Movie Review: The Time Machine

The Time Machine (2002) 

Directed by Simon Wells

Written by John Logan 

Starring Guy Pearce, Jeremy Irons, Samantha Mumba, Mark Addy, Orlando Jones, Doug Jones

Release Date March 8th, 2002

Published March 7th, 2002 

I have never read the classic story of The Time Machine by HG Wells but the story is so iconic and the idea of time travel so enticing I feel like I've read it. Though now after having seen this film version of The Time Machine I'm glad I never picked up the book.

For the uninitiated The Time Machine is the story of a doofus scientist Alexander Hartdegan, played by Guy Pearce, who after his fiancée is murdered becomes obsessed with going back in time and changing what happened saving her life. Hartdegan accomplishes time travel but finds himself unable to alter the past, for some reason no matter how he changes things his fiancée dies anyway. These early scenes are somewhat effective and setup an intriguing question. Why can't Hartdegan alter the past? Hartdegan, confounded by his inability to change the past, journeys to the future to answer his question.

His travels take him over 800,000 years into a future where there are now two species of human, the above ground and peaceful Eloi and the below ground terrorists, the Morlocks. Singer Samantha Mumba plays Alexander's perfunctory Eloi love interest and Jeremy Irons, chewing any scenery left over from his performance in Dungeon's and Dragons, is the evil Morlock overlord. Irons' character provides Alexander with the answer to why he can't change the past, an answer so unsatisfying I wanted to get up and leave. All of the scenes in this future world are boring illustrations of the missed opportunity The Time Machine truly is. Instead of tackling time travel from an intellectual, moral, or spiritual angle we are given a dull adventure plot that goes nowhere fast.

The film's main problem is it's perspective. I understand that since Alexander is from 1895 he doesn't have much of an idea of what to do with his invention other than to change his past, but what a squandered opportunity. The chance to see history in the making and all he can think of is himself, which doesn't make for a very likable character. It doesn't help that Pearce, plays Hartdegan as perpetually waking from a deep sleep always squinting and confused. Here is the guy who invented this time machine yet he still has no idea what it is he's doing with it.

And is it me or has Jeremy Irons completely slipped into self-parody? I can't watch him without laughing and I'm sure that is not what he is supposed to be going for.

The Time Machine is yet another big budget mess, all bells and whistles and no brain. Now that I think of it that is just typical Hollywood.

Movie Review Lantana

Lantana (2002) 

Directed by Ray Lawrence

Written by Andrew Bovell 

Starring Anthony LaPaglia, Barbara Hershey, Kerry Armstrong, Russell Dykstra

Release Date March 8th, 2002 

Published May 21st, 2002 

For those of you with no knowledge of Australian shrubbery, and unwillingness to grab a dictionary, the title of the film Lantana will be a complete mystery. Even watching the film I had no idea what lantana is. I though it was going to be a character’s name. I come to find out it is a form of shrub native to Australia that is a prickly mass, difficult to navigate, with a foul odor, but also containing small, beautiful flowers. The title now makes sense as this sticky, foul, yet beautiful plant is a perfect metaphor for the relationships portrayed in the film Lantana.

Anthony LaPaglia stars as Detective Leon Zat. Leon is married, though not quite happily, to Sonja (Kerry Armstrong) who is oblivious at first to her marital problems. The audience is clued in quickly as we are introduced to Leon's one-night stand Jane (Rachel Blake). Leon and Jane met at a dance class Leon was taking with his wife that was supposed to get them to be closer. Seeing that the dance classes aren't working, Sonja begins seeing a psychiatrist named Valerie played by Barbara Hershey. Valerie is a good psychiatrist but still has problems with her own marriage to John (Geoffrey Rush). It seems that another client of Valerie's, a gay man who is carrying on an affair with a married man, has got Valerie thinking her own husband may be the married man in question.

Also on the periphery of this story are Jane's neighbors Nik and Paula (Vince Colosimo and Daniella Fanucci) and Jane's ex-husband Pete. Each of those smaller roles become more pivotal after the murder of one of the lead characters.

Lantana at this point could have become a typical suspense genre police procedural with LaPaglia's detective becoming some rogue cop on the edge of the law. Director Ray Lawrence however refuses to rollover into genre convention. Instead, the murder is used to deepen the emotional elements of the interaction between the remaining characters.

Anthony LaPaglia has never been better. Sure he has played a cop a thousand times but this time it's not about being a cop, it's about dialogue and characterization. LaPaglia shines in a role that if “Hollywoodized,” would meltdown into dull melodrama.

Adapted from the stage play Speaking in Tongues by Andrew Bovell, Lantana is a powerful meditation on the complexities of marriage and all other relationships for that matter. The film is about the ridiculous games we play with people trying to show them our best face. Sometimes you lie, sometimes you tell half the truth or maybe you just tell someone what you think they want to here in order to avoid confrontation. These little games we've all played at one time are what Lantana lays bare in a way that is hard to watch at times.

The film isn't perfect, it's pacing is glacial and the title while properly metaphorical, is never explained, which I found distracting.

The overall intent of the film is very clear and its insight on relationships makes clear what’s wrong with a very similar film, Ed Burns's Sidewalks of New York. Sidewalks, with it's superficial dialogue and shallow characters, is the antithesis of Lantana. Sadly, Sidewalks is also the “Hollywoodized” version of Lantana. 

Movie Review: All About the Benjamins

All About the Benjamins (2002) 

Directed by Kevin Bray

Written by Ice Cube, Ronald Lang

Starring Ice Cube, Mike Epps, Anthony Michael Hall, Eva Mendes

Release Date March 8th, 2002 

Published March 8th, 2002

I've always liked Ice Cube as both a rapper and an actor. His performance in 1991's Boyz In The Hood was a blistering announcement of an actor who was here to stay. While at times Cube's style can be a little too laid back, his persona is such that he's always likable. In All About The Benjamins, his laid-back style is put to good use against the backdrop of sunny south Florida.

Cube plays Bucam, a bounty hunter who picks up petty criminals who skip bail while indulging in his love of expensive rare fish. After taking down a redneck criminal (Anthony Michael Hall in an unnecessary cameo), Bucam is once again assigned to pick up Reggie Wright (Mike Epps) a small time hustler whom he has picked up numerous times. Things are different in this pursuit however as Bucam, while chasing Reggie, happens upon diamond smugglers who try to kill him as Reggie hides in the back of their getaway car.

We've seen all of this before; the difference this time is the chemistry between Cube and Epps who have the easy rapport of a couple of good friends. Unfortunately Epps act is tiresome and Cube can't get out from under both Epps's hamminess and the script’s clichéd action.

The film attempts to buck action movie conventions but the attempts are obvious as if the film is trying to tell us, “See normally it's done this way but we are doing it this way.” This “too clever by half” approach only calls more attention to the clichés rather than subverting them.

Cube is great and has a great future as both a writer and actor. Epps on the other hand needs to work on his shtick, which gets tiresome quickly. The same energy and over the top attitude worked in How High, but in All About the Benjamins it's gone from funny to obnoxious.

Movie Review: We Were Soldiers

We Were Soldiers (2002) 

Directed by Randall Wallace

Written by Randall Wallace

Starring Mel Gibson, Madeline Stowe, Sam Elliott, Greg Kinnear, Keri Russell, Barry Pepper

Release Date March 1st, 2002 

Published February 27th, 2002

I have been complaining that I'm tired of war movies, there are just too many of them. Their themes and characters are becoming clichés, and there doesn't seem to be anymore stories to tell. Well, I was wrong and We Were Soldiers showed me I was very wrong.

Mel Gibson stars as an army colonel who leads the first soldiers into Vietnam in 1965. Gibson is also a family man with 5 children and a wife played by Madeline Stow. The opening of the film is surprisingly strong introducing the characters and scenes which we've seen a thousand times; the soldier who tries to be funny, the soldier with the attitude problem, and of course the teary good-byes between husband and wives. We Were Soldiers avoids any more cliches by remaining focused on Gibson and his family, and merely introducing supporting players Chris Klein and his wife played by Felicity's Keri Russell.

The beginning is strong but the film really takes off once the soldiers arrive in Vietnam and are almost immediately dropped into a hot zone where French soldiers had been massacred by the North Vietnamese months before. These scenes are as violent and bloody as anything we've seen before and maybe louder the film's soundtrack. It was at times so loud that my seat shook as if it were rigged to do so. Once in the jungle, Gibson matches wits with a North Vietnamese colonel, but unlike your typical action movie it's not painted as a one-on-one match, but a strategic match between equally matched opponents.

Not many films have had the courage to show America's enemies as human beings but We Were Soldiers does show us North Vietnamese soldiers who aren't monsters but rather just like our guys. They were defending their country and they did so by any means necessary.

The film's supporting cast is strong, especially Barry Pepper. No stranger to great war movies, Pepper stars as the first journalist on the ground who quickly finds more action than he bargained for. Pepper's war photographer is not some cowboy out to break a big story, but a normal person in an extraordinary situation.

We Were Soldiers is not a unique film. We've seen some of this stuff before, scenes that appear in every war movie as if they were required by law. But Gibson, Pepper, Chris Klein and writer director Randall Wallace make even those seemingly clichéd moments ring true and make We Were Soldiers the first great film of 2002.

Movie Review Street Kings

Street Kings (2008)

Directed by David Ayer

Written by James Ellroy, Kurt Wimmer, Jamie Moss

Starring Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, Hugh Laurie, Chris Evans, Common, The Game 

Release Date April 11th, 2008 

Published April 10th, 2008 

In her review of Street Kings Manohla Dhargis calls the film 'accidentally entertaining'.  What the hell does that mean? Were you entertained or not? It seems she was but she was embarrassed about it. No such shame for this reviewer. Street Kings is a violent, not so bright thriller that succeeds because it is so competently compelling.

Keanu Reeves, at his monotone blank slate best, stars in Street Kings as corrupt cop Tom Ludlow. As he drinks himself into stupor, Ludlow takes comfort in the fact that his corrupt behavior gets the bad guy when the system can't or won't. Thus, when we meet Tom he is busting up a group of Korean gang members, shooting and killing four and making it look like a legit bust. In the process of his crime he saved the life of a pair of missing, kidnapped twins.

The ends however do not justify the means for his ex-partner (Terry Crews) who suspects immediately the real story of Tom's 'heroism'. Thankfully for Tom he has a powerful commander (Forest Whitaker) on his side along with a cew of fellow corrupt Vice Cops willing to falsify evidence and cover his backside.

When Tom's former partner goes to internal affairs, headed up by House star Hugh Laurie, Tom is ready to punch his ticket but he gets beaten to the punch when the two are ambushed in a shady convenience store robbery. Tom survives, his partner takes 18 bullets in what is obviously more than a wrong place, wrong time incident.

The death of his partner sparks a new conscience for Tom the rogue gunfighter cop and searching for the killers brings about an awakening that is as dangerous as any case he's ever busted with his dirty cop schtick.

Street Kings was directed by David Ayer who debuted last year with the highly overrated vigilante actioner Harsh Times. That film featured an over the top performance by Christian Bale that contributed to the film's troubled tone and lack of any semblance of realism. In Street Kings, Ayer is plagued by the opposite kind of performance from Reeves, a monotone, relatively colorless performance that fails the film's emotional connectivity.

Not that Reeves' performance is not effective. In fact, this is one of the more engaged and active performances of Reeves' career. However, he simply isn't well suited to this role. Reeves' brand of earnest seriousness combined with a limited emotional range is not well suited to such a broadly emotional role.

Tom Ludlow is a vaguely racist, angry, drunken mess who kills criminals to deal with his pain and begins to feel guilty about his place in the world. The role calls for an actor who doesn't overplay the emotional extremes but unlike Reeves is not stoney eyed and inscrutable. A slightly younger Denzel Washington could have knocked this one out of the park.

That said, I don't mean to trash Reeves who I think is more talented than he is often given credit for. Yes, his limitations are well demonstrated but what he lacks in emotional demonstration he makes up for in many roles with his body language. He is a tremendous physical actor who uses his wiry frame to great effect.

In Street Kings Reeves' physicality gives him a presence that he's never had before. Adding a few pounds of muscle and a couple pounds around the midsection, Reeves communicates both his toughness and his destructive nature with his body.

The film remains hamstrung by Reeves lack of emotion but Director David Ayer still manages to make something of what he has. Using Reeves' man of action physical presence, Street Kings plays loose with the emotional stuff and becomes more of a straight action movie, heavy on bloodletting violence and light on the aftermath.

The content of Street Kings could have been something special with a more rangey actor in the lead but Reeves doesn't kill the movie. With Reeves in the lead we get a solidly crafted action flick that nails you to your seat with suspense and raises you from it with stunning acts of action movie violence. Nothing to be embarrassed about, Street Kings is a flawed, messy, yet highly entertaining old school action flick.

Movie Review: TMNT

TMNT (2007) 

Directed by Kevin Munroe

Written by Kevin Munroe 

Starring Chris Evans, Patrick Stewart, Sarah Michelle Geller, Kevin Smith, Mako, Ziyi Zhang

Release Date March 23rd, 2007 

Published March 22nd, 2007

Yet another retread of the Teenage Mutant Turtles attacks our cultural consciousness and as with so many copies of an original, it is dulled and less compelling, a copy of a copy really. Directed by a videogame veteran with videogame sensibilities, TMNT looks more like an ad for the TMNT game on the XBox 360 than like a feature length film.

The brothers, Leonardo, Raphael, Michaelangelo and Donatello, who make up the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crime fighting team, want only to be on the streets fighting crime and scarfing pizza. However, their sensei Master Shredder has forced them to give up crime fighting out of fear for their safety, not merely from the bad guys but from the good guys who could not easily accept talking turtles.

Each of the turtles has found their own way to deal with seclusion. Michaelangelo and Donatello perform at kids parties, dressed as turtles(?). Leonardo has thrown himself into training with Master Shredder. Raphael, on the other hand, has taken to vigilante-ism. Taking to the streets under the guise of the Nightwatcher, Raphael is inviting a number of dangerous encounters.

When his activities are exposed it leads to a rift between Leonardo and Raphael that nearly comes to blows. However, Raphael's activities do expose the crimes of a shady businessman who has teamed with a group of ninja assassins to steal 13 warrior statues that once gathered can be made real and used to take over or destroy the world.

Directed by video game veteran Kevin Munroe, TMNT delivers a view of the Ninja Turtles that seems to want to be a little darker than previous incarnations. Their is the sense that Munroe and screenwriter Peter Laird want to delve a little deeper into these characters and their motivations. Sadly, they abandon this idea early on in favor of some truly moronic and insulting humor and kid friendly action scenes.

Restricted by the typical rules of kiddie flick etiquette, Munroe and Laird give up any notion of creating really compelling characters and an engaging coming of age story in favor of simpleminded lessons and tropes about family and doing the right thing. Oh and a bit of bathroom humor, also a staple of this vacuous type of story.

There is some promise to TMNT early on and it comes in a showdown between Leonardo and Raphael in his guise of the Nightwatcher. Not knowing who the Nightwatcher really is, Leonardo engages him and the two fight until Raphael's real identity is revealed. The tension extends back home and the conflict is genuine and compelling.

Unfortunately, this interesting bit is quickly forgotten about and the typical tropes about loyalty, family and doing the right thing take center stage in all of their unambiguous, black and white forms. I'm not saying TMNT was ever going to offer great conflict or drama, but this story was interesting before it was jettisoned in favor of more simply manipulated emotions.

As for the animation, keep in mind that director Kevin Munroe comes from a video game background. TMNT looks so much like a videogame that you may be tempted to search around your seat for a controller. The animation of videogames have made great leaps in recent years but movies require a good deal more than mere kinetic, quick cut images.

Conditioned by the beautiful work of the team at Pixar, CG animation is now an art form and if a cartoon feature cannot match the beauty of Ratatouille, Cars or Monsters Inc, we aren't as interested or engaged. Pixar and the teams at Dreamworks Animation (Shrek) and the terrific Sony crew (Ice Age), have raised the bar in CG animation and a film as flat and colorless as TMNT pales in comparison.

Without a great story to pick up for the lack of great visuals, TMNT flounders and becomes tedious by the time the end comes in a mere 84 minutes.

TMNT is a flat, uninspired recreation of an inspired group of characters. The potential was there, but the imagination and daring were lacking leaving TMNT to be yet another product of kid-centric marketing. The makers of TMNT may have been better served dropping the turtles directly into television commercials for Pizza and pop, rather than wasting millions on a theatrical feature.

It's clear from watching TMNT that the only value of these characters can be found in their salability rather than their depth of character. Why not cut out the middleman and just make commercials and toys.

Movie Review: The Fantastic Four

Fantastic Four (2005) 

Directed by Tim Story 

Written by Michael France, Mark Frost 

Starring Chris Evans, Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, Ioan Gruffaud, Julian McMahon, Kerry Washington

Release Date July 8th, 2005 

Published July 7th, 2005 

What is it that those testosterone freaks from the gym say? Come hard or don't come at all? As overly aggressive as that sounds it's about setting a standard. When a film sub-genre features films as amazing as the two Spiderman movies, the original and new Batman flick and three X-Men movies any film that follows in that genre had, as they say, better come hard or not at all.

In the case of The Fantastic Four the 'not at all' would have been a better choice. Compared to it's superhero brethren Fantastic Four is an outright disaster. On it's own terms it has appeal to small children and the very, very forgiving amongst us. Unfortunately, I'm not all that forgiving.

Comic fans have been familiar with the powers of the Fantastic Four for nearly forty years. For the uninitiated, Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffaud) aka Mr. Fantastic, has the ability to stretch any part of his body. Sue Storm, (Jessica Alba) aka Invisible Girl, as her name implies, can become invisible. Sue's brother Johnny Storm, (Chris Evans) aka The Human Torch, can turn his entire body to flames and finally Ben Grimm, (Michael Chiklis) AKA The Thing, who's whole body is made of unbreakable rock.

The movie tells the origin story of the Fantastic Four as well as their arch nemesis Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon). On a space mission to investigate a mysterious energy field the Fantastic Four and the benefactor of the mission, Victor, are struck by this unique energy field and transformed into their fantastic forms.

Johnny Storm loves his new abilities; taking full advantage of his flammability to make a splash with the media. It is Johnny who gives the team nicknames and dubs them The Fantastic Four. Ben Grimm on the other hand cannot stand his rock formations which cost him his marriage and makes him the target of derision and eventually the police. Reed and Sue take a more scientific perspective as they seek ways to cure the mutations.

Victor Von Doom was also transformed and similar to Ben's rock; Victor is slowly turning to steel. At first he reacts like anyone would; using his billions of dollar to find a cure, but, then a case of movie evil sets in and Victor decides to be a world conquering super villain. When Victor uses his new steel form to control electricity and commit crimes only our fantastic heroes can stop him.

Director Tim Story and screenwriters Mark Frost, Michael France and Simon Kinberg remain mostly faithful to Stan Lee's origin story. In fact Tim Story even incorporates some of legendary comic artist Jack Kirby's visuals, such as a scene in which Ben Grimm stops a semi truck in it's tracks. The scene is shot from behind Ben with the truck coming straight for him and mimics a story board from the very first Fantastic Four comic.

The script also remains faithful to the family dynamic that Stan Lee established in the comics. Reed Richards with his graying temples and maturity is a natural father figure. Sue Storm is more of a de-facto mother character, she seems to young for the role but her romance with Reed makes it necessary. And of course Johnny and Ben with their childish rivalry are perfect bickering brothers. Lee mined this dynamic for humor not often found in the super hero genre.

The film however fails in it's few attempts at similar humor. The romance between Gruffaud and Alba is clumsy and fumbled and the rivalry between Johnny and Ben works only to make both seem oafish and imbecilic. Not helping matters is that each of the actors seems to be playing different beats. Gruffaud is impassive even when given a punch line while Alba just seems embarrassed. Michael Chiklis is playing a serious dramatic vibe which is at odds with the mildly ludicrous tone set by director Tim Story.

Something in Tim Story's direction amps up the comics least appealing aspects. The family humor of the comics was occasionally hokey as is much of the premise of the Fantastic Four. We accept it because of Lee's ability to make us care about these characters and Jack Kirby's exceptional drawings. Brought to physical life; the contrived nature of the comic is exposed by actors who seem unable to grasp the concept of their characters. The acting is far too serious and stern and thus remains humorless, that is except for Chris Evans as Johnny Storm.

Evans seems to be the only cast member having a good time with this material. He captures the goofy spirit and headstrong vitality of Johnny Storm. If the other actors had played a similar vibe Fantastic Four would be a whole lot more enjoyable.

Then there is Julian McMahon who chews the scenery like Jeremy Irons on a bender. To say that McMahon is over the top would be a grand understatement. McMahon plays Victor Von Doom like a silent film era villain, all grand impressive gesticulations and over pronounciations. He needs only a mustache to twirl to make this character a perfect parody.

A quick aside, did anyone else keep flashing back to Mallrats and wondering, like Brody, about whether Reed Richards could stretch his 'entire' body or if the Thing... well you know. It's horribly wrong, but one of the pleasures of a subpar movie is the invoked memories of far superior films. I will take the puerile Mallrats over the over amplified Fantastic Four any day.

I cannot deny that there is one really eye catching series of action scenes in Fantastic Four. The scenes set on the Brooklyn bridge where each of the Fantastic Four demonstrate their super powers for the first time, is a pretty terrific set of actions. Quickly edited, tautly paced, and well executed with CGI effects, these scenes demonstrate the unrealized potential of Fantastic Four.

One great series of scenes, however, are not nearly enough to rescue such a mess of a movie. Director Tim Story, who did a terrific job with the much smaller Barbershop; seems completely overwhelmed by the scope and scale of the Fantastic Four. With all the money and CGI he could ever need, Story fell into the trap of forgetting that his actors and his story need direction as much as his effects.

Fantastic Four demonstrates an opinion of mine that it takes a great director to bring the fantastic elements of a super hero movie to life. Sam Raimi and Spiderman, Bryan Singer and X-Men, Tim Burton and now Christopher Nolan with Batman. Tim Story is a good director but as Fantastic Four demonstrates he is not a great director.