Movie Review Sunshine State

Sunshine State (2002) 

Directed by John Sayles 

Written by John Sayles 

Starring Jane Alexander, Angela Bassett, Bill Cobbs, Edie Falco, Timothy Hutton, Mary Steenburgen

Release Date June 21st, 2002 

Published June 21st, 2002 

Writer-director John Sayles is the prototype independent filmmaker. He's even been referred to as the Godfather of the independent film. For more than 20 years, Sayles has been making his films his way, with tremendous artistic success and modest box office. Along the way, Sayles has picked up awards, critical plaudits and sorts-of praise. None of that has altered his way of making movies. Sayles has never succumbed to mainstream moviemaking and he's never been co-opted by the studio system. Sayles exists on his own filmmaking plane. His latest work is yet another work of independence called Sunshine State.

State tells the multiple interlocking stories of the people living on the fictional plantation island off the coast of Florida. Formerly a bustling community of semi-affluent African-American and small business owners, Plantation Island is now feeling the encroachment of modern America in the form of big business real estate developers. As we join the story, developers have already begun to dominate the island save for two small communities. In the predominantly African American community of Lincoln Beach, times are tough and the residents are ripe to be picked off by the real estate developers. Not everyone is so quick to move however, especially Dr. Lloyd (Bill Cobbs) who leads the only resistance to the developers.

Dr. Lloyd is living with Eunice Stokes (Mary Alice), another longtime resident of Lincoln Beach not keen on moving. Mrs. Stokes however has more pressing concerns as her daughter Desiree and husband Reggie have arrived from out of town. Eunice has a secret and needs to reconcile with her estranged daughter, not only for herself but also for her young nephew Terrell.

Paralleling that story is that of Marly Temple, a Hotel and Restaurant owner being pursued by developers who want to turn her small businesses into a thriving mini-mall. Marly is quite tempted to sell but can't because her ailing father (Ralph Waite) who though retired from the business, urges her to hold onto the business he started.

Each story plays out as the city that surrounds them is celebrating a citywide festival organized by Fracine Pickney, a silly housewife played by Mary Steenburgen. She is so wrapped up in making a great parade she fails to notice her husband’s (NYPD Blue’s Gordon Clapp) multiple attempts at suicide.

A group of golfers act as the bookends of the film, led by comedian Alan King as the head of the development company trying to buy the island. King has two sensational speeches, one at the beginning of the film and one at the end that tie the story together in its most simple form.

There are so many characters in Sunshine State and so many little connections between each character it would be impossible to explain each of them. The connections are well explained and meaningful, and come together to paint a beautiful picture. A picture of a group of people living their lives and the life that has grown up around them.

At first it seems that Sayles is going to make a statement movie about the environment and evil big business corporate villains. However, by the end of the film Sayles’ broader themes become clear. Corporate greed and social issues are parts of the lives being lived in Sunshine State, but Sayles is far more interested in how those lives are lived. 

Sayles draws intelligent realistic characters that are well spoken and interesting. The scripting is intricate and ingenious, and Sunshine State is simply a joy to watch. A film that respects the intelligence of the audience enough to make a movie that doesn't work in broad strokes, but rather in subtlety. Words that are far more important than action. Humor that comes from reality instead of forced punch lines. While the film’s pace may be a little leisurely at times the performances and dialogue are strong enough that even the most belabored scenes hold the audience's attention.

John Sayles movies do not compromise, they never come off as market-tested. As such, they are nearly impossible to classify by genre. They are simply well made intelligent films. Sunshine State may in fact be John Sayles best film to date.

Movie Review: American Psycho 2: All American Girl

American Psycho 2: All American Girl (2002) 

Directed by Morgan J. Freeman

Written by Karen Craig, Alex Sanger 

Starring Mila Kunis, William Shatner, Lindy Booth 

Release Date June 18th, 2002 

Published June 18th, 2002 

Bret Easton Ellis is one twisted SOB. His novel American Psycho, adapted for the screen in 2000 starring Christian Bale, is a twisted pop culture salad of axe murders and pop references to Huey Lewis and the News, Genesis and Whitney Houston. The film version, while not as good as the book (they never are,) benefited from having a stellar indie cast including Bale, Jared Leto, Reese Witherspoon and Chloe Sevigny. 

The sequel, on the other hand, has William Shatner. 

The sequel’s connection to the original is so insignificant that I need not mention it, let's just say it provides the lead with her very thin motivation. The lead in American Psycho 2 is “That 70's Show's” Mila Kunis. As Rachael Newman, Kunis is a psychotically ambitious college student hell-bent on getting a teacher’s assistant job that will almost guarantee her getting into the FBI. The teacher, Robert Starkman (Shatner), is a former FBI agent who's final case was the Bateman killings, which remain unsolved. Standing in Rachael's way are 3 students so insignificantly painted that I need not describe them. Needless to say they are easily dispatched. 

For some inconceivable reason Rachael decides to see a psychiatrist in the middle of her killing spree. She isn't there to confess, but rather to provide clues so that later on the psychiatrist played by Garant Wyn Davies can be the hero and try to solve the crime. Whether he solves it or not I won't say, though it doesn't really matter. By the end of American Psycho 2 the whole thing is so superfluous and the mystery so ridiculous you couldn't force yourself to care. 

Kunis is badly miscast. She lacks the menacing sexuality of a Rose McGowan or the pop culture bitch cred of a Shannen Doherty, both of whom might have made for a more interesting film. The original American Psycho was an amalgam of pop culture and psychotic ax wielding, especially memorable was Bateman's dispatching of a victim while extolling the virtues of Huey Lewis & the News as “Hip To Be Square” played in the background. The sequel has none of that flair. It is essentially just a slasher movie and a bit of ripoff. 

Does anyone recall the movie Getting In with Kristy Swanson and Matthew Perry? Same idea, psycho killer taking out the competition for a coveted scholarship. Sequels are usually bad enough without being a ripoff. 

Movie Review: Windtalkers

Windtalkers (2002) 

Directed by John Woo 

Written by John Rice

Starring Nicolas Cage, Adam Beach, Mark Ruffalo, Peter Stormare, Christian Slater, Noah Emmerich

Release Date June 14th, 2002 

Published June 13th, 2002 

War is hell and now so is watching war movies. The drive towards more realistic violence have made for some very hard-to-watch films. Saving Private Ryan set the standard, followed by films like Enemy At The Gates, We Were Soldiers, Black Hawk Down and most recently John Woo’s Windtalkers. Though it purports to be about Navajo Indian code talkers, Windtalkers as they were called, the film is actually about violence and war movie clichés. 

Nicolas Cage stars in Windtalkers as Joe Enders, a borderline crazy marine. When we are first introduced to Joe he is attempting to hold a position that is, to the rest of his platoon, already lost. Joe’s entire platoon is killed but he survives and returns to battle with a new assignment. Joe is to ship out to Saipan where he and his platoon will protect the military's new secret weapon, a pair of Navajo Indians whose native language is used as code to transmit Japanese troop movements without the Japanese being able to spy on it. 

The Navajo soldiers are Ben (Adam Beach) and Whitehorse (Roger Willie). Rounding out the platoon is your typical cast of recognizable character actors whose names become interchangeable though their faces are semi-recognizable. Christian Slater, Mark Ruffalo, Peter Stormare, and Noah Emmerich, amongst others, are the interchangeable soldiers.

Director John Woo is the absolute wrong choice to direct this film. With his penchant for stylistic violence, Woo forgets that the story is the code talkers and not video game style pyro technics. Adam Beach and Roger Willie get the short shrift from a story that would be better served by a smaller budget and a more centralized script. If the film would have focused more on the development of the code and the Navajo characters the story would be far more interesting. Of course it would have been far less commercial.

My guess is that the original story was about the code talkers but producers with dollar signs in their eyes got a hold of it, signed on big name star Cage and big name director Woo and put aside the real story in favor of one that played up Cage’s character. Once again, typical Hollywood greed ruins a good story. Navajo Code talkers were real, and the code they created helped the U.S win the war in the Pacific. There is a really good story to be told about them, Windtalkers is not it. -

Movie Review Scooby Doo

Scooby Doo (2002) 

Directed by Raja Gosnell

Written by James Gunn 

Starring Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Geller, Linda Cardellini, Matthew Lillard, Rowan Atkinson

Release Date June 14th, 2002

Published June 14th, 2002 

I came into this review all set to bemoan art in films, Hollywood's lack of creativity and why producers can't find original projects and so on. Then I saw the movie, and while I could still complain about all of those things, I have to be honest and say on some level I enjoyed this product of Hollywood's inability to be original.

As the story begins, we join our heroes Fred (Freddie Prinze of Darkness), Daphne (Sarah Buffy Geller), Velma(Linda Cardellini), Shaggy (Matthew Lillard) and the most famous Great Dane in the world, Scooby Doo. After doing battle with a ghost in Pamela Anderson's toy factory (yes that Pamela Anderson), the gang unmasks a janitor posing as a ghost. Another case solved by mystery Inc., except when approached by the press, Fred takes all the credit. Velma gets upset and quits, so does Daphne, and the gang is no more.

Two years later, Scooby and Shaggy are living in the Mystery Machine when they are approached by a messenger offering them money and all they can eat if they will come to the Spooky Island amusement park and solve a mystery. Fred, Velma and Daphne have also received invites and the gang is reunited. The film is as simplistic as its setup, with simple messages about friendship and teamwork that are aimed at the preschool audience. There are a couple of good chuckles for adults, such as subtle references to Shaggy's pot smoking and numerous send-ups of the cartoons classic setups.

The casting is pretty bad save for Matthew Lillard who was the perfect choice for Shaggy. He provides most of the film’s best laughs with his physical humor. Freddy Prinze Jr., to criticize him would be pointless so I'll move on. Linda Cardillini as Velma seems uncomfortable throughout the film struggling to ape the cartoon voice and manner of her cartoon counterpart. Sarah Michele Gellar as Daphne may have seemed like a good choice but after performing as long as she has on TV's best show (personal opinion) she looked bored by this material that is obviously beneath her. 

The CGI Scooby turned out surprisingly well. After the first trailer I thought he was going to look creepy. In the film, however, Scooby is well realized and the actors do a good job playing against a character that wasn't really there. Lillard had the most scenes opposite Scooby and he does a great job, it was probably easy for him, after working so often with Freddie Prinze he is used to talking to vacant spaces. I know, cheap shots.

One of the charms of the Hanna Barbera cartoon was that every episode was exactly the same. The film version does a good job at sending up those setups while still living into them. But don't be mistaken, Scooby Doo is a kid’s movie. It's meant for those between the ages of 3 and 12. And on that level Scooby is a partial success

Movie Review The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys

The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2002) 

Directed by Peter Care 

Written by Michael Petroni 

Starring Kieran Culkin, Emile Hirsch, Jena Malone, Jodie Foster 

Release Date June 14th, 2002 

Published November 10th, 2002 

What is your favorite childhood memory? For me it was making out with my first girlfriend Dawn. I was 12; she was 11 and every Tuesday her mother would bring her over while she played cards with my parents. Dawn and I would sneak off to a gorgeous spot right on the Mississippi River bank. The Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys is one of those films that will make you nostalgic for your childhood, your first love, your best friends, and those moments that only you and those childhood friends will remember.

The film centers around four friends, Tim (Kieran Culkin), Francis (Emile Hirsch), Wade (Jake Richardson) and Joey (Tyler Long). The focus is on their love of comic books and their loathing of their catholic school teacher Sister Assumpta (Jodie Foster). The boys visualize themselves as comic book superheroes and their fantasies are played out in cartoon vignettes throughout the film. Things begin to change for the boys as Francis begins his first relationship with a girl, Margie, played by the lovely Jena Malone. As Francis and Margie's relationship grows, his friends’ sense they are losing their best friend, Tim especially feels he is losing his best friend.

As a way of reasserting their friendship, Tim gets an idea to take revenge on Sister Assumpta for all the trouble she has caused them. The elaborate plan calls for the guys to steal a cougar from a local zoo and unleash it in Sister Assumpta's office. Francis, Wade and Joey go along at first not realizing how serious Tim is about his over the top revenge scheme. In the meantime, Francis is dealing with Margie and her very serious home issues including alleged sexual abuse by her older brother who is a classmate of Francis.

The shocking details of the abuse would seem to be more than any teenager could deal with but Francis isn't an average teenager. Francis reacts to the many revelations from Margie at first like anyone would but his limitless kindness and gentle nature lead him to more philosophical conclusions than you would expect from someone his age. For the most part Francis retreats into his comic fantasies, incorporating his real life torments into his comic drawings and stories.

The film travels a twisted road of comedy and drama and is quite reminiscent of the movie Stand By Me in it's camaraderie between these four young guys and their ever quickening emotional growth. A tragedy near the end of the film makes sense emotionally and intellectually rather than seeming like a shallow heart string tug.

In the hands of a less skilled director, this material could have been a treacle mess. Veteran video director Peter Care, who has worked with the likes of REM, treads the line between smart comedy and drama very carefully. Care never allows his teenage characters to seem smarter than the adult types we get in so many other teen comedies and especially on TV.

Hirsch’s performance really made an impact on me. Looking like the younger brother of Adrien Grenier with his round soulful eyes and olive skin, Hirsch's look projects a budding intelligence necessary to make characters like Francis work. It is a great time for Independent film. My top ten end of the year list is likely to be dominated by them. Will The Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys be on that list? We will see, it will surely come close.

Movie Review: Bad Company

Bad Company (2002) 

Directed by Joel Schumacher

Written by Jason Richman 

Starring Chris Rock, Anthony Hopkins, Gabriel Macht

Release Date June 7th, 2002

Published June 6th, 2002 

Anyone who has ever written a screenplay knows one of the hardest parts is coming up with a title. Back in 2000 Jerry Bruckheimer thought that when he bankrolled a mismatched, fish out of water, buddy, action comedy that the film had a perfect title. That title was Black Sheep. Bruckheimer had forgotten that just three years earlier Chris Farley and David Spade starred in a god-awful comedy of the same title. So the title was changed, however, the new title now seems just as curious. 

Bad Company is the title of at least a dozen films, one of which was a spy movie made in 1990 starring Laurence Fishburne and Ellen Barkin. Curiously that film is just like the new Bad Company, about CIA agents. Of course the fact that I have spent the first few paragraphs of this review writing about the title of the film should indicate how I felt about this latest Bad Company.

Chris Rock stars in dual roles, the first being an undercover CIA agent who is killed in the former Czech Republic in an arms deal gone bad. The second role is that of the CIA agent’s estranged twin brother Jake Hayes. After his twin brother’s death, Jake is recruited by the CIA to replace him and complete the arms deal. Jake is not surprisingly reluctant to team with the CIA and his brother’s former partner Oakes (Sir Anthony Hopkins). After finances are discussed, Jake eagerly takes up his brother’s cause.

This, of course leads to one of those typical fish out of water sequences where the low class character has to learn to be high class and do so in very little time. Jake needs to know which fork to use at a fancy dinner and needs to learn how to dress, walk and speak. It's a scene cribbed from a dozen other formula fish out of water comedies and not improved upon here. 

Once Jake is ready he is taken to the Czech Republic to do the deal, but wouldn't you know it, the same guys who killed his brother are already waiting for Jake and the CIA and the deal goes bad. The nuclear weapon that was the subject of the deal is stolen and moved to New York City, and somehow Jake's girlfriend is kidnapped. I'm sure there was a good reason for how the bad guys figured out Jake wasn't his brother but I was so bored with Bad Company by this point I didn't care.

It's not surprising to find this formula swill was directed by Joel Schumacher, the king of formula swill. (I should note my still simmering bitterness towards the man who destroyed the Batman series). What is surprising is seeing two actors as talented as Sir Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock in such a conventional film. From the script to the screen, I can't imagine they couldn't see how formulaic and trite this material was. 

Rock deserves a lot of credit for going off the script as often as he does, providing the only solace from the lame formula with bits taken from his standup act and his natural wit. Sir Anthony Hopkins on the other hand makes it clear that he is merely picking up a check sleepwalking through the entire film, especially it's lamest of all ending. 

It would be very easy for me to blame Joel Schumacher for this formula trash but the real fault lies with Jerry Bruckheimer. He after all is the one who keeps financing this supposedly crowd pleasing, screen tested trash. Bruckheimer knows formula swill because he and his late partner Don Simpson invented it.

Movie Review: Undercover Brother

Undercover Brother (2002) 

Directed by Malcolm D. Lee 

Written by John Ridley 

Starring Eddie Griffin, Denise Richards, Dave Chappelle, Aunjanue Ellis, Gary Anthony Williams, Neil Patrick Harris, Billy Dee Williams

Release Date May 31st 2002 

Published May 30th, 2002

Eddie Griffin is a fantastic standup comedian, with what may be the best Michael Jackson impression on the planet. As an actor however Griffin has yet to find himself. Griffin's acting resume includes 2001's worst film Double Take and worst film candidate 2002 The New Guy. Now with his new film Undercover Brother, Griffin has found himself in what may be the funniest movie of the year.

Griffin is the titular Undercover Brother, a 70's throwback to the era of Blaxploitation who takes it upon himself to steal from the rich and give to the poor inner city black folks. As one character puts it he's a "Soul Train reject with a Robin Hood complex". After breaking into a bank and destroying the mortgages of poor people who couldn't afford to pay, UC is recruited by the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood is an underground organization dedicated to the protection of black culture from the evil ministrations of "The Man". 

It's headed up by the Chief (Chi McBride), and his top agents, Sistah Girl (smokin hot Aunjenue Ellis) and Conspiracy Brother (comedy's secret weapon Dave Chappelle). Also on the team are the computer expert Smart Brother (Gary Anthony Williams) and white boy intern Lance (Doogie Howser's Neil Patrick Harris), affirmative action hire. Undercover Brother teams with the Brotherhood to save a black presidential candidate played by Billy Dee Williams who has fallen under the control of the Man and now instead of running for office, he plans to open a chain of Fried Chicken Restaurant's complete with grits, greens and a complimentary 40 ounce malt liquor.

That's just a sample of Director Malcolm Lee and writer John Ridley's satire of African American stereotypes, they have far more satiric jabs for white people including swipes at white people's love of the show Friends and their peculiar love of mayonnaise. One of the best satirical moments is the send up of the black man's weakness for white women as Undercover Brother is seduced by the evil White She Devil (Denise Richards).

Chris Kattan rounds out the cast as The Man's evil henchman Mr. Feathers, and the film does the seemingly impossible, it's makes both Kattan and Eddie Griffin funny! Undercover Brother's showdown with Mr. Feathers toward the end of the film, set to Michael Jackson's Beat It, is absolutely hysterical, making use of Griffin's years of dance training and Kattan's completely inept attempt at dancing.

While the film cribs heavily from Austin Powers; hysterically out-of-date hero and over-the-top gags, if your going to steal you might as well steal from a good movie. The film also owes a great deal to other satirical looks at race relations and Afro American culture, from the films of Spike Lee to Eriq Lasalle's little seen Gem The Drop Squad and the Wayans brothers brilliant Blaxploitation send up I'm Gonna Git You Sucka. Spike Lee, by the way, is Director Malcolm Lee's cousin, and while Malcolm doesn't have Spike's social conscience he has his sense of humor and it is well tuned in Undercover Brother.

For the first time in a long time we get a comedy that is actually FUNNY. I can barely remember the last Hollywood film that was as consistently funny as Undercover Brother. It’s all due to the confident lead performance of Eddie Griffin, the smoking hot performances of Richards and Ellis, and the well-played satire of Director Lee and Writer John Ridley, on whose web cartoon the film is based. Undercover Brother is an early candidate for the Best Comedy of 2002. And with the comedies Hollywood usually makes you might pencil it in as the winner now.