Movie Review Formula 51 aka 51st State

Formula 51 (2002) 

Directed by Ronny Yu 

Written by Stel Pavlou 

Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Carlyle, Emily Mortimer, Rhys Ifans, Meatloaf 

Release Date October 18th, 2002 

Published October 19th, 2002

My local multiplex has been open for about 4 and a half years. In that time I have seen almost every film to come through there. In those 4 and a half years I have never had to ask about their refund policy, because no matter how bad a film I have seen I have never walked out before something was over. Until I saw Formula 51.

This belligerent, aggressively stupid film stars Samuel L. Jackson as Elmo Mcelroy, a legendary drug chemist who’s newest creation is said to be 10 times more powerful than crack. Elmo is expected to give his new product to his boss, known as The Lizard (Meatloaf), but Elmo has other ideas and attempts to kill The Lizard. From there, Elmo takes off for the home of the Beatles, Liverpool, where he plans on cutting a better deal. 

What Elmo doesn’t know is that The Lizard isn’t dead and has a hitwoman searching for him. Emily Mortimer is the expert hitwoman named Dakota. As she plans her hit she finds Elmo in the company of her ex-boyfriend Felix (Robert Carlyle). Dakota’s plans change, and it’s now her job to keep Elmo alive. Also somehow involved in this ridiculousness is a group of Nazi skinheads who want Elmo’s formula.

It was after the skinheads abducted Elmo and Felix that I took my leave of the theater. Not before though the scene where Elmo uses some explosive laxatives to aid in his and Felix’s escape. Director Ronny Yu’s decision to graphically portray the results of the explosive laxative is part of the reason why I walked out, but not the only reason.

Even before the unnecessary laxative closeup, Formula 51 was developing into the kind of film that would think explosive laxatives are funny. This doltish exercise in lethargic action comedy, is supposedly in the mold of Quentin Tarentino mixed with Guy Richie. In actuality it’s a mixture of something Quentin Tarentino pissed on and Guy Richie flushed.

I sat all the way through Rollerball, Fear Dot Com and Sweet Home Alabama. I managed to stay in the theatre all the way through Armageddon and the religious movie Left Behind starring KIRK CAMERON! I have even made it through multiple Freddy Prinze Jr movies all the way to their doltish ends, but I couldn’t make it through Formula 51, possibly the worst film I have ever seen. 

Movie Review: The Transporter

The Transporter (2002) 

Directed by Cory Yuen 

Written by Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen

Starring Jason Statham, Shu Qui, Ric Young 

Release Date October 11th, 2002 

Published October 10th, 2002 

It is rumored that Die Another Day will be the last Bond film for Pierce Brosnan. Many names have come up as possible replacements. Superstars like Mel Gibson and Matt Damon, lesser knowns such as Clive Owen and Colin Farrell, and some actors are even doing films that seem calculated to make them a candidate for this most coveted role. Such seems the case for Jason Statham in The Transporter. Whether this blithe, quick-paced action picture is meant as a Bond audition is just speculation, but it does raise some eyebrows.

Statham plays Frank, known to his employers only as the transporter, a professional deliverer of packages with extreme circumstances. In the opening scene, we see Frank performing his services for a group of bank robbers. When the robbers attempt to change the deal Frank explains the rules and refuses to move until the deal is met as originally negotiated. The opening scene is a perfect introduction to Frank as a straight-ahead businessman, coldly professional and precise. On Frank’s next job, he transports another package but on his way to the drop-off, Frank breaks one of his rules. He opens the package, which happens to be an Asian girl named Lai (Qiu Shu).

Though troubled by his delivery he follows through, but his employers are upset because he opened the package and they try to kill him. From there, it’s obvious where the film is going. How the film gets where it’s going is more important than where.

Director Corey Yuen sharply films his action scenes, giving Statham every opportunity look cool and kickass. My favorite scene is a fight in a bus depot involving Frank, a group of highly dispensable henchman and a couple barrels of motor oil. Yuen even plays up the James Bond style action with scene that obviously crib from the 007 legend.

The Transporter has it’s share of faults. The score is a horrible techno mélange, the dialogue is typically dumbheaded and plodding and the supporting cast, particularly the bad guys, are poorly drawn and faceless. As I searched IMDB for the name of the main bad guy, I couldn’t even remember the name of the character and thus I don’t know the actor’s name.

So is The Transporter a good screen test for Statham as Bond? Well it couldn’t hurt. No one candidate has emerged so taking a part in a film with many Bond elements is a good introduction to show producers. Though some may say Statham isn’t good looking enough (balding and scruffy), marketers would say he’s “ruggedly handsome.” If anything, The Transporter should be enough to get him on the list.

Movie Review Rules of Attraction

Rules of Attraction (2002) 

Directed by Roger Avary 

Written by Roger Avary

Starring James Van Der Beek, Shannyn Sossamon, Kip Pardue, Jessica Biel, Kate Bosworth, Ian Somerhalder, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Faye Dunaway

Release Date October 11th, 2002 

Published October 11th, 2002 

From the twisted mind of Bret Easton Ellis comes The Rules of Attraction, a dyspeptic look at college life that is as bleak as Van Wilder was ridiculous. Ellis was the mind behind American Psycho, which became a movie starring Christian Bale. Not surprisingly the movie was a pale imitation of the book, but then to truly adapt American Psycho for the screen would be to garner the hardest NC-17 rating ever. The same could be said of The Rules of Attraction, a pale imitation of the book that also is unlikely to ever reach a true screen adaptation.

The film stars James Van Der Beek as Sean Bateman. If the name sounds familiar it should be Sean is the brother of Psycho’s Patrick Bateman. Sean Bateman isn’t the nutball his brother is but he has his moments, he’s a drug dealer who sells cocaine to classmates for twice what it’s worth. Bateman has a growing obsession with a classmate named Lauren (Shannyn Sossamon). Lauren on the other hand is obsessed with Victor (Kip Pardue, a long way away from Remember The Titans) who has no idea who she is. Victor has spent the past semester in Europe, and upon his return is screwing Lauren’s slutty roommate Lara (Jessica Biel). Rounding out the cast is a predatory gay man named Paul (Ian Somerhalder). Paul has a thing for straight guys and turns his sights on Bateman.

Each character is introduced in flashback, at a party. We begin with Lauren losing her virginity to some loser while the guy she had intended on being with filmed it. Rewind to months earlier and Lauren is doing all she can to keep from having sex including staring at pictures of people with venereal diseases. Sean meanwhile is in trouble with his drug supplier Rupert (Clifton Collins Jr.) for some money he owes.

The plot description is a waste of time, as there didn’t seem to be a plot. What we really have is a collection of scenes intended to shock the audience with audacious visuals and over the top characters. However, the scenes aren’t shocking, they are well visualized but without any context or point of view.

Despite what you may have heard about James Van Der Beek shedding his Dawson persona, the film clearly trades on Van Der Beek’s image. This is especially obvious in a scene between Van Der Beek and Fred Savage that is supposed to be funny because it’s Dawson and the kid from Wonder Years working out details of a drug deal. There are also scenes in which Bateman is seen masturbating which seem to wink at the audience and to say you would never see Dawson do that. In all honesty I don’t mean to rip Van Der Beek, his performance is strong, however it is undercut by Director Roger Avary’s desperate attempts at irony.

The film does have its strengths including a very cool montage of Victor’s trip to Europe. With cool European techno backing him up, Kip Pardue’s narration consists of his character screwing his way across Europe, slurping whatever drugs he can find and judging his destinations by the quality of women he could sleep with. The scenes shot on DV are edited to the killer techno beat, which gives the narration a beat poetry vibe. Very cool.

Though at times the film's visuals are self consciously arty, such as close up of a water faucet that is dripping water into a bathtub full of blood, they are, for the most part, visually exciting and by far the film’s greatest strength. If only the story and the characters were as exciting and interesting as the visuals, Rules Of Attraction could have been great. As it is the film is a mean spirited picture about unlikable characters that looks good on the outside but is entirely hollow.

Movie Review Knockaround Guys

Knockaround Guys (2002) 

Directed by Brian Koppelman

Written by David Levien 

Starring Barry Pepper, Dennis Hopper, Vin Diesel, John Malkovich, Seth Green

Release Date October 11th, 2002 

Published October 10th, 2002 

Knockaround Guys has a unique history. The film began as a chance to capitalize on some of Hollywood’s hot young talent with a post Soprano’s/Goodfella’s Gangster movie. However after being delayed for over a year and a half and the momentum of the Soprano’s fueled gangster chick having dissipated, Knockaround Guys is now the bastard movie of a studio looking to clear its shelves and cut its losses. It’s a shame because it’s not that bad a film, not bad enough to deserve the hand it’s been dealt.

Barry Pepper stars as Matty Demaret, son of a gangster named Benny Chains (Dennis Hopper). Matty’s last name is very well known making it difficult for him to find legitimate work. Matty lost his chance to join the family business when he was 12 years old and he couldn’t finish a hit on a stool pigeon that his Uncle Teddy (John Malkovich) wants him to kill to prove he is ready. After his most recent failure at getting a real job, Matty decides to enter the family business. With the help of his crew he calls the Knockaround Guys, Taylor (Vin Diesel), Marbles (Seth Green) and Scarpa (Andrew Davoli).

Matty takes a job retrieving a bag of cash from friends in Washington state. Not wanting his name to cause problems, Matty sends Marbles, who flies his own plane, to get the bag. Of course there are complications, Marbles stops to refuel in a small Montana town and loses the bag of cash. With his and his fathers lives on the line, Matty gathers his crew and goes to Montana to get the money. In Montana, a corrupt local sheriff has the money and is intent on keeping it.

What I liked about Knockaround Guys is that it’s not what you're expecting. You go in expecting big action and fight scenes and what you get are well fleshed out characters and performances.

Quote me on this, Barry Pepper will someday win an Oscar, not for this film but somewhere down the road. Pepper has a fantastic presence that commands attention, strong eyes and a confident delivery even when forced into goomba dialogue that doesn’t ring true. Vin Diesel shows once again that he is a star. In this film Diesel does the acting that he left out of XXX and shows that, if allowed to act rather than react, he can pull it off. Seth Green however is woefully miscast. His light comedic instincts disrupt a story that would like to be taken seriously.

Green’s performance is a microcosm of what is wrong with Knockaround Guys. The film is unable to balance the at-times broad comedy with its more serious gangster story. The humor should come from the character's personalities but instead it comes from the script and comes off as unnatural.

Director’s Brian Koppelman and David Levien, who also penned the script, have the opportunity to make a new generation gangster movie. Unfortunately, they blow it with unnecessary comedy that blows the tone of the film and renders the film’s more serious moments difficult to take seriously. Still, the performances of Pepper and Diesel are strong enough for me to partially recommend Knockaround Guys.

Movie Review Red Dragon

Red Dragon (2002) 

Directed by Bret Ratner 

Written by Ted Tally

Starring Anthony Hopkins, Edward Norton, Ralph Fiennes, Harvey Keitel, Emily Watson, Mary Louise Parker, Phillip Seymour Hoffman

Release Date October 4th, 2002 

Published October 3rd, 2002 

In 1991, The Silence Of The Lambs captured pop culture with a character more frightening than any horror movie cliché. Dr. Hannibal Lecter, as portrayed by Sir Anthony Hopkins, embodied intelligence that was as frightening as any weapon Jason Voorhees ever used.

With Jodie Foster’s Clarice Starling as the perfect foil, Hopkins tore into the psyche of moviegoers dissecting their fears the way he did his victims. The style and wit of Hannibal Lecter thrust the character off the screen and into pop culture. Even the lame sequel Hannibal, which turned the character into a horror movie monster, couldn’t completely destroy Hannibal Lecter.

Now with the release of Red Dragon, Anthony Hopkins has a vehicle that restores the character to the elements that made it iconic; the gray jumpsuit, the glass cage and the menacing intelligence. If only director Brett Ratner had the same skill with the remaining cast and story of Red Dragon, it could have been the equal of the original. As it is, Red Dragon is a solid but brutal by-the-numbers thriller with one of those endings that just makes you shake your head and wish they would have quit while they were ahead.

As the credits roll it is 1980 and Dr. Hannibal Lecter is a well respected forensic psychologist, enjoying the symphony and entertaining guests with his unique culinary skills. In a scene written by Lambs screenwriter Ted Tally, Hopkins teases the audience with the fate of a missing symphony musician being discussed by Dr. Lecter’s dinner guests. After dinner FBI agent Will Graham (Edward Norton), arrives at Lecter’s door to discuss a case that Lecter is consulting on. In yet another very well written scene, Norton and Hopkins match wits as Graham slowly realizes the friendly doctor is actually his suspect.

The capture of Hannibal Lecter is merely the opening act of Red Dragon, the meat of the story is Grant’s search for a serial killer dubbed by the media as The Tooth Fairy, for his penchant to bite his victims. The killer's method is simple, he stalks a family 'til the night of a full moon when he attacks, killing husbands and children and raping the mothers. The killer breaks all of the mirrors in the home using the glass as a weapon and placing it in the eyes of his victims. As Will investigates he realizes that he can’t get inside this case without help and is forced to turn to Dr. Lecter for advice. As the conversations between Lecter and Graham proceed, Lecter takes an interest in The Tooth Fairy and finds the interest to be mutual as the two killers trade messages in a tabloid personals column.

The logistics of Lecter’s being able to place an ad from his jail cell is one of a number of logical leaps by director Brett Ratner. Others include Graham’s finding of clues other investigators couldn’t, not an unusual trait for an FBI expert except that the evidence is as obvious as an episode of CSI. Those factual inconsistencies aside, the characters in Red Dragon are smart and engaging enough to carry the viewers over the logical rough spots.

As The Tooth Fairy, Ralph Fienes returns to the type of character acting that won him an Oscar for Schindler’s List. Portraying both the killer's depraved brutality and his sensitive sadness, Fiennes almost earns the audience's sympathy, especially after he begins a tentative relationship with a blind coworker named Reba, played by fellow Oscar nominee Emily Watson. Since Reba can’t see him, he is comfortable with her. She can’t see the scar on his lip he is so ashamed of, the scar that drives him to destroy every mirror he sees. Reba knows the guy is odd but she has no idea he is a sought after serial killer. There is an amazing sweetness to the relationship that is leavened by Tooth Fairy’s twisted insanity. When Reba isn’t around he argues with his imaginary master, the Red Dragon, over whether or not to kill her.

Rounding out this amazing cast is Philip Seymour Hoffman as a sleazy tabloid journalist who Graham uses to tease Tooth Fairy into showing himself. The plan backfires resulting in one of the more shocking and memorable scenes in the film. The cast also includes Harvey Keitel as Graham’s boss and Mary Louise Parker, greatly underused as Graham’s wife.

Never one to take much notice of film score I must say how impressed I was with the work of Danny Elfman. While at times the score employs cheesy horror film screeches, most of the score is deep bass and ornamental horns that give each scene sonic depth. The score is effective and memorable and vital to the film's tone. Also impressive is Dante Spinotti’s cinematography which is most notable for how mundane it is. Never getting in the way, the lighting is stylish without being overbearing and the film's brutality and violence is given a realistic feel by Spinotti’s camerawork.

Give director Brett Ratner credit for working with talented people, unfortunately his own talent isn’t as well pronounced. Ratner’s direction is a heavy handed crowd pleasing style that pushes aside artistic touches in favor of manipulating the audience with violence and manufactured suspense. Especially overwrought is the ending, yet another case of false ending overkill. Had the director stopped 15 minutes earlier the film may have ended in a more tragic and poetic way. However Ratner has some very obvious setups that need to be paid off. You know those scenes that seem to have no bearing on the story but you know they have to pay off at some point? Red Dragon ends with two of those scenes.

And then there is Anthony Hopkins, who has said this will be the last we see of him as Hannibal Lecter. Hopkins’s performance is Oscar Worthy, he hits every note perfectly with wit and menace. There has never before and will likely never again be a killer more fascinating than Hannibal Lecter. Red Dragon gives the character the send off he deserves.

Despite its shortcomings, the thrilling suspense of the majority of the film and the stellar cast make Red Dragon easy to recommend.

Movie Review Moonlight Mile

Moonlight Mile (2002) 

Directed by Brad Silberling 

Written by Brad Silberling

Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, Susan Sarandon, Holly Hunter, Ellen Pompeo, Dabney Coleman, 

Release Date October 4th, 2002 

Published October 3rd, 2002 

When I was sixteen I dated this girl that was completely out of my league. Her name was Teri and she was this statuesque blonde who seemed as if she had walked off some fashion magazine. Call it low self esteem but I can't imagine what she saw in me, she said that I was sensitive and made her laugh. We didn't break up when she moved away to San Diego but there was this childish hope that we would see each other again. That hope died not soon after when she died in a car accident.

It's strange what you remember about a person. I vaguely remember how beautiful she was but what I really can't forget are these little conversation fragments. Small portions of conversations where she said something that stayed with me forever. She argued vociferously for Van Halen with Sammy Hagar over Van Halen with David Lee Roth. She confused Walter Payton and Refrigerator Perry; she called him Refrigerator Payton.

The movie Moonlight Mile brought these memories back in a big way, so forgive this reviewer if I'm a little easy on this one.

Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Joe who, as we meet him, is waking up in a strange bed. We come to find that it is in the home of his would-be in-laws, Ben (Dustin Hoffman) and Jo Jo (Susan Sarandon) Floss. They would have been his in-laws except that the daughter he was going to marry died. The day of the funeral Joe feels like a member of the family as he helps fill in with the chores that his fiancée Diane would have done were she there.

Ben and Jo Jo are dealing with the loss of their daughter in their own unique way. Ben by getting back to work as a real estate agent and Jo Jo by acerbically running down anyone who attempts to offer comfort or those who don't. The plan for Ben and Joe was for them to go into business together after the wedding. Ben still wants to go through with it, while Joe is just going through the motions of helping the family.

Through the strange circumstance of having to retrieve the invitations to the wedding which are about to be mailed, Joe meets Birdy (Ellen Pompeo) a flighty, unusual girl who is the first person not to look at Joe as if he were a wounded bird. She is sensitive to Joe's feelings but never drifts into the cliched mourning and pity that so many people offer as comfort. Joe is hiding one important secret, one I won't reveal, but it's not an Earth shattering secret. It's not a dramatic plot twist; it's a simple truth. A difficult truth but one that when revealed will hurt a little.

Grief is a personal thing, there is no one way to grieve. For me it was not listening to Van Halen for a very long time. That sounds ridiculous but it's strange what comes to mean something to you. In Moonlight Mile, Susan Sarandon's character has a thing with setting her watch. It was something she and her daughter shared.

Director Brad Silberling whose previous film, City of Angels, touched on similar emotions has grown a great deal since that film. Where City of Angels pounded home every emotion with soft focus, a softer soundtrack and a dewy eyed Nicholas Cage, Moonlight Mile is more daring and intellectual. The issues and relationships are more complicated and romantic in their uniqueness.

The performances are spectacular, especially Sarandon in the film’s smallest role. Sarandon has two very big speeches in the film that in the hands of a lesser actress could have come off as showy and over the top. Sarandon is pitch perfect and makes a tricky scripted speech easier to take seriously.

Dustin Hoffman also hits all the right notes as his grieving father who believes his daughter’s death is his fault. She was killed by a gunman in a restaurant across the street from his office as she waited for him to arrive. One can only imagine that kind of guilt and though Silberling employs a rather shallow plot device involving a phone, Hoffman overcomes it with his professionalism and natural charisma.

Then there is Jake Gyllenhaal who seems to be very hit and miss. In Bubble Boy and Lovely and Amazing, he is forgettable. In Donnie Darko and this film, he is absolutely brilliant. You never know what to expect when he's onscreen. Here, teamed with an extraordinary supporting cast, he shines. His chemistry with Ellen Pompeo as his odd duck love interest is sweet, romantic and touching.

I can't forget about the film's soundtrack, full of 70's rock n’ roll tunes. The film is set sometime in the mid-to-late 70's though it's never really acknowledged. The soundtrack features Elton John, Steam, Van Morrison and of course the Rolling Stones, whose song Moonlight Mile provides the film’s title. I guess it's easy for me to like this film because I relate to it so well. But I honestly believe that anyone should be able to connect with a movie as well acted and directed as Moonlight Mile.

Movie Review Sweet Home Alabama

Sweet Home Alabama (2002)

Directed by Andy Tennant 

Written by C Jay Cox 

Starring Reese Witherspoon, Josh Lucas, Patrick Dempsey, Candace Bergen, Fred Ward, Jean Smart

Release Date September 27th, 2002

Published September 24th, 2002 

In Legally Blonde, Reese Witherspoon showed herself to be the romantic comedy heiress apparent to Julia Roberts. With her perky good looks and sugary sweetness offset by a wonderfully mischievous smile it was impossible not to fall in love with her. Witherspoon brings those same qualities to her latest film, Sweet Home Alabama, but under the direction of Andy Tennent the same qualities that made you love her in Legally Blonde make you loathe her in this dense retread of every romantic comedy ever made.

In Alabama Reese has one of those great Hollywood lives where everything is perfect: perfect job, perfect friends, perfect man, just perfect. As Melanie Carmichael, Reese is a New York fashion designer about to marry the son of New York’s Mayor. Patrick Dempsey plays the perfect guy, Andrew, just going through the motions playing the same role Bill Pullman played in Sleepless in Seattle. No matter how good a guy he is, the trailer has already explained his fate.

After Andrew asks Melanie to marry him, Melanie has to go home to Alabama to take care of the small detail of her current husband Jake (Josh Lucas). In flashback we are treated to the scene when Jake and Melanie fell in love, they were struck by lightning as the shared their first kiss. Watching this scene my eyes rolled so far back I could see the dull faces of the people directly behind me. You can say I’m cynical but haven’t we seen this exact seen or something very similar at least a thousand times? Melanie and Jake’s bad sitcom style arguing is just one of a million tip offs that they will back together at the end of the film.

Having returned to her home town for the first time in 7 years Melanie takes time to revisit her old friends including Bobby Ray (Ethan Embry) who has a secret only Melanie knows about, the kind of secret that stereotypical southerners don’t react well to. There is also Melanie’s former best friend Lurlynn (Melanie Lynskie) who now has three kids including a newborn she takes to the bar as so many southerners are prone to do. Let us not forget Melanie’s parents Fred Ward and Mary Kay Place, who don’t so much fit into the role of stereotypical Southern parents that everyone in the audience assumed they would be.

So golly, do you think Melanie’s unusual southern friends and family will clash with her high class New York would be in laws?

Poor Candace Bergen, this wonderfully talented Emmy winning actress is stuck with the film's most thankless role. As the ever scowling and disapproving mother-in-law, Bergen is never allowed to smile, never allowed to joke. The purpose of Bergen’s Mayor of New York and mother of the groom is to be the bitch so at the end of the movie she can get her comeuppance in what is supposed to make the audience cheer.

That is the essence of the problem with Sweet Home Alabama, every scene has been filmed with the purpose of exerting a particular response from the audience. It is as if every scene in the film was individually test screened by demographic to make sure it illicited the correct audience response.

Like a romantic comedy machine, Sweet Home Alabama grinds through it’s mechanical plot, perfectly calibrated to meet exactly what the audience expects. The film is so predictable even lines of dialogue can be anticipated. Scenes are setup ten to twenty minutes ahead so, rather than watch the movie, I was sitting and waiting for the expected payoff and like clockwork I didn’t have to wait long for it in exactly the way I expected.

Sweet Home Alabama is the latest film to exhibit my biggest movie pet peeve. A film based on seemingly intelligent characters making intensely dumb decisions because if they didn’t, there wouldn’t be a movie. Not a frame of film goes by that Melanie doesn’t have an opportunity to solve all her problems with one intelligent decision. One line of intelligent dialogue and problem solved, movie over.

Sweet Home Alabama is an awful film and I had very low expectations for this film. I expected to laugh a couple times, fall in love with Reese Witherspoon again and leave the theater with a smile on my face. Instead I walked out depressed after seeing a film that illustrates everything that is wrong modern Hollywood film-making. This is yet another film that had a poster before it had a screenplay. A film where marketing execs made the creative decisions and hired creative people to carry out the vision of the publicity department. Director Andy Tennent was likely instructed to simply make Reese look cute and hope that the writers might squeeze in a sight gag or one liner somewhere, spoiler alert: they didn’t.

To steal a line from my hero Roger Ebert I hated, hated, hated this movie. This film does not improve upon the sight of a blank screen viewed for the same length of time. I still love Reese Witherspoon, but only because I watched Legally Blonde. Had I not, I might curse her for having made this film. Hollywood has no shame churning out the same drivel month after month. And I know what you're saying and yes I shouldn’t act so surprised but I honestly believe that there is art out there somewhere, Sweet Home Alabama dims that hope slightly but that dream is still there.

Movie Review: Trapped

Trapped (2002)

Directed by Luis Mandoki 

Written by Greg Iles

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

Release Date September 20th, 2002 

Published September 20th, 2002 

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

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

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

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

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

Movie Review: The Banger Sisters

The Banger Sisters (2002) 

Directed by Bob Dolman

Written by Bob Dolman 

Starring Susan Sarandon, Goldie Hawn, Geoffrey Rush, Erika Christensen

Release Date September 20th, 2002 

Published September 19th, 2002 

Well, I can tell you I was not looking forward to this movie. I despise the acting of Goldie Hawn and have hated every movie she's ever been in, especially Goldie's most recent work, The First Wives Club, The Out Of Towners, and, the most dreadful of them all, Town & Country. So, imagine my surprise when The Banger Sisters turned out to be a very funny and sweet movie, which succeeds because Goldie Hawn is fantastic.

Hawn plays legendary rock groupie-turned-bartender Suzette. Fired from her job at LA's Whiskey A Go Go, Suzette decides to pay a visit to her old friend Vinny (Susan Sarandon), who together were dubbed The Banger Sisters. They were legendary groupies whose conquests included Jim Morrison, The Rolling Stones, Jimmy Page and a couple of roadies. 

Vinny has changed a lot since she last saw Suzette some 20 years earlier. Vinny is now Lavinia, an overbearing housewife and mother of two, whose husband has a future in politics. On her way to see Lavinia, Suzette meets Harry (Geoffrey Rush), a failed screenwriter on his way to Phoenix to kill his father. Harry is a hypochondriac with a desperate need for order, which, of course, Suzette completely disrupts. Once in Phoenix, Suzette decides that she doesn't want to mess up Lavinia's perfect life, until a chance encounter with Lavinia's daughter Hannah (Erika Christenson) changes her mind. Once they are reunited, Suzette begins to push Lavinia back towards her past life, and, as the memories come back, the perfect façade crumbles.

The Banger Sisters has many problems. The narrative is shoved along a little too quickly and some of the gags are barely sitcom level. However both Sarandon and Hawn are such pros that they elevate even the worst material to at least elicit a chuckle. Hawn is especially good as the free spirit who, for once, isn't a ditz. Hawn delivers a very funny and bawdy, yet sweet, performance.

Some have compared Hawn's groupie character in The Banger Sisters to her daughter's groupie performance in Almost Famous. It is a fair comparison, though Hawn's performance isn't the Oscar-caliber performance that Hudson's was. I would say that this could be a great extension of that same character.

The biggest problem with this film is its ending. Throughout the film, we are treated to some raunchy antics and regaled with stories of groupie debauchery, only at the end to be given an almost Disney-like happy ending which is very disappointing. Still, The Banger Sisters provides enough solid laughs for me to recommend it, though you might consider walking out before the last 10 minutes.

Movie Review: Ballistic Ecks vs Sever

Ballistic Ecks vs. Sever 

Directed by Kaos 

Written by Alan B. McElroy 

Starring Antonio Banderas, Lucy Liu, Gregg Henry, Ray Park, Talisa Soto 

Release Date September 20th, 2002 

Published September 19th, 2002 

Well I must admit I was growing complacent. After a series of good movies mixed with some average and below-average movies, I had forgotten about Hollywood’s ability to make truly horrible films. In the past month or so Hollywood had lulled me into a trance of average movies that left no impression, good or bad. The new movie, Ballistic: Ecks Vs Sever, woke me from this trance with the loudest, dumbest, most idiotic movie this side of Rollerball. The byzantine plot of Ballistic is too ridiculous to explain. From what I was able to deduce, Lucy Liu played Sever and Antonio Banderas played Ecks. Other than that I am at a loss to explain the stupidity that passes for a plot. 

There is something about a weapon that was stolen from a lab in Germany. The microscopic weapon can cause heart attacks if it gets into the bloodstream, I think. There is something about a little kid that Sever takes as a hostage, something about Ecks' wife who he thought was dead but wasn't and Gregg Henry as the villain named Gant. The amazing thing about Gant is the audience has no clue why he does what he does. The movie teases that he is some public official but for the life of me I can't figure it out. 

We know Gant and his men can manipulate the local law enforcement of Vancouver, British Columbia, though we don't know why. Gant's men interact with the FBI but it's implied that they aren't with the FBI. There is some organization called the DIA. Whatever that is, the move never explains. We do know Gant wants this weapon, the heart attack weapon. The trailer is a better source than the film if you want to make sense of the weapons ability. Apparently you get it inside someone then it lays dormant until you press a button and it kills him or her. How do you get it inside someone? You shoot them. Of course that kind of defeats the purpose of the weapon doesn't it? 

Maybe you can rationalize that somehow, but how do you explain that the weapon is made of metal. So you have given the head of state a heart attack but your weapon is inside the body and easily detected in the autopsy, once again defeating the implied purpose of the weapon, which I believe is supposed to go undetected. It doesn't matter. Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever is a mess, which is appropriate because a guy who was credited as Kaos directed it. The irony is thick. The film is essentially a series of large explosions and that's it. The story is nonexistent, the script is a joke, the actors are completely lost and that is the only thing the audience can really relate too. 

Poor Lucy Liu and poor Antonio Banderas. While they deserve to be criticized for just being involved in this mess, I don't blame them for its failure. Both stars are attractive and charismatic. Unfortunately the director doesn't care. The only thing Kaos is interested in is getting to the next explosion ASAP. 

The director especially abuses Lucy Liu. Liu is an actress, yet in the films entire running length Lucy has 7 lines of dialogue. SEVEN. I counted them. That is less than Arnold Schwarzenegger in Hercules in New York and he could barely speak English then. Why hire an actress like Liu for a role that could have easily been filled by a stuntwomen? 

Stuntman Ray Park is also singled out for abuse, he has more dialogue than Lucy Liu and his character only exists for the purpose of being killed by Liu in a karate fight. Then there is Gregg Henry as the villainous Gant. Henry does his job in workmanlike fashion, oozing slime and dripping with evil. Gant actually gives us insight into which star got top billing. You see, whichever star kills Gant is the one with top billing. I will leave the mystery.

The most amazing thing about Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever is the director’s ability to combine an incomprehensible plot with plot devices more predictable than a calendar. That is a true accomplishment. Is Ecks Vs Sever the worst film of 2002? I'm not sure. Rollerball, Fear Dot Com and Tart have strong arguments for that title. Ecks Vs Sever will be near the top of the list that is for sure.

Movie Review Stealing Harvard

Stealing Harvard (2002) 

Directed by Bruce McCulloch

Written by Peter Tolan

Starring Jason Lee, Tom Green, Leslie Mann, Dennis Farina, Megan Mullally, Richard Jenkins, John C. McGinley

Release Date September 13th, 2002 

Published September 12th, 2002 

In Freddy Got Fingered, Tom Green broke every rule of good filmmaking. In doing so, he created one of the more inept films in history. On the other hand, Green should be commended for one of the boldest attempts at comedy we've ever seen. To his credit, he put himself on the line, and though he failed spectacularly, the attempt was brave and bold. If only his new film Stealing Harvard had taken some of the risks that Green did in Freddy Got Fingered, rather than churning out yet another market-tested demographically- safe comedy.

Stealing Harvard stars View Askew legend Jason Lee as John Plummer, a soon-to-be-married medical supply salesman. Years ago, John made a promise to his niece that if she got into college, he would pay for it. In the meantime, John met and fell in love with Elaine (Leslie Mann). They were engaged and agreed to get married when they accumulated enough money to buy a house. It is no surprise then that as soon as John has enough money to get married, he finds out his niece has been accepted to Harvard and needs money.

From here, the film tweaks one of my movie pet peeves. A character can easily dispel a difficult situation by simply telling the truth, but doesn't because of the plot. There is absolutely no reason for John not to tell Elaine about his problem, except that if he does there wouldn't be a movie. I can't stand this trope, it's a plague inflicted by lazy, hack screenwriters of the world.

Therefore, instead of simply telling the truth, John enlists his buddy Duff (Green) who suggests they steal the money. After a series of outlandish robbery attempts and bids to cut deals with lowlifes, John finally comes clean with Elaine, who has the brilliant idea to steal from her father (who is also John's hateful boss (Dennis Farina). She could just ask her dad for the money, and he would likely give it to her ,despite his hatred of her fiancée, but if she did that we wouldn't have the ridiculous climax and tacked on a happy ending.

Director Bruce Mcculloch, formerly of Kids In The Hall, may not have much of an eye for story, but he does manage a light quick tone and a few solid laughs. Lee is solid though some of the material is beneath his talent. Green, once again playing himself, draws some of the biggest laughs. He has an amazing talent for physical humor, and because he is so unpredictable, the comic potential of his character is attention grabbing.

Stealing Harvard never had a chance to be a good film. Coming from the big studio system, this film was engineered with demographics ahead of script. Screenwriter Peter Tolan writes as if he was creating the marketing campaign as he was creating the story. It is truly a shame, with the talent there was a very funny movie to be made. Stealing Harvard just wasn't it.

Movie Review Igby Goes Down

Igby Goes Down

Directed by Burr Steers 

Written by Burr Steers

Starring Kieran Culkin, Claire Danes, Bill Pullman, Susan Sarandon, Ryan Phillippe, Jeff Goldblum

Release Date September 13th, 2002 

Published October 23rd, 2002

The meteoric rise and fall of Macauley Culkin is one of those cautionary tales of Hollywood that makes the E! True Hollywood Story so popular. The domineering father, the loving mother, the multi-millions of dollars flowing in and out of the home and the hints of abusiveness. There is a movie all its own in the Culkin family. Thankfully the fate suffered by Macauley provided a what-not-to-do roadmap for younger brother Kieran who is building a strong resume. A resume that should include an Oscar nomination for his title role in Igby Goes Down, if there is any justice in the world.

As Igby, Culkin is the son of a shrewish controlling Susan Surandon and a middle-aged and crazy Bill Pullman. Ryan Phillipe is Igby’s perfectionist brother Oliver and Jeff Goldblum plays his rich Godfather. Igby has a habit of being kicked out of every school he goes to, until finally he escapes on his own to New York where his knowledge of an affair between his Godfather and an artist played by Amanda Peet leads to his staying in a gorgeous New York loft, rent free. 

While on a weekend trip to his Godfather’s home in the Hamptons, Igby meets Sookie Sapperstein (Claire Danes), a college student moonlighting as a caterer's assistant. After Igby moves to New York, he and Sookie form a tentative romance that is the soul of the film. Their intelligent, funny and very well written exchanges are the highlights of this magnificent film.

Culkin and Danes are both sensational, their conversations foreshadowing their uncertain future. Like any good romance the roadblocks of this relationship are obvious but not acknowledged. Writer/Director Burr Steers never settles for typical romantic situations, he uses every opportunity to tease the audience with a happy ending without ever having to provide it. It is a very delicate balancing act of great acting, writing and direction.

Culkin is the film's centerpiece and it is his acerbic honesty and humor that makes Igby Goes Down such a great film. Danes and Phillippe are also excellent with Phillippe once again showing his amazing versatility, falling into his preppy clothes and manner the same way he embraced his down and dirty thief in The Way Of the Gun and his nerdy computer guy in Antitrust, a pair of guilty pleasure classics.

Indeed, the entire cast of Igby Goes Down is very good. The only issue I had with the film was not enough Bill Pullman. As Igby’s schizophrenic father Pullman has a very limited role but makes an amazing impression in his short screen time. Igby Goes Down is an incredible film with one of the best casts of the year headed up by Culkin in a performance guaranteed to be criminally overlooked by Oscar voters.

Movie Review: Barbershop

Barbershop (2002) 

Directed by Tim Story 

Written by Don D. Scott 

Starring Ice Cube, Cedric the Entertainer, Troy Garity, Eve, Keith David, Anthony Anderson

Release Date September 13th, 2002 

Published September 12th, 2002 

Recently the question was asked what rapper was the best actor. The answer? Ice Cube, and he deserves the accolade. Cube proved he had something with his debut in Boyz In The Hood. But it was Friday that showed Ice Cube was going to be around for a while. Now with Barbershop, Cube may finally shake the rapper actor label altogether and just be seen as an actor.

In Barbershop, Cube is Calvin, owner of a Chicago barbershop once owned by his grandfather and his father. Calvin, however, isn't satisfied running the family business, he would like to run his own record company from his basement. As the day unfolds Calvin decides to sell the shop to a local hustler played by Keith David. 

Meanwhile we get to know Calvin's employees. There is the grizzled vet Eddie (Cedric The Entertainer), the college kid Jimmy (Sean Patrick Thomas), African immigrant Dinka (Leonard Howze), former gangbanger Ricky (Michael Early), the lone white guy Isaac (Troy Garity) and the girl Terri (EVE). Each has their own problems, Ricky is a two time felon who if he gets in trouble again will spend the rest of his life in jail. 

His trouble is compounded by his no good cousin JD (Anthony Anderson) who uses Ricky's truck to steal a newly installed ATM machine from a market just down the street from the barbershop. Terri has a no-good boyfriend who she can't seem to shake, while Dinka is nursing a serious crush on her. Isaac, because he's white, can't get any customers, and is feuding with Jimmy who thinks he knows everything because he went to college. Then there is Eddie. Eddie is the ringleader, he begins the conversations and says everything on his mind no matter what anyone thinks. As Eddie, Cedric The Entertainer delivers the film's funniest performance.

For me though the movie was about Ice Cube. As we watch Barbershop we watch as Ice Cube the actor becomes more mature and relaxed. Cube is in command playing an older wiser character, a guy with dreams that have passed him by who is just now seeing what is real and important. The character of Calvin holds the movie together while observing it from the outside. Calvin is hardly ever involved in the barbershop conversations but he is always watching and his perspective is the audience's perspective. As he realizes how important his shop is to the neighborhood, we in the audience do as well. It is a marvelous performance.

Barbershop does have its flaws, particularly Anthony Anderson as JD. Anderson is becoming a cliché, playing the same character over and over. In Barbershop his constant mugging is tiresome and unnecessary. The film could have done without his entire subplot. Still, Barbershop is a very good movie. For me the most important thing in comedy is consistency. Most films take too long setting up jokes that aren't funny enough to justify the time taken to set them up. In Barbershop, laughs come early and often, making for one of the funniest movies of 2002.

Movie Review Swimfan

Swimfam (2002) 

Directed by John Polson

Written by Charles Bohl

Starring Jesse Bradford, Erika Christensen, Shiri Appleby, Kate Burton, Dan Hedaya

Release Date September 6th, 2002 

Published September 6th, 2002

It's been years since I have seen Michael Douglas and Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction. The little that I remember about Fatal Attraction centers on that boiled rabbit scene and how freaky Glenn Close's hair looked. I don't remember liking the film very much except on a camp level. So, yeah, remaking Fatal Attraction with teenagers and a swimming pool? Not really something I was looking for. Swimfan is just that, a cheesy, sleazy, teenage version of Fatal Attraction, the only difference being that at least the original had some camp value.

Jesse Bradford, star of Clockwatchers, stars as Ben Cronin and as the title suggests, he is indeed a swimmer. In fact Ben is a champion swimmer with a bright future. Ben is in love with a waifish angel named Amy, played by Roswell's Shiri Appleby. Soon, everything comes crashing down as Ben meets psycho bitch Madison Bell (Erika Christensen). 

At first she seems normal enough, don't they always, but she begins to get more involved with Ben. Not surprisingly Madison seduces the dumb jock and thus begins a series of below average thriller movie scenes, where Madison menaces Ben's mother and girlfriend, tries to frame Ben for the murder of a fellow swimmer, and gets him kicked off the swim team. Not quite boiling a bunny rabbit

As for the rest of the movie there isn't one frame of film in this movie that you haven't seen before. Especially trite is that old thriller trick of the psycho's previous victim. Every time, there is always a first victim who tips off our hero to the psycho's plan. It's truly as if there is some thriller handbook floating around that all hack directors work from when making a psycho-girl movie. 

The ending of Swimfan carries the film into comic parody territory. Here, a scene from earlier in the film pays off in the most laughable and predictable fashion. It's like clockwork, you could set your watch to the hack clichés that director John Polson employs to tell the story of Swimfan. If there is a single original thought in all of the making and presentation of Swimfan, I was unable to find it. 

Poor Jesse Bradford, at least he doesn't completely embarrass himself with this performance. Bradford's only embarrassment is actually choosing this role. Co-stars Erika Christenson and Shiri Appleby on the other, each are directed to make fools of themselves in their stock stupid roles. Appleby is beyond annoying as the whiney victim girlfriend. As for Christenson her deadpan psycho is never interesting, she never grabs your attention. 

A good psycho role should embrace camp, go over the top, really bite down on the role. The performance should seduce the audience and the victims. He or she should be entertaining and over the top, be crazy and enjoy it. Christensen comes off as bored and while I understand that this kind of script and role invites boredom, she should at least be considerate of those of us in the audience for Swimfan and not let the boredom come into her performance. 

Movie Review City by the Sea

City by the Sea (2002) 

Directed by Directed by Michael Caton Jones

Written by Ken Hixon 

Starring Robert DeNiro, Frances McDormand, James Franco, Eliza Dushku, William Forsythe

Release Date September 6th, 2002

Published September 8th, 2002

Ok I know what your thinking, DeNiro is playing a cop AGAIN?  However I would ask you to think of it differently. I see DeNiro playing a cop in City By the Sea much like Springsteen playing Thunder Road. We have heard him play it lord knows how many times and its not always great, but when Springsteen hits that perfect pitch and finds his groove, Thunder Road becomes a new song as if you had never heard it before. That is what DeNiro does in cop movies, and in City By the Sea DeNiro has found the groove. 

In City By the Sea, DeNiro is Vincent Lamarca, NYPD homicide cop. LaMarca lives somewhat contently alone in an apartment one floor above his girlfriend, Michele, played by Frances MacDormand. The relationship is still blossoming but seems to be serious. However, LaMarca is distant and is hiding some painful family secrets. Secrets that are about to collide and impact his personal and professional life.

While on the job LaMarca and his partner Reg (George Dzundza) latch onto a murder case about a drug dealer floating in the Hudson. The body has floated down the coast from Long Beach, where many of Vincent's secrets await him.

Earlier in the film, even before we meet Vincent, we meet his son Joey played by James Franco. Joey is first seen wandering the boardwalk trying to sell a guitar and it's obvious why. Joey is a junkie. After scoring, Joey and a friend go looking for more and visit a drug dealer named Picasso. The deal goes bad and Joey murders Picasso. Joey and his friend dump the body in the river and I think you know the rest.

So the plot is a little contrived and a great exaggeration from the 1997 Esquire article by pulitzer prizewinning journalist, the late Mike Calary. The plot is merely a contextual convenience, something to motivate the more interesting drama. The great part of City By the Sea is the relationships between the characters. 

DeNiro and MacDormand have amazing chemistry, DeNiro and Franco are perfect counterpoints, and even DeNiro and Dzundza shine. While Dzundza,a highly underrated character actor, gets stuck in the one role everyone knows will be tragic, he and DeNiro make up for it with the ease of dialogue that make both more wellrounded and fleshed out characters.

The other star of the film is it's setting, played as Long Beach on the coast of Long Island New York. In actuality it's the Boss' home turf of Asbury Park. The rundown boardwalk shown in the opening credits as it looked in it's heyday, looks as if it has a thousand stories of it's own to tell. The abandoned casino where Joey lives reminded me a lot of the Dance Hall in Carnival Of Souls. Whether that is intentional I can't say but the look of the casino and Franco's ghostly visage do at least hint at homage.

City By the Sea isn't perfect, as I stated the plot is pure convenience. But the characters and the relationships they develop are magnificent, especially loved DeNiro and MacDormand.

For the first time in a longtime we are treated to an adult relationship that feels real. There is no easy rapport, no all consuming over the top passion. Merely two adults who have found comfort in one another at a time when they desperately needed it. In a scene set in a coffee shop we watch an actual adult conversation of real weight and emotion that never panders to the audience and never begs for emotional reaction. It just is what it is, two adults having an intelligent conversation. We take for granted just how rare that is in modern Hollywood.

Movie Review: Fear Dot Com

Fear Dot Com (2002) 

Directed by William Malone 

Written by Josephine Coyle 

Starring Stephen Dorff, Natascha McElhone, Stephen Rea, Udo Kier

Release Date August 30th, 2002 

Published August 29th, 2002 

The uneven career of Stephen Dorff continues. From his great performances in The Power of One, Blood & Wine and Entropy to his outright awful work in SFW, Space Truckers and Deuces Wild. On occasion he combines both a good and bad performance in one film. Such was the case in Blade where he had some effectively scary cool moments bookended by scenes of screen chewing hamminess. Fear Dot Com sadly features Bad Stephen Dorff, sullen skulking plot manipulated Dorff. Throw in an equally dull Natascha McElhone and you have a very unpleasant moviegoing experience.

fear dot com is a website, or rather FearDotCom.com is the website in the film. No I'm not kidding, Feardotcom.com, which is also the film's official website. Anyway back to the movie. Dorff plays a put upon cop in a nameless city constantly in darkness and always raining. My guess would be Seattle, but no one is drinking coffee and listening to Pearl Jam, which is my narrow stereotypical view of the city. The film was actually shot in Luxembourg, probably for the cheap labor and lack of strict labor laws. I'm off subject again but that was the way it was while I watched the film with my mind constantly wandering off, my inner monologue fixating on better movies than this like The Net or Howard The Duck.

Oh right the plot description. Basically this website takes possession of your soul and makes your eyes bleed until you kill yourself and the person nearest you. The same type of experience you would have watching Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot.

Anyway Stephen Dorff is the cop investigating the website. Dorff is aided by a pretty girl from the health department played by Natascha McElhone. The website steals their souls and won't give them back until they track down a serial killer named Allistair Pratt, played by Stephen Rea doing a sort Peter Lorre crossed with Geoffrey Rush and the devil thing. There is more to it but I don't remeber much of it, this plot makes more holes than a gopher.

Director William Malone, who delivered one of the best B-movies of the last decade with his remake of House On Haunted Hill, seems to want to go in interesting directions but can't get around this minefield of a script. So Malone, Cinematographer Christian Seboldt and Production Designer Jerome Letour do everything they can with the film's visuals to at least make the film a tolerable visual experience. Their work pays off a little in the final 20 minutes or so but by then it's too little too late.

Fear Dot Com isn't the worst film I have seen this year but it is an early candidate for the top 10 worst of the year. Keep your fingers crossed.

Movie Review: Undisputed

Undisputed (2002) 

Directed by Walter Hill 

Written by David Giler, Walter Hill

Starring Ving Rhames, Wesley Snipes, Peter Falk, Michael Rooker, Jon Seda, Master P, Wes Studi 

Release Date August 23rd, 2002

Published December 2nd, 2002 

Of all the film genres that have become slaves to the cliches that made them, none is more trapped in cliche than the sports movie. Ever since Rocky, the sports movie has been doomed to the cliches of the big game, big fight, big moment. If it's a team game like baseball or football the team will be stocked with overused characters. 

Characters like the star, the jerk, the fat guy, the foreigner and the joker, and of course the troubled rookie who doesn't think he can make it but ends up winning the game. If it's a one-on-one sport like boxing then the film is doomed to repeat the cliches Rocky bred, i.e. the underdog overcoming great odds to succeed. It is these cliches that make Walter Hill's Undisputed stand out from most other sports movies. Hill's film breaks from genre cliches which makes Undisputed a surprisingly entertaining sports movie.

The film stars Wesley Snipes as Monroe Hutchins, the heavyweight champion boxer of the California State penal system. Hutchens is in prison for life for murdering a man who was sleeping with his wife. In his time in prison Monroe has spent ten years in the prison-boxing program and has won 68 consecutive fights. 

Enter the man who is THE world heavyweight champion, George "The Iceman" Chambers (Ving Rhames). Having just been convicted of rape, a charge that he vehemently denies, Chambers is sent to the same prison where Hutchins has become champion. To avoid problems, Hutchins is placed in solitary confinement where he remains for a month until an ex-mobster named Mendy Ripstein (Peter Falk) pulls some strings to set up a fight between Hutchins and The Iceman.

What is most surprising about Undisputed is that director Walter Hill is actually able to raise a solid level of suspense. The audience honestly has no idea who will win the fight. To achieve this Hill strips away both fighters’ likability, leaving the audience little rooting interest and yet there remains actual suspense thanks to Hill's exceptional direction. In a genre where the outcomes are usually tipped off well ahead of time, it's a rather remarkable feat to inject real, honest to goodness, suspense and unpredictability. 

Ignore the cover box of the Undisputed video and DVD with it's helicopters and fire. This is not an action movie, there are no daring escapes, no explosions, not even any fire. The only thing explosive about Undisputed is it's punches which Walter Hill choreographs well. By shucking traditional boxing rules and putting into the script that the fight is non traditional boxing, Hill frees the two stars from having to fake their way through boxing technique. In this fight they simply throw punches and fall down.

There are flaws in Undisputed. Such as the fact that I highly doubt, or at least hope, that prisons are not spending tax dollars on elaborate boxing cages with pay per view quality lighting rigs and an announcer played by former MTV personality Ed Lover. But that is a minor quibble. In the end when you combine Snipes’ and Rhames’ quality performances and Walter Hill's sure handed direction you get a quality entertaining sports movie. A very rare commodity.

Movie Review Serving Sara

Serving Sara (2002) 

Directed by Reginald Hudlin

Written by Jay Scherick, David Ronn

Starring Matthew Perry, Elizabeth Hurley, Bruce Campbell, Amy Adams, Cedric The Entertainer

Release Date August 23rd, 2002 

Published August 22nd, 2002 

Matthew Perry has long been my favorite member of the Friends cast. Unfortunately I've only ever liked him on Friends. In movies Perry tries really hard to not be Chandler, but comes off as if he were conscious trying not to be Chandler. The result is often forced physical humor and strained vocal and physical affectations that are simply not funny. The trend continues with Serving Sara.

In the film, Perry portrays a process server attempting at first to serve divorce papers on the gorgeous trophy wife of a Texas millionaire played by Bruce "Ash" Campbell. Things change when the trophy wife hires Perry's process server to serve her husband first. Elizabeth Hurley, continuing her attempt to make sure everyone knows she can’t act, plays the trophy wife. She proved that in Bedazzled, and reaffirms it here with a tremendously unfunny, damn near hard to watch performance. Are there any more frightening words than model/slash actress?

As for Perry once again you can see the effort. Perry, in the classic football sense, leaves it all on the field. Pratfalls, bad impersonations, and various wacky setups put Perry through his paces. Unfortunately none of this is funny. Serving Sara serves up a film that might work as an episode of a bad sitcom but as a two hour movie it's dull and feels much longer than it actually is.

I can say one good thing about the film. It's always good to see Bruce Campbell on screen, this man doesn't work enough. Check out his book If Chins Could Kill, this guy is hysterical.

Movie Review One Hour Photo

One Hour Photo (2002) 

Directed by Mark Romanek

Written by Mark Romanek 

Starring Robin Williams, Michael Vartan, Connie Nielsen, Gary Cole, Eriq LaSalle 

Release Date August 21st, 2002 

Published August 20th, 2002 

Director Mark Romanek cut his teeth on music videos for artists like Lenny Kravitz, Madonna, and En Vogue. Especially memorable was the video he directed for Fiona Apple's "Criminal." A controversial video with Fiona and others in varying states of undress, the video had an atmosphere that dripped with sexuality. In the "Criminal" video, Romanek used everything from costumes to the set's retro-seventies green carpet to create an atmosphere at once familiar but also forbidden.

Atmosphere is what makes Romanek's second feature film--his previous work was 1985's Static--One Hour Photo, a creepy glimpse inside the mind of the most mundane madman the screen has ever seen.

Robin Williams stars as Sy the Photo Guy, as his customers at the retail store SavMart call him. Sy is an affable photo shop employee who is overly dedicated to the quality of his customers' photos. He has worked in the photo shop long enough to know the names and addresses of his regular customers and through their photos he knows even more than they would want him to. 

There is a very effective scene early on where Sy, the narrator, introduces us to some of his regular customers including amateur porn guy--maybe the only guy creepier than Sy himself. Sy's favorite customers are the Yorkin family. Stay at home mom Nina (Connie Nielsen), 9 year old Jakob, and Will (Michael Vartan). As the film develops (bad pun) Sy's obsession with the Yorkin's grows.

What sounds like a typical suspense thriller setup is played much more simply. Romanek allows the story to unravel at its own pace. This gives Williams the opportunity to reveal his character in more unique and interesting ways than your average thriller usually does. Williams seizes every opportunity to make Sy more vulnerable and almost innocent, which makes him so much scarier. You don't sympathize with Sy, but he earns your pity easily. I really liked the way Williams and Romanek conveyed Sy's sense of feeling that he was doing the right thing, Sy never seems to rationalize what he does because he doesn't think he has to.

As great as Williams is in One Hour Photo, for me the film is all about Romanek, who crafts a film of both visual and intellectual depth. Romanek employs these sensational tracking shots of Sy walking down these sterile hallways and perfectly assembled shelves at SavMart, all of it with the camera trained on Sy's determined, creepy stare.

Also effective is the score, which seems, at times, to be running through Sy's head. The rhythm of the score seems at times to match Sy's emotion. An early scene that takes the camera inside the inner workings of a film-developing machine is like a trip inside Sy's mind. Even the things that Sy watches on television however mundane they are seem to dovetail with what Sy is thinking. All of it creates an atmosphere that has not been so well-evoked since the days of Hitchcock.

Others have said that the film is told in flashback as Sy explains what happened to a detective played by Eriq Lasalle. I have a different take. I think Sy was running all that happened back in his own mind. He never told the police anything, except at the end, when he hints at what motivated the actions that the police already know about.

While the ending is somewhat unsatisfactory, attempting to explain why Sy does what he does demystifies him too much. Nonetheless, One Hour Photo Is an awesome film with visuals that should be used in film schools as a teaching tool. This is one of the year's best films.

Movie Review Possession

Possession (2002) 

Directed by Neil Labute 

Written by David Henry Hwang, Laura Jones, Neil Labute 

Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Aaron Eckhardt, Jeremy Northam, Jennifer Ehle, Lena Headey 

Release date August 16th, 2002 

Published August 16th, 2002 

As something of a writer myself, I can only imagine how difficult it must be to make a film about writing. In Possession, writer/director Neil Labute (with help from Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart) nearly pulls it off. Unfortunately, there is a limit to how interesting watching people conduct research about great writers can be.

Eckhart is an American historian named Roland Mitchell, working and living in Britain. In the midst of researching a poet named Randolf Henry Ash, played in flashback by Jeremy Northam, he comes across a letter that has gone unseen for over a hundred years. Rather than turning it over to his superiors, Roland keeps it until he can verify its authenticity. This leads him to a fellow researcher named Maud Bailey (Paltrow), who is an expert in all things Ash. 

The letter is quite complicated, as it is not addressed to his wife (as most of Ash's work is), but rather, to a mystery woman. For historians, this is an earth-shattering discovery. Ash's fidelity and love for his wife is part of his legend. The mystery woman is a fellow writer named Christabel La Motte (Jennifer Ehle). Her history is notable for her open homosexuality and what was thought to be a fitful relationship with her maid. The deeper the research the more interesting the revelation. I won't spoil the film's many turns.

The story is interesting and well plotted but the romance between Eckhart and Paltrow never quite sparks. The two just don't have the chemistry it takes to make the film burn with the passion Labute is obviously looking for; the kind of passion that would inspire such great romantic writing. In the film's parallel story of Ash and Christabel, there is great passion. Northam and Ehle do burn up the screen and their writing is vivid and lovely.

Unfortunately that isn't enough for me to fully recommend Possession. This certainly isn't a bad film but the lack of chemistry between the two leads undoes most of the strong narrative. For fans of Paltrow, Possession may be a worthy rental.