Movie Review The Majestic

The Majestic 

Directed by Frank Darabont 

Written by Michael Sloane

Starring Jim Carrey, Amanda Dettmer, Martin Landau, Hal Holbrook, Bob Balaban

Release Date December 25th, 2001

Published January 30th, 2002

The 50's are a decade easily evoked onscreen. Simply have kids with seriously greased hair, drab clothing, long dresses for women, business suits and fedoras for men, and the ubiquitous white picket fences. There you have the fifties, throw in a couple of cultural touchstones like the first decade of TV, I Like Ike buttons, and the Hollywood Communist witch-hunt and you've got a decade ready made for the movies. The decade is the easily evoked backdrop for Frank Darabont's The Majestic, the story of a Hollywood scriptwriter accused in the witch-hunts and asked to name names or be blacklisted.

The scriptwriter is Peter Appelton; played by Jim Carrey as a somewhat arrogant but affable guy who, to impress a girl, accidentally attends a communist rally and now faces the wrath of the House un-American Activities Committee. Peter is set to testify in two days but before that happens he has an accident that leaves him with amnesia and strands in the small town of Lawson, California where he is mistaken for the army hero son of the local theater owner Harry, played by Martin Landau.

Both Carrey and Landau are good but neither can overcome the screenplay, which aims at the heartstrings while ignoring the brain. Carrey does have an effective scene in front of the House un-American activities committee where he explains his attending the communist rally as simply a guy being horny.

Beyond that scene, which is smart and funny, the rest of the film is crammed with emotional set pieces so obvious that you know everything that's coming well before it comes and then are annoyed at how they are resolved. The ending is truly uninspired as if someone decided the film desperately needed a happy ending even if it was going to have to force it and compromise the little integrity the film had.

Jim Carrey is a good actor, he proved that in Man On the Moon and The Truman Show. In The Majestic he seems a little desperate as if he chose this film for the sole purpose of courting Oscar and that desperation comes through in a couple of forced scenes, one with a dying Landau and another later in a cemetery. Still, Carrey is the strongest part of The Majestic which suffers not only from its weak screenplay but also Darabont's 50's setting, chosen because of the Commie Hollywood witch-hunts. Other than that, Darabont relies on those tried and true 50's set pieces like crewcuts, fedora's and the like.

I prefer the "noirish" take on the decade as presented in films like LA Confidential with hipster lingo and the seedy underbelly. The type of setting where the witch-hunts were more meaningful because Hollywood stars would attend underground meetings in secret locations in places like the seedy smoke-filled halls of an Elmore Leonard novel. The Majestic prefers uplift to impact and that is its main failure.

Movie Review How High

How High (2001) 

Directed by Jesse Dylan 

Written by Dustin Abraham

Starring Method Man, Redman Mike Epps, Jeffrey Jones

Release Date December 21st, 2001 

Published August 1st, 2002 

I'm a total sucker for movies set in college. Maybe it's because I went to community college and never experienced real campus life, thus I enjoy the idealized versions on the big screen. I love movies like the small-time comedy PCU with Jeremy Piven or Reese Witherspoon's 2001 hit Legally Blonde, I even liked With Honors! So I had an immediate soft spot for How High, though it is more about pot than college. The classic college movie cliches are in place and their familiarity along with the stars' relaxed performances help make How High one of the funniest movies of the year.

The plot creates the quickest way to get two drug-addled goofs into Harvard where the typical culture clash cliches come up. Battles with white-bred jocks and overly officious school officials, and the obvious romantic angles. Yet I still found ways to like How High. The two lead rappers, Method Man and Redman, have such a relaxed manner onscreen they look like they've been doing it forever. For the record they both have acted before, Method Man showed the same relaxed manner and chops in Black & White, more than holding his own opposite people like Robert Downey JR and Ben Stiller.

Of course the title may suggest another origin for their laid back acting styles. Whatever it is, both Method Man and Redman are fun to watch and hysterically funny and the supporting players are even better, especially Mike Epps best known as Ice Cube's foil in Next Friday. Epps plays the funniest pimp since Antonio Fargas was Huggie Bear.

The film is directed by first-timer Jesse Dylan, and yes if you were wondering he is related to Jakob Dylan of the Wallflowers. He directed How High not as just a pot comedy but as a broad, over the top satire of college movies and it worked for me. I laughed almost from beginning to end.

How High is stupid, ridiculous and one of the funniest movies of the year. And more than likely, High Times movie of the year. 

Movie Review: The Royal Tenenbaums

Rushmore (2001) 

Directed by Wes Anderson

Written by Wes Anderson

Starring Gene Hackman, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anjelica Huston, Bill Murray, Danny Glover, Owen Wilson

Release Date December 14th, 2001 

Published December 24th, 2001 

In Rushmore, Wes Anderson took two very unique characters and used them to establish an unusual comic tone of irony and pathos that, for all it's quirks, seemed grounded in a weird sort of realty. In The Royal Tenenbaums, he applies that same unusual tone to an awesome ensemble cast to an even greater effect.

The Royal Tenenbaums is the story of a family of geniuses and the father who was the catalyst for their self destruction. Gene Hackman plays the father, the aptly named Royal Tenenbaum, a disgraced and disbarred lawyer whose luck and money have run out, and who now seeks to reconcile with the family he destroyed years earlier; not out of any emotional need for forgiveness, but rather because he just needs a place to crash.

Angelica Huston is Royal's soon-to-be-ex-wife, Etheline, a genius in her own right who is about to marry a man named Henry, played by Danny Glover. Luke Wilson is Richie Tenenbaum, a tennis prodigy washed up after a breakdown in the middle of a major match. Gwyneth Paltrow is Margot Tenenbaum (whom Royal makes a point of noting is adopted,) a genius playwright who wrote her first play at age 11 and has written nothing since. Ben Stiller is Chas, a widower who was a financial whiz at age 9, whose resentment of Royal is just one of the family's many dysfunctional aspects.

Bill Murray and Owen Wilson round out the cast in truly funny supporting roles. The whole cast is sensational, and though Stiller seems a little off key at times, everyone maintains this wondrous magical tone that makes the movie hum; never too loud, never too soft. Combine that brilliant tone with Mark Mothersbaugh's inspired score and the soundtrack of 60's tunes like the Beatles' "Hey Jude," and you have what amounts to a comedic symphony. The New York setting is as strange and wonderful as the rest of the film and when combined with the soundtrack give the film a feeling of timelessness. 

I don't know if there is a director I have higher hopes for than I do for Wes Anderson. I cannot wait to see what he does next. 

Movie Review Pinero

Pinero (2001) 

Directed by Leon Ichaso 

Written by Leon Ichaso

Starring Benjamin Bratt, Michael Wright 

Release Date December 14th, 2001 

Published March 1st, 2002 

On TV's “Law & Order,” Benjamin Bratt showed himself to be a capable dramatic actor. In 1999' Next Best Thing, co-starring with Madonna, he showed himself to be an actor who makes poor decisions. In his most recent work, Pinero, Bratt shows himself to be a future Oscar contender.

Pinero is the biography of the brilliant Puerto Rican writer and poet, Miguel Pinero. Born in Puerto Rico in 1941, Miguel and his family moved to New York City when he was 8 years old. Soon after arriving in New York Miguel's father walks out, leaving his mother to raise five children on her own. Without a father, Miguel quickly falls into a rough crowd and hooks up with his partner in crime, Tito Goya, played by Nelson Vasquez.

After a series of petty thefts and drug busts Miguel and Tito end up at Sing Sing prison where an inmate named Edgar, portrayed by Michael Wright, inspires Pinero to write a play called Short Eyes. After being released from prison, Pinero brings Short Eyes to Broadway and receives multiple Tony nominations. Pinero however is a volatile genius, who balances his good fortune with self-destructive behavior. Drugs and crime were the fuel of Pinero's creativity.

The film is not as linear as my description of it. Writer Director Leon Ichaso employs time shifts marked by changes from color in the present to black and white flashbacks to show what drove Miguel's genius and madness. The time shifts often make us in the audience a little off balance, and that’s appropriate in that Pinero himself is always off balance. The stylistic distorted narrative shifts help to bring the audience into Pinero's unapologetic perspective.

Of course the driving force behind Pinero is Benjamin Bratt whose performance singes the screen. The poetry sequences are mind blowing. With Pinero's words and Bratt's delivery every word has an impact. The use of metaphor and music is what made Pinero's poetry so distinctive and despite his addictions and behavior he still comes off as very intelligent, even brilliant.

Leon Ichaso's most well known piece before Pinero was 1992's Sugar Hill with Wesley Snipes, one the best gangster films of all time. In Sugar Hill, Ichaso showed his great ability to coax actors into great performances; he does so once again with Benjamin Bratt in Pinero.

Movie Review The Business of Strangers

The Business of Strangers (2001) 

Directed by Patrick Stettner

Written by Patrick Stettner

Starring Stockard Channing, Julia Stiles, Fred Weller

Release Date December 7th, 2001 

Published January 14th, 2002

I recently wrote of how there are so few good roles for women in Hollywood films. In the indie film The Business of Strangers, there are two excellent female characters. Two fantastic actresses brilliantly bring both to life and both are botched by a first time writer-director who really didn't know what he had.

The film stars Stockard Channing as Julie, vice president of a software company from which she may or may not be getting fired. As she is to make a presentation to potential clients, Julie's temporary assistant shows up late and the deal is blown. The temp is a 24-year old Dartmouth grad named Paula (Julia Stiles) who doesn't seem all that fazed by her screw up, that is until Julie fires her on the spot. Thus beginning an unusual confrontation between two strong willed people.

Julie, now even more concerned with losing her job, has dinner with a corporate job hunter named Nick (Fred Weller). Julie soon finds her job is more than safe and has no need for Nick. Circumstances bring the three characters back together in Julie's massive hotel suite with the women playing Nick and each other, testing limits of psychology and sexuality.

The film has the feel and tone of Richard Linklater's superior indie Tape, though this film is from the female perspective. A good idea but one that writer-director Patrick Stettner abandons in favor of a confusing and somewhat convoluted revenge plot. The Nick character is never allowed to develop and half way through the film you're left wondering why we are being treated to flashes of him waiting for a plane that never comes. The character exists solely to fill in as a plot focal point after Stettner ran out of barbed dialogue for his two leads.

The two leads, Channing and Stiles, are spectacular. They have excellent chemistry and if The Business Of Strangers had been allowed to focus on just the two of them then it might have been a more interesting story, albeit one better suited to the stage than the screen.

I'll say this for Stettner, his first full-length script is an ambitious one, filled with psychosexual head games on par with Neil Labute. What Stettner lacks is an interesting narrative, a story that lets the audience in on the characters motivations. You don't have to lead the audience like a dog on a leash, but the characters need to have some reason to be doing what it is they are doing. Channing and Stiles rock, but the story does their performances a disservice and keeps the film as a whole from meeting its potential.

Movie Review: Welcome to Mooseport

Welcome to Mooseport (2004) 

Directed by Donald Petrie 

Written by Tom Schulman 

Starring Gene Hackman, Ray Romano, Marcia Gay Harden, Christine Baranski, Maura Tierney 

Release Date February 20th, 2004

Published February 19th, 2004 

The transition from TV to the big screen is never without its growing pains. Jennifer Aniston endured films like The Object of My Affection before finding success in The Good Girl. Helen Hunt endured Twister before her Oscar nominated role in As Good As It Gets. For comedian Ray Romano, his growing to big screen stardom begins by enduring the comedic misfire Welcome To Mooseport. On the bright side, at least he got to work with Gene Hackman.

In Mooseport, Romano plays a small-town handy man named Handy. Handy owns a hardware store where a group of local oddballs hang out. His girlfriend is a veterinarian named Sally (Maura Tierney), who he's romanced for six years without mentioning marriage. Handy has also just landed a very lucrative gig fixing the bathroom of the summer home of the now former President of the United States.

Gene Hackman is Monroe Eagle Cole, the most popular former President in history, having left office with an 80 percent approval rating. This is despite the fact that he was the first President to divorce while in office. The former first lady, played by Christine Baranski, took everything but his former title and his summer home in Mooseport.

At a party celebrating the President's arrival a group of town elders asks the President if he would like to run for mayor. The current mayor has passed on and there is apparently no one else running. The President was going to say no until he meets Sally who suggests it would be a good idea. In an attempt to impress her the President takes the gig. Unfortunately, there is one other person who has decided to run. Handy.

This sets up what should be an interesting comic idea. A small town guy running for mayor against the former leader of the free world is a rich comic idea. Throw in the President’s two aides Grace (Marcia Gay Harden) and Bullard (Fred Savage) and it gains even more potential. However, director Donald Petrie (How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days, Miss Congeniality) is more interested in the romantic triangle between Romano, Tierney and Hackman and misses the endless opportunity for political satire.

Ray Romano is attempting to break loose from his TV persona and forge a career on the big screen. This role sadly will not help his case. Romano is stiff and often lifeless opposite a pro like Hackman who blows him off the screen. Hackman shows once again how great and underappreciated he is as a comic actor. He was the best part of the con-woman comedy Heartbreakers and he is by far the best thing in Welcome To Mooseport. Of the actors who have played the President of the United States onscreen, Hackman may be the most credible. Hackman has the persona, the gravitas that makes it very easy to believe he's the President. Not that it really matters in a film as dull and lifeless as this one.

Director Donald Petrie is another of those directors that delivers mediocre test screened comedies that studios love because they are inoffensive and more often than not cheap to produce. Welcome To Mooseport reeks of a film that was greenlit with the hope that it might be good but if it isn't, the studio can toss it on to the February schedule and watch it die a slow death before selling it on DVD and TV to cover the expenses. I hope they got their money's worth because that is apparently all that matters.

Movie Review: 50 First Dates

50 First Dates (2004) 

Directed by Peter Segal 

Written by George Wing 

Starring Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore, Blake Clark, Sean Astin, Dan Akroyd, Rob Schneider

Release Date February 13th, 2004

Published February 14th, 2004  

Adam Sandler has charted a strange career trajectory to becoming the highest paid actor in Hollywood. His films have run the gamut from awful to extraordinarily awful.  Then came Punch Drunk Love, Sandler's teaming with indie genius P. T Anderson, an unbelievable transformation into a real actor. Unfortunately, it didn't last. Sandler quickly regressed with the dreadful cartoon 8 Crazy Nights and a pair of mediocre live action comedies, Mr. Deeds and Anger Management. His latest film, 50 First Dates, continues Sandler's weird career twists and turns. A film that combines Sandler's best work since Punch Drunk Love and more of his most juvenile humor.

In 50 First Dates, Sandler is Henry Roth, a ladies man of mythic proportion. His legend is spread by the innumerable woman he meets while living in the vacation capital of Hawaii. Bedding vacationers and sending them off with some story of secret identities, or any other number of lies, Henry does all he can to avoid romantic entanglements. That is, until Henry meets Lucy Whitmore (Drew Barrymore), a flighty blonde teacher who eats at the same café every morning, reading the same Sunday newspaper, wearing the same outfit.

Odd? Indeed, and the explanation is even weirder. It seems Lucy was in an accident a year ago and as a result suffered a head injury that destroyed her short-term memory. Every night when she goes to bed her mind resets to the day of the accident. Her father Marlin (Blake Clark) and brother Doug (Sean Astin), not knowing how to deal with the situation, choose to relive the same day with her until they can find some other way to deal with it.

Despite the complicated nature of Lucy's condition, Henry can't resist her charm and begins finding different ways to introduce himself to her everyday. Eventually he even wins over her family and the romance grows as Henry sets about making Lucy remember him somehow and making her fall in love again everyday.

It's a concept that requires some suspension of disbelief but with Drew Barrymore's performance, that suspension is not hard at all. Barrymore delivers her best performance since she made Sandler somewhat less painful to watch in The Wedding Singer. It is her surprisingly complex, sweet performance that sells the far fetched memory loss concept and helps Sandler raise his game to the point where he actually assuages his usually cocky, doofus persona for a more laid back romantic sweetness that really works for him.

This is still an Adam Sandler film however, and his trademark juvenility is still in place. The difference in this film is that instead of Sandler wallowing in the film’s low humor, director Peter Seagal and writer George Wing smartly lay the film’s worst jokes on the supporting cast. That includes Sean Astin, lowering himself from the Oscar caliber Lord of The Rings to a subpar subplot as Barrymore's steroid abusing brother and Lusia Strus, an asexual security guard. Sandler's usual backup guys like Rob Schneider and Allen Covert are also along for the ride.

These subplots don't work but written with some distance from the main romantic plot, they do allow Sandler some separation from his usual antics allowing him to focus on being a likable, believable romantic lead. He pulls it off with romantic flourish, and an acceptable amount of sappy sentimental romance.

This Valentine's treat is one of the better romantic comedies of the last few years. In a genre that has suffered from formulaic plots and tired clichés it's not hard for a film like 50 First Dates to stand out. Still, I must give Sandler credit, when he wants to he can surprise you.