Movie Review: The Lord of the Rings The Fellowship of The Ring

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) 

Directed by Peter Jackson

Written by Peter Jackson, Phillipa Boyens, Fran Walsh 

Starring Elijah Wood, Ian Holm, Ian McKellan, Christopher Lee, Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler 

Release Date December 10th, 2001 

Published December 9th, 2001

For the first time in a long while I was able to walk into a theater with almost no knowledge of the film I was about to see. The trailers were merely teasers that didn't giveaway anything of the story, I've never read the book on which the film is based and I read no reviews of the film before seeing it. Yet the film I saw is one of the more hyped films of all time, The Lord Of the Rings Fellowship of The Ring. You're wondering how I was able to avoid learning about LOTR and what it was about. I assure you it wasn't a calculated effort. The books never appealed to me, I did know a little something about hobbits, Middle earth and fairies, but beyond that the film was entirely new to me.

Fellowship is the first in a three picture series in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It introduces the story of Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood), who inherits a powerful and mysterious ring from his uncle, Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm). Frodo has no idea what the ring does but is quickly clued in by the friendly wizard Gandalf (Ian Mckellen), who explains the ring's origin and that of its owner and controller, the evil Lord Sauron. The Ring, we are told, has the power to enslave all of Middle earth; thus it must be destroyed. A fellowship of 9 made up of elves, men, dwarves and hobbits must destroy the ring by returning it to the fires of Mount Doom. Oh if it were only that easy. Sauron is also searching for the ring with his allies the Orcs, and the powerful wizard Samuron (Christopher Lee) who is building an army to stop the intruders.

If you think I'm simplifying too much I'm sorry, I'm just trying to get to my point. It's been a while since we've seen such a pure good vs. evil story, I in fact thought that irony may have destroyed Hollywood's ability to tell such a story without having characters that are overly flawed and quirky. In any other action movie, Frodo would have a drinking problem or an ex-wife who complains about child support and he would make wisecracks before dispatching a villain while each of his emotions were underscored by some pop classic. Yes in that sense LOTR is a breath of fresh air.

Elijah Wood will never be confused with your average adventure hero. His Frodo Baggins is tiny and frightened and certainly not predisposed to violence. Instead, he's pretty good at running and hiding, which he does a lot of. Don't be mistaken, Wood doesn't play Frodo as a coward, he's realistic. He knows he's not a fighter and leaves the warrior stuff to the warriors. Viggo Mortensen is the true standout in the very large cast that also includes Liv Tyler, Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving. Mortensen shows some charisma and energy in Fellowship that I had not seen from him before. Here he tears into his character and allows his emotions to carry his words and he's very effective. Lord of the Rings is an epic adventure of great scale and scope. Give director Peter Jackson a lot of credit, he has created an entirely new world onscreen. He brings it to life with amazing visual flourish yet doesn't allow the film to get buried underneath it's special effects, which is quite a delicate balancing act.

Comparisons to Star Wars are warranted. The character's motivations and the action-before-dialogue style are quite reminiscent of the George Lucas creation. Character development takes a backseat to visual artistry and the latest in SFX and CGI technology. Although I prefer more character driven styles, action adventures if done well can be almost as entertaining and Lord of the Rings is very well done. 

Sidenote: Am I the only one who thought Christopher Lee looked like Osama Bin Laden? It was probably just the beard, but his first close-up was somewhat jarring.

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 How to Train Your Dragon The Hidden World

How to Train Your Dragon The Hidden World (2019) 

Directed by Dean Deblois

Written by Dean Deblois 

Starring Jay Baruchel, America Ferrara, F. Murray Abraham, Gerard Butler, Cate Blanchett, Jonah Hill 

Release Date February 22nd, 2019

Published February 21st, 2019 

How to Train Your Dragon 3 is perhaps the best of the three How to Train Your Dragon movies. None of the How to Train Your Dragon movies have been bad but the first two, for me, have only been passably entertaining. How to Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World rounds the series into something with a good deal more depth. Indeed, depth is what the first two movies lacked as they put forward perfunctory stories about learning to believe in yourself. 

How to Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World is the first of the franchise to carry the confidence of a movie where characters have tamed and rode dragons into battle. The hero's journey has finally stopped being a slightly bland, mostly amusing coming of age story and has become the story of a fully fledged character finally becoming who he should be. Again, there is nothing wrong with the first two, but I prefer seeing a new story with these characters as opposed to familiar tropes dressed up with dragons. 

How to Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World opens with our heroes, Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) and his dragon pal, Toothless, now in the role of dragon defenders. When dragons are kidnapped to be killed or made to serve the forces of evil, Hiccup, Toothless and their friends from the Viking village of Berk, swoop in with fiery swords and free the peaceful dragons and take them home to safety. 

Unfortunately, Berk has become quite overcrowded since our last visit. The place is teeming with dragons and the sheer volume of dragons on hand has not gone unnoticed. A group of bad guys now know where Berk is and they want to steal the dragons in order to create a dragon army. The baddies can’t do it on their own however, so they seek the help of the legendary dragon hunter Grimmel the Grisly (F Murray Abraham). In exchange for capturing the dragons of Berk, Grimmel asks only that he be able to kill Toothless. Grimmel has made his reputation on killing Night Furies.

But how will he ever get close to Berk with all of those Vikings and Dragons? Grimmel has a plan. He’s captured a Light Fury, a white, female counterpart to Toothless and also seemingly the last of her kind. Grimmel will use the Light Fury to lead Toothless into a trap. His plan is solid as Toothless falls in love at first sight with the Light Fury and in a delightful scene, attempts to romance her on the beach with a mating dance. The wordless pantomime of the dragons in this scene is genuine, sweet and funny. 

Director Dean Deblois in his third time as a director, he directed the previous How to Train Your Dragon and Lilo and Stitch prior to this movie, continues to demonstrate his light and deft touch. Deblois is smart about not letting his stories get cluttered with too many bits of business. He may have a lot of colorful characters and voice actors to make use of but he’s very economical about it and never allows a bit to overstay its welcome or bog down the central story. 

The voice cast of How to Train Your Dragon remains top notch with Jay Baruchel as a sturdy lead voice, America Ferrera as the charming romantic idea, Cate Blanchett as the voice of gravitas and seriousness and Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz Plasse and Kristen Wiig providing solid comic relief. Add to this group, the sonorous tones of Academy Award winner F Murray Abraham as Grimmel and you have an exceptionally talented and charismatic group of voices. 

How to Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World is exceptionally well animated with some legitimately breathtaking sights that really stand out in IMAX 3D. The visuals are equalled brilliantly by the Scottish inflected music score by John Powell to create a more vital and mature palette for what is the last of this film trilogy. Much credit to Dean Deblois and Dreamworks in recognizing that there is no need to beat this premise into the ground. This is the final film in a trilogy and they allow it to go out on a note of satisfying and moving finality.

Movie Review I'm Not There

I'm Not There (2007) 

Directed by Todd Haynes 

Written by Todd Haynes

Starring Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Ben Whishaw, Heath Ledger, Charlotte Gainsbourg

Release Date November 21st, 2007

Published November 20th, 2007

Employing six different actors to portray the life of Bob Dylan, director Todd Haynes paints a strange and fascinating portrait of this enigmatic legend. I'm Not There stars 12 year old Marcus Carl Franklin as Woody Guthrie. Riding the rails to New Jersey to visit the real Guthrie who is on his deathbed.

Franklin represents the young Dylan who did indeed visit an ailing Woody Guthrie in a New Jersey hospital and as "Woody Guthrie" tells a pair of hobos in a boxcar he played music with Bobby Vee and wrote songs with Carl Perkins. Watch the segments with Marcus Carl Franklin and the whole of the story of Dylan's life is glimpsed up until his disillusionment in the wake of the JFK assassination.

That Franklin is an African American is a nod to Dylan's roots. Though born in Minnesota, Dylan's music has distinctly southern roots. His music was born listening black bluesmen on the radio. As he got older the country and folk traditions came to dominate his work but the influence of the blues remained, especially in his complex lyrics layered in subtext, bitter sadness and dark humor.

Teenager Ben Whishaw plays Dylan just before stardom. Being interrogated by reporters, this version of Dylan, calling himself "Arthur Rimbaud" is an esoteric poet both cynical and naive yet demonstrating the complex wordplay that would become his trademark.

Christian Bale plays Dylan the rising star. Under the guise of Jack Rollins, this version of Dylan is shy and unassuming, pulled toward stardom reluctantly as he is swept up in the politics of the time and by the love of a fellow artist Alice Fabian (Julianne Moore), who stands in for Joan Baez.

Bale returns late in the film as another Dylan, the born again christian preaching the gospel from the stage but playing only to small audiences of oldsters and their restless young children.The sight of this Dylan playing and proselytizing to small audiences acknowledges one of the many low points of the man's life and another of his unique musical digressions. Dylan recorded two less than stellar gospel albums in the early 80's. 

I'm Not There fractures it's universe with a character named Robbie Clark (Heath Ledger) who, though not a musician, portrays Dylan the family man. Clark is an actor who plays Jack Rollins in a movie. We then watch as Clark meets and falls in love with an artist named Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg). They have two children.

Clark's being an actor is pretty basic symbolism, Dylan played the role of family man without really living it. Ledger inhabits the self absorbed artist well as well as Dylan's fatherly ambivalence with great ease and the kind of charm that only a star can project. Even as a jerk you can see what draws people to him.

Cate Blanchett plays Jude Quinn as Dylan in his cynical, drugged out mid-sixties era. Arguably at his creative peak, this version of Dylan is also at his most self absorbed and combative and Blanchett captures it perfectly, showing exactly why she received an Oscar nomination for this gender bending role.

Blanchett captures Dylan the defiant, Dylan the uncompromising and Dylan the jerk at the time when he was successful enough to be a jerk and get away with it. It was during this period when Dylan went electric and Haynes captures the moment with brief visual jokes that show off not only his but Dylan's underestimated sense of humor.

Arguably the most unusual and inexplicable version of Dylan to emerge in I'm Not There is that portrayed by Richard Gere. As "William Bonney" this version of Dylan may be just how Dylan sees himself, a loner cowboy who fights for truth and justice but is cynical and weary enough to accept that he can't change the world.

My description seems to put these lives of Dylan in a particular order but the film doesn't proceed in a linear fashion. Rather, Director Haynes drops in on these versions of Dylan as if they were different people in different stories and essentially they are united only by the music of Bob Dylan.

Fans of Dylan will be thrilled by the depth of I'm Not There picking up on inside jokes and insights into his motivations that will remain mysterious to those unfamiliar with the legend and his unique life story. I was not familiar with most of the story but rather than being out in the cold, I was intrigued to find out what I was missing.

For me, I'm Not There inspired curiosity and wonder. I wanted to know what I was missing and reading about Dylan only deepened the experience of I'm Not There, even after having seen it. This is a glorious piece of work, inspiring, eclectic and endlessly fascinating.

Though it does drag near the end of its slightly overlong 2 hour 6 minute runtime and the Gere character can seem trying and puzzling, overall the good of I'm Not There far outweighs the bad. The flaws even add a bit of charm to the film as if included as commentary on Dylan's many flaws.

I truly cannot say enough good things about I'm Not There.

Movie Review Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) 

Directed by Steven Spielberg 

Written by David Koepp 

Starring Harrison Ford, Shia Labeouf, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, Ray Winstone, John Hurt

Release Date May 22nd, 2008 

Published May 20th, 2008

In full disclosure mode, I write this review while wearing an Indiana Jones t-shirt. The fact is, as long as Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull hit the screen I was going to love it. As an Indy nerd who spent last Thursday watching all three original Indy adventures back to back to back plus a two hour documentary feature, I have waited very impatiently for a new Indiana Jones for 19 years.

As we rejoin the adventure of archaeologist and treasure hunter Henry "Indiana '' Jones Jr it is 1952 and Indy has been kidnapped by Russian infiltrators. They want Indy to help them locate an artifact being held by the US government at Area 51. The artifact is related to a top-secret excavation that Dr. Jones took part in briefly at Roswell New Mexico.

Naturally, Indiana Jones isn't one for treason and after a chase, a gun battle, and another chase, he nearly gets the artifact back. He will need to keep trying to get it because red scare paranoia has the FBI calling him a traitor. Forced out of his teaching gig by the FBI, Indy heads for New York only to be sidetracked by a kid named Mutt (Shia Labeouf).

Mutt has a letter from an old friend of Indy's who claims to have found the lost city of gold and includes a map. With Mutt in tow, Indy heads for South America with the Russians hot on his heels as well. If you guessed that the City of Gold is also related to that Roswell gig, kudos for your observational prowess.

Indiana Jones isn't overly complicated in its plotting but it's not stupid either. The script from George Lucas with some spit polish by three other writers, proceeds with a similar logic to the first three Indy films balancing outlandish supernatural phenomena with old school adventure movie thrills.

Steven Speilberg's direction is relaxed and assured like an old friend retelling a story we've heard before but with just as much energy, vigor and life as ever before. Working with Oscar winner Janusz Kaminski there is a little extra polish to the old school look of Indy but not so much as to distract from the old time feel.

Harrison Ford is restored to his world-weary charming self as Indiana Jones. His persona seeming ever more strained and stressed in his most recent action movie roles, Ford is chilled out and laid back as Indy and he has not lost a bit of the light touch humor and hard ass tough guy persona that has made Indiana Jones an icon.

I was going to love this movie just for existing; so imagine how geeked I am that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is so awesome. Great story, great direction, great acting, welcome back Karen Allen, welcome Cate Blanchett and Shia Labeouf and Ray Winstone, everything about Kingdom of the Crystal Skull works.

I love this movie.

Movie Review Ponyo

Ponyo (2008) 

Directed by Hiyao Miyazaki 

Written by Hiyao Miyazaki 

Starring Liam Neeson, Cate Blanchett, Noah Cyrus, Frankie Jonas

Release Date July 19th, 2008 

Published July 20th, 2008 

I am running low on adjectives to describe Hiyao Miyazaki. The creator of some of the finest animation I have ever seen has given us so many delights over the years that I am almost at a loss to describe them. His Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle are rivaled only by the works of Pixar in terms of the finest works of animated film art created in the last decade. Now, Miyazaki is back with yet another lyrical, moving animated masterpiece. Ponyo is a children's movie with more imagination and wonder than any ten non-Pixar animated movies released in the last decade.

Ponyo is the story of a little girl who begins her life as a fish. Ponyo is the offspring of a strange scientist (Voice of Liam Neeson) who somehow keeps the ocean in balance with humanity, though he is tiring of the task. Ponyo's mother meanwhile, is the Gran Mamare (Voice of Cate Blanchett, as ethereal as ever) who I believe is mother nature herself but you can watch and decide for yourself on that point. Regardless, the story follow's Ponyo's longing to discover the world beyond the water.

She gets the chance when she sneaks out and takes a ride on a jellyfish all the way to the surface of the ocean. There, she happens on the shore where Sosuke is playing. It's love at first sight. Sosuke scoops Ponyo up in a bucket and thinking she is just a goldfish, Sosuke excitedly hopes that he can make her a pet. However, when she heals a cut on his finger, he realizes there is something really magical about his new friend. Soon, Ponyo is talking and professing her love for her new friend Sosuke.

Unfortunately, Ponyo's move to the surface has consequences. As she moves to become more human, the ocean becomes unbalanced as Ponyo's father searches for her in hopes of keeping her a little fish forever. If Sosuke can prove he truly loves Ponyo she may be able to become human but he will have to find a way to show it before the seas rise and destroy and destroy the world. Sosuke will also have to navigate around Ponyo's father and try to convince him of true love. 

There is a distinct and prominent environmentalist streak running through Ponyo but it takes a back seat to the wondrous imagery of the great Hayao Miyazaki. Watch for the scene where Ponyo returns to the surface for the first time as a little girl and runs atop the roiling waves, the visual is an absolute delight. The glee with which Ponyo waves her arms and smiles with every part of lovely face is so awesome, a complete delight to behold. 

Ponyo is filled with childlike wonder and makes exceptional use of the child voice talents of young Noah Cyrus as Ponyo and Frankie Jonas as Sosuke. Cyrus of the famous older sister Miley, and Frankie, youngest of the famous Jonas family, capture in their young voices the unpracticed delight only a child can deliver. The young voices are crucial to Ponyo as these young characters must deliver wonder and excitement as only a child can. 

One can no longer be surprised by the brilliance of Miyazaki. And yet, I was somehow still blown away by Ponyo. Minus the occasional fright images that are as much a Miyazaki trademark as his childlike wonder, the director delivers a work of pure, joyous imagination. Ponyo is Miyazaki's take on the Hans Christian Anderson tale, The Little Mermaid and when you begin to recognize the story it adds even more gleeful exhilaration. 

The metaphor at play in Ponyo of a father wanting his child to remain a child forever is wonderfully poignant, especially under the care of Miyazaki. The great master animator has a love for the stories of children growing both emotionally and physically, aging toward new and wonderful experiences while maintaining the naïve innocence of childhood. I mentioned some horror imagery and it is there but it has meaning and purpose. As much as childhood and growing up is filled with wonder, it's also fraught with fears and anxieties that will either be overcome or become part of the future of each child. None of what I just wrote is in the text of Ponyo but the implication is powerful and it's what makes him such a master storyteller, layers upon layers of meaning that Miyazaki seemingly invites you to find in his work. 

Ponyo is one of the best movies of the year.

Movie Review Robin Hood (2010)

Robin Hood (2010) 

Directed by Sir Ridley Scott 

Written by Brian Helgeland 

Starring Russell Crowe, Danny Huston, Scott Grimes, Cate Blanchett, Oscar Isaac, Mark Addy 

Release Date May 14th, 2010 

Published May 13th, 2010 

Russell Crowe is a superstar and despite his personality defects, prickly interviews and phone throwing incidents, Crowe's films have always showcased his natural charisma. As was said of classic male movie stars of the past 'Men want to be him, Women want to be with him.' That has been the essence of Russell Crowe.

Lately however, Crowe has chafed against this persona and his ache to pursue a different reputation led to a terrific performance as a roguish and paunchy reporter in “State of Play” and now a buffed up action hero “Robin Hood.” While the movie “Robin Hood” rewrites the English legend, Crowe rewrites his own history essaying Robin as a stoic, charmless action hero that could as easily been played by Vin Diesel.

As King Richard (Danny Huston) wages war in France following a trip to Palestine and Israel in the Crusades, Robin Longstride is one of the King's Archers for hire. No longer entirely loyal to the crown following a horrific massacre of Muslims, Robin Longstride is soon to leave and return to England.

Joining Robin are his long time friends and fellow Archers Will Scarlett (Scott Grimes) and Alan A'Dayle (Alan Doyle) and his onetime antagonist turned loyal friend Little John (Kevin Durand, in a rare good guy role). The way back to England leads to the discovery of a French ambush on English Knights. King Richard is dead and his crown is to be returned to England along with an ancient sword that belongs to Sir Robert Locksley (Douglas Hodge).

Robin and his merry men will return to England dressed as knights, return the crown and reap a reward, or so they had hoped. Winding up in Nottingham to return the sword, Robin meets Lady Marion (Cate Blanchett), Locksley's wife and Sir William Locksley (Max Von Sydow) who engages Longstride in a deal, Robin will take on the role of his son in order to maintain the lands after his death; he will also become husband to Lady Marion.

Meanwhile, as the craven Prince John becomes King John, the French plot an invasion to take advantage of the Royal chaos. Stoking the fires is King John's best friend Godfrey (Mark Strong) who has joined with the French and is leading the invasion. Needless to say, Robin, his merry men, and the people of Nottingham get caught in the midst of all of this intrigue and many a sword is swung and arrow flown.

Directed by the brilliant Sir Ridley Scott, “Robin Hood” treads very similar ground to his Oscar winning epic “Gladiator” and his massive flop, the crusades epic “Kingdom of Heaven.” Scott has a great deal of love for the ancient world, warrior codes and the brotherhood of war. He evokes the age exceptionally well with detailed landscapes and costumes, well used CGI and some terrific cinematography.

Where “Kingdom of Heaven” failed is in the same way “Robin Hood” comes up short; both films swamp the viewer with the ugliness and depravity of the ancient world and leave little for people to enjoy beyond the carnage. Characters suffer because Scott's attention to period detail apparently means depicting men with courage minus charisma and charm.

While Cate Blanchett is allowed to look radiant even while covered in mud, Russell Crowe plays Robin subdued, withdrawn and modestly tortured. His bravery is evident in battle and you can see why his men are loyal to him but he comes up short in the aspects of personality that make him a compelling movie character.

Mirthless, constipated and withdrawn, the Crowe that was so captivating in “Gladiator” and so charming in “State of Play'' is caked in mud and blood and is basically part of the scenery in “Robin Hood'' until the battle scenes awaken his warrior side. The battle stuff is very good, almost the equal of “Gladiator,” but “Robin Hood '' is over 2 hours and 20 minutes long and the battle scenes are merely a third of that run time.

“Robin Hood '' has moments that are as amusing as any classic action epic but the quiet moments are so quiet that lethargy sets in and the audience begins to withdraw nearly as much as Mr. Crowe does. The battle returns the Russell Crowe we’ve come to enjoy then he recedes and we wonder where is the star, where is the spirited rebel. Is Russell Crowe so desperate to create a new persona that he can no longer find joy in his work

If he can’t enjoy it, how can we enjoy it?

Movie Review: Contraband

Contraband (2012) 

Directed by Baltasar Kormakur 

Written by Aaron Guzikowski

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Kate Beckinsale, Giovanni Ribisi, Caleb Landry Jones, J.K Simmons, Ben Foster 

Release Date January 12th, 2012 

Published January 11th, 2012 

Contraband is a mediocre action movie that rises above mediocre because Mark Wahlberg is so darn compelling. I've been a Mark Wahlberg fan for years; despite his having starred in such duds as The Happening, Maxx Payne, and Shooter. Wahlberg simply has that intangible star quality that makes you want to follow him on whatever film journey he's taking. Contraband could not survive with a lesser star.

Chris Farraday (Wahlberg) was once known as the Houdini of the smuggling world. With his sidekick Sebastian (Ben Foster), Farraday could smuggle anything without ever getting caught. Now, Farraday is a civilian, running his own security company, happily married to Kate (Kate Beckinsale) and raising two sons. He’s gone soft, he’s gone legit, and anyone who’s ever seen a movie about a bad guy gone good already knows where Contraband is headed. 

Yup, Farraday is dragged back into the smuggling underworld when his boneheaded brother in law Andy (Caleb Landry Jones) pulls a drug smuggling job and ends up dumping the drugs in the river when Customs boards his boat. Not surprisingly, Andy's employer, Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi), is none too happy and he wants Chris to pay Andy's debt or else. Pulled back into the business, Farraday calls on Sebastian for one more run. 

There are no surprises in this set up; Contraband is not original or unexpected. What works in Contraband is the businesslike, conservative approach of director Baltasar Kormakur who gets down to the business of smuggling with only the most necessary bits of exposition. When Mark Wahlberg and his crew finally get on a ship ready to smuggle the pace is methodical and to the point.

Giovanni Ribisi is not exactly the most intimidating bad guy one could imagine and this does undermine a few scenes where he's supposed to be playing tough. One scene that will test an audience's ability to suspend belief finds the wiry Ribisi pushing around Kate Beckinsale. Anyone who's seen and enjoyed the Underworld movies knows Kate Beckinsale could snap Ribisi like a twig if she wanted.

(Yes, I'm aware that movie magic makes Beckinsale a badass vampire in "Underworld;" I was being cute.)

The key to raising Contraband above other, similar action thrillers is Mark Wahlberg. Since his bold and ballsy Oscar nominated work in The Departed Wahlberg has really come into his own as a movie star and that movie star quality is the one thing working in favor of Contraband. Without Mark Wahlberg, Contraband is an exceptionally average movie. See "Contraband" for Mark Wahlberg or maybe to chuckle at Giovanni Ribisi's tattooed tough guy; both are strong reasons to see "Contraband."

Movie Review The Devil Inside

The Devil Inside (2012) 

Directed by William Brent Bell 

Written by William Brent Bell, Matthew Peterman 

Starring Fernanda Andrade, Simon Quarterman, Evan Helmuth, Suzan Crowley 

Release Date January 6th, 2012 

Published January 6th, 2012 

The Devil Inside is a 78 minute advertisement for a website. There’s a chance I should have said ‘spoiler alert’ before telling you that but frankly this movie does not deserve my discretion. The Devil Inside is a con job. This is a fraud of a movie that leads audiences to the singularly most unsatisfying ending to a movie I’ve seen in my many years as a movie critic.The film ends with a massive car wreck and an invitation to see how it turned out on the film’s website. Spoiler Alert. 

The Devil Inside begins as a rip off of The Last Exorcism, a rare really great found footage horror film from 2010, as we get a fake documentary about exorcism told at first from a skeptical perspective. Quickly however, the skepticism gives way to the cliched bone crunching, head-spinning, potty mouthed demon spectacle that the exorcism genre calls for. There is, after all, no such thing as a polite and well-mannered or thoughtful demon.

Relative unknown actress Fernanda Andrade stars in The Devil Inside as Isabella Rossi, the daughter of a killer. Isabella’s mother, Maria Rossi (Suzan Crowley), murdered three members of her church as they were performing an exorcism… on her. Through some mysterious machinations of the church Maria ends up transferred to a hospital in Rome under the treatment of Vatican doctors.

It’s an interesting idea and for a short time director William Brent Bell even manages to keep you engaged. The cracks however in this deeply flawed film, begin to show through after Isabella and her documentary making pal Michael (Ionut Grama) have traveled to Italy and hooked up with a pair of priests, Ben (Simon Quarterman) and David (Evan Helmuth), who run an illegal side business as exorcists for hire.

Once the exorcists take a shot at saving Isabella’s mother, the movie careens downhill toward its controversial ending. The ending of The Devil Inside left the audience I was with seething with anger and demanding their money back after the screening. There were boos, people throwing trash, and some derisive laughter at the expense of the movie. Not that the filmmakers would care, they’d already received their paychecks for this nonsense. 

There is nothing even the least bit redeeming about The Devil Inside. The film is a flimsy con-job; it’s two thirds of a movie sold for the full price of a ticket. The ending invites audiences to visit a website to find out more about Isabella Rossi. I won’t publicize the website here as it is merely an extension of the filmmakers’ failure to come up with an ending. Even if the ending were satisfying, the gimmick of not having an ending has already soured any goodwill the movie might have had. Plus, it wasn’t very good for the first two acts, the ending was not going to save The Devil Inside from ignominy. 

Instead of an ending we get a novelty; a failing attempt to bridge the gap between the movie screen and the internet.  This was an idea that was destined to fail and fail miserably. Admittedly, I can’t say how many people followed up and went to the website following the movie. But, I have a hard time imagining that many did. The reaction from the crowd that I witnessed the night that The Devil Inside debuted was not excitement about a new way to merge movies and the internet. This was an angry mob seething with resentment and a rueful desire for some form of revenge. 

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 A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) 

Directed by Samuel Bayer 

Written by Wesley Strick, Eric Heisserer

Starring Rooney Mary, Jackie Earl Haley, Kyle Gallner, Katie Cassidy, Thomas Dekker, Kellen Lutz

Release Date April 30th, 2010

Published April 29th, 2010 

Lather rinse repeat; simple instructions very easy to follow. I cannot help but speculate that director Samuel Bayer received similar instructions as he approached remaking the horror classic “Nightmare on Elm Street.” Good looking teenager falls asleep, Freddy kills good looking teenager in dream, repeat. This re-imagining of the horror icon Freddy Krueger is like most remakes merely a faded, facsimile of the original. The film is something akin to an “American Idol” contestant's version of a Beatles song; it doesn't sound that bad but lacks the heart, soul, and creative energy of the original.

Jackie Earl Haley replaces the one and only Robert Englund in the iconic role of gardener turned child murder Freddy Krueger. In this version of the story Freddy was a beloved figure who lived and worked at a day school where the kids adored him. That all changed when one little girl, Nancy, told her parents about Freddy's fun cave in the basement. Years later, after Freddy's death, the kids who attended that day school are finally reuniting and with their memories re-emerging, so has Freddy Krueger, who begins attacking and killing them in their dreams. Only Nancy (Rooney Mara) is capable of slowing Freddy's bloodlust.

There is nothing really all that wrong with this version of “Nightmare on Elm Street” from a technical perspective. Director Samuel Bayer, a veteran of music videos, knows how to aim the camera and how to use angle and light for the creation of tension and suspense and he has a good eye for gore. What Bayer is lacking is a story of any depth and characters worth investing in and identifying with. Writers Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer operate from the recipe detailed in the opening paragraph - cute teen sleeps, cute teen killed, repeat. The settings for the deaths are generally the same; Freddy's creepy boiler room remains a creep-tastic setting even if that steam or smoke is still unexplained.

Heather Langenkamp had a winning combination of earnestness and determination and with that wonderful quiver in her voice she won us over and had audiences rooting for her survival even as Freddy was the more entertaining and charismatic of this deathly duo. Rooney Mara taking over the role of Nancy is basically filler. Someone needed to play the role and Ms. Mara was sufficiently attractive and available to fill the bill. Not much is asked of this mostly unknown actress and she gives just about what she gets from the weak script.

The rest of the cast is made up of pretty faces who line up as victim 1, 2, 3 and so on. The film ends on a strong note but I won't go into that too much other than to say that even fans of the original “Nightmare” will be impressed. It's fair to wonder that as a film critic I have seen too much. I have seen so many horror films and I am hard to impress and even harder to frighten. That's fair but I can recognize technique and I am aware when something works for a mass audience and something doesn't. The engaged audience member will likely recognize, as I did, the dearth of character development and the rerun nature of Freddy's kills.

However, those audiences not in fealty to the original as I am and more inclined to forgive the film its many repeats; those giving in to the legend of Freddy Krueger, well rehashed by the far too talented for this Jackie Earl Haley, may find themselves leaping in their seats and watching the movie through their fingers. If you are forgiving, enjoy “Nightmare on Elm Street” redux. Myself, I am going to watch Johnny Depp get sucked into his bed and explode in a geyser of blood in one of the greatest deaths of all time from Wes Craven's original “Nightmare.”

Movie Review Once Upon a Time in Mexico

Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003) 

Directed by Robert Rodriguez 

Written by Robert Rodriguez 

Starring Antonio Banderas, Johnny Depp, Salma Hayek, Mickey Rourke, Eva Mendes, Willem Dafoe

Release Date September 12th, 2003

Published September 11th, 2003 

The Auteur Theory states that the director is the author of a film. The auteur is a director whose sole artistic vision is fully realized with little compromise. Many of our most prominent directors can fit the definition of an auteur, but few can live up to the definition as much as Robert Rodriguez can. In his latest film, Once Upon A Time In Mexico, Rodriguez is credited as writer, director, producer, cinematographer, editor, production designer, and composer of the film's score. He did everything but key lights and hold the boom mic. If that is not realizing a singular vision, I don't know what is. And that singular vision is a spectacular shoot'em up that may be light on story but makes up for it with style.

Antonio Banderas returns to the role of the nameless mariachi player from El Mariachi and Desperado who dispenses justice and tunes from a killer guitar case. Having gone into hiding after the death of his wife (Salma Hayek in flashback) and child, the mariachi is brought out of retirement to kill the man who killed his family, General Marquez (Gerardo Vigil).

The mysterious man who brought the mariachi out of retirement is a shady American CIA agent named Sands (Johnny Depp). Agent Sands is carrying out a thin-ice tap dance that is playing a number of Mexican factions against each other, with Sands ending up 10 million dollars richer. He has hired the Mariachi to kill General Marquez and the General to kill the unpopular Mexican President. Sands has a major drug dealer named Barillo (Willem Dafoe) to finance the General and an ex-FBI agent (Ruben Blades) to kill the drug dealer.

Confusing? Maybe, but it doesn't matter because Johnny Depp is so damn cool. Whether the plot makes any sense or if the scheme works or doesn't work, makes little difference to Robert Rodriguez or the audience because it's all about Depp. Like a plot magician Depp does parlor tricks that make your plot reservations disappear. Whether it's Rodriguez's quick witted script or Depp's stylish delivery it all works and it's all so cool.

For his part as the lead, Banderas slips comfortably back into his Mariachi costume. It's one of the rare roles in which Banderas seems comfortable. Maybe it's because it's his third go around in the role or maybe it's his friendly director, but Banderas realizes the potential stardom that so many have expected of him, but only in this role. Any other role and Banderas appears lost.

This film's place in the El Mariachi/Desperado, line is unclear to me; it's been too long since I've seen those two films. Luckily, there is no need to remember the first two films beyond the vaguest details. Flashbacks with Salma Hayek as the Mariachi's wife are effective in providing backstory and are as stylish and cool as the scenes that surround them.

One of the things that makes Rodriguez's multi-hyphenate performance possible is the way in which he takes advantage of the most modern film technology. Using a top-of-the-line Sony digital camera, Rodriguez becomes the first filmmaker that I have seen use digital in a way that transfers to regular film stock without looking awful. His shooting style is just as impressive, entirely handheld without looking handheld. This makes Once Upon A Time In Mexico, an important moment in digital and independent filmmaking. See it for Johnny Depp. Respect it for the true independent spirit at work in its creation.

Movie Review Krisha

Krisha (2015) 

Directed by Trey Edward Shults

Written by Trey Edward Shults 

Starring Krisha Fairchild, Trey Edward Shults 

Release Date March 16th, 2015 

Published November 1st, 2016

With Trey Edward Stults’ “It Comes at Night” arriving in theaters I finally remembered that I received a screener for his debut feature “Krisha” just last November. Sadly, though I watched more than 300 films last year I was unable to make “Krisha” one of them. I simply ran out of time before the Critics’ Choice Awards nominations had to go out. It’s an excuse, but it’s what happened and now I am kicking myself. I wish I had seen this movie so much sooner than just this week. 

“Krisha” begins on two separate long, unbroken takes that are equally unsettling and fascinating. Krisha, played by Krisha Fairchild, is the name of a long lost relative returning to a seemingly welcoming family but something about the long unbroken take of Krisha first attempting to locate the front door of the home she is visiting and the otherwise genial and poignant welcome she receives, left me feeling uneasy, especially when combined with the shorter yet still unbroken shot that begins the film. 

The very first scene is a horror movie shot of our main character against a deathly red background staring at the viewer with the rage of a villain. These two scenes combine to throw the audience into a dizzy spell that barely begins to lift once the film returns to a more conventional filmmaking style following the opening title card.

“Krisha” is unyielding in pushing audience buttons following its incredible opening scenes. The following scene finds Krisha in the bathroom unpacking her things and while the scene is conventionally shot and less jarring than the opening, director Trey Edward Shults does not let up an inch on the intrigue. Krisha carries with her a strong box with notes all over it that say “private” and “keep out.” Naturally, this only serves to make the box more interesting. The mysterious nature of the box deepens when we see that Krisha is so paranoid about people opening the box that she wears the key on a necklace.

Even after we find out what is in the box there is still more drama and fascination to be mined from the contents. I won’t spoil the contents, their importance as symbols comes into play later, and I will only say that my curiosity throughout the scene kept rising so quickly I felt a genuine rush. From one moment to the next in this thrilling film my mind was reeling and folks, I’ve only described the first 5 minutes of “Krisha.”

From here “Krisha” doesn’t so much unpack any long family history or dwell on any long simmering family squabbles but rather takes a tact that is unexpected for sure and wildly daring. This tightrope act of genre film-making places audience members in highly uncomfortable situations and while your mind seeks out the comforting twists of classic genre movies, “Krisha” remains defiantly unpredictable until its divisive ending which will either thrill you with its uniqueness or anger you for betraying your expectations.

The story behind the making of the film has a transgressive quality all its own. Writer-Director Trey Edward Shults cast himself in the role of Trey, Krisha’s estranged son, opposite star Krisha Fairchild who is Shults’ real life Aunt. The rawness of the familial exchanges as “Krisha” unfolds lends that fact a surreal quality that only serves this sometimes surreal and always unexpected narrative experiment. I mention those raw exchanges, but don’t be mistaken, “Krisha” isn’t about showy arguments, it is so much more than that.

Let’s talk about Krisha Fairchild, the star of this remarkable film. Fairchild is in nearly every minute of “Krisha” and the moments she is not onscreen are POV shots that ratchet the tension as we wonder what she’s thinking of what she’s witnessing. Part of the power comes from the way in which Trey Edward Shults tilts and twirls his camera around Fairchild seeking flattering and unflattering angles in equal measure. Much of Fairchild’s performance is in her face and eyes rather than dialogue and the shifts from poignant to chilling to achingly sad make for one of the most riveting performances of the past year.

The nature of my job means I see a lot of movies and during awards season I am forced to make tough choices of what I have time to watch amid my obligations to a 40 hour a week job in radio and my beloved obligation to watch as many screeners as I can. I am so sad that I didn’t place “Krisha” at the top of my awards season list of movies to watch. Had I seen “Krisha” in time for the Critics’ Choice Awards or my year end Top 10 list, my ballot and my Top 10 would have looked a little different.

I was stoked to see “It Comes at Night” based on the terrific trailer, my affection for star Joel Edgerton, and the fact that it comes from the glorious distributor A24. Now, however, my excitement for “It Comes at Night” is through the roof. If “It Comes at Night” is half as clever, inventive and disturbing as “Krisha” we are all in for one of hell of a movie.

Movie Review The Forest

The Forest (2016) 

Directed by Jason Zada

Written by Ben Ketal, Sarah Cornwell, Nick Antosca

Starring Natalie Dormer, Taylor Kinney, Eoin Macken 

Release Date January 8th, 2016 

Published January 7th, 2016

“The Forest” stars “Game of Thrones” actress Natalie Dormer as twins, Jess and Sara Price. Having long had a strong sense of each other, Sara begins to have nightmare visions that indicate Jess is planning to take her own life. Having moved to Japan to teach abroad, Jess’s suicide plan involves a trip to the legendary ‘Suicide Forest,’ the Aokigahara Forest at the foot of Mount Fuji which has, for decades, been known as a place where people go to commit suicide amid the tranquility of the forest.

In an attempt to stop Jess, Sara travels to Japan intending on going into the forest to find her sister. Along the way Sara meets a journalist named Aiden (Taylor Kinney) who is writing a story about the Suicide Forest and offers to accompany her into the forest which has a history not merely of suicide but also for strange visions that lead people to enter the forest and never return. Warning against the trip but nevertheless offering his services as a guide is Michi (Yukioshi Ozawa), a man who has made it his mission to save those that can be saved and recover the bodies of those who can’t.

Whether Sara finds Jess or whether Aiden the journalist has secret, sinister motivations or if there is some sort of malevolent spirit in the forest is rendered irrelevant by the incompetent direction of newcomer Jason Zada who brings little but modern horror movie cliché to his direction of “The Forest.” He’s hampered by a screenplay credited to three different writers who fail to invest the characters or story with anything more than the bare minimum of motivation and an intriguing idea.

Indeed, “The Forest” has a fascinating idea at its center. The Aokigahara Forest has a fascinating backstory as a place where people go by the hundreds year after year, from around the world, seeking the peace needed to bring an end to their life.  Why this place? Likely, it is because Aokigahara is beautiful and peaceful with thick treelines that prevent the noise of the outside world. Aokigahara is also so remote that travelers are unlikely to see another soul for days and with no one to prevent them from killing themselves they are able to further divorce themselves from reality.

That is the kind of fascinating and terrible history that would make a terrific documentary. In just reading about the Aokigahara Forest you find a story that mixes tragedy and beauty in a most unique and compelling way. That the makers of “The Forest” use this story as a backdrop for a supremely inane series of jump scares and supernatural chicanery is the biggest sin of “The Forest.”

Movie Review Playing it Cool

Playing it Cool (2015) 

Directed by Justin Reardon 

Written by Chris Shafer, Paul Vicknair

Starring Chris Evans, Michelle Monaghan, Anthony Mackie, Aubrey Plaza, Ioan Gruffudd, Topher Grace

Release Date May 14th, 2015 

Published June 25th, 2015

For years Chris Evans made bad movie after bad movie. He was seemingly settled into being a handsome, bland, leading man, who would take any role that a star with better taste had passed on. Then he became Captain America and things changed. Something about Steve Rogers brought Evans to a place of comfort with his work.

With “Snowpiercer” a more serious and focused Chris Evans emerged and myself as a critic I saw the actor in a very different light. Now, with the charming romantic comedy “Playing it Cool,” Chris Evans seems fully formed as a performer. Is the movie great? No, but it’s not terrible. More importantly, as a vehicle for its star it is a fine showcase for his seemingly increasing talent.

In “Playing it Cool” Chris Evans plays a screenwriter who does not believe in love. Traumatized by his mother leaving him at a young age, Evans is left with an inability to connect with women. He does however, have an active fantasy life. He envisions his heart as living outside his body in the form of a sad, romantic, character in the range of Bogart in “Casablanca.”

Evans also has the tendency to project himself into other people’s stories. When friends played by an all star supporting cast including Topher Grace, Luke Wilson, Aubrey Plaza and Martin Starr, tell stories, Evans projects himself as the lead in the story regardless of the gender of the lead character. This imaginative device becomes important after Evans meets Michelle Monaghan and for the first time falls in love. Suddenly, she is the co-lead in all of these fantasies.

“Playing it Cool” is strange in a number of ways. The first comes in the fact that Evans and Monaghan’s character don’t have names. In the IMDB credits Evans is referred to as Narrator and Monaghan as Her. This is, I think, meant to comment on how the clichés of romantic comedies play out, the characters don’t really matter as much as character beats and human type people. The structure of “Playing it Cool” has Evans struggling to write a romantic comedy screenplay because he doesn’t believe in love and is well aware of the common tropes of the genre as they begin to play out in his real life.

The meta aspects of “Playing it Cool” play alright but the heart of the film is Evans and his interplay with the cast. I enjoyed the camaraderie of Evans and his small band of fellow artists. There is a real sense of friendship, history, and fun among this group and the interplay is strong enough that it doesn’t matter so much that each individual character is really only a sketch of a person.

Then there is the central romance. Michelle Monaghan is incredibly beautiful. Truly, I am not sure I can objectively assess her performance as I was thunderstruck by how photogenic she is, the camera truly loves her. Monaghan is something of a male fantasy as she is endlessly accepting and she gets all of Evans’ jokes and seems to like the things he likes, and she even has his commitment issues.

There is nothing particularly surprising about the way “Playing it Cool” plays out but I don’t think there is meant to be. This is a romantic comedy where the end is pretty well telegraphed. The key is then how to find interesting and funny things to do on the way to the predictable finish and what “Playing it Cool” has is a charming lead performance and strong supporting ensemble whose sense of fun that makes the predictable palatable.

The maturation of Chris Evans as an actor is likely that of a performer becoming more confident. “Captain America” has given Evans the star power to relax a little and be more than just a handsome face. In “Snowpiercer” the new found confidence led to a dark, violent thriller with an incredible resonance. In “Playing it Cool” that confidence emerges in a heretofore unseen charm and playfulness that seemed forced in previous performances.

Movie Review Seventh Son

Seventh Son (2015) 

Directed by Sergei Bodrov

Written by Charles Leavitt, Steven Knight

Starring Jeff Bridge, Julianne Moore, Ben Barnes, Alicia Vikander, Kit Harrington, Olivia Williams, Djimon Hounsou 

Release Date February 6th, 2015 

Published February 5th, 2015

There is a sad and desperate affliction plaguing middle aged Hollywood stars. I’ve come to call it “Nicolas-Cage-Itis.” NCI, as we will henceforth refer to it, strikes when an actor reaches of a level of age and stardom where they are no longer seen as viable leading men but can’t pull themselves from in front of the camera.

The dissonance between their faded place in the pop ephemera and their own perception of their pop mortality clash and a level of madness emerges that leads to making movies of questionable taste and quality. John Cusack, for one, has succumbed mightily to NCI and will in 2015 star in a film project so bereft it likely will never be seen outside of China.

Other actors look on the verge of an NCI flare up, Johnny Depp is perilously close, Keanu Reeves seems to have pulled back from the brink but still could go either way and Tom Cruise is just one batshit crazy sci-fi movie from a full blown case. Sadly, however, the most recent fully diagnosed case of NCI is Academy Award winner and all around good dude Jeff Bridges.

With his “RIPD,” “The Giver,” and “Seventh Son” triumvirate it’s clear Bridges is in the throes of a full on Nicolas-Cage-Itis breakdown. He’s already begun the ‘bizarre accents are why I make movies’ phase of the illness. Soon, he will be experimenting with his hairline and having massive tax problems.

“Seventh Son” was the final piece of the NCI diagnosis. This misbegotten YA adventure movie stars Bridges as a mystical witch hunter named Master Gregory and while you might be tempted to believe Bridges wanted to play a mystical witch hunter named Master Gregory on a lark, it’s clear he chose the role because he was allowed to speak in a manner of his choosing, something akin to Morgan Freeman without teeth.

Yes, the accent is really the only reason Bridges wanted to play Master Gregory. Any director indulgent enough to allow his star to mush mouth his way through an ostensibly teen-friendly blockbuster adventure clearly isn’t asking much of his star. No, Bridges and his star power quite clearly dominate every aspect of “Seventh Son” which means nothing too challenging and only the vaguest sense that anyone gives the slightest damn about the material.

Joining Bridges with her own mild case of NCI is Academy Award nominee Julianne Moore. Bridges’ Lady Friend from “The Big Lebowski” plays a witch that Gregory once loved, then hunted and now hunts again after she escapes from the prison he made her years before. The love story aspect is left thankfully to the willing imagination as the movie is given over to high camp vamping and the chewing of scenery.

It’s difficult to decide what is more dispiriting about “Seventh Son:” Bridges and Moore’s dull, camp excess or the abysmal love story tacked on to their teenage sidekicks. Ben Barnes Barnes and Alicia Vikander play star-crossed lovers, witch-hunter apprentice and witch, respectively, with about as much romantic chemistry as mismatched shelving units. If you need a sense of just how invested the film is in Barnes’ apprentice character, his name is Tom Ward. Tom Ward. “Seventh Son” is set in a world of Witches, Dragons and shape shifting Bears and Leopards and they are battled by a guy named Tom. At least Gregory gets call himself ‘Master.’

“Seventh Son” is an incredibly depressing piece of work. It’s a YA adaptation, it’s dreary and lumbering with about as much wonder and excitement as a trip to the DMV. But, of course, the dreariest of the dreary is watching Jeff Bridges entertain himself. Bridges is playing an elaborate prank that’s only funny for him. He’s fully aware of how ridiculous he looks and sounds but he’s also wildly entertained by it. We, on the other hand, are just hurt that our hero won’t let us in on the joke.

Mr. Bridges’s case of NCI is in that hermetic stage where a selfish negation of all outside opinion leads to humiliating career decisions that the star doesn’t fully realize they’re making. NCI blinds the star from seeing how silly they look and consequently divorces them from reality enough that they take a strange pride in their own oddity.

Can Mr. Bridges recover from this devilish disease? It’s hard to say. The progenitor of NCI, Nicolas Cage Esquire, does, on occasion, allow his talent to emerge from behind his lunacy but seemingly only by accident. Maybe it will be by accident that we will once again see Mr. Bridges. For now, sadly, his NCI has fully overtaken his good sense and “Seventh Son” is the signifier of his full blown madness.

Movie Review The Spongebob Movie Sponge Out of Water

The Spongebob Movie Sponge Out of Water (2015) 

Directed by Stephen Hillenburg

Written by Stephen Hillenburg 

Starring Tom Kenny, Clancy Brown, Matt Berry, Antonio Banderas, Bill Fagerbakke, Rodger Bumpass

Release Date February 6th, 2015 

Published February 5th, 2015

How does a film so shamelessly appeal to the tastes of tots and stoners alike and not wind up doomed to be assailed by the culture warriors? By becoming a capitalist commodity first and an anarchic, tripped out, cartoon second. That is the journey of “Spongebob Squarepants” which innocently invaded popular kids culture in the early 2000’s and became an unassailable pop titan.

The freedom of success has allowed this Nickelodeon product to evolve in ways that no one likely imagined. From what was a minor distraction for kiddies a strange cult classic of stoner nostalgia has emerged. Over time the tots who loved Spongebob’s seemingly innocent shenanigans were joined in front of the television by their cereal slurping, red-eyed older brother who laughed at the jokes that the little ones just missed.

Sure, the creators of the series maintain the innocence at the show’s heart but their claims to innocence are certainly challenged by a product that has grown increasingly weird in most recent and slightly controversial incarnations. It’s a strange evolution that today culminates in the ultimate evidence of the show’s sneaky stoner appeal, “The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water.”

Sure, on the surface this is merely an attempt to return Spongebob Squarepants to the pop ether and make gobs of money while doing it. But, watch the film and the Dali-esque, dizzying, imagery comes roaring out at the audience in ways only those on psychotropic stimulants can truly understand. As someone who’s never experienced a drug induced freak out, I can only imagine it is something akin to the time travel trip taken in “Sponge Out of Water” by our hero Spongebob and his unlikely pal and former enemy Plankton.

If you thought Peter Fonda’s swirling, twisting vortex freak out in 1969’s “The Trip” was trip inducing, wait till you get a load of the wall of sight and sound that takes Spongebob and Plankton through time and space. Only a true stoner, wacked out on the best Maui-Wowie and grooving to Kubrick’s “2001” could truly appreciate the sites created herein. I’m not kidding, these scenes are really messed up.

Things really get tripped out when Spongebob and Plankton, on the run through time and space to escape having been accused of stealing the secret recipe for Crabby Patties, find themselves in a future world run by a talking Dolphin named Bubbles. Bubbles is voiced by the brilliant British comic Matt Berry in full Douglas Reynholm bluster. Throwing Berry into a mix that also includes Antonio Banderas as a pirate named Burger Beard, is really the last piece of evidence needed to prove that the makers of Spongebob are indeed attempting to bridge the gap between Nickelodeon comedy and Cheech and Chong.

Looking back I realize I am making this sound like a bad thing. In reality, it’s more innocuous than anything. Despite the bleating of many conservatives, there isn’t anything truly dangerous about stoners. The fact that they can be as entertained as little children by the same form of entertainment is only subversive in the eyes of those who see smoking marijuana as some sort of societal ill.

There are many more damning things that people could be doing aside from getting baked and watching “The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water.” Things like Sub-Prime Mortgages or murder for hire schemes against their employers or ironically attending WNBA Games are certainly less worthy efforts than getting stoned and laughing hysterically as a talking sponge battles Antonio Banderas as pirate named Burger Beard.

I guess my main point is that we should just be honest about the appeal of “The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water” and stop acting like it’s just a kids movie. The fact is, Spongebob has a foot firmly planted in two separate but equal satirical worlds that appeal equally and differently to two very specific sets of audiences and there is nothing wrong with that.

Let’s let Spongebob’s freak flag fly free and not be so uptight and silly as to believe that just because stoners enjoy a kids show that kids will automatically grow up to be stoners. This isn’t a nature or nurture argument over the future of our children, it’s just a silly cartoon that happens to be tripping balls and delighting children all at once.

Movie Review Mary Queen of Scots

Mary Queen of Scots (2018) 

Directed by Josie Rourke 

Written by Beau Willimon 

Starring Saorise Ronan, Margot Robbie, Jack Lowden, Joe Alwyn, David Tennant, Guy Pearce

Release Date December 7th, 2018 

Published December 6th, 2018

Mary Queen of Scots is a handsome but mostly forgettable mid-centuries soap opera starring two of our finest working actresses. Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie are incredible performers but there isn’t anything in Mary Queen of Scots that rises to the level of their talents. The film is not bad because Ronan and Robbie are too good for it to be bad but the story is far too thin and the film loses steam quickly given the amount of juice this story appears to have on the surface.

Mary Stuart (Ronan) is a fascinating historical figure. At a very young age, though she was heir to the throne of Scotland, she was forced to flee to France. While there, she married the French King but did not become Queen by marriage, she was 5 at the time she was promised to the 4 year old future King. When the King died young, Mary fled back to Scotland where she was welcomed back as Queen by her brother, the Earl of Moray.

Mary’s return was not welcomed by her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I (Margot Robbie). Ever suspicious, the Queen of England kept a distance from Mary that was as strategic as it was out of fear. The Elizabeth of Mary Queen of Scots appears concerned that Mary’s beauty eclipses her own and that any invitation for comparison between the two could lead to a confrontation over her legitimacy as Queen.

The flames between Mary and Queen Elizabeth were further heated by the growing tension between the Protestants and Catholics. Mary, being a proud Catholic and Elizabeth, a Protestant, each had factions to serve and keep at bay from religious leaders and members of their respective courts. The two maintained correspondence with Elizabeth acknowledging Mary’s desire to ascend to the throne if Elizabeth died but the succession discussion was as political as it was about whom God ordained as royalty.

Eventually, the two would come into more direct conflict when Mary rejected Elizabeth’s suggestion that she marry the Protestant Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, ineffectually portrayed by Joe Alwyn. Mary took things a step further by marrying Catholic and English subject, Lord Darnley, her cousin. That Mary proceeded with the marriage to a family member and English subject without the Queen’s permission was a significant slight.

Eventually, it would be the Protestant and Catholic factions that would be Mary’s undoing but not before we get a baby, a pair of murders, and a rape and finally a beheading. There is a whole lot of drama packed into Mary Queen of Scots but it doesn’t land because, though Mary and Elizabeth are deeply compelling, the men surrounding them wither in comparison. Schemers, toadies, and sycophants, the men of Mary Queen of Scots do little to deepen the drama of Mary Queen of Scots.

The script repeats the same beats in Mary’s life over and over again. She rises to power, she is challenged by a man and defeats him. She rises again, is challenged by a man and out maneuvers him until finally, her luck runs out. The timeline is confusing as well as we jump ahead months and sometimes years at a time with only a few minor visual cues to indicate such a change.

As I mentioned, the production of Mary Queen of Scots is handsome. The costumes look authentic and lavish, the hair and makeup are gorgeous even as they push the bounds of believability for the period, and the sets have a lived-in and worn down quality that suits the period. I have no issues with the presentation of Mary Queen of Scots, I just wish the story had been as involving as the set dressing.

As it is, Mary Queen of Scots is something of a pot boiler but a trifle of one. The film pretends toward seedy exposes and serious costume drama and never settles on which tone it prefers. A love scene between Mary and Lord Darnley prior to their marriage is intended as a moment of sexy excess but comes across as needless and awkward in execution. Rarely is the sex in Mary Queen of Scots anything necessary or titillating, it’s either uncomfortable, criminal or merely problematic.

So if the film isn’t sexy and it isn’t serious enough to rise to the level of the great costume dramas of the past, then just what is Mary Queen of Scots? At its very least, it is a fine showcase for Ronan and Robbie who bite down on their roles with gusto. If the script were better, the male characters more well-rounded as either foes or allies, and if the film’s shifting in time narrative were cleaner and clearer, perhaps Mary Queen of Scots would work. As it is, it’s messy and narratively unsatisfying despite the stars.

Movie Review: Atonement

Atonement (2007) 

Directed by Joe Wright 

Written by Christopher Hampton 

Starring Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Saorise Ronan, Romala Garai, Vanessa Redgrave

Release Date December 7th, 2007 

Published December 25th, 2007 

Everything about the toney new feature film Atonement screams LOVE ME to the film lover. It has that classy British setting, those classy English accents, and it arrives with more fawning praise than Mike Huckabee on a Fox News show. Critics absolutely adore Atonement with more than 86% positive notices on Rotten Tomatoes, the ultimate tracker of critical opinion. And yet, I'm unconvinced. Everything tells me I should love this picture and yet I don't. I watched it and I was unmoved. Atonement is remote, emotionally distant, and disconnected.

Atonement features highly self involved characters acting in their own self interest with little to no reason for us to care for them. It begins when one character, young Briony (played as a youngster by Saorise Ronan and later by Romala Garai and still later by Dame Vanessa Redgrave), mistakes a bit of unusual flirting between her sister Cecilia and the family gardener Robbie as some sort of violent encounter. Later, when Briony interrupts a private tryst between the two her suspicions become dangerous. Another incident, this one involving a female cousin, offers her just the opportunity to compound her misunderstandings into a criminal matter that finds Robbie off to prison accused of assault.

Avoiding a jail sentence by leaping into the war effort in France, Robbie and Cecilia remain in love as he fights to clear his name and survive having been left for dead on the French countryside. Meanwhile, Briony has grown up and come to understand her misunderstanding and all of the pain she caused. She attempts to ATONE, ho ho, for her sins by leaving the life of privilege's to follow Robbie and Cecilia into the war effort, Cecilia is an army nurse having shunned family and privilege's for the love of Robbie and a shabby flat in the city.

It's quite a story and writer director Joe Wright is quite a storyteller. The problems come too often from how the story is told. Multiple flashbacks taken from different characters points of view are meant to illustrate the many misunderstandings going on. However, as filmed these elements feel like the filmmakers way of fucking with the audience. Twists and turns basically jerk you around until finally you just don't care anymore, or at least I didn't care anymore. I can definitely see where some might not be as ticked off by the many plot machinations of Atonement, but I was irritated.

I was also irritated by these self involved characters. Whether lounging in the idyll of British upper class malaise or suffering in silence during the war these characters are so astonishingly self involved that one can't help but be turned off by them. First you have Briony who even after growing up and understanding her own foolishness. Even after willingly giving up everything to atone for her sins, she remains amazingly self involved. She doesn't give up everything to make it up to her sister and Robbie, it's all about relieving her own guilt. And she is the emotional center of the film!

As for McAvoy and Knightley, they craft a shabbily threadbare romantic pair. These two are also all about themselves with little care for each other or those around them. It's all about their sadness and their suffering. Even as war and death mount about them they show care only for their immediate self interest. How am I supposed to care about them when they care about themselves enough for all the rest of us. The supporting characters only make things worse, especially the young cousin played by Juno Temple and a sleezy family friend played by Paul Marshall.

What is truly unfortunate is that irritation was the only feeling I had throughout Atonement. For as opulent, lush and beautiful as Atonement is, it's also remote and emotionally distant. The characters emotions are mostly interior and self referential and we are outside with little ability to identify or care about these people. Given all of the big emotions in play, love, betrayal, heartache, desperation and hope, we should be invested here. But we are not.

Atonement is far from being a bad film. Joe Wright's skill as a director is well demonstrated with the gorgeous, sweeping cinematography and grand settings and costumes, Atonement  is one of the finest looking, well crafted pictures in this decade. It's the emotion and the style of storytelling that I fail to connect with.

In the end, if you are going to watch the Oscars in February you will want to have watched Atonement. Given that my detachment from the film was far from the consensus I am convinced the film will be a major contender. I however, will not be rooting for the film. I will observe any nominations with the same distant appreciation these characters seem to have for each and inspired within me as I watched their stories play out.

Movie Review: City of Ember

City of Ember (2008) 

Directed by Gil Kenan 

Written by Caroline Thompson 

Starring Saorise Ronan, Harry Treadaway, Bill Murray, Tim Robbins, Martin Landau, Toby Jones 

Release Date October 10th, 2008 

Published October 9th, 2008

With humanity forced underground, two teens try to figure out why and how they can escape. She is Lina Mayfleet (Saorise Ronan). He is Doone Harrow (Harry Treadaway). Though they weren't aware of it, Lina and Doone's parents were close friends. In fact, they were part of a secret society that were the first to try to escape from Ember. Lina and Doone have the advantage of a map handed down by the builders, the scientists who created the underground city as their own society was crushed by some unseen force, either environmental or nuclear. 

The buliders created the map and instructions for leaving Ember and locked them in a time sealed box incapable of being opened for 200 years. The box was supposed to be passed from one mayor of Ember to the next but at some point it was lost along with the instructions for reclaiming the earth's surface. Lina finds the box in a closet in her grandmothers home. She takes it to her pal Doone and together they follow the instructions leading to an extraordinary adventure.

City of Ember was produced by the folks at Walden Media whose abundance of religious metaphors can be a little ham fisted. Here the Builders stand in for a belief in a higher power. They are even thought by the truly faithful to be returning someday. The metaphor is obvious and overblown but the director, Gil Kenan, is smart not to get bogged down in the overt demonstration. Using his exceptional cast, especially Bill Murray as the town's bumbling, inept mayor, Kenan never lets things get bogged down by metaphor. He also makes great use of action, especially near the end where a boat trip mimics Indiana Jones Temple of Doom coal chute chase.

Saorise Ronan is a lovely young actress whose big eyes never portray anything but earnest commitment to purpose. Her Lina wasn't looking to leave Ember, she in fact had just received the job of her dreams as red cape wearing messenger, a job that allows her to indulge her quick feet. However, with the town experiencing growing blackouts and food shortages, it becomes her mission to not merely save herself but the community of Ember that is her surrogate family. Doone's interest wasn't leaving either, he was compelled by something to believe he could fix the generator.

When he is assigned to work as pipefitter he hopes to use it's proximity to the great generator to get in there and solve the problem. Doone's arc goes from fearful and frantic to realistic and hopeful. When confronted with evidence of a world outside of Ember Doone abandons his grandiose plans for a more arduous journey with what he hopes greater results. Doone and Lina spark well together and their entirely chaste romance, expressed only in brief hand holding, is charming in an old school, kids movie kind of way. I like movies that manage to entertain while acting their age and that is what City of Ember does.

Gil Kenan knows he is making this movie for young children and avoids any humor or violence that might overwhelm the target audience. It sounds as if he is censoring himself but the film remains entertaining which demonstrates Kenan's talent, he doesn't need to be simpleminded or vulgar to achieve the film he wants to make.

City of Ember has it's flaws but in the end what mattered was my smile. I started smiling the moment Saorise Ronan came onscreen, arriving late at school with an important assembly already underway and she needing to be on stage, till the end. Kids movies that don't condescend or speak down to kids are in too short supply. City of Ember deserves your movie dollar for simply being that kind of thoughtful kids flick. Saorise Ronan is a young star in the making and I can't wait to see what she does next. Here's hoping it's as smart and fun as City of Ember.