Movie Review: Comic Book Villains

Comic Book Villains (2002) 

Directed by James Robinson

Written by James Robinson 

Starring Donal Logue, D.J Qualls, Cary Elwes, Natasha Lyonne, Michael Rappaport 

Release Date September 3rd, 2002 

Published September 9th, 2002 

The comic book fanboy culture is ripe for satire. Such was shown in Kevin Smith's brilliant Chasing Amy. Comics aren't the center of that film but the scenes involving comics and the comic convention are comedic gold. Comic Book Villains aspires to tell the story of some serious fanboys but in reality it's a ridiculous farce with not one likeable character.

DJ Qualls stars as Archie, a comic fanboy who is beginning to grow out of his former obsession. Though he would never tell that to Raymond, his best friend and the owner of the most snobbish comic store in town, and proud of it. Raymond, played by Donal Logue, is the ultimate fanboy who won't speak to anyone who doesn't the names of the Fantastic Four, their alter egos, how they got their powers, which issue introduced what character and various other pieces of minutia someone with no friends and especially no dates would know.

Raymond's rivals in the comic biz are Norman (Michael Rappoport) and his wife Judy (Natascha Lyonne). Though they aren't comic book fans they know a quick buck when they see it.

The rivalry comes to a head when a 40-something collector kicks the bucket, leaving behind the ultimate comic collection. Raymond and Norman are each quick to pounce on the guy's clueless mom who never understood her son's obsession with those funny books. The mom is played by the venerable Eileen Brennen, and as she puts up with Raymond and Norman's incessant begging and pleading, she strikes up a real friendship with Archie who has been dragged into the mess by Raymond.

As the comic book war heats up both, sides begin to lose their grip on reality as they each plot a break-in of the old woman's house to steal the comics. Raymond goes as far as attempting to hire a hitman to kill the old lady and steal the comics.

The hitman is played by Cary Elwes and at the beginning, his character is the only sympathetic character in the film. He's a guy who's fresh from prison and looking to rebuild his life. Director James Robinson makes the hitman character both sympathetic and menacing which is supposed to prepare us for the film's climax. Sadly this fails as Elwes gets sucked into the plot's stupidity and is then crushed underneath it like all of the other characters.

Every character in the film is a complete moron, with the possible exception of DJ Qualls'sArchie who isn't as stupid as the other characters. Still, his character is just utterly useless. Archie narrates the story but is not really involved in it. He should consider himself lucky! Elwes, Logue, Rappaport and Lyonne probably wish their characters weren't involved in this ridiculousness but they are and they suffer greatly for it.

Writer-Director James Robinson has crafted a thoroughly unlikable film. Incoherent, ridiculous and endlessly stupid. The film is marketed as a comedy and you would think since it's about comic books, it would be, but it's not. In fact I'm not sure James Robinson intended to make a comedy. It seemed to me he was trying for drama and suspense. He failed miserably.

Movie Review: A Prairie Home Companion

A Prairie Home Companion (2006) 

Directed by Robert Altman 

Written by Garrison Keillor 

Starring Woody Harrelson, Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, Garrison Keillor, Lindsay Lohan, John C. Reilly, Kevin Kline

Release Date June 9th, 2006 

Published June 8th, 2006 

Words like quaint and charming are anachronistic in this day and age. They are anathema to modern audiences bred on irony and detached perspective. Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion has always been of another time. A time when quaint and charming were far from insulting, they were the height of faint praise, as Keillor himself might say.

Now that A Prairie Home Companion has been brought to the big screen, under the direction of the legendary Robert Altman, you might fairly assume that it has been somehow updates, jazzed up somehow for modern audiences. That is thankfully not the case. A Prairie Home Companion is as old fashioned as has always been on Minnesota Public Radio and the throwback nature is one of the films many great pleasures.

In the era of irony a little earnest homespun humor is just the thing to warm your heart and give you a good tickle. It's the last night for the cast and crew of A Prairie Home Companion. For 30 some years the WLD radio variety show has emanated from the Fitzgerald theater in St Paul Minnesota. However, now that the longtime heritage station has been sold to a major corporate chain, the show's over.

This is distressing news to long time performers like the Johnson Sisters, Yolanda (Meryl Streep) and Rhonda (Lily Tomlin) who have performed on the show since it's inception. Yolanda's late husband was the inspiration for the show and Yolanda had hoped her daughter Lola (Lindsey Lohan) might one day perform there one day.

Also distressed at losing their regular gig are the singing cowboys Dusty (Woody Harrelson) and Lefty (John C. Reilly) whose ribald tunes about life on the plains are one of the shows humorous highlights, unless your the shows harried producer worried about FCC violations.

Seemingly unaffected by the sadness of the last broadcast is the shows longtime host G.K (Garrison Keillor) who is intent on making the very last show just like the first one. Refusing any attempt at evoking audience sympathies, G.K will not say thank you or goodbye in any kind of grand fashion. Why even when one of the shows older performers passes away in his dressing room mid-show G.K refuses an on air eulogy telling the cast that if he were to start eulogizing his friends at his age he wouldn't stop till he was dead himself.

Lurking in the background backstage is the shows head of security an oddball right out of a fifties private eye movie the aptly named Guy Noir (Kevin Kline) when he's not watching the door or providing a running commentary, Guy searches for a mysterious blonde in a trench coat only known as A Dangerous Woman (Virginia Madsen).

Saturday Night Live's Maya Rudolf and the real life band and singers of the radio show A Prairie Home Companion round out the cast of this deliciously simple showbiz comedy. Simple in terms of smart character driven humor and old school showbiz pizazz.

Lurking behind this behind the scenes comedy is a bizarre whimsy that is pure Robert Altman. In bringing to life Garrison Keillor's radio show, Altman has brought literal life to some of his fictional characters including the aforementioned Dusty and Lefty and most importantly Guy Noir who has long been Keillor's favored creation outside the denizens of the fictional town of Lake Woebegone.

Guy's whole persona and function in the film are a delightful mixture of detective movie parody and straight comedy and in the person of Kevin Kline these elements reach a near symphony level of comic timing and perfection. Kline is more than worthy of a supporting actor nomination as the standout of this brilliant ensemble.

Meryl Streep provides the emotional center of A Prairie Home Companion. Yolanda is more than just a performer on the show, in the films history her family is entwined in the history of the show. Her husband was G.K's partner before he passed on. Yolanda herself was for a time entwined with G.K and her daughter has been coming to the show with her since birth.

Her colorful history, only alluded to, colors the film and brings depth to the emotions that resonate from her especially while on stage with her voice breaking belting out the same old time gospel songs she and her sister have sang on the show for years.

Streep's performance is not perfect. She along with Harrelson and Reilly occasionally betray their performances by allowing Hollywood affectations to leak through their Midwestern patois. Overall though the performances are universally strong.

Maybe most surprising of all is Garrison Keillor. Playing himself is certainly the kind of comfort zone any actor can thrive in but Keillor does truly impress with his deft wit and comic timing. Anyone who listens to his real life show on a regular basis will likely recognize that this is typical Garrison Keillor but the uninitiated will likely be very impressed with the his sleight of hand phraseology and warm charismatic nature.

In his most recent directorial effort the ballet drama The Company Robert Altman directed as if the whole thing bored him. The director was constantly allowing the camera to wiggle around and wander away from the actors, when they weren't dancing. It was as if he were directing from a script he didn't much care for and simple set the camera and walked away when he wasn't enjoying the ballet performances.

A Prairie Home Companion is a return to form for the great director. Fully engaged and even modestly excited about this smart, homespun material, Altman seems to delight in every last detail from Keillor's wacky fake product commercials to the style of Kevin Kline's haircut meant match that of a bust of the great F. Scott Fitzgerald whose bust is prominently displayed in the theater that is named for him.

A Prairie Home Companion is a masters class in Altman's managed chaos style. The film floats backstage to look in on Guy Noir and the backstage happenings and then simply glides back on to the stage for another song and a story. The flow is hypnotic when it's not laugh out loud funny. This is one of Robert Altman's best efforts in a very long while.

Quaint and charming may be curse words in this day and age but not in relation to this wonderfully quaint charming comedy from a master director and a master storyteller. A Prairie Home Companion is one of the best films of the year.

Movie Review Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle

Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (2004) 

Directed by Danny Leiner

Written by Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg

Starring John Cho, Kal Penn, Neil Patrick Harris, Ryan Reynolds, Anthony Anderson, Malin Akerman

Release Date July 30th, 2004 

Published July 29th, 2004 

I can’t be the only one for whom the words “From the Director of Dude Where’s My Car” are not reassuring. That said, you can’t judge a filmmaker by his only film. Director Danny Leiner deserves a chance to make a second impression. However, when I heard that his Dude follow-up was called Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, I was less than enthusiastic. From the depths of low expectations can spring something amazing and Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle is amazing for the fact that it doesn’t suck.

Harold and Kumar are your typically mismatched pair of lifelong friends. Harold (John Cho) is a neurotic investment banker who is constantly put upon by his co-workers. Kumar (Kal Penn) has a high IQ and the test scores to go to any med school in the country, but he’d rather live off of his dad’s money and smoke some weed.

Well Harold and Kumar have that in common, they both smoke weed and when a White Castle commercial pops up on television they know exactly where to cure the munchies that accompany smoking the chronic. Kumar thinks he knows where the closest White Castle is but you know this is a buddy comedy road movie so this will not be that easy.

On the way to White Castle, Harold and Kumar encounter a group of skinhead extreme sports guys, a backwoods hick with a taste for group sex, an escaped leopard, racist cops and Neil Patrick Harris. Yes, that Neil Patrick Harris in the best of numerous cameos that also include Jaime Kennedy, Anthony Anderson and an unrecognizable Christopher Meloni as the previously mentioned backwoodsman.

The unique thing about Harold and Kumar is the smart satirical way it treats race. Harold is Korean, Kumar is Indian, but neither is defined by their ethnicity. They face racism at every turn and eventually they fight back in funny anarchic fashion, stealing cars, breaking into and out of prison, riding a leopard (see it for yourself).

Cho and Penn are a pair of terrific comic actors. Great chemistry, timing and charm. These two are really likable and you can’t help but cheer for them every humiliating, degrading step of the way. The few scenes they share with Neil Patrick Harris in a cameo as himself are absolutely hysterical. We have seen this type of career send up before, The Simpsons are famous for tweaking an actor’s past persona for ironic laughs, this time it’s somehow fresh and smart. That is because Harris is so committed and Cho and Penn sell the jokes so well.

Director Danny Leiner still has a way to go before we start praising his technique but this is unquestionably an improvement over Dude Where’s My Car. Of course, ninety minutes of blank screen would be an improvement over that film, but I’m trying to pay the guy a compliment. Harold and Kumar is a stoner comedy with all the stoner comedy beats and expected jokes. It’s juvenile and wades into the muck of gross out humor that genre does best.

Harold and Kumar would be valuable for just providing the rare starring role for a Korean guy and an Indian guy. It transcends that because those guys are actually very funny.

Movie Review: The Village

The Village (2004) 

Directed by M Night Shyamalan 

Written by M Night Shyamalan

Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, Bryce Dallas Howard, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver 

Release Date July 30th, 2004 

Published July 19th, 2021 

The Village is a real trip, an at times exceptionally well acted, epically misguided story of outsiders with a deep, dark secret. The film stars Joaquin Phoenix as Lucius and Bryce Dallas Howard as Ivy. Despite a slow start, the film slowly evolves as a mysterious 19th century romance with a twist of horror movie monsters hanging over it. The couple are residents of a colony that is cut off from the rest of the nearby towns by a forest populated by monsters who live in a delicate detente with the residents of The Village.

The town elders, led by William Hurt as Ivy’s father, Edward Walker, have raised their families in fear of the creatures who are fed a sacrifice of animal flesh on a weekly basis. Residents of the Village are not allowed to enter the forest and must not wear the forbidden color, red, which is said to set off the creatures. As we join the story, the monsters are believed to be raiding the town at night and causing a panic.

In the midst of the panic, Lucius begins to spend more and more time looking in on Ivy and her family and while he is a character of few words, Joaquin Phoenix as an actor communicates all we need to know about Lucius, he’s in love with Ivy and shows it by becoming her de-facto protector. For her part, Ivy is far more open and vocal about her feelings and these two approaches collide in the best scene in The Village in which they eventually declare their love.

I had forgotten about The Village since seeing it on the big screen in 2004. This led to a wild viewing experience in which I was convinced that I completely disliked it and then shocked to find myself deeply invested and enjoying it during this rewatch. No joke, I was riveted by the performances by Joaquin Phoenix, Bryce Dallas Howard, William Hurt and the supporting players including the brilliant Brendan Gleeson and Sigourney Weaver.

Then the third act hit and my memory came rushing back. Now I remember why I hated The Village back in 2004. The third act of The Village is a complete trainwreck. From the moment that Joaquin Phoenix is knocked into a plot device coma to the reveal of the big twist well before the actual end of the movie to the nonsensical and self indulgent ending, The Village goes completely off the rails.

The next section of this review of The Village goes into spoilers so if you still haven’t seen The Village and want to remain unspoiled, jump off now and come back after you see the movie, it’s on Netflix. We’ll be here when you get back.

The big twist of The Village is despite the setting in a village that even the tombstones indicate exists in the late 1800’s, the movie is actually set in modern America 2004. The monsters that provide the oppressive atmosphere of the first two acts aren’t real. The town elders portray the monsters as a way of keeping their families from trying to leave the village and find out about the modern world outside the forest.

William Hurt, it turns out, is a secret billionaire who, with the help of the elders, created The Village as a way of escaping the crime of the modern world that had tragically taken the lives of members of every family in town. This ‘twist’ is deeply problematic in numerous ways. For instance, why convince everyone they can’t wear red? Why make red a plot point at all? It never becomes important, especially after Hurt admits to making up the rules along the way/ 

At one point, after the creatures are revealed as not real, Bryce Dallas Howard, whose character is blind, is seen to have wandered into a field of red flowers and tense music plays and you’re baffled as you know there is no danger and she knows there is no danger and yet the movie wants the scene to be suspenseful because of the monsters. The monsters that, by this point, he's already revealed as fake. Why would we be afraid in this scene?

Why didn't the elders simply declare themselves Amish and create a colony based on those values? Why the elaborate ruse about the outside world? I get that they want to frighten the children into never leaving but there has to be something simpler than goofy-looking woods' monsters to convince people from leaving. This just seems like a lot of unnecessary work to hide a secret that doesn't need much hiding.

Shyamalan directs the third act of The Village as if he hadn’t revealed the twist ending at the start of the act. The movie straight up has William Hurt admit the elaborate lie to Bryce Dallas Howard and then sends her on a journey through the now completely safe woods that is then played as if there were still real monsters on the loose. When Howard finally makes it out of the woods it appears Shyamalan wants us to be surprised that we are in modern day America.

That would be fine if he didn’t tell us that before she ever actually left the village. The only real tension is that Howard’s Ivy is blind and must find her way through the forest alone and blind. This is something she manages quite well under the dire circumstances but raises the question of why Hurt didn’t just go himself. He gives some nonsense about how he vowed to never leave the village and yet he reveals the lies about everything to his blind daughter and then encourages her to leave the village on her own? Blind, going into the woods alone. At the very least, that’s awful parenting.

The Village stinks because it wastes two acts of a really compelling drama on a twist that wasn’t a twist and a series of nonsensical story beats that the script undercuts by revealing everything far too soon. We get the secret about the fake monsters and the modern day setting before Ivy leaves into the forest. The film has an action beat left courtesy of Adrien Brody’s offensive burlesque of a mentally challenged man but that’s not what we have been building toward.

We were promised a twist ala The Sixth Sense and what we got instead was a third act that would come to define the worst traits of M Night Shyamalan, his tendency toward convoluted and overwrought twist endings and big plot moments. In the third act, Shyamalan abandons the strength and heart of the film, the love story between Joaquin Phoenix and Bryce Dallas Howard in favor of nonsense action movie chases and a twist that he spoils himself before it can surprise us.

It’s a shame because there were two thirds of a really compelling movie in The Village.

Movie Review: Without a Paddle

Without a Paddle (2004) 

Directed by Steven Brill 

Written by Jay Leggett, Mitch Rouse 

Starring Seth Green, Matthew Lillard, Dax Shepard, Ethan Suplee, Burt Reynolds 

Release Date August 20th, 2004

Published August 19th, 2004 

Despite what many screenwriters will tell you, writing a screenplay is not that hard. Not hard at all if you're not interested in writing a good script. Simply follow the formula used by the writers of Without A Paddle: take three successful films, say City Slickers, Road Trip, and Deliverance, extract the most basic elements from each, and combine them into your movie. Be sure to read Screenplay Writing for Dummies to fill out your screenplay into the proper salable length and you’re done.

Without A Paddle stars Matthew Lillard, Dax Shepard, and Seth Green as three childhood buddies confronting life as adults after a friend’s death. Lillard is Jerry, a computer programmer who hates his job and can't decide whether or not to settle down with his girlfriend; for you screenwriters looking for character development shorthand, Jerry is a surfer with all of the stereotypical attributes of a surfer to fill out his character. That saves you having to write him witty dialogue or anything that might resemble an interesting character; he is a placeholder for a stereotype.

Dax Shepard is Tom, a part-time criminal, gambler, and full time ladies man. Again, a little screenwriter shorthand, the writers here use other characters’ conversations to establish Tom's colorful background (prison stays, casino trips, orgies). This is helpful because now you don't have to write the character anything interesting to do, simply tell the audience he is wacky and you’re done. Tom is a placeholder for a backstory far more interesting than the character that is written.

Finally, there is Seth Green as Dan, a doctor ,and by far the most successful of the three friends. Now, screenwriters, pay attention to the Dan character because he is an example of a modern comic rule that states that any comedy with more than one male lead must have one of those male leads be super-neurotic. Establish various fears and phobias and then add the nerd accouterments, asthma inhaler, pocket protector, bad glasses and a general fear of women. Again, you save yourself having to write an interesting, funny character.

The plot finds our intrepid trio paying tribute to their dead buddy by taking the canoe trip they had always dreamed of. The trip is special because it involves searching for the lost loot of D. B Cooper, the urban legend who robbed passengers on an airplane and leaped from the plane at an altitude that could only have killed him. It is an intriguing legend -- neither his body nor his loot have never been found -- that has inspired more than one film. If only it had inspired a better film than this.

From there, the boys head for the backwoods of Oregon where they quickly lose their way while fighting off a bear, a crooked sheriff and a pair of redneck dope dealers played by Abe Benrubi and Ethan Suplee. Both Suplee and Benrubi have seen better days. Also on the trip the guys commune with a pair of nutty environmentalist chicks and a backwoodsman played by Burt Reynolds who may hold the key to the Cooper legend.

One rather unique problem in Without A Paddle is one I mentioned briefly earlier in this review and that is the back stories given to key characters. Both the dead friend Billy and Dax Shepard's Tom have back stories that are way more interesting than the story we are forced to watch. Billy has climbed Everest, dated supermodels, and rafted the most difficult rapids in the world. Tom has been in and out of prison with all sorts of oddball encounters with criminals, scam artists, and beautiful woman. We see almost none of that and instead are treated to a very mundane road movie.

Mundane is a rather kind description for a film made by guys who think it's funny to have Burt Reynolds in their movie. Not that they have written anything funny for Mr. Reynolds, they just think that Burt Reynolds is funny. Is it kitsch? Is it ironic in some way? I have no idea and I doubt that poor Mr. Reynolds knows either, or cares as long as the check clears. Reynolds long ago surrendered his likeness to parody and now only acts for the dollars.

We should not be surprised that such a hack movie would be Directed by Steven "Adam Sandler's bitch" Brill. Brill was lenser on both Mr. Deeds and Little Nicky as well as the wretched Disney kids flick Heavyweights with Ben Stiller. Brill may have actually written the book Screenplay Writing for Dummies, he wrote Little Nicky as well as the wrestling comedy (tragedy?) Ready To Rumble and two Mighty Ducks movies. To his defense, however, he is not credited on Without A Paddle; that dubious honor goes to TV veterans Mitch Rouse and Jay Leggett.

The three leads Lillard, Shepard, and Green don't do themselves any favors but they don't embarrass themselves. Lillard, to his credit, is becoming less and less abrasive and off-putting with each role. Green will always have a place as a second or third banana and he will always have endless goodwill for his voicework on TV's Family Guy. As for Shepard, the former Punk'd star, he has a little charm. I like how he bites into a punchline but he never had a chance with this poorly written role. Based on this it's difficult to pass any kind of judgment on Dax Shepard.

I must admit that I laughed during Without A Paddle more than once. However it was mostly a reflex action from remembering funnier jokes from Road Trip or City Slickers and one quick reference that a character makes to Ned Beatty's moment of truth in Deliverance. This film is a perfect example of the kind of assembly line comedy that Hollywood executives excel at making. It's relatively inoffensive, not entirely inept but utterly unmemorable comedy that you will forget as soon as the credits roll.

Movie Review: Exorcist The Beginning

Exoricist The Beginning (2004) 

Directed by Renny Harlin 

Written by Alexi Hawley 

Starring Stellan Skarsgard, James D'arcy, Izabella Scorupco 

Release Date August 20th, 2004 

Published August 21st, 2004 

Let me begin this review with a confession. Readers of my columns already know that I have written frequently about the troubles plaguing The Exorcist film series. I have been quite critical of the film’s producers for jettisoning director Paul Schrader in favor of Renny Harlin because they felt Schrader did not deliver the kind of disgusting gore they had requested. Schrader's shabby treatment is a shadow over this film and until his finished version is released on DVD, that demon cannot be 'exorcised'.

With that out the way and my bias clearly in the open, we can discuss this highly unusual and tragically awful film Exorcist: The Beginning.

Father Lancaster Merrin (Stellan Skarsgard) is famous for having saved the life of young Regan McNeil in 1971's The Exorcist but he was not always a priest. In the 1950's, he was just another archaeologist digging up fossils in British-controlled North Africa. Merrin's days are spent drinking and nights spent tormented by memories of the time when he lost his faith in God. One day as Merrin is drinking, he is visited by a representative of the British government requesting that he take part in an archaeological dig that has uncovered an ancient church buried beneath the desert.

It is clear that Merrin's expertise as both a priest and archaeologist are what are being requested and Merrin is insistent that he no longer has religion in his life. Still his curiosity is piqued and soon he is off to the desert where the natives are restlessly and warily uncovering one of the most unusual finds in history. It is a church buried beneath the desert. On the dig, Merrin is joined by a priest from the Vatican, Father Francis (James D'arcy) who is to track Merrin's progress and report back to Rome, something Merrin is unhappy about. Father Francis believes this church may be the place where Lucifer fell.

Merrin is not there long before strange things begin happening. Villagers are falling ill, Hyena's are circling the camp and becoming increasingly aggressive. Eventually a young boy named Joseph (Remy Sweeney) is taken ill and the camp physician Doctor Sarah (Isabella Scorupco) can't find what is wrong with him. The villagers believe the boy is possessed and want to sacrifice him. It's up to Merrin and Sarah to protect him and eventually they will try and save him, exorcising him with the help of Father D'arcy. From there the film has a twist so mind-blowingly ridiculous it's worth the price of admission. Laughable is the best way to describe it. Campy kitsch. So funny I could almost recommend it, if you didn't have to sit through the rest of the film to get to it

Exorcist: The Beginning may sound like a straightforward story of one man's struggle with his faith and his spiritual reclamation but as directed by Renny Harlin it is a shrill, stupid horror cliche of bad twists and an insatiable lust for gore. The reason director Paul Schrader was dismissed and the film entirely reshot was that it wasn't gory enough for producer James G. Robinson. Renny Harlin made certain he did not make the same mistake and in so doing ratcheted the gore factor to an extreme that would make the most twisted imagination wince.

There are babies stillborn covered in maggots, fields of crucified bodies hanging from upside down crosses, and the most hacky of screen cliches, the child-in-danger manipulation. Numerous children, including the film’s lead child actor are placed in serious jeopardy and Harlin has the gall to portray the children’s murders without cutaways, something akin to child abuse for the young actors forced to fake their gory deaths.

Subtlety has never been Mr. Harlin's strong point, he famously failed spectacularly with Cutthroat Island, Driven and Deep Blue Sea. If you thought Mr. Harlin's special effects work in Deep Blue Sea was bad, wait till you see the horrendous CGI abortion he performs in this film. From bad CGI smoke in the film’s opening scenes to CGI Hyenas with glowing cartoon eyes to a makeup job in the film’s final moments that is something only Ed Wood could appreciate.

The blame for this abomination of Exorcist legend does not sit fully with Mr. Harlin. Most of the blame can be placed with producer James G. Robinson who has been quite vocal about his hands on approach to producing. He was rumored to have considered directing the film himself after firing Paul Schrader before settling on Renny Harlin. Mr. Robinson's hands on approach may be part of the reason why the film’s special effects are so bad, consider the film was finished just days before prints of the film had to be shipped to theaters. A producer’s decision no doubt. Delaying the film any further would push it out of it's comfy August release, a dumping ground for Hollywood's end of summer dregs.

Mr. Robinson's hands on approach has been seen on a number of his prestigious productions like Major League: Back To The Minors, Juwanna Mann and most horrifyingly alongside Director Paul WS Anderson on Soldier. While Anderson has taken most of the blame on Soldier, maybe there should be some revision of that legendary Hollywood story of how such a prized script was turned into such a bad movie to make room for Mr. Robinson.

I have been quite hard on this film and it deserves it. I have been hard on producer James G. Robinson and I think he deserves it as well (did I mention he produced Chill Factor? Sorry, distracted again). Mr. Robinson has a chance to prove me wrong when he releases Director Paul Schrader's version of Exorcist: The Beginning on DVD later this year. He has promised to release both films so that comparisons can be made and hopefully he is a man of his word. Even if Mr. Schrader's version is as bad as the producers claim, it certainly could not be as bad as the film they did release.

Movie Review Open Water

Open Water (2004) 

Directed Chris Kentis 

Written by Chris Kentis 

Starring Daniel Travis, Blanchard 

Release Date August 6th, 2004 

Published August 5th, 2004 

When I was told that the movie The Terminal was based on a real guy trapped at a French Airport, I was surprised. When I read that the left-in-the-ocean movie Open Water was based on more than one true story, I was blown away. I have been scuba diving, rather recently in fact, and the idea of being left at sea was a fear my friends and dive coach called crazy, impossible. No way that could ever happen.

Daniel (Daniel Travis) and Susan (Blanchard Ryan) are your average suburban couple. They have an SUV, well-paying jobs and the stress that your average suburbanite always must escape, at least temporarily, in places like Jamaica, Hawaii or some other tropical paradise.

Daniel and Susan’s getaway is some unknown tropical location where the drinks are served in coconuts and have umbrellas. They have planned a week’s worth of activities that starts with a morning of scuba diving. Daniel has been planning this for awhile with lessons, weather maps and watching Shark Week on the Discovery Channel.

The morning dive trip is marked by a pair of minor mistakes. First, the dive team miscounts the number of divers on the boat, 20 instead of 22. Then Daniel and Susan are separated from the group and take a little too long to come back up. When they finally do come up, the boat has left without them and what seems like an urban legend becomes dangerously real. Daniel and Susan have been left behind and no one knows they are gone.

Open Water was written, directed and edited by Chris Kentis with an assist by his wife and producing partner Laura Lau. Both have clearly studied the art of suspense. For long periods as Daniel and Susan bob up and down, nothing happens. Kentis makes terrific use of what people think they know about sharks and even gives a wink and a nod to the Discovery Channel’s wildly popular Shark Week.

Shot on digital video with all natural lighting and sound, aside from a soundtrack that drifts in and out, Open Water aesthetically resembles the minimalist values of European Dogme filmmaking. Though Lars Von Trier and his European brethren would look down their nose at a genre film, Open Water shows the true potential of the minimalist approach and its ability to be as or even more exciting than any big budget film.

The film's stars, Daniel Travis and Blanchard Ryan, must be commended for their commitment as much as their performances. The two actors spent more than 250 hours in the water surrounded by the very real dangers, real jellyfish, real barracudas and yes, real sharks. Both were protected by some of the top shark wranglers, but that was little comfort as sharks swam within inches of them.

Chris Kentis is the real star of Open Water. His direction is fresh and inventive. His script is spare and darkly humorous, my favorite line “I wanted to go skiing!” The amount of suspense Kentis and company wring from this seemingly limited idea is amazing. A nearly perfect blend of direction, method acting (sort of, if you think about it), and Oscar-worthy editing. This is a terrific film.