Movie Review Hart's War

Hart's War (2002) 

Directed by Gregory Hoblit

Written by Billy Ray, Terry George 

Starring Bruce Willis, Colin Farrell, Terrence Howard, Cole Hauser, Rory Cochrane, Sam Worthington

Release Date February 15th, 2002 

Published February 14th, 2002 

War movies are hell. Earlier this year we were bombarded by war movies with Black Hawk Down, Behind Enemy Lines, No Man's Land, and We Were Soldiers. And now, this week, Bruce Willis has a war movie for us. Set in a WW2 prison camp, Hart's War has Willis co-starring with hot young superstar Colin Farrell (According to MGM, Colin Farrell's name must always be preceded by the words "hot young superstar"). Farrell is Thomas Hart, a privileged lieutenant whose Senator father pulled strings to get him an office job rather than serving on the front. 

Hart is a map jockey, as my grandpa always called the guys back at headquarters. When an army major needs a ride, Hart offers to drive him but on the way German soldiers attack them. The major is killed and Hart is taken prisoner. After being tortured by German intelligence over his knowledge of American troop movements we are left to wonder if Hart gave up the info as he is sent to a military prison.

The American prisoners are presided over by Colonel McNamara (Willis), a third generation West Point grad. Although it seems as if McNamara has accepted his situation as a P.O.W, we find out that McNamara has far from given up the idea of fighting the war. In secret, McNamara and fellow P.O.W's are scheming to fight their captors. When Farrell arrives in the camp, he gets caught in the middle of suspicions over the escape attempts and a racial divide among the white American Officers and the African American enlisted men. 

Though the flyers are officers they are assigned to bunk with the enlisted men where racial tensions flare leading to one of the flyers (played by Reon Shannon) being framed and accused of attempting to escape for which he is executed by the Germans. This leads to a murder, with the other flyer (Terrence Howard) being accused. All of this is a build-up to the film’s climactic courtroom sequence, which is actually a cover for an escape attempt. That isn't any spoiler; you know that from the films over explanatory marketing campaign.

Filmed at a former Russian military training camp in the Czech Republic, Hart's War has the look of WW2 Germany down, the period is well realized. The film’s story, however, is not. The pace is slow and while Hart's War distinguishes itself from other recent war films with its lack of gory realistic violence, it lacks the urgency such violence portrays and what helps make people understand just how horrific war is.

The courtroom scenes provide a strong cover for the escape but in comparison they aren't nearly as interesting. The drama is with the guys going under the wire, not with the kid lawyer exercising his knowledge of military justice. Terrence Howard is effective with a fantastic monologue in the court sequence. Willis and Farrell however never come to life. Both characters seem like passionate guys but they both hide their passion behind glum masks, which distances the audience from the tension that should be building.

Hart's War is a slowly paced, slog through a courtroom story that is all a dull cliche. The war is never portrayed as the urgent activity it obviously was. The film begins slow and never gains speed. If you’re a Bruce Willis fan you might check it out, if not, I'd skip Hart's War.

Movie Review: Crossroads

Crossroads (2002) 

Directed by Tamra Davis 

Written by Shonda Rhimes 

Starring Britney Spears, Anson Mount, Zoe Saldana, Taryn Manning, Kim Cattrall, Dan Akroyd, Justin Long

Release Date February 15th, 2002

Published February 15th, 2002 

Will pop stars ever learn?

It never fails that every time a pop star gains any kind of popularity their instincts lead them to acting. Madonna, Mandy Moore and Michael Jackson have all made miserable attempts at acting careers. And of course we're all still recovering from the film debuts of N'Sync and Mariah Carey. Now the world’s flavor of the decade, Britney Spears, has made her crossover attempt with the pop flavored Crossroads.

Britney is Lucy, the virginal valedictorian with a voice like an angel. On the day of her high school graduation Lucy reunites with old friends to unearth a box of childhood memories buried 10 years earlier. It seems Lucy and her friends Mimi (Taryn Manning) and Kit (Zoey Saldana) have grown apart in the last 10 years but now are coming back together for a road trip to L.A. so Mimi can become a rock star and Lucy can find the mother who abandoned her when she was just 3 years old.

So, now we have combined the road movie with the pop star vehicle, oh could this possibly suck more? Well in fact yes, yes it can and does suck even more. Lucy finally finds her mother who is played by Sex & The City's Kim Cattrall, and we are treated to one of the most stupid, mean and contrived situations this side of daytime soap operas. Lucy meets her mother and rather than go with what should be the film’s dramatic high-point, the film cuts to her friends hanging out a local hotel and Lucy returning crying as she explains that her mother hates her and wishes she was never born. How fun!

To be fair, Britney is good at eliciting sympathy. Her acting leaves a good deal to desire but she's far better than fellow pop tarts Mandy Moore and Mariah Carey. What is most striking is how young Britney looks. She is reportedly 21 years old in real life, but in the film her character is 18 and she looks about 14. That's both blessing and a curse in some ways, as her remarkable youth is a tad unnerving considering where the plot is going and considering what I am about to discuss. 

Not surprisingly, there are a couple of gratuitous shots meant to appeal to horny young boys. Britney prances around in her underwear twice in the first 20 minutes of the film. I must give Britney credit for bravely risking her virginal reputation by allowing her character to be deflowered in the film. I certainly didn't expect or really desire to see this but here we are. Britney's journey is arriving where she's going to have sex for the first time. 

The saddest thing about the film is it’s inclusion of Jeepers Creepers star Justin Long in the throwaway role of Britney's first boyfriend. Long is a tremendous comic actor as he's shows on NBC's highly underrated Ed. In Crossroads, Long appears in the film’s first 20 minutes, providing the film’s only funny moments and then is eschewed in favor of the more teeny bop, test screened hunk Anson Mount whose performance is extremely dull in comparison to the animated, funny turn by Long.'

Crossroads is as awful as we all thought it would be, and Britney, I hope, will go back to her day job. But she can do so knowing at least this was better than Glitter.

Movie Review Rollerball

Rollerball (2002) 

Directed by John McTiernan

Written by Larry Ferguson, John Pogue 

Starring Chris Klein, Rebecca Romijn, LL Cool J, Paul Heyman 

Release date February 8th, 2002 

Published February 7th, 2002 

Roger Ebert once said of the movie Mad Dog Time that the film did not improve upon the sight of a blank screen viewed for the same amount of time. I haven't seen Mad Dog Time but after seeing Rollerball I completely understand the sentiment. Rollerball is astonishingly boring on top of being mind numbingly awful. 

Rollerball stars poor misguided Chris Klein as the star player of the international sport of Rollerball. I've skipped ahead of the story, he doesn't begin the film by playing Rollerball, but you see the beginning of the film has nothing to do with anything. My theory is that the director owed the extras in the scene a favor and decided to leave it in the final product.

Oh right the story, anyway Chris joins his old college buddy LL Cool J in playing Rollerball. Leave out the age inconsistency in their having been college buddies because counting the inconsistencies in Rollerball might take as long as watching the film itself. Forget about the story description too, it's hard to call something so scattershot a story. From what I gathered, there is something about Jean Reno being a bad guy who hurts people and Chris and LL want to stop him along with Rebecca Romijn who does.... something. I'm not sure exactly what her function was, because all I remember is her awful, awful accent.

Adding to the idiocy, for some reason there is a ten-minute section of the film around the halfway mark that was filmed with a night-vision camera. We don't know why but there it is in all its pointlessness. As for the sport of Rollerball, I believe it's a series quick edits of mindless violence set to some stupid speed metal anthem.

What is most frightening is that this is the re-shot and "improved" version of Rollerball. The film was initially to be released in August 2001 but after a disastrous preview screening attended by our friends at Ain't It Cool News. The producers pulled the film and ordered it re-cut and re-shot. If this is the better version, the original must be something akin to a filmed bowel movement.

Honestly, when wrestling announcer Paul Heyman stars as the Rollerball announcer and brings the film it's only source of dignity there is something very wrong. If you were thinking of seeing Rollerball let me save you the ticket price. Make a fist and punch yourself about the stomach and head for two solid hours. That's easily the equivalent experience of watching Rollerball, if you also poked yourself in the eyes while doing it. 

Movie Review Nights in Rodanthe

Nights in Rodanthe (2008) 

Directed by George C. Wolfe

Written by Anne Peacock, John Romano 

Starring Richard Gere, Diane Lane Christopher Meloni, Scott Glenn

Release Date September 26th, 2008 

Published September 25th, 2008 

Sitting down to watch Nights In Rodanthe I wanted to get into the proper mindset necessary for enjoying a Nicholas Sparks novel adaptation. So, venturing to the theater I brought with me some chocolate bon bons, a carafe of wine and a box of tissues. I slipped on my sensitive guy sweater and went forth to enjoy a good cry while watching Nights In Rodanthe.

The mood enhancements didn't pay off. Despite my proper mindset, Nights In Rodanthe still stunk.

Dr. Paul Flanner (Richard Gere) is the only guest at a scenic North Carolina inn. It's the off season and the good doctor has offered the owner double the cost for a room. The owner however will be out of town and the inn in the hands of a friend, Adrienne Wells. Newly divorced, Adrienne (Diane Lane) is getting a weekend away from her two kids and dealing with a cheating husband (Christopher Meloni) who wants to come home.

Dr. Flanner has a secret as to why he is overpaying for a beach view he isn't interested in. He lost a patient and that patient's husband (Scott Glenn) wants to have a conversation with him. Convenience of plot aside, conditions could not be more perfect for forced romance between the doctor and the faux inn-keeper, especially after a hurricane rolls in.

The most glaring issue I have with Nights In Rodanthe is the inactive characters. Never do either Here or Lane give the impression that they aren't characters in a plot that is pushing them from one scene to the next. The script lays in little details in such obvious ways that small children could count the scenes till they pay off.

George C. Wolf directs the action with a tin ear for dialogue and pacing. His direction shoves Gere and Lane from one scene to the next with little care for actually motivating these characters from one scene to the next. The plot requires them to do certain things, be certain places and pay off those little details and Gere and Lane do things like soldiers just following orders.

Lane and Gere smoldered their way through the snaky thriller Unfaithful back in 2002 and earned Lane an Oscar nomination. In Nights In Rodanthe they try to  rekindle that smolder and find only ash. Lane is engaged and emotional and from time to time rouses the movie out of its cliche ridden funk. Gere however, is sleepwalking.

His character is supposed to be in a funk but he's also supposed to come out of it. Heck, there is even dialogue referring to his coming out of this funk. Yet, to watch Gere even the romance and the sex can't bring this guy around. Maybe he, like us, can see the writing on the wall and with a plot already pushing his character from one scene to the next, why should he bother expending any energy.

I can already see the emails explaining to me how this movie was not made for me, I'm not the audience, blah blah blah. I disagree. My credentials on being fair to a movie like Nights In Rodanthe are strong. I liked The Notebook, another Nic Sparks adaptation. I liked Under The Tuscan Sun which was just as wishy washy as this but had Diane Lane in a role where she was an active participant and not a walking plot piece.

I liked both Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movies, definitely not made with me in mind but made with qualities that could be appreciated by any audience. Whomever Nights In Rodanthe was made for are going to be disappointed in this sop-tastic  tear puller.

Movie Review: Drive

Drive (2011) 

Directed by Nicholas Winding Refn

Written by Nicholas Winding Refn 

Starring Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Oscar Isaac, Albert Brooks, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks

Release Date September 16th, 2011

Published September 15th, 2011

Ryan Gosling is arguably the best actor working today. His performances in the last year in a diverse slate from the romantic comedy "Crazy, Stupid, Love" to the thriller "All Good Things" to the romantic tragedy "Blue Valentine," have demonstrated Gosling's chameleon-like ability to melt into any role and give life to a variety of fascinating characters.

Gosling's latest performance is arguably his best. "Drive" Stars Ryan Gosling as The Driver. We never learn his name, nor do his unique clients. The Driver spends his days as a Hollywood stunt driver and his nights as a wheelman for high paying criminals. The Driver gives the criminals a five minute window to commit their crime. Within that window he will drive them anywhere and keep them from the cops.

The Driver lives a quiet and very private life making certain not to form relationships or attachments that could imperil his objectivity. Naturally, we know that will change and he does, slowly but surely when he meets Irene (Carey Mulligan). Irene is his neighbor and has a small child that The Driver strikes an immediate friendship with.

The budding romance is cut short with the revelation that Irene's husband/baby daddy Standard (Oscar Isaac) is getting out of prison and coming home. Here, director Nicholas Winding Refn twists our expectations by playing the predictable showdown between The Driver and Standard quietly and thoughtfully.

Gosling betrays The Driver's true feelings for Irene with his eyes but his actions are a different matter. In a departure from his code of non-involvement, The Driver comes to Standard's aid and attempts to get him out from under a debt to criminals who had protected him in prison. This departure by The Driver will prove costly and the rest of plot unfolds from there with an unexpectedly violent flourish. Drive is stunning in its violence, evoking the calculating yet gory viscera of David Cronenberg's "A History of Violence" and "Eastern Promises."

The influences exhibited in "Drive" don't end with Cronenberg. The look and sound of "Drive" evokes the work of writer-director Paul Schrader on "American Gigolo." The neon font of the film titles, the synth soundtrack and the over the shoulder camera position in the driving scenes all evoke Gigolo. Why "American Gigolo?" You'd have to ask director Refn about that; on the surface the two films share little more than the Refn's choice of homage.

Though the influences are obvious "Drive" is far from derivative. The ideas in the film are its own and they are executed with gripping efficiency. Ryan Gosling's acting choices carry weight and intrigue and you can't help but be fascinated by what he will do next. Gosling holds you in thrall as The Driver drifts  further and further into danger.

Gosling is equaled in very different ways by the work of Albert Brooks and Carey Mulligan. You've never thought of Albert Brooks as menacing but you will believe him menacing wielding a knife with fierce efficiency. Carey Mulligan meanwhile, matches the intensity and dangerous charisma of Gosling and Brooks with fragility, beauty and empathy.

"Drive" is a remarkable film, artful, intelligent and gripping. The cast is extraordinary and the direction by Nicholas Winding Refn is superb.


Movie Review Lars and the Real Girl

Lars and the Real Girl (2007) 

Directed by Craig Gillespie

Written by Nancy Oliver

Starring Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Paul Scheider, Kelli Garner, Patricia Clarkson

Release Date October 12th, 2007 

Published November 8th, 2007

“They’re not real so they last forever, isn’t that neat?” 

I want to start this essay by stating how much I adore the movie Lars and the Real Girl. This article is going to be hyper-critical of the movie and I don’t want anyone thinking that I feel the movie is bad or poorly made. Rather, I think it is a memorable, entertaining and moving work made by people of great empathy and care. On a specific level, regarding the character of Lars, it is a wonderfully told story. That said, I do have some issues with the movie that I feel are valid. 

Lars and the Real Girl centers on Lars, a lonely man who struggles with deep insecurities. When Lars’ sister-in-law, Karin, becomes pregnant, Lars becomes even more withdrawn and unusual than before. His idea to cope with his latest bout of insecurity is to purchase a sex doll, but not for sex. In Lars’ mind, Bianca, the doll, is a real woman who has come to stay while on a missionary trip. Lars gives Bianca a full backstory and a life of her own and even has her stay at his brother Gus's house rather than with him in order to maintain propriety as he sees it. 

As is revealed through dialogue, when Lars was born, his mother died while giving birth. This has bred into Lars a fear of pregnancy as expressed in his awkward and fearful interactions with Karin. Furthermore, Lars’ father was withdrawn and depressed as Lars grew up and he eventually took his own life. This created a sense in Lars of the impermanence of life and deeply set his fears and insecurities regarding losing people he cares about. 

Are you sensing a pattern? Lars and the Real Girl appears to have an origin story for every one of Lars’ insecurities. When Lars acts out and buys Bianca and then settles into the delusion that Bianca is a real person with a real life and a voice that he can hear and converse with, the movie has an answer as to why and sets about showing off a solution to Lars’ many problems. That solution involves everyone in Lars’ life and the town in which he lives, going along with his delusion that Bianca is real 

And it works, eventually, Lars begins to enact Bianca’s death, a death that is symbolic and cathartic, a necessary step toward his recovery and re-emergence into a more normal life. It’s not simple, per se, the movie doesn’t take shortcuts. Rather, my issue is how neat it all is. I’m not a professional psychologist but even I know that what Lars is going through is a dissociative state that he can and likely will overcome with a symbolic gesture and a little help. 

But you don't have to have even minor knowledge of psychology to see that Director Craig Gillespie and writer Nancy Oliver leaning over shoulder through the movie and asking you if you understood the deeper meaning of their movie. The constant back stories every one of Lars' quirky personality traits, the source of his trauma, the grief and drama that like caused him to delusionally disassociate from the world is revealed and underlined in often heavyhanded dialogue, just to make sure that the dum-dums in the audience understood the origin story for every aspect of Lars' life. 

I'm certainly critical of this aspect of Lars and the Real Girl, I do believe the movie is overbearing in how the script occasionally looks down upon the audience. But, I do not hate this movie. In fact, I have a deep affection for Lars and the Real Girl, an affection deeply tied to Ryan Gosling's remarkable and unique performance as Lars. Gosling is incredible at portraying a traumatized and infantilized young man slowly beginning to recover but unlikely to ever be fully recovered. He's gone through too much and been stunted for so long that he will likely struggle the rest of his life. 

That fact is at the heart of Lars and the Real Girl which, though it appears to have a happy ending, it is just melancholy enough to leave you feeling a wealth of empathy for Lars, hoping he can move forward but clear in the knowledge of how deeply damaged and often low functioning he is. It's remarkable that a movie and an actor can communicate that kind of depth, even as Lars and the Real Girl tends to lean far too heavily into exposition. 



Movie Review: Fracture

Fracture (2007) 

Directed by Gregory Hoblit

Written by Daniel Pyne, Glenn Gers

Starring Ryan Gosling, Anthony Hopkins, David Straithairn, Rosamund Pike, Embeth Davidtz, Cliff Curtis, Billy Burke, Fiona Shaw 

Release Date April 20th, 2007

Published 19th, 2007

There is plenty of Oscar related gravitas to go around on the new thriller Fracture. Star Anthony Hopkins won an Oscar for Silence of the Lambs. His young co-star Ryan Gosling is fresh off of his first nomination for Half Nelson and David Straithairn isn't long from his Best actor nomination for Good Night and Good Luck. With all of that Oscar gold shining  it could be easy to miss how shallow and unworthy a movie like Fracture is.

This movie of the week, sub-Law & Order-CSI, thriller wastes a group of great actors on a plot full of minor cracks and imperfections or fractures if you will.

Willy Beachum (Ryan Gosling) has one foot out the door. Having just landed a big paycheck; corporate law gig; Willy is leaving behind the district attorney's office and his 100% conviction rate. He just has one case left on the docket and it looks like a slam dunk. A wealthy older man, Ted Crawford (Anthony Hopkins), has attempted to murder his much younger wife (Embeth Davidtz). Crawford confessed to shooting her. The police on the scene found the gun in his hand. They were the only people in the house. This guy is guilty.

So how can this guy Ted plead not guilty? And why did he decide to represent himself in court. If Willy weren't already out the door on his way to that new job; he might have asked these important questions and maybe he wouldn't have been ambushed in court and made to look like a fool when it's revealed that the lead cop on the case, detective Rob Nunnally (Billy Burke), the man who took the confession and found the murder weapon, was sleeping with the victim.

Now, a case that should have been a slam dunk; is now a case that could cost Willy his career.

With the Oscar pedigreed cast and a complicated thriller plot, Fracture should work. Unfortunately, director Gregory Hoblit and writers Daniel Pyne Glen Gers can't get out of the way of these remarkable actors. Placing them in an untenable maze of cop and lawyer show garbage, Fracture unfolds like an average CSI or Law & Order episode, only less believable.

Despite a plot that betrays him, Ryan Gosling turns in a surprisingly good performance. Watching him work is like watching a young Newman or Redford as they came into their own as actors. Gosling has the looks and the brains of those legends and most importantly that classic smolder of a leading man. There is a scene in Fracture with Gosling and Rosamund Pike who plays his very brief love interest. They meet for the first time at an opera and sitting down the aisle from one another; Gosling gives Pike a look that has more heat than your average sex scene. It's a look that only a great leading man could give.

Anthony Hopkins can't help but be entertaining but in Fracture he seems a little more tired than we've ever seen him. Sleepwalking through this underwhelming plot' Hopkins falls back on a gleem in his eye and a forced creepy smile to sell this malevolent character. He also has Hannibal Lecter to fall back on and there are plenty of laconic Lecter-isms in Ted Crawford. Hopkins is still watchable but there is a cruise control feel to this performance.

What the creators of Fracture fail to realize is that modern audiences in the age of Court TV, CSI and Law & Order audiences are more savvy and knowledgeable about the law and law enforcement than ever before. So, when Willy misses an obvious bit of legal maneuvering, the cops seem to ignore pertinent information, or the killer makes an obvious forensic mistake, we notice and it takes us out of the movie.

I spent more time in Fracture pulling apart its legal logic, or lack of knowledge, than I did watching these two wonderful actors work together. It's a shame, because the few minutes I did watch the actors, they were very good.

Two great actors, one not so great movie, Fracture fails to take advantage of a seriously good pedigree. Instead we get a sub-cop show thriller that relies on ill logic and poor decision making by characters who should no better.  The creators of Fracture underestimate the intelligence of their audience and think they can play fast and loose with the rules of law enforcement. However, in the day and age of Court TV and Forensic Files, we know more than they give us credit for and the ill-logic of Fracture shows through.

The Cave (2005) – A Soggy, Sinking Creature Feature

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