Movie Review Thank You For Smoking

Thank You for Smoking (2006) 

Directed by Jason Reitman

Written by Jason Reitman 

Starring Aaron Eckhart, David Koechner, Maria Bello, Sam Elliott, Katie Holmes, Rob Lowe, J.K Simmons, Robert Duvall, William H. Macy

Release Date March 17th, 2006 

Published April 20th, 2006 

Whether you call him "Yuppie Mephistopheles'', "Goebbels In Gucci" or simply "Death Merchant" you cannot say Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) is not a charming assassin. In his role as lobbyist for the tobacco industry Naylor's job is to charm, cajole and if necessary deceive whomever is in front of him into seeing his industry as the underdog in an unfair and unjust war on personal freedom. Never before has anyone been more charmingly full of shit.

Adapted from a novel by Christopher Buckley, son of the unctuous conservative pundit William F. Buckley, Thank You For Smoking is an amiable and amoral look inside the life of Washington's most sinister and charming lobbyist. Like him or not Nick Naylor could convince you the sky was green while standing outside.

Thank You For Smoking directed by another prominent scion Jason Reitman son of  director Ivan Reitman (Twins, Kindergarten Cop, Ghostbusters). But do not expect anything as gentle as his father's fun loving mainstream blockbusters. Jason Reitman's talent, it would seem, is sharp satire of the most un-P.C kind.

Thank You For Smoking is shockingly not about making the tobacco industry look any more demonic than they already do. Rather it's about this character, Nick Naylor, and his insidiously powerful charms. That his charms are employed by the tobacco companies is merely part of the deep dark fun. Listening to someone convince you that a product that kills more Americans than any other product in existence, a statistic Nick prides while discussing with fellow merchants of death Polly (Maria Bello), lobbyist for the alcohol industry, and Bobby (David Koechner), lobbyist for guns, lends a black humor to Nick's charm. He knows what he's doing is wrong, that the science he misrepresents is complete B.S but being charming and winning seemingly unwinnable arguments is what pays the bills. He also happens to be really good at it.

Darker still is Nick's relationship with his son Joey (Cameron Bright). His attempts to get closer to his son, he is divorced from Joey's mother, include attending a career day at Joey's school where he essentially convinces the children that they should make up their own minds about smoking rather than listen to mom and dad, especially if mom says smoking is bad for you.

Nick takes his son on a business trip to Los Angeles where with the help of an equally amoral superagent played by Rob Lowe, he hopes to restore the cigarrette's good standing in film. Nick's hope is that he can get the cigarette into a big time blockbuster movie in the hands of real movie stars rather than the modern norm that has cigarettes mostly in the hands of villains or europeans.

Also while in Los Angeles Nick is to meet with Lorne Lutch (Sam Elliott) the original Marlboro Man who, now dying of cancer, has become a vocal anti-smoking advocate. In a scene so disarming in its honesty and dark humor, Nick essentially bribes Lutch with a suitcase full of cash and yet convinces him and us that the money is not a bribe, but a gift that it would be rude or hypocritical to complain about publicly. Nick's son is witness to this scene and yet does not lose the esteem of his father. In fact he is convinced he would like to be more like his father.

Nick's near downfall, as it is with most men, is a beautiful woman, a reporter named Heather Holloway, who has her own unique opinion off and on the record. Heather's arc is likely the weakest in the film as her triumph over Nick is too easily overcome and the comic possibilities of the relationship are not fully discovered.

Thank You For Smoking is as nihilistic in its point of view of the dangers of smoking as Nick is. The film is not about condemning smoking, the tobacco industry, or its protagonist. In that perspective it's fair to say that film is not as sharp as it could be. A precise perspective would be welcome. However as a dark hearted satirical character study the film is whip smart and very, very funny. Thank You For Smoking is a must see.

Movie Review She's the Man

She's The Man (2006) 

Directed by Andy Fickman

Written by Karen McCulloch-Lutz, Kirsten Smith

Starring Amanda Bynes, Channing Tatum, David Cross, Vinnie Jones, Emily Perkins 

Release Date March 17th, 2006

Published March 18th, 2006

Nickelodeon star Amanda Bynes has graduated to the big screen with surprising ease. Her debut feature What A Girl Wants did not exactly set the world on fire but it was an excellent showcase for Amanda Bynes' I Love Lucy meets Sandra Bullock style. Now with her latest flick, She's The Man, Amanda Bynes takes a shot at low grade Shakespeare with a high school take on 12th Night that, like What A Girl Wants, shows Bynes in the best light of her talents, combining goofy charm and physical comedy.

In She's The Man Amanda Bynes stars as Viola who is looking forward to college on a soccer scholarship until her plans are derailed when her school cancels the girls soccer program and refuses to let her try out for the boys team. With her future on the line Viola hatches the kind of wacky scheme that only takes place in the movies.

Viola's brother Sebastian (James Kirk) is a rocker who has decided to run to Europe for a summer tour with his rock band leaving his twin sister behind to cover for him. His disappearance gives Viola the opportunity for a crazy scheme.  Viola decides that she will impersonate  Sebastian at his fancy private school and attempt to make the soccer team. Once established on the team she can reveal her true self and claim her scholarship.

Naturally, complications ensue from the first moment Viola appears on campus. Most problematic for Viola is her new roommate Duke (Channing Tatum), a real hunk who she takes an immediate liking to. Unfortunately, as a guy she cannot pursue him and meanwhile, Duke has developed a crush on Olivia (Laura Ramsey) and enlists his new roommates help in trying to get her attention. This backfires when Olivia takes a shine to Sebastian/Viola.

The story is from Shakespeare's 12th Night but the comedy is straight slapstick. Bynes and company take a beating, falling down, kicking and running into one another. That this physicality is at times quite funny is because Bynes is a skilled physical comedian. She is also quite charming and though we never for a moment buy Viola as Sebastian we enjoy watching Bynes give the role all that she's got.

If the supporting cast shared Bynes' energy, She's The Man really could have been much funnier than it is. Sadly co-stars Channing Tatum and Laura Ramsey lack Bynes talent and charisma and are really just good looking models standing in for real actors. Tatum has his moments of real likability but he never gets beyond his meathead exterior. Ramsey for her part delivers a good hearted effort but seems terribly uncomfortable with the film's physical humor.

What makes She's The Man worth recommending, to less than discerning audiences, is Amanda Bynes whose wide eyed beauty and physical comedy are a winning combination. Bynes is no great dramatist but she has real comic chops and oodles of charisma and that makes up for a lot of the problems of this outlandish take on Shakespeare.

The other reason to see She's The Man is comic David Cross who makes a surprise appearance as the clueless principle of the private school. Cross shines in his gut, twistingly creepy attempts to bond with Sebastian/Viola and even weirder when he attempts to expose the fraud in his midst. Cross is just naturally funny and while teen comedy is not his usual milieu he gives it the old college try and picks up a nice paycheck along the way.

She's The Man is not a movie you are going to remember long after watching it but while it's on it is a charming, inoffensive little teen comedy that showcases the rising talents of young Amanda Bynes. This kid has a bright future ahead of her. She doesn't have the acting chops of Lindsey Lohan or the model good looks of Hillary Duff, rather Amanda Bynes succeeds on tomboy charm and the willingness to take the fall for a laugh. That kind of moxie goes a long way.

Movie Review: Failure to Launch

Failure to Launch (2006) 

Directed by Tom Dey 

Written by Matt Ember

Starring Matthew McConaughey, Sarah Jessica Parker, Terry Bradshaw, Kathy Bates, Zoey Deschanel

Release Date February 10th, 2006 

Published February 10th, 2006

To buy into the premise of the new romantic comedy Failure To Launch you have to be willing to believe that there are so many men over the age of 30 still living with their parents that a woman could start a profitable business helping parents get rid of them. I just did not buy it and, thus, I felt that Failure To Launch was a failure in making sense.

Sarah Jessica Parker stars as Paula, an expert in removing deadbeats from mom and dad's house. She is hired by the parents of Tripp (Matthew McConaughey) who, despite having a good job selling boats for a living, driving a Porsche, and having his pick of beautiful women, still lives with his mom and dad, played by Kathy Bates and Terry Bradshaw.

Paula’s method for dealing with these momma's boy losers is to pretend to be the guy's girlfriend, build their self esteem in a simulated relationship and urge the men to get out on their own if they want to keep her. Once they are out of mom and dad's place, she dumps them. If you think that sounds ludicrous and, potentially, a little cruel this movie may not be for you.

Essentially, the premise of Failure To Launch is too stupid to support the movie. Things are not helped by the film's many diversions to goofy supporting characters like Paula’s roommate, Kit, played by Zooey Deschanel. Kit drinks constantly and, for some reason, is plagued by a bird that she chooses to hunt with the help of one of Tripp’s friends, played by Justin Bartha. The film gives ample screentime to this bizarre subplot, which has nothing to do with the main romance.

Then there are the animal attacks. For some strange, inexplicable reason Failure to Launch director Tom Dey thinks it is hysterically funny to have a character repeatedly attacked by various animals. A small chipmunk, a bottlenose dolphin and a small vegetarian lizard each randomly attack Tripp in what his buddy Demo (Bradley Cooper) says is nature punishing Tripp for his unnatural lifestyle. If you find these scenes funny you are on a very different wavelength than me.

I get that romantic comedies are often absurd from conception. Pretty Woman posited the lovely Julia Roberts as a grungy L.A prostitute. While You Were Sleeping pushed Sandra Bullock as the fake wife of a coma patient and one of my recent favorites, 50 First Dates, had Drew Barrymore as a woman with a severe short-term memory loss.  That was not the absurd part--finding Adam Sandler memorable enough to fall for, that was absurd.

So I get that logic, reason. and even coherence are not the strengths of this genre. Abandoning these things for a moment to evaluate Failure To Launch on its own terms I will admit that both McConaughey and Parker strike a likable chord. They spark well together in romantic scenes and give off the air of a loving couple even as the film spins out of control.

However the film is too out of control for my taste. Again I return to Deschanel's Kit whose fight with an obnoxious mockingbird interrupts the film's romantic plot once too often. A bizarre example is a scene set in a sporting-goods store where Kit attempts to buy a shotgun and is mistaken by the store clerk (the Daily Show's Rob Corddry in an unnecessary cameo) as someone contemplating suicide. The scene goes on for three or four minutes with this misunderstanding. Why this scene exists only director Tom Dey knows for sure.

Then there is the ending which undoes much of the good work that McConaughey and Parker do by making both look nearly as foolish as the rest of the film. The film plays on one of my movie pet peeves--the argument that would be solved if the characters simply spoke to one another. Tripp and Paula's romantic trouble could be solved with one easy conversation. Instead, the film pushes them together in an elaborately comic fashion, where neither is willing to say the few words that could solve the problem.

And only in a film this absurd could this important conversation be broadcast over the internet so all of the supporting players and more than a few extras can watch and cheer along their friends. One gets the sense that moments like these would work better as parody of romantic comedies and not as a sincere romance. The comedy of Failure To Launch seems designed like another take on what The 40 Year Virgin accomplished last year. A sweet-natured examination of arrested development with broad comic intentions specifically designed for the talents of comic actors accustomed to such material.

The actors involved in Failure To Launch, aside from the oddly well-suited Terry Bradshaw, are too straight laced and earnest for this expansively comic material. Both Parker and McConaughey have cultivated screen personas that make money playing real romance, not broadly comic slapstick with a hint of romance, ala Adam Sandler or Steve Carell.

With a pair of terrific lead actors there was certainly potential for Failure To Launch. But, doomed by an absurd premise better suited to the broad comic talents , Failure To Launch is an out-of-control mess of a film, distracted by its own precious idea of what is funny.

Movie Review: Ultraviolet

Ultraviolet (2006) 

Directed by Kurt Wimmer

Written by Kurt Wimmer

Starring Milla Jovovich, Cameron Bright, William Fichtner

Release Date March 3rd, 2006

Published March 6th, 2006

After the government uses genetics to create a race of super soldiers, a blood-borne virus is created and infects the population. Turning everyday Americans into vampire hybrids, the virus is kept under control by the same government scientists who created it through any means necessary. A war between the infected and non-infected is at hand after a weapon is created that allegedly kills all vampires. Hired to obtain the weapon is an infected female assassin named Violet (Milla Jovovich). Little does Violet know that the weapon is in the form of a small child whose blood was engineered to kill vampires.

Cameron Bright plays the kid, Six, a clone of the government's top scientist and bad guy Daxus (Nick Chinlund). He wants his clone back and the vampires dead. The vampires want the kid dead and the only thing standing between the warring factions is Violet, whose protective mothering instincts kick in at the worst possible moment. William Fichtner takes on the role of Violet's only ally, Garth, a scientist and weapon-maker who also nurses a long-suffering crush on Violet. Garth believes the kid could be the key to curing the vampires.

The plot of Ultraviolet is not exactly as clear-cut as my description might make it seem. The whole vampire virus thing is muddled and confusing, as if writer-director Kurt Wimmer could not decide if a virus or vampire would make a better story. Nick Chinlund, as the bad guy of the picture, has his motivation for his evil deeds shift with the wind. That might explain why Chinlund goes all-out chewing the scenery, he can't keep the plot straight so he acts every moment to the back of the room in hopes of distracting us from the confusion with pure bombast.

Milla Jovovich is an effective lead actress. The same action heroine chops she showed in the two Resident Evil pictures serve her well here but, like those failed efforts, Ultraviolet is never good enough to deserve her hard work. Sexy and dangerous, Jovovich gives a performance reminiscent of Uma Thurman in Kill Bill gone sci-fi. She is fluid and deadly with a samurai sword and swift with double-barreled weapons. The plot lets Jovovich down by not providing a compelling context for the action she so lithely and athletically brings to the screen.

Ultraviolet is a step backward for director Kurt Wimmer, whose Equilibrium was a brilliant, but little seen, sci-fi kung fu movie. Wimmer and his stunt people created a new form of martial arts for Equilibrium that they dubbed Gunkata. This combination of martial arts and heavy artillery is once again on display in Ultraviolet but seems tamed somehow.

Ultraviolet has an amped-up body count but is relatively bloodless. There are a number of bodies sliced and diced, but very little blood is shed. In what was ultimately a vain attempt at a teen-friendly rating, the film keeps the bodies piled high but the blood to a minimum in a strangely unsatisfying combination. With so much action and so many bodies falling, bloodlust is a natural reaction. It's a little disappointing to watch a samurai sword in action and never see its aftermath.

The biggest problem with Ultraviolet, however, may not be its confused plotting or wimpy violence but rather the visual components that were supposed to be the film's calling-card. Using the camera technology that only George Lucas had previously employed for his last three Star Wars pics, Ultraviolet lacks the crisp, vivid, textures of Star Wars and instead takes on the milky aesthetic of a bad video game.

Whether it was a lack of experience with the technology or some kind of post-production snafu, the look of Ultraviolet is often out of focus, to the point where I asked the projectionist if there was a problem with the print. There wasn't. The faces of the actors are over exposed causing shadows or trailing; the colors go from vivid to filmy, often within the same scene.

It now seems like no surprise that Ultraviolet was held frin critics until opening weekend--they did not want this information about the film's look getting out.

The one reliable draw of Ultraviolet is star Milla Jovovich, who is quickly becoming the action heroine that Angelina Jolie was supposed to become with the Lara Croft movies. Granted, Jovovich has yet to take the lead in a really good action movie, but she has shown the chops of an action hero in everything from her supporting role in The Fifth Element, to both of the Resident Evil disasters, and now Ultraviolet. Through hard work and, yes, a killer body, Jovovich has managed to place herself above the subpar material and help you forget that she was in some pretty bad movies.

After Equilibrium became a fanboy favorite on DVD, director Kurt Wimmer could write his own ticket for his follow-up and, while Ultraviolet is a failure, you have to respect the risks he takes. Using a technology that neither he nor cinematographer Glen MacPherson knew how to use properly, Wimmer took a risk to create a new look for Ultraviolet and failed spectacularly. You have to respect the attempt, it made for one killer trailer.

Ultraviolet is a disappointment on a number of levels. From failing to give proper life to Milla Jovovich's well-crafted hero to director Kurt Wimmer's squandered potential. However, both will be back and here's hoping they try again together. Ultraviolet may not be successful, but its failure showed the potential a pair of risk-takers like Wimmer and Jovovich have of doing something great in the future.

Movie Review 16 Blocks

16 Blocks (2006) 

Directed by Richard Donner 

Written by Richard Wenk 

Starring Bruce Willis, Mos Def, David Morse

Release Date March 3rd, 2006 

Published March 2nd, 2006 

16 Blocks is the latest suspense-thriller from director Richard Donner, best known for the Lethal Weapon pictures. Those films are remembered more for Mel Gibson's manic performance and Donner's bombastic action scenes than for intricate or clever plotting. That makes 16 Blocks something of a surprise. Donner's attention to character details and fast-paced plotting in 16 Blocks turns what might have been another average action exercise into a compelling nail-biting suspenser.

A burned-out, drunkard cop, Jack Mosley (Bruce Willis) thinks his shift is over for the day. Heading for the door, and another bottle, Jack is stopped by his lieutenant and given one last assignment. Jack has 118 minutes to escort a prisoner, Eddie Bunker (Mos Def), 16 Blocks to the courthouse before the grand jury wraps for the day. Little does Jack know that the case the kid is testifying in is dangerous enough to get them both killed.

Bruce Willis is easily the most reliably compelling action star in film today. Even in his most rote or underwhelming vehicles like Bandits or Mercury Rising, Willis' flair and charisma are undeniable. In 16 Blocks Willis gives a character-driven performance that is becoming a trend as he transitions to elder-statesman action hero.

From his cop in Sin City to his cop in Hostage to his cop in 16 Blocks, Willis understands his niche and goes about finding unique notes for each character to play. The results have been very good thus far, with another unique character-driven performance coming this spring--a supporting role in the buzzworthy flick Alpha Dog.

Mos Def has proven himself an exceptionally-talented actor well beyond the stereotypical rapper-turned-actor. Seeking roles that most rappers-turned-actors either never seek nor pull off, Mos Def has excelled in the medical drama Something The Lord Made--for which he was nominated for an Emmy--and the effervescent Lackawanna Blues.

In 16 Blocks ,Mos Def cuts the figure of Eddie Bunker by adopting a unique, if occasionally unintelligible, patois that gives his motor-mouth character another layer of backstory for us to ponder. As the loquacious Eddie runs his mouth, Willis' cop becomes as irritated as we in the audience do, but just as he is eventually won over by Eddie's spirit and good nature, so are we.

Written by Richard Wenk, the screenplay for 16 Blocks is a cleverly-constructed action piece with two exceptional lead characters. Wenk strikes a near-perfect balance of character quirks, plot twists and big action sequences that, in retrospect, create a script that could not have been better suited for director Richard Donner, a master of the big action scene who's never had an action plot this good to back him up.

In 16 Blocks, Bruce Willis takes on the kind of role that Harrison Ford should consider. Willis, playing to  his age and capabilities, crafts a believable character. There is little ego to Willis' performance. The character is vulnerable, human, and very flawed. Where Ford cannot let go of his superman-action-hero persona, Willis defies his persona in ways that bring depth to his most recent performances. Am I saying one actor is better than the other? No, I am saying that Willis is currently making better choices than Ford and that Ford could learn a little something from watching Sin City, Hostage or 16 Blocks.

Director Richard Donner knows how to direct a crowd-pleasing action flick--he's been doing it since 1978's Superman. Three of the four Lethal Weapon movies are endlessly entertaining (the less said about the last Weapon sequel the better). Conspiracy Theory, Maverick and The Goonies are other terrific examples of Donner's crowd-pleasing abilities. What sets 16 Blocks apart from those films is the whipsmart plotting that backs up his other forte as a director--big, dumb, loud action. Keep an eye out for the bus chase scene which satisfies Donner's required major action set piece.

With Bruce Willis in the lead, 16 Blocks becomes almost infallibly entertaining. Watching Willis transition from action hero to aging character actor and yet maintain that star charisma is a real treat. His new persona solidified, we can only wonder now about his upcoming fourth Diehard film and how John McClane will fit with the new Bruce Willis. I cannot wait to see that, but even if Diehard 4 turns out to be a mistake, the new Bruce Willis should be able to recover quickly with another cheap, but efficient, thriller like 16 Blocks.

Movie Review Running Scared

Running Scared (2006) 

Directed by Wayne Kramer 

Written Wayne Kramer

Starring Paul Walker, Cameron Bright, Vera Farmiga, Michael Cudlitz

Release Date February 24th, 2006

Published February 24th, 2006 

Violence for the sake of violence is not necessarily a hallmark of the thriller genre, unless you're Quentin Tarentino. The thriller Running Scared shows why most thrillers begin with a plot and then introduce only the violence necessary to tell the story. Overwhelmed by its blood, guts and body count, Running Scared devolves quickly from a fast paced, Tony Scott inspired thriller into a nonsensical horror film.

Making matters worse is the fact that the film was directed by the terrific young auteur Wayne Kramer who made such a great splash with his debut feature The Cooler. Running Scared is a major step backward for a director with more talent than what this film demonstrates.

Paul Walker stars as Joey Gazelle, a low level mobster with the simple task of getting rid of dirty guns. After a drug deal goes bad and Joey's boss (Johnny Messner) kills a dirty cop, it's up to Joey to get rid of the piece, a pearl handled snub nosed revolver. Joey however has another idea. In covering his own backside he has been taking the hot guns he was supposed to be disposing of and hiding them in his basement in case he needs them for leverage.

Things go bad for Joey when one of his son's friends, Oleg (Cameron Bright) takes the pearl handle gun from his stash and uses it to try and kill his abusive father (John Noble). The kid fails to kill his dad, who also happens to have mob connections, and is now on the streets with the hot piece. Joey must find the kid and retrieve the gun before his partners or the cops find it first.

The plot to Running Scared is a correlative to Robert Altman's brilliant but short lived anthology series Gun which aired briefly on ABC in the mid-nineties. That show followed the path of a gun from one owner to the next and detailed the havoc wreaked in its wake. In the case of the gun in Running Scared it's the lives of mobsters, dirty cops, gang bangers and one small child.

Where Gun was a brilliant verbose little drama, Running Scared is a brutally violent and utterly meaningless mess of a film. Director Wayne Kramer, who made the far more interesting film The Cooler with William H. Macy, directs Running Scared as if he wished he had made a horror film instead of a gritty thriller. Amping up the body count to cover up his lack of a compelling plot, Kramer is forced to rely on his sleepy eyed star to provide the film's driving force and oh what a mistake that is.

Paul Walker with his slacker, frat boy, surfer demeanor is an actor I find insufferable. Though he was not bad in the doggy adventure flick Eight Below he was out acted by a group of huskies. He was okay in the Fast and Furious films but those movies aren't exactly challenging cinema. Running Scared wants to be something a little more than a cheap violent thriller but because Walker's only emotions are confused and sleepy the film falls short of exciting or even playful.

Kramer's love of over the top violence and seeing my sexuality are not merely reminiscent of Tony Scott they are, in Running Scared, an outright ripoff. The whip pan camera work and overlapping film stocks are direct lifts from Scott's last two features Domino and Man On Fire. The ridiculous violence and high body count a nod to Scott's True Romance.

The only originality to seep into this dark, dystopian thriller is a hockey torture scene that has received heavy rotation in the films ad campaign. The look of the scene is clever and the torture is something I had never seen before. The scene is bloody and a bit of a nail biter. Unfortunately this good scene is rare amidst the misguided plot.

Running Scared is a bizarre little film. Violent to the point of parody, the film could qualify as a horror flick for the amount of blood and guts that get spilled but it's all in service of nothing. There is nothing you can take away from the film. This film's many influences, Tony Scott and Quentin Tarentino among others, are each far superior. While Scott's last two films, Domino and Man On Fire were not great films, Scott's direction is amped and always in service of a compelling if flawed plot.

Tarentino is, of course, the master of screen violence. Kill Bill 1 & 2 are the only films outside the horror film genre that can favorably compare body counts with Running Scared. The difference is the violence in Tarentino's masterpieces plays like a blood and guts symphony. Each bullet fired, each slice of a samurai blade a note in a grand opera of eloquent violence. In Running Scared the violence is simply for the sake of being violent. The style of the film, the grit, the color scheme and the whip pans, are merely showing off and never part of a coherent vision of how to present screen violence.

Violence for violence sake is okay in the horror genre, but it gets old quickly in the thriller or noir genre if it is not clearly in service of a good plot. The plot to Running Scared is simply not compelling enough to justify the blood, guts and body count. Pure viscerality can only get a movie so far before you need to give the audience something to really chew on.

Running Scared is a step backward for a director who showed eclectic style in his debut feature. Wayne Kramer's The Cooler was a hard R-rated character piece with an excellent cast that was directed with a purpose. The violence and sexuality of The Cooler worked with its compelling characters and unique plot not against them. There was simply more to that film than the action and flesh displayed.

Running Scared never stops moving which works for maybe 45 minutes but without great characters and not much of a plot the wheels eventually come off and the film flies off the rails.

Movie Review Madea's Family Reunion

Madea's Family Reunion (2006) 

Directed by Tyler Perry 

Written by Tyler Perry 

Starring Tyler Perry, Blair Underwood, Lynn Whitfield, Boris Kodjoe 

Release Date February 24th, 2006

Published February 25th, 2006 

One of the most memorable moments of my critical career was a conversation with a colleague about how I got sucked in by Tyler Perry's drag queen melodrama Diary Of A Mad Black Woman. While my fellow critic stared through me as if I did not have a head, I recounted that I was taken with Perry's broad comedy and earnest social concerns. 

My colleague was, to say the least, not of the same mind regarding Diary of a Mad Black Woman. She could not get past Perry's bizarre drag-queen grandma, who she felt was even less convincing than Martin Lawrence's big momma. I would compare Madea more realistically to basketball star Larry Johnson's Grandmama commercial character in terms of believability, but I was willing to look past the bizarre drag queen escapade and allowed myself to be sucked in by the film's good intentions and big heart.

A similar feeling overtook me a few times during Perry's new film, Madea's Family Reunion. Unfortunately, those good feelings were less frequent as Family Reunion breaks down too often into pure melodrama and forgets to mix in the broad comic persona of Madea who, despite her appearance, was a reliable comic foil in Diary of A Mad Black Woman. In Family Reunion Madea is too often on the sidelines and in the scenes she's not in, she is missed.

Though Tyler Perry's Madea character is the star in title, the film's two lead performers are Madea's troubled nieces Lisa (Rochelle Aytes) and Vanessa (Lisa Arindell Anderson). Lisa is engaged to an abusive lawyer, Carlos (Blair Underwood), who made her his object of obsession at the behest of her own social-climbing mother Victoria (Lynn Whitfield), who sees the marriage as a boon to her flagging social standing.

Poor Vanessa is estranged from Victoria and has moved with her two children into Madea's welcoming home. She has a tentative romance with a bus driver, Frankie (Boris Kodjoe), who has a child of his own and a strict faith in God. He's also an elegant artist who values Vanessa's talent as a poet. It's a romance almost too good to be true that is nearly undone by dark family secrets that keep Vanessa from getting too close to the earnest and loving Frankie.

The film is not content, however, with these two highly melodramatic storylines. Perry, who wrote and directed the picture, cannot help tossing in snippets of his Christian values and an uplifting pair of monologues from the majestic Maya Angelou and the legendary Cicely Tyson. In a pair of speeches bemoaning the lack of manners, good taste and pride in the modern african-american community, these two elegant voices of reason address the family reunion on the virtues of faith, love and self respect.

These are admirable moments, but they are out of place. They are tacked on and distract from the main storylines. The speeches, no matter how well delivered, suck the air out of the room and leave the once boisterous, occasionally cheesy, and over-the-top film gasping. Most egregiously these scenes do not involve Madea, whose homespun politically-incorrect wisdom might have avoided the burdensome weightiness of the speeches.

In fact most of the film longs for more Madea. The main storyline involving Lisa, Vanessa and Victoria flies off the handle and into Dynasty-style kitsch melodrama. Whitfield especially vamps like Joan Collins and bullies her way through scenes like a Joan Crawford impersonator screaming for wire hangers. The plot twists are wildly dramatic with each of the sisters suffering in Jovian proportions their harridan mother's abusive past and present.

These scenes cry out for Madea to take the edge off with her sharp insults and 'get over it or I'll slap it out of you' style. Madea is outsized and unbelievable, but Perry makes her the funniest and by far most compelling character in the film. This is not vanity either. Perry gives his actors ample room to establish themselves apart from Madea but no one, aside from Whitfield's camp villainess, is able to take the reins and make the picture their own.

It is bizarre to think that Madea's Family Reunion needed more of Perry's drag queen grandmother but the fact is that the film's one true virtue is Madea's broad comic presence. Every scene that Madea is not the center of, you search for her. During the ponderous speechifying she is spotted in the crowd but does not speak. As each of the sisters' stories unfold Madea is consulted, but unlike Diary which brought Madea into the action as the heroine's violent protector, Family Reunion only allows Madea the occasional consultation.

You wait to see Madea open up a can of sassy whoopass on either Underwood's pompous abuser or Whitfield's witchy mother, but it never happens. Instead, Perry tries to rely on his young actresses to carry the day and neither Aytes or Anderson steps into the limelight.

The film's most entertaining moments are, like it or not, Madea's. A storyline that is sadly discarded, quite early in the film, has Madea assigned as the foster mother to a troubled runaway played by Keke Parker. As the rebellious child attempts to show Madea who's boss, the matronly Madea turns things around quickly with a swift backhand and, later, her belt. This sounds more controversial than it is. Madea is a caring foster mother who turns the child's life around with her old-school brand of tough love.

The scenes with Madea and the child are too few but they crackle with vitality, humor, warmth and justice. Madea is hardcore, but that is what we love about her. She is the parent as raging id, indulging the kind of freewheeling discipline that many parents grew up with in their own homes, but had drilled out of them in the age of Dr. Spock and, now, Dr. Phil. In Madea's world a spank and a hug are not too far apart in showing a child you care. Her approach is refreshing.

Madea's Family Reunion lacks the spark and originality of Diary Of A Mad Black Woman but ,most of all, it lacks Madea. I am almost embarrassed to admit it, but once again Tyler Perry managed to charm me with his good-hearted drag performance. Campy, kitschy, borderline ludicrous--I cannot help but enjoy Madea's outsize personality and heart.

If the film was more Madea and less the road show of Dynasty, I could give this film a hearty recommendation. As it is, Madea's Family Reunion is a good-natured but highly flawed melodrama, sprinkled with big laughs, but lacking a true center.

Movie Review: Eight Below

Eight Below (2006) 

Directed by Frank Marshall 

Written by David Digillio 

Starring Paul Walker, Bruce Greenwood, Jason Biggs, Moon Bloodgood

Release Date February 17th, 2006 

Published February 16th, 2006

Disney has a formula for every kind of film. That is how we end up with such junk as Glory Road or the wretched talking dog flick Snow Dogs. That also, however, is how we end up with such surprises as the monster hit Pirates of The Caribbean and the new animal adventure flick Eight Below. We know these two otherwise diverse films are of a particular brand name formula but both are so well accomplished we not only forgive the formula we like the film more for overcoming that formula.

Eight Below is 'inspired by' a true story of doggie survival in Antarctica in the 1950's. The story was first adapted by Japanese filmmakers in 1980 for a film called Nankoyoku Monogatari, unseen by me and well, unseen by most. In Eight Below the story of eight sled dogs abandoned in the arctic winter is directed by Frank Marshall and stars Paul "Sleep" Walker.

A science team in Antarctica sometime in the early nineties is welcoming a visiting UCLA science professor (Bruce Greenwood) who is on an expedition to find a meteorite he believes may be from Mars. With his hefty check in hand, and unbeknownst to the teams lead field explorer Gerry (Paul Walker), the teams boss has agreed to a dangerous excursion over the most treacherous sheets of ice in the arctic.

This means that instead of a simple snowmobile trip, Gerry and the professor will have to travel with the teams elite group of sled dogs. This is the human adventure portion of the film as Gerry and the professor make their way out to the most remote and dangerous mountain ranges in the arctic. Along the way they see dangerous leopard seals, and avoid treacherous thin ice. Of course it wouldn't be dramatic if the  the novice professor didn't fall through some thin ice and had to be rescued. On the plus side it's a chance for those amazing dogs to show off their talent.

From there a giant storm hits forcing the human inhabitants to flee. Gerry promises to return for the dogs but with the storm growing worse and the dangerous arctic winter setting in his imminent return seems unlikely. The dogs will have to fend for themselves for several months, that is if they can even escape their chains.

Frank Marshall is a director who works infrequently. In fact Eight Below is Marshall's first big screen effort since 1994's Congo. Still his work, including that aforementioned angry monkey movie, the plane crash horror film Alive and 1990's spider comedy Arachnophobia, has an indelible quality that has managed to become part of pop culture and cult phenomena. Eight Below is sadly very likely to be his least remembered film, in terms of pop culture cache, but it may in fact be his best. The films story of cross-species friendship, love and adventure is a terrific piece of work.

Especially strong are the scenes featuring the dogs. Alone in the arctic wilderness foraging for food, fighting for survival and remaining a family. The dogs become real characters with their own personalities. The rooting interest that Frank Marshall and screenwriter David Digillio instill in the dogs is remarkable and works even for those who may not consider themselves dog lovers.

Any film starring Paul 'Sleep' Walker that manages to be as exciting as Eight Below deserves some kind of award. Perhaps I am being a little hard on Walker, he rarely actually sleeps on screen. He's just a little slow is all. In Eight Below Walker is more than effective as the conscientious adventurer whose love of his sled dog team is as strong as any familial bond imaginable. Forget the sparkless romantic subplot with co-star Moon Bloodgood, Walker's love affair with the dogs works, giving him more than enough emotional depth for us to accept him.... no matter how slow he may be.

With all of the horrendous product aimed at kids at the movies, Eight Below is a revelation. The film never condescends to being a family drama. Frank Marshall simply tells his story to the best of his abilities and that it happens to be a family friendly adventure with strong values -friendship, family, love-  is really a bonus.

Unlike other Disney branded non-animation tripe -Shaggy Dog, Glory Road, Remember The Titans- Eight Below never gives you the sense you are being preached to or being sold something. This is a film of great integrity and in no way feels compromised like much of the product Disney shovels into theaters.

Yes the film is working from a particular formula and within genre strictures. The key to the film is how Frank Marshall and his team take the established formula and improve upon it with great skill and savvy. Eight Below defies formula by improving upon it.

From looking at Eight Below and Frank Marshall's resume of pop culture home runs, I wish he would work more frequently. However, if his long delays between projects means we can have more films of the quality and exciting nature of Eight Below, Frank Marshall should take as much time as he needs for his next picture.

Eight Below is a terrific film.

Movie Review: Final Destination 3

Final Destination 3 (2006) 

Directed by James Wong 

Written by Glenn Morgan 

Starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ryan Merriman, Gina Holden, Texas Battle 

Release Date February 10th, 2006

Published February 9th, 2006

Final Destination was an inventive little horror movie featuring a cache of young semi-recognizable faces including future stars Sean William Scott, Devon Sawa and Ali Larter. The film, written and directed by the X-Files team of James Wong and Glen Morgan, cleverly devised unique and terrifying ways of dispatching their film's teenage victims without the aid of a supernatural killing machine ala Jason or Freddy.

Instead, Wong and Morgan's killer was death itself, and it's fated design for all living things. A deep concept for such a B-picture. The film never really delves all that deeply into the philosophical, preferring to focus on staging its gore. In that limited capacity it was a pretty entertaining little flick. The sequel, the highly ironic Final Destination 2, continued the high-body-count, low-brain-function fun and now, six years after the original and with Wong and Morgan back at the helm (after abandoning chapter two), Final Destination 3 arrives with more gore and even less brain function.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead takes up the starring mantel of Final Destination 3 as Wendy, a soon-to-graduate high schooler who has an ominous vision of death at a carnival. As she boards a roller coaster called Devil's Flight, Wendy envisions the coaster flying off the tracks killing everyone onboard. Seated at the back of the coaster, Wendy freaks out and is kicked off the ride along with Kevin (Ryan Merriman), her best friends boyfriend; Lewis (Texas Battle), a combative jock; Frankie (Sam Easton), a camera wielding pervert; and Ashlynn (Crystal Lowe) and Ashley (Chelan Simmons), a pair of bimbo best friends.

Once everyone is removed, the coaster does indeed crash, killing everyone who remained onboard--including Wendy and Kevin's respective love interests. Something familiar in Wendy's vision of death leads Kevin to research premonitions and he finds the story of Flight 180, the plane explosion that killed a class of high school students on a trip to Paris.

As you may recall from the original movie, a boy (played by Devon Sawa) had a vision of the plane blowing up, got off the plane with a few friends and then witnessed the explosion. The fates then conspired to eliminate the survivors. Sensing a similar pattern could be in effect for the survivors of the roller coaster disaster, Kevin and Wendy set out to prevent fate from taking them and their friends.

As the film progresses--call this a spoiler if you like though the trailer has given as much away--each of the survivors is killed in a fashion that is as goofy and gory as possible. Two characters are cooked to death in tanning beds, another is the victim of a nail gun and still another is violently and bloodily crushed by a falling sign. Each killing is more bloody and violent than the last.

James Wong and Glen Morgan return to the series with a violent flourish. Taking on the challenge of finding more ingenious ways to brutally kill cute teenagers, Wong and Morgan have gone to extremes that only Saw series creator Leigh Whannell can possibly relate to. Elaborately constructed crushings, beheadings and burnings are the core of Final Destination 3, and with that limited criteria for judging the film, it's a pretty entertaining gore fest.

I must, however, wonder what it all means... The Final Destination series, that is. I compared Final Destination 3 briefly with Saw and Saw 2 because both films delight in the dramatically staged kill. However, the Saw films are clearly superior to Final Destination because writer Leigh Whannell posits a purpose to his violence while each of the Final Destination films are mindless exercises in staging violence.

In dealing with what is arguably mankind's greatest fear--death--where is the philosophy, where is the religion? If fate is the stalking killer of Final Destination 3, what belief system is then proving itself true? The film adopts the illusion of depth, but Wong and Morgan are never the least bit interested in exploring the subjects they raise. The film is simply an elaborate mousetrap game of staging and execution.

Since Final Destination 3 is just another mindless entry into the horror genre, you have to forgive the film's lack of depth to a point. From the perspective of this often vapid genre, the creators of Final Destination 3 are on the vanguard of staging the violent, exceedingly complex death scenarios.

One cannot deny that the many violent deaths in each of the three Final Destination films are well-staged and either terrifyingly horrific or ironically sublime. Indeed, as often as an audience is awed by the violent endings, we are left laughing at the elaborate conspiracy of innocuous coincidence that leads to the death of the idiotic characters.

Take, for instance, the deaths of  Final Destination 3's pair of bimbo high schoolers Ashlynn and Ashley. The two beautiful young ladies are dispatched in a fiery sunbathing accident. Both are needlessly topless and die while listening to the Ohio Players classic "Love Rollercoaster". The crafting of their death involves an electrical short caused by errantly placed slushy, a loose shelf, a coat rack and a tube of suntan lotion. Its impossible to figure if fate was at work in their death or maybe just the ghostly specter of McGyver.

It might be unfair to fault something as innocuous as Final Destination 3 for being mindless, but after three films, the premise is wearing thin without some kind of philosophy to underline it--some kind of intelligence to give audiences something to ponder.  Meanwhile, we await the next bizarre conspiracy of events to kill some nameless teen victim.

On its own terms, Final Destination 3 is undeniably entertaining. Forgive me, however, if I prefer the more cerebral (yet equally violent) Saw and Saw 2.

Movie Review: Curious George

Curious George (2006) 

Directed by Matthew O'Callaghan 

Written by Ken Kaufman 

Starring Will Ferrell, Drew Barrymore, Billy West, David Cross, Eugene Levy 

Release Date February 10th, 2006

Published February 12th, 2006 

Curious George is a wonderfully imaginative children's classic. With his wide eyed wonder and his incurable imagination George inspired small children to investigate the world around them with a similar abandon. Now on the big screen for the first time, the curious little monkey and his friend in the bright yellow hat are as imaginative and inquisitive as ever.

The man in the bright yellow hat aka Ted (Will Ferrell) has some big trouble. He needs a new attraction at the museum where he works or his new boss (David Cross) is going to fire him. Sending him on a trip to Africa to find this new attraction, Ted returns with big ideas and a brand new little friend. George, as the little monkey comes to be known, is an imaginative little primate whose inquisitive nature leads both he and Ted to some unique adventures.

Curious George director Matthew O\'Callaghan is a former Disney animator whose love of water colors made for the lovely, warm tones of Mickey' s Twice Upon A Christmas. directs Curious George with the same warmth and joy. O\'Callaghan has respect for this character and while there are updates that are necessary but they are never overdone or precious.

The voice cast of Curious George is a wonderful mix. Will Ferrell strikes just the right flummoxed, earnest and patient tone as Ted and Drew Barrymore is in lovely voice as his love interest Maggie. Comedian David Cross is appropriately sniveling and conniving as the villain of the movie and Futurama star Billy West is almost unrecognizable as the benevolent boss who supports Ted but must also listen to Cross's Junior, his son.

Another draw of Curious George is the throwback hand drawn animation. Perfectly capturing the water color aesthetic of H.A Rey\'s legendary book series, Curious George is one of the loveliest looking animated features of this decade and the rare hand drawn feature that is as visually vibrant as any computer animated feature in the business, even the Pixar stuff.

Curious George was sadly overlooked when it was released in theaters in early 2006 but it\'s out there on DVD and the perfect gift for any child who loves a great cartoon. Wonderfully imaginative and artfully, crafted, Curious George should be an animated classic and a staple of all children's DVD collection. If you don\'t have it, run out and get it for your child, or the child in you.

Movie Review Quantum of Solace

Quantum of Solace (2008) 

Directed by Marc Forster 

Written by Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade

Starring Daniel Craig, Mathieu Amalric, Olga Kurylenko, Dame Judi Dench, Jeffrey Wright 

Release Date November 14th, 2008

Published November 13th, 2008 

Much of the juice of Quantum of Solace rides on whether you bought the whole James Bond-Vesper Lind romance from 2006's Casino Royale. I did not. Thus witnessing Quantum of Solace becomes something of a struggle for motivation. To enjoy it. is to suspend disbelief in an uncomfortable fashion. Believe that Bond could leap through fiery hallways without being burned? No problem. Believing Bond could be shot at more than Dick Cheney's hunting partners and live to tell? Sure, I can buy that.

But trying to believe that the cold hearted ladies man of 22 previous adventures could have his heart melted by a feisty government accountant. Sorry. Can't do it. Thus, Quantum of Solace gets off to a stumbling pace and builds to a non-climax climax on its merry way to promising yet another sequel instead of being the tightly wound, classy action pic it so desperately wishes it were.

Quantum of Solace picks up in the immediate aftermath of Casino Royale. Having captured Mr. White (Jesper Christianson) and begun torturing answers out of him about the shadowy organization he works for, Bond delivers him to M (Dame judi Dench) for further questioning, not before he is chased through the ancient streets of some nameless Italian mountainside.

Mr. White leads to a murder plot in Haiti involving a dangerous young woman named Camille (Olga Kurylenko), ostensibly the girlfriend of Mr. Green (Mathieu Amalric). She was to be the victim but Bond makes the rescue, something he will do several more times throughout the film. From there we are off to Bolivia where there may be oil or diamonds beneath a giant swath of desert and Mr. Green can get his hands on it by funding a military coup.

It's up to Bond to face down Mr. Green, Green's shadowy boss, and even the truly evil forces of corporate and state greed. All the while maintaining his Bond-ian cool which includes drinking, flirting and sexing when necessary. Along for different parts of the ride are Gemma Aterton as Agent Strawberry Fields and Giancarlo Giannini reprising his rather confusing role from Casino Royale.

Directed by Oscar nominee Marc Forster from a script by Oscar winner Paul Haggis, Quantum of Solace should be a great movie but settles for being a good movie. The action is cut to MTV style quick cuts that whip audiences through action scenes so we won't notice any sloppiness. We don't but often we are so dizzy we don't care.

The script makes more sense than much of Casino Royale, but beginning as it does on the false note of Bond's tragic 'love story', it is hamstrung from the start. The script lacks depth beyond its obvious action propellants, leaving only the character of James Bond to keep us from getting up and walking out. Thank heaven Daniel Craig rises to the challenge.

Craig is the baddest of all Bond's and because of him we are compelled past the film's worst flaws. He may not have any interest in sipping martinis or repeating his name and he is entirely without gadgets, but when he invites Gemma Aterton's Strawberry Fields to help him locate something in his bedroom you can't help but smile, knowing the next scene will find Ms. Fields sans clothes. Bond's way with women is one of the few elements of classic Bond to survive the reboot.

The other piece of classic Bond comes in the spectacular credit sequence. The animated opening featuring the nude bodies of gorgeous babes rising from desert sands has the bold, psychedelic look that has defined the Bond credit sequences of the past.

Did I like Quantum of Solace? Kind of. I liked Daniel Craig. I liked individual scenes and I liked the Bond babes, if only for serving their purpose as classic eye candy. But Quantum of Solace comes up short of being a movie I am wild about. It lacks a unifying plot. It lacks one truly breathtaking scene that might make this good movie into a great one, even beyond the plot trouble.

Movie Review Next

Next (2007) 

Directed by Lee Tamahori

Written by Gary Goldman, Jonathan Hensleigh

Starring Nicolas Cage, Jessica Biel, Julianne Moore, Peter Falk 

Release Date April 27th, 2007

Published April 26th, 2007 

Has any writer's work been more abused by Hollywood than Philip K. Dick's work? Sure Shakespeare has been tortured and Stephen King has condemned some of the adaptations of his work but Dick, it seems, has been truly beat up in the adaptation process. For every Minority Report there is a Paycheck. For every Blade Runner, which was tortured in many ways before emerging a cult classic, there is an Imposter.

Now comes Next; an adaptation of Dick's short story The Golden Man. Starring Nicolas Cage as a Vegas lounge magician, Next abuses Dick's sci fi conceits for yet another dull witted, wide appeal, sci fi knock-off.

Frank Cadillac (Nicolas Cage) is a C-list Vegas lounge act. Using his real life ability to see two minutes into the future, Frank, real name Chris Johnson, dazzles out of town rubes by predicting the unpredictable. Chris is attempting to hide the fact that he is clairvoyant by pretending to be clairvoyant, he's worried if someone finds out they may force him to use his gift for ill-gotten gain.

The FBI, led by Agent Callie Ferris (Julianne Moore), seems to have discovered Chris's secret. They want to capture him and use his gift to prevent a group of terrorists from exploding a nuclear weapon on the West Coast. How seeing two minutes into the future could be helpful is a question the film has an answer to but by the time it gets to it you will be rolling your eyes too much to catch it.

While Chris is using his gift to elude the FBI as well as the terrorist baddies, he finds his gift extending beyond just two minutes when he is with Liz (Jessica Biel), a beautiful stranger who Chris is convinced is his soul-mate. The two begin a tentative romance and together decide whether to help the cops or keep running away.

Next was directed by Lee Tamahori who may be best known for his non-directorial exploits. For those not in the know, the director of Die Another Day and XXX 2 was arrested in 2006 for solicitation. No he wasn't seeking a sex worker, he was the sex work, Tamahori was arrested in full drag. This has nothing to do with Next, it just makes me giggle as much as anything in the goofball action of Next.

The most notable thing about Next is Nicolas Cage's latest follicle debacle. The obviously balding Mr. Cage goes for long hair in Next and well, Nic.. long hair in back, balding in front, not a good look. Beyond the hair, Cage delivers a zombie-like, sleep walking performance ala his work in Family Man or National Treasure. Next isn't quite as bad as Cage's work in The Wicker Man but at least in that bad movie, Cage was awake and engaged.

Poor Julianne Moore. I hope she was paid well for her soul. The former Oscar nominee has made worse films than this, she is in Freedomland for god's sake, and yet she still seems to have too much dignity and class for such trash as Next.

Jessica Biel, on the other hand, is becoming right at home in this type of throwaway, popcorn trash. If you don't believe me, go rent Stealth. Yes, she was very good in last year's surprise hit The Illusionist but the rest of her resume is an ugly mixture of eye candy roles in straight to video features all of which seem to be a silent rebuke of her goody two shoes breakthrough on TV's Seventh Heaven.

One is left to wonder what happened to the family of Philip K. Dick. Do they have no control over what happens to Mr. Dick's work in Hollywood? Are they so greedy that they just don't care? Whatever the reason, it's sad how little care anyone has taken with his work. Philip K. Dick is the sci fi voice of a generation. A man who; seemingly saw the future himself and dramatized it. To watch his legacy trashed by one hack filmmaker after another is a real shame and Next is just the latest and likely not the last example.

Movie Review Just My Luck

Just My Luck (2006) 

Directed by Donald Petrie

Written by I Marlene King, Amy B. Harris

Starring Lindsay Lohan, Chris Pine, Faizon Love, Missy Pyle 

Release Date May 12th, 2006

Published May 11th, 2006

In her first major role since becoming a weekly tabloid headline crasher, Lindsey Lohan takes on the eerily similar role of a flashy New York socialite whose life revolves around parties and guys in the farcical romance Just My Luck. The film is supposed to be a lighthearted romance but somehow Lohan's tabloid persona shades the film in an unflattering self parody of a woman who gets everything she ever wants and doesn't really appreciate it.

Just My Luck posits Ms. Lohan as Ashley the luckiest girl alive. Everything from the weather to every possible coincidence goes her way. She has lucked herself into a high profile, high paying job as a party planner and won the heart of an heir to a multi-million dollar fortune.

Ashley's luck changes when, during a party she planned for a record mogul played by Faizon Love, a tarot card reader tells her that the wheel of fate is coming around for her. Her luck is about to change. After the run in with the tarot card lady, Ashley hooks up with a masked man and shares a kiss before he disappears into the night. With the kiss the masked man took her luck and she took his.

That masked man was Jake (Chris Pine) who snuck into the party as a masked dancer to get the demo of his band McFly into the hands of the music mogul. Jake is a hard luck guy who has had nothing but bad things happen to him. After kissing Ashley he manages to save the life of the record mogul, get his band a record deal and just generally gets all he ever wanted.

Ashley then must find Jake, kiss him and get her luck back before she kills herself.

It's a cute premise, one that is right up the alley of director Donald Petrie who knows from cute premises as the director of both Miss Congeniality and How To Lose A Guy In Ten Days. Petrie knows how to pull the strings on a mainstream romance but he often fumbles with a too precious execution. Just My Luck is yet another example of Petrie's inability to follow through on a clever setup.

It's not all the directors fault. Petrie could not control star Lindsey Lohan's constant tabloid appearances that make the film feel at times like a parody of her real life. A star of Lohan's stature is often associated with a life like Ashley's where they get everything they want, are pampered at every turn, have money to burn and spend every night living it up. There is a part of all of us I'm sure who might enjoy watching a pampered star get their comeuppance as Ashley does in Just My Luck. However because this is a romance with an easy forecast ending the comeuppance is obviously short lived.

Add to that the fact that because the character of Ashley never belies selfishness, bitchiness or any of the other trappings of the privileged we can't take any kind nasty pleasure in watching her get what's coming to her. Because Ashley is not a bad person to begin with she has no real character arc for us to sympathize with. She goes from a good person with luck on her side to a good person with no luck and back again only happier and in love. The role has no depth.

Chris Pine is a young actor of few credits but real stardom in his future. The kid has great comic timing, a self effacing air and that indefinable quality that separates actors and stars. Chris Pine is a name to keep an eye in years to come.

Lindsey Lohan is also a star but one whose choice of roles is becoming more and more questionable. Last years Herbie Fully Loaded was a huge step backward from her terrific work in both Mean Girls and Freaky Friday. Herbie made her a little girl again, a role she chafed against to the detriment of the film's family friendly exterior.

Just My Luck showcases Lohan's best and worst qualities. Her skill with physical comedy is crossed with her limited dramatic range leaving the performance somewhere in between goofy teenage girl and grown up actress.

Many critics are recommending Just My Luck for teenagers but watching the film with my precocious 13 year old niece Alexa and some of her friends I found that even that target audience is not going to be satisfied with this under-cooked premise and shallow celebration of upper class life.

Movie Review: When a Stranger Calls

When a Stranger Calls (2006)

Directed by Simon West 

Written by Jake Wade Wall

Starring Camilla Belle, Tommy Flanagan, Charles Durning, Rosine Hatem

Release Date February 3rd, 2006

Published February 3rd, 2006 

Director Simon West is best known for the bombastic action features Con Air and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. The failure of that last film to break out into a bankable franchise, beyond the equally abysmal sequel, has lead West to fewer opportunties to direct big budget features. His latest effort is a much smaller and quieter, though no less insipid, little horror remake, When A Stranger Calls.

Newcomer Camilla Belle stars in When A Stranger Calls as Jill Johnson. At 15 years old she is in the prime of her babysitting career. While all of her friends are attending a school bonfire party, poor Jill is stuck babysitting for the Mandrakis family. Naturally the Mandrakis home is in the middle of nowhere, far from even a police patrol in case of a problem.

The house is pretty spectacular--remote everything, well stocked fridge and even an indoor aviary. There is also a housekeeper, Rosa (Rosine Hatem) -in place to "up" the body count- who curiously was not hired to watch the children.

The setup is simple-minded. A killer (Tommy Flanagan), established in a bloodless opening that we are told is brutal but, because of the film's PG-13 rating, we never see. The killer's M.O is killing babysitters and children. Asking why is for an entirely different and likely more interesting movie. Once Jill is in place in the perfectly remote, expansive and often dark house, the movie is essentially a high-stakes game of hide-and-seek that hits obligatory cliches before reaching its predictable finish.

This remake differs greatly from the original, which some consider a genre classic. The original film played out in three acts, with the babysitter, played by Carol Kane, fending off the killer in the first act. A cop played by Charles Durning tracks the killer in the second act. Finally, in the third act, a few years later, the killer tracks down the babysitter once again. The remake confines the action to what took place in the first act of the original film and attempts to tease that out into a full feature. This might explain why the plot and premise of the remake is so thin.

The 1979 When A Stranger Calls is oft forgotten, despite its iconic qualities. The film is lost to history for the most part, but the phrase "the call is coming from inside the house" is a horror movie legend. Of course that one phrase is not nearly enough reason to make the film a second time and Simon West's film spends ninety minutes demonstrating that.

In reviews of movies like Hostel, High Tension and Devil's Rejects I have lambasted horror filmmakers for going too far in their attempts to frighten and titilate. When A Stranger Calls demonstrates the delicate balance between too much and too little. The PG-13 flick has too little of what each of those other films I mentioned have too much of. When A Stranger Calls is bloodless, sexless and, most damning, frightless.

It's a difficult balancing act but, as demonstrated by great horror films like May or Freddy Vs Jason, when a filmmaker can balance the blood, guts and sex, a great movie can result.

Simon West has, since Con Air, been a Michael Bay wannabe. Consider that Con Air was a Jerry Bruckheimer film so ridiculous that Bay himself would not direct it. That career-shadowing of Bay continues in When A Stranger Calls. As Bay has taken the time to remake Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Amityville Horror, West once again takes on a pale imitation of Bay by adapting a lesser film.

If a filmmaker's aspiration is limited to mimicking the career path of Michael Bay, maybe he should consider a different career altogether.

Movie Review Something New

Something New (2006) 

Directed by Sanaa Hamri 

Written by Kriss Turner 

Starring Sanaa Lathan, Blair Underwood, Simon Baker, Donald Faison

Release Date February 3rd, 2006

Published February 2nd, 2006 

Sanaa Lathan's career hasn't blown up into the full blown stardom that I predicted it would after her luminous performance in 2000's Love & Basketball. She was well reviewed in the TV movie Disappearing Acts opposite Wesley Snipes and deserved more attention for her silky, sexy performance as a music journalist in 2003's Brown Sugar.

Her career hit a sad bottom with her attempt at action stardom in Alien Vs Predator. Back in her comfort zone, in the romance genre, Lathan essays yet another smooth, confident and sexy performance in Something New an interracial romance that is as much about race as it is about romance, a combination that similarly themed films can rarely pull off.

In Something New Sanaa Lathan stars as Kenya, a corporate lawyer with little time for a personal life. She is on the fast track to becoming the first black female partner at her law firm. Just because work dominates her life doesn't mean she doesn't think about the things she wants in a man but her standards are far too high for the average man she might meet in a club while hanging out with her friends.

Kenya's romantic life is upended in the most unexpected way when she decides to hire a landscaper. The landscaper is Brian Kelly, a ruggedly handsome outdoors type who goes nowhere without his yellow Labrador retriever. Brian is the least likely love interest Kenya has ever met, and did I mention he's white. Nevertheless, from the moment he began work on her backyard he had his eye on her and she in turn had her eyes on his chiseled biceps.

Naturally, race plays a role in this romance as Kenya's friends and family treat the romance as a fling or passing interest. Kenya's brother Nelson (Donald Faison) is rather horrified by the idea of his sister and a white guy, and even goes as far as to set up a more suitable date for Kenya. Blair Underwood plays Mark and it's a credit to his skills that he takes an underwritten, eye candy role and gives it some depth.

Directed by music video director Sanaa Hamri, in her feature debut, Something New strikes a strong balance between its racial politics and its romance. Sanaa Lathan and Simon Baker have a fiery, sexy chemistry that puts the racial aspect of the relationship in the background. When two actors are so sexy together; their complexion quickly becomes secondary to the voyeuristic pleasure of watching them together.

The film takes the racial aspects of the story head on, confronting the African American perspective on interracial dating which is far more complex than the simpleminded hatred attributed to white people. The feeling of betrayal and a history of negative stereotypes weighs on an interracial couple and while this never becomes the over-arching subject of Something New, the film does a good job of demonstrating the issues.

Part of the fun of Something New is the strong female perspective of the film. Written by Kriss Turner and directed by Sanaa Hamri, with a strong performance by Sanaa Lathan, Something New oozes strong femininity that goes beyond mere girl power. Something New is thoughtful and humorous in its examination of its female characters, not just Lathan but also the wonderful Taraji P. Henson as Lathan's best friend Nedra.

There are no simple stereotypes of women, or men or, more specifically, black women in Something New. The last is a very specific mention because the stereotypes of black women in movies, with examples like Phat Girlz and just about any inner city drama, are becoming cartoonish and offensive. Something New blows away those stereotypes by crafting female characters who are unique individuals and not merely an assemblage of typical characteristics.

There is another fun aspect of Something New and that is how the men of the film are treated like eye candy in ways usually reserved for women. Often when it comes to sexuality in movies the titallation is meant for male audiences. Something New offers a rare slice of beefcake as director Sanaa Hamri uses her camera to leer longingly at both Simon Baker and his rival Blair Underwood.

There is something almost feminist about the ogling of male eye candy In Something New, a sexy statement of equality, if you will.

Sanaa Lathan has seemingly given up on being a star on the big screen. Taking a regular gig on the TV geek show Nip/Tuck, Lathan seems content to make her mark on the small screen. Here's hoping that she will occasionally come back to the big screen for strong romantic parts like the one in Something New. Yes, these are niche roles with no promise of big time success or stardom but she is just so good in these roles. It would be a shame if she gave them up.

Something New is a romantic comedy with brains and a heart and a strong libido. The film deals with race and feminism with light hearted romantic comedy touch. It's not an Oscar worthy drama but as genre pictures go, I wish more films had the care and thoughtfulness of Something New.

Movie Review: Big Momma's House 2

Big Momma's House 2 (2006) 

Directed by John Whitesell

Written by Don Rhymer 

Starring Martin Lawrence, Nia Long, Dan Lauria, Kat Dennings, Chloe Grace Moretz, Zachary Levi 

Release Date January 27th, 2006 

Published January 26th, 2006 

2000's Big Momma's House helped to establish Martin Lawrence's star credentials. Unfortunately for Martin it was his last hit as a solo act. Bad Boys 2 owes far more to audience love for Will Smith than for anything Lawrence brought to the table. So, given a string of massive bombs on his resume, it comes as no surprise that Lawrence would make a return to trip to Big Momma's House.

What is surprising, however, is how pleasant--even occasionally funny--that return is. Don't get me wrong, Big Momma's House 2 is not a very good movie, but it is a passable bit of entertainment for very forgiving audiences.

Since we last saw FBI agent Malcolm Turner (Martin Lawrence), he has married Sherrie (Nia Long), the woman whose life he saved by posing as her Big Momma six years ago, and settled into a comfortable desk job. His new duties are far less dangerous than undercover work and include dressing up as an eagle to teach safety classes to school children, as we see in a cute opening sequence that has Malcolm lighting himself on fire while teaching kids fire safety.

Soon however, Malcolm is desperate to get back in the field. His former partner, no longer played by Paul Giamatti, has been killed in the line of duty and Malcolm wants the case. His boss (Dan Lauria) refuses to let him in but of course, as the plot insists, Malcolm will not be denied.

The investigation requires sending an undercover agent into the home of a computer software designer and his family as a nanny. Lucky for Malcolm, he has just the nanny to fit the job. Pulling his Big Momma mask and fat suit out of storage, Malcolm embeds himself; deep cover into a case involving corrupt software designers and a virus that could endanger national security.

Do not trouble yourself with the plot of Big Momma's House 2 because the film never troubles itself with the plot. The whole software/computer virus is merely the mcguffin. It's a reason to get Martin Lawrence back in his Big Momma disguise, dispensing off-color wisdom and, in this cleaned up family sequel, helping the children of this very uptight famly to loosen up and have more fun.

There is nothing original in the film's life lessons and family values storyline so you're left to watch Lawrence, who mugs with fury and somehow manages to find a big laugh here and there. Forget about the ridiculous suit. There is no way anyone bought it the first time around, and as Big Momma parades about in swimwear and cheerleader outfits, they certainly won't buy it this time. What you can buy into, however, is Lawrence's comic talent which, even in his worst films has shown through occasionally, and is in full view here.

I wouldn't call anything in Big Momma's House 2 clever, but some of it is pretty funny and that falls entirely to Martin Lawrence. Returning to the kind of broad comic performance that made him a star, Lawrence has his confidence and charm back. Since all of the laughs in Big Momma's House 2 rely on Lawrence's hard work and comic talent, having him at his cocky confident best is essential and the film works, in it's way, because of that.

There is nothing special about Big Momma's House 2, but get Martin Lawrence in that fat suit, maybe slip a swim suit over the top of it, throw in some fat jokes and some southern fried common sense and you get Big Momma.  It's a character that establishes its own level of reality--if you are willing to take on the herculean task of suspending disbelief.

For family audiences, Big Momma's House 2 is the kind of movie that kids will enjoy and mom and dad won't be bored by. Go in with low expectations and you may find yourself reasonably well entertained. Though the film is PG-13 for some occasionally raunchy humor, it's rare and nothing terribly offensive. Mom and dad can take the kids to see it without fear.

It's not for everybody, but fans of Martin Lawrence and the very forgiving amongst us will find more than a few big laughs in Big Momma's House 2.

Movie Review: Annapolis

Annapolis (2006)

Directed by Justin Lin

Written by Dave Collard 

Starring James Franco, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese 

Release Date January 27th, 2006

Published January 27th, 2006 

Annapolis is a real anomaly as a film. On the surface it's the story of a lower class kid fighting his way into the toughest military academy in the country. However, on the way to being a coming of age story the film lapsed into a boxing movie? Huh? James Franco stars in Annapolis as Jake Huard a wrong side of the tracks kid working hard not to end up like his miserable father working forever in the Baltimore shipyards. Jake's dream is to get into the the Annapolis naval academy, literally across the tracks from where Jake is now.

After pestering a United States Senator for months on end Jake gets his shot at Annapolis but finds that his dream is not so easily achieved. On the one hand Jake meets Ali (Jordana Brewster) a superior officer who takes an immediate shine to him. On the other hand he runs smack dab into the toughest drill instructor since Louis Gossett Jr. in Lt. Cole (Tyrese Gibson) who hates Jake on sight. Cole picks on Jake from day one and when Jake shows an interest in the Academy boxing program Cole throws down the gauntlet, go one on one with the Lt. and maybe, just maybe, Jake will have a shot to survive Annapolis.

What! Where does boxing have anything to do with military service. What does boxing have to do with anything in Annapolis. Director Justin Lin and writer David Collard shift gears from coming of age story to rote sports movie for seemingly no reason. Well there may have been a reason, as indecipherable as it may seem. I think that Lin and Collard quickly realized that the coming of age stuff wasn't working. The romance between James Franco and Jordana Brewster was lifeless and limp leaving only the boxing scenes with any real juice, all provided by the fiery presence of Tyrese Gibson who deserves a far better film.

Yes, the film does get some steam from the boxing scenes thanks Franco's training sessions with the surprisingly effective Donny Wahlberg playing his mentor and trainer. Franco and Gibson have good chemistry in and out of the ring as well. What makes Annapolis too ridiculous for words are the faux drama of the coming of age portions of the film, Franco versus his downtrodden daddy plays like bad after school special stuff as Franco whines and moans and daddy says he's never gonna amount to anything, yada yada yada. These scenes are even more tedious than they sound.

Director Justin Lin has been in a tailspin since his exceptional debut feature Better Luck Tomorrow. While I must admit that he did more than competent work on Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, there is no arguing that films artistic merits or lack thereof. Annapolis is inexorable. A shiftless, rhythm less tone free snoozer of sports clichés and coming of age hokum. One of the worst films of 2006.

Movie Review: Underworld Evolution

Underworld Evolution (2006) 

Directed by Len Wiseman 

Written by Danny McBride 

Starring Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Bill Nighy, Michael Sheen

Release Date January 20th, 2006

Published January 19th, 2006 

2003's Underworld began with a cool comic book fantasy premise. The idea? A war between vampires and werewolves. It's an idea that had horror fanboys creaming their shorts in anticipation of the long dreamed battle between two of literature's iconic villains. Unfortunately, with a first time director Len Wiseman at the helm, Underworld flailed and ultimately faltered in a hail of bullets and blue light. The novice director never got a handle on how iconic his subject matter was and instead became enamored of finding new ways to exploit the, ahem, virtues of his star Kate Beckinsale. And what virtues they are.

That film may have failed its central idea but, as a masturbation fantasy on home video, the film became a hit and less than two years later we get Underworld: Evolution. Filled with more fabulous shots of the leather clad Ms. Beckinsale, including one near nude scene, Underworld: Evolution once again fails its premise but does manage to reaffirm how hot Beckinsale is in tight black leather.

The first Underworld introduced us to our heroine Selene (Kate Beckinsale), a leather clad badass vampire who calls herself a death dealer. Her job is to hunt and kill the vampire's ancient enemy, the Lycan (werewolf for the uninitiated). By the end of the film she and her new man Michael (Scott Speedman), a newly created vamp/Lycan hybrid, had uncovered a shattering conspiracy and became outlaws on the run from both vampire and werewolf alike.

Evolution picks up where the first film left off with Selene and Michael seeking shelter and much needed blood. Unbeknownst to our heroes, another even more powerful vampire elder, the legendary Marcus (Tony Curran), has awakened and is searching for Selene. She, or more to the point her blood, holds the key to the secret of Marcus' brother's whereabouts. Marcus' brother happens to be the very first and deadliest werewolf in history. Marcus intends on freeing his brother and taking over the world.

It's not a great plot, in fact it's barely a passable plot. Len Wiseman, who wrote and directed the first film and contributed the story for this film, seems to have only one real obvious talent, and that talent is filming Kate Beckinsale, who happens to be his wife. The two met on the set of the first film and were married soon after production wrapped.

It's not hard to make Kate Beckinsale look good, her natural assets outlined in tight black leather are more than enough. Wiseman's camera, however, finds ways to accentuate her natural beauty to a distracting degree. Underworld: Evolution features a really hot sex scene between Michael and Selene that no doubt made the ultimate difference in the film's R-rating.

So with all of the issues I have with the plotting and some of the important technical aspects on the filmmaking side, what is it about Underworld: Evolution that I loved?

Underworld: Evolution picks up where the original Underworld left off with an unrelenting pace. After a brief respite resetting the vampire/lycan history, the film starts running fast and never stops. Ok, so vampires shooting at each other seems as odd as it did in the first film but, at the very least, there are a lot of bullets and they invariably hit their mark spilling buckets of CGI blood.

The violence of Underworld: Evolution is cartoonish and over the top but it works because there is so much of it. The fight scenes between Selene and Marcus and Michael and a giant CGI werewolf are goofy but still manage to be a lot of fun. When a downed helicopter with still spinning blades is introduced into the fight you just know some awesome carnage is soon to come, and Evolution does not disappoint.

Despite improving on the original Underworld, Evolution fails its super cool premise the same way the first film did. That is disappointing, but the film makes up for some of that disappointment by providing the kind of classic, highly stylized, extremely bloody violence that made me love horror films as a kid. Forget that horror porn garbage, give me classic, balls-out, over the top gore and save the mysoginistic insights into man's inhumanity to man for some unpleasant college course.

Underworld: Evolution is not nearly a great film but, compared to recent offerings in the horror genre, it's a breath of fresh bloody gore.

Movie Review Last Holiday

Last Holiday (2006) 

Direted by Wayne Wang 

Written by Jeffrey Price, Peter S. Seaman 

Starring Queen Latifah, LL Cool J Jane Adams, Timothy Hutton, Giancarlo Esposito 

Release Date January 13th, 2006

Published January 12th, 2006 

Sitting down to watch the Queen Latifah comedy Last Holiday I had low expectations. My expectations were exceeded mightily by a good natured sweet comedy about life, love and the ever looming specter of death. Okay, I added the specter of death thing. This is, after all, a comedy.

Last Holiday is a comedy about a woman who is told she is going to die soon and chucks it all -job, friends, bills- and runs off to wile away her last days in a resort in the alps. The specter of impending death never really enters the film because Queen Latifah is such a joy to watch and director Wayne Wang such a carefree auteur that he eschews making a real movie and focuses his attention on making his star look good.

Queen Latifah stars in Last Holiday as Georgia Byrd, a small demonstration cook with dreams of running her own restaurant. For now she spends her evenings watching Emeril Live and cooking great meals she doesn't eat. She cooks for practice and occasionally for a teenage neighbor but mostly she cooks for the joy of cooking.

At work Georgia fends off an ever menacing middle manager (Matt Ross) whose ambition threatens everyone's job, and finds time to gossip with her pal Rochelle (Jane Adams). The gossip most often turns to talk of the handsome new grill salesman Sean (L.L Cool J) who has his eyes on Georgia though she refuses to believe it.

The plot kicks in when a head injury at work sends Georgia to the hospital where her doctor gives her a prognosis of imminent death due to a brain tumor. Georgia has about two weeks to live. What would you do if you only had two weeks to live? For Georgia Byrd, the answer is to quit her job and run to a fabulous European resort with every cent of her savings and spend her last days indulging the finest food in the world from one of the world's greatest chef, Chef Didier (Gerard Depardieu).

Flashing what little cash she has for the best room in the place, the best table in the restaurant and the finest clothes in Europe naturally draws the attention of her fellow guests that coincidentally include a Senator (Giancarlo Esposito) from Georgia's own district and the owner of the store Georgia worked at (Timothy Hutton). The less said about this convenient plot, the better.

Based loosely on a British comedy from 1950, of the same title, Last Holiday is an ebullient film full of vibrant life and surprisingly big laughs. Director Wayne Wang is not working with much of a script which forces him to rely mostly on the charms of his lead actress. The effervescent Queen Latifah rescues what would have likely been a very dull picture with a terrifically self-effacing and brave performance that earns big laughs and loads of pathos.

If you can't sympathize and laugh riotously with Queen Latifah clearly you are far too cynical.

As the one true draw of Last Holiday Queen Latifah had a lot riding on her and you never once see her sweat. Whether she is sassily rebuffing the advances of the lecherous Senator or wrapped head to toe in a mud wrap and needing a bathroom break, Latifah's every move is pure charm, she is just that lovable.

Sure, Last Holiday is mindless and often forgettable. The plot is a joke of coincidence and predictability. Who cares! When you get to spend 90 minutes with a movie friend like Queen Latifah that makes up for a lot of problems. Queen Latifah is simply that much of a pleasure to watch in Last Holiday, so much you forget how bad the picture as a whole truly is.

There are few actors or actresses who can make you forget you are watching a bad movie and simply focus on them. Queen Latifah failed to pull off that trick in awful films Taxi, The Cookout and Bringing Down The House but she really pulls it off in Last Holiday, a bad movie made pleasant even entertaining by a star truly coming into her own.

Last Holiday is like candy, it may not be good for you, it may rot your teeth or your brain, but while you're enjoying it nothing else matters. This is a movie for candy lovers.