Documentary Review: Catfish

Catfish (2010) 

Directed by Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman

Written by Documentary

Starring Ariel Schulman

Release Date September 17th, 2010

Published September 23rd, 2010

Why can't I get interested in writing about “Catfish?” As I watched this potentially faux documentary about a guy in a relationship with what may be a fake woman from Michigan I was at first compelled then after the big reveal of the big twist I completely lost interest. Is it the filmmaker's fault or a case of temporary A.D.D? I’m not sure but I know I can't recommend a movie that I barely finished out of disinterest.

”Catfish” is a supposedly real documentary about New York Photographer Nev Schulman who begins an online relationship with 19 year old Megan Facci after being approached online by her little sister Abby, a surprisingly talented artist at just 8 years old. Abby painted a gorgeous watercolor of one of Nev's photos that appeared in a New York Newspaper as well as online.

Abby's mom Angela sent Nev a print of the painting and from there Nev through Facebook befriended Abby's family, including her older half sister Megan. The relationship with Megan grows as intense as any long distance relationship can get with sexy text messages, emails and late night phone calls. While Angela urges caution and other family members, like Abby's rocker brother get involved and cause drama, Nev begins pondering a real relationship with Megan. 

While on a business trip to Colorado Nev, his brother and the documentary director Rel Schulman and co-director Henry Joost, decide that a trip to Ishpeming Michigan to meet the family and Megan is the logical next step in what has been till now a sweet chronicle of long distance love, art and Facebook. However, the trip to Colorado also reveals a key lie Megan and Angela have been telling and leads Nev to worry that the whole thing is a sham. 

Before we get to the full critique of “Catfish;” the marketing of “Catfish” bears mentioning. Producer Andrew Jarecki, the filmmakers and the studios Rogue and Universal Pictures made a strange choice to market “Catfish” as some sort of thriller with a 'shocking twist' at its center. There is a twist but it's a sad slow reveal of something that will not surprise anyone who has spent time on Facebook getting to know strangers some of whom bring their sadness and desperation to social networking. 

Pretending “Catfish” is some kind of juicy thriller is likely the reason so many people think “Catfish” is a big fake out. Indeed, according to Wikipedia, fellow documentarian Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) is alleged to have confronted director Rel Schulman after a showing of “Catfish” and complimented him on the best fake documentary he had ever seen. Why pretend a documentary is some kind of Blair Witch-esque, found footage thriller when the reality is so much different? 

Maybe the filmmakers realized, as I did about half way through “Catfish,” that what they had was half of an interesting story based on a good looking and interesting lead character who goes all limp and boring in the second half when confronted with the unfortunate reality of his long distance love affair. I really liked Nev Schulman and was compelled by his relationship with 'Megan.' However, when they make the trip to Michigan the film loses steam and bogs down when Nev drops his New York superiority in favor of faux Midwestern compassion. 

Do I believe what I have seen in “Catfish?” Maybe, mostly, I didn't care if it was real. “Catfish” fails to stay compelling once it reveals its twist and how unsurprising and merely sad it all really is. Documentary or not “Catfish” just isn't all that engaging after the twist and certainly not as compelling as the bizarre marketing campaign that pretends “Catfish” is “The Blair Witch” or “The Last Exorcism,” films that brilliantly use the form of fake documentary to tell riveting faux real life stories with real scares. 

One could go on for a while about the dangers of online life about how “Catfish” details our alienation from reality through the looking glass of social networking but there is a better and far more compelling example of that alienation that is competing for Oscars right now in “The Social Network.” Director David Fincher's fabulized tale of the founding Facebook is far more on point about our alienation through the online world than anything possibly evoked by accident or intention in “Catfish.”

Movie Review: Devil

Devil (2010)

Directed by John Erick Dowdle

Written by Brian Nelson

Starring Jacob Vargas, Matt Craven, Bokeem Woodbine Geoffrey Arend

Release Date September 17th, 2010 

Published September 17th, 2010

 A month ago as I sat patiently awaiting the start of a movie that I barely remember and the trailer for “Devil” popped up. Near the end of the trailer a line showed up on the screen 'from the mind of M. Night Shyamalan' and the previously indifferent audience suddenly burst out in laughter, boos and insulting catcalls.

This was in the wake of Shyamalan's box office success with “The Last Airbender” which made plenty of cash but was mostly despised by audiences, as evidenced by the laughter, boos and catcalls at his name. “Devil” has now arrived in theaters and while it may have sprung from same mind that thought “The Last Airbender” was a good idea, “Devil” is a far better and more satisfying thrill ride than that kid flick debacle.

”Devil” stars Chris Messina as a cop fresh from 60 days sobriety and a meeting with his sponsor. Called to the site of a suicide; the handsome Detective Bowden has actually stumbled on a case that will change his life. While Bowman and his partner Markowitz (Joshua Peace, Cube Zero) are investigating the suicide a situation is unfolding inside the building from which the suicide, literally, sprang.

Five strangers have entered elevator number 6 and find themselves trapped. While security guards Ramirez (Jacob Vargas) and Lustig (Matt Craven) look on these five strangers face blackouts that lead to violence and eventually death. With detectives and security foiled in trying to get the elevator moving, Ramirez begins pitching an idea that there is nothing that can be done; the Devil has chosen these five and only accepting their fate can bring an end to the torture.

”Devil” is said to be part of a trilogy thought up by Producer M. Night Shyamalan in concert with directors Drew and Erick Dowdle, the minds behind “Quarantine” and the cult hit “The Poughkeepsie Tapes” and writer Bryan Nelson, best known for the terrific script for the not so great vampire flick “30 Days of Night.” Indeed, “Devil” does set some stakes for a small scale biblical battle to come yet, on its own manages to be entertaining without cheating ahead for sequels.

The Dowdle Brothers are the ideal directors for “Devil.” Both “Quarantine” and “The Poughkeepsie Tapes” are clever, small scale thrillers that make use of clever camera tricks and low watt effects to sell their scares. With a slightly bigger budget, the Dowdle's have the best cast they've had so far in their careers and make terrific use of their horrified glares, terror filled eyes and abundant sweat glands.

The Dowdle's often keep the camera uncomfortably in the face of their subjects and the move aids the audience in feeling the heated, claustrophobia and paranoia that slowly consumes the five strangers that include actors Geoffrey Arends, Bokeem Woodbine and Logan Marshall-Green and actresses Jenny O'Hara and Bojana Novakovic.

As strong as the strangers are, Chris Messina is twice as good as Detective Bowman. In a number of tiny supporting roles, in movies like the wonderful “Away We Go” and the likable “Julie and Julia” -as Amy Adams put upon husband- Messina has made a good impression in underserved roles. In “Devil” Messina gets to show what he's really got and one can only hope he gets more big roles, the guy has got It.

Messina's performance in “Devil” stands right next to another breakout character actor's performance in a low budget, low watt horror/thriller, Patrick Fabian in “The Last Exorcism.” Both performances underplay their genre, draw the audience to them through charm and competence and both are actors of unexpected force and charisma.

”Devil” isn't quite as ingenious as “The Last Exorcism” but it's along the same line, a horror/thriller that smartly tweaks the horror formula to deliver something that seems fresh amid the flotsam of the genre.

Well cast and cleverly directed, “Devil” is a welcome surprise in a month when Hollywood tends to be taking it easy. Sure, the name M. Night Shyamalan isn't likely to earn cheers again anytime soon, especially if he's still planning another ‘Airbender’ movie, but he's on to something with the so called “Night Chronicles.” Here's hoping he and his collaborators can capitalize on the promise of “Devil.”

Movie Review Takers

Takers (2010) 

Directed by John Luessenhop 

Written by Gabriel Casseus, John Luessenhop, Avery Duff

Starring Idris Elba, Paul Walker, Hayden Christensen, Michael Ealy, Zoe Saldana

Release Date August 27th, 2010 

Published August 27th, 2010

Expectations for the action/heist flick “Takers” were so low they had to be scraped off of a sticky theater floor. There really was not much to be expected from a movie featuring the wooden talents of Idris Elba, Paul Walker and Hayden Christensen or the first time performance of troubled R & B star Chris Brown. Add to that a first time director and a screenplay credited to four different writers and really all the film has to be is in frame to surpass expectations.

So what a great surprise that “Takers” is more than merely in frame. Indeed this fast paced, quick witted caper flick is wildly entertaining in its mindless quick cut manner.

Gordon (Idris Elba), John (Paul Walker), A.J (Hayden Christensen), Jake (Michael Ealy) and Jesse (Chris Brown) are first glimpsed entering a high end Los Angeles bank. They will soon rob this bank with an efficient, violent flourish.

The celebration of this very successful, multi-million dollar heist is short lived as a former member of their crew, Ghost (T.I), arrives with a new opportunity. Ghost has a plan for robbing an armored car that could quadruple the amount of money they took from the bank. The plan involves complex timing and well placed violence, all right up this crew’s alley.

The biggest question is Ghost. Freshly released from prison after five years, no one can be certain whether he is motivated by greed or revenge. His plan is solid but after he finds his ex Rachel (Zoe Saldana) engaged to Jake it becomes relatively clear that he cannot be entirely trusted.

As the crew is making plans, the cops are closing in. Lead investigator Jack Welles (Matt Dillon) and his partner Eddie (Jay Hernandez) have stumbled onto a lead involving Russian gangsters linked to Ghost. The lead goes from Ghost to Gordon and from Gordon to the rest of the crew. Will the cops catch on to the plan before they can execute it? Will Ghost betray his former friends?

These questions don't really matter all that much but they lend enough context to “Takers” to give the action enough juice to be compelling. First time director John Luessenhoepp shrewdly limits the time spent with these actors talking and gets right into these actors doing the things that most other movies would spend time explaining.

”Takers” is keenly aware of the derivative nature of the heist picture and spends little time on the explanation in favor of action that rarely pauses. These actors are at their best when they are physically involved and “Takers” plays to that strength with scene after scene of action. When the movie needs any minor explanations they turn to the one actor in the cast with the chops to deliver, Matt Dillon. The veteran Dillon cleverly plays chief explainer and is only rarely bogged down with heavy exposition.

That's not to say that Dillon doesn't get physical himself. In fact, in easily the best scene in “Takers,” Dillon and Jay Hernandez give chase to a fleeing Chris Brown in an extra long chase that involves Parkour leaps and bounds, heavy hitting traffic and one well placed, unexpected bullet.

”Takers” is terrific genre entertainment, an action movie almost without pause. Clever, well employed violence combines with a super fast pace and juices “Takers” beyond its acting and story limitations. It also helps to have a guy like Matt Dillon around to do the minor heavy lifting.

Movie Review: The Switch

The Switch (2010) 

Directed by Will Speck, Josh Gordon

Written by Allan Loeb

Starring Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, Patrick Wilson, Jeff Goldblum 

Release Date August 20th, 2010

Published August 19th, 2010

There is chemistry between Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman despite what you see in the new movie The Switch. In a rare few scenes of this disposable formula comedy from the Hollywood factory floor Aniston radiates warmth and Bateman shows wit and the personalities that I'm sure they thought these characters had shines through.

These scenes are all too brief and surrounded by so much tripe that I cannot recommend you bother searching for the good moments, I can merely assure you those moments really are there. The Switch buries what good there is between the two leads beneath so much banal, humorless chatter that sifting the remains becomes a dumpster dive.

The Switch stars Bateman as sadsack stock trader Wally who is in love with his best friend Kassie (Aniston) though he doesn't yet know it. Kassie doesn't know it either but only through a massive level of cluelessness. Both are in their early 40's when Kassie announces she wants a baby and will be getting an artificial insemination.

Wally is opposed to this plan, not because his best friend is aiming to become a 40 something single mom but because he's in love with her but incapable of admitting it. Thus we arrive at the title plot; at a party where Kassie will be inseminated (is this really something people do?) Wally get wasted and stumbles on the sperm, plays with the sample cup and accidentally spills it. His solution? Give a new sample. These scenes are handled with the implied level of dignity, i.e none whatsoever for poor Jason Bateman, or poorer still, Diane Sawyer. Don't ask.

Cut to 7 years later, Kassie moved to Minnesota with her new baby but is now ready to return to New York. Wally is waiting and because he doesn't remember making the switch, he doesn't know the kid, Sebastian (Thomas Robinson), is his. Oh but he will find out and then tell Kassie and well you can figure out where all of this is going.

There is a talented ensemble rounding out the cast of The Switch including veterans Juliette Lewis and the wonderful Jeff Goldblum, but sadly all are stranded in a go nowhere script by Allen Loeb and the atonal direction of Josh Gordon and Will Speck. As the actors ache to bring something more to these characters they are shredded down to essences, Wally is morose and bumbling, Kassie is shrill and clueless and everyone else is rendered unimportant, more walking exposition than characters.

Scenes arrive and thud as the characters sketch the plot points and the scene ends without anything funny happening. The dialogue is witless and the direction strips out nuance in favor of hitting imaginary points along the lines of a map toward banal, middle of the road Hollywood romance.

The Switch is more concept than movie. Jeffrey Eugenides conceived the idea for his short story The Baster which is a thoughtful if slightly depressing short story published by the New Yorker in 1996. That story involved characters who were aware of their feelings, abortion and a deep history between the characters that Eugenides manages to communicate with an economy of words that would barely add up to 3 or 4 scenes in The Switch. 

Gone is any hint of honest back-story replaced with cluelessness that becomes not a running gag as maybe it should have been but is instead one of the artificial roadblocks used to pad this story out to feature film length. The other device is Patrick Wilson as Roland the cuckold in waiting who exists only to sustain the unlikely notion that Wally and Kassie won't end up together. 

I will leave you to discover what happened in Mr. Eugenides' far superior short story; you don't need a map or a spoiler alert to intuit where things are headed in The Switch. As with any romantic comedy it's not about the destination, we know what's expected and what we all want to happen in a rom-com. The key is crafting a journey for the audience that is smart, funny and diverting enough to make the inevitable payoff worth your time. The Switch fails miserably on this front by crafting a tedious, unfunny journey. 

It's a real shame because there is a moment when Jason Bateman is watching the kid, now 6 years old, and Jennifer Aniston walks in just watches Bateman and the kid. In this moment you can see the potential and when they finally look at one another you can sense the better movie that these two talented people could have made were they not saddled with the conventions of such an insipid and typical Hollywood formula.

Movie Review Machete

Machete (2010) 

Directed by Robert Rodriguez

Written by Robert Rodriguez

Starring Danny Trejo, Jessica Alba, Michelle Rodriguez, Robert De Niro, Lindsay Lohan

Release Date September 3rd, 2010 

Published September 4th, 2010

“Machete” is a film that is impervious to criticism. One cannot critique the filmmaking; it's supposed to be grungy and low budget to evoke its 70's influences. One cannot critique the acting, everyone in the film is supposed to be over the top and utterly ludicrous to match the unfortunate amateurs who played these roles back in the original Grindhouse days. You cannot criticize the storyline because really, what story is there? And since you are not supposed to treat any of this with seriousness as that would undermine the audacious, humorous homage to trash, one really can’t then take seriously anything in the film's take on the immigration issue?

“Machete” is basically Robert Rodriguez masturbating on screen. Yes, masturbation seems to be the foremost concern of “Machete” or rather director Robert Rodriguez who puts his deepest carnal desires on screen, revealing himself in both brave and disturbing fashion. Like his cohorts Eli Roth and Quentin Tarantino, Rodriguez gets off on guns and blood but unlike Roth and with slightly less awe than Tarantino, Rodriguez throws a few near naked girls in the mix.

Is it strange to watch a grown man put his teenage boy sex fantasies on screen? Oh yeah, a big part of me has absolutely no want to know what it is that gets Robert Rodriguez off. But, there is also a part of me that is sickly entertained because some of his fantasies, Ms. Alba in particular, are my fantasies as well. I, however, do not get off on violence the way Rodriguez does. I don't mind the skillful demonstration of violence on screen but the ways in which Rodriguez and his man/boy directing brethren enjoy the violence is disturbing and makes me worry a little for their collective mental health.

In a review of “Hostel” for another website years ago I wondered; if Eli Roth were not a filmmaker capable of demonstrating his sickest fantasies on screen would he have become a serial murderer? I have the same concerns with Mr. Rodriguez after watching “Machete” but to a slightly lesser extent.

The difference between the two is Rodriguez has an interest in women, even if only a puerile one, Mr. Roth only seems to enjoy torture, maiming and death. Dragging their mentor Mr. Tarantino into this conversation is unnecessary, his interest seems to be purely cinema and what his camera's eye is capable of, what the camera captures serves a very particular and highly cinematic vision. Rodriguez and Roth are teenage boys using the camera as a masturbatory device for their incurable twisted fantasies.

“Machete” boils down to a demonstration of what 13 year old Robert Rodriguez found on a VHS tape years ago and got off to. Whether it was Gordon Parks or Melvin Van Peebles, William Girdler (look him up, I did) or Arthur Marx, Rodriguez found tapes of Foxy Brown or Sweet Sweetback or Shaft and it got him off. Now he’s making the movies that get him off.

I’m not a prude, I have the same male urge for self gratification that every other red blooded American male has. I merely prefer to confine my fantasies to my bedroom. Mr. Rodriguez places his fantasies in giant multiplex theaters and I find that awkward and disturbing.

I mean, if this were a true homage to Grindhouse, one would have to stumble upon it in some woebegone, out of the way second hand shop. Not in the gleaming, popcorn scented world in which the theater next door is showing Toy Story 3. “Machete” belongs on a store shelf next to Faster Pussycat Kill Kill or anything by Herschel Gordon Lewis. There it could be discovered and passed around from friend to friend.

That’s my issue, that’s what has been nagging at me about “Machete.” Treating this like any other major movie release just feels wrong. It’s supposed to be underground where some teenager can dust it off, slip into his jacket pocket and steal it out of the store while the manager is helping a customer buy porn.

The kid should sneak “Machete” home, wait for his parents to go to bed and slip it in and enjoy it as it should be enjoyed. The next day he takes it to school and passes it from friend to friend until one of them gets caught with it and it spends the next decade in a school filing cabinet waiting to be rediscovered or sold at some teacher’s garage sale.

Placing “Machete” in theater taints the true experience. The bloody, gory, twisted violence, the childish over the top sex, simply does not belong in the same building where Jennifer Aniston is starring in The Switch. The milieu degrades and depraves the experience and makes “Machete” impossible to enjoy without feeling more than a little creepy and weird.

Movie Review The Duchess

The Duchess (2008) 

Directed by Saul Dibb

Written by Jeffrey Hatcher, Saul Dibb, Anders Thomas Jensen 

Starring Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes Charlotte Rampling, Dominic Cooper, Hayley Atwell

Release Date September 5th, 2008 

Published October 25th, 2008

Georgiana Spencer is a long time relative of Lady Diana Spencer who went on to become Princess Diana. They were destined to be related. The Duchess of Devonshire was the Diana of her time, a celebrity diva with the eyes of a nation following her every move and copying her every dress and hairstyle. They had even more in common in private where the Duchess and the Princess lived with cold hearted husbands whose dalliances were humiliating blows especially as any challenge to that behavior were so hypocritically decried.

Keira Knightley stars in The Duchess as the legendary Georgiana. At 16 she was married off to the Duke of Devonshire (Ralph Fiennes). They had only met twice but when assured by her mother that she would produce a make heir, the Duke snapped her up. The wedding was elaborate and celebrated across London. Georgiana was blown away by the opulence suddenly thrust upon her but her wonderment didn't last. Soon she finds her husband taking the help to his bed. When he finally takes Georgiana the moment is awkward and workmanlike.

Her role in his life is nothing more than broodmare and when she doesn't immediately offer a male heir, the duke becomes cruel and reviled. With a maid he fathered a daughter, Charlotte who then becomes Georgiana's responsibility. Her first two children are girls and the tension in the house is ever worsening. Then Georgiana is blessed with a friend named Bess. She has just been abandoned by her husband who has taken her two sons. Georgiana offers to let Bess stay with her while she fights for her boys, in the meantime Bess is convinced to sleep with William in exchange for his help, the humiliation drives a wedge between the women that is nearly irresolvable.

Soon the Duchess herself has found someone else. His name is Charles Gray and he happens to be a candidate for Prime Minister and a childhood friend of Georgiana. She offers to help his political career, with her awesome ability to draw a crowd but his interest goes far beyond her useful celebrity. He has loved her since before she was married and hopes that he can run away with her one day. The love story is a little rushed and forced but it's not bad. 

The Duchess was directed by Saul Dibb an heretofore unknown director who also co-wrote the script based on Amanda Foreman's novel. Dibb has a strong sense of the period, the hot house melodrama of the Duke and Duchess's home and an ear for the way these characters may have talked. I thoroughly  enjoyed the presence of Mr. Fox and his obvious lover Mr. Doyle. Together they are the perfect gay best friends for the Duchess though she longs for a real girlfriend. She had found it with Bess but the relationship ended badly, as did most of Georgiana's relationship.

So what of the Oscar buzz for Keira Knightley? Much deserved. Ms. Knightley is feisty and pouty and sexy and glamorous, everything we need in a grand, mid-centuries celebrity. Even as she indulges, the Duchess has a deeper intellect than the men in her life give her credit for. She earns the respect of her friend Mr. Fox by questioning his take on freedom, a line that will become ironic in her own life, "Freedom is an absolute, you either are or you are not".The publicity for The Duchess plays up a reputation for her being a great conversationalist. That example is not in The Duchess. Aside from her thoughts on freedom, the Duchess is not demonstrated as a great thinker.

Quick on her feet? Street smart? Yes, but no Nobel Prize winner.

A strong performance from Keira Knightley is the life blood of The Duchess but beyond her the film relies on the conventions of the period piece. There is nothing in Georgiana Spencer's life that is as compelling as Eliza Bennett of Pride and Prejudice, a demonstrably witty and intelligent character. A better correlative of The Duchess would be Marie Antoinette from Sophia Coppola's biography. The Duchess has a lot more juice than that overwrought melange of pop music and pop history. The juice comes from Knightly and the immaculate period setting. Set your expectations for the movie as a whole low and you will find yourself satisfied with The Duchess.

Movie Review: 21

21 (2008) 

Directed by Robert Luketic

Written by Peter Steinfeld 

Starring Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, Laurence FIshburne

Release Date March 28th, 2008 

Published March 27th, 2008 

Ben Mezrich’s book Bringing Down The House is a hectic, heady mix of glitz and brilliance. A group of MIT students developed their skill for counting cards and took their act to Vegas where they broke the bank for more than 7 figures. The movie 21 dramatizes the story of the brainiac card sharps and as directed by Robert Luketic (Legally Blonde) the glitz and glamour are in place, unfortunately, minus the brains.

Jim Sturgess stars in 21 as Ben Campbell a shy, nervous, soon to be MIT grad who will need a good deal of financial help to get him to his goal of attending Harvard Medical School. Opportunity then falls in his lap when he impresses a professor named Mickey Rosa (Kevin Spacey) with his math skills. Rosa happens to be the brains behind the underground MIT Blackjack team.

Using a unique and complicated card counting system, this smarty-pants team takes on Vegas and walk away loaded down with cash. Soon Ben is a high roller with more than enough to pay for his med school trip but the lure of greed and the lifestyle of Vegas keep him coming back for more.

His high roller status captures the attention of a longtime Las Vegas security facing extinction in the age of biometrics. His name is Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne) and his maintains his tenuous position in the high stakes world of Vegas by doing the one thing computers can’t, dishing out vicious beatings to card counters before chasing them out of the city.

As soon as he is on to Ben’s game the movie gains a little bit of energy. Sadly the battle of wits and wills between Sturgess and the ever so intense Fishburne is a no contest. Young Jim Sturgess is an attractive young actor with a hip floppy hair cut of the Maroon 5 variety but a presence he is not, especially compared to Fishburne who’s basso profundo voice is more than enough to blow Sturgess off the screen.

Paired in romance with the waifish Kate Bosworth, Sturgess co-creates one of the wussiest romances of any movie since Eric Bana sulked his way through another Vegas based wet blanker Lucky You opposite Drew Barrymore. Ms. Bosworth, who showed so much spunky potential in the 2003 beach movie Blue Crush has since squandered her shot at stardom in a series of downbeat roles.

Meanwhile her multi-time co-star Kevin Spacey, whose literally made some of the same mistakes as Ms. Bosworth (Beyond The Sea, Superman Returns), actually returns to form a little in 21. Of this underwhelming cast in this underwhelming story, Mr. Spacey is the lone standout. Showing the kind of intelligence, wit and guile necessary to pull off this scam, Spacey’s Mickey is the only character you can buy as a card counter taking Vegas for a ride.

The script from writer Jim Steinfeld waters down and mainstreams the grittier, more ethnic origins of Ben Mezrich’s book. For one thing, the leaders of this group of Blackjack con men were Asian, not the model pretty anglos of 21. The change of ethnicity is so nakedly commercial, the inherent racism and ignorance so offensive that author Mezrich would have been commended for taking his name off the project, as was rumored during production.

Director Robert Luketic has a real knack for flashy, colorful visuals and is quite at home with the glitz and glamour of modern Vegas. Unfortunately, the pretty colors and flashing lights can’t distract from the puddle deep characters and predictable innocence corrupted, innocence regained storyline.

That kind of soft headed approach works for fluffy fair like Luketic’s terrifically chirpy Legally Blonde and underrated teen romancer Win A Date With Tad Hamilton but with the more crafty, suspenseful story like that of 21, Luketic’s style fails on every level and becomes tedious without the likes of Reese Witherspoon in a bunny costume to lighten the mood.

Visually dazzling and shot glass deep, 21 overstays it’s welcome at over 2 hours of stops and starts, weak attempts at romance and weaker attempts at suspense. Wasting a comeback performance by Kevin Spacey in favor of the floppy haired good looks of Jim Sturgess, 21 hits when it should stay and busts big time.

Movie Review Stop Loss

Stop Loss (2008)

Directed by Kimberly Pierce 

Written by Kimberly Pierce 

Starring Ryan Phillipe, Channing Tatum, Abbie Cornish, Joseph Gordon Levitt

Release Date March 28th, 2008

Published March 28th, 2008 

I know that all of you hate it when I review a movie and discuss the film's marketing as part of the review. The fact of the matter is however that whether you like it or not movie marketing changes your perception of a movie, shapes it and creates an expectation that the movie must deliver on or suffer your opinion. Thus how the marketing of the Iraq war drama Stop Loss prevented me from finding something redeeming about this well acted but boring drama.

With the backing of MTV Films this well meaning Iraq war drama becomes a movie about buffed up supermodels playing soldiers against a heavy pop rock soundtrack. A shame because Ryan Phillippe is far too good for something this slicked up and prepackaged.

Stop Loss is directed by the brilliant Kimberly Pierce who has not worked since her Boys Don't Cry was the victim of indie politics and red state fear. Returning to work with her first relatively big budget, Pierce wants to criticize a failing US military policy in a thoughtful and dramatic way. Unfortunately, with the backing of MTV Films what we get is a soundtrack and pretty scenery.

Ryan Phillippe is the star of Stop Loss as Sgt. Brandon King. Sgt. King thinks he is done with the war in Iraq but when he goes for his exit interview he is told to report back to duty and ship out for Iraq once again. Sgt. King has stopped a policy that allows a President to extend a soldiers tour for an unspecified amount of time during a time of war.

Brandon is none too happy with this situation and vows to fight it, eventually going AWOL with his buddy Steve's (Channing Tatum) wife (Abbie Cornish) and traveling to Washington where he hopes a friendly Congressman can get him out. Steve on the other hand is happy to be going back. His post traumatic stress has caused him nothing but pain since returning home and he hopes that returning to the battlefield will center him again. 

Michele, Steve's wife, at first just offers to drive Brandon out of state but once on the road she becomes wrapped up in the cause and eventually wrapped up in Brandon, she rationalizes "Steve's married to the army". 

Is it fair to criticize Phillippe, Tatum, Cornish and supporting players Joseph Gordon Levitt and Rob Brown for being good looking? No. But, when MTV Films marketing department makes the movie about these guys with their shirts off and Ms. Cornish in just a half t-shirt, no bra, it becomes about their looks and less about their characters and the story being told.

Director Kimberly Pierce gets caught up in the slick, beautiful-people-only world of MTV movie making and loses sight of her story. Stop Loss then quickly devolves from thoughtful drama to exactly what the movie marketers promised, America's Next Top Model, men's edition, set to a high octane, highly salable pop soundtrack.

Worse than the marketing hooks however is the fact that Stop Loss is  boring. After a few rousing battle scenes in Iraq we return to Texas and wait for something to happen. Nothing much does. The actors go through the motions of being haunted, tormented and depressed but few get below the surface. Joseph Gordon Levitt, so brilliant recently in a string of exceptional performances, here seems especially going through the motions.

It seems every war drama has a character exactly like the one played by Mr. Levitt and the character's fate is drawn out to the same conclusion each time. Levitt plays it all with a serious brood on but he is not central to the plot and by the end his fate is utterly meaningless.

Ryan Phillippe is effective, more so than anyone else in the movie, but his over pronounced Texas drawl is distracting and his buffed up, shirtless physique gets just as much attention as the plight of his character. Channing Tatum, star of Step Up, is surprisingly effective as a meat headed guy who sees himself as a blunt instrument of war and acts as such. With a little more care there could have been something really extraordinary about Mr. Tatum's performance but beyond his desperation he is an emotional sieve. 

As Iraq war movies go Stop Loss sidesteps the pro-war/anti-war minefield by sticking close to these characters. By making this movie about these specific characters and not about a grandstanding, overarching point of view, Ms.Pierce opens her movie to a wider audience and comes off as something of a coward for not taking a stand one way or the other.

Stop Loss seems to oppose a policy which subjects our troops to treatment we wouldn't wish upon our enemies but has little of interest to say in opposition of this treatment. The abuse of our soldier's bravery and commitment is an idea that needs exploration. Stop Loss exploits it as a way of presenting pretty boy soldiers without their shirts partying to a soundtrack that will sell big on MTV.com.

Movie Review: The Forbidden Kingdom

The Forbidden Kingdom (2008) 

Directed by Rob Minkoff 

Written by John Fusco 

Starring Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Michael Angarano

Release Date April 18th, 2008 

Published April 19th, 2008

The first teaming of Jackie Chan and Jet Li delivers one solid fight scene. In a monastery the two masters face each other down and neither can capture a full advantage. It's an alright scene, a good fight but with both Chan and Li playing good guys in The Forbidden Kingdom it is a brief fight and the better man is never close to decided.

In The Forbidden Kingdom Michael Angarano stars as  Jason, a Boston teenager with a love of kung fu movies. One day, when visiting his favorite Chinatown pawn shop, run by his friend, the kindly old Hop (Jackie Chan), he comes across a beautiful golden staff. Hop tells Jason that the staff must be returned to it's rightful owner and keeps Jason away from it.

Later, when Jason is attacked by local bullies they take him back to Hop's shop where they plan on his help robbing the old shop keep. In the ensuing chaos, Jason is given the staff by Hop and told to take it to it's rightful owner. Soon, Jason is unconscious and when he awakens his somewhere in China and somewhere in the past.

Taken in by martial arts master Lu Yang (Jackie Chan, again), Jason explains his extraordinary journey and Lu Yang tells Jason the story of the staff. It belonged to the Monkey King who was an immortal master, beloved by the gods but envied by the Jade Emporer (Colin Chou). Seeing the Monkey King as a threat to his power he tricks him and encases him in Jade, not before the Monkey King delivered his staff into the future.

Jason and Lu Yang must return the staff to the five elements mountain where the statue of the Monkey King resides and release him if Jason is to be returned home. Along the way they are joined by Golden Sparrow who is seeking revenge on the Jade Emporer and the Silent Monk (Jet Li) whose connection to the Monkey King is will be recognizable to the most observant viewers.

The Forbidden Kingdom succeeds when keeping things light and high off the ground. When Jackie Chan, Jet Li and the rest are flying around as if gravity were merely a choice, Forbidden Kingdom is alot of fun. However, when grounded and spouting about Monkey King's, the gods, the elements and what not, it grows tired quickly.

Director Rob Minkoff (Haunted Mansion) has a good eye for the kung fu and high wire acts but a tin ear for character and dialogue. The thudding plot doesn't too often get in the way of Chan and Li flying with the greatest of ease, but it does get in the way enough for the plot to trip along the way. Things are not helped by young Michael Angarano who looks like Ralph Macchio minus the appealing personality.

The Forbidden Kingdom doesn't exactly hit a home run for the first teaming of Jackie Chan and Jet Li. However, with these two kung fu masters getting up there in age we really cannot expect much more. We get one good face off and a number of good fights where they are on the same side. Would I liked to have seen them head to head a little more? Sure, who wouldn't but that is a different movie.

The Forbidden Kingdom is a family movie with some kung fu not a kung fu movie. Judging the intent, it's not a bad family movie. A little clunky and disposable. But not bad.

Movie Review: Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008 

Directed by Nicholas Stoller

Written by Jason Segal

Starring Jason Segal, Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Russell Brand, Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd, Jack McBrayer

Release Date April 18th, 2008

Published April 17th, 2008

The golden touch of writer/director/producer Judd Apatow had become King Midas in reverse on his last two efforts. the brutal spoof Walk Hard and the forgettable Drillbit Taylor. Thankfully, the golden touch is back in the new romantic comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Starring Apatow's long time friend, part of the apatow repertory players from TV and the movies, Jason Segal, Forgetting Sarah Marshall returns to the Apatow gang's comfort zone of awkward, R-Rated romance and mines it for humor of great discomfort, humanity, truth and penis jokes.

Peter Bretter (Segal) has been in love with Sarah Marshall for five years since they met on the set of her hit show Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime. Peter performs all of the music on the show. All seemed warm and cozy until Sarah decided to break up with him. Devastated, Peter drifts into a series of random sexual encounters before his brother Dave (Bill Hader) convinces him to get away for awhile.

Deciding on a Hawaiian getaway, Peter is stunned to find Sarah Marshall already on the island when he arrives and she's attached at the lips to her new rock star boyfriend, Aldous Snow (Russell Brand). On the bright side, a beautiful young hotel worker named Rachel (Mila Kunis) takes pity on him and decides to help him get his mind off his ex.

Jason Segal not only stars here, he wrote the smart, offbeat screenplay for Forgetting Sarah Marshall and the care he takes to avoid typical romantic comedy moments bring depth and brains to a film that could have been just another collection of broad gags. Segal crafts terrific characters, creates believable conflicts and wrings big laughs from moments that most anyone will be able to relate to.

Among the many things I loved about this terrific comedy romance is how director Nicholas Stoller and  Jason Segal balance Peter's flaws with Sarah's and avoids making her into a villain. The same can be said of Brand's airhead rocker who, though his quite shallow, proves to be something slightly more than just a walking gag.

Mila Kunis shines in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Bringing a dash of crazy, foul mouthed hussy to an idealized version of a dreamgirl, Kunis shows bravery and chops hanging with the Apatow crew's brand of sweet offensiveness. From her girl's gone wild moment to her foul mouthed tirades, she surprises at every turn, and proves to be more than the equal of her male counterparts.

On top of the strong central story Segal, director Nicolas Stoller and producer Apatow also find room for terrific supporting players like Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd and Jack McBrayer. Best of all however, in the briefest of roles, in William Baldwin. In a pitch perfect send up of David Caruso's CSI Miami cop, Baldwin is a hilarious scene stealer. Really, just about everything works in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. If you can get past multiple scenes of male nudity, you will have a great time with this terrific little movie.

Documentary Review: Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden?

Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? (2008) 

Directed by Morgan Spurlock 

Written by Documentary 

Starring Morgan Spurlock 

Release Date April 18th, 2008

Published April 25th, 2008 

Morgan Spurlock is funny, thoughtful and charming. You have to appreciate the career he has crafted for himself off of one rather thin idea. Super Size Me was an ingenious bit of zeitgeist grabbing and self promotion. You can argue the films overall value as a documentary but it was undeniably clever. His latest effort is entirely different in topic but not tone. Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden? is a jokey exploration of the post 9/11 mind in both the middle east and in the mind of a Brooklyn filmmaker with a baby on the way.

With his wife Alexandria about to give birth to their first child, Morgan Spurlock is seized with the idea of the world he is bringing his baby into. With so much turmoil in the middle east what can one documentary filmmaker do to make the world safe for his wife and child. Morgan Spurlock's idea? Find the world's most well known terrorist.

Traveling to the middle east, Spurlock first travels to Egypt to gauge the mindset of alleged American allies. He finds a thoughtful cast of people on the streets who have nice things to say about the American people but hate American policy. The trip to Egypt is revealing in how though Egypt is our ally and is seen as a progressive state their President Mubarek doesn't have trouble being reelected year after year, mostly because like many leaders in the area he uses the state to quiet dissent.

From Egypt he travels to Israel and Palestine and spends a few harrowing moments visiting the Gaza strip and coming close to actual bombs falling followed by a trip to where the bombs actually landed, an empty schoolhouse. From there it's off to Afghanistan and Pakistan and ever more enlightening and dangerous journey.

The true subject of Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden is not the world's only celebrity terrorist, but rather the interviews with real middle east residents and scholars and religious leaders which reveal people with the same concerns, hopes and feelings as the average American. People who Morgan Spurlock spoke to didn't support Osama. Even the ones who are no fans of America were not necessarily fans of Bin Laden.

Some of the most fascinating conversations in WITWIOBL comes from an Egyptian professor who says Osama Bin Laden did the American right wing a favor, he gave them a reason to be in the middle east. Without the attack on 9/11, American foreign policy could not justify a large American presence in the middle east. After the attacks, even some in the middle east were forced to accept America in their backyard.

It sounds like conspiracy theory but the professor does not claim that the Bush administration or anyone planned 9/11 or let it happen to give America a reason to go to war. Her point was only that America would not be in the middle east in the way they are today without the actions of Osama Bin Laden. It's a fair point. 

All throughout Where In The World is Osama Bin Laden I could not shake the thought, why isn't Spurlock at home with his wife? She's pregnant. When he leaves he has six weeks till she is expected to give birth. As bombs go off and bullets fly, you can't help but think go home! Yes, the documentary is entertaining and has some insight but would it have been worth it if he was killed weeks before the birth of his first child?

Spurlock confronts this question near the end and the scene is a cathartic close to the film. Of course you know already he survived but the journey is nevertheless compelling and especially in his final scenes arguably within miles of Osama, if you believe the most recent rumors.

For all his self promotion and reckless personal decision making, Spurlock knows well how to engage an audience. Intelligent, funny and compelling, I was often irritated by Spurlock and his persistent need to risk his life while his wife waited, scared at home with their child on the way, but the result is somehow worth it. This is a terrific bit of filmmaking and conversation starting.

Movie Review Life Before Your Eyes

The Life Before Your Eyes (2008) 

Directed by Vadim Perelman 

Written by Emil Stern 

Starring Uma Thurman, Ava Murri, Evan Rachel Wood, Brett Cullen

Release Date April 18th, 2008

Published May 10th, 2008 

Director Vadim Perelman loves a good tragic novel. In 2002 he adapted Andre Dubus' small scale tragedy House of Sand and Fog. Though a first time feature director, Perelman exhibited the sure hand and classical eye of a veteran director. His latest feature, The Life Before Her Eyes is another adaptation of a tragedy on an even grander scale. Set against the backdrop of a bloody school shooting, The Life Before Her Eyes is an examination of the guilt of survivors. And while it is an often moving and reflective drama, there is a device employed throughout that negates some of what is very good about the rest of the film.

Two girls are chatting away in a high school ladies room. In the distance we hear screams and what sounds like gunfire. Dianna (Evan Rachel Wood) believes it's just a prank, Maureen (Ava Murri) doesn't think so. As it gets closer, the sound of screams and gunfire is unmistakable and soon the door opens. In walks the killer, a fellow student, offering a horrifying choice. The girls are to choose which of them will die.

15 years later, we know who lived. Dianna (Uma Thurman) is now in her early 30's. She has married a college philosophy professor (Brett Cullen) and has a beautiful 8 year old daughter named Emma (Gabrielle Brennan) who has the same rebellious streak her mom always had. Dianna herself is now a teacher, she teaches art and has a particular affinity for Gaugin.

Of course, not all is as it appears. As the 15th anniversary of the school shooting approaches, Dianna's survivor guilt is causing her to have visions. She sees what she thinks is her favorite teacher who was killed that day. She sees her friend Maureen. She even see's the killer. The visions don't necessarily lead anywhere.

Throughout The Life Before Her Eyes we cut back to 15 years ago and the days leading up to the killings. Dianna was not a great student. A free spirit, she preferred smoking pot and experimenting sexually with older men to school. Maureen on the other hand is a devout christian and a good student with a bright future.

The table is set for the tragedy but director Vadim Perelman dawdles ever so slightly. Watch as he obsesses about details like the rain, thunder, philosophy, the conscience, the imagination, the paintings of Gaugin. Worthy topics but why are we being distracted from the central story. The dialogue about weather and the mind and paintings is not bad but you can sense a pattern developing and you shouldn't if the movie were working.

Evan Rachel Wood is a wonderfully expressive young actress who can tell a whole story with her face. Her soulful eyes carry sadness beyond her years while her lips are far too inviting for someone so young. Her work in The Life Before Your Eyes goes a long way toward overcoming the problems of the script and the plot devices.

Uma Thurman is an ethereal beauty with talent to spare. It's a shame she isn't given more to work with. We want to connect with her guilt, her sadness. Her conflict is compelling. She has the life of her dreams and it came at the expense of a best friend who was killed instead of her. It is a compelling drama. Unfortunately, in the few moments we seem to connect with Thurman we are sent back in time for another flashback. At a mere 88 minutes, there isn't enough time for both of these terrific actresses.

Then there is that annoying plot device that in the end takes away the pay off and catharsis we long for. It's not a devastating device, the performances of these two amazing actresses are far too good for me not to partially recommend The Life Before Her Eyes, but this could have been a far more emotionally satisfying film.

Documentary Review: Young @ Heart

Young @ Heart (2008) 

Directed by Stephen Walker 

Written by Documentary 

Starring The Young @Heart Chorus

Release Date April 4th, 2008 

Published May 10th, 2008

As I sat down to watch Young @ Heart I expected good things given the positive buzz from other critics. My hesitations came from just how I would enjoy a documentary about seniors singing rock music. I can do camp, I don't mind camp but I didn't want to laugh at old people singing James Brown or Sonic Youth just for the sake of laughing. To my joyous surprise Young @ Heart overcame all of my reservations, surmounted my detachment and touched me as deeply as any movie of the last decade.

Several years ago filmmaker Stephen Walker took in a performance of a senior citizen choir in Northhampton Massachusetts. What he found was a plucky group of oldsters not just singing rock n roll songs but breathing life and magic into these well known tunes. Walker was so inspired he had to tell their story.

Young @ Heart was born 25 years ago as a vaudeville act. It was a way for active seniors to stay active. Then  Bob Cilman, the choir director, was struck with an idea. He found that the most rousing, entertaining moments of the old vaudeville show were the songs. Introducing new songs, introducing rock n roll tunes, Cilman transformed the show into Young @ Heart and audiences ate it up.

Now Stephen Walker has brought the Young @ Heart choir to the world and we are better for it. We join the story as the choir is readying their newest show. Bob Cilman is ready to take some risks. With just a few weeks to prepare he is introducing 5 new songs and not just any songs but five truly challenging tunes.

Sonic Youth's Schizophrenia is loud, noisy and incomprehensible to most of the choir. James Brown's I Feel Good is just a bit quick and tongue twisty for the group, especially for the man chosen for the lead, Stan Goldman who, try as he might cannot keep up with the lyrics. If you think I Feel Good is a tongue twister, how about Allen Toussaint's Yes We Can which uses the word can 71 times, mostly in close repetition near the end of the tune. The song comes close to being cut.

The Talking Heads Life During Wartime does not make the show for reasons that have nothing to do with the song or the performance of the choir. But the most moving and heart rending new tune is Coldplay's Fix You sung by a pair of returning vets of the choir. Fred Knittle and Bob Salvini both were forced to give up singing to deal with health problems. Each is convinced they have atleast one show left in them, Bob despite having survived repeated chemo treatments and the administration of last rites.

Fred Knittle for my money, is the star of Young @ Heart. A former regular member of the choir, Fred had to stop singing because of lung trouble. Now on an oxygen machine, Fred feels he has a show left in him. Does he ever. In him we find the roots of the old vaudeville show that was Young @ Heart. Quick with a one liner, Fred threatens to tip into parody until he sings.

Fred Knittle for my money, is the star of Young @ Heart. A former regular member of the choir, Fred had to stop singing because of lung trouble. Now on an oxygen machine, Fred feels he has a show left in him. Does he ever. In him we find the roots of the old vaudeville show that was Young @ Heart. Quick with a one liner, Fred threatens to tip into parody until he sings.

His lovely deep bass is given the assignment to sing Coldplay's Fix You. It was to be a duet but when we reach the night of the show Fred is on his own to sing the lead with the choir backing him up. It's a scene that could not be script. Poignant, heartbreaking and healing all at once, Fred Knittle delivers to us in the audience a performance of a lifetime. Fight back the tears, if you can.

One of the most wonderful moviegoing experiences of my life, Young @ Heart moved me like few movies I have witnessed. Such heart, such hope, such life. It's pure magic that will move, inspire and rock like few movies you've ever seen. Young @ Heart arrives on DVD September 16 and must be seen. This is one of the best movies of the year.

Life, death, joy and sadness, Young @ Heart runs the gamut of emotions in the same way a great song does. It lifts your heart, breaks and heals it all in the space of 108 lovely minutes.

Movie Review The Grand

The Grand (2008) 

Directed by Zak Penn

Written by Zak Penn

Starring Cheryl Hines, David Cross, Richard Kind, Woody Harrelson, Ray Romano 

Release Date March 21st, 2008 

Published May 5th, 2008 

Zak Penn crafted the detailed and clever scripts for the X-Men flick directed by Brett Ratner. A comic book nut, Penn was in his element and will hopefully show the same talent in his script for the upcoming Incredible Hulk redux. Moving into the realm of directing, his talent seems somewhat less pronounced. The new comedy The Grand features an exceptional comic cast but too often feels like something Christopher Guest thought of and cast aside.

The Grand is a mockumentary that follows the progress of several different players in a 10 million dollar Las Vegas poker tournament called The Grand. Jack Faro (Woody Harrelson) is a legend on the Vegas Strip. Not for his card playing or the fact that he owns a casino, the Rabbit's Foot, but rather for his copious consumption of drugs and alcohol.

Oh and I neglect to mention Jack's 75 ex-wives. Sprung free from a two year stint in rehab, Jack needs 7 million dollars or he loses his casino to mogul Steve Lavish, an eccentric billionaire played by Chris Guest regular Michael McKean.

Facing off with Jack in the tournament are a collection of veterans, sharks and internet novices with their own unique histories and agendas. Lainie Schwartzman (Cheryl Hines) is a champion player looking to win The Grand for the first time. With her nebbish husband Fred (Ray Romano) and their three kids in tow, Lainie is a favorite to win. As is Lainie's brother Larry (David Cross). Though Lainie has more often than not beaten her brother, he remains a top player. Together they have weathered the creepy, intense competitiveness of their father (Gabe "Mr. Kotter" Kaplan) that has left them both a little emotionally crippled but great card players.

Then there are the legends. Dennis Farina looks every bit the Vegas veteran who longs for the days when mobsters busted knee caps and poker victories came with complimentary hookers. His old friend, The German (Werner Herzog, yes THE Werner Herzog) is an equally ruthless player who travels with a cadre of small animals, one of which he murders everyday to keep his instincts sharp. The wildcards in this multi-million dollar tourney are an internet poker amateur named Andy Andrews (Richard Kind) and a socially inert savant named Harold (Chris Parnell).

6 of these players will be at the final table playing for the big prize and we are told by director Zak Penn that the game being played is for real. The Grand is credited as written by Penn and pal Matt Bierman but according to Penn the actors improvised all of their dialogue based on character sketches and a barebones plot. The final card game is in fact a real game with the outcome determined by actual hands of cards between the actors. Each of the actors then delivers on whatever is expected of their character according to what the cards do for them. It's a unique idea and lends a bit of suspense to scenes that could have been quite predictable.

Other than that final hand however, The Grand remains nothing more than a clone of Christopher Guest only slightly more subdued. A talented crew of comics and actors fumble their way toward jokes, occasionally finding them, more often earning a laugh for the fumble as for the found humor. The Grand isn't bad really. The actors are fun and the poker setting is strong even as the competitive poker trend ticks down its 15 minutes of fame. I can give it a partial recommendation on the strength of a really good cast but keep your bets low on this hand.

Movie Review: Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns

Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns (2008)

Directed by Tyler Perry 

Written by Tyler Perry 

Starring Angela Bassett, Rick Fox, Lance Gross

Release Date March 21st, 2008

Published March 22nd, 2008 

In Diary of A Mad Black Woman a brave dramatic performance by actress Kimberly Elise. as an abused wife of privelege forced to start over from scratch was undermined by writer-director Tyler Perry and his indulgent alter-ego Madea character who literally takes a chainsaw to the movie and destroys everything in his/her path. In Madea’s Family Reunion Perry’s call for social change and understanding amongst African Americans is once again undermined by broad comic moments between Madea and Perry’s other alter-ego old Joe.

It seemed that Perry simply couldn’t get out of his own way. Then came Why Did I Get Married? A complete departure from Perry’s first two movies and I had hoped it was a sign that Perry had matured enough to bring his honest messages of love, community, social change and humor with style and filmmaking substance. Meet The Browns squashes that maturity in the first act.

Oscar nominee Angela Bassett stars in Meet The Brown’s as Brenda, a single mom of three kids, by three different fathers, living in inner city Chicago. Things are tough and getting tougher when she loses her job. With the lights turned out and her baby daddies nowhere to be found, Brenda finds that her own father has passed away. His name was Pop Brown and he lived in a small town in Georgia where he may have left Brenda something in his will that might help her out. Traveling to the small southern town Brenda is immediately greeted by her new family.

LeRoy Brown (David Mann) is a polyester wearing, bald headed clown with a heart of gold. Though he says inappropriate things and is prone to wild, inhuman swings of mood, from wild laughter to tears, no real anger, LeRoy is a big loving teddy bear as he takes these strangers right to the Brown family home. There Brenda and the kids meet LB (Frankie Faison), his loving wife Mildred (Irma P. Hall) and Vera (Jennifer Lewis) a drunk witch whose claws come out when it comes to protecting what might be in her daddy’s will. Ultimately, Vera is harmless but she is a terrible bother throughout, functioning as the agitating force of the last third of the film.

Brenda’s son Michael (Lance Gross) is a basketball prodigy and down south he catches the eye of a scout/coach and former NBA star named Harry (Rick Fox). Actually, it’s the lovely Brenda that caught Harry’s eye but helping Michael develop his talent and deal with agents and NBA scouts that begin snooping around is a good excuse to be around Brenda. Her experience with men causes her to keep him at a distance but the romance is inevitable.

It is as if there are two movies happening in Meet The Brown’s. In one Angela Bassett is giving a pro level dramatic performance as a loving, struggling mother who discovers she can still find a good man in Rick Fox’s Harry. In the other movie are the broad, over the top and often terribly unfunny Brown family who act as ludicrous filler material distracting from the earnest, socially relevant drama happening in the other movie. Where Bassett does yeoman's work to dramatize Brenda’s struggles, the Brown’s blow into the movie, screaming and yelling, splitting their pants and ranting about pimps, ho’s and money.

Perry has a filmmakers version of multiple personality disorder. On the one hand you have an eloquent social activist with a genuine talent for telling relevant truths with great heart and humor. Then you have the A.D.D comedian Tyler Perry who nervously inserts broadly written comic moments into the drama because he doesn’t trust to stay with him when things get serious. Somehow, he overcame that nervousness in Why Did I Get Married but the jittery comic is back, to his great detriment in Meet The Brown’s.

Movie Review: Drillbit Taylor

Drillbit Taylor (2008) 

Directed by Steven Brill

Written by Seth Rogen

Starring Owen Wilson, Leslie Mann, Danny McBride 

Release Date March 21st, 2008

Published March 21st, 2008

There are three different movies going amidst the chaos of the new comedy Drillbit Taylor. One is a retreaming of producer Judd Apatow and his writer pal Seth Rogan and their style of raunchy, genital based humor. Another is an Owen Wilson movie starring Wilson in his usual charming rogue comic persona. The last is the most distasterous, an Adam Sandler movie. Stephen Brill, Adam Sandler’s pal and director of Little Nicky and Mr. Deeds, attempts to force the disparate work of Apatow/Rogan, Owen Wilson and Brill’s brand of the Sandler schtick, sans Sandler, into Drillbit Taylor and the result is utterly brutal.

Owen Wilson stars as the title character in Drillbit Taylor, a homeless criminal who accepts a position as a bodyguard for three nerdy High School freshman being bullied by a nasty senior. Nate Hartley, Troy Gentile and David Dorfman play the desperate nerds Wade, Ryan and Emmit who need protection from Filkins (Alex Frost) who has decided to make their lives hell. Offering their whole allowances week after week in exchange protection, the best bodyguard they could afford is Drillbit who claims to be an ex-military ranger and hides his homelessness.

Initially, Drillbit just wants to rob the boys and sets about stealing their stuff under the guise of helping them. Eventually however, after seeing the boys get brutalized, he decides to train them to take care of themselves. His methods are a joke but damned if they don’t give the boys the confidence to stand up to Frost leading to an inevitable final confrontation.

As often is the case my description brings order to a plot where little order exists. Drillbit Taylor stops and starts and sputters through nearly two hours of unfunny violence and cruelty. The script by Seth Rogan and Kristofer Brown plays as if half finished, filled as it is with cliches like the clueless parents and uncaring teachers, just the kinds of characters Rogan and his co-writer pal Evan Goldberg avoided like the plague in his brilliant script for Superbad. Writing with another Apatow protege Kristofer Brown, with an alleged touch up by the legendary John Hughes, the script for Drillbit Taylor features strongly sympathetic kid characters who unfortunately are transported to the Adam Sandler movie world and are repeatedly abused until we just can’t watch, let alone laugh.

Stephen Brill’s direction has the subtlety and grace of an elephant on a frozen lake bed. Scenes slam into and bang off one another in a nearly random order early on as our heroes are kept from meeting Drillbit till the beginning of the films second act. More diversions keep Drillbit out of the school, where Wilson’s charming con man thrives ever so briefly as he romances Leslie Mann’s clueless teacher, until the third act. The third act which then takes forever to play out to a stunningly violent tet still predictable conclusion. .

What director Brill thinks is funny about the abuse he puts these poor kids through is an absolute puzzle. The film lingers on scenes of violence so ugly and scarring that that the movie loses touch with any sort of reality. Drillbit Taylor becomes merely a blunt instrument attempting to bludgeon audiences into submission. Meanwhile, as Steve Brill tries to bend Rogan and Brown’s characters and Wilson’s act to fit his Sandler movie mold it is as if Brill were bullying them into his movie.

Oddly enough dear reader, if Drillbit Taylor had starred Adam Sandler and not Owen Wilson, it might actually have come out better. Wilson simply isn’t cut out to play Drillbit who is called on to be a rude, uncaring, brute who learns to care. Wilson is better suited to playing con men with a heart of gold who can only be redeemed by a good woman as he was in Wedding Crashers or The Big Bounce (not a great movie, but not bad either). No, Drillbit is perfectly suited to Sandler’s manchild, raging id persona who can be believable as an uncaring jerk, as a brutish enforcer and as the teddy bear who learned a valuable lesson.

That is likely due to the direction of Brill who has only really known how to direct Sandler. He was at a loss trying to find a Sandler-esque character in the dismal 2005 comedy Without A Paddle and he is further at a loss in trying to turn Drillbit Taylor into a Sandler movie without Sandler. What you get when he attempts to bend Rogan, Apatow and Wilson to his will is a trainwreck of slapstick violence, low key deadpan and genital based character humor. Oh what an ugly wreck it is.

Movie Review: Doomsday

Doomsday (2008) 

Directed by Neil Marshall

Written by Neil Marshall

Starring Rhona Mitra, Bob Hoskins, Adrian Lester 

Release Date March 14th, 2008

Published June 12th, 2008 

Director Neil Marshall is a talented scenarist with a flair for hardcore violence. His The Descent is one of the best horror films of the decade. For his latest effort Doomsday, Marshal tries his hand at post-apocalyptic sci fi and finds he has little new to add to this aggressive sub-genre. Though Doomsday is skilled in its violence and has a strong visual sense, the story is beyond laughable, the characters wooden and forgettable.

In some not so distant future a virus dubbed 'Reaper' has devastated much of Scotland. The blood borne, possibly airborn disease has who of the Isle terrified and left London with a damnable decision. Sentencing millions to die horrifying deaths, the government built an 18 mile wall encompassing the whole border between England and Scotland.

Years later drug enforcement cops stumble on a cache of disease victims. The reaper virus is back and another horrible decision must be made. There is however a sliver of hope. Satellites have picked up movement in Glasgow, survivors. The thought is that the legendary Dr. Kane (Malcolm McDowell may have developed a cure.

The government throws together an elite fighting force to go into the infected area, find Kane and the possible cure. Major Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra) is charged with leading this force into battle. What she finds are a loose confederacy of survivors for whom violence, human sacrifice and cannibalism are the order of the day.

The skill of Neil Marshall's direction in Doomsday is undeniable. What is lacking is any good sense in the storytelling. Doomsday unfolds in anarchic fashion but lacking a truly anarchic spirit. Marshall can't seem to decide whether he is going for the hardcore cool of 28 Days Later or the ironic, distanced, black humor of Mad Max.

What comes of Doomsday is a failed melange of the darkly comic and the attempted tragic.

Star Rhona Mitra has the physicality and good looks necessary for this role but she is at times far too sullen and lacking in the badass cool that might turn Doomsday from gloomy to just goofy enough for guilty pleasure. I wanted to revel more in her  badassery but Mitra just won't let us in. We admire her stunt work and occasionally smirk at her attempts at humor but the performance is too flat to inspire anything more than modest admiration.

If you like bizarre you may admire Neil Marshall's use of music in Doomsday. Fine Young Cannibals, Siouxie and the Banshees and Frankie Goes To Hollywood each receive prominent placement in Doomsday in some bizarre, overly ironic tribute to the 1980's.

There was potential for Doomsday to be the kind of badass action movie that combined the spirit of Big Trouble in Little China with the horror aesthete of 28 Days Later. Unfortunately, Marshall can't quite get the mix right. His visual style is impeccable but for all the attention paid to stunts and effects, the story falters and Doomsday disappoints.

Movie Review Made of Honor

Made of Honor (2008) 

Directed by Paul Weiland

Written by Deborah Kaplan, Harry Elfont

Starring Patrick Dempsey, Michelle Monaghan, Kevin McKidd, Kathleen Quinlan, Sidney Pollack

Release Date May 2nd, 2008

Published May 2nd, 2008

Forget about An Inconvenient Truth or Leonardo DiCaprio's recent enviro-doc The 11th Hour or any nature movie you've ever seen. The most environmentally conscious film ever is without a doubt the new romantic comedy Made of Honor, the first movie ever made entirely of recycled materials. Recycled script, recycled characters, recycled plot, recycled everything. There is in fact next to nothing in Made of Honor that isn't recycled from some other romantic comedy right down to the stock scenes of a chase to the church and a character who gets punched in the nose at a wedding.

Grey's Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey stars in Made of Honor as Tom, an amoral ladies man who lives to sleep with a different woman every night. He has the perfect set up, he sleeps with random babes but has his best friend Hannah to provide him with the kind of female companionship he truly desires. Unfortunately, Hannah has a trip to Scotland that disrupts Tom's set schedule. With Hannah out of the country and mostly out of touch Tom realizes that his life stinks without her. He decides that he loves her and will tell her when she returns. However, Hannah doesn't return alone.

While in Scotland she fell for a hunky Scot named Colin (Kevin McKidd) and accepted his proposal. On a whim, she is getting married and she wants Tom to be her Mate of Honor. If you can't predict what happens from there then you have likely never seen a romantic comedy before. From the chase to the church to someone getting punched out at the wedding, Made of Honor recycles every imaginable rom-com cliché. The movie, directed by Paul Weiland even tosses in some questionable low brow humor for good measure.

Made of Honor is so astonishingly clichéd and predictable that had it included an all cast sing along to a well known pop song it would tip completely over into an ironic rom com parody and I could recommend it. As it is, Made of Honor is an earnest attempt at romantic comedy that fails on familiarity alone. On most every level the film is... competent. Patrick Dempsey is appealing. Michelle Monaghan is love and everything from the supporting cast to the direction is competently crafted. The problem is we've seen it all before. The script from three different writers recycles every cliche in the book and somehow expects us to simply accept it.

No acceptance here, Made of Honor stinks like the compost of dozens of similar romantic comedies. No matter the appealing  elements we've seen it all before and thus there is no reason to see Made of Honor.

P.S

As for the bizarre title "Made of Honor". Now having seen the movie, I still can't make sense of it. Tom is the Maid of Honor but why the title goes with 'Made' is a complete mystery.

Movie Review Madea Goes to Jail

Madea Goes to Jail (2009) 

Directed by Tyler Perry

Written by Tyler Perry

Starring Tyler Perry, Tamela Mann, David Mann

Release Date February 20th, 2009

Published February 21st, 2009

I am one of the few critics in the country who has willfully gone out of my way to be fair to Tyler Perry. While others could not stand his Madea character, not an unfair judgment really, I stuck it out with Perry and have come to terms with his dress wearing alter-ego. My patience was rewarded with Perry's exceptionally thoughtful, funny and well considered drama Why Did I Get Married. The film was a Woody Allen moment for Perry, an adroit, adult oriented movie of honesty and emotional truth. Best of all, no Madea to blow things sky high with her over the top comic persona.

I had hoped Why Did I Get Married would be a watershed moment for Perry. A moment where he finally corralled his tremendous social conscience and channeled it through characters people could connect with. Instead, Madea was soon back on screen and blowing up everything around her. Madea re-takes the main stage in Madea Goes To Jail and Perry has regressed right back to his sad, unfortunate, Diary of A Mad Black Woman days. That film is one of the more bizarre movies of the last decade, a serious drama about a serious topic and serious characters that gets blown sky high by Perry's insistence on putting on a dress and being funny. 

Diary Of A Mad Black Woman was about a troubled marriage, an abused woman and how she was able to get out from under all the sadness in her life and come into her own. Kimberly Elise delivers a powerhouse performance as the abused woman and Steve Harris is menacing as the cheating abusive husband. The drama of the relationship is stunningly effective in some scenes, despite the awkward direction of Perry in his first time behind the camera. And then came Madea. Perry's broad comic drag character brought the movie to a dead stop every time she came on screen and despite her often insightful dialogue, the sight of Perry in the dress was distracting and his flights of broad comic fancy were just too much for the movie to take.

It was like putting a kitchen sink drama and a Jerry Lewis movie in a blender. Ugh. For Madea Goes To Jail Perry has unfortunately pulled the blender out of storage. Madea Goes To Jail tells the disparate stories of Madea getting into ever more increasing lunacy before ending up in prison and tells the story of Josh and Candace (Derek Luke and Keshia Knight Pulliam), college friends whose lives took very different paths after an incident at school. Josh went on to a law degree and a job with the District Attorney's office in Atlanta. Candace ended up on the streets as a prostitute and drug addict. The wounds of their shared trauma are ripped open when Candace is brought before a judge and Josh is the prosecutor.

After passing off the case, Josh pays Candace's bail and offers to help her in any way he can. This upends his relationship with a fellow D.A, Linda played by Ion Overman. Linda has an important secret that pays off the whole plot and ties everything together but by the time it is revealed you won't care. This is Perry's clumsiest scripting yet as he bounces between the comedy and drama in discomfiting fashion before a wrap up that you can predict as if there were an onscreen map attached. Once again the drama is well played. Luke and Keshia Knight Pulliam, yes, Cosby kid Rudi, deliver scenes of real honesty and pain. Unfortunately, they are trampled offscreen by Madea, her daughter Cora (Tamela Mann) and the ever annoying Mr. Brown (David Mann) from Perry's last unfortunate turn Meet The Browns.

As much as I am down on Madea in this review, I must say that I found the character to be funnier than ever before. Perry has found his comfort in the dress onscreen for the first time. He has her down and knows which way to twist his words to get a laugh. The long off-color backstory of Madea is an unfortunate aside but the wit is quick and the broad jokes and physical humor can't help but make you smile as I did. That said, it is not Madea that doesn't work, it's shoehorning her into this dark, urban drama with Luke and Pulliam that is the problem. It is that comedy/drama blender that is the problem. Even a great filmmaker could not pull off the mixture that Perry attempts here, the best filmmakers would have the good sense not to try.

I can't believe I have come this far and not mentioned that Oscar nominee Viola Davis is also in Madea Goes To Jail. The wonderful Ms. Davis plays a Church Minister who walks the street handing out free condoms and clean needles to prostitutes and addicts. She's no liberal sap or a saint, Davis plays the kind of character that Perry is exceptional at creating but incapable of exploiting. Her deep social conscience and unending well of caring is remarkably real. She doesn't so much preach as instruct with the help of Jesus as a backup. Perry should make an entire movie with this character and Ms. Davis and no Madea. That would be something. Something far more than the ugly sum of Madea Goes To Jail.

Movie Review Mamma Here We Go Again

Mamma Mia Here We Go Again (2018) 

Directed by Ol Parker

Written by Ol Parker 

Starring Amanda Seyfried, Cher, Christine Baranski, Pierce Brosnan, Julie Walter, Dominic Cooper

Release Date July 20th, 2018

Published July 19th, 2018

Low expectations and an upgrade in the director’s chair have combined to make a Mamma Mia sequel so unexpectedly good that I am still humming about it. Mamma Mia Here We Go Again has no right to be as fun and entertaining as it is, based off of the horror show that was the sloppy, 2008 original, and yet here we are. Director Ol Parker has brought order to the chaos of the original Mamma Mia and delivered a prequel/sequel far superior to the dismal original.

Mamma Mia Here We Go Again picks up the story of Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) five years after the action of the original story. Now 25, Sophie is running her mom’s, Donna (Meryl Streep), hotel and is about to hold a gala grand opening. Unfortunately, mom won’t be there. Nor will two of her three adopted fathers, Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) and Harry (Colin Firth). Luckily, Sam (Pierce Brosnan) is at hand, along with Auntie Tanya (Christine Baranski) and Auntie Rosie (Julie Walter).

Worse yet though, Sky (Dominic Cooper), despite being Sophie’s one true love and business partner, will not be there either and is considering a job offer in New York. This leads Sophie to once again pick up her mom’s diary for some bolstering. The diary is the lead-in for a flashback to that glorious Greek summer when Donna met Harry, Bill and Sam, and became pregnant with Sophie. Best of all, it brings us the vibrant Lily James as the young Donna.

Do you recall that time you first saw Julia Roberts’ megawatt smile in Pretty Woman? If you’re my age you likely do and you remember the electricity of seeing a movie star emerge before your eyes. That’s Lily James in Mamma Mia Here We Go Again, a star bursting to life before our eyes. Sure, she was great in Cinderella and has honed her craft in other films, but here, she bursts forth with charisma to spare in a one of a kind performance.

James is so great she overwhelms all three of her male co-stars, none of whom make a dent in your memory despite being young and handsome. I could list their names but I couldn’t pick them out of a lineup even after having just seen the movie. James’ vibrancy is such that her co-stars don’t really matter, they are but mirrors through which to bask in Collins’ star-making performance. Can she sing? Yeah, well enough, but like Streep in the first film, she can sell the singing with passion and performance and that’s what matters.

I kept getting annoyed with the present day Sophie storyline for getting in the way of the flashbacks which were far more compelling. Slowly but surely however, the main story begins to turn an emotional corner. The flashback story begins to underline the action of the modern story in lovely ways and what emerges is a story for mothers and daughters and one that isn’t about the absurd and nasty notion of turning into one’s mother. One would count themselves lucky to become Donna.

As for the music of Mamma Mia Here We Go Again, my favorite performance is Waterloo, though it is arguably the most superfluous in terms of the plot. Indeed, I can recognize that praising the one performance that violates the order and structure that I have praised as a remarkable improvement over the original, is slightly contradictory. That said, Lily James and Young Harry (Hugh Skinner) really steal the show in this performance.

Director Ol Parker sets the scene in Paris where Harry and Donna met in 1979, the same summer she left for Greece. Though Donna is leaving, Harry nevertheless, throws himself at her feet and tells her he loves her and then they sing Waterloo at a French restaurant where waiters are dressed as Napoleon (Ho, Ho!). It sounds cheesy and it is, intentionally so. Director Parker directs the performance like an old school, early 80’s music video, a-la Adam Ant’s Goody Two Shoes, with wacky set pieces and even slightly grainy cinematography to really sell the bit.

Waterloo is wildly funny and a wonderfully shorthand way to bring Donna and Harry together before taking them apart. The other standout is My Love, My Life, which will leave many audience members, especially moms and daughters, a weepy mess. The trailer has spoiled that Sophie is pregnant and the correlation between her pregnancy and her mother’s pregnancy, is brought to bear on this wonderful performance with James and Seyfried singing in different time frames with the same meaning.

Ol Parker had an uphill battle to bring the unwieldy mess that was the Mamma Mia backstory into some semblance of order and he’s done an exceptional job. Sure, he takes the easy way out by mostly ignoring the problematic elements of the original backstory, but what he cobbles together works and the orderly plot helps strengthen our bond with these characters, something that was missing in the first film while we puzzled over how all of the pieces fit.

Thanks to director Parker, we can forget about the nonsense of figuring out when the film is set. It's 1979 when Donna meets Sophie’s dad, by the way, and the movie simply gets on with enjoying some Abba. The disco backlash of the early 80’s robbed us of the joy of Abba’s pop silliness and soapy dramatics and I’m glad to have it back, even if it isn’t the most respectable comeback. Abba was a heck of a lot of fun if you give over to them and we’re able to do that here with far less work involved than in the original.

By the time we reach the credits climax with Super Troupers, a reprise from the original movie, featuring the full cast in full Abba regalia, the movie has won us over with its bubbly spirit and Lily James star-calibur, Awards calibur performance. James is a powerhouse movie star. I won’t go as far as to say she deserves an Academy Award, though I am not opposed to the idea, but wow, we don’t need to see anyone else when it comes Golden Globe time, this is your Best Actress in a Comedy or a Musical, hands down.

I went into Mamma Mia Here We Go Again with a sour attitude, assuming it was going to be as insufferable as the original. What a joyous surprise to find that the sequel makes logical sense, fixes the holes punched in the space time continuum in the original, and crafts a heartfelt and quite funny story out of a bunch of goofy, funny, melodramatic tunes from one of the most underrated groups of all time. This is what Mamma Mia should have been all along, a brassy, blowsy, ballsy, belting it to the back of the room Broadway comedy in execution as much as in idea.