Movie Review Hellboy (2019)

Hellboy (2019) 

Directed by Neil Marshall

Written by Andrew Cosby

Starring David Harbour, Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane, Daniel Dae Kim, Thomas Haden Church 

Release Date April 12th, 2019 

Published April 11th, 2019

Do we really need a Hellboy reboot? No, no we do not. But, Hollywood does not appear to care for our opinion on this matter. Hellboy is a character that many people recognize and thus may pay money to see and regardless of the compromised state of the character and the story, his marketability is what truly matters. Hellboy has a Q-rating that rings a bell in marketing meetings among the right demographic of desirable young consumers. That’s why we have a new Hellboy.

Stranger Things breakout star, David Harbor, picks up the mantle of Hellboy, for this reboot. In this re-imaging of Hellboy, we join the story with our hero, already a member of the Paranormal Bureau of Investigation and working for his father, Professor Bloom (Ian McShane). Hellboy is out on a personal errand as we join his story, he’s traveled to Mexico to locate a friend and fellow agent who has gone missing in the world of Lucha Libre wrestling.

This is a clever and colorful way to start the movie but, sadly, it’s all downhill from here. Hellboy finds his friend and is forced to kill him when he becomes a demon bat. Before he dies, the friend warns Hellboy that the end of the world is coming. In a prologue to the story, we meet the Blood Queen (Milla Jovavich). The Blood Queen intended to bring monsters and demons out of the shadows and destroy humanity thousands of years ago before she was stopped by King Arthur and Merlin.

Now, The Blood Queen is about to make a comeback. Despite having been beheaded and having her body carved into several pieces and locked inside boxes, The Blood Queen is set to return and only Hellboy and his friends can stop her from destroying humanity. Aiding Hellboy are his long time friend Alice (Sasha Lane), a psychic with ever changing and growing powers, and Major Ben Daimio, an English secret agent who claims to hate monsters like Hellboy while harboring a monstrous secret of his own.

Together, reluctantly, they will battle The Blood Queen and several other deathly threats put forward by director Neil Marshall, a man with a known knack for quality monsters. Neil Marshall was the director of one of my favorite monster movies of recent memory, 2005’s The Descent. Where that remarkable talent has gone since then is anyone’s guess. Marshall followed up The Descent with a mediocre Mad Max knock off called Doomsday and has never again looked like the director who crafted The Descent.

Hellboy demonstrates some of the craft that Marshall was once known for but it is also lacking in many of the same ways that Marshall’s post-The Descent features are lacking. Much like Doomsday, which cribbed heavily from the worst tropes of the Mad Max movies, Hellboy feels overly familiar with an arc that is indistinguishable from any number of fantasy adventure or superhero-comic book movies. There is little to no invention in this story.

David Harbour cuts a giant figure as Hellboy but the choice to direct him as a larger, slower, version of Deadpool is perhaps the film's biggest failing. The R-Rating for Hellboy essentially gets second billing to Hellboy himself with the film using the freedom of the R-Rating to attempt to appeal to hardcore comic fans. Unfortunately, Hellboy lacks the skill and intelligence of the makers of Deadpool and there is simply no wit and not nearly enough style to the R-Rated violence in Hellboy as there was in Deadpool.

Hellboy doesn’t need an R-Rating. The violence that director Neil Marshall has employed that earns the film that rating never feels organic or necessary. The violence of Hellboy somehow fails to even induce shock and without that pinch of shock it comes off as merely gross. Hellboy comes off as childish and infantile in comparison to other R-Rated heroes such as Logan and Deadpool, and that’s saying something given the level of juvenile in Deadpool 2. In Deadpool, the hardcore violence is delivered with such style and humor that no matter what Deadpool the character does, the film feels mature. Hellboy never achieves anything similar.

Hellboy is a kid brother’s version of an R-Rated fantasy comic. It’s all flash and no style. It’s all blood and guts and no character or wit. Hellboy has all the pretension toward something edgy without ever actually becoming edgy or even controversial. Small kids might lose sleep over some of the gory images of Hellboy 2019, but anyone with fully developed sensibilities will find the film witless, charmless and infantile, especially when compared to other R-Rated comic book hero stories

Movie Review Hellboy

Hellboy (2004) 

Directed by Guillermo Del Toro 

Written by Guillermo Del Toro 

Starring Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, David Hyde Pierce, Doug Jones, Karl Roden, Rupert Evans

Release Date April 2nd, 2004

Release Date April 1st, 2004 

What Director Guillermo Del Toro went through to realize his vision of the comic book Hellboy on the big screen is the textbook definition of perseverance. Del Toro survived dozens of pitch meetings, copious amounts of idiotic studio notes about everything from “Why is Hellboy red?” to “Can he have a hellmobile?” to the biggest battle over the casting of Hellboy himself. From day one, Del Toro wanted Ron Perlman. Various studios kept suggesting The Rock, Vin Diesel or even Schwarzenegger (pre-Governator).

If only the vision that Del Toro finally realized was as interesting as the battle to realize it.

Ron Perlman is Hellboy, born in the fires of hell and brought to Earth via a portal opened by the Nazis in 1944. You see, Hitler was a devout occultist and hoped to use a portal created by the legendary Russian bad guy Rasputin (Karl Roden) to unleash the 7 chaos of blah blah whatever. Rasputin was interrupted in his attempt to destroy the world by a group of US Army soldiers, led by President Roosevelt's top advisor on paranormal activity, Professor Broom (John Hurt). The interruption prevented the end of the world and killed Rasputin, sort of. One thing did survive and that was Hellboy.

Sixty years later, Dr. Broom has raised Hellboy as his son and the two fight evil as part of a secret FBI division dedicated to the paranormal. With the help of other freaks like the psychic fish-man Abe Sapien (Doug Jones with the voice of David Hyde Pierce) and the pyro-kinetic Liz Sherman (Selma Blair), Hellboy fights evil. Well at first Liz isn't much help, unable to control her fire making capability, she has left the group and is trying to forget her past. Hellboy, nursing a serious crush on Liz, won't let her forget.

The group’s newest member is just a regular guy, Agent John Myers (Rupert Evans). His assignment is to take over Dr. Broom's daily assignment of attempting to cover Hellboy's huge tracks. The media has been hounding FBI Director Tom Manning (Jeffrey Tambor) about Hellboy for years. Still, the FBI always denies his existence with graceful dodges. That task is complicated by Hellboy's constant escapes to retrieve beer, cigars and to see Liz. It's Myers' job to keep Hellboy in line.

When Rasputin rises from the grave, with the help of his henchwoman, an immortal named Ilsa (Biddy Hodson) and a surgery freak dome-wearing Nazi, he brings with him a group of squid-like dogs that feed on human flesh and multiply when killed. The squids are meant to occupy and capture Hellboy and Liz for some convoluted end-of-the-world scheme. If you think my plot description is complicated, see the film and try to figure it out for yourself.

What I liked about Hellboy is Ron Perlman. Perlman plays Hellboy like your average world-weary cop who happens to be seven foot tall and from Hell. Sadly resigned to his fate Hellboy sets about each task in front of him as if this were just another average day. Perlman gives Hellboy humor and depth with the way he delivers his lines and the way he regards the camera and the other actors. Hellboy is the one and only fully fleshed out character in the film.

The rest of the cast is a wash, especially Rupert Evans as Agent Myers. Evans is the first actor I have seen who makes Ben Chaplin look animated. His blank stare and damsel in distress poses should be played for laughs but sadly it's obvious he was playing it all straight. The character of Myers is given a subplot as a romantic rival to Hellboy for Liz Sherman, but it's never a fair fight. As for Selma Blair, one of my absolute favorite actresses, she is sadly on autopilot in this film. She can conjure fire but her eyes never show any flame of interest in the story.

Oddly, the one interesting character aside from Hellboy is the Nazi in the helmet who keeps himself alive through gruesome means. That character is uncredited on IMDB so I know neither the character or the actor’s name, but he was pretty good. He’s a better villain than Karl Roden's Rasputin who is basically Alan Rickman minus charisma.

I will say this for director Guillermo Del Toro, his eye for special effects, makeup and CGI is spectacular. The CGI in Hellboy is some of the best outside of George Lucas and Star Wars. Seamlessly integrated with the actors, very little of the digital shadowing that haunts so much of the CGI effects employed in this type of picture.

If as much work had been put into creating a coherent story as was put into the incredible effects, then Hellboy could have been spectacular. As it is, it's worth seeing for Perlman and the work of Del Toro's special effects, makeup and graphics teams.

Movie Review Never Die Alone

Never Die Alone (2004) 

Directed by Ernest Dickerson 

Written by James Gibson

Starring DMX, David Arquette, Michael Ealy, Clifton Powell 

Release Date March 26th, 2004

Published March 25th, 2004 

For rapper DMX, Hollywood has been difficult to navigate. Stuck with B-movie plots and co-stars (Steven Seagal, Jet Li), DMX has managed to show raw potential but little else. The most notable things about his film career thus far are his multi-platinum soundtrack albums that have been better than the films they accompany. Now, however, teamed with director Ernest Dickerson in Never Die Alone, DMX gets an opportunity to realize some of that raw potential.

DMX stars as King David, a bad-ass drug dealer who has returned to New York to settle old debts and reestablish his home. After ten years on the West Coast rolling up huge amounts of cash selling heroin to starlets, David has more than enough cash to pay off New York's top drug dealer Mr. Moon (Clifton Powell). The deal is he will give the money to Moon's top thug Mike (Michael Ealy from Barbershop) and once Moon has the cash, King is free.

Young Mike however, has other plans. Mike and the King have a history that King doesn't know about. A dangerous secret leads to Mike stabbing King. As Mike makes his escape, a writer named Paul (David Arquette) witnesses the stabbing and runs to the aid of King. As Paul drives King to the hospital, the dying man pledges all of his possessions to Paul with the caveat that Paul uses them to locate King's son. At the hospital King dies and Paul is left to put the pieces of King's life back together with the audio tapes King left behind in a hollowed out bible.

It's convenient that Paul happens to be a writer living in the King's old neighborhood for research on a gritty crime novel. Not many writers are lucky enough to have a gritty urban crime story fall into their lap like that. Paul is merely a convenient device through which to tell King's cold, hard, thug story. The King's tapes take us back to when he left for LA and eventually why he ran, which sets up the main plot of the film.

The scenes in LA are a frightening examination of the kind of sociopath it takes to be a cold hard killer. King uses the drugs and money he lifted off of Moon to wine and dine a Hollywood actress (Jennifer Sky), willing to front drugs to her TV co-stars and a young med student (Reagan Gomez-Preston). King met the college girl at her job as a waitress and with the cool cunning of a snake he gets into her bed and his drugs into her veins. Watching the way King slowly deconstructs the once promising student reminded me of a moment from the movie Fight Club where Edward Norton maims Jared Leto in a fight and coolly explains that he felt like destroying something beautiful.

Many critics are faulting Director Ernest Dickerson's choice of visual style. Dickerson, the former cinematographer for Spike Lee, abuses his film stock with scratches and washed out color to give the film a classic seventies Blaxploitation look. The look evokes that early seventies feel but the story is a modern hard edged urban noir in the vein of Sugar Hill or New Jack City. All that is missing is a Wesley Snipes cameo to pass the torch of urban menace to DMX.

That said there is more than one way to look at King's portrayal. On the one hand, this is an unglamorous end that teaches, if you live hard you die hard. On the other hand, DMX's powerful, charismatic cool could earn cult status among those predisposed to admire such things. DMX is powerful, his tattooed, muscled presence and serial killer mentality is as intimidating as a horror film villain should be. His charm and charisma is so enticing you would admire him if the film didn't demonstrate what a bastard he really is. This is DMX's best performance thus far though too many more roles like it will lead to typecasting. For now though DMX wears the hardcore gangster persona like a perfectly fit Italian suit and that comfort is part of his charm.

For young Michael Ealy, Never Die Alone is a chance to establish some dramatic cache to match his well liked comic performance in Barbershop and he does a terrific job. Ealy's heartfelt sadness and tortured existence is the perfect counterbalance to DMX's cold, sociopathic, and charismatic performance. Though the film’s twist near the end calls logic into question, Ealy sells it well and we accept it because he does. David Arquette is far less successful in his role as plot device. Arquette's Paul is entirely a function of the plot and never an interesting participant.

Ernest Dickerson has yet to make the masterpiece that I'm sure his former protégé Spike Lee is expecting him to make. But, Never Die Alone is a step in the right direction. Expect Dickerson to do something spectacular very soon. For now, Never Die Alone is a terrific genre piece, a gritty urban drama worthy of comparison with other great gangster films.

Movie Review Secret Window

Secret Window (2004) 

Directed by David Koepp 

Written by David Koepp 

Starring Johnny Depp, John Turturro, Maria Bello, Charles S. Dutton, Timothy Hutton 

Release Date March 12th, 2004 

Published March 11th, 2004

In an interview with Time Magazine, Secret Window writer-director David Koepp wondered aloud why Johnny Depp had chosen to star in his movie. He was grateful but said it's hard to be certain what motivates Depp, it's possible he just wanted to play a guy named Mort. That’s a statement that perfectly captures Depp's unique approach to Hollywood. An actor who does things his own unique way, Depp makes Secret Window a strange and unique Hollywood thriller.

Depp is Mort Rainey, a successful mystery writer whose life is upended when he finds his wife in bed with another man. Cut to six months later and Mort is living in a cabin on a lake in some nondescript small town. The solitude should help him working on his next novel but it's more helpful in providing time for his long naps and general malaise.

The solitude is interrupted by a menacing stranger named John Shooter (John Turturro), an oddball farmer from Mississippi who claims that Mort stole one of his stories. Shooter's story is definitely similar to one Mort wrote years earlier called Secret Window, but Mort is sure he can prove the story is his own. Shooter meanwhile sets about making Mort miserable, including killing his dog and threatening Mort's ex-wife Amy (Maria Bello).

Eventually Mort figures out that there is far more to this story than mere plagiarism and he begins to suspect his wife's new boyfriend, Ted (Timothy Hutton), may have put Shooter up to it. In fear, Mort hires an ex-police officer (Charles S. Dutton) to watch his back. When the cop turns up dead, Mort is on his own in the scary old cabin.

It's a very conventional thriller setup that sounds predictable but David Koepp, the writer of Panic Room, and the director of the underrated Kevin Bacon thriller Stir Of Echoes, has something up his sleeve. Employing camera moves he must have lifted from working with David Fincher, Koepp sails his camera around the tiny cabin in ways that some might call showy but I would say are just cool. He's helped greatly by a classic Philip Glass score and most of all…

…by his star Johnny Depp.

What Johnny Depp does in Secret Window is difficult to describe. It's so delightfully odd and yet perfectly sensible that it defies description. Mort spends the first third of the film essentially in solitude, napping and laying about, talking to his dog or to himself. There is one fascinating inner monologue, darkly humorous, witty, angry and frustrated. Watch the way he reacts while talking to his wife on the phone.

In some scenes you can see that Depp is finding actorly motivation where none is called for, such as a scene where he hides his cigarette from his cleaning lady. There is no reason why Mort would hide his smoking except that Depp assumed that the character would do that. In another scene, Depp and Charles Dutton exchange dialogue while hitting a chess clock as if marking who's turn it is to talk. It's the kind of character shorthand that most writers and actors neglect.

It's as if while the supporting cast was making a typical Hollywood thriller, Johnny Depp was jamming to some totally different vibe. Depp is riffing like a jazz combo and the film is forced to bounce along to his beat. It's safe to say that much of what Depp does in the film wasn't in the original script and certainly not in the Stephen King novella on which the film is based. That it works is a testament to his considerable skills.

Movie Review Spartan

Spartan (2004) 

Directed by David Mamet 

Written by David Mamet 

Starring Val Kilmer, Derek Luke, William H. Macy, Ed O'Neill, Kristen Bell 

Release Date March 12th, 2004 

Published March 15th, 2004 

"Where's the girl?"

A line tersely delivered, often through the gritted teeth of aggravated men. This is the writing of David Mamet in his newest incarnation, the action thriller Spartan. Minimalist, to the point, and exciting when delivered by actors with conviction, Mamet's writing is the highlight of all of his films (State and Main, The Spanish Prisoner, House of Games) and when teamed with a capable cast it's sublime in it's simplicity, smarts and humor. Spartan is the latest example of Mamet at his best.

Val Kilmer stars as John Scott, some sort of secret agent though I'm at a loss to figure out who he works for exactly. Scott is first seen on a military training mission with a pair of recruits (Derek Luke and Tia Texada) acting out some exercise that is important to Scott but apparently not the audience. Once the exercise is over, Scott gets a phone call that takes him into the film’s real plot.

Scott is called in to join a task force to search for the daughter of the President, (Kristen Bell). The first daughter was kidnapped, the who and the what is a twist-laden trip into typical thriller territory except smarter and more interesting because David Mamet doesn't know how to do anything typical. First rate dialogue, whip smart plot turns, and a terrific cast make Spartan far better than the usual thriller fare.

In what some are calling a comeback performance, Val Kilmer shines, biting into Mamet's dialogue with the necessary sharpness and clarity. Anyone who calls this a comeback obviously missed his brilliant work in 2002's The Salton Sea, but then sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who ever saw that one. Scott is a rare part for Kilmer's recent outings, it's his first hero role since The Saint.

For Mamet, Spartan seems like an attempt to fit his rather esoteric style into a mainstream film. It's a surprisingly good fit. I have for years belabored the idea that even the most clichéd retread plot can be made well if written, acted and directed with intelligence and the commitment not to fall into the familiar rhythm. Spartan is a mainstream thriller with Mamet's brains in place of the usual thickheaded clichés and that works for me.

I'm tempted to compare Mamet to John Sayles in that both are the preeminent writers of my mind. However, Sayles is more of an artist than Mamet. Where Mamet has a longing for mainstream acceptance, Sayles has a more secular point of view. Sayles isn't interested in appealing to anyone other than himself, Mamet wants to appeal to the populace. It's a dangerous gamble because it can cause a director to compromise vision for demographic.

Thankfully Mamet isn't so desperate as to compromise, at least not in a film he directs himself. His writing assignments for others are questionable. Spartan is not a compromise but an uneasy entreaty into mainstream fare. Let's hope that its box office returns don't lead to future compromise.

Movie Review Italian for Beginners

Italian for Beginners (2000) 

Directed by Lone Scherfig 

Written by Lone Scherfig 

Starring Anders Berthelsen 

Release Date December 8th, 2000

Published November 4th, 2002

Unless you are a film student or scholar, you probably have never heard of Dogme 95. Dogme is a movement begun by a group of European directors at a conference in 1995. The goal was to counter certain tendencies in cinema by returning to its simplest, most basic forms. A Dogme 95 manifesto was created to define how a Dogme film was to be shot. All shooting must be done on location. The film must be shot on video, using natural light and sound. No music is allowed unless it is played on location during shooting. No sound effects are permitted unless they come from the ambient noise of the location. No genre movies and various other rules meant ensure that characters and story are stressed above all else. Italian For Beginners is the first Dogme 95 film I have seen, and based on this film I will seek more Dogme films.

Set in Denmark, Italian For Beginners follows the interconnected lives of six people who attend the same Italian language class. Anders Bertelsen plays Andreas, the new pastor of the local church. Peter Gantzler is Jorgen a schlubby Hotel clerk. Lars Kaalund is Halfinn, Jorgen’s best friend and the new teacher of the Italian class. Ann Eleonora Jorgensen is Karen, a hairdresser who is dating Halfinn. Anette Stovelback is Olympia, a bakery worker, who, after the death of her father and mother finds out she has a sister who just happens to be Karen. Sandra Indio Jensen is Giulia, a friend of Halfinn’s who has a crush on the clueless Jorgen.

Italian For Beginners is about these unusual characters and the far more unusual connections. It is a very realistic film, the story is plausible, and the Dogme style gives the film a voyeuristic feel, as if you were watching real lives in progress. The style of shooting overwhelms the attention to the story (something that I assume happens in most Dogme films.) As a viewer, your attention is more often drawn to the locations, lighting, and sound than it is to the story and characters. At times, you lose track of characters and their back stories, which can be confusing. Still, the story is heartfelt and humorous and the characters are engaging and likable (save for Hafinn, though I’m sure that is by design.)

Italian For Beginners is most notable for it’s Dogme 95 affiliation and based on that alone I could recommend it. As an introduction to Dogme, this film is a valuable tool. That it also has a good heart and interesting characters is a bonus.

Movie Review Hijack'd

Hijack'd (2003) Cabin Pressure

Directed by Alan Simmonds 

Written by Douglas Schwartz 

Starring Craig Scheffer

Release Date March 11th, 2003

Published March 16th, 2003 

Robert Redford once saw something in actor Craig Sheffer. So much so that he cast him opposite Brad Pitt in his 1992 film A River Runs Through It. However, Sheffer wasn't able to capitalize on this opportunity and since has been relegated to the straight to video market. His latest straight to video feature, Hijack'd is yet another head scratcher that will leave you wondering what happened to this actor who seemed to have such a bright future.

In Hijack'd (no I'm not misspelling it, that is the title), Sheffer is drunk former airline pilot who returns to his hometown to start his life again. Once home he finds his ex-wife Reece (Rachel Hayward) is about to test an experimental new airplane. It's a plane that flies without a pilot. The plane can take off and land on it's own needing a pilot only if something goes wrong.

The airline has tried this once before and electrical problems caused the plane to crash and kill it's pair of pilots. That crash caused the boss (John Pyper) to fire the man whom designed the plane's computer system. The programmer unfortunately is an unstable nut who seeks his revenge by hacking his own system and taking control of the plane which just happens to be carrying a US Senator, his son, daughter in law and his former boss. Why they would fly on a plane no one is sure about is one of the film's many leaps?

Well you don't need a map to follow this plot. The nutjob tips off the good guys to his plot and through some amazing plot contrivances, Sheffer's ex-husband character is left to search for the madman before he crashes the plane and kills everyone on board.

The potential that Robert Redford once saw in young Craig Sheffer flashes one time in an early scene in Hijack'd where he sits in a bar drunk attempting to pick up a blonde bimbo. For a moment his charisma shines through. Unfortunately it is crushed under the weight of the plot which forces him into thriller mode shenanigans.

By the way if your looking for this one on IMDB it's listed under it's original title, Cabin Pressure. Why they changed it to the ridiculous alliteration Hijack'd is anyone’s guess.

Movie Review He Loves Me He Loves Me Not

He Loves Me He Loves Me Not (2003)

Directed by Laetitia Colombani 

Written by Laetitia Colombani 

Starring Audrey Tautou, Samuel Le Bihani 

Release Date February 14th, 2003 

Published March 15th, 2004 

Since 2001's sweet, romantic fable Amelie, star Audrey Tautou has fought being typecast as a pixie-ish romantic. The gritty Stephen Frears movie Dirty Pretty Things about foreigners skirting the edges of British lower classes was a complete and welcome departure. In the movie He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not however, Tautou uses her perceived romantic flightiness to sell us a character who by the end of the film is almost completely different. The film turns entirely on Tautou's believability and almost works save for a ridiculous ending that flies completely off the rails.

Tautou stars as Angelique and when we first meet her, she evokes the memory of our beloved Amelie by being surrounded in roses and flashing those signature saucer eyes. Her smile is so sincere as she plots to send one single rose to her beloved, a doctor named Loic (Samuel Le Bihan) who accepts it happily without reading the card. Angelique is a ball of romantic fantasy as she shows up late for work buzzing with euphoria. In her art class forgets the model she's supposed to sculpting and instead sculpts Loic from memory. At this point, her devotion seems to border on obsession but we have little idea of what we are in for.

There are problems in the relationship, not the least of which is that Loic is married. According to Angelique, he has repeatedly promised he will leave his wife but he can't while she is pregnant. Loic continuously stands up Angelique on dates, except for a party where the two avoid each other save for a little eye contact so as not to arouse suspicion among his colleagues. The couple’s only interaction is a quickie bathroom tryst that oddly happens off-screen. In fact, we have yet to have seen the two speak to each other....hmm.

Hold that thought because half way through the film co-writer/director Laetitia Colombani pulls the rug out from under the story switching the perspective from Angelique to Loic and the entire tone of the picture with it.

It's a gimmick unquestionably and a slightly unfair gimmick at that. If it works, it's only because Samuel Le Bihan as Loic is so believable. Le Bihan sells the film’s central gimmick with his controlled, logical, natural performance. Le Bihan doesn't react like your typical clueless movie character, save for one of those boneheaded scenes where he goes somewhere he is not invited.

Director Colombani and co-writer Carloline Thivel take a huge risk hanging their entire story on this one gimmick that could come off as showy or annoying. I thought it was an intriguing way to toy with genre convention and film structure. If the ending had a better payoff, I could be more definitive in recommending the film. However, the overly creepy ending they chose cheapens the characters and undercuts the drama.

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not is an interesting exercise in how writers and directors can toy with an audience and manipulate their perspective and rooting interest. Rent it for it's experimental nature. You may be disappointed in the ending or even annoyed with the central gimmick but at least it's different from most modern films.

Movie Review Happy Accidents

Happy Accidents (2001) 

Directed by Brad Anderson

Written by Brad Anderson 

Starring Vincent D'Onofrio, Marisa Tomei, Anthony Michael Hall, Holland Taylor 

Release Date August 24th, 2001 

Published December 21st, 2002 

Good romantic comedies are becoming very rare. Movies like Secretary or Shallow Hal show the potential in the genre to still be vital and funny. But more often, we see trash like Sweet Home Alabama and Maid In Manhattan; assembly line tripe slapped together with big stars and attractive posters. Happy Accidents, which stars Vincent D'Onofrio and Marisa Tomei, belongs to the first group of films I listed--a romantic comedy that is unique and funny.

Tomei is Ruby Weaver, a woman in her early 30s, who is on quite a losing streak with men; plenty of frogs and no princes. She and her circle of friends have taken to keeping track of the bad boyfriends by taking pictures of them and filing them in the a box they call the Ex files. For Ruby, her recent strikeouts include a guy with a rubber fetish and a guy in his 30s who still lives with his parents. Then Ruby meets a strange, sensitive guy named Sam Deeds (D'Onofrio). Sam works with the elderly and likes to draw. He is strange because he reacts to everyday things like dogs and perfume as if they were foreign to him. As Sam and Ruby's relationship develops, Sam decides to be honest with Ruby and tell her where he's from. He had previously explained to Ruby that he was from Dubuque, Iowa. The part he left out was that he is from Dubuque, Iowa in the year 2447. 

Of course, Ruby thinks he is a mental patient but Sam's charms lead her to think that maybe it's just a kinky little game. As Sam explains more about time travel, his family, and why he decided to back in time, Ruby is intrigued by the fantastic stories and, as long as they stay just between the two of them, is okay to let Sam live his fantasy. However, Sam isn't content to keep quiet. Even though he says it's against time travel protocol to talk about it, he begins telling friends about it and Ruby comes to believe he is really sick

Writer/director Brad Anderson toys with the audience throughout the film, dropping clues in all directions. Follow one set of clues and Sam is telling the truth. Look at another set of clues and it seems likely that he is likely a mental patient. It's a difficult balancing act, but Anderson is blessed with the talented and charismatic D'Onofrio, who easily balances charm and insanity.

One could easily compare Happy Accidents with another movie about space aliens masquerading as mental patients--K-Pax. The difference is where K-Pax is maddeningly vague and ends with no resolution, Happy Accidents skates and charms, and its resolution is welcome, if not surprising.

D'Onofrio is becoming one of the most consistently fascinating actors working today. I would highly recommend Happy Accidents based on his role alone. That the film is also charming and romantic might be considered a Happy Accident.

Movie Review Gravesend

Gravesend (1997) 

Directed by Salvatore Stabile

Written by Salvatore Stabile 

Starring Tony Tucci, Tom Malloy

Release Date January 1st, 1997

Published June 15th, 2003

There is a pretty terrific story behind the making of Gravesend, this is how it was told to me. It was written and Directed by then 19-year old Salvatore Stabile in 1997. Starring a few of his buddies from his old neighborhood, the film cost about $5,000 to make. Somehow it got into the hands of Oliver Stone who helped the film find a studio and get the film a more polished look without having to do reshoots.

The film made it to a small number of festivals and theaters and was reviewed by major critics across the country, though it went mostly unnoticed by mainstream moviegoers. The really odd thing though is that despite some good notice, Salvatore Stabile hasn't worked since according to IMDB.

Gravesend is a small community in Brooklyn, New York, a dead end where drugs and violence are the only distraction from poverty and depression. Our story begins with four friends sitting around in the basement, Zane (Tony Tucci), Mikey (Thomas Brandise), Chicken (Tom Malloy) and Ray (Michael Parducci). The house belongs to Ray's brother who wants the kids to leave because they are being to loud. Zane, being a belligerent prick, mouths off to Ray's brother who doesn't back down. Unfortunately, Zane has a gun that he didn't think was loaded until it went off and killed Ray's brother.

Now would be the time to sober up, call the police and tell the truth. Of course if they did that there wouldn't be a movie. So these four morons load the body in the trunk of Mikey's car and drive it over to a local junky that Zane says can help them dispose of the body quietly. But again it can't be that simple. The junky won't do it unless they give him five hundred dollars and the dead guy’s thumb.

From there, the guys have a number of close calls with cops and a tow truck driver, a couple fistfights, a robbery attempt and two more dead bodies. Along the way they trade some Tarentino inspired dialogue, and trade on a number of influences from Scorsese to Stone. Unfortunately the young director and cast are in way over their heads.

Rather than the strident confidence of the directors that provide the film’s inspiration, Gravesend is simply angry, childish and belligerent. The characters are so depressingly stupid they make the characters in Dumb and Dumberer look brilliant in comparison. It's not the situation that makes them stupid, it's the grunting caveman style of their actions. These characters disprove evolution with their stupidity, they preen and pose and fight like baboons.

That said, the young director who also narrates the film does have a nice visual approach to the film. His handheld camera is a little tiresome but it does lend itself to the out of control characters and narratives. By some miracle the film does develop a sort of narrative inertia that carries you to the end of the film, sort of like being stuck to something as it rolls down a hill that you can't stop.

That however doesn't excuse these horribly stupid and unlikable characters and a story that grows more and more ridiculous as it goes along. Still, this young director shows he has some talent. He shows that he could do some fine work in the future if circumstances come together right.

So what ever happened to Salvatore Stabile? He made Gravesend and hasn't done anything since. A Google search turns up a number of reviews of Gravesend but nothing about what he has done since the film was released some 6 years ago. It's anyone’s guess but I hope he gives directing another chance, just maybe leave the writing to someone else. 

Movie Review Goodbye Lenin

Goodbye Lenin! (2003) 

Directed by Wolfgang Becker

Written by Wolfgang Becker 

Starring Daniel Bruhl, Katrin Sass, Alexander Beyer

Release Date February 13th, 2003 

Published July 18th, 2004 

Imagine a staunch Democrat who falls into a coma shortly after seeing Al Gore win Florida and be pronounced the next President of the United States. That person awakens months later not knowing the election was disputed and that somehow George W. Bush is President and you can't tell them because the slightest shock could kill them. That might make an interesting American version of the German film Goodbye Lenin! in which a staunch communist falls into a coma right before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany.

Daniel Bruhl stars as Alex Kerner, the loyal, devoted son of Christiane (Katrin Sass) a party loyalist in 1980's East Berlin. Christiane is completely devoted to the state and has involved her children, Alex and sister Ariane (Maria Simon), in state activities. For Christiane, love of country replaced the love of her husband who escaped to the west years earlier.

As East Germany was beginning to see more and more uprising against the state, Christiane herself is attending state dinners honoring party leaders. It is on her way to a party function that she sees her son beaten by police for marching in a freedom parade. The sight causes Christiane to have a heart attack and fall into a coma. For eight months as Alex visited daily, Christiane slept through her country’s most historic changes. The wall falls, Germany is reunited, and communism is defeated.

However, because Christiane's condition is so fragile her doctors want Alex to slowly reveal these changes so as not to excite her. Alex feels she should not be told at all and thus conceives a massive lie that East Germany never fell and that communists still hold power. There are other changes to deal with as well that cannot be covered up. Alex's sister has a baby and a live in boyfriend Rainer (Alexander Beyer) and Alex himself has fallen in love with a nurse named Lara (Chulpan Khamatova).

I found the idea of Alex keeping these historic changes a secret from his mother to be almost cruel but as the film goes on and the lies become more intricate and elaborate you begin to sympathize with Alex. While you may not understand the lengths he goes to extend his lies, you can't help but feel for him. That has much to with Daniel Bruhl whose quiet demeanor and sensitive stare ease the sharp edges of Alex's misguided determination.

The premise sounds almost farcical but director Wolfgang Becker and writer Bernd Lichtenberg do not play the story for laughs. There is some comedy but the laughs are a natural outgrowth of the story and not forced. The mood of the picture is at times somber and yet you can't help but get caught up in these characters and this story. It also helps to have such a terrific supporting cast headed up by Katrin Sass who's dignified devotion to her beliefs really makes you believe the fall of the Berlin Wall could kill her.

I drew a correlation to start this review as to what an American version of this movie might be like but in reality, I don't believe it would work. This is a story very of its time and place. East Germany as it was just before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall is a character in this film and a necessary one. I would be very interested to hear a German perspective of this film, to hear it from someone who experienced this remarkable change and could compare it with this movie would be fascinating. Even still as an American, I can appreciate a good movie and Goodbye Lenin! is a very good movie.

Movie Review The Girl Next Door

The Girl Next Door (2004) 

Directed by Luke Greenfield

Written by Luke Greenfield, Stuart Bloomberg, 3 Other Screenwriters

Starring Emile Hirsch, Elisha Cuthbert, Timothy Olyphant, James Remar, Paul Dano 

Release Date April 9th, 2004 

Published April 10th, 2004

When do you think Hollywood ran out of original ideas? It's been awhile I know that, but I never imagined just how bad things were until I saw the latest commercial campaign for the teen sex comedy The Girl Next Door. The ad campaign actually touts the film’s lack of an original idea, calling the film American Pie meets Risky Business. This isn't the first unoriginal idea but it's the rare example of a film that doesn't try to hide it in some way. The Girl Next Door comes right out and admits that it has not one original idea and watching the film reinforces just that.

Emile Hirsch stars as Matthew. He’s class president, valedictorian and on his way to law school at Georgetown University. That is until he meets the titular girl next door, Danielle (Elisha Cuthbert). The two kids meet cute as Matthew spies on Danielle from his bedroom window. She catches him and turns the tables on him, taking him out for some public humiliation, the funniest moment in the film.

From there begins a rather dull movie courtship where the straight-laced Matthew comes out of his shell with the help of the wild child Danielle. Like every romantic comedy, there is a roadblock and this one is a doozy. It seems that in a previous life, Danielle was a pornstar and her past is catching up with her in the form of her former director Kelly (Timothy Olyphant). Kelly wants her back in front of the camera and will do anything to get her back. It's up to Matthew and a pair of his high school buddies to help her find a way out.

I will give the ad campaign of the film a little credit, it doesn't lie. The film does indeed lift liberally from both American Pie and Risky Business. In fact, Risky's writer-director Paul Brickman should be seeking a writing credit and some compensation for the direct rip-offs employed by director Luke Greenfield and writers David Wagner and Brent Goldberg. Simply switch the film’s porno storyline with Risky's hooker storyline and you have nearly the same film. 

Whereas Tom Cruise's character becomes a pimp in order to pay off Rebecca Demornay's debt to Joe Pantoliano, Emile Hirsch's Matthew directs a porn film with the help of Danielle's porn star friends to pay off her debt to Timothy Olyphant’s Kelly. Where Cruise and Demornay have sex on the subway, Hirsch and Cuthbert have sex in a limousine. And on and on.

There was one good thing about Girl Next Door and that was the lovely Elisha Cuthbert who, despite a weak script that does her few favors, manages to shine with a sweet and sexy performance. Cuthbert helps Hirsch's rather weak performance when they are on screen together, but when it's just Hirsch, the star of the terrific indie film The Secret Lives Of Altar Boys, he and the film struggle mightily. Hirsch may have a bright future ahead of him but he needs to choose his scripts better. More Alter Boys style stuff and no more teen sex comedies.

The Girl Next Door is yet another example of cynical Hollywood filmmaking that puts demographics ahead of actual filmmaking. This is a film that was approved in the pitch meeting by executives who didn't care if there was a good script as long as they had the right amount of T&A; to parade in front of the camera and enough familiar elements to lull audiences into mindless nostalgia. I can't register honest surprise about this film but I can lament it and decry it.

Movie Review Hidalgo

Hidalgo (2004) 

Directed by Joe Johnston

Written by Daniel Fusco

Starring Viggo Mortensen, Omar Sharif, C. Thomas Howell 

Release Date March 5th, 2004 

Published March 4th, 2004 

There is a much-abused phrase in Hollywood, you've seen it more than you can even remember. Disney abuses it more than any other studio by far. That phrase is "Based On A True Story.”

Hollywood loves this term because it can lend an air of credibility to a story that is rather blatantly dull or stupid. More often than not the basis of a true story is applied when a story revolves around a person that producers can only prove lived at some point in human history. The rest is a mishmash of hackneyed Hollywood cliché and directorial trickery.

Case in point the latest mediocre Disney "true story" Hidalgo starring Viggo Mortensen.

According to legend recorded by Frank Hopkins himself, Frank Hopkins and his horse Hidalgo raced and won all of the most dangerous and prestigious long distance races in the world. As we meet Frank in the movie, he is winning another race while humiliating a proper English gent played by C. Thomas Howell in an embarrassingly, hammy cameo. Hopkins has made a fortune off not only distance races but also being the fastest deliveryman in the West.

It is while delivering orders to a US military outfit that Hopkins witnesses the brutal massacre of Indians at the Battle of Wounded Knee. It was on the orders that Hopkins himself delivered that the massacre took place and the guilt destroyed him, turning him into a raging, pathetic drunk. No longer a racer, Frank takes a gig with Wild Bill's traveling West show where he humiliates himself daily by falling off his horse.

It is then that Frank is challenged to go to the Arabian Desert and take part in the most dangerous distance race in history, the Ocean of Fire. A race across the Arabian lands, through three countries worth of desert, sandstorms, locusts and triple digit temperatures that could cook a man in his saddle. With prodding from Hidalgo, your typical Disney horse with human characteristics, Frank hops a boat and heads for the desert.

Obviously, this is one of those perfectly Disney-fied adventure plots with plenty of PG derring-do and exotic locations. Director Joe (Jumanji) Johnston delivers on every mediocre cliché you expect from an adventure story of this type. This includes a powerful Arab sheik (Omar Sharif) PC'd up for mass consumption with just the right balance of cliched Arab savagery, religious tolerance and heroism. The sheik has your typically exotic daughter as a love interest for the heroic American and Johnston and screenwriter Joe Fusco even throw in an evil British chick as a symbol of Western imperialism. Oh, but don't forget, this is based on a "true story.”

I will say this for Johnston and cinematographer Shelly Johnson, they make Hidalgo look gorgeous. The racing scenes provide plenty of striking scenery that make up the most compelling moments. Of course, they can't be satisfied delivering just the compelling and interesting race so they interrupt it with a dull, predictable rescue scene when the sheik's daughter is captured by marauders.

In his first post-Aragorn outing, Viggo Mortensen initially shows some deadpan charm. Unfortunately, his best scenes are opposite C. Thomas Howell's hammy and hilarious cameo that can't help but make Mortensen look like gold. Mortensen's deadpan charm quickly turns dead and he's almost blown off the screen by his far more animated horse. Women will still find Mortensen's handsome, Old Spice commercial smile but I have to assume that when the film nears the two-hour mark eye candy must turn sour.

Overlong, cliched but pretty to look at, Hidalgo is a prototype Disney offering that we thought was in the past after last year’s terrifically fun Pirates of The Caribbean and Freaky Friday. Of course, mediocre crowd-pleasing is always easier than inventive and thus Hidalgo will find a nice comfortable spot in the Disney live action library next to Bicentennial Man and Armageddon.

Movie Review: Twisted

Twisted (2004) 

Directed by Phillip Kaufman

Written by Sarah Thorp 

Starring Andy Garcia, Samuel L. Jackson, Ashley Judd

Release Date February 27th, 2004

Published February 26th, 2004

I recently read a blind item in the trades about a producer who showed his new film, a thriller with A-list cast, to a group of friends. The producer was worried the film wasn't any good and hoped the friendly crowd could deliver some constructive notes. The crowd, including at least one professional critic, laughed derisively throughout the film. The suggestions the director was given about the film included dropping the film’s dramatic score and adding a voiceover that establishes the film as a parody rather than a thriller.

Now I'm not saying that that blind item referred to the new Ashley Judd serial killer movie Twisted, but being that the film is a laughably bad thriller with an A-list cast... Hmm…

Judd stars in Twisted as Jessica Shepherd, a newly promoted homicide cop. With help from her mentor and surrogate father, Lt. John Mills (Samuel L. Jackson), Shepherd moved up the ranks quickly but deservedly. As good as her life might seem Shepherd has issues that include heavy drinking and a penchant for one night stands with strangers. Her troubles likely stem from her father, a former cop who went on a killing spree just after Jessica was born. A killing spree that ended with her father taking his own life after killing her mother.

Jessica's first murder case is a real doozy, a serial killer whose signature is a cigarette burn on the victim’s hand. With her new partner Mike Delmarco (Andy Garcia), Jessica investigates a killer who happens to be murdering men that Jessica has slept with. Interestingly, on the nights that the murders happen, Jessica spends the night passed out after drinking. After the third or fourth time this happens, people begin to suspect Jessica is the killer.

Director Philip Kaufman is a pro who directed Quills, The Right Stuff, and The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Here all of the skill that he brought to those films is completely missing. In Twisted, he merely translates Sarah Thorp's weak script from paper to film. The script is an amalgam of serial killer clichés including, as Roger Ebert has dubbed it, the talking killer who reveals the evil plot, going on just long enough for the cops to arrive to arrest them.

There is also a twist, which I guess is required of a film called Twisted. Then again, the twist may be the only reason the film is called Twisted, nothing that happens in the film would lead you to calling the film by that name otherwise. Of course, they had to call it something and the titles Double Jeopardy, Kiss The Girls, and High Crimes were already taken.

When people complain that Hollywood has run out of original ideas, they can point to Twisted as the prime example of a film without an original one.

Movie Review Soul Plane

Soul Plane (2004) 

Directed by Jesse Terrero

Written by Chuck Wilson, Bo Zenga 

Starring Kevin Hart, Method Man, Snoop Dogg, Tom Arnold, Arielle Kebbel

Release Date May 28th, 2004 

Published May 27th, 2004 

Seeing as many films as I do, I can't tell you how many times a trailer has been better than the movie. That is most certainly the case with Soul Plane. It had a terrific trailer that evoked the best of the Airplane and Scary Movie series only to turn out even more unwatchable than the worst of the Naked Gun franchise.

Comedian Kevin Hart stars as Nashawn, a guy who had a really bad experience on an airplane ride. So bad that he was awarded a settlement so large he was able to start his own airline. NWA is Nashawn Wade Airlines (Niggas Wit Airplanes would have been funny but they didn't use it). It's the first airline aimed at African-Americans with all the stereotypical amenities. Airplanes with bouncing hydraulics, pimped colors and spinning hubcaps. The terminal is named for Malcolm X and has a fried chicken stand.

On the plane’s maiden voyage, Nashawn is joined by his cousin Muggsy (Method Man) who shows music videos in the plane, hosts a mile high nightclubn and runs cockfights in the baggage area. Muggsy also hires the pilot, Captain Mack (Snoop Dogg), whose fear of heights and proclivity for mind-altering mushrooms becomes a problem once the plane is in the air.

As for passengers, there is one white family on the plane, the Hunkee (pronounced Honky) family. Dad (Tom Arnold), Stepmom (Missi Pyle), son Billy (Ryan Pinkston) and daughter Heather (Arielle Kebbel). While Dad chases the kids around the plane, Billy gets a rap star makeover and Heather is seeking a boyfriend in the club. As for the stepmom, she is trying to find out if that legend about African-American men, you know the one, is true.

All of this sounds like it could be funny but in the hands of first time Director Jesse Terrero it's poorly executed. The script by Bo Zenga and Chuck Wilson feels like two completely different scripts combined to make one movie. One is a straight three act comedy with a linear story and subplots and the other is an outlandish Airplane-style sendup. Together they are a painfully misshapen unfunny collection of groan-inducing jokes crammed into a tremendously dull story of family togetherness and growing up. Huh?

I haven't seen Kevin Hart's standup act but it must be funnier than the many attempts to make him a mainstream star. Two failed sitcoms and now this horrendous movie, either Hart is not funny or he needs to fire his agent. Method Man on the other hand continues to impress me. His upcoming sitcom looks iffy but his role in How High and his limited work in this film shows a charismatic comic presence almost as funny as some of his raps as part of the Wu-Tang Clan.

It looked so funny in the trailer. But then how many times has that happened?

Movie Review Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed

Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed (2004) 

Directed by Brett Sullivan

Written by Megan Martin

Starring Tatiana Maslany, Emily Perkins

Release Date January 30th, 2004 

Published February 17th, 2004 

Why is it that so many crappy horror flicks get 2000+ screen rollouts while a number of very good horror films are sent straight to video? Films like House Of The Dead get major rollouts while brilliant horror films like May and the original Ginger Snaps were shuffled off to low-key video releases. This makes absolutely no sense and now with the release of Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed, we have another example of a brilliant horror film going to video as a number of bad movies crawl into theaters.

Brigitte (Emily Perkins) is back, having survived her sister Ginger’s (Katherine Isabelle) attack, which nearly killed her. Unfortunately, she too is now fighting the transformation. Using some kind of witch's brew, Brigitte is able to stave off her inner-werewolf. However, she has other problems, another werewolf is on her tail with thoughts of mating. As she dodges the werewolf she accidentally OD's on her potion and is mistaken for a junkie. This lands Brigitte in a drug clinic where, separated from her drugs, she can't fight the beginning transformations.

While in the clinic, she meets a strange girl named Ghost (Tatiana Maslany), who is in the clinic with her grandmother who had a curious accident. Ghost helps Brigitte escape and get her inner-werewolf under control. The girls escape to Ghost's family cabin where they make a last stand against the werewolf.

The setup is quick and easy to explain but there is so much more to Ginger Snaps 2 than its plot. The genius of Snaps is the subtle humor, the dark comic atmosphere and the serious horror film gore. These are some of the genre’s best blood-soaked horror scenes in a good long while. Director Brett Sullivan was the editor on the original Ginger Snaps and clearly he learned a lot while doing it. His touch and style perfectly evoke the first film without ever seeming like a direct copy.

The script by first time writer Megan Martin is whip smart, funny and scary and as played by the terrific cast it works as straight horror and ironic, hip dark comedy. There is a lot of subtext in the script about drug use and promiscuity and such but it's played with great wit and there are no lessons learned, or morals taught. Just a great horror comedy.

What really makes Ginger Snaps 2 work is the performance of Emily Perkins as Brigitte. For a horror film, she does a lot of emotion and a lot of real acting. This is no shrinking violet, Perkins really digs into this material and makes you believe every moment she's on screen that she is serious. Perkins is playing both straight horror and deft subtext and she does both very well. Tatiana Maslany as Ghost is equally effective in a far different role than Perkins. Maslany is playing the story on two different levels, as a scared kid and fascinated onlooker. To say anymore is to give away too much.

Fans of the original will be happy to hear that their beloved Katherine Isabelle is back as Ginger, though only in a cameo as a figment of Brigitte's imagination.

The only problem I have with Ginger Snaps 2 is its ending. The ending is surprising but it's not quite the ending audiences are hoping for. It functions as a setup for another sequel, which isn't exactly a bad thing given the high quality of the franchise thus far. Still, it’s a little too modern Hollywood for my taste. Ironically Ginger Snaps 2 was shot back to back with not a sequel but a prequel which will reunite Ginger and Brigitte in the 19th century.

Ginger Snaps 2 is yet another example of the ridiculousness of the Hollywood system. Large scale releases for House Of A Thousand Corpses or Cabin Fever infest theaters to lukewarm reactions but gems like Ginger Snaps languish on video store shelves. Rent it with the first Ginger Snaps and May the next time you see a major Hollywood studio unload some lame attempt at a horror film into your local multiplex.

Movie Review Gerry

Gerry (2002) 

Directed by Gus Van Sant

Written by Gus Van Sant

Starring Matt Damon, Casey Affleck 

Release Date February 14th, 2003

Published February 8th, 2004 

There has always been a hunger for films that challenge traditional cinematic form. Films that break with convention and deliver something that is diametrically opposed to Hollywood filmmaking. For the most part these challenging films came from Europe where the avant-garde arose as an artistic movement and a reaction to the encroachment of Hollywood formalism into European film markets. These challenging films are still being made but the hunger for them has died down, beaten back by the invention of the blockbuster and the big business that is Hollywood.

These films, however rare, are out there and Gerry from director Gus Van Sant is one of the most fascinating.

The film begins without credits. We simply open with light classical score and a long shot of a car on a lonely highway. This shot lasts for three or four minutes before switching to a shot of our two protagonists played by Casey Affleck and Matt Damon as they continue to drive. No words are spoken. Finally, they reach their unspecified destination, a hiking trail through the desert. Still no words are spoken.

It isn't until the 8-minute mark that a line of dialogue is spoken but it's not very enlightening except as a minor sign of things to come. A sign that says this is not a film where dialogue is going to explain, enlighten or entertain. As the two friends continue their journey, they bail on the hiking trail for a supposed shortcut before finally becoming lost in the desert. All of the film’s dialogue act as conversations that have already started before we met the two characters. There is a joking conversation about Wheel Of Fortune, some odd conversation about what I think was a video game, but not anything that is going to lead to a conventional plot.

The lost in the desert situation is no Blair Witch exciting fight for survival or wacky slice of life ala some ridiculous sitcom. It simply is what it is, two guys lost in the desert looking for a way out. The two characters never react the way you would expect from a conventional plot. There is very little whining or carrying on. Indeed neither character seems all that concerned about surviving or dying. If they are concerned they keep it to themselves, it's up to us in the audience to fill in the blanks.

In it's minimalism of one handheld camera, sparse dialogue and characters, Gerry is a direct challenge and reaction to the typical explain-it-all-style of the Jerry Bruckheimer era. No obvious explanatory dialogue that leads the audience to obvious conclusions, no quips and no filler before the next explosion of bullets. Gerry has none of those elements and goes to the very opposite extreme. For that I was willing to stick with and feel rewarded at the end. Challenged to create much of the movie in my own mind I was mesmerized by the film and it's techniques.

The films title is odd and not just in it's spelling of the oft-used name. In the film, both characters refer to one another as Gerry but one suspects that it is neither of their real names. In fact, Gerry is an in joke amongst Damon and Affleck's circle of friends. A “Gerry” is a fuck-up, someone who constantly screws up. A fitting title for two guys who manage to get lost in the desert in this day and age when everyone everywhere has a cellphone, pager, blackberry, and any myriad number of other electronic leashes to the outside world.

In that sense, what if the whole film is one big in-joke? What if Damon, Affleck and Van Sant simply went to the desert, film absolutely random shit and called it a movie? They put it together professionally with technical prowess in editing, shooting and scoring to make it look legitimate. Then released the film so that people like myself could rhapsodize about it's minimalist genius and it's influences garnered from Bela Tarr and Fassbinder and other people only snobs have ever heard of.

Whether or not we have been made a fool of, we will never know. I for one don't care if I have been duped. I enjoyed the opportunity to so actively watch the film. To take my mind in odd directions in order to fill in the empty passages that are filled with shots of the two actors walking and the sound of rock under foot. Gerry is a form of film meditation and I dug that about it. 

Movie Review Gang Tapes

Gang Tapes (2001) 

Directed by Adam Ripp 

Written by Adam Ripp

Starring Darris Love, Trivell 

Release Date February 1st, 2001

Published October 20th, 2002 

It’s been called the movie “they” don’t want you to see. Some have compared it to the Blair Witch Project, for it’s shaky cam style and improvised dialogue. These are merely marketing concoctions that don’t do the film justice. What the film Gang Tapes really is, is the most truthful and shocking look at life in inner city Los Angeles.

As the film begins with vacation footage of some nameless white family, the audience wonders if they are watching the right movie. Then as quickly as the occurs the dread begins as the family on the tape begins to shed light on the situation, they are lost. Suddenly and violently the once happy family is gone, brutally car jacked, their fate unknown. The beginning of Gang Tapes is jarring enough but as the film develops, the shocks continue. The audience is given moments of calm, followed by horror that leads to more shocking realistic violence.

The film is the creation of Adam Ripp, a first time writer-director with more courage than talent. Ripp worked with actual gang members in the making of Gang Tapes, giving them a digital camera and a minimum of storyline to carry forward thru the film. The lone actor in the film is Darris Love whose minor television work is the experience amongst the amazing cast. A young man credited as Trivell is the film's focal point. Kris, a fourteen year old who has grown up worshipping the gang members in his neighborhood, is our eyes and ears behind the camera. 

As Kris gets deeper involved in gang life the audience is treated to more and more shocks and sadness. We witness Kris being beat into the gang, a ritual wherein the gang kicks and punches Kris until they feel he is tough enough to be a member. We see Kris and his idol Alonzo (Love) demonstrating how to make rock cocaine. And in the film's most shocking and hard to watch scene, Kris commits his first murder.

Gang Tapes is an amazing film, in style and subject. In style it is a likely unintentional homage to French cinema verite and the European Dogme 95 movement. Indeed Gang Tapes meets most of the requirements of a Dogme film, save for it’s use of weapons and director Adam Ripp being credited as the director. More than likely the style of the film has more to do with budget than obscure European film movements but the similarities are striking if you are a scholar.

In subject Gang Tapes makes every other film of the gang genre seem superficial in comparison.

Much like the best of early 90’s Gangsta Rap, Gang Tapes shines a light on inner city gang activities that many would like to ignore. People such as Los Angeles Congressional Representative Maxine Waters who would rather staple her eyes shut than acknowlege the gang activity that takes place in the very district from which she was elected.

The film could stand for a little more editing and a tighter pace but it is nevertheless challenging, shocking and sad. This is a brilliant and valuable work of art.

Movie Review Gacy

Gacy (2003) 

Directed by Clive Saunders

Written by David Birke, Clive Saunders

Starring Mark Holton, Charlie Webber Glenn Morshower, John Laughlin 

Release Date May 13th, 2003 

Published May 13th, 2003 

You have seen them all over your video stores New Release shelves over the last year, serial killer movies. Movies about real life killers that take the killer’s name as the film’s title. Films such as Dahmer, Bundy and Ed Gein amongst others. The latest addition to this growing genre is Gacy, about the legendary Chicago serial killer who stashed the bodies of 27 teenage boys in the crawl space beneath his home.

The film begins with Gacy as a young man on a fishing trip with his father played by Adam Baldwin. As this opening sequence goes on, the tension between father and son grows, with Gacy's Dad challenging his son’s manhood to provoke a physical attack. Finally young Gacy does fight back but can't bring himself to actually hit his father. This encounter haunts him the rest of his life.

Cut to 1976 in the suburbs of Chicago where the neighbors of John Wayne Gacy are complaining about the awful smell coming from underneath the Gacy home. John Wayne Gacy (Mark Holton) seems to be a gregarious, apologetic family man. On the surface he's a loving father of twin daughters who let's his doting mother live with his family. So just what is that awful stench coming from underneath his house?

Late at night after his wife and children are asleep, Gacy sneaks away from his home and into the city of Chicago. Once there he pretends to be a police officer and busts teenage runaways who turn tricks to survive. Part of his gimmick is to offer the kids a chance to not be arrested, if they do favors for him. Then he knocks them cold and either strangles or stabs them to death. Although occasionally, for some reason unexplained by the film, Gacy let's some of his potential victims go. One potential victim he merely has sex with then drops him off in the park, an act he would come to regret when the kid goes to the cops.

The film doesn't get much into the police investigation of Gacy's activities, only that detectives were following Gacy and at one point, even camped out on Gacy's lawn as they waited for cause to search the house. The film focuses mostly on Gacy's real or imagined relationship with a kid he hires to work in his house painting business. When the kid confesses to Gacy that he is having problems with his father, Gacy offers him a room in his home, taking the room of his daughters who by this time have left with Gacy's suspicious wife.

Mark Holton, best known as the fat guy from Teen Wolf, or Pee Wee Herman's nemesis Francis in Pee Wee's Big Adventure, plays Gacy as a troubled, closeted homosexual. The film posits the theory that Gacy killed teenage boys as some kind of psychic revenge on his father. The psychology of the film is somewhat muddled to the point where armchair psychiatrists will have a hard time coming to any conclusions about Gacy's mental health except for the obvious, he's a nutball.

Clive Saunders wrote and directed Gacy and doesn't bring much to it other than a couple stylish camera setups and narrative inertia. As a movie, Gacy fails to interest audiences because it plays as a mystery with no mystery. We know going in that Gacy murdered 31 people, we know going in that most of the victims were buried beneath his home, the only mystery is why Gacy did it and the film brings no new insight to that mystery. 

Movie Review Mischief

Mischief (1985) 

Directed by Mel Damski 

Written by Noel Black 

Starring Kelly Preston, Doug McKeon, Catherine Mary Stewart 

Release Date February 8th, 1985

Published February 8th, 2015 

There is a reason that the pleasant and quite entertaining movie “Mischief” is mostly lost to time. The film simply lacks any ambition. While it has entertaining performances, a terrific soundtrack, and an easy to relate to coming of age story, the film is stubbornly small in its ambition. There is no wont in the film to be anything more than a very slight teenage romance.

Doug McKeon is the ostensible lead of “Mischief” as Jonathan, a teenage horndog with a longstanding crush on Marilyn (Kelly Preston) that is seemingly doomed to be nothing more than a crush. Then, Jonathan meets Gene (Chris Nash) a classic other side of the tracks, James Dean loving, fellow outcast who becomes his guru with the ladies. It is Gene’s mission to help Jonathan get laid, a classically 80’s notion of teen comedy.

Together, Jonathan and Gene endure the pitfalls of smalltown life with rich kid bullies and indifferent adult figureheads aiming to keep them on the straight and narrow path to squaresville. Their friendship, while unlikely, is nevertheless well rendered and we can’t help but feel for both guys, even as we’ve witnessed this story more than a few times. McKeon and Nash work well together and with the aid of Preston’s smoking hot Marilyn and Catherine Mary Stewart’s more thoughtful Bunny, we find a group of characters that are easy to like and root for.

It’s just a shame that “Mischief” doesn’t have a little more ambition. Unlike the characters of another 1985 teens coming of age comedy, “The Breakfast Club,” the characters of “Mischief” are simply too narrow and singular. They have no ambition to be characters who define a generation. That comes in part from the film’s 1950’s setting which removes it from the modern experiences of teens of the time, but also from the narrow notions the film has about love and small town life. There is no grand statement to “Mischief” only minor, humorous incident.

If “Mischief” has a legacy now it’s only due to Kelly Preston. Her young, nubile, nudity was long a staple of the porn site “Mr. Skin,” home of celebrity nude stills from movies. Does “Mischief” deserve a better legacy than that? It might if the film had more ambition. As it is, I guess, it’s rather fitting.