most of the film plays to star Jim Carrey's strength, broad physical comedy. However, the story of a family losing everything and turning to desperate measures to keep their home is not a story that lends itself to big slapsticky laughs. Thus, the film fishes around searching for laughs in broad set pieces unable to reconcile those with the film's dark subject.

The filmmakers try everything from funny costumes (the couple dressed as Sonny and Cher with Carrey as Cher) to movie parody (Dick and Jane driving a stolen car into a storefront dressed as the Blues Brothers), to irreverent racial humor, but nothing connects with anything more than mild amusement. And, the racial humor is downright offensive. Watching it you don't laugh as much as you squirm in discomfort. 

Director Dean Parisot was the talented director of 2000'sGalaxy Quest, a good natured ribbing of the Star Trek series. There is nothing groundbreaking about that little movie but it hits its target well with good-natured parody. Parisot may be the wrong director for the much darker Dick and Jane in which he irritatingly attempts to force broad comedy out of narrow material. Parisot never finds the right angle on the film's corporate satire and fails miserably in establishing why Dick and Jane must turn to crime in order to survive.

The corporate scandal that costs Dick his job is merely a quick way to get him out of a job so we can get to the supposedly funny attempts at crime. There are a couple of unconvincing scenes of both Dick and Jane trying to work low paying jobs and failing miserably but these scenes fail to help us understand why they must turn to crime. We can feel the plot forcing them toward crime because the crimes are where the supposed comedy is and the filmmakers show their desperation to get through a few setup scenes so they can get the stars into their funny costumes.

Because Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni are such terrifically talented comic actors there are a number of solid laughs in Fun With Dick and Jane. A scene where the couple commit a home invasion robbery dressed in black ninja gear and voice disguisers is funny for the way the couple are like children playing with new toys. Another scene where Dick and Jane ponder their situation while sitting in the unfinished hole where their new hot tub was to be shows each actor's ability to connect with us on a sympathetic level.

Dick and Jane by the standards of decent society aren't good people. They commit serious crimes that are humorously treated by director Dean Parisot but we are never allowed scenes that might help us forgive them their crimes. Simply saying 'it's just a comedy' does not excuse the fact that our protagonists are unpunished criminals. The 1977 version of Fun With Dick and Jane, I'm told, established its heroes as Robin Hood outlaws whose crimes have an undercurrent of social conscience. Yes they were robbers, but when they knocked over banks they also attempted to burn the debt records of other troubled families so that maybe they to could be debt free.

No such moralizing in the new version where the motivation is solely material and selfish. The modern Dick and Jane are concerned about maintaining their social status and regaining their material wealth. A scene where Dick and Jane retrieve their LCD big screen television using some of their ill-gotten gains is played as a moment of triumph with their young son celebrating wildly. I guess, like the nanny, that television was another parent to the kid, which is yet another bit of sardonic humor the film fails to capitalize on.

Spoiler warning!

When at the end our heroes target Baldwin's corporate criminal and end up turning Robin Hood and stealing his money and giving it back to the employees he screwed, we are supposed to admire them. But you can see the plot gears turning as the filmmakers try to redeem these lost characters with one act of deus ex machina, the hand of god, putting everything right with the world in less than 10 minutes screen time.

Fun With Dick and Jane ends with a dedication to the corporations like Enron that have been subjects of the biggest financial swindles in history. Unfortunately, what was intemded to play as an ironic thumb in the eye of these corporations comes off as more of an honest thank you for inspiring this film's failed ideas.  Fun With Dick and Jane never develops into any kind of satire of corporate scandals. The corporate crimes in the movie are a mere backdrop for the flailing slapstick physical comedy. 

Fun With Dick and Jane is yet another sad, lazy Hollywood remake. The work of slacking geniuses picking up paychecks rather than actually making a funny movie.

Movie Review Full Frontal

Full Frontal (2002) 

Directed by Steven Soderbergh 

Written by Steven Soderbergh 

Starring David Duchovny, Julia Roberts, Blair Underwood, Nicky Katt, Catherine Keener

Release Date August 2nd, 2002 

Published August 1st, 2002 

Whenever a director tries to do something that is stylistically or thematically different from the Hollywood norm, he or she is to be commended. Even when that effort is a failure. Movies as varied as Hal Hartley’s monster fantasy No Such Thing and Todd Solondz’s multilayered Storytelling are examples of filmmakers on the edge and falling over. Director Steven Soderbergh, much like his indie brethren, made his movie Full Frontal with great ambition. Unfortunately for all the style, there is no substance.

A film about the interconnected lives of Los Angelinos in various levels of the entertainment industry, Full Frontal stars Julia Roberts because hers is the biggest name in the credits. In reality it’s supposed to be an ensemble, but I dare anyone to watch it without thinking of what Julia’s character is doing when she’s not on screen.

Blair Underwood, best known for TV’s "L.A. Law," plays an actor in a movie in which he plays an actor. Roberts is Underwood’s co-star in the movie. Underwood’s struggling actor is carrying on an affair with the wife of one of his writing partners. Catherine Keener is the wife and David Hyde Pierce the partner.

Underwood’s other partner is played by Enrico Colantoni. His character is also an actor and director, currently working on a play called The Sound and The Fuhrer. The play is a modernist take on Hitler, imagine Hitler as played hysterically by Nicky Katt, as a self involved artist who breaks up with Eva Braun because he has too much stress at work and doesn’t have time to give her proper facetime. Hitler needs his space. Katt gives the film's funniest performance in the film's least necessary subplot.

Actually there would have to be a plot for there to be a subplot. Steven Soderbergh created Full Frontal as an exercise in style and acting virtuosity. Unfortunately he forgot to give the actors a plot to focus their seemingly improvised dialogue. Occasionally the improv works for some laughs but more often it’s almost scatological, actors with no focal point simply pontificating until they can find an interesting insight or humorous observation, each of which are few and far between.

Full Frontal has the feel of an unedited film school project, with an experimental director instructing self involved actors to be more self conscious. It might make for an interesting exercise but not a very entertaining movie.

Movie Review Frozen River

Frozen River (2008)

Directed by Courtney Hunt

Written by Courtney Hunt 

Starring Melissa Leo, Misty Upham, Michael O'Keefe 

Release Date August 1st, 2008

Published January 29th, 2009

There has been a bit of unintended zeitgeist capturing at the movie theaters recently. You have Clive Owen battling evil bankers in The International and Isla Fisher fending off creditors in Confessions of a Shopaholic. But the movie that may be the most on topic and of the moment is one that few people have heard of and fewer people have seen despite a slew of a awards nominations.

Melissa Leo is Oscar nominated for her role as a single mother named Ray in Frozen River. Ray's dirt bag husband has just absconded with their savings for a gambling binge. He won't be back. This means she won't be able to make the payment on the new double wide trailer that was to arrive that day. It's headed back to the lot.

Ray has two kids, 5 and 15. They have so little money for food that one morning breakfast consists of popcorn and Tang. When Ray see's her husband's car at the local bingo parlor, on a local Indian reservation on the border between New York and Canada, she thinks maybe he's still in town. Instead she meets Lila (Misty Upham) who took Ray's husband's car after he left it at the bus station with the keys inside.

She didn't want just any car, this car had trunk space and an automatic opener, ideal for her job smuggling illegal Chinese and Middle Eastern immigrants across the border from Canada to the states. In need of cash Ray goes into business with Lila and a dangerous situation develops as the two desperate women risk everything for the modest comforts a little cash can provide.

Frozen River comes from writer director Courtney Hunt and in these harsh economic climes it may be the most of the moment movie out there. Not that all poor people turn to human smuggling when things get tough. But, there are desperate, aching, underemployed people and undernourished children all across this country. Frozen River captures the desolate sadness felt by millions as jobs dry up and money goes from tight to nearly non-existent.

Melissa Leo is extraordinary in conveying the determination of a drowning woman willing to risk her life and anything else to keep a roof over her kids heads. She goes without food for a few days at a time. She works a thankless job at sub-par pay. When an opportunity for a quick 12 hundred dollars comes her way she isn't about to get prideful over criminality or moralistic about the law.

If you can't recognize a little of Melissa Leo's Ray somewhere in your life, even if it is just that nice lady bagging your groceries at the store, you live in some kind of dream world. This kind of desperation is eating at the edges of middle and lower middle class America across the country. No movie has captured this nearly as well as Frozen River.

That maybe why the film is so little seen. People tend to go to the movies to escape their problems. Frozen River is a reflection of the problems felt by so many and the images are troubling and heartbreaking.

Movie Review Frozen 2

Frozen 2 (2019) 

Directed by Jennifer Lee, Chris Buck

Written by Jennifer Lee 

Starring Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Josh Gad, Jonathan Groff 

Release Date November 22nd, 2019

Published December 6th, 2019 

Two weeks in theaters and Frozen 2 has single handedly revived a sleepy North American box office. To say that Disney has a magic touch with sequels and familiar I.P is not saying much, they’re the master of wringing every last dollar out of their properties. What perhaps sets Disney apart from other companies that increasingly rely on well known properties rather than risking money on new developments, is that Disney trusts creators more. And if that doesn’t work, they can amp up the marketing budget. 

Frozen 2 is a strong example of trusting their creators. By any account of the first Frozen, there did not appear to be much of any sequel potential in the story of Queen Elsa and Princess Anna, at least not theatrically. In a cynical world, Disney could spin romantic, Y.A tales of the love adventures of Anna and Elsa for infinity on the straight to video market. But Disney has grown ambitious since the Toy Story movies proved there was an appetite for sequels in theaters as opposed to the video market that Disney owned for the better part of two decades. 

The creators of Frozen did not rest on the ease and familiarity of the characters of Anna and Elsa by feeding the need to pair Elsa off romantically. That was a natural storytelling alley but the filmmakers sought an adventure that would be more ambitious and capitalize on the strengths that Idina Menzel fueled with her remarkable voice and the original screenplay had given us an Elsa beyond the need for her to have a Prince. 

The original Frozen was an adventure story and the filmmakers knew that an adventure story was where they wanted to go again with the sequel, even if it didn’t necessarily have a natural jumping off point from the original story. The clever idea here was to investigate the back story of Elsa’s powers as it related to the deaths of her parents and the history of the Kingdom of Arendelle which it turns out is darker than we’d ever suspected. 

The story of Frozen 2 has Elsa hearing a voice that drives her to seek out a magical forest locked behind an enchanted mist that she can access because of her powers. Naturally, Anna (Kristen Bell)  insists on joining Elsa on the journey along with Olaf (Josh Gad),  Christoph (Jonathan Groff) and his reindeer pal Sven. Together they will discover the spirit of the elements, Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. There is a fifth element and that is at the heart of the mystery of Frozen 2. 

The story is wonderfully told with big, Broadway style musical interludes that help the story along. While the first film had a surefire pop hit in Let it Go, the makers of Frozen 2 have boldly chosen not to concern themselves with pop hits and have gone solely for songs that help drive the story. It’s a shockingly uncommercial choice and it gives Frozen 2 an even stronger independent identity from its corporate origins. 

The voices of Idina Menzel and Kristen Bell have only grown stronger and more confident in the roles of Elsa and Anna. The comfort in their vocal work lends authenticity to the characters. The same could be said of Josh Gad’s Olaf who rounds into the big beating heart of the Frozen franchise. Olaf, while remaining a predominately comic character, has moments of genuine emotional power in Frozen 2 as he comes to stand in as an avatar for the youngest audience members of the Frozen fandom. 

Olaf is very funny and the youngest audience members will absolutely adore him as they did in the original. Gad carries the comic burden of Frozen 2 while facilitating the other characters to linger in more dramatic adventures. Much of the success of Frozen 2 can be attributed to the laughs brought on by Olaf underlining the action of the other characters who are sprinting toward more dramatic and life changing adventures. 

In some ways, Frozen 2 is actually superior to the original Frozen. The characters are more fleshed out and relatable. Elsa is more human and relatable than in the original and the music explores her depths in ways that Let it Go and the other original Frozen songs could not. The creative team of Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee have also expanded the visual palette of the Frozen universe with daring visuals that include even more gorgeous explorations of ice and a horse made of water that is one of the most beautiful pieces of animation in this young century. 

Frozen 2 has that unique ability to appeal to children with stories of wonder and necessary lessons about life and family while also reaching adults who can appreciate the visual mastery and the wonderful characters who have an adult accessibility. It’s rare to see that combination of traits outside of Disney’s partners at Pixar but Frozen 2 achieves it. Frozen 2 is the number 1 movie in America, and the rest of the world, because of those accessible traits. 

Movie Review: Things Behind the Sun (2001)

Things Behind the Sun (2001)

Directed by Allison Anders 

Written by Allison Anders 

Starring Kim Dickens, Gabriel Mann 

Release Date January 24th, 2001 

Published June 26th, 2001 

There is no more damaging crime in the world than rape. A victim of rape in most cases will deal with that trauma the rest of their lives. How do I know anything about this? I have two female friends who were victims of date rape; raped by men they knew and thought they could trust. The pain on their faces when the subject of intimacy comes up lets me know more than I could ever express about the horrible trauma of rape. That same kind of pain is brought home in a very deep and profound way in Allison Anders' Showtime television project Things Behind The Sun.

Things Behind the Sun is the story of an up and coming rock star named Sherry (Kim Dickens), who at the age of 12 was raped. She can't remember the details of the rape such as where it happened or who did it. Gabriel Mann is Owen, a rock journalist who is sent to interview Sherry but also has a secret that is key to what happened to her on the day she was raped. Owen was there when it happened, in fact he was an unwilling participant in the rape, forced by his own brother, played by Eric Stoltz, to rape the girl with whom he had just begun a tentative relationship. At first Sherry doesn't know who Owen is, she is locked in an alcoholic haze induced by the years of torment following her attack. But once Sherry finds out who Owen is the film gains it's momentum, and becomes an emotional rollercoaster.

Things Behind The Sun was directed and written by well-known indie hauteur Allison Anders and is said to be based on some of her own personal experiences. This is probably why the film feels so real it was almost too painful to watch. Anders is one the most brave and beautiful filmmakers I have ever seen and proves that film is not just entertainment at times, it can also be art.

The performances by Gabriel Mann and especially Kim Dickens are deeply affecting and emotional. It's surprising because neither had previously shown much promise. Especially Mann, whose resume includes Josie & the Pussycats and the Freddie Prinze Jr. movie Summer Catch. Each actor is aided greatly by a brilliant supporting cast including Don Cheadle (Candidate for best actor on the planet in my opinion), as Sherry's much abused manager and boyfriend/attempted savior, Rosanna Arquette, Eric Stoltz and Elizabeth Pena in small but pivotal roles.

Things Behind The Sun is the first film in a long time that was able to pierce my ironic armor and go straight to my heart with it's beautifully written story, moving performances and lovely soundtrack provided in part by Sonic Youth. I am not ashamed to admit this film made me cry more than once though admittedly I'm closer to the subject matter than some. I feel it may have that effect on anyone who sees it. In retrospect Things Behind The Sun may have been the best film of 2001, I urge everyone to see it

Movie Review The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner (2007) 

Directed by Marc Forster 

Written by David Benioff 

Starring Khallid Abdalla, Zekaria Ebrahimi 

Release Date December 14th, 2007 

Published December 13th, 2007 

Marc Forster is an auteur of the highest order. His debut film, Monster's Ball, crafted astonishing art out of some of the grimiest, grittiest, settings, the deathly, colorless halls of a prison and the desperate, depressing decorations of the lowest wrung of the economic ladder. Halle Berry at her most naked didn't hurt but beyond that artifice lay characters of great depth, feeling and sadness. He followed that stunning feature debut with something entirely different, the gentle, imaginative life story of J.M Barrie in Finding Neverland. That film earned him a Best Director and Best Picture nomination. Forster then offered yet another dizzying 180, following his Oscar nominated work with a turn to the sci fi genre, a mystery called Stay.

Somehow critics missed the subtle brilliance of Stay, a thoughtful, ingenious genre pic. The failure of Stay thankfully didn't slow Forster for a moment and he was back on ten best lists across the country the next year with the imaginative and quirk filled romance, Stranger Than Fiction. And once again Forster has pulled one of his masterful 180's. His newest effort is arguably his most ambitious yet. Leaving behind many of the trappings of Hollywood, he's kept the budget, but Forster has moved to the Middle East to craft a story in Arabic based on a best selling novel. So, not an easy box office sell. 

The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini's stunning tale of life before and after the Taliban in Afghanistan was long sought after but thought to be un-filmable. Many filmmakers could see the potential of this story about the bond of children, the love of family and country, and the many inherent tragedies of the Middle East. However, they could also see that trying to make a movie entirely in Arabic in Arab countries with Hollywood dollars would be nearly impossible. Thankfully, Marc Forster was undaunted and now we have The Kite Runner, a subtle, thoughtful, and thoroughly absorbing tale that once again affirms Marc Forster's place among our finest filmmakers.

It seems like ancient history. Before the Russians invaded Afghanistan there was the beginning of a revolution. A revolution of freedom, democracy and most hopefully, peace. In this pre-Russia, pre-Taliban environment, we meet Amir and Hassan. Though Hassan is technically a servant in Amir's father's home, the two young boys are equal in love and friendship, the kind of close bond that only young children can have. Together they fly kites, see movies and tell stories. Unfortunately for young Amir he is something of a coward and relies entirely on Hassan for protection.

So, when Hassan is attacked by bullies and humiliated in a devastating fashion, Amir witnesses but does nothing. His shame unbearable, Amir ends their friendship just before the Russians arrive to end it permanently. Chased from the country by the Russians, Amir's father takes him to America and he goes on to become a successful writer. It is then that another secret is revealed, one that will rekindle the bond between Amir and Hassan and return Amir to an Afghanistan that is a far different place than of his youth.

Told with soft, precise movements, audiences will be forgiven for calling The Kite Runner slow though I prefer to call it deliberate. It's a far cry from Forster's other impressive works which were far less understated than The Kite Runner a work of a much more quiet and thoughtful genius. The Kite Runner is Forster's first stab at real film-making maturity. Removing the tricky elements of his earlier works, the sex of Monster's Ball, the flights of dreamlike fantasy in Finding Neverland or the twisting logic of Stay, the physics of Stranger Than Fiction, Forster settles in for a quiet bit of storytelling in The Kite Runner and shows himself a master of that as well.

Told almost entirely in Arabic with Arab actors in all of the lead roles and not a recognizable American face in the bunch, The Kite Runner is in so many ways brave and bold. What a shock it is that a Hollywood studio, Dreamworks/Universal, actually got behind it. They did and we are the beneficiaries of their faith that Marc Forster could tell this foreign story in such a universal fashion. Shocking moments of violence occasionally break the calm of The Kite Runner but they are merely a small part of the subtle, human tapestry of this exceptionally well told tale which teaches far more with gentility than with the force of shocking violence. 

A remarkable work by a remarkable filmmaker, The Kite Runner is a beautifully compelling film experience. By the way, in case you are wondering what Marc Forster has up his sleeve next? In another wild career twist, he is hard at work on the next James Bond movie.

Movie Review The Kindergarten Teacher

The Kindergarten Teacher (2018) 

Directed by Sara Colangelo 

Written by Sara Colangelo 

Starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, Parker Sevak, Anna Baryshnikov, Rosa Salazar, Gael Garcia Bernal 

Release Date October 12th, 2018 

Published November 17th, 2018 

Due to a dire lack of new releases to talk about I decided to continue the theme of Netflix movies from this past year. Another movie I missed out on when it premiered on Netflix in 2018 was The Kindergarten Teacher starring Maggie Gyllenhaal. This is one of the most distinctive movies of the last year. The premise is eye catching and the way the story plays out is bold and necessary and surprisingly unexpected. 

The Kindergarten Teacher stars Maggie Gyllenhaal as Lisa, the Kindergarten teacher of the title. Lisa is married to Grant (Michael Chernus) with whom she has two High School age children. Her hobby is poetry and she attends an adult education class where she shares her honestly banal talent. Her teacher, Simon (Gael Garcia Bernal), is a dreamboat college professor who is rightly not impressed with her work. 

The plot kicks in when Lisa hears a kid in her class, Jimmy (Parker Sevak) randomly begin to spout poetry. It’s quite good poetry, well beyond the talent of a 5 year old. Lisa is mesmerized by the beauty of Jimmy’s poetry so much that she writes it down and then presents it to her class as her own. When her teacher is clearly excited by her new work she begins hounding the kid for more poems which he delivers on. 

This sounds like the premise of a bad 90’s comedy where she will have to reveal who really wrote the poems at the end while simultaneously delivering a monologue about the lesson she’s learned from her terrible mistake in stealing from this child. That, however, is not this movie. The Kindergarten Teacher, directed by relative newcomer Sara Colangelo, goes in a completely different and disturbing direction. 

This is a very brave and bold performance from Maggie Gyllenhaal. Her Lisa is more comparable to Salieri from Amadeus than she is with any traditional type of character. She is genuinely excited by Jimmy’s incredible talent but behind her eyes you can sense a disturbing sort of jealousy that takes on a whole other level of creepy when you remember that she is jealous of and dedicated to a 5 year old child. 

What made the movie that much more interesting for me is that people react to Lisa’s obsession with this kid’s poetry in a perfectly appropriate fashion. Her teaching assistant clocks it when Lisa continuously takes Jimmy out of class during naptime, Jimmy’s nanny is clearly uncomfortable with the odd and obsessive way Lisa talks about Jimmy’s talent and how it needs to be nurtured and though he eventually hires Lisa to watch Jimmy after school, Jimmy’s dad catches on after Lisa takes Jimmy to a poetry reading at night in the city. 

Where the film goes from there is for you to discover. It’s both predictable and unpredictable. I found it unpredictable because most mainstream films don’t have the bravery that The Kindergarten Teacher has. Writer-Director Sara Colangelo takes the film to places that are natural progressions and rarely settles for what we expect from lesser films. We’ve been trained to look for the easy ways out and I can say that The Kindergarten Teacher rarely takes the easy way out. 

The Kindergarten Teacher is streaming now on Netflix. It’s Rated R, for some nudity and sexuality but that doesn’t have anything to do with the main plot. The film is kind of creepy but not that creepy. 

Movie Review The Kingdom

The Kingdom (2007) 

Directed by Peter Berg 

Written by Matthew Michael Carnahan 

Starring Jennifer Garner, Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, Jason Bateman, Jeremy Piven, Richard Jenkins

Release Date September 28th, 2007

Published September 27th, 2007 

The trailer for Peter Berg's The Kingdom promises much more than the film delivers. Watching the trailer you expect big action, political intrigue and some mystery. What you really get in The Kingdom is CSI: Saudi Arabia. The first two acts of The Kingdom play out with the precision of your average episode of Jerry Bruckheimer's cop science show. The last third of The Kingdom however becomes something close to what was promised. The third act of this foreign set thriller becomes such a rousing action piece that I can forgive much of the dull imitation of a TV cop show that is the first two acts.

In Riyadh Saudi Arabia there is a strip of land where hundreds of American oil workers have recreated America on Saudi soil. It is here that that the terrorsts of the new thriller The Kingdom strike and kill more than 100 Americans and several of their Saudi protectors. Also killed in this attack are a pair of American FBI agents.

After some political maneuvering the FBI's Evidence Response Team leader Ronald Fleury gets his team, including Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner), Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman) and Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper), on the ground in the kingdom, as Saudi Arabia is called in private. They are not welcome as their Saudi Arabian police bodyguard Col. Al Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom) explains and American diplomat Jim Schmidt (Jeremy Piven) underlnes.

The teams goal is to find the weapons used in the attack, link them to a specific terrorist and kill him. That it plays out quite that simply is both a virtue and a curse for this interesting but not entirely satisfying thriller. Directed by Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights, The Rundown), The Kingdom attempts to be a mystery, a forensic thriller and an action movie and only succeeds at one, and then only in the final act of the movie.

The last third of the film is an extended action sequence involving the capture and near beheading of one of our heroes and his friends' desperate, violent attempts to rescue him. These scenes are expertly captured by Berg's handheld, whip pan camera and in Matthew Michael Carnahan's hard boiled, tight lipped dialogue.

The striking moment, and the films most true, comes as Foxx's Fleury and his Saudi counterpart kick down the door of a potential terrorist. Just before the action kicks in, Foxx asks casually but with some urgent good humor, which side of the door Allah was on. The Saudi's matter of fact response "We'll see" feels real, it sounds like a part of a story that someone might tell over beers after surviving it. It's the most authentic moment in the movie.

Solemn with bursts of awkward wit, the script by Matthew Michael Carnahan fails to give weight to the picture beyond the obvious dangers of the mission. Attempts at politics are fumbled miserably as scenes involving Richard Jenkins as the head of the FBI and Danny Huston as the Attorney General happen without context or consequence. Two fine actors are wasted in a subplot that never develops, in an attempt to bring political weight where none exists.

So just what is the political perspective of The Kingdom? There really isnt any. The film makes passing references to 9/11, Osama Bin Laden, and the war in Iraq. However, the politicians of The Kingdom are fictional as is the films terrorist attack which is loosely based on the 1997 Khobar Towers bombing and the struggles of the FBI in conflict with the Saudis and our own government, but it takes place in a modern context.

The films allusions of depth come not from politics or a subtext of war criticism or the futility of terrorism but rather more facile references to how Americans and Saudis and even terrorists are all just people with families to protect and care for. Thus why we have a few uncomfortable scenes where Jamie Foxx is established as a loving doting dad, scenes where his Saudi counterpart Col. Al Ghazi is seen caring for his two sons and even a scene of a terrorist comforting and teaching his young son about Jihad and American imperialism.

The family scenes feel like a fratboy's attempt at being deep and meaningful and Berg has always carried that fratboy air about him. Writer Matthew Michael Carnahan too has that air of fratboy toughness without thought, sensitivity only in the broadest strokes. In the end it is that fratboy sensibility that makes them terrific with crafting visceral action scenes but at a loss to tell us what it all means or give us anything deeper than 'everyone has a daddy'.

The Kingdom is a deeply flawed action picture that succeeds because its creators are skilled in the art of action and at holding a surface of professionalism. The film always looks good, keeps a good pace, even at 2 hours plus, and it certainly feels like it should be important. Unfortunately, there isn't much beneath the surface of The Kingdom.

A kickass third act is what recommends The Kingdom. If you go in with lowered expectations, lower than the Oscar nominatable expectations I had from that killer trailer, and you may find yourself enjoying The Kingdom.

Movie Review The Kids Are Alright

The Kids Are Alright (2010) 

Directed by Lisa Cholodenko 

Written by Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Bloomberg 

Starring Mia Wasikowska, Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Josh Hutcherson

Release Date July 9th, 2010 

Published August 1st, 2010 

An unconventional family in an unconventional movie; “The Kids Are All Right” tells the story of a lesbian couple named Jules (Julianne Moore) and Nic (Annette Bening) and their teenage son and daughter, Laser (Josh Hutcherson) and Joni (Mia Wasikowska). The picture of modern domestic bliss in their comfortable upper middle class niche; this family is in just the right moment to be upended.

Upended they are when the kids seek out the man who donated the sperm that impregnated their moms. The donor daddy was Paul (Mark Ruffalo) a bachelor restaurateur living the California ideal of wine, women and organic coop farming. He's shocked to hear from Joni and Laser but willing to meet and after meeting them he becomes a part of their lives. Naturally, though they put on a brave face, Jules and Nic are a little hurt and a little threatened by Paul. With Joni leaving for college soon they are concerned about losing precious moments with her to Paul. To rectify the situation they attempt to connect with Paul and it goes well for Jules, not so well for Nic.

You may be able to guess what happens next but not the way these characters react to these changing circumstances. Writer-director Lisa Cholodenko has gathered an expert cast into a modern and unique story of love, family, sex, heartache and self discovery. Surrounding these dramatic developments are comic moments that are painfully awkward yet somehow round the corner from embarrassing to shockingly funny.

In a cast filled with standouts Annette Bening is the star. Though some may find her control freak character shrill, Ms. Bening turns this around with one touching and brilliant scene that is arguably the finest bit of acting in any movie this year. An uncomfortable dinner at Paul's house finds Paul and Jules finally sharing a common interest, singer Joni Mitchell, and Ms. Bening heartachingly warbling a piece of her favorite song.

In the film's timeline this scene arrives at a turning point and as the scene plays out we become lost in this moment of pleasure tinged with sadness. It's a moment that sets the pace for everything to come after it and the moment bonds you not just to Ms. Bening's Nic but to the film and the emotional journey of all of these characters.

While Ms. Bening is the star, Mia Wasikowska is the film's MVP quietly holding the emotional center while all around her grow chaotic and emotional. She too will have her moment of emotional breakdown but her center is strong and her recovery quick. Best known for her role as Alice in Tim Burton's unctuous “Alice in Wonderland,” this is the first time Ms. Wasikowska has been allowed to stand apart from the background and she really proves her dramatic chops.

”The Kids Are All Right” is not flawless. The story grows restless and the awkward comedy is, at times, wearying but for the most part this is a wonderfully adult dramatic comedy with a good head and a better heart. Lisa Cholodenko has a strong sense of character and place and with this cast there was simply no going wrong.

Movie Review The Invisible

The Invisible (2007) 

Directed by David S Goyer 

Written by Mick Davis, Christine Roum 

Starring Justin Chatwin, Margarita Levieva, Marcia Gay Harden

Release Date April 27th. 2007 

Published April 26th, 2007 

The Invisible is one of the more abused Hollywood releases of the last year. The teen centered, metaphysical thriller was to be released in late 2006. It was then dumped into the mire of early January. Then, with little notice, the movie was bumped to April. How little care was taken with this latest rescheduling? Trailers for The Invisible ran, even a week before the film's April 27th release, touting the film's January release. Ouch!

Released without being shown to critics, another unkind cut, The Invisible is a sad case of a studio that did not know what it had. This is a smart, thoughtful, spiritual thriller with a star making performance from Justin Chatwin and from director David S. Goyer. Star making; had the studio not screwed things up so badly.

Nick Powell (Justin Chatwin) is a privileged teen who has every material comfort he could want. Smart, good looking and popular, Nick is even on his way out of the country having been accepted into a prestigious English writing school. Unfortunately, before he can board the plane for London; Nick is involved in a case of mistaken identity.

A group of thugs led by the troubled and abused Annie (Margerita Levieva); through a misunderstanding, come to believe that Nick has turned them over to the cops after they were busted for a robbery. Seeking him out late at night on a dark empty street they drag him into the woods with the intent of just beating him up. They end up beating him to within an inch of his life and hiding the body.

Nick is not dead but he's also not alive. Emerging from the forest seemingly unscathed; Nick arrives at school and finds that no one can see or hear him; he is Invisible to the living. After some soul searching, Nick realizes that he may still have a chance to live if he can convince Annie to help him find his body and save his life.

Directed by David S. Goyer, the writer behind the Blade movies and Ghost Rider, The Invisible is a surprisingly thoughtful and involving melodrama. Spiritual, though not religious, The Invisible unfolds a metaphysical mystery that explores human nature, compassion and forgiveness in the guise of an average teenage ghost story.

Justin Chatwin, who played Tom Cruise's son in War of the Worlds, looks and carries similar mannerisms to a young Tom Cruise. It is uncanny; the ways this kid evokes Cruise circa Taps, The Outsiders and up to The Color of Money, his pre-scientology phase. The kid is charismatic, handsome, and carries that indescribable star magnetism that should make him a big star.

Chatwin brings a thoughtfulness to Nick that is unexpected from a character in a b-movie teen ghost story. But then, thankfully, nearly everything about The Invisible defies expectations. It's supposed to be another teen horror movie from the marketing. It's supposed to be a B-movie because it has no recognizable stars and it's supposed to stink because the studio didn't show the film to critics ahead of time. The Invisible turns all of these expectations on their ears and comes out a smart, meditative and immersive moviegoing experience.

Based on a novel by Swedish writer Mats Wahl, The Invisible is; not surprisingly, an existentialist meditation on the philosophy of existence. Nick falls into the cracks between life and death and is forced to examine why he wants to live and take action to save his own life. Annie on the other hand is uncertain about her wanting to exist. She has lived in the shadows of life; going unnoticed, in her own way; Invisible, unless she was crossed. She confronts her dark existence in dealing with Nick and finds the meaning of her own life.

Heavy stuff for what was expected to be just another teen movie. That is what is so great about this picture, the way director David S. Goyer and screenwriters Mick Davis and Christine Roum never settled for just a ghost story, just a horror movie or just a mystery. The Invisible has a rich inner life, a subtext that is so often missing from modern, mainstream Hollywood movies.

The Invisible is a thoughtful, entertaining, even exciting movie that defies all expectations. Hollywood Pictures, the Disney subsidiary that released The Invisible, may have had no confidence in the film but no matter. The Invisible thrives despite its studio indifference. The movie thrives on smart storytelling, good action and terrific direction from rising filmmaker David S. Goyer.

Don't judge a book by its cover and don't judge The Invisible by its studio indifference. This is a terrific movie that deserves your attention.

Movie Review The Invasion

The Invasion (2007) 

Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel 

Written by David Kajganich 

Starring Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Jeremy Northam, Jeffrey Wright

Release Date August 17th, 2007

Published August 16th, 2007 

The latest incarnation of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, that legendary cold war parable based on the novel by Jack Finney, is one those mythically troubled Hollywood productions. Not quite the historic Hollywood disaster of Bonfire of the Vanities or Ishtar, but with more than a little in common with the recent disastrous Exorcist prequel(s), The Invasion was once directed by an up and coming director, Oliver Hirschbiegel, before being almost entirely reshot by V For Vendetta helmer James McTiegue, with guidance from his producing partners Lana and Lilly Wachowski, The Invasion is a bizarre hybrid of failed ideas and pieces that just don't fit. 

Now, this compromised, reshot version of Hirschbiegel's take on the Body Snatchers legend is finally on the big screen and the result is, as predicted, an utter disaster. The Invasion is a nonsense movie comprised of half baked political ideas and lame, over the top action set pieces. The last time Nicole Kidman starred in a big budget remake the result was the dreary, nonsensical recreation of The Stepford Wives. Working on that highly troubled production should have taught the Oscar winner a lesson yet here she is in The Invasion starring as psychiatrist Carol Bennell. This mother of one son, Oliver (Jackson Bond), is a dedicated mother and doctor

Dad, Tucker (Jeremy Northam) is a scientist for the Centers for Disease Control and when the space shuttle Patriot crashes leaving debris spread across several states he is surprised to be called to the scene. It seems the ship is coated in some sort of alien ooze. When Tucker is accidentally cut by a piece of debris he is soon changed and an alien virus is set loose on the planet. Beginning as what many feel is a flu epidemic, Tucker uses his position at the CDC and his access to the President of the United States, to spread the alien virus and his first target is his son.

It will soon be up to mom and her scientist boyfriend Ben (Daniel Craig) and another scientist, Dr. Galleon (Jeffrey Wright) to discover the virus, uncover the conspiracy and stay uninfected long enough to discover a cure. There are germs of many ideas in The Invasion and a good deal of high minded ambition as well. Unfortunately, not even two talented directors, Oliver Hirschbiegel (Downfall) or pinch hitter James McTiegue (V For Vendetta), and a script overhaul by the Matrix team can seem to wrangle these ideas or ambitions into a cohesive story.

It's clear that the makers of The Invasion desperately wanted the film to be relevant, even political. However, lacking any idea of what metaphor it wants to represent or political philosophy it supports, The Invasion flails in many different directions with no real target to aim at. Allusions are made to the genocide in Darfur, the roiling conflict between Israel and Palestine, and to the war in Iraq but the film doesn't really have a discernible opinion about any of these issues. Rather, each is used as an unsettling plot point in a truly confusing final act that will have some wondering if the aliens are really the bad guys. Yes, the film is so bad, you may just root for the destruction of humanity.

Even through the morass of a thoroughly confused plot, the talented cast of The Invasion manages to make the movie rather gripping. Nicole Kidman is an actress of tremendous strength and fortitude and she sells the tension of the alien invasion extraordinarily well. Though she is a little too convincing as an icy, emotionless, zombie, Ms. Kidman's tenacity and the well calibrated action of The Invasion do manage, from time to time, to move you to the edge of your seat.

Is this really the film that Daniel Craig meant to follow up James Bond with? Not really, actually he was given the role of 007 during shooting of The Invasion. It was only after he completed work on Casino Royale that Craig was called back to reshoot scenes for The Invasion that would hold the film until after Casino Royale. A bummer for Craig who I'm sure wishes he could have had a stronger follow up for Bond than playing second fiddle in a tragic sci fi misfire like The Invasion.

On a more disturbing note, whose awful idea was it to bring the alien virus to earth on a crashing NASA space shuttle? A crash that is not merely reminiscent of the 2003 crash of the space shuttle Columbia but so obviously modeled on the details of that tragedy that a lawsuit would not be out of the question. The crash in The Invasion is spread predominantly over Texas with debris that spread over several southern states. This was the near exact fate of Columbia.

Shame on the producers of The Invasion and the studio for including something of such poor taste and utter disregard for the brave men and women of Columbia and their families. They deserve far better than to have their tragedy be a plot device in some B-movie sci fi schlock-fest. Will we ever see director Oliver Hirschbiegel's original cut of The Invasion? Maybe, maybe not. No one expected to see Paul Schrader's Exorcist prequel or Ridley Scott's Blade Runner but both are now widely available. Hirschbiegel's version no doubt still exists somewhere and will likely be sought after by many a curious sci fi fan due to how uproariously terrible the reshoots clearly are.

Let us keep in mind however, that there is nothing in what is left of The Invasion that holds much promise for a better version to exist in the shadows. The whole misguided enterprise looks more simply like a case of a movie in search of an idea that never really found one. Covering the holes and the cracks with skillful car chases and  well staged gunplay, the Wachowski's and director James McTiegue likely did all that they could with the materials on hand.

Don't hold out too much hope sci fi fans. Let's try and put this Invasion behind us.

Movie Review: The Matrix Revolutions

The Matrix Revolutions (2003) 

Directed by The Wachowskis 

Written by The Wachowskis 

Starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie Ann Moss, Gloria Foster 

Release Date November 5th, 2003 

Published November 4th, 2003 

I was not of an age of reason when Return Of The Jedi was released. I did not understand the historical significance of Godfather Part 3. Now, years later and hopefully much wiser, I see those two films for what they are, the weakest films of two historically brilliant trilogies. So it should come as no surprise that the third film in The Matrix franchise, that one Critic I know called “Our Star Wars” is the weakest film of the three. Matrix Revolutions may not have anything as disappointing and sad as Ewoks in it, but its many flaws are almost as egregious.

Picking up exactly where The Matrix Reloaded left off, Revolutions begins with Neo on an operating table, comatose. Across from him is Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving), now in human form having just sabotaged a number of Zion's defenses. From here we learn that Neo is trapped in between the Matrix and the real world. With the advice of the Oracle (Mary Alice, taking over for the late Gloria Foster) and under the protection of Seraph (Collin Chou), Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie Ann Moss) enter the Matrix to save Neo.

To re-enter The Matrix and rescue Neo, Morpheus and Trinity must battle the Merovingian (Lambert Wilson), an all powerful evil inside the machinery of The Matrix, and track down a new character called The Trainman (Bruce Spence). This is done in no more than 20 minutes into the movie and we are once again out of the Matrix and headed for Zion. First however we must wade through another 20 minutes of dull exposition before we reach the first of the films to major set-pieces, the battle for Zion.

Here is the odd thing about the battle: it takes place without Neo, Morpheus, Trinity or any other character that we have come to identify with The Matrix. This major sequence leans entirely on Nona Gaye's Zee and Clayton Watson as The Kid. There is also plenty of screen time for Nathaniel Lee as Captain Mifune, and though he is quite the badass fighter, we have had no time to invest anything in his fate until now. Without the major players involved, the battle for Zion feels like a completely different and far less involving film.

Once major fighting in The Battle for Zion halts in we get another agonizing 20 or so minutes of dull exposition as we wait for Neo and Trinity to make their way to the machine city and Neo's final showdown with Hugo Weaving's Agent Smith. There is a good deal of dialogue along the way meant to build Smith into the ultimate evil which I found deeply confusing because wasn't the Matrix itself the ultimate evil? Now, because the movie needs someone for Neo to punch, Agent Smith steps into the lead villain role and we lose the innate conflict of the first films in the trilogy, or at least that goes very much on the backburner in favor of ugly CGI fight scenes. 

Whether or not the Matrix is destroyed you will have to see for yourself and hopefully you will find something in it that I did not. This was an odd experience for me because I had given up on the metaphorical and philosophical ideas behind The Matrix after the slick, stylish The Matrix Reloaded showed the series to be merely about special effects. Yet as I watched Revolutions I couldn't help but search for those mythical metaphors and an inkling of the philosophy that so many said lay in the heart of the trilogy. To my disappointment, I was right. The philosophical roots of The Matrix are just not there and without that, The Matrix Revolutions and the franchise in general nothing but cold sterile computer generated special effects.

Movie Review From Paris With Love

From Paris With Love (2010) 

Directed by Pierre Morel 

Written by Adi Hasak 

Starring John Travolta, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Richard Durden 

Release Date February 5th, 2010 

Published February 4th, 2010 

With so much butt-kicking and bullets fired in the new action movie, From Paris with Love, one still must marvel at the fact that what most people cannot get around is John Travolta's bald dome. The shaven skull of Mr. Travolta is the big buzz topic when anyone talks about From Paris with Love. This is despite the fact that it is the follow up from director Pierre Morel whose Taken was one of 2009's most popular films.

Travolta's dome is indeed a bit of a distraction but thanks to a solid turn by Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Pierre Morel's furtive action movie direction; it's not too hard to get around John Travolta's ham and cheese performance and bullet head. James Reese (Meyers) is a handsome kid who seems like he should be more than just a glorified bureaucrat's secretary at the American Embassy in Paris. It turns out; he is more, though not much more. Reese is also a secret agent but his career thus far has been mostly the busywork, laying foundations for real spies.

Reese gets his big break when a bombastic American spy, Charlie Wax (John Travolta), arrives in Paris. Though enlisted as Charlie's driver, James insinuates himself as Charlie's partner only to find himself desperately in over his head. Wax is a wildcard whose methods and motives are more than questionable.

Soon Reese is a little high on some high end cocaine, as is Wax, and his long suffering girlfriend Caroline (Kasia Smutniak) is beginning to suspect something about his job that he's not telling her. She has an important secret of her own, one that director Pierre Morel writer Adi Hasek use to strong dramatic effect.

From Paris with Love lacks the intensity and drive of director Pierre Morel’s Taken. Liam Neeson's frightening determination gave Taken an unpredictable and dangerous quality that kept audiences on the edge of their seats. From Paris with Love is much more of a classic, bombastic action film in the vein of the Rush Hour films, minus the intentional comic relief. Don't get me wrong, there is humor in From Paris with Love but only some of it seems intended. John Travolta chews the furniture, the scenery, his fellow actors, anything in his path in his most outlandish performance since Face/Off. Mostly, Travolta is entertaining. 

Occasionally, Travolta is so hammy and over the top it's embarrassing but not so often that it's a terrible distraction. Jonathan Rhys Meyers is well cast as the fish out of water wannabe spy and provides a welcome straight edge for Travolta's larger than life performance. You have to love how game Meyers is to follow Travolta and Morel's flights of bullet riddled fancy but his best work comes in giving From Paris with Love grounding in some sort of movie universe reality. When the film arrives at its dramatic conclusion it can only work with Meyers because Travolta lacks any pretense of believability in this universe or any universe.

There is plenty of fun to be had in From Paris with Love, especially if you are a fan of Travolta at his most balls out goofy. If however, you are looking for action and suspense along the lines of Taken, a relationship that TV ads are eager to sew in your mind, you will find yourself disappointed. From Paris with Love just isn't in Taken's league.

Movie Review Fright Night (2011)

Fright Night (2011) 

Directed by Craig Gillespie 

Written by Marti Noxon 

Starring Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, David Tennant, Imogen Poots, Toni Collette 

Release Date August 19th, 2011 

Published August 18th, 2011 

"Fright Night" is a mixed bag of a remake. On the one hand there are a few very effective scares and moments of skin-crawling creepiness. On the other hand, the two leads, Colin Farrell as Jerry the Vampire and Anton Yelchin as Jerry's teen neighbor turned Vampire Hunter, are on such awesomely different wavelengths that you're left laughing at Farrell's arch, over the top vamping and yawning at Yelchin's vanilla good guy.

The population of the Las Vegas suburb that is home to the 2011 "Fright Night" is not a very observant group. Their ranks have grown smaller and smaller ever since that handsome overnight construction worker, Jerry (Farrell), moved into the neighborhood. In fact, people keep not returning from his house whenever they visit. Charlie (Anton Yelchin) is among those who don't catch on quickly. Jerry is Charlie's next door neighbor and yet Charlie is quick to deny there is anything odd about Jerry. Charlie's nerdy ex-pal Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) however, is onto Jerry from the get go. 

When Ed falls victim to Jerry it finally gets Charlie motivated to figure out what's going on with his unusual neighbor. "Fright Night" pits Farrell's Jerry against Yelchin's Charlie in a life and death battle in which Charlie must defend his mother, played by Toni Collette, and his hot girlfriend Amy, played by Imogen Poots, while trying not to tell them that Jerry is a Vampire. That notion lasts far too long and causes only a series of painfully awkward scenes where Charlie acts strange and then denies that he's acting strange.

Finally, Jerry puts an end to the awkwardness by flatly demonstrating his Vampire-ness in attempting to kill Charlie, Amy and Mom. This reveal leads to the best sequence of "Fright Night," a late night chase in which Farrell's Vampire chases down the trio in their minivan, gets dragged beneath said minivan, and is eventually stopped, for a few minutes anyway. It's a terrific sequence; unfortunately the rest of "Fright Night" lacks the energy and invention of this sequence and the film as a whole suffers. 

The biggest problem with "Fright Night" is the complete lack of chemistry between Farrell and Yelchin, each of whom is playing a vibe that is completely at odds with the other. In "Fright Night" Colin Farrell chews the scenery so much that Bela Lugosi might advise him to take it down a notch. Anton Yelchin meanwhile, is so staid and low-key you wonder if he has forgotten what movie he's making. Yelchin's entire Vampire fighting comes off as perfunctory as a result of his laconic performance, as if he were only roused to action because the script requires it.

When Yelchin is later partnered with David Tennant, as Vampire expert Peter Vincent, the mismatch of energies becomes even more pronounced. Tennant, a fine actor, best remembered as Dr. Who, sadly comes off as a prancing, slightly more serious version of Russell Brand. You can decide for yourself whether you think that is a good thing or a bad thing; the main point is that Tennant, like Farrell, is more energetic and attention grabbing than Yelchin's dull hero.

Fright Night was directed by Craig Gillespie, whose best work, Lars and the Real Girl, was an oddly sweet movie about an oddball in love with a sex doll. Gillespie used the strange energies of his lead actor, Ryan Gosling, to craft a movie that was unlike any other movie you've ever seen. Gillespie may have been attempting to find something strange in Yelchin's performance but neither he nor Yelchin ever finds that point of uniqueness and the film suffers for it.

Gillespie also, quite unfortunately, is not above hoary clichés like people running upstairs when they should look for a door or a window, or employing a cheap yet popular theme with modern Vampire movies, making up rules for Vampire behavior that are vague enough that Jerry and his Vampire minions can break some rules while adhering to others at the convenience of the plot. I cannot deny that moments of "Fright Night" are honestly scary and creepy but those scenes can't make up for all the stuff that just doesn't work in "Fright Night."

Movie Review Friday the 13th (Remake)

Friday the 13th (2009) 

Directed by Marcus Nispel 

Written by Damian Shannon, Michael Swift 

Starring Jared Padalecki, Danielle Panabaker, Amanda Righetti, Travis Van Winkle, Aaron Yoo

Release Date February 13th, 2009 

Published February 13th, 2009 

I get why horror movies are popular. Who doesn't love a good scare. The horror masters of the 70's and 80's used gore and nudity to tantalize our lower brain and piled a little suspense on top to keep us completely engaged. The mixture created an era in the genre that cannot be matched and is long over. The modern horror film has devolved from the standards of the classics. The modern obsession with torture and 'realism' has turned a lowbrow genre into a frightening reflection of a devolving society. If the latest addition to the torture porn genre, Friday the 13th the remake, is what modern horror audiences want, god help us all.

The latest 're-imagining' from the ugly sad minds of producer Michael Bay and director Marcus Nispel, the new Friday the 13th takes gory pleasure in creating characters so loathsome that they challenge one not to root for the maniac murderer. Some might call that daring, I just call it disturbing. A group of College kids take off into the woods surrounding Camp Crystal lake in search of a large crop of marijuana. Once they set camp for the night they engage in behaviors that invite the oddly puritanical psychopath Jason Voorhees.

Though ostensibly Jason kills because of his mommy issues, she was killed by camp counselors after she killed a number of them, evidence seems to indicate that Jason kills out of some misguided moralistic crusade against sexual promiscuity and illicit drug and alcohol consumption. Jason's first victim here is a pothead. The next two victims are in the midst of a sexual encounter. The next two? Thinking about sex and slightly inebriated. Once this first group is dispatched another group arrives at a lake side cabin not far from Ol' camp Crystal Lake.

Once again, drugs, alcohol and sex are prominent. On top of the illicit activities, each of these characters are supreme jackasses. Obnoxious, overbearing jerks, especially their douche-bag host played by Travis Van Winkle. Van Winkle's Trent is king douche-bag and not rooting for Jason to take his head right off his douche-bag shoulders is a herculean effort. Thus we get Jason Voorhees' moral crusader. Righting the wrongs of the heedless, consumptive and hedonistic youth. It's a bizarro land of right and wrong, good and evil, that delights in torture and murder while attempting to justify the killing in a wildly odd moralistic fashion.

Like a crazed bible thumper, Jason seeks eye for eye vengeance for the death of his mother and, though he never seems to know it, the film makers drive him to go all old testament on his sinning victims. Jason as a vengeful god is a truly bizarre conceit. The same instinct that drives Jason to punish is the same that seems to draw an audience to witness the slaughter. There is a distinct "Christians and lions" feel to modern horror. As the Romans merely witnessed bloody slaughters we are invited to do so with a slightly more dramatic distance. Actors being killed with special effects is a far cry from real people being slaughtered, but the instinct to enjoy it is the same and almost as disturbing.

Indeed, the modern horror maker does want you to enjoy the slaughter, lingering as they do on the faux suffering and imitated degradation. And therein lies my issue, dear reader. Just what could drive someone to enjoy even the demonstration of degradation, torture and humiliation? Horror, back in the day, crafted super human cartoons who were always killable and always the bad guy, no matter how charismatic or iconic they became. You may have gone to the theater because of Michael Myers or Jason or Freddy but the rooting interest was always in seeing them overcome by their victims.

Today, I cannot figure out what the appeal or purpose of modern horror is. For the life of me, why anyone would want to watch the loathsome characters of Friday the 13th or their ugly disturbing deaths is beyond me. There is simply nothing appealing here and the compromising of good and evil, the seeming attempts to make Jason, ugh, sympathetic, are stomach turning. Friday the 13th exists in a moral vacuum. There is no good or evil, just the demonstration of death and some faux twisted puritanism masquerading as ironic aside. Of couse, these aren't real moral crusaders their are naked breasts and soft-core porn quality sex on display in this very R-rated movie. Thus, Jason's unlikely moral crusade is without a doubt expected to be humorous.

It's not humorous. There is nothing humorous and nothing even remotely appealing about this ugly, stupid, vile little movie.

Movie Review Friday After Next

Friday After Next (2002) 

Directed by Marcus Raboy 

Written by Ice Cube

Starring Ice Cube, Mike Epps, John Witherspoon, Don D.C Curry, Katt Williams 

Release Date November 22nd, 2002 

Published November 25th, 2007 

For all the talk about how great Eminem is, people lose track of the man who paved the road Em is now traveling. In 1991, an L.A rapper took an acting role. Mind you, not an easy role, but a serious dramatic role in the inner-city drama Boyz In The Hood. Ice Cube in the role of Doughboy showed real depth and emotion and brought real experience to a character that would have seemed inauthentic if played by anyone else. Cube had every opportunity to take the easy road. He could have played the same gangsta roles and picked up bigger paychecks, but instead he chose to go out on his own and by 1996, he was writing his own movies.

After several stops and starts Cube finished a script for an urban comedy simply based on real life in South Central Los Angeles. Friday was a raunchy comedy, in the vein of Cheech & Chong. Most memorable for launching the career of Cube's co-star Chris Tucker, no one would have imagined that Friday could inspire two sequels. Now with the release of Friday After Next, could a third sequel be far off?

As we rejoin Craig (Ice Cube) and his cousin Day Day (Mike Epps), it's the day before Christmas and as they sleep their apartment is being robbed by a guy dressed as Santa Claus. Craig wakes up to find Santa in the kitchen but can't stop him from getting away with all of the Christmas presents and the rent money they owe the next day. Craig and Day Day wouldn't worry about the rent so much, except that the landlady (Bebe Drake) has a son named Damon (Terry Crews) who is fresh from prison and ready to extract rent from any tenant unwilling to pay. In one of the movie’s many low points it is revealed that Damon has an affinity for prison sex, if you know what I mean. Craig and Day Day's only hope for avoiding a date with Damon is their new jobs as security guards at a strip mall, where their fathers have just opened a rib joint.

While Craig just wants to get through the day and get paid, Day Day takes to the job a little too much leading to even more problems and another run in with Santa Claus. Among the other businesses in the strip mall is a new clothing store called Pimps & Ho's. No I'm not kidding. It's run by a pimp named Money Mike (Katt Williams in the film’s funniest performance) and his 'Ho,' Donna (the unbelievably gorgeous K.D Aubert).

All of the film leads up to a Christmas party at Craig and Day Day's apartment that they use to raise the rent money and where Money Mike has an unwanted meeting with Damon. Of course, there is one more run in with Santa Claus and a chase scene that provides the film’s funniest moments. Unfortunately, it isn't until the end that the film picks up steam and provides the few chuckles of the entire film. Until the end, it's mostly unfunny stereotypes and misogyny. Throw in a little gay bashing and you have a comedy that is attempting to push the boundaries of political correctness but failing miserably.

I believe anything can be funny in the right context and intent, but there is nothing funny about the character of Damon threatening to force guys to have sex with him. Ice Cube's script too often falls back on the excuse that because the characters are black they can make fun of black stereotypes. The problem is that the stereotypes aren't funny. You would expect stereotypical characters to be played broadly and over the top but too often on Friday After Next, they play straight.

At some point in his career, I vaguely remember this, Mike Epps act was funny, but now it's so tiring. Epps quickly wears out his welcome in Friday After Next and his work provides the film’s lowest of low points. As for Cube, it was sad to see such a talented actor go through the motions as he does here. Even with material he wrote himself, Cube can't seem to wake up. And sadly, with the successful opening weekend box office for Friday After Next, don't be surprised to see yet another sequel. If it happens, though, I think I will take next Friday off.

Movie Review Freedomland

Freedomland (2006) 

Directed by Joe Roth 

Written by Richard Price 

Starring Samuel L Jackson, Julianne Moore, Edie Falco, Ron Eldard, Anthony Mackie 

Release Date February 17th, 2006 

Published February 16th, 2006 

In my line of work I see a lot of bad movies. Most are simply innocuous and forgettable. Some are painful but instructive in crafting worst of the year lists. And still some reach a level of awful that seems unachievable in this day and age. A level of awful that only a few, Michael Bay or Uwe Boll or the late great Ed Wood, tread. Joe Roth's Freedomland is one of those, thankfully, rare films. Freedomland is a film that reaches a pantheon of awful next to Armageddon, Bonfire of the Vanities, Hudson Hawk or Howard The Duck. It's a disaster of ineptitude, hubris, and simpleminded idiocy. Freedomland is a shockingly bad film. 

Samuel L Jackson stars in Freedomland as detective Lorenzo Counsel. Respected in the tiny, mostly African American, community of Dempsey, New Jersey, Lorenzo is the wise arbiter of any dispute and the man everyone turns to in times of trouble. So it is, when a white woman, Brenda Martin (Julianne Moore), from a neighboring white suburb, claims she was carjacked by an anonymous black man from Dempsey, Lorenzo gets the job of investigating the case and keeping the peace.

Unfortunately this is no mere carjacking. According to Brenda her four year old son was asleep in the back of the car. Worse yet, Brenda's brother Danny (Ron Eldard) is a cop from the neighboring district and has begun an all out invasion of Dempsey in search of the kid. Shutting down the neighborhood, Danny and the suburban cops have touched off a potential race riot.

Edie Falco later joins the story as Karen Colucci, the leader of an organization that searches for missing children. Though Brenda is difficult to get through to, Karen finally does convince her to let the group search the area where her son went missing. The search leads to an abandoned children's hospital called Freedomland and a revelation that I'm sure was supposed to shock us but instead draws derisive chuckles.

The film's title and trailer points the focus of the film toward the search scenes, toward the abandoned hospital Freedomland. Various characters along the way deliver horror stories about the hospital, about why it was shut down and a few missing children who have turned up there in the past. Then in a mindblowingly idiotic twist.... NOTHING HAPPENS AT FREEDOMLAND!!!

The stunning idiocy of the crafting of Freedomland is difficult to describe. As rational, intelligent moviegoers we have the fair expectation that filmmakers will adhere to a basic logic. Freedomland director Joe Roth, perhaps in a vain attempt to be unpredictable, throws logic to the wind and instead puts stars Samuel L. Jackson and Julianne Moore into an ever devolving series of brain free conversations that lead to one ludicrous twist after another. 

The one consistently entertaining aspect of Freedomland is the amount of derisive laughter it evokes. The film is grimly serious but because it is so poorly assembled and so mindblowingly, offensively, stupid, one can't help but chuckle at the absurdity. How in this day and age does a movie this bad make it to theaters?

I've rarely asked this question in the past. Films like the misguided hip hop comedy Marci X and the bizarre romantic comedy failure Someone Like You with Ashley Judd inspired the question in the past. Those films however, were comedies and comedy is actually quite easy to be bad at. For thrillers it is a challenge to be this horrendously bad. There are so many fallbacks and cliches a director can employ to turn a thriller from horrendous to merely innocuously bad, like say... Taking Lives with Angelina Jolie or another Ashley Judd failure called Twisted. Both bad thrillers but innocuous and forgettably bad thrillers.

Freedomland is so awful it burrows into your brain and begs to be remembered for its badness. I will refer to Freedomland in the future when citing film making at its lowest points. Part of what makes Freedomland so memorably awful is the cast. Samuel L. Jackson has made bad pictures, in fact he was in Twisted with Ashley Judd, but he has never looked this lost and confused on screen. Poor Julianne Moore hasn't been in anything remotely this horrible since Assassins with Stallone and Banderas. Assasins is Oscar material compared to Freedomland.

Both Samuel L. Jackson and Julianne Moore will survive Freedomland, though it will always darken their resumes, and sadly so will director Joe Roth. The man has already survived after directing Revenge of The Nerds 2 and Christmas With The Kranks so clearly the man has a horseshoe up his ass. At the very least he must have good friends to be able to continue finding work after so many out and out disasters and now the fetid, rancid, shlock that is Freedomland.

Movie Review Freedom Writers

Freedom Writers (2007) 

Directed by Richard LaGravenese 

Written by Richard LaGravenese 

Starring Hilary Swank, Scott Glenn, Imelda Staunton, Patrick Dempsey, Mario 

Release Date January 5th, 2007

Published January 4th, 2007 

Every year we get another inner-city teacher drama. The stories are meant to be inspiring, uplifting and heartwarming. They are mean to 'really make you think.' The thing about this particular plot however, is not how often it is repeated; but how often it works. Looking back, over what by now can be considered a sub-genre, the inner-city teacher drama has turned out a number of very good movies. From Stand and Deliver to Lean On Me to Dangerous Minds, the story is similar and so are the positive results.

The latest movie to lift this story line is Freedom Writers the true story of a teacher who listened to her students and allowed them to tell their story. Aside from the true story aspect, there is nothing original about Freedom Writers. What sets it apart is the savvy performance of star Hillary Swank who shows why she is a two time Oscar winner. In Freedom Writers Hillary Swank stars as Erin Gruwell a good-hearted but naive, heart on her sleeve liberal activist who has just accepted her first teaching job. 

It's 1996, the Rodney King riots are fresh in the minds of all, and Erin's new school in Long Beach California is an epicenter of racial tension after a forced integration policy began busing inner-city kids to this suburban high school. The integration has caused a racial stratification, a sort of tribalism in which people of the same ethnicity hang out together and with no one else. Racial lines are crossed at your own peril and gang violence is the price you pay. Into this situation walks wide eyed idealist Erin who feels that she can make a difference with these kids despite the cold-hearted realism injected by her supervisor Ms. Campbell (Imelda Staunton) who tries hard to temper Erin's enthusiasm.

Erin's first day is a disaster. When she brings up the story of Homer students shout back insults about Homer Simpson. When Erin makes attempts at racial humor, the silence is deathly. At home things are just as mixed up Erin's husband Scott (Patrick Dempsey) is supportive at first but soon becomes upset with the amount of time dedicated to Erin's students, while her activist father Steve (Scott Glenn) is skeptical and concerned for her safety.

You know from the formula and the true story tag that eventually Erin will get through to her kids and that they will bond like a family. What Freedom Writers director Richard LaGravenese does to set this story apart is allow his star Hillary Swank to carry the whole movie. Swank plays Erin Gruwell with an optimistic streak that never dims. Erin Gruwell manages to be fearless and clueless but never foolish. She has an innate understanding of her surroundings and though she is naive, her naivete is part of her charm and why these life hardened kids allow her in their world.

This is a tremendous performance with no wrong notes. Swank proves once again why she is an Oscar darling. She finds a rhythm to each of her performances and plays it for all it's worth. Now working in a most familiar of stories, within the constrictions of a genre formula, Swank sets the whole film apart from its familiar or even cliched elements by how she plays the role of Erin Gruwell.

Freedom Writers is a true story. The screenplay credit went to director Richard LaGravenese but it's based on the writing of the real life students of the real Erin Gruwell. Freedom Writers is the rare true story that doesn't get bogged down in making its story more cinematic than it is. Freedom Writers is focused and well paced, it reveals itself and its characters slowly and with great care. Working from the real life diaries of these students the stories are heartbreaking and LaGravenese and his cast never shy away from that sadness. To their credit they are also not consumed by that sadness.

Freedom Writers is a little too familiar but it's a story that is so well told that familiarity doesn't breed contempt or even boredom. It is yet another teacher inspires inner city students to become better citizen movies. And yet, it works. Hillary Swank is so talented that I forgot to look for the cliches, I forgot to predict what was going to happen next. I found myself investing in this story and enjoying it more than I ever imagined.