Movie Review: Coach Carter

Coach Carter (2005) 

Directed by Thomas Carter

Written by Mark Schwan, John Gatins

Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Channing Tatum, Rob Brown 

Release Date January 14th, 2005 

Published January 13th, 2005 

In 1999, Richmond High School's basketball coach, Ken Carter, made national headlines by doing something unheard of from an inner-city school. Locking up his gym and cancelling games, Coach Carter required his student athletes to actually be students. I can recall remarking at the time that there was no doubt this story would become a movie and, five years later, that movie has arrived.

Watered down to the mainstream, easy-listening pace of a Hollywood feature, Coach Carter gains resonance and drama thanks to its casting of the amazing Samuel L. Jackson.

When Ken Carter returned to his alma mater, Richmond High School, in the ghettos of Richmond, California, he found a run-down, raggedy basketball team with the discipline of a street gang. Coming out of a 4 and 20 season, the teams' prospects looked no brighter for the new season. That will change under Coach Carter's leadership. With his imposing presence, booming voice, and willingness to allow the teams' best players to quit if they won't follow orders, Coach Carter knows how to take control.

Carter's first act as head coach is to make the players sign an agreement that requires a grade point average higher than the high school standard. The players are also required to wear ties on game day and sit in the front of the classrom. That is not the least of his demands. On the court, Coach Carter runs his team through the floor, teaching them the fundamentals that most of the players had never learned.

With such a large cast, the players don't resonate much as characters. Most simply fit character types that seem diverse when taken as a whole. There is the clown (Antwon Tanner), the white kid (Channing Tatum), and the coach's own son (Robert Ri'chard), who earns his place on the team by promising to work twice as hard. There is also the troubled kid (Rick Gonzalez), whose involvement with drugs and gangs serves as the example of what the kids are striving to avoid.

The one player in Coach Carter who makes an impact is played by Rob Brown, the impressive young actor from 2000's Finding Forrester, whose natural talent is to seem as if he is not acting at all. Brown is truly awesome; his presence dominates even when his character is silent. Brown is involved in the films' most controversial subplot, a high school pregnancy with pop-star Ashanti, who makes an impressive film debut. The subplot is controversial for its results and its unique treatment, but I felt responsibly portrayed and especially well-acted by these two superior young actors.

Coach Carter was directed by television veteran Thomas Carter, no relation to the Coach, who distinguishes this cliched sports-movie premise, uplifting after-school-special kind of stuff, by casting the brilliant Samuel L. Jackson. The casting of someone with Jackson's star power and presence sells the uplifting and potentially sappy elements of the plot.

Jackson is aided greatly by a surprisingly good script by John Gatins and Mark Schwahn, though they were likely assisted by the on-set involvement of the real Coach Ken Carter, whose "No B.S." approach I'm sure was a guiding influence. What makes this story so much more interesting and intelligent than most movies of its genre is the serious way it treats its academic storyline. Yes, the basketball scenes are well shot, but the impressive part is the seriousness of its true subject, the importance of an education.\

Unlike the cowardly Friday Night Lights, a movie that shunned the frightening sociology behind its football story, Coach Carter takes its sociological underpinnings head on. The film tackles, at times indirectly, the psychological, economical and social pressures that cause young black men to lose hope and give in to the lures of easy money by selling drugs.

Coach Carter's one-man-against-the-world approach does at times appear comical. It takes a little while for us to understand why the community rises up against the coach, who's simply trying to make sure their children get educated. Eventually, you do understand, which deepens the sadness and drama that help the film earn its uplifting sports-movie ending.

Coach Carter is not perfect--it has the mainstream, feel-good tone that is the hallmark of both MTV Films and Producers Brian Robbins and Michael Tollin. But, the film also has Samuel L. Jackson, who after drifting through a series of dreadful roles in films like Twisted, Formula 51 and No Good Deed, is back in "badass" form. It is Jackson's performance that makes the feel-good approach not feel either false or sappy. His presence, his dramatic weight and, best of all, that booming 'basso profundo' sell this piece as more than just another sports movie.

Movie Review The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) 

Directed by Garth Jennings

Written by Douglas Adams, Karey Kirkpatrick 

Starring Martin Freeman, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel, Sam Rockwell, Alan Rickman

Release Date April 29th, 2005 

Published April 28th, 2005 

The tortured development process for the film adaptation of Douglas Adams' cult novel The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy is one of those "Only in Hollywood" tales. As told in David Hughes' book "The Best Sci-Fi films Never Made," the story begins in 1982 with a series of Hollywood Producers following the money rather than any quirky well told sci-fi story. After Douglas Adams' radio series became a smash in Britain and then became a best selling book, Hollywood took notice.

Once the film was transferred to British TV and once again became a hit, Hollywood heavyweights came calling. First, Ivan Reitman wanted to make the film with Bill Murray and Harold Ramis in the cast. He abandoned the project after a year of stops and starts and budget battles, instead he took Murray and Ramis and made Ghostbusters. After that a number of big names (i.e. Bruce Willis, Michael Keaton, Jim Carrey) all floated into and out of the development process.

Poor Douglas Adams waded through bad adaptation after bad adaptation, some with his name unfortunately attached to them. Until 2001 when it looked as if the sun were finally shining on the project. Adams completed what looked like a final script and director Jay Roach, fresh from the hit Meet The Parents and with Austin Powers in his recent past, was ready to helm the project. Fate can be very cruel; Douglas Adams died of a heart attack before the film could even begin scouting locations.

Five years later with the assistance of first time director Garth Jennings and execs at Disney, The Hitchhiker's GuideTo The Galaxy finally made it to the big screen and though it is flawed and not entirely satisfying to its loyal cult audience, it is a solidly entertaining and a surprisingly welcoming sci-fi comedy.

Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman) is having a bad day. His home on the outskirts of some tiny unnamed British hamlet is about to be bulldozed in favor  of a new expressway. That, however, is the least of his problems, as his good friend Ford Prefect (Mos Def) is trying to tell him. It seems Arthur's house is not the only thing on Earth about to be bulldozed.  The entire planet has been scheduled for demolition by an officious race of aliens called Vogons.

Luckily for Arthur, his buddy Ford is an interstellar hitchhiker who is able to spirit Arthur off the planet before it's destroyed. Thus begins a most extraordinary adventure that will cross the galaxy with a cast of characters not seen outside of an acid trip. After escaping the Vogons, Arthur and Ford stow away aboard the most beautiful ship in the galaxy, the heart of gold, which is currently captained by the new President of the Galaxy, Zaphod Beeblebrox (Sam Rockwell).

Along with Zaphod is Marvin a super intelligent but constantly depressed robot (voice by Alan Rickman, character by Warwick Davis) and Trillian (Zooey Deschanel), an earth girl who has brief history with Arthur; she blew him off at a party to go into space with Zaphod just prior to the world exploding. The crew is on the run, one of Zaphod's two heads, yes I said two heads, has kidnapped the other and stolen the spaceship. They are headed across the galaxy to ask a giant computer the meaning of life.

If that is not esoteric enough for you the film is filled to the brim with other subtle bits of humor and wordplay, the best of which comes from the voice of Stephen Fry narrating from the Hitchhiker's Guide. Accompanied by colorful illustrations, the Guide often interrupts the film to deliver an interesting and helpful tidbit about this or that. Fry's eloquent British tones lend an intellectual air to the film's unusual details and the books' quirky dialogue.

By far my favorite part of the film was the opening song called, "So long and thanks for all the fish ''. Sung from the perspective of dolphins, the song tells us that dolphins had for years tried to warn humans about the impending end of the world but we mistook the warnings as cute tricks. Clever and imaginative, the song is the perfect example of the film's oddball humor.

Director Garth Jennings is one half of a commercial and video directing team called Hammer and Tongs who have directed music videos for REM and Blur. Jennings is inexperienced as a feature film director but it's likely that aided his work here rather than harmed it. Jennings directs with wild abandon, never pausing to consider what can't be done. While the story has been compromised for the sake of mainstream appeal, Jennings' direction is perfectly in sync with the books' bizarre humor.

Martin Freeman is best known for his supporting role in the original British version of Ricky Gervais' "The Office". Freeman has the perfect everyman quality that fits with Douglas Adams' conception of Arthur and, better yet, Freeman whines and complains and begs for a good cup of tea just as you would imagine Arthur from the book would. Unfortunately Freeman fails miserably in connecting with American actress Zooey Deschanel in the film's romantic subplot.

The best performance in the film is Sam Rockwell as Zaphod. Rockwell combines the manic energy of Jim Carrey with the rock star look and manner of David Lee Roth. The two heads bit is funnier than it sounds and provides a number of good gags. Mos Def is a calming influence in the sometimes manic, over the top film. His Ford Prefect is often beatific and obtuse but always supportive and helpful to Arthur. Mos Def may not be what fans of the book had in mind when they thought of Ford but he puts any misgivings away with his performance.

Naturally, with such a well known cult object as "Hitchhiker's Guide" the battle between what appeals to the cult and what can appeal to mainstream audiences is a difficult balancing act. Hollywood studios would prefer every film had the same set of easily salable elements so obviously something as quirky as Hitchhiker's Guide is not their cup of tea. The books are esoteric and dry and very British. To Americanize them and make them more mainstream some things are lost in translation and others are added, like a romance between Arthur and Trillian that is the film's weakest element.

Nothing about the romance ever feels right, likely because it was not part of the book. The whole thing feels shoehorned into the plot and because it's all so earnest it does not fit well with the oddball elements of the surrounding film. Zooey Deschanel could really do something with this part but unfortunately with the romantic element forced on her she becomes a functionary of the plot as opposed to a fully fleshed out character.

Jennings does not linger on the romance plot, though.  He is more concerned with cramming the film with exciting visuals and he succeeds more often than not. Watch out for John Malkovich as a half man, half machine in one of the picture's most striking visuals and a terrific scene in which the entire cast is turned into string. These scenes vividly bring to life some of the off-the-wall elements that made "Hitchhiker's Guide" such a cult object.

Overall Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy is an imperfect but highly enjoyable sci-fi comedy. It is not exactly what fans of the book would want, but it's not a bad thing that the filmmakers opened up just enough for new fans to get it. The balance is difficult but works for the most part, enough at least for me to recommend it for your movie dollar.

Movie Review The Greatest Game Ever Played

The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005) 

Directed by Bill Paxton

Written by Mark First

Starring Shia LeBeouf, Stephen Dillane, Elias Koteas, Peter Firth

Release Date September 30th, 2005

Published September 28th, 2005

Mark Frost co-created with David Lynch the head trippy TV show Twin Peaks. He co-wrote one of this year's biggest blockbusters, Fantastic Four, and years ago directed the lovely but forgettable romance Storyville. Who knew that all along he harbored the ambitions of a golf historian. Coming across the story of Francis Ouimet some years ago, Frost became obsessed with telling his story.

Ouimet, an amateur golfer and part time caddy, won the 1913 United States Golf Open in Brookline, Massachusetts by defeating arguably the greatest golfer of that era, British Champion Harry Vardon. It's a dramatic story well captured in Mark Frost's 2003 book "The Greatest Game Ever Played".

Given Frost's Hollywood experience the book has a natural cinematic quality to it. The story simply screamed for adaptation. Unfortunately, Frost's idea for a 12 part mini-series on HBO was shot down. Now in a far more truncated version, The Greatest Game Ever Played is an overlong Disney sports movie that nails every cliché of the genre while neglecting much of the detail that made the book special.

Directed by actor Bill Paxton, The Greatest Game Ever Played stars Shia Labeouf as Francis Ouimet, a poor kid living across the street from the prestigious Brookline Country Club where he found work as a caddy. Fascinated as a child by a chance meeting with the British champion Harry Vardon (Stephen Dillane), Francis developed his game in every free minute he had.

Francis's hard bitten father, Arthur (Elias Koteas, with an awful French accent), vehemently opposes Francis playing the game, either because it's above the family's means and social status, or because the plot seems to require his opposition to build tension.  Either way, neither reason is very compelling. Francis remains determined and with the support of his mother (Marnie McPhail) accepts a chance to play in the US Open at Brookline. His job is to show up and provide some local color opposite the out of town pros but Francis shows his mettle and really competes.

The film is not only Francis' story but also that of Harry Vardon, who, as a child, watched his home in Scotland demolished and a golf course put in its place. Determined to earn his way onto that course, Vardon developed into the greatest player Britain had ever seen, winning the British Open championship several times and the US Open once as well. With an eye to finally being allowed to join the club that replaced his home, Harry accepts an offer from the snooty Lord Northcliffe (Peter Firth) to go to the US and bring home the US Championship to England.

The film's subject may be golf but much of the story focuses on class and social status. Both Francis and Harry struggled with being poor kids in a rich man's world. Using their golfing abilities, both manage to find entry into the halls of power only to encounter even more resistance. No matter how many open championships Harry Vardon won, the best he could ever do was an honorary membership at his home country club.

For Francis, the issues of class came from both the men in power at the country club and the man in power of his home. His father was a strong, proud but very bitter man. Whether he envied his son's opportunity to dine with the upper crust or his need to protect his son from the inevitable disappointment of when that upper crust would reject him, his father never supports his playing, although smart audiences won't be surprised if father and son share a touching moment late in the picture.

Bill Paxton directs The Greatest Game Ever Played and makes it quite clear how much he loves the game. Long languorous shots of the tightly cropped grass, loving shots of clubs being handcrafted and endless scenes of straight ahead competition recreated from the 1913 US Open. However within these scenes is the not so subtle hint that golf is far more interesting to the player than to the audience.

Paxton and special effects director Louis Craig dress up much of the actual golfing scenes with flashy special effects that fade out the crowd around either Francis or Harry as they line up their shots and then take the ball's perspective as it flies down the fairway. The effects shots in Greatest Game likely cost more than most of the rest of the film and are entirely anachronistic to the quiet and observational atmosphere of the game, especially when considered against the film's genteel and respectable period setting.

The performances of the film's two leads, Shia LeBeouf and Steven Dillane do little to help the film over the rough spots of the poor special effects and cliched story. LeBeouf is a credible golfer but his performance is lighter here than it was in the truly lighthearted family flick Holes. As for Dillane, he's no stranger to period pieces having played the husband of Virginia Woolf in The Hours. In Greatest Game Dillane is greatly undone by the outright bizarre script that has Harry Vardon envisioning ghosts on the golf course as he struggles to sink putts and keep it in the fairway.

Neither actor is helped by the fact that they are both blown off the screen by the cute kid performance of Josh Flitter. As Francis's  eight year-old caddie, Eddie Lowery, Flitter is a real scene stealer. Eddie Lowery could likely be the subject of his own book or movie someday.  After caddying for Francis, Lowery went on to become a terrific golfer in his own right and a conqueror of the business world becoming a multi-millionaire.

If golf does not grab you, not much else of The Greatest Game Ever Played is likely to grab you either. Whether it is the tortured family dynamics of the Ouimet's or Harry Vardon's oddball obsession with the golf course planners who knocked down his childhood home that show up occasionally as ghosts when Harry struggles on the course, or the oddball performance of Peter Firth as the literally mustache twirling villain, The Greatest Game Ever Played has little that will appeal to the discerning moviegoer.

Disney has taken a very engaging sports book full of unique detail and stirring description and crossed it with the same sports movie formula that has made The Rookie, Remember The Titans, and Coach Carter uplifting sports flotsam. However where those films had sports that are naturally entertaining to a wide audience, golf remains on the margins of sports with audience appeal. Golf fans are highly specific and a film such as this that condescends to dressing up their favored sport with goofy effects is not likely to draw them in.

Then if that were not enough the film throws in a dull romantic subplot with Francis and a girl out of his social strata. The very lovely Peyton List plays Sara Willis, a daughter of one of the club members, who has a chance encounter with Francis as a small child and retains the attraction as the two become teenagers. The film attempts to mine tension from their Romeo and Juliet-esque class warfare but it's nothing that has not been portrayed before in far better films.

At just over two hours The Greatest Game Ever Played is torturously long. From the direction to the writing to the lightweight performances of both Shia LeBeouf and Steven Dillane, the film is as lifeless as a Sunday afternoon in front of a TV screen watching any golf tournament that does not feature the charismatic presence of the sport's greatest attraction, Tiger Woods.

Now throw some Tiger into The Greatest Game Ever Played and maybe you've got something. As it is, the 1913 United States Open may have been the greatest game ever played but it's one of least entertaining films of 2005.

Movie Review: Elizabethtown

Elizabethtown (2005) 

Directed by Cameron Crowe 

Written by Cameron Crowe 

Starring Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst, Alec Baldwin, Susan Sarandon, Judy Greer

Release Date October 14th, 2005 

Published October 15th, 2006 

I have wrestled with loving Cameron Crowe's “Elizabethtown” ever since it's 2005 release. The film has been part of one of my most significant relationships, she loves the movie and was angry that I found fault with it. It was with her pushing that I have revisited “Elizabethtown” several times in the intervening years and come away with a number of different reactions.

There are so many wonderfully positive things about “Elizabethtown,” the most notable of which is the extraordinary soundtrack. Of course, Cameron Crowe is a master of movie music so this soundtrack can come as no surprise but the way he uses music in the film does surprise and delight. Listen for the delicate grooves not only of the score done by Crowe's now ex-wife Ann Wilson but also the callbacks to songs by Tom Petty and My Morning Jacket that filter in unexpectedly and underline important scenes.

Watch the unique way Crowe uses the unusual Elton John song My Father's Gun as a mournful reckoning for how Orlando Bloom's Drew Baylor feels as he takes up with the distant family that had loved his father but seemingly held his family at a distance. It's wonderful how the awkward lyrics about the civil war and family legacy coalesce with Drew's discomfort among his extended family.

The music is perfect from scene one with The Hollies Jesus Was a Crossmaker through the end with a brief reprise of Tom Petty's underappreciated It'll All Work Out. Listen to the way that Crowe uses Tom Petty throughout “Elizabethtown” and marvel at the subtlety of director and musician in perfect concert. It'll All Work Out is used just after Drew promises to kill himself and just as his savior/love interest Claire is introduced. The song is our reassuring underline to let us know that though Drew will struggle he will survive. It's much more subtle without my description.

I cannot get enough of Cameron Crowe's ear for music and eye for knowing where exactly to use it in his films. It's a remarkable and underrated talent. With that said, there are a number of issues that I have had with “Elizabethtown” from the first time I saw it, through my first disappointed review through repeated viewings and reevaluations of the film over five years.

The plot begins with Drew Baylor, a 20 something shoe designer for a Nike-esque shoe company in Oregon. Drew has just designed an innovative new work out shoe that has met with massive public disapproval. So bad was the shoe's reception among the public that Drew is being fired and the company is about to lose something close to a billion dollars.

The company's owner, Phil (Alec Baldwin) quotes one critic as saying that this shoe could send a generation back to bare feet. This section is filled with logical inconsistencies and minor quibbles that undercut Drew's dramatic journey. First up is the name of the shoe: Spasmotica. There simply is no company in the world that would release a shoe called Spasmotica and no consumer that would purchase it.

It's a quibble but there is simply no way a multibillion dollar company would not have tested the public reaction to the shoe before committing nearly a billion dollars in marketing and production to it. The title would not have survived the first testing phase nor likely would the design which is something akin to a Ray fish. We are told that Drew is a genius and an artist given free reign and it's simply not believable.

This is important because it leads to Drew's dramatic decision to take his own life which is the driving force for the rest of his sad journey. We must believe in Drew's desperation or he seems merely pathetic. Orlando Bloom does a fabulous job lifting the audience past logical inconsistencies enough that they don't sink the film but its close. If you don't like Bloom and aren't willing to believe his desperation and sadness you will be left out of “Elizabethtown.”

Then, as Drew is contemplating his rather fanciful suicide, he has rigged a carving knife up to an exercise machine that should be enough to stab him directly in the heart; he gets a call informing him that his father has died while visiting family in Elizabethtown. Drew has been drafted to fly to Elizabethtown to retrieve his father’s body and return it home. It’s on the flight that Drew meets Claire, a too helpful flight attendant, and “Elizabethtown” begins showing off its maddening and delightful taste in romance.

Onion A.V Club Head Writer Nathan Rabin coined the phrase Manic Pixie Dream Girl based on a viewing of Kirsten Dunst in “Elizabethtown.” The Manic Pixie Dream Girl is defined as 'that bubbly, shallow cinematic figure that exists in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures.' It's a cynical and cutting description of “Elizabethtown's” Claire and one that I have been unable to escape since I read it.

The Manic Pixie Dream Girl has haunted my every viewing of “Elizabethtown” and it's a struggle to put aside Mr. Rabin's dismissive caricature and see Ms. Dunst's performance. Indeed, as written by the sensitive Mr. Crowe, Claire is as much a device as she is a character. So why does she ring so deeply in my soul?

I long for a Claire of my own to rescue me from despair and help me recognize what is good within me while offering judgment free love and fantasy sex following a perfect unintended seduction through mutual sadness and lonely longing. Claire is a little too perfect but is not perfect the fantasy of fantasists? What man did not at one time long for his very own Claire? 

There are problems with this fantasy however and they provide another of the shockingly lazy inconsistencies that plague “Elizabethtown.” In a scene early in Claire and Drew's relationship Claire describes the two of them as 'the substitute people.' They are stand ins in at the moment for the people they each really want. It's Claire's way of keeping distance from Drew, assuming that he is still hooked on his recent ex, Ellen (Jessica Biel). 

She's hedging her bets with him; inventing her own boyfriend as a way of letting Drew off the hook should he carry on with his pining for Ellen. It's a wonderful scene that shows Claire is not the fearless creature who flirted so openly with Drew on his flight to Kentucky and talked so openly with him in their wonderful all night phone call. It's very early in their relationship and Claire needs to be a little weary considering how fast things are moving between them. 

However, later in the film Claire throws the 'substitute people' comment back at Drew as if they were his words and not hers. The logical inconsistency undercuts the drama and impact of what is a very dynamic and dramatic scene. We are also supposed to believe in this scene that Drew, even after so clearly having fallen for Claire, still wants to kill himself. The scene calls for a withering comment from Claire that sets the stage for their reconciliation. Instead, the scene ends on a pair of confusing points.

Unlike any other Cameron Crowe film, “Elizabethtown” calls for desperate leaps in logic and suspensions of disbelief. So why do I still love it? “Elizabethtown” is a shaggy dog of a romance filled with whimsy and life and set to a phenomenal soundtrack. Despite its inconsistencies there are moments of such tenderness, romance and heart that I cannot help but love it.

Many critics have hammered “Elizabethtown” and many cite a scene where Susan Sarandon as Drew's mom performs a stand up comedy routine and a tap dance at her late husband's memorial as the films dramatic nadir. I completely disagree. Sarandon's unguarded emotion in this scene and Cameron Crowe's perfect imagery, shooting Sarandon from behind as she dances capturing her silhouette in a in a spotlight, is utterly gorgeous and the shots of Bloom and Judy Greer as his sister laughing and holding back tears evoke deep sympathy and smiles. 

This scene is wonderful for it's capricious spirit and the memorial scene as a whole is wildly capricious, ending as it does with Drew's cousin's band playing Free Bird as a giant paper Mache bird catches fire and sprinklers flood the hotel ballroom set. Sure, it's indulgent but it's also purely Cameron Crowe and as the “Elizabethtown” love theme score comes in underneath the chaos it's hard not to get caught up. 

That scene is followed up by a darkly comic burial scene that leads to “Elizabethtown's” final flight of odd fancy. Claire has requested that Drew take a road trip home as he takes his father's ashes back to Oregon. She has made him a map of famous tourist traps and places of musical legend and set the whole thing to 42 hours worth of classic songs. When she found the time to make this 'very unique map' is anyone's guess. 

Most odd is why? Why would Drew go to the hotel where Martin Luther King was killed? Why would Drew visit the Survivor Tree in Oklahoma City? What do these tragic places have to do with his journey? These scenes stretch credulity especially as we arrive at the half way point of Drew's journey where Claire is waiting for him. In a fit of ridiculous whimsy that relies on specious timing and luck, Claire sets up Drew to meet her at the Second Largest Farmer's Market in the World. Keep in mind, if Drew had deviated from her map in any way she would have been left there all day waiting. If one thing goes wrong with her goofy plan once he gets there, it involves an odd little scavenger hunt, they may never find each other. 

Crowe's indulgence in this ludicrous ending is overwhelming and yet I find myself excited as Drew searches for Claire's wacky red hat. I cannot help getting caught up because I do so love these characters. Orlando Bloom has never been this winning and Dunst is cuter than ever. I want these two characters together and that proves just how effective Elizabethtown is. Even with its massive flaws these characters and their romance are irresistible.

I love “Elizabethtown.” I still wrestle with its inconsistencies and failures of logic but the characters and soundtrack resonate deeply within to the point that I watch the film compulsively. I have seen the film almost 10 times in the five years since its release and I will watch it again. It’s partly because of my personal connection which remains as strong as ever, going on four years now, but also because Cameron Crowe has a remarkable way with soulful, human stories and tender romance.

Oh, and that ungodly brilliant soundtrack.

Movie Review Martian Child

Martian Child (2007) 

Directed by Menno Meyjes 

Written by Seth E. Bass, Jonathan Tolins

Starring John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Joan Cusack, Sophie Okenedo, Oliver Platt, Bobby Coleman 

Release Date Novemer 2nd, 2007

Published November 1st, 2007 

I will never understand why Hollywood film studios spend millions to make a movie and then abandon it. Take, for instance, the new dramatic comedy Martian Child starring John Cusack. The film was completed in 2005. It sat on the shelf for two years before trailers for the film began appearing in early 2007. It was supposed to come out back in the spring, then the summer, then in the fall, and now as we tilt toward winter the film is dropped into theaters with little fanfare.

Despite a popular star and a good marketing hook, Martian Child is not unlike its poor misguided protagonist, a child who believes he's from mars. Abandoned, dropped into the world, forgotten.

How sad.

David Gordon (John Cusack) was picked on a lot as a kid. It was traumatic but it fueled his imagination and it led him to become a successful science fiction writer. His past and his vocation are the main reasons why his friend Sophie (Sophie Okenedo), a social worker, thinks he would be the perfect guardian for Dennis (Bobby Coleman).

Dennis is a strange little boy who believes he is from mars. He is afraid of the sun and so he spends hours in a box. He doesn't believe in earth's gravitational pull so he wears a weight belt wherever he goes. David is terrified at first, and not just because Dennis thinks he's a Martian, but eventually he agrees to adopt Dennis and an unusual family is born.

You don't need a map to see where this plot is leading. Each character, especially the supporting characters, are obvious signposts that guide the plot to the next obvious moment. You know when you meet Richard Schiff's officious social worker that he will be something of a villain who may try to separate the new family.

When you meet Harlee, the sister of David's late wife, you know that Amanda Peet would not have been cast in this role if she weren't going to play an important role in the plot, likely as David's love interest. The only supporting character with some breathing room is Joan Cusack as David's sister. Never portrayed as a villain in the film, Joan gets both voice of reason and comic relief moments. This allows her to riff a little and the interaction between Joan and his real life older sister is one of the minor joys of this predictable little movie.

As predictable and stunningly simplistic as Martian Child is it is also good natured and well intentioned. John Cusack brings his trademark likability to the role of David Gordon and you believe every moment of his interaction with this strange boy. Yes, he does pour on the schmaltz a few times but there is just enough classic Cusack disaffection and self deprecation to offset some of the sap.

Unfortunately, director Menno Meyjes knows no other way to direct this material than by the book. If you've ever read the critical work of the great Roger Ebert you are aware of the hack movie concept of the false crisis/false dawn, real crisis/real dawn. It's the hackiest of plot contraptions and it plays to clockwork efficiency in Martian Child. Even the novice filmgoer can mark the moment when the false crisis and real crisis begin and end and easily predict how they will resolve.

Martian Child is not a horrible film. Any movie with John Cusack will struggle to be truly awful. It is far from being a good movie however. It just sort of exists as a forgettable throwaway movie that will pass from theaters and the memories of the few who see it without leaving much of an impression. I still don't understand why New Line Cinema treated this film so poorly though. It's not a good movie but it's not Kickin' It Old Skool either.

Movie Review Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2

The Sisterhood od the Traveling Pants 2 (2008) 

Directed by Sanaa Hamri 

Written by Elizabeth Chander

Starring America Ferrara, Blake Lively, Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel 

Release Date August 6th, 2008 

Published August 5th, 2008 

Society dictates that a 32 year old man is not supposed to enjoy a movie called The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. And yet, there I was in 2005 watching four exceptional young actresses navigate the adolescent angst that only a teenage girl can truly understand and I was moved. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants was sweet and funny with a great big heart and I loved that about it.

For all of its melodramatic faults, it was a film of great understanding and warmth. The sequel, unimaginatively titled Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, directed by Sanaa Hamri, is like the original filled with warmth, heart and humor and once again I was moved.

Picking up three years after where the original left off, the sisterhood is now split up at different colleges, in different cities. This hasn't stopped them from frequently returning home to visit and bond over the magic pair of jeans that fits all four of them and brings them good luck just when they need it. Leading the pants parade is Carmen (America Ferrara) who clings to the pants and the sisterhood as her chaotic family moves into a new home with her mom expecting a new baby with her new husband.

Pulling away ever so slightly from her sisters is Tibby (Amber Tamblyn). Off to New York for film school, Tibby is growing tired of the rituals of the pants, though has no less love for her sisters. Also adrift in her own angst is Bridget (Blake Lively) who passes on summer at home with her friends and single dad, for a trip to Turkey and an archaeological dig. There she meets a professor (Shohreh Aghdashloo) who reminds her of the mother she never had.

As for Lena, freshly returned from another trip to Greece, she has broken up with her long distance boyfriend Kostos (Michael Rady) and moved on to a fellow art student named Leo (Jesse Williams). Their meet cute provides Bledel with her funniest scenes. Of course if you think Kostos goes away quietly, clearly you haven't seen the trailer which shows all four girls in Greece.

Though divided, the sisterhood is strong and you are never under the impression that they will be apart for long. Director Sanaa Hamri, taking over for Ken Kwapis who directed the charming first film, does a tremendous job of balancing a number of new characters, like Tibby's boyfriend Brian played by Leonardo Nam, and still finds plenty of time to tell each girl's individual stories.

Sometimes it is the simplest pleasures that are the greatest of pleasures. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants is very simple. This is formula melodrama at its most obvious yet entertaining and engaging. Sure, there is nothing here you haven't seen before but it's done better here, with more care and skill and with a great deal more heart than similar formula movies.

Arguably the most engaging and moving scenes involve Blake Lively the young star of the new TV hit Gossip Girl. Lively was less of a presence in the original where her character was defined by being whiny and sexually precocious. A few years on and Lively has flowered into a strong beautiful, talented young woman and the character of Bridget reflects that.

As the closed minded dismiss The Sisterhood of the Traveling pants 2, I appeal to you to see the movie for the scenes between Lively and the formidable Blythe Danner alone. These scenes are some of the most moving moments in any movie this year. I kid you not, the circumstances involved combined with the skills of these two wonderful actresses will move many audiences to unexpected degrees.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 will not be mistaken for great cinema but as fun, entertaining, even moving, melodrama it's pretty terrific. Four exceptional young actresses, the future of Hollywood, and a rising star director craft a movie that hits its marks perfectly and nails every formulaic scene necessary to propel the audience where it wants to go.

Nakedly manipulative? Maybe, but what modest melodrama isn't. If the manipulation is this pleasant and heart warming, who cares? 

Movie Review Mr Woodcock

Mr. Woodcock (2007) 

Directed by Craig Gillespie 

Written by Michael Carnes, Josh Gilbert 

Starring Billy Bob Thornton, Seann William Scott, Susan Sarandon, Ethan Suplee, Amy Poehler, Melissa Sagemiller 

Release Date September 14th, 2007 

Published September 13th, 2007 

Billy Bob Thornton has managed the art of being a curmudgeon like no actor since the late George C. Scott. Thornton's every expression is a pained movement he is forced into by having to interact with others. This expertise in being a curmudgeon served him well as the drunken Santa Claus in Bad Santa. However, that same curmudgeon act was a bore in the 2005 remake of The Bad News Bears.

Now, Thornton brings his curmudgeon act to a new comedy called Mr. Woodcock and like Bad News Bears, the context fails to make the act funny. Rather, what we get in Mr. Woodcock is Thornton as a truly thorny character whom we never enjoy watching and who offers few moments of levity. Kind of an odd character for a comedy, don't you think?

John Farley (Seann William Scott) was traumatized as a kid by a sadistic gym teacher. That teacher was Mr. Woodcock (Billy Bob Thornton) and just over a decade since he delighted in tormenting chubby young John Farley, he's entering his life again. John, now a successful self help guru; with a popular book about letting go of painful memories, returns to his Nebraska home town to visit his mother (Susan) and to his horror, finds mom is dating Mr. Woodcock.

This sets up a confrontation between John and Mr. Woodcock that should be a hilarious battle of wills? Or, maybe a comedy of misunderstandings? No. Maybe? Hmm. How about a slapstick comedy or a gross out comedy? No. In fact, Mr. Woodcock isn't really much of a comedy at all. Don't get me wrong, I sensed an intent on the part of director Craig Gillespie for Mr. Woodcock to be a comedy, it's just not funny.

Billy Bob Thornton is believably cruel and sadistic as the evil old gym teacher. However, he is in fact so convincing and so dispiriting that he sucks the comic life right out of the movie. Woodcock is such a jerk that there is simply no joy to be taken from watching him. This leaves Seann William Scott's John to carry all of the film's humor and in this character he just can't do it, not many actors could.

Where, in the American Pie movies, and the underrated actioner The Rundown, Seann William Scott showed an energetic comic presence, in Mr. Woodcock, Scott is a wishy washy presence who we never have any respect for. Set up as some kind of Dr. Phil wannabe, Scott's John Farley is no match, at any point, for Billy Bob Thornton's Woodcock.

The only humor in Mr. Woodcock comes in the supporting performances of Ethan Suplee, as one of John Farley's former classmates, and Amy Poehler as John's alcoholic press agent. Yes, Suplee is basically doing  a small variation on his My Name Is Earl sidekick but he is nevertheless a humorous oasis in the comic desert that is Mr. Woodcock.

Ms. Poehler too is only doing a variation of characters we have seen before. What she brings to the role is a sharp energy that though not original, is at the very least funnier than anything else we have to deal with in Mr. Woodcock.

The biggest disappointment in Mr. Woodcock is also in the supporting cast. Susan Surandon plays John's mom and I was left wondering, why? This role holds nothing for Ms. Surandon to do other than be Susan Surandon. Her character has nothing funny to offer, aside from looking rather ridiculous in an oversized dress proclaiming her the Corn Queen of 1970, which admittedly made me smile, briefly.

However, this role could have been played by any number of different actresses without affecting the role in any way. Susan Surandon is far too big a star for such a throwaway role.

Mr. Woodcock is a mean-spirited, unfunny take on the same character Billy Bob Thornton has been playing since he escaped the world of the character actor. The character, to my estimation, is getting less and less funny with every outing and Mr. Thornton would do well to find himself a character who smiles once in a while or is, at the very least, not such a buzzkill.

If he must play a buzzkill there must be some way to make that funny. Mr. Woodcock never finds a way to make this buzzkill funny, he's just a jerk.