Movie Review Mission Impossible 3

Mission Impossible 3 (2006) 

Directed by J.J Abrams 

Written by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci 

Starring Tom Cruise, Michelle Moynihan, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Ving Rhames, Maggie Q

Release Date May 5th, 2006 

Published May 4th, 2006 

If Mission Impossible 2 was the height of slick and shallow action fantasy, Mission Impossible 3 is the height of the series becoming something more than just slick fantasy. Mission Impossible 3 is completely awesome with more genuine suspense and thrills than either of the two previous Mission Impossible movies. Director J.J Abrams, before he manned the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises, grabbed the reins of the Mission Impossible franchise and transformed it from thinly plotted, style over substance action into a full fledged movie that also happens to be a great action movie.

Mission Impossible 3 picks up the story of Impossible Mission Force Agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) five years after the action of MI2. Now, Hunt is in semi-retirement, busily training the next generation of IMF Agents. Hunt is also soon to be married to Jules (Michelle Monaghan), who has no idea what Ethan did or currently does for a living. Her appeal to him is that she is completely outside the espionage sphere.

That’s unfortunately about to change as Ethan is drawn back into the field and his new bride is soon to be drawn in as well. Ethan is brought out of retirement by a friend and agent named Musgrave (Billy Crudup) who wants Ethan to go to Germany and rescue one of the agents he trained. Agent Lindsey Farris (Keri Russell) had been tracking an arms dealer named Owen Davian (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) when she was captured.

The rescue sequence, featuring Hunt’s latest Impossible Mission team, Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames, in his third Mission appearance), Declan Gormley (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), and Zhen Lei (Maggie Q), is an incredibly tense, fast paced and exceptionally well shot sequence. It’s a nail-biting series of scenes with Keri Russell getting a moment to shine next to Cruise and show the chops that would take her to Emmy leading lady status as another kind of spy on The Americans.

Here, Russell was not long from the fluffy television series Felicity but the gun battle here put any questions about her range as an action hero and actress to rest for good. Russell is every bit the badass Cruise is in this scene and J.J Abrams captures the scene brilliantly with remarkable camera work, editing and scene setting. The tension in this scene is almost unbearable as the perfectly timed events play out., I can’t praise this scene enough, and I haven’t even mentioned the gut-punch payoff to this sequence.

From there we move the plot on to Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s big bad, Owen Davian. The Academy Award nominated Hoffman is not playing around with the role of action movie bad guy, he’s deeply invested in this dangerous character. Davian is maniacal but it’s Hoffman’s measured tones and invective that make him scary and not the kind of blustering we get from so many other action movie bad guys.

A sequence in which Cruise and his team invade The Vatican to capture Davian is another stand out series of scenes filled with the kinds of things we’ve come to love about the series, the speculative technology, the expert timing and the thrilling last minute saves. Director Abrams could teach a master class in action movie suspense and just show people this sequence with its expert timing and clever twists and turns.

After the disappointment of the first Mission Impossible and the shallow but exceptionally fun Mission Impossible 2, I was once again surprised by the Mission Impossible franchise with Mission Impossible 3. Instead of adopting the shallow, thrill a minute style of the modern action movie, J.J Abrams set out and made an action movie with a brain, a careful thriller that uses strong cinematic technique to build suspense in a plot that is the perfect mix of action movie thrills and genuine, edge of your seat suspense.

With all of the negativity aimed at Tom Cruise these days I wonder if I am the last Cruise fan left. For me, Tom is one of the golden gods of movie stardom. The man can do no wrong... on the big screen. His charisma, magnetism and that pulsing vein in the middle of his forehead simply hold me at rapt attention.

Call it a heterosexual man crush if you wish, I prefer to think of it in the classic Hollywood star parlance. The classic Hollywood idiom about great stars, Women want to be with him and men, like me, want to be him.

It is that quality that drives his blockbuster flicks to stratospheric heights at the box office and it is that quality that often rescues some questionable films from flopping like a dead fish. His latest film, the third in the mindlessly entertaining Mission Impossible series M.I:3, succeeds solely because of Cruise's star magnetism.

M.I:3 returns Tom Cruise to the role of IMF agent Ethan Hunt, newly retired and soon to be married to the lovely Julia (Michelle Monaghan). She knows nothing of his past or of his current job as a part time trainer of new IMF agents, he told her works for the D.O.T on traffic patterns, a job just boring enough that no one asks for details.

Ethan is pulled back into the IMF fold when one of his trainees, his star student Lindsey (Keri Russell), is captured in Berlin while on the trail of an arms dealer named Owen Davian (Phillip Seymour Hoffman).To get her back Ethan hooks up with his old pal Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and a new crew of IMF'ers including Declan (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and Zhen (Maggie Q) and a new pair of bosses Brassell (Laurence Fishburne) and Musgrave (Billy Crudup).

Together they infiltrate one of those classic action movie mileu's, the factory that produces sparks and steam, and fight through several hundred nameless henchman.The raid is successful or seemed to be but unfortunately the bad guys inserted a timebomb in Lindsey's brain which detonates killing only her. These scenes sound as cheeseball as they truly are, and yet, through sheer hardcore adrenalin, they work.

Indeed the entire movie, as directed by TV genius J.J Abrams, is a series of over the top action scenes that dangle Cruise precariously from varying heights, fires gazillions of bullets, destroys millions of dollars worth of property and never stops entertaining.

The remaining plot involves Ethan and his team catching Davian, being double crossed in classic Mission Impossible fashion and, of course, along the way poor Julia will be kidnapped and have a near death experience with the big bad Davian.

I will freely admit that M.I:3 is a brainless action flick. Utterly mindless, with a plot that falls apart with too much scrutiny. However if you can forget the plot for awhile and just get into the spectacle and bathe in the star powered charisma you will be entertained thoroughly by M.I:3.

This film is just pure adrenalized joy. J.J Abrams and Tom Cruise revel in upping the ante on the action spectacle with every passing scene. They turn the experience into something akin to the X-Games crossed with James Bond and a little David Blaine magic, awe inspiring at times and cheesy as all get out.

I absolutely loved Mission Impossible 3 and I recommend it completely as a must see for people who love the classic Hollywood blockbuster. If you want your mind expanded I recommend Akeelah and The Bee. If you want your pulse to race and heart to pound then see M:I3 and leave your brain in the car.

Movie Review: An American Haunting

An American Haunting (2006) 

Directed by Courtney Solomon

Written by Courtney Solomon

Starring Donald Sutherland, Sissy Spacek, James D'arcy

Release Date May 5th, 2006

Published May 5th, 2006

The ineptitude of director Courtney Solomon is seemingly boundless. After taking what had the potential to be a Lord of the Rings style series of blockbusters in the Dungeons and Dragons, and dragged it into the depths of hellish mediocrity, it seemed Solomon was finished as a director. Sadly Solomon was merely recovering from that massive failure and accumulating material for a property he had purchased around the time of D &D, a horror novel called An American Haunting.

Some five years later Solomon's vision is finally on the biggest screen and hellish ineptitude would be a kind description for the jaw droppingly awful period horror flick An American Haunting.

Donald Sutherland, whom the director must have incriminating photos of, stars in American Haunting as John Bell the head of a small rural Tennessee household with his wife Lucy (Sissy Spacek, another likely blackmail candidate) that somehow becomes afflicted by a spirit. Thought to be the curse of a neighbor who the Bell's wronged in a land deal, the spirit attacks in the middle of the night, knocking over furniture, moaning loudly and taking an unseemly interest in the Bell's young daughter Betsy (Rachel Hurd Wood).

The ghost is especially violent with Betsy while afflicting John with ever worsening health. Friends and neighbors visit and confirm the Bell's haunting, the only holdout being Betsy's school teacher Richard Powell (James D'Arcy) who believes science can explain the phenomena, that is until he witnesses the spirit firsthand.

An American Haunting is based on the popular novel by Brent Monaghan called The Bell Witch: An American Haunting. That 2000 novel was a controversial bestseller that purported itself to be a non-fiction account of the only murder ever attributed to a spirit. Monaghan's central thesis that spirits are created by bad energy within homes serves as a pseudo-scientific explanation of the supposedly real haunting. Essentially the family's negativity manifested in an angry violent ghost.

An interesting but thoroughly non-scientific theory that Monaghan, I'm told, spins into quite a compelling yarn. Unfortunately the script by director Courtney Solomon deviates wildly from Monaghan's thesis in favor of a more familiar brand of horror genre hokum. Looking to get audiences jumping out of their seats, Solomon relies on the tired act of loud unexpected noises. Yup, that's it. Just the occasional animal knocking over furniture amped to ear splitting decibels. This is what passes as horror in An American Haunting.

Worse yet Solomon crafts the film in such a way that he forgets to create any mystery as to why the family is being haunted. He retires the film's one and only red herring, a neighbor suspected of witchcraft, early in the story and never allows the skeptical teacher to develop into a formidable enough character that his debunking skills might introduce some mystery.

The storytelling is so awful that at one point we are lead to believe the family was being punished because they charged a usury tax that was well above the established law. USURY! As a horror film device!

The Usury Tax thing is a big laugh but unfortunately An American Haunting does not have enough of that kind of unintentional humor to make it any kind of guilty pleasure. No, sadly the film just sucks and nothing more.

It may have taken Courtney Solomon five years to get another less than mediocre feature on the big screen but don't think for a moment that just because An American Haunting was even worse than his Dungeons & Dragons, that Courtney Solomon is finished. Uwe Boll has stunk out loud on four pictures and has several more in the pipeline. If Hollywood won't throw a leash on Boll why would they stop Courtney Solomon from stinking up movie theaters for the foreseeable future.

Movie Review: United 93

United 93 (2006)

Directed by Paul Greengrass

Written by Paul Greengrass

Starring Ben Sliney, Gregg Henry 

Release Date April 28th, 2006

Published April 29th, 2006

A normal film review includes a description of the film's plot. That seems a bit trivial when discussing United 93. The first theatrical release to take a head-on look at 9/11 just does not need much description of it's plot. The essential information is ingrained in the memories of all Americans. To attempt to give a typical description of a movie plot in terms of United 93 seems vulgar but then much of what surrounds the idea of 9/11: The Movie is rather vulgar.

What you need to know about United 93 is that Director Paul Greengrass takes a pseudo-documentary look at the events of that day from the perspective of the real life air traffic controllers and executives in charge of our airways.

And most importantly Greengrass takes us inside the final hijacked plane, United 93, and through the evidence gathered from 911 calls, air traffic control logs and the testimony of family members who received horrifying final phone calls from loved ones, reconstructs what likely happened just before United 93 crashed into a field in Pennsylvania.

Paul Greengrass, the director of Bloody Sunday and Bourne Supremacy, is a highly skilled filmmaker with a documentarians eye for realism. His approach to making United 93, a film with as delicate a subject matter as this, is restained and eloquent. His aim is to pay tribute to the heroes who died on United 93 and he accomplishes that goal. I cannot dispute, in anyway Greengrass's goal in making this film or the high quality of his accomplishment. And yet I cannot recommend this movie.

For me, this wound is still too raw. Watching United 93 is not an experience I can recommend to anyone. It is so visceral and so surreal, it is like watching 9/11 happen all over again. Only this time you are closer than ever. You are right over the shoulder of Ben Sliney the man in charge of the airspace over the eastern seaboard on 9/11.

Sliney plays himself in United 93 and his authenticity brings the horror of our futility on that day closer to home. There is no question that Ben Sliney is one of the few heroes of that day, he made the call to close all American airspace despite having questionable authority to do so. While the President of the United States was not heard from by anyone until 25 minutes after United 93 crashed, Ben Sliney was the only man in the country making decisions to save lives that day.

Paul Greengrass makes no overt political statement with United 93. Reality however, does make a statement about the President's involvement that day and the facts are presented without comment in United 93.

The fact is, after the second plane hit the world trade center, military leaders -represented in the film by actor Gregg Henry and several real life military officers and enlisted personnel- tried to get the president to give them the rules of engagement. They needed to know if they had the authority to shoot down a hijacked commercial airliner. They could not find the president or vice president. No orders were given.

As a historical document United 93 is a powerful reminder of our nations greatest tragedy and an example of our greatest asset, individual heroism. The film cements the legacy of the brave people who died trying to take back flight 93 before it could get to its target. Their example is a legacy that will live forever.

There will never be another 9/11 style attack on this country. Because of the passengers on United 93 the rules of engagement for hijackers have changed forever. Our complacency has been forever shaken and in the future terrorists will not take over planes without a fight from the passengers and crew. No new FAA regulations or leadership from Washington will be needed. Nothing but the will and bravery of individuals will keep this from happening the same way again. That is the legacy that is so well documented in United 93.

And yet I must again say I don't recommend this film. It is just too painful. It's, I'm sorry to say, too soon. As I watched crowds lining up to watch United 93 it occurred to me how bizarre the whole idea of a 9/11 movie is. I could not escape the thought of how vulgar it is that people are reliving 9/11 with a bag of popcorn on their lap and a bucket of soda. That is just appalling.

Movie Review Stick It

Stick It (2006)

Directed by Jessica Bendinger

Written by Jessica Bendinger

Starring Missy Peregrym, Jeff Bridges, Kellan Lutz

Release Date April 28th, 2006

Published May 15th, 2006

If all juvenile delinquents could get the kind of court treatment that Hayley, the heroine of the new Disney comedy Stick It got, the world would be filled with extremely limber criminals. Hayley, the heroine of Stick It,  has had numerous run-ins with the law in her short life; but now she finds herself in real deep trouble. After damaging property she is being sent off to, horror of horrors, gymnastics camp!

That ought to show her.

Stick It is the kind of wish fulfillment comedy that Hollywood is convinced that we love. Filled with sitcom characters and Saved By The Bell style dialogue, Stick It is a stylish but rarely amusing teen comedy.

Hayley Graham (Missy Peregrym) has been sentenced by a judge to go to gymnastics camp. Luckily she happens to have once been a world class gymnast before she walked away in the midst of a big meet or match or whatever the hell they call it. Needless to say, she is not popular with her fellow gymnasts at the Vickerman gymnastics academy.

Run by the tough loving Burt Vickerman (Jeff Bridges); the academy is better known for major injuries caused by Burt's hardcore training than for major gymnastic stars. Naturally, Hayley and Burt clash immediately. She doesn't want to be there, he doesn't care, they clash until valuable lessons are learned and naturally a big meet(?) bonds the team to Hayley and she to them.

Jessica Bendinger, who wrote the amusing script for the cheerleader comedy Bring It On, directs her first feature and brings a rebellious attitude to Stick It but, like most teenage rebellion, it's mostly just childish posturing.

Missy Peregrym gives a free spirited performance that is restricted by a script that puts really stupid words in her mouth. The dialogue is filled with dopey sub-sitcom zingers that undermine any character development. Not one of these characters feels like a natural human being because everything they say seems as if it should be followed with canned laughter.

I hope Jeff Bridges makes good use of the paycheck he picked up for Stick It. If the audience is bored  watching Stick It they are just reflecting Bridges who could not be any more bored with this material. He knows this movie is no good and he reflects it with an attitude of disaffection.

So, does anything about Stick It work? Yeah; kind of. Director Jessica Bendinger establishes a candy colored palette in the background of her candy coated story. Using low grade special effects Bendinger makes gymnastics about as interesting as it can possibly be without having someone in your own family competing.

There is a certain camp humor found in Jeff Bridges' tired, bored, performance in Stick It. His character's almost constant exasperation is supposedly linked to the untamed rebelliousness of his charges, but you can easily read it as Bridges real life response to this lifeless exercise in teen appeal sit-comedy.

Jessica Bendinger is not an untalented director. She crafts some clever visuals with overlapping photography in the gymnastics scenes and makes good use of CGI. Bendinger makes gymnastics more interesting than I've ever found it before, but having never found it all that interesting to begin with, this is a minimal accomplishment.

Bendinger, at the very least, has enough talent to make me interested in what she will do next. Anything she does now will have to be better than the forgettable teen tripe of Stick It.

Movie Review RV

RV (2006) 

Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld

Written by Geoff Rodkey 

Starring Robin Williams, Cheryl Hines, Jeff Daniels, Kristen Chenoweth, Josh Hutcherson

Release Date April 28th, 2006

Published April 28th, 2006 

Robin Williams stopped being cool around the time he cleaned up and got off drugs. That is a horrible thing to say but it's true, his maniac comic genius was fueled by cocaine and though at times it was too far out it was often remarkably, vibrantly, brilliant and he has only rarely captured that brilliance since getting cleaned up.

I'm glad he got off drugs, it saved his life. And that maniac part of Williams is still there occasionally, especially in his most recent comedy special on HBO in 2003. In movies those occasions of Wiliams' brilliance have become few and far between. Reduced now to the neutered family comedy genre like his once brilliant colleague Eddie Murphy, Williams stars in R.V, a mainstream machine meant to convert safe forced comic melodrama into cash.

In R.V Williams stars as Bob Munro, father to two ungrateful kids, daughter Cassie (JoJo Levesque) and son Carl (Josh Hutcherson) and husband to a loving stay at home wife Jamie (Cheryl Hines). Sad that his family has grown so far apart that they watch TV in four different rooms and I.M each other that dinner is ready. He launches a plan to bring the family close again.

Canceling a planned vacation in Hawaii, Bob puts the vacation funds into renting an R.V for a cross country family camping trip. What Bob doesn't mention to the family is that part of the trip includes a stop in Colorado for a business meeting.

If you guessed that along the way the family reconnects, lessons are learned and hugs shared, congratulations, you've seen a movie before. Predictable doesn't begin to describe the plot of R.V. Golly do you think Bob's secret business meeting will drive a wedge in the family? Do you think that maybe that weirdo family headed up by the mugging duo of Jeff Daniels and Kristen Chenoweth will turn out to be good people and great friends?

Garsh!

Director Barry Sonnenfeld has hit a rather unexpected career low. After Get Shorty and two pretty good Men In Black movies, Sonnenfeld seemed to have a golden touch. However, having been away from directing since the last Men In Black film, Sonnenfeld's golden touch has turned to lead. Lead that Sonnenfeld and Williams use to pound home every predictable slapstick joke.

As much as I dislike R.V I must admit to a few laughs all of which come from Williams whose hard work does occasionally wring laughs from this lame script. That hint of mania behind William's eyes is still there and when he isn't suppressing it in an ill-fitting dyspeptic character like Bob, he can't help but let loose a few non-sequiturs. Robin Williams is a comic genius. That madness is still there just below the surface. That madness that makes him a brilliant, at times uncontrollable comic whirling dervish, still simmers inside him. Movies like R.V do not bring out his best side but when he finds the right project he will back.

Movie Review: Akeelah and the Bee

Akeelah and the Bee (2006) 

Directed by Doug Atchison

Written by Doug Atchison

Starring Keke Palmer, Laurence Fishburne, Angela Bassett, Curtis Armstrong

Release Date April 28th, 2006

Published April 27th, 2006

On the surface Akeelah and The Bee is the inspirational tale of a young girl overcoming the odds to make it to the national spelling bee. However, the real driving inspiration for the film is the continuing educational strife in the inner city that see's gifted students, like the one portrayed in the film, being left behind in schools ill suited to nurture their gifts.

Akeelah and The Bee may indeed play a little like an After School Special on steroids but its deeper message gives the film depth and the lead performances of stars Keke Palmer as Akeelah and Laurence Fishburne as her coach help Akeelah and the Bee become more than the sum of its plot. Akeelah Anderson (Palmer) is an 11 year old overachiever in the Crenshaw school district in Los Angeles. Having been skipped ahead a grade, she is expected to be the schools star in terms of academics.  Unfortunately, Akeelah is floundering. She has been missing classes and is failing.

Things begin to turn around for Akeelah when her principle, Mr. Welch (Curtis Armstrong), forces her to enter the school spelling bee. Mr. Welch has invited his friend Dr. Joshua Larabee (Fishburne), a professor at USC and former spelling champion, to observe the bee and especially Akeelah. When Akeelah wins the bee she is offered the chance to train with Dr. Larabee in hopes of making it to the national spelling bee.

At home Akeelah is living with the loss of her father, he was killed when Akeelah was only 6 years old, whose love of words drives her own love of words. Her mother (Angela Bassett) is hard working but absent. Her oldest brother Devon (Lee Thompson Young) has joined the military while her other brother Terrence (Julito McCullom) has joined a gang. The specter of violence is inherent in the neighborhood though not prominent in the film.

The inadequacy of her school curriculum has limited Akeelah's ability to learn. Worse yet, the prevailing attitude of the people in her life, that education is a fixed, white man's game, has infected her own attitude. She must discover her love of learning or she will not succeed.

Akeelah and The Bee addresses a real hot button issue in inner city schools by directly addressing the prevailing attitude among African American youths that education is a white mans game. Many young African Americans have come to believe that the game is fixed against them in terms of education, so why bother with schools. This is not an unreasonable attitude. In fact, it's supported by how little financial support appears to be given to inner city schools as opposed to schools with predominantly white attendance. 

That this attitude can prevail upon even someone as gifted as Akeelah is an issue that political and community leaders across the country, but particularly in the inner cities, must address and soon before another generation is lost. Every year it seems that the education budgets go up and yet inner city schools remain looking rundown and short on cash. Where is this money going and why isn't more money the answer as so many conservative critics have preached.

Akeelah and the Bee doesn't dig quite that deep into this issue. The requirements of mainstream filmmaking requires that the plot stay closer to its characters and their personal stories rather than becoming a documentary. The films accomplishment is raising the issue for you and I and everyone else to address and deal with..

Laurence Fishburne's performance as Dr. Larabee is a return to form for him after drifting through the Matrix sequels and Biker Boyz, simply picking up paychecks. His arrogant, authoritative performance, softened by Keke Palmer's Akeelah, captures the complex emotions of a man who has succeeded in the face of similar, if not more difficult circumstances than Akeelah. I call the character arrogant because he is, but it is the kind arrogance that one earns through achievement. Some people simply have the right to be a little arrogant and that is part of Fishburne's complicated and heavily shaded performance.

Fishburne's performance early in the film is so good that the backstory he is saddled with proves unnecessary in making this character, and the dramatic choices he makes later in the film, work. The backstory, I'm sure, was meant to further humanize Dr. Larabee but because it is so contrived and is used as such an obvious dramatic device it plays far too melodramatic.

The real key to Fishburne's performance may just be the performance of his co-star, 13 year old Keke Palmer. Giving a performance that is easily comparable to Keisha Castle Hughes Oscar nominated performance in Whale Rider, Palmer nails Akeelah's initial hopelessness and sadness as well as her feistiness and innate gifts. Akeelah is a sweetheart character but she is not above childish behavior and petulance and Palmer combines these traits into a fully formed young character.

Palmer and Fishburne develop terrific chemistry that carries us over many if not all of the films minor structural problems, including Fishburne's unfortunate backstory and a stretch of the picture that gets a little too into the uplifting vibe of a TV movie. The montage sequence of Akeelah inspiring her entire neighborhood is more than a little played out.

I think I may have made Akeelah and The Bee out to be heavier than it really is. Writer-director Doug Atchison is not merely using this film to preach, he leaves plenty on the screen for entertainment purposes. For instance, Akeelah gets a boyfriend, Roman (George Hornedo), who she meets along the way to the national spelling bee. The pre-teen romance is very charming and not overdone.

Also the films final minutes at the national spelling are so well put together that there is real drama. The scenes are perfectly paced and develop in surprisingly suspenseful manner. Akeelah and the Bee is far from perfect but as a conversation starter on very important issues and as an entertaining character piece, the film is more than worth the price of admission.

On a side note, Akeelah and the Bee is the first film from the Starbucks Film company. Yes that Starbucks, the coffee people. It is a little disconcerting when you first see that Starbucks logo pop up in the opening credits but no one in the film is seen drinking Starbucks coffee so the synergy is thankfully not blatant. It is nice to see a major corporation putting its cash to good use and not merely crafting a film as an ad for their product.

Movie Review: Wall Street Money Never Sleeps

Wall Street Money Never Sleeps (2010) 

Directed by Oliver Stone

Written by Allen Loeb, Stephen Schiff

Starring Michael Douglas, Carey Mulligan, Frank Langella, Shia LeBeouf

Release Date September 24th, 2010

Published September 23rd, 2010 

Director Oliver Stone has long been a fearsome critic of Wall Street greed. His Frankenstein character Gordon Gekko from 1987's “Wall Street” was meant as a stinging rebuke of Wall Street greed but became the progenitor of a new generation of real life Wall Street sharks who idolized Gekko's 'Greed is Good' philosophy.

More than 20 years later Stone looked set to take on Wall Street again as massive financial machines came crashing down before the government stepped in to save them. The financial meltdown seemed to provide the perfect background for the return of Gordon Gekko and an opportunity for Stone to provide the ultimate artistic polemic damning the Greed is Good generation. So what happened?

“Wall Street” Money Never Sleeps” stars Shia LeBeouf, picking up on the Wall Street wunderkind role essayed by Charlie Sheen in the original “Wall Street.” Shia is Jacob Moore, a 20 something who has risen fast at a powerful banking firm that stands on the verge of collapse. His mentor, the company CEO (Frank Langella), has leveraged the company on a lot of bad debt.

In a mirror image of Lehman Brothers, the company collapses and the rest of Wall Street rushes in to pick the bones. Soon, Jacob's mentor has taken his own life and Jacob is looking for revenge against the snake-like CEO of a rival company, Bretton James (Josh Brolin), who was responsible for his company’s downfall.

Jacob happens to have an unlikely ace in the hole; he's engaged to Winnie Gekko (Carey Mulligan), daughter of disgraced but re-emerging Wall Street titan Gordon Gekko. With a new book coming out and prison in his rearview mirror, Gekko too is in the revenge business, seeking the people who helped send him to prison. Seeing that he and Jacob may have a common enemy, Gekko offers sage advice and inside information all the while poking the kid to help repair Gekko's strained relationship with his daughter.

It is in the private lives of Jacob and Winnie where “Wall Street” Money Never Sleeps” goes awry. Carey Mulligan is a wonderful actress, always very compelling but here she is reduced to whiny caricature and plot creation. Winnie Gekko doesn't exist fully as a stand alone character and whenever she's onscreen you are left longing for what's happening in the boardrooms and backrooms where the billions of dollars are changing hand.

Director Oliver Stone, unfortunately, uses the relationship stuff as a place to hide from the Wall Street stuff. Where audiences come in expecting the controversial director to come out swinging against Wall Street greed monsters, we are shocked to find how often Stone turns tail and runs to the softer ground of father daughter and boyfriend girlfriend melodrama.

Yes, the relationship stuff does tie back to the main plot but it's more distracting than compelling. Josh Brolin and Frank Langella provide the film's best scenes as they battle for the soul of Wall Street and the politics of money within the walls of the Federal Reserve building. In Langella we see the failed dream of the honest man and in Brolin the mindless consumption that nearly drowned us all.

These scenes are achingly compelling and offer a glimpse of the Wall Street sequel many felt we would be getting. Sadly, it is only a glimpse as LeBoeuf's Jacob is never remotely compelling as Langella's sad mentor character. Once Langella is gone, Brolin and Douglas suck the air out and leave LeBeouf gasping in their wake, unable to support the edgy, critical side of Wall Street that we thought we were getting.

It's fair to theorize that LeBeoef's cypher like performance may be why Stone backed off on the more biting and dangerous critiques of modern day Wall Street. Lebeouf simply couldn't carry the weight. Stuck with him, Stone reverts to the romance and family plots, kicking in Susan Sarandon as Jacob's mom for extra help, and leaving “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” shockingly soporific.

As for the return of Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko he is sadly trapped by director Oliver Stone's wimping out. Gekko could have been, should have been the ultimate rebuke, the hammer that came crashing down on modern Wall Street greed. Instead, Gordon Gekko is softened and chastened by the need for the love of his daughter. Stone does well to isolate Gekko into his own plot and evoke the things we remember from the original “Wall Street,” but I can't be the only one who was hoping for something more than mere nostalgia.

For whatever reason, Oliver Stone pulled up short in “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” either unwilling or unable to pull the trigger on the kind of crushing polemic that many had hoped the ultra-left wing director would deliver upon the criminals who robbed America and left the economy in tatters for their own gain.

Movie Review Lucky You

Lucky You (2007) 

Directed by Curtis Hansen

Written by Curtis Hansen, Eric Roth

Starring Eric Bana, Drew Barrymore, Robert Duvall 

Release Date May 4th, 2007

Published May 5th, 2007

We all have things we are passionate about. Filmmakers are lucky enough and talented enough that they can expose their passion to the world. For writer-director Curtis Hanson, that passion is for the world series of poker where he sets his latest work Lucky You. Focusing on the intricate ways in which the compulsive poker player assesses the table and bets on the strengths and weaknesses of his opponents, Hanson often creates great tension and rooting interest.

Unfortunately, we could get the same involvement watching Texas Hold'em tournaments on ESPN 2 and without the laconic Eric Bana and miscast Drew Barrymore interrupting the action with clichéd banter that incorporates the lingo of poker into a lame romantic aphorism. 

Eric Bana stars in Lucky You as Huck Cheever, a professional gambler who has won and lost fortunes without flinching. Prowling the Vegas strip on his motorcycle, the one thing he refuses to hock for gambling cash, Huck will do anything to find a game; even if it means hocking his mother's wedding ring for a quarter of what it's worth and then betting the pawn recovery slip when the ante is beyond his means.

Huck's father L.C (Robert Duvall) is also a gambler and they have traded this priceless heirloom a few times since Huck's mother passed away, which was not long after L.C left to become a gambler himself. L.C is the one man Huck can't seem to beat and has lost fortunes to the old man; beyond just the ring. He will, in the course of Lucky You, continue losing to his old man, even when he has the better hand.

Huck's personal life is non-existent until he meets Billie Offer (Drew Barrymore) a tourist in Vegas, visiting her sister (Debra Messing), who falls for Huck's gamblers charm. Billie quickly learns that Huck can't be trusted, he steals from her after they spent the night together, but all too soon she is giving him another chance and then another.

These characters are messy and realistic, something writer-director Curtis Hanson is good at writing. However, when compared to the indelible characters that Hanson has had a hand in creating in the past, the characters in Lucky You are just forgettable. Hanson adapted Wonder Boys with Michael Douglas's career best performance. He directed Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette in a pair of winning performances in In Her Shoes and let us not forget the brilliance of his Oscar nominated L.A Confidential.

Those films were lively and intelligent. Lucky You is laconic and messy and while that may relate well to these characters, that doesn't make you want to spend any time watching it. It also doesn't help that Eric Bana's lead performance is lazy and incomprehensible or that Drew Barrymore is woefully miscast as a wannabe Vegas chanteuse.

Only the great Robert Duvall is able to elevate things to a watchable level but he is only a supporting character. When Duvall is off-screen the film loses the beat and we wait patiently for him to come back or at least for another card game to begin.

When Robert Altman directed The Company I described it as a masturbatory exercise in directorial self indulgence. Altman loved the ballet and wanted the opportunity to film it. He assembled a cast and a semblance of a story and then restlessly waded around the obstacles of his plot to get back to the stage and the ballet.

Curtis Hanson does his best Altman impression in Lucky You, taking the opportunity to indulge his love of Texas Hold'em Poker. Though ostensibly a romance, Lucky You only becomes vital and engaging when the action is on the tables. Hanson sets the film around the World Series of Poker and blatantly abandons his dull romance in favor of a solid thirty minutes of nothing but bluffs, antes and folds.

The poker scenes are involving and dramatic as Huck gets the opportunity to face off with his dad at the final table. However, aside from the father-son showdown, there really is nothing in Lucky You that you couldn't get by staying home and watching poker on ESPN 2.

Curtis Hanson's passions seem to run hot and cold. He was passionate about the corruption and deceit of L.A cops in the forties and fifties and that led to L.A Confidential. He was passionate about Michael Chabon's terrifically unique characters in the book Wonder Boys and that led to, arguably, the best work of his career.

Then again, he was also passionate about the art of rapper Eminem and that led to the lead, un-hip, hip hop movie 8 Mile. In Lucky You, Hanson's passion for Texas Hold'em has led him to another slow-witted melodrama. Let's hope that Curtis Hanson's next passion is more inspiring than that on display in Lucky You.

Movie Review King of California

King of California (2007)

Directed by Mike Cahill

Written by Mike Cahill

Starring Michael Douglas, Evan Rachel Wood

Release Date September 14th, 2007

Published December 12th, 2007

So many movies look the same, act the same and tell us all the same things. Rare is the movie that truly walks to its own beat. That peculiar kind of movie that may not even be a great movie, is at the very least one that keeps its own beat and maintains its own peculiar rhythm. That is something the movie King of California does. Directed by first time filmmaker Mike Cahill, this modern treasure hunting tale stars Michael Douglas as a manic depressive jazz artist seeking lost gold beneath a Southern California chain store.

The description may actually be better than the film itself but what is terrific and recommendable about King of California is the film's unique energy, a nervy performance from young Rachel Evan Wood, and a willingness to walk to a beat that is far off the beaten path. A little bit of jazz tossed over the wall of mainstream pop filmmaking. A much needed change of pace.

Charlie (Michael Douglas) is the kind of unpredictable personality that makes life interesting, if nearly impossible. His flights of fancy from becoming a holistic healer to selling his possessions to retrieve his beloved stand up bass and continue his attempt at a career as a jazzman were what kept his daughter Miranda's life out of control for so many years. His commitment to a mental institution when she was 15 was really just the rest she needed. Scamming her parents and the department of child services, she has somehow managed life on her own for two years and when Charlie is released, she braces for having her newfound routine upended.

Seems Charlie has spent his commitment time reading about treasure and is now a committed treasure hunter. The gold of a Spanish priest is what he's after and he claims to know where to find it. This means late nights spent in forests with a metal detector and days with shovels and even a backhoe. It also means losing her car when Charlie can't find a way to pay for the backhoe. The strain of father and daughter's relationship gives juice to the early scenes of King of California but it is only when Charlie feels he has located the treasure, beneath a Costco in the valley, when things really get interesting.

Mike Cahill wrote and directed King of California under the guidance of producer Alexander Payne, among others, who is the mind behind some of the most unique and quirky films of the last decade. The influence can be felt in the film's unique rhythms and jazzy soundtrack. King of California is Cahill's vision, I have no doubt, but the filmmaking has a distinctly Payne-like feel, and that is not a bad thing. The feel of the film, the warm southern California visuals, are quite similar to the dusty sun drenched eves of Payne's masterpiece Sideways.

Then there is the mind freaked, tweaked performance of Michael Douglas. Buried beneath a bums beard and looking his age like never before, Douglas gives his all to this character and the effort shows. That is a double edged sword. At once, the character is entertaining and a little too much to take. The character edges toward crazy caricature a few times and it threatens to tip the delicate balance of this rhythmically odd little movie. He is leavened by the steady star performance of Evan Rachel Wood but Douglas would have been well advised to dial back the Don Quixote for a more natural kind of crazy.

That is a minor quibble however with what is a sweet, charming and slightly peculiar little movie, one that will delight renters for a night in front of the TV. Not life changing art by any stretch, King of California delivers just a nice change of pace from the typical. Like a night of jazz instead of your usual diet of predictable mainstream pop, King of California is the kind of movie we need once in a while to show us what else is out there. To show us that not every movie has to be factory made to entertain the masses. For that I say thank you.

Movie Review: American Dreamz

American Dreamz (2006) 

Directed by Paul Weitz

Written by Paul Weitz 

Starring Hugh Grant, Dennis Quaid, Marcia Gay Harden, Mandy Moore, Willem Dafoe, Chris Klein

Release Date April 21st, 2006

Published April 20th, 2006 

When I heard that the very talented writer-director of American Pie and About A Boy, Paul Weitz, had decided to take on an ambitious satire of President George W. Bush and the vapid karaoke extravaganza American Idol, I was quite excited. Two such broad targets are, no doubt, hard to miss with hard edged satire. So how disappointed was I when, while finally watching American Dreamz, that Weitz manages to miss the target like a Buffalo Bills kicker in the Super Bowl.

Hugh Grant stars in American Dreamz as Martin Tweed a Simon Cowell clone with a nasty disposition on screen and off. A self loathing jerk, we meet Martin as he dumps his girlfriend while celebrating his shows latest spectacular ratings.

The new season of 'American Dreamz' is about to begin and a new crop of contestants are lining up. In the tiny hamlet of of Padookie, Ohio Sally Kendoo (Mandy Moore) is ready for her closeup. An ambitious, plotting, self absorbed teen, Sally celebrates her American Dreamz birth by dumping her dopey but loving boyfriend William (Chris Klein). So broken up about it William runs off to the army and is immediately sent to Iraq.

On the other side of the world Omer (Sam Galzari) is training in an Al Quaeda terrorist camp. However, he spends his evenings singing along to show tunes. He is soon sent to America to live with relatives and finds himself auditioning for American Dreamz, the producers, Tweed and flunkies played by Judi Greer and John Cho, have decided the key to ratings is diversity. They want an arab guy and they choose Omer opposite him they want a jewish guy and they get a hasidic rapper played by Adam Busch.

Running parallel to the American Dreamz story is that of President Jack Staton (Dennis Quaid). Having just narrowly won re-election, President Staton wakes up one morning and decides to read the newspaper instead of his daily briefing. He then proceeds to not leave the presidential bedroom for three solid weeks, choosing to stay in bed reading the newspaper.

To get the president back on his feet his chief of staff (Willem Dafoe in a Dick Chaney haircut) gets the president an appearance as a guest judge on American Dreamz. This places the small town witch, the Arab dreamer and the dimwit president on a collision course, unfortunately the only collision is with indifference.

American Dreamz walks up to the edge of hard satire and then runs away like a scared child. The film does not have a mean bone in it's body despite attempts to look mean. Grant's Simon Cowell may be a self loathing prick but Grant cannot turn off that natural charisma that makes even a bastard like Martin Tweed charming. He's supposed to be a Machiavellian bastard but the edges are worn off and his manipulations never take away from his likability.

Mandy Moore is supposed to be Martin's equal in terms of self involvement and angry ambition but she too cannot turn off the charms that have made her a star. Moore evinces hateful bitchiness, but in an ill-conceived romantic subplot with Grant, she turns cuddly in a dark comic way and you can't help rooting. a little, for an unearned happy ending.

The characters in American Dreamz break down into two categories, either mean or or dopey. Grant, Moore and Dafoe fall into the mean category while Golzari, Klein and Quaid are in the dopey category. In a satire with sharp edges, with a clearer perspective and point of view, this might not be such a bad thing. But in an unfocused mess like American Dreamz you are left to wonder just what are you supposed to enjoy about these characters.

Weitz aspires at once to the hard edges of Kubrick's trenchant Doctor Strangelove and Christopher Guest's gentle prodding Waiting For Guffman and Best In Show. The mix is weak kneed when it needs to be edgy, as in the too soft take on the President, and to edgy when it needs to be soft as in the American Idol satire.

The saddest thing about American Dreamz is that Weitz's approach could have worked. If he had approached the Presidential satire like Kubrick did Strangelove and the American Idol stuff like Guest took on folkies in A Mighty Wind, then American Dreamz might have mixed these two disparate subjects in a satifying way.

Instead what we have is a complete disaster of weak willed satire, dopey hateful characters and rare moments of laughter. American Dreamz is one of the most disappointing films I've seen in a very long while. The very talented Paul Weitz has many more good films in his future, let's hope he puts this one behind him quickly.

Movie Review: The Wild

The Wild (2006) 

Directed by Steve Williams

Written by Ed Decter, John J. Strauss, Mark Gibson

Starring Kiefer Sutherland, Jim Belushi, Eddie Izzard, Janeane Garofalo, William Shatner

Release Date April 14th, 2006

Published April 14th, 2006 

For people familiar with the not so amicable divorce of Jeffrey Katzenberg from Disney, the new animated film The Wild is a bit of a humorous inside joke. A joke Disney, you can be sure, is not laughing at. Katzenberg was the number 2 man at Disney, right behind Michael Eisner, in the early nineties. He is said to have been responsible for relaunching Disney's moribund animation division by championing The Lion King amongst others.

When Katzenberg was forced out and ended up founding Dreamworks with Steven Speilberg and David Geffen, he had a bit of revenge on his mind. Hence, in his time as the head of Dreamworks animation an odd pattern of copying emerged.

In Katzenberg's first post Disney animated launch Katzenberg chose Antz to lead off the new Dreamworks division. An odd choice considering Katzenberg was well aware of Disney's long in development animated film A Bugs Life, courtesy of Disney partner Pixar.

From there the pattern continued, Disney/Pixar release Finding Nemo, D'works is out soon after with Shark's Tale. And then last year Katzenberg pulled the ultimate coup when he released D'Works zoo escape adventure Madagascar ahead of Disney's long in development The Wild, a picture that was in the planning stages late in Katzenberg's own Disney run.

The Wild is Disney's first foray into computer animation without the imprimatur of the geniuses at Pixar and thanks in part to Madagascar the film not only feels like a cheap knockoff it tanked at the box office like one too. Somewhere Jeffrey Katzenberg is smiling.

Kiefer Sutherland leads the voice cast of The Wild as Samson whose massive road has made him the featured attraction at the New York City Zoo. Unfortunately, Samson's son Ryan (Greg Cipes) can't seem to get his roar going beyond a weak meow. Having spent his entire life listening to his dad's stories about fighting wildebeests in the wilds of the jungle, Ryan longs to go to the wild himself to find his roar and capture some glory of his own.

Ryan gets his chance when he spots a cargo hold being loaded on a truck that he is certain is headed for The Wild. When Samson finds his son on a truck headed for the harbor he and his pals, including Benny The Squirrel (Jim Belushi), Nigel the koala (Eddie Izzard), Bridget the giraffe (Janeane Garofalo) and Larry the snake (Richard Kind) give chase and have a grand adventure in the streets of New York before commandeering a tugboat and taking off after Ryan to the Wilds of Africa.

The stories of The Wild and Madagascar are similar but not the same. Yet it cannot be denied that the creative team at Dreamworks was well aware of Disney's competing project which was in production even before Madagascar. Nevertheless most will see The Wild as a rehash of the story from Madagascar and they are not entirely wrong.

Both stories jump off from the premise of Zoo animals escaping their cage confines and heading out to adventure in the jungle. Both feature lions as lead characters, Kiefer Sutherland taciturn and authoritative in The Wild and Ben Stiller freewheeling yet neurotic in Madagascar. Both feature giraffes as second leads with Janeane Garofalo evincing a smart sexy giraffe in The Wild to David Schwimmer's laconic dopey giraffe in Madagascar.

The main difference between the two films is the switch from Chris Rock as an ascerbic energetic zebra in Madagascar and Eddie Izzard as the wildly improvised koala in The Wild. Otherwise the films play along very similar storylines.

Try to decide whether one of these two animated flicks is better than the other is really a question of taste. Madagascar appeals to fans of broad comedy while The Wild sticks closer to a family adventure vibe with Eddie Izzard providing the occasional comic jolt with his ad libbing.

I prefer Madagascar because I just could not buy the voice of Kiefer Sutherland as Samson in The Wild. All I could hear was Jack Bauer, Sutherland's iconic TV badas, coming out of the animated mouth of a lion. When Sutherland is called on to be playful or broadly comic he comes off as stern and a little angry. His line deliveries are staccato, forced and halting, not unlike Jack Bauer's tight lipped hyper authoritative line readings on 24.

Jack Bauer simply cannot play cute and cuddly and because of that I found The Wild to be more uncomfortable than humorous.

Directed by special effects specialist Steve Spaz Williams, best know for Jim Carrey's cartoon histrionics in The Mask, The Wild has uniquely realistic look that definitely looks complicated. The hard work of the Disney animators is all up there on the screen for all to see in the couple of hundred thousand individually drawn hairs on each of the animal characters.

Complicated however, is a far cry from elegant or beautiful and like all other non-pixar computer animated films, The Wild pales in comparison to the remarkable works of art that are The Incredibles, Finding Nemo and Monsters Inc.

Even without the thievery of Madagascar I would not be recommending The Wild, a family animated adventure that is lacking in big laughs and adventure.

Movie Review Scary Movie 4

Scary Movie 4 (2006) 

Directed by David Zucker

Written by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Craig Mazin, Pat Proft 

Starring Anna Faris, Regina Hall, Craig Bierko, Bill Pullman, Anthony Anderson, Kevin Hart, Charlie Sheen

Release Date April 14th, 2006 

Published April 16th, 2006 

Comedy is harder than it looks. Just look at how often Hollywood fails to make audiences laugh in films designated as "Comedies". It's subjective and often intractable and what is funny to one person is not funny to someone else. Comedy in and of itself is an act of bravery.

With that said, Scary Movie 4 is funny. It's not however as consistently funny as spoof predecessors like Airplane, Hot Shots or Naked Gun. The targets are safe, the laughs are extremely broad and the potshots miss as often as they hit. At the very least it is a vast improvement over the terribly unfunny Scary Movie 3.

Anna Faris returns for a 4th time as ditzy, dimbulb heroine Cindy Campbell who has, thus far in the series, seen more humiliating moments than every Ben Stiller character combined. This time around Cindy is dealing with the loss of her husband George (Simon Rex) in a tragic stool accident, a spotty Million Dollar Baby parody involving Mike Tyson in drag.

Cindy has just accepted a job as an in-home nurse in the home of a comatose woman (poor Cloris Leachman) who's being haunted by the creepy little asian kid from The Grudge.

Next door to the coma patient's house is Tom Ryan (Craig Bierko) , a construction worker and weekend dad to two kids. Ryan is straight out of War of The Worlds and he soon discovers aliens on the attack inside of a giant Ipod. Just as Tom and Cindy's relationship is beginning they are split up, he into an ongoing WOTW parody and Cindy along with returning best pal Brenda (Regina Hall) into an ill fated parody of The Village.

This is far more plot than was contained in the last Scary Movie and while plot may be superfluous to this franchise it helps root the parodies in something and makes the jokes funnier.

Another new element to the Scary Movie franchise is a dash of social satire in the person of Leslie Neilsen as the attled President of the United States. In a somewhat darkly humorous take off of President Bush's my pet duck moment on 9/11, Neilsen's Mr. President refuses to react to the alien Ipod attack until he hears what happened to the duck in a story told by small children. And naturally where Leslie Neilsen goes so goes broad physical humor, turn your head so you miss a brief shot of Mr. Neilsen's naked ass.

The films parodied well in Scary Movie 3 include War Of The Worlds and The Grudge and a surprisingly inoffensive and humorous take on Brokeback Mountain. Not so strong however are taxes on Million Dollar Baby and The Village. The problem with The Village is that M. Night Shyamalan's first major screw up is not all that well remembered. The film never really had its cultural moment and most audiences have forgotten the fake village and its olde timey denizens. When the biggest laughs are garnered by Carmen Electra on the toilet it's a clear sign that there wasn't much to work with in a Village parody.

I nearly forgot to mention a surprisingly funny parody of Saw starring the oddball pair of Shaquille O'Neal and Dr. Phil. While jokes about Shaq's free throw shooting are about as timely as Jay Leno's monologue circa 2002, Dr. Phil's highly self-effacing performance draws some big laughs and more than a few uncomfortable truths about the doctor's methods. Both Shaq and Dr. Phil are such genial sports that the scenes get a nice jolt from their positive energy.

Avoid reading any interviews with Director David Zucker who spoils some of the fun of Scary Movie 4 with a bitter streak that becomes clearer in the film upon reflection. Zucker has nothing nice to say about any of the movies parodied in Scary Movie 4 including the multiple Oscar winning Brokeback Mountain.

His comments give a nasty edge to the parodies that do not come through in the sweetness and light performances of Anna Faris, Craig Bierko and Anthony Anderson who returns from Scary Movie 3 and enlivens the Brokeback scenes. Faris needs to branch out beyond comedy soon to break her current type casting but she continues to be the one real draw of this aging franchise. As for Bierko, simply turn a camera on this guy and he's funny. Effortlessly humorous and energetic, he actually made me, an ardent fan of Tom Cruise, laugh hard through an extended parody of Cruise's couch jumping antics on Oprah.

Hit and miss at times but a great improvement over the last outing, I am recommending Scary Movie 4 for fans of spoofs and of this franchise. Fans of Brokeback Mountain, maybe you want to save your seven bucks.

Movie Review Lucky Number Slevin

Lucky Number Slevin (2006) 

Directed by Paul McGuigan

Written by Jason Smilovic

Starring Josh Hartnett, Bruce Willis, Ben Kinglsey, Morgan Freeman, Lucy Liu

Release Date April 7th, 2007

Published November 14th, 2007

Director Paul McGuigan is a rising star amongst hipster film critics like myself. His style is witty, ironic, romantic, referential and just plain hip. Most important to his hipster fans, McGuigan's films aren't all that popular at the box office which allows us the opportunity to claim him as our own and say that the masses simply don't get it.

We love it when we can do that, anyone who's heard me talk about the unpopular horror film The Descent knows that. So, I'm sure, that element plays at least a small role in my appreciation of the hip hitman flick Lucky Number Slevin, a comic, romantic modern noir with plenty of bodies, bullets and dark humor. A combination that always warms my heart.

Slevin Kellevra (Josh Hartnett) is having a bad couple of days. After losing his job he found his apartment building condemned. Going to stay at his girlfriend's place he finds her in bed with his best friend. Now having made his way to New York to stay with his pal Nick, Slevin finds himself mistaken for Nick by a pair of mob bosses each claiming Nick owes them large sums of money.

Morgan Freeman plays the Boss, head of a predominantly African American mafia who remains at all times locked away in his penthouse behind panes of bullet proof glass. His nemesis is the rabbi (Ben Kingsley) who lives directly across the street also in a penthouse, also behind bullet proof glass. The two have lived in harmony and fear of one another since ending their partnership some twenty years earlier.

Now both mobsters have competing interests in this kid Nick who is actually Slevin. Nick/Slevin owes The Boss 93,000 dollars and the rabbi somewhere in the 30 to 32,000 dollar range. The boss however, is the only one to offer a way out of debt that doesn't involve large sums of cash. If Slevin will kill the Rabbi's son, known to everyone but the Rabbi as The Fairy (go ahead and guess why he's called The Fairy), his debt will be wiped clean.

What Slevin doesn't know is that the man really pulling the strings on these dueling debt scenarios is a world renowned hitman named Goodkat (Bruce Willis). The hitman is targeting Slevin but the reasons why are unclear to either the Boss or the Rabbi and to us in the audience until the clever twists begin.

To give away too much, as recent commercials for the DVD release of Slevin have, would be a crime. Part of the fun of Lucky Number Slevin are the ways in which director McGuigan and writer Jason Smilovic twist and turn audience expectations, distracting us one way with clever dialogue and turning us the other way with unexpected bursts of violence or even romance.

While staying at Nick's apartment, Slevin strikes up an unexpected flirtation with Nick's neighbor played by Lucy Liu. Josh Hartnett and Lucy Liu spark exceptional chemistry that is at first quite reminiscent of old school, fast talking, 1940's romantic comedy. As the relationship develops it becomes quite heated and becomes one of the more winning aspects of Lucky Number Slevin.

Josh Hartnett is becoming one of my favorite actors. I like the choices he makes as an actor. First with the offbeat romantic thriller Wicker Park, also directed by Paul McGuigan, in which he turned a typical thriller character into a curiously straight edge hero. Now with Lucky Number Slevin, Hartnett delivers another slightly offbeat performance.

Slevin is a character with a big mouth and no fear. He even has invented a little term for his inability to show fear, he calls it Ataraxia, it's fake don't bother looking it up. It means he simply has no fear whether it's facing down giant thugs or looking down the barrel of a shotgun or being told he has to kill another man. Hartnett plays this lack of fear to terrific comic effect and is aided greatly by a very witty and slightly off kilter script.

Bruce Willis is the rock of Lucky Number Slevin, always lurking in the background, occasionally filling in the holes of the plot but never revealing anything till it's necessary. Like his hitman character, Willis is efficient and expert in his performance. His description of a Kansas City Shuffle, a kind of con game, in the film's opening scene, is something Christopher Walken might have really enjoyed playing.

There are many pleasures to behold in this smart, hip and humorous hitman/mobster flick. Josh Hartnett is a star of the future and surrounded by Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley and romantically paired with Lucy Liu, Hartnett's starpower and charisma get the perfect showcase. Director Paul McGuigan, like his star, is also on the rise. With Lucky Number Slevin and Wicker Park as his first two Hollywood pictures he is stoking the fire of hipster imaginations. I for one cannot wait to see what McGuigan, the hipster's director of the moment, will do next.

Movie Review: The Benchwarmers

The Benchwarmers (2006) 

Directed by Dennis Dugan

Written by Allan Covert, Nick Swardson

Starring Jon Heder, Rob Schneider, Nick Swardson, Jon Lovitz, Craig Kilborn

Release Date April 7th, 2006

Published April 11th, 2006 

There was a bit of controversy surrounding the release of the new comedy The Benchwarmers. Many critics were upset when Sony canceled critics' screenings across the country at the last minute. Critics were upset not necessarily because they did not get to see this particular film in time for newspaper reviews, but rather because it marked the continuation of a trend of films not being screened ahead of time for critics.

What is unfortunate about this situation is that the critical anger casts The Benchwarmers as some kind of watershed moment in the history of Hollywood studios and film critics. The last thing anyone wants is to make this abomination of a film memorable in any way, let alone historic. Ugh!

The Benchwarmers stars Adam Sandler's back up band--Rob Schneider, David Spade along with a script by acolytes Allen Covert and Nick Swardson. It also stars Napoleon Dynamite's Jon Heder in a definite fire-your-agent career move.

When a couple of nerdy kids are kicked off a baseball field by bullies, Gus (Rob Schneider), Richie (David Spade) and Clark (Jon Heder) challenge the bullies to a game. Gus is a natural athlete, however Richie, a 39-year-old virgin and video store clerk and Clark, a thirty-something mama's boy who has to wear a helmet wherever he goes, are not.

The trio somehow manage to win, leading to further challenges from bully teams. A following of nerdy kids desperate to see jocks get their comeuppance from a trio of nerds develops and comes to the attention of a billionaire nerd, Mel (Jon Lovitz), who throws out an additional challenge. He will build a state-of-the-art baseball stadium and give it to whatever city's team can beat the trio, now known as the Benchwarmers.

Directed by Dennis Dugan, who has a resume only a mother could love, including both Happy Gilmore and Big Daddy, The Benchwarmers is competent in terms of being in frame and correctly lit for both indoor and outdoor shots. After that it's pretty well downhill.

I have a theory that people in general never grow up, they simply get older. Schneider, Spade and the entire Sandler crew seem, to me, to be living proof of this theory. At some point each of these men should have outgrown dick and fart jokes. However, even as each has passed the age of 40, they return to the same tired lowbrow jokes.

One could argue, why mess with success? These guys have made quite a bank load off of this brand of humor. I would argue that this cannot work forever and eventually the well for these guys will dry up and they will be left with no one to gape slack-jawed at their antics. For now, though, they are right. Despite my distaste for this brand of humor, it is successful. The Benchwarmers opened to more than 20 million at the box office.

I was going to make a joke about Schneider being cast in a role with model Molly Sims as his love interest. However, with news that in reality David Spade is dating Heather Locklear, one must forget believability--real life is even more bizarre than the movies.

What can my critical brethren take away from The Benchwarmers? Not much. Early reviews pretty well wrote themselves on this film. There are no surprises or innovations in The Benchwarmers--I could have written this negative review of the film far in advance of having seen it. The main point is the audience for The Benchwarmers would have seen the film regardless of its Rotten Tomatoes ranking--currently only 11 percent positive.

Movie Review Slither

Slither (2006) 

Directed by James Gunn

Written by James Gunn

Starring Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, Michael Rooker, Gregg Henry, Jenna Fischer

Release Date March 31st, 2006

Published March 30th, 2006 

I am in a major conflict with myself over the movie Slither. On the one hand, I laughed a lot while watching it. On the other hand, Slither is so vile and so disgusting I'm not sure that I can recommend it in good conscience. I know you believe you have a strong stomach and a love of ironic humor but Slither is so polarized in its humor and horror that many audiences will find it hard to enjoy both of those aspects at once.

In the tiny town of Wheelsy the most important time of the year is the opening of deer hunting season. The entire town seemingly shows up at one tiny little bar in the middle of town to drink beer, sing songs and plan their hunting parties for the following morning.

This year however hunting season will have a whole new meaning. Somewhere in the forest a meteorite has struck the earth and what is inside is an insidious alien being bent on consuming the entire human race. First up is the lecherous businessman Grant Grant (Michael Rooker), no typo his first and last name are Grant. In the woods after a night of drinking and preparing to cheat on his wife Starla (Elizabeth Banks), Grant stumbles across the meteorite and becomes the aliens first victim.

Grant is not dead, rather, he has become the alien delivery vessel. He carries the alien seed that will infect the entire town and eventually the world. The aliens take the form of slimy, disgusting slugs that leap into the mouths of victims turning people into flesh eating zombies.

Standing between the aliens and world domination is Wheelsy's easy going sheriff Bill Pardy (Nathan Fillion). An unassuming slacker, Pardy has remained in Wheelsy his whole life because he really had nothing better to do. He has, for years, nursed a serious crush on Starla but sadly watched as she tried only to leave Wheelsy before settling for a life of comfort with Grant.

Now the sheriff and Starla have to team together to find Grant and stop the alien invasion. They are aided by the venal Wheelsy mayor Jack McReady (Gregg Henry) and a teenage girl, Kylie (Tania Saulnier) who survives an attack by the aliens and gains the power to see their plan in full completion.

Much of Slither plays like the kind of ironic detached horror comedy that I truly love.

Minor touches like Starla and Grant's song being a super-cheeseball tune by Air Supply which we hear at the most unnerving moments are just brilliant.

The humor extends to the casting where the ultra-creepy Michael Rooker could not be more suitably cast as the sad, tragic and disgusting Grant Grant. Rooker, who played, arguably, the most terrifying screen villain in the history of the horror genre in Henry: Portrait of A Serial Killer, is unafraid to tweak his creepy persona for a few big laughs. His commitment to the character is unnerving leaving this critic with the wonderful inside joke of Rooker maybe having played Grant in a full on method performance, never breaking character.

Written and directed by James Gunn, who did an exceptional job adapting a new version of George Romero's Dawn of The Dead, Slither is one of the most stomach churning horror films in the history of the genre. That is not surprising considering Gunn's history with the ultimate purveyor of disgust in the industry, Troma films founder and filmmaker Lloyd Kaufman.

No one knows gross, not the box office kind, like Lloyd Kaufman and his influence can be felt throughout the more stomach turning moments of Slither.

The film plays like Gunn's attempt to fuse Troma style gut churning gross out with a mainstream sci fi, horror and comedy film. The attempt is brave but the results are mixed. Slither works in making its audience ill from its brand of gross out gags, eviscerated animals, oversized exploding humans and those dreadful slugs, but fails at times to keep up the energy needed to keep the audience fully engaged beyond needing pepto-bismol.

The film is very funny, with especially humorous performances by Nathan Fillion and Elizabeth Banks. Fillion's deadpan humor in the face of so much disgustingness is a real treat. Banks for her part, is funny and sexy in equal measure. Watch the scene where the hunting party searching for the now alien infested Grant find him in a field and Banks' Starla talks of marriage as a sacred unbreakable bond, very funny stuff.

There is alot to love about Slither and yet I cannot fully endorse the film. Maybe this was the film's intent all along, but I was made physically ill by the end of Slither. Do not eat before you see Slither because you may not be able to keep it down, it's that disgusting. If the filmmakers were judging the movie on how many patrons ran for the bathrooms at the end, they have a major success on their hands. However when that sickly feeling makes you forget about so much of what you enjoyed about the movie, is that really a success?

Movie Review Ice Age The Meltdown

Ice Age The Meltdown (2006) 

Directed by Carlos Saldanha

Written by Jim Hecht

Starring Ray Romano, Denis Leary, John Leguizamo, Josh Peck, Seann William Scott, Queen Latifah

Release Date March 31st 2006, 

Published March 30th, 2006 

When it comes to computer animation, if it's not Pixar it's not brilliant. The fact is -despite the success of Shrek, Shark Tale or Ice Age - no company creates computer animated films like Pixar. All others are merely pretenders feeding at the trough built by Steve Jobs and his company. Because of the empire Pixar created, movies like 2002's Ice Age were made and met with great success. Such success has bred a sequel to that pleasant if unmemorable prehistoric cartoon about ancient animal species coming together to become lifelong friends and learning to survive.

Ice Age: The Meltdown brings our friends Manny The Mammoth (Ray Romano), Sid the Sloth (John Leguizamo) and Diego the saber tooth tiger (Denis Leary) back together on the eve of the end of the Ice Age. While enjoying what they believe is a delicate spring warm up in their little valley, Manny and company discover the glaciers that surround their idyllic home are melting and soon the whole valley will be underwater.

They must lead their tribe of disparate creatures from their home to a mythical ark somewhere in the woods where they can float to safety on higher ground. Poor Manny is dealing with the sad fact that as far as he knows there are no other mammoths in the world. If he dies, his whole species dies with him. Manny however has a big surprise waiting for him.

As the group begins their trek they come across a couple of wiseacre possums (Sean William Scott and Josh Peck) who, while irritating the heck out of Diego, accidentally lead to the discovery of Ellie (Queen Latifah) a beautiful female mammoth with one unfortunate defect. After years of living with possums she has come to believe she is a possum. Manny must lead this new group to safety and along the way try and convince Ellie that she is actually a mammoth like him. He also must learn to come out of his gloomy shell if ever the effervescent free spirited Ellie is going to help him rebuild the mammoth species.

Ice Age 2 plays like a multi episode arc of a cartoon series including commercial breaks. However, instead of commercials we have Scrat the prehistoric squirrel who's sisyphean quest for the ever elusive acorn is by far the films strongest source of comedy. Scrat steals the entire movie with his little 2 and 3 minute segments during which he gains and loses his precious acorn. Scrat likely would not work in a film of his own but in small doses Scrat is minimalist brilliance. Film scholars and philosophers could muse for hours on Scrat's never ending quest for that acorn and the innumerable ways it eludes him.

The final grail-like quest in which Scrat nearly gains the ultimate acorn is a brilliant device that ties Scrat to the main characters. The rest of Ice Age: The Meltdown is pleasant but not all that memorable. The central story is sweet and good natured. The voice actors all do solid work. There is unfortunately nothing that sets Ice Age apart from any other product aimed at children.

The script by Peter Gaulke and Gerry Swallow is not all that clever or original. The gags with Scrat have their unique genius but only in small doses. The animation of Ice Age: The Meltdown is pretty standard stuff for the genre although I am told that animating as much water as is featured in the film was quite an impressive task in terms of the amount of work it took.

The animation pales in comparison to the elegant artistry of just about every film Pixar has ever produced. Trying to compare Ice Age 2 to anything Pixar is like comparing a velvet Elvis to the Mona Lisa. There is literally that much of a noticeable difference between what Pixar does and what everyone else in the computer animation genre is doing.

The bottom line on Ice Age: The Meltdown is that it is inoffensive and easy to watch. Exactly what parents are looking for on a Saturday afternoon with the kids. You won't find anything controversial or really all that memorable about Ice Age The Meltdown. Which is a good thing if you're looking for an electronic babysitter but not so good if, like me, you're looking to be moved intellectually or emotionally.

I recommend Ice Age: The Meltdown to the undiscerning audience. For those of you looking for true stimulation in kids entertainment go back to your Incredibles DVD or Finding Nemo or Toy Story, or.... well you get the point.

Movie Review: ATL

ATL (2006) 

Directed by Chris Robinson 

Written by Tina Gordon Chism

Starring Tip T.I Harris, Lauren London, Big Boi

Release Date March 31st, 2006 

Published April 2nd, 2006

Rapper Tip "T.I" Harris's rise to the top of the charts has been a long arduous journey. Harris's career is reminiscent of the career charted in the hip hop drama Hustle and Flow, sans the pimping. After several years of basement recordings and getting by on the skin of his teeth, Harris finally got his tape in the hands of people in the business and what they heard was a true diamond in the rough.

On the heels of his film debut ATL, released in theaters back in January '06, T.I's album King went straight to the top of the charts. The same could not be said for the films box office run but now that the film is hitting video stores Harris's newfound status as a true hip hop star may help the film reach a wider and more receptive audience.

In ATL T.I stars as Rashad a seventeen year old forced to raise his fourteen year old brother Ant (Evan Roth) after their parents are killed. Sure, their uncle George (Mykelti Williamson) is around but with his casual drinking and pot smoking he is not ideally suited to be either guardian or mentor. Rashad is still in school but he spends most of his time working and saving money to get Ant out of the ghetto.

Rashad's only real comfort comes on the weekends when he gathers with his pals Esquire (Jackie Long), Brooklyn (Albert Daniels) and Teddy (Jason Weaver) at the local roller rink called Cascades. There, the four friends perform choreographed skating routines to the delight of an amassed crowd. They aren't alone, the cascades is home to a number of talented teams all aiming toward a season ending skating competition.

It is at cascades that Rashad meets New (Lauren London), a beautiful girl with a secret. Rashad and New New take an instant liking to one another but when her secret life is revealed it threatens to destroy the burgeoning romance.

Combine a sprinkle of the 2005 comedy Roll Bounce with a dash of inner city coming of age drama and you get ATL. Director Chris Robinson, working from a story by Antwone Fisher, someone who knows a little something about the coming age drama having won praise for writing his own life story on film, and a script by Tina Gordon Chism, manages a few original moments here and there but for the most part delivers the rote story from script to screen as if merely transcribing words to images.

What little innovation Robinson brings to ATL comes in the film's look which is gritty with just a hint of music video flourish. The cinematography by music video vet Karsten Gopinath is experimental and lively and at the very least, more memorable than the plot of ATL.

Also strong is the film's soundtrack where star T.I Harris lays down some fierce radio friendly beats with his song "Ride With Me". Harris proves himself to be a very talented hip hop artist and not a bad skater either. However, when slowed down to reading and delivering the films forgettable dialogue Harris can barely rise over a mumbled few words. He does project a strong presence and manage some sexual chemistry with Lauren London but it is clear that Harris's true talents lie behind a microphone.

Not all that dramatic or comic, ATL relies on classic inner city cliches, drugs, guns and gangs to create its plot and that can't help but get dull and repetitive quickly. On the bright side, ATL gives its audience much visual and auditory pleasures. The actors and actresses are attractive and good natured and the music is some of the best hip hop of the year. It's no wonder why T.I's album King went straight to number one early in 2006.

ATL holds other minor pleasures, including a strong pair of performances from veteran character actors. Mykelti Williamson, best known as Forrest Gump's pal Bubba, delivers a painfully realistic portrayal of a man tasked with responsibilities beyond his capabilities. An arrested development, having spent his entire life slacking and working as a janitor, Williamson's Uncle George is not uncaring or unfeeling, just tired and disillusioned.

Keith David delivers a solid performance as a successful businessman who built his empire from nothing but has no interest in sharing his success with those on the wrong side of the tracks. As businessman John Garnett, whom Esquire turns to for help with a college recommendation, David is at first self effacing and helpful. However, when he finds his daughter interested in one of the so-called hoodlums from the roller rink, David shows Garnett's true self loathing nature in a pair of well acted scenes.

And finally there is a scene in ATL that is almost good enough to make me recommend the film. As young Ant is losing his virginity in the back of a friends car his struggles with intimacy range from comic to poignant and back in just mere moments. The scene is a rare moment of truth in an otherwise prepackaged genre picture.

ATL is far too typical to be truly compelling but it is professionally crafted with a likable if not all that remarkable cast. Not for audiences looking for anything really challenging, the draw of ATL is T.I for his big screen debut. This is something his fans will want to watch and keep in their collections next to copies of his number one album King and what I'm sure will be few more number one albums in the future.

Consider ATL a collectible for fans of a rising star in the world of hip hop.

Movie Review Stay Alive

Stay Alive (2006) 

Directed by William Brent Bell 

Written by Matthew Peterman 

Starring Samaire Armstrong, Frankie Muniz, Adam Goldberg, Sophia Bush

Release Date March 24th, 2006 

Published March 24th, 2006

The horror genre has always been cheap and exploitative. To expect anymore from it is to be constantly disappointed. Sure, you occasionally get something like Dawn of The Dead that sneak past the guards of genre expectations and surprise you with incisive wit and social commentary but those experiences are few and far between.

More often you get cheap forgettable trash like Stay Alive, a serviceable, not too irritating exercise in teenage bloodletting that while you may not remember it long after you see it you at the very least won't wretch when it comes to Cinemax or Showtime in two or three months from now.

Little known actor Jon Foster stars in Stay Alive as Hutch, a twenty something slacker whose all consuming love of videogames is tested by the death of a close friend. A death that is eerily reminiscent of that friend's virtual death in an underground video game called Stay Alive.

The game is an historic gorefest based on the legend of a woman named Elizabeth Bathory aka The Blood Countess. She is said to have murdered hundreds of servant girls in the late 1800's and bathed in their virgin blood in order to keep herself youthful. If Ms. Bathory sounds far more interesting than anything else in Stay Alive you can understand why this film is  disappointing.

Hutch comes into possession of Stay Alive at his buddies funeral where he also meets a strange girl named Abigail (Samaire Armstrong) who also knew Hutch's late friend but is vague about the connection. She joins Hutch for a tribute to their late friend. With fellow gamers from a local internet café, Swink (Frankie Muniz), October (Sophia Bush), Phin (Jimmie Simpson) and Miller (Adam Goldberg), Hutch will play Stay Alive until they can't play anymore.

Little does anyone realize that you don't just play this video game you literally have to survive it. Like the video in The Ring or the website in Fear Dot Com, anyone that comes in contact with this video game has sealed their fate and will be picked off in the order of their passing inside the game.

The concept is unoriginal and not very inspired but that is the genre we are dealing with. Modern horror has little more on its mind than the kill and often that is enough to make these films passably entertaining. What dooms Stay Alive however is another scourge of the genre, the PG 13 rating.

With movies like The Grudge and When A Stranger Calls proving there is a viable moneymaking market in PG 13 horror we are now subject to bloodless horror cliches stripped of what makes us want to watch a horror movie in the first place, blood and sex.

Stay Alive is the latest example of the neutered horror genre. With plenty of dead bodies but little gore Stay Alive becomes a dull exercise in horror sanitized for the protection of children. The appeal of the genre has always been in the dark recesses of our minds where our id hides that part of ourselves that cannot resist the animalistic urge for blood.

The horror film appeals to base instinct, to titillation, and only the most skilled of the genre, people like George Romero or David Cronenberg can combine it with subtext and smarts. Most horror films have to settle for that base appeal to the darkness and allow us to wallow in that caveman enjoyment of blood, guts and beautiful naked woman.

Stripped of that, a film like Stay Alive is simply boring. Like watching someone else play a video game and never giving you a turn. There is very little to hold your interest, especially with a concept that is so derivative and unoriginal as a killer video game.

A question for Frankie Muniz. Why are you in this movie? Muniz is not exactly a big star. His TV show Malcolm In The Middle is limping to the finish line and his Cody Banks film series is not likely to continue. However on name recognition alone he is the biggest star in this movie and yet he plays a supporting role to a guy who's biggest role to date was the gas station attendant in Terminator 3? Okay, Jon Foster has had bigger roles but he is nowhere near as well known as Muniz whose career takes a big step backward in Stay Alive.

Of all the disappointments in Stay Alive however, maybe the biggest is writer-director William Brent Bell who shows off far more talent behind the camera than the film deserves. Bell's occasional directorial flourishes make you wonder why he put so much talent in service of such a forgettable little film. Bell's writing could use a great deal of work but as a director he seems to have a good deal of talent.

Someday William Brent Bell may make a serious name for himself as a director for hire on big budget features where a strong producer like Joel Silver can help him focus on simply making the film and forget about trying to be a writer slash director. As the script for Stay Alive, co-written with fellow first timer Matthew Peterman, shows, Bell simply doesn't have the writing chops.

Stay Alive is yet another forgettable teenage slasher flick designed more as a studio ATM than as an entertaining horror film. I'm not recommending it, hell I can barely remember having seen it myself.