Not Coming to a Theater Near You
You know him?”
“Not socially. His name’s Jaws, he kills people.
It’s fascinating how the perception of a film can often hinge upon the execution involved within a specific scene. In the case of Billy Ray’s Breach, the scene in question is a critical confrontation between treacherous traitor Robert Hanssen, played by Chris Cooper, and his presumed protégé Eric O’Neill, played by Ryan Phillippe. The success of the entire scene, involving Eric urgently attempting to persuade Hanssen that he has not betrayed Hanssen’s trust, relies heavily upon Phillippe being able to make the viewer believe that he is capable of lying convincingly. In essence, Phillippe must prove to his audience that he can act. Unfortunately, the scene disintegrates once Phillippe’s performance descends back into the usual flimsy, whiney, puerile expressions he so often recycles that he has so far been able to avoid.
Sadly, Ray’s film suddenly crumbles at this moment, which is unfortunate considering the director has been able to construct a respectable, restrained, and mature spy “thriller” up to this point. Aided considerably by the script’s subplot involving Hanssen’s Catholic devotion, Ray seeks to enhance Hanssen’s duplicity by creating various parallels throughout the plot, mostly involving weaker scenes based around O’Neill’s marriage, but also incorporating scenes that casually imply Hanssen as having become a deceitful deviant, thus underscoring how the mundane villain has defected from all the institutions he once dedicated his life towards. Thankfully, Ray exerts more control over his final scene, which I must say is a fitting way to conclude his modest film.
by Chiranjit Goswami | Source: Universal Pictures DVD
31 Jul 2007 5:59 PM | Submit Comment
Rescue Dawn is Werner Herzog playing in a sandbox that is not his own. And you allow it, if only because the circumstance will produce at least a few majestic results. Those would be: hand-held camerawork that follows Dieter within near-impenetrable terrain (there are instances that recall Aguirre directly, and these are thrilling); Dieter, having survived a violent crash landing, escaping the Vietnamese soldiers who appear to emerge directly from the overgrowth of brush and leaves; And most simply put, the fact that this is a new film made by Werner Herzog, which lends more leeway to its appreciation. Herzog’s boldness is here demonstrated in the very liberal references to Little Dieter Needs to Fly, with certain passages of footage lifted verbatim. It seems even he realizes the status of the earlier film in comparison, and opts to affectionately reproduce it. And in the former film, Dieter speaks of his celebratory return to his Navy shipmates—this scene is staged with such pomp and circumstance that it would not be unsound had Christian Bale, still in hospital scrubs, emerged straight from the screen and hoisted you to cheers.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: 35mm print
30 Jul 2007 10:25 AM | Submit Comment
Midway through Little Dieter Needs to Fly — which recalls Dieter Dengler’s experiences as a POW during the Vietnam War — the eponymous pilot has his hands bound, and he’s led through the harsh Vietnamese brush in a recreation of his hardship some thirty years prior. It is an enormous masochism on the part of Herzog (one that would have been superseded by the airing of Timothy Treadwell’s death tape in Grizzly Man), but in Dieter, as in so many other men, Herzog has found a kindred spirit, and Dieter seems more than willing to aid in his own exploitation. He shows us around his home in Northern California. It is spacious, with many windows, none with shades, and an enormous cornucopia of a kitchen. He walks straight through this, leading us to a hidden closet that contains enough rice to live on for three months. It is at this moment that Dieter’s exploitation in this film is realized as only a superficial entertainment to the viewer, and more affectingly an attempted exorcism of his past experiences.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Anchor Bay Entertainment DVD
30 Jul 2007 10:24 AM | Submit Comment
‘When a man is wrestling a leopard in the middle of a pond, he’s in no position to run.’
True then, and true now. Coming in at a paltry 33 on The Guardian’s recent list of the 50 Funniest Movies as voted for the British public (who preferred Shaun Of The Dead, Shrek and The Big Lebowski), this is about as perfect as filmmaking gets- flawless in terms of script, photography, characterization and particularly special effects: the use of split screen is practically flawless. But how in the hell did they get the leopard and the dog to fight like that?
by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
29 Jul 2007 5:55 PM | Submit Comment
A surprisingly safe and friendly expose of the wildcat trucking business, but no less enjoyable for it. George Raft and Humphrey Bogart speed about the country getting into scrapes and avoiding the loan sharks, and there’s a seething, vaguely seditious air of up-the-workers. It all gets sidetracked in the second half by a hokey, noirish murder plot, but all is forgiven when we are treated to the unforgettable sight of Ida Lupino being dragged from the courtroom wailing that ‘the doors made me do it!’.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
29 Jul 2007 5:54 PM | Submit Comment
This really has been a disappointing summer. Of all the plots they could have chosen, of all the villains, of all the sidekicks… this? Computer hacking, a sneering Timothy Olyphant and some wisecracking dweeb who hates Creedence? It feels an awful lot like Bruce’s very recent 16 Blocks on a higher budget, but lacking the likeability factor of Mos Def. In fact, there are no characters to root for here except Maclane, and even he’s not allowed to swear properly. A few decent explosions and a couple of enjoyably apocalyptic mass panic scenes do not a tentpole blockbuster make.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: 35mm print
29 Jul 2007 5:53 PM | Submit Comment
There was no way I was going to like this movie, having hated it’s lazy, derivative, disgustingly overrated predecessor with a burning passion. But I thought it might be at least entertaining, or scary, or something. This was just tedious, with the only two half decent (and satisfyingly conflicted) characters succumbing before midway, leaving us stranded in a geographically confused central London with only a pair of horrid stage school brats and their painfully wooden, underdeveloped US military minders for company. The plotting was atrocious, there was no climax and absolutely no character, the whole thing just felt cheap and half hearted- the obvious inspiration was Aliens, but the first movie was no Alien, and Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (another great director name) is certainly no Jim Cameron.
That said, there were one or two effective moments that just about raised it above the level of the first movie- a gripping opening scene, some suitably nasty business with a helicopter and a clammy moment on a tube escalator. And it’s nice to see the very wonderful Carter’s Steam Fair making it’s big screen debut.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
29 Jul 2007 5:52 PM | Submit Comment
A mild disappointment, if only because the reviews were so uniformly glowing, this is a beautifully constructed character drama which falters only because of an occasional uncertainty of tone- the film seems unsure whether to be a thriller or a character piece, and can’t quite manage to be both: the climax descends into unnecessary melodrama, and has a Return Of The King-like number of false endings, not all of which seem strictly necessary. These are minor quibbles, though, with what is otherwise an unreservedly recommended film. And perhaps my favourite director’s name ever.
A great shame, though, that the extraordinary lead actor, Ulrich Muhe, died earlier this week.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: 35mm print
29 Jul 2007 5:50 PM | Submit Comment
When “The Simpsons” first premiered in the sun-up years of the Bush-41 presidency almost twenty years ago, it was ridiculed as anti-family, anti-decency, and televised cartoon garbage; today, it’s considered a television landmark, and its titular family is regarded as patently American. And while cast-members and die-hard fans alike have bemoaned the show’s steady loss of originality, it has remained a firm staple of world culture.
Roughly the length of four episodes, The Simpsons Movie has virtually no stylistic connection to the television show. Yes, the residents of Springfield are still four-fingered and yellow, suffering from an epidemic of overbites and chinlessness. But the hand-drawn animation has been replaced by a modern lavishing of colors and shadows, bringing the characters into a new dimension. The camera movements are fluid, the look is more luminous, and every scene is crafted into perfection—a far cry from the rough, jagged-lined style of the show’s advent. It’s jarring, after so many years, to see such a grand mainstay of American television redrawn via such boundless technology.
And while The Simpsons Movie is undeniably funny—a symphonic background rendition of “Spider Pig,” an appearance by Tom Hanks, satirical nods to the Fox Network—the originality of humor is sometimes questionable: A scene midway through the film, set in a gas station, seems lifted directly from Wrongfully Accused. The filmmakers’ attempts to include as many characters is admirable—Barney, Milhouse, Nelson, the Comic Book Guy, Moe, Mr. Burns, etc—but leaves almost all of them with only one or two lines. And the gutsy, no-holds-barred writing of the show’s first years seems lost for good. Still, this could have easily gone very wrong—I can only imagine how many times the script was rewritten, the dialogue was challenged, the storyline was recast—but works out superbly. There’s a fresh layer of character development—is that possible this far in the game?—that makes the Simpson family even more endearing. And, let’s face it, they’re the reason we’ve kept watching these last 18 years.
by Adam Balz | Source: 29th Century Fox 35MM Theatrical Print
28 Jul 2007 10:18 AM | Submit Comment
Ah wardrobe, that ever important yet oft forgotten aspect of great filmmaking. It can enhance the atmosphere of a story or, as with The Lake House, single-handedly extinguish an hour’s-worth of tension meant to bring about an absorbing and unexpected climax. Odd that the accident victim at Dealey Plaza is dressed similarly to Alex at the train station, you think, and suddenly the entire storyline is ruined.
Director Alejandro Agresti’s film also fosters an interestingly philosophical, if not entirely Bradburian debate as to our control over time and fate, though that aspect of the plot is obviously not the screenwriter’s focus. This is a well-tuned love story with vibrant visuals, much of which surround the busy streets of Chicago, and reunite a screen couple from years passed. (Perhaps, in another 12 years, Bullock and Reaves can come together again for a science-fiction film or musical, as action and romance films have already been covered.) A surprisingly enjoyable film, despite the blemished surprise, but I still can’t help but feeling that Shohreh Aghdashloo isn’t allowed to exercise her vast acting talent.
by Adam Balz | Source: DVD
27 Jul 2007 3:58 PM | Submit Comment
A second viewing leaves me feeling the same as knowing the secret behind a magician’s trick. Once you know the twists to the plot that come at the end, there’s really not much to this very hollow exercise. There’s nothing to this film but the twist at the end. (Okay, Bale, Caine, and Bowie are great, but that’s not enough.)
by Ian Johnston | Source: DVD
25 Jul 2007 1:07 PM | Submit Comment
On the surface, a Samurai film seems an uncharacteristic change of direction for Koreeda, and it certainly strikes you as a film pitched at a far wider audience than Marbarosi or Nobody Knows. For one thing, it’s funny and entertaining, and full of jokes. But gradually it becomes clear how this film fits into his humanist concerns as much as any other, for Koreeda is intent on undermining the ethos of the samurai and the samurai film in every respect. In this sense it’s very far from the likes of The Twilight Samurai (or a Western equivalent like Unforgiven), the type of film that both sets itself as critiquing a genre and also gives the punters what they want, an explosion of violence at the end. Koreeda is having nothing of this. There’s no violence – apart from one early scene, there to illustrate the utter ineptness of our reluctant samurai hero – and the film is absolute in its opposition to the world of the samurai. Even if it’s not the equal of his previous films, Hana is still a film of great warmth, humanity, and integrity.
by Ian Johnston | Source: 35mm print
25 Jul 2007 12:56 PM | Submit Comment
Grigori Kozintsev’s 1962 film version of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is plagued from the influence of Laurence Olivier’s 1944 film of the same name. Shot in black and white, featuring Elizabethan sets and costumes and employing visual techniques (extremely high angles, lengthy tracking shots, slow zooming) used by Olivier in his Oedipal/Freudian approach to Sahakespeare’s tragedy, Konzintsev’s version seems rather conventional and a bit staid, comparatively.
The singularly novel aspect of the film lies in its depiction of the community surrounding Hamlet and his immediate circle. The community surrounding him is entirely involved with Hamlet and his personal drama. Kozintsev seems to do this in order to minimize the distance between Hamlet, the court and larger world around him and highlight the dangers of too much introspection and deliberate self-alienation. In this sense, Gamlet is a decidedly Soviet film. It’s, nonetheless, one of the best versions of the film on DVD, staying true to the essential spirit of the play, though obviously, the absence of Shakespeare’s verse is a significant minus.
by Marlin Tyree | Source: Facets DVD
24 Jul 2007 5:38 PM | Submit Comment
Great performances by British actors (plus Aussie Cate)are thrown together without much sense that the film has any real idea what to do with them. There are some great scenes here – e.g. Bill Nighy as the husband in enraged meltdown – but the film seems dishonest in the way it ignores the parallels between the Dench and Blanchett characters (their equal self-delusion and disjunction from reality) in favour of building up Judi Dench as the lesbian vampire monster.
by Ian Johnston | Source: Fox DVD
24 Jul 2007 1:43 PM | Submit Comment
This is where the rot first set in as far as Bertolucci’s cinema is concerned. Thirty years later, one can only wonder how the director of Before The Revolution and The Conformist turned into the director of the inconsequential Finding Beauty and the simply awful Dreamers. 1900 is full of the most tremendous filmmaking – the exquisite lighting, the camera movement, the complex choreography of characters constantly moving in and out of frame in big set pieces like the scene of the peasants’ resistance to their eviction, or the wanderings in the woods during the wedding. But the script is a mess, often banal, poorly paced, and its reduction of fascism to Donald Sutherland’s monster (headbutting kittens, molesting and smashing out the brains of young boys) is intellectually and politically reprehensible
by Ian Johnston | Source: Paramount DVD
24 Jul 2007 1:26 PM | Submit Comment
Barbara Stanwyck, who couldn’t have been more than 19, stars in a 1939 clasic Hollywood soap opera/morality tale about the infamous little blonde bombshell, Lily Powers, an abused girl who resorts to sleeping her up the corporate ladder to… er, success. Of course, she’s successful all the way up, but the manner in which she climbs is, naturally, all the fun. Particularly amusing is the visual motif of the supposed building in which she charms her way to the top floor. Starting with the valet/first floor guard up to the grandson of the CEO, we get an illustration for each corresponding steps of Lily’s progress. Printed on (apparently) each window shade of each corresponding department floor, we see “Human Resources” follwed by “Filing” followed by “Purchasing”, etc. By the time Lily reaches the grandson of the CEO she has left the building.
It’s hard to take any of it seriously, even (and especially) as a morality tale. But it’s great fun and Stanwyck seems to have a ball until her routine gets old. She gets caught in a deadly cross-fire and is forced to leave the country (she’s big-time hoochie at this point). The film then turns on its heels and gets soft. The near tragic/happy ending is corny and Lily nearly ruins it, but you’re glad to see her get the break.
by Marlin Tyree | Source: Warner Home Video
23 Jul 2007 6:14 PM | Submit Comment
With a discipline channeled directly from the Old Testament, Samuel L. Jackson yanks Christina Ricci’s barely clothed, trailer park nymphomaniac back into his house with the chain locked around her waist. That this happens is the only detail necessary in recommending this film, and I am enthusiastic to say that there are so many more. And for a film that postures itself so desperately as exploitation, it ends up transcending its lineage with compassion and, more pronouncedly, soul.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Paramount DVD
23 Jul 2007 12:17 PM | Submit Comment
Tracking shots staged from a moving vehicle compose an Oregon town as its suburban features dissipate at the perimeter. As Old Joy progresses, the environment becomes more rural, more distanced, a catalyst for two old friends to consider how their current age and status may redefine who they were and how they feel about each other. Had Iron & Wine supplied the score instead of Yo La Tengo, beard folk would have made an apt translation into film.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Kino DVD
23 Jul 2007 12:16 PM | Submit Comment
I thought it’d be a long time before I saw another film as incompetently plotted as the third Pirates Of The Caribbean movie, but Mr. Brooks is in a league of it’s own. The film potters along as a fairly entertaining, slightly daft little serial-killers-among-us movie until about halfway through, when it is utterly sideswiped by the single most ludicrous, unconvincing narrative development this side of the third act of Fight Club, from which point it’s downhill all the way. Daft coincidences, unconvincing character swerves, utterly meaningless subplots…
It’d all be pretty entertaining if the filmmakers (including producer/ star Kevin Costner, desperately playing against type as the titular psychopath) didn’t take it all so damn seriously. They seem to think they’re making a proper drama here, making some kind of statement, God knows about what (the propensity for serial murder is treated as a condition somewhere between alcoholism and a bizarre genetic disorder). But the fact is that when you have creepy Kev sneaking about the place in a variety of ludicrous fake moustaches, conversing with his invisible alter ego (played by a very much post- History Of Violence William Hurt) and generally chewing the scenery, it’s very hard to see this as anything more than a late night TV movie thriller with major pretensions.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
21 Jul 2007 11:06 AM | Submit Comment
The worst of the books (and trust me, that’s saying something) becomes a decent if slightly disappointing movie, a definite step down from either of it’s excellent immediate predecessors. This time they’re clearly hamstrung by the source material- there are too many subplots, and not enough time to develop them all. Characters wander in and out, the cream of British acting talent reduced to a few portentous lines or, in the case of David Thewlis, one or two meaningful glances.
Director David Yates tries to give the whole thing a sense of scale, but he’s no Alfonso Cuaron, or even Mike Newell- after a riveting, gritty opening scene the visuals descend into the usual mix of dubious CGI and snaking camera movement. And the whole thing just feels terribly small scale after the sprawling episode four, with it’s pokey, one-location climax over much too soon. But it’s consistently entertaining, and still leagues ahead of those unwatchably dull first two chapters.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: 35mm Print
21 Jul 2007 11:05 AM | Submit Comment
Joseph Ruben is another one of those faceless, workmanlike genre directors who have been ploughing a thankless (though presumably lucrative) furrow through the outer reaches of the Hollywood industry for more than three decades. With a few hits (The Stepfather, True Believer and this) and a few duds (The Good Son, Money Train, the appropriately titled The Forgotten) under his belt, Ruben feels like one of the last of a dying breed.
But this one isn’t half bad, with Dennis Quaid in shiteating grin mode as a loose cannon psychic boy wonder who accepts Max Von Sydow’s invitation to try out a new machine which allows the user access to other people’s dreams. It’s a great cast all round- Christopher Plummer and David Patrick Kelly (Twin Peaks’ Jerry Horne) both chomp up some scenery as the villains, and there are a few moments of pleasingly surreal dream imagery (including a scene where Kelly develops knives for fingers, an extraordinary moment of synergy considering A Nightmare On Elm Street was in production at the same time).
by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
21 Jul 2007 11:03 AM | Submit Comment
A weird but hugely entertaining blend of styles and genres, part philosophical drama and part gangster thriller, with Leslie Howard looking like a confused escapee from a drawing room comedy, completely at odds with his gritty surroundings. Bogie’s first big part, too, and he’s absolutely magnetic, as is Bette Davis as the innocent but determined female lead.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
21 Jul 2007 11:02 AM | Submit Comment
I’m no fan of Fincher, but this is just stunning, exerting a powerful grip in the opening few minutes and never letting go. The best journalistic thriller since All The President’s Men, which it consciously mimics, the film effortlessly sustains a mood of intense, creeping dread over a not insignificant running time. It’s visually flawless, the script crackles, the cast is uniformly excellent, and the sequence with Ione Skye (welcome back!) and her baby is the most terrifying I’ve seen in a good long while.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
21 Jul 2007 11:01 AM | Submit Comment
Good grief… Any pretence Thomas Harris had to being a serious writer teetered on the window ledge with Hannibal, and finally takes the plunge here. Lazy, predictable, boring, and directed by someone who clearly thinks they’re making Doctor Zhivago with gore, this is just awful, awful, awful.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
21 Jul 2007 11:01 AM | Submit Comment
A truly sad story, and a just-in-the-nick-of-time piece of filmmaking: half the featured performers would be dead before editing was completed. It’s worth it if only for Dee Dee’s speech at the band’s Hall of Fame induction: “I’d like to thank… me. Thanks, Dee Dee”. Classic.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
21 Jul 2007 10:59 AM | Submit Comment
Some very dubious accents aside, this is damn near perfection. Lacking the epic whimsy of A Matter Of Life And Death or the visionary soulfulness of A Canterbury Tale, this is perhaps more human and loveable than either. The opening is crammed with Powell’s astonishing visual quirks, but soon settles into a more lyrical, wistful tale of romantic frustration. The final act- with it’s riveting whirlpool sequence and glorious happy ending- is simply breathtaking.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
21 Jul 2007 10:56 AM | Submit Comment
This is an unusually refreshing short film told from a woman’s perspective about the female role within Rastafari faith and culture. Featuring former member of the I-Three’s, the back-up singers for Bob Marley & The Wailers, Judy Mowatt, it also features 15 other Rastafarian women who provide illuminating glimpses into the daily life, practices and philosophy of those within the still marginalized Jamaican community. Most intriguing is the provocative approach that filmmaker Bianca Nyavingi Brynda takes toward the elder men within the community. Long-held views of the woman as subservient to man are revealed with shocking matter-of-fact bluntness. When examined in light of the knowledge that the culture derives from a traditionally matriarchal influence, it’s especially disturbing.
by Marlin Tyree | Source: MVD Visual
18 Jul 2007 6:45 PM | Submit Comment
Beerfest appears to subscribe to that deplorable ilk of comedy, those films that parody other films so generally their titles function doubly as identifications of genre. (Most of these, I think, are courtesy of the Wayans.) This practice, as Beerfest demonstrates with unexpected ingenuity, is as imaginative as the film’s inspirations. Sure, it’s a film about a bunch of dudes in a clandestine drinking contest, but I doubt this film would have been made if it weren’t for Das Boot, Barton Fink, or City Slickers II.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Cable TV
18 Jul 2007 5:10 PM | Submit Comment
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: VHS
18 Jul 2007 5:08 PM | Submit Comment
David Schwimmer, former star of the television sitcom, Friends, directs this goofy, sentimental tripe about a London loser with a paunch who attempts to make up with his former, pregnant fiancé, whom he dumped at the altar. Chock-full of film clichés, catchy music samples and very thinly drawn characters, the major standout is the performance delivered by its star and main protagonist, Simon Pegg. In fact, the film is built around his particular shtick. All the other acting, save a nicely underplayed performance by Dylan Moran as Pegg’s best friend, is relegated to “type” delivery.
But there’s not much to work with here. If the movie was written (and performed) as an all-out farce, given the talent involved, it might hjave played beautifuly. As it is, aspects of it, like London’s Hyde Park, for instance, although nicely captured, is featured in an oddly bucolic fashion giving the film a flimsy sentimental touch. On the other hand, Schwimmer and Pegg’s brand of humor is definitely that of the young and, frankly, immature adult crowd, so I suppose the runaway naiveté comes with the territory.
by Marlin Tyree | Source: Material Entertainment/Gold Circle Films
13 Jul 2007 2:09 PM | Submit Comment
The plotline is thin and familiar, but the soundtrack is solid—that is to say, near brilliant. Which makes the film’s unanticipated success even more remarkable. Conservatively advertised, it’s gained a loyal following spurned almost entirely by word-of-mouth. It’s the same spontaneous campaign that made other notable low-budget features—namely, My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Napoleon Dynamite—sleeper hits. Sometimes, in a season of multi-million-dollar blockbusters, when you begin losing faith in your fellow moviegoers, they can surprise you.
by Adam Balz | Source: Fox Searchlight 35MM Theatrical Print
11 Jul 2007 6:05 PM | Submit Comment
A Picasso to Neil Jordan’s preemptive 1996 Elmyr de Hory, though viewing Michael Collins will heartlessly ruin the progression of Paul Laverty’s story. When Damien and Teddy argue over the treaty in a small, musty-aired room, it feels oh-so familiar: Liam Neeson’s Michael Collins and Alan Rickman’s Eamon de Valera arguing over the treaty in a large, musty-aired room. In each instance, both men are surrounded by their brethren—once friends and allies, and now divided foes. A well-constructed allegory, perhaps, or a story of how the desire for freedom—fighting, killing, and dying for something so precious—can trickle down into the hearts of everyone.
by Adam Balz | Source: IFC 35MM Theatrical Print
11 Jul 2007 6:03 PM | Submit Comment
Much of Deliver Us from Evil is an exposé of Oliver O’Grady, a Californian parish priest who, beginning in the late 70s, was tried and exiled for the abuse of many dozens of children. Catholic pedophilia isn’t a particularly unexploited topic, so it is admirable that Amy Berg documents O’Grady so sensitively—he speaks of his crimes without repression, and it is often disturbing. I say “sensitively” because this would have been an a potent target for a tabloid agenda, and even that may have resulted in at least a moderately engaging document. But because O’Grady isn’t initially revealed to be a monster, the extent and particularity of his crimes – revealed in accrual during the course of the film – becomes all the more inhumane.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Lionsgate DVD
09 Jul 2007 10:13 AM | Comments (1)
The Fountain is the sort of film that needs no subtitles whatsoever. The meticulous cinematographic symmetry connects the parallel eras – 16th century Spain, the present, and an indeterminable future – and the bumper-sticker dialogue merely populates them. Visually and aurally, this is a beautiful film (Clint Mansell’s score is particularly rousing), but it is a shame that it reaches so ingenuously for such depth.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Warner Bros. DVD
09 Jul 2007 10:11 AM | Submit Comment
Michael Bay and his visual effects wizards managed to do something I thought I’d never see in my lifetime: create Decepticons that transform from vehicles into walking piles of garbage. Megatron, Starscream, and the whole crew of bad guys look like vertical landfills with pairs of bright red or blue eyes sticking out of them. The Autobots look better, mostly because they aren’t colored various shades of brown like the Decepticons, and therefore are possible to tell apart from one another. Across the board, however, the essential coolness of Transformers shapeshifting from vehicles or objects into robots with clearly defined limbs and smooth surfaces has completely gone out the window. Bay’s Transformers change from vehicles and objects into robots that look like the same vehicle or object if it were on the verge of falling apart. Maybe this is Bay being “meta,” because Transformers storyline is garbage, even by Bay’s personally low narrative standards.
Bumblebee outacts every human in sight, Bay’s hard-on for the military is so big it can no longer be covered up by bending his knees and holding a binder over his lap, and he has basically destroyed the compartment in many twenty- and thirty-something’s brains that hold pleasant childhood memories of giant, brightly colored Autobots and Decepticons beating the crap out of each other on ocean oil rigs, electric plant roofs, and wherever else energon cubes could be filled up. The great thing about the t.v. series was that its creators realized there was no need whatsoever for character development on the human side of things. Autbots vs. Decepticons was the main event, and it was a great main event. Every week, Megatron could barely keep his crew from turning on him, while the Autobots seemed just a little too fragile for the task at hand. Michael Bay was indeed born to direct the adaptation of an ’80s cartoon/toyline, but he picked the wrong one. G.I. Joe is the movie Bay should make next.
The hardest part in saying all of this is that I’m a huge fan of both The Rock and The Island, but even I can’t bring myself to defend Bay when he messes up this badly.
by Jason Woloski | Source: 35MM Theatrical Print
07 Jul 2007 1:42 PM | Comments (1)
As one friend said, “We just watched a two-and-a-half hour advertisement for General Motors.” Transformers is a long, tiring adaptation of the 1984 animated series and 1986 film, with enough plot holes to make your head spin. Despite all the attempts at accuracy, there is just too much happening—two hours in, when our heroes convene at the Hoover Dam, the films is still bogged down by its need to explain. Add to that its inexact marketability—violence and obscenity-laced dialogue in what should easily have been a kid’s film—as well as anomalous performances by Anthony Anderson and John Turturro, not to mention Jon Voight as the shotgun-wielding Secretary of Defense, and you have one bizarre box-office monster.
The only consolation, besides the outstanding special effects, is the casting of Peter Cullen from the original series. After more than two decades, hearing his voice enlivening Optimus Prime made me nostalgic for my adolescence, when I used to watch reruns on early-morning television. I split with that childhood staple years ago, though maybe it’s about time I reconnect.
by Adam Balz | Source: 35MM Theatrical Print
06 Jul 2007 11:23 AM | Comments (2)
My undisputed favorite of Jodorowsky’s films—El Topo and Santa Sangre don’t even come close. This could be because I knew absolutely nothing about The Holy Mountain going in—I was devoid of anticipation, thus spared from disappointment—but more likely it was due to Corkidi’s hypnotic cinematography. The sets—namely the collection of shaped, colorful rooms in the red tower—are shot with an intuitive eye. The Thief enters the rainbow-walled foyer in a manner reminiscent of Dave entering the control center in 2001: A Space Odyssey—noise becomes a humming silence, motion becomes stillness; the scene is jarringly centered. Later, in a room with spinning walls, the camera takes it place among revolving mache bodies, all striking the pose of Crucifixion, as the Thief and the Alchemist talk; it then returns to the motionless center without breaking conversation, though we as the viewer are left dizzied and somewhat unsettled. A perfect metaphor for Jodorowsky’s films.
by Adam Balz | Source: Starz/Anchor Bay DVD
06 Jul 2007 11:19 AM | Submit Comment
I made one vital mistake in my approach of this film—I had expectations. Large, unavoidable expectations that could never be fully realized, no matter Jodorowsky’s irrefutable genius. El Topo single-handedly began the midnight-movie phenomenon, was unavailable commercially due to disputes between the film’s director and distributor, and was thereafter relegated to popular bootlegs, supported by what was perhaps the greatest word-of-mouth crusade ever. For more than thirty years it languished in the collections of online venders, made the rounds of independent theatres, and revealed itself at the occasional film festival. (Only one other film—Jerry Lewis’ infamous Auschwitz picture—can claim to be as eminent in its rareness.)
I can’t allege to understand El Topo, nor would I ever want to. To enter the intentions of Jodorowsky is to mine the subconscious of someone overly fascinated by social outcasts—amputees, dwarves—the loss of masculinity through castration (an act almost always followed by suicide), the abstract differences between male and female, the distorted lure of religion, and overt sexuality. It’s a world rendered with unbelievable beauty, yet feels so deeply lost and disturbing.
by Adam Balz | Source: Starz/Anchor Bay DVD
06 Jul 2007 11:13 AM | Submit Comment
This film was a total (and most pleasant) surprise. Not being an especially avid watcher of Tyrone Power movies I was taken by his smooth talking/tough guy screen persona. It’s a distinctive spark that only a few golden-era Hollywood movie stars are able to emit to my eyes. In this film, he’s compelling throughout, except perhaps, near the end when he starts acting. He stars as a carnival veteran, Stanton Carlisle, who has an act with a phony mentalist, Zeena, played by a plucky Joan Blondell (I had never seen her in anything but Grease!, much to my shame). Well, The Great Stanton (the monkier Carlisle eventually dons) gets prety ambitious, and after ditching Zeena, marrying an adoring young carny blonde, played admiringly well by Coleen Gray, he makes his way to the very big time. And as bad karma has it, Stanton falls, a victim of his own blind ambition and lack of respect for human dignity.
The screenplay is adroitly written; including a nifty foreshadowing figure, Pete Krumbein played by Ian Keith, who’s travelled Stanton’s road. It includes dialogue and visual passages that more-or-less bookend the narrative. Despite the black and white stock, the loud and oft-repeated musical crescendoes typical in a film noir score, I think the genre shows itself, mostly, in the sometimes melodramatic playing and staginess in blocking. But it’s really a bit more than the genre allows, thank goodness. And it’s especially due to the handling of the material. The central theme of the entire film is the question of how far one can take the psych game. Stanton is able to hustle just about anyone until he runs into a woman (naturally), a psychoanalyst, who attempts to show him how he has turned the game on himself. Then he’s not sure if it’s all a game or if he’s gone, in fact, clinically insane. The film starts to skate the edge of implausibility when the subject of Stanton, the great con-man, defying God rears it’s head. Luckily it’s not persued with any seriousness.
I suppose other noir films have covered this ground before but seldom are they executed with such finesse.
Here’s a full blown review of the film (that I just discovered) by Tom.
by Marlin Tyree | Source: 20th Century Fox DVD
05 Jul 2007 12:01 PM | Comments (2)
Val Kilmer’s Scott (a CIA operative, his character is never formally named), just before an impromptu midnight bust, is asked if he’s had enough sleep, and his response (“Irrelevant.”) carries a palpable air of both forthright preparedness and impatience—that it’s a waste of time to even ask him if he’s had enough sleep. It epitomizes him, a man of readily determinable capability; he’s the only type of character that’s sustainable in a film like this, one in which the accused or the setting is prone to change radically and at any given moment. This is a tripwire of a film so taught and undetectable that every one of its thrills is blindsiding.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Warner Bros. DVD
05 Jul 2007 11:51 AM | Submit Comment
A predominantly mute Ringo Starr stars alongside Peter Sellers, Raquel Welch, Lawrence Harvey, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Richard Attenborough, Christopher Lee, and Roman Polanski. About the only thing missing from this misguided amalgamation of talent is Orson Welles doing a magic trick.
by Rumsey Taylor | Source: Artisan DVD
05 Jul 2007 11:49 AM | Submit Comment
The prospect of a fourth installment in the Die Hard franchise originally made me nauseous; barely a month after Shrek 3, At World’s End, and Spider-Man 3, suddenly John McClane returns from a twelve-year hiatus in a big-budget action sequel, only noticeably older, bitterly divorced, and estranged from his children. I expected a slew of material for tasteless geriatric jokes (Die Hard with Excedrin), but after the first ten minutes—the requisite character development for a man who’s already fought terrorists on a skyscraper, in an airport, and deep inside New York City—I was elated to see the badass juggernaut cop back in full form.
The plot, for the most part, is inconsequential—an ostracized computer genius and his dispensable underlings devastate the country with a firesale, while John McClane finds an ally in a twenty-something slacker hacker. There are no great performances, no telling revelations about any of the characters; Justin Long’s sarcastic loner is barely tolerable, while Timothy Olyphant’s villain pales under the standards set by Alan Rickman. What sustains the film are the action sequences, in particular one staged in a Washington, D.C. tunnel, though they become somewhat overdone in the last fifteen minutes. (Still, kudos to the filmmakers for abandoning the rapid editing techniques of most action films.)
Perhaps the consistent appeal of John McClane, and why he’s appeared again after more than a decade, is because he is a reassuring, albeit fictional, presence. In contrast to all the Jack Bauer rip-offs that populate so many films and television shows, McClane is an everyman, someone you might come across on the street or in a supermarket. Jack Bauer is covert, relying on a secret government organizations; McClane is a New York City detective and succeeds in spite of them. With the nightly news more terrifying than ever, maybe bringing McClane back wasn’t such a bad idea.
by Adam Balz | Source: 35MM Theatrical Print
04 Jul 2007 10:44 PM | Comments (2)
Midway through Jaws there is a scene in which Richard Dreyfuss’ Hooper inspects the hull of a small fishing boat; the moment is bathed in an eerie green hue and completed when the body of a fisherman falls into view through a jagged hole. Set along the New England coast, the scene is one of the movie’s most famous; it was also filmed entirely in a swimming pool. For a young director, even one with as much promise as Spielberg, it’s expertly staged.
It’s that same simplistic attention to detail that instantly destroys Orca, a Jaws knockoff that appeared two years after Spielberg’s career-maker. Using what appears to be stock footage from an aquarium—who knew the ocean floor was so flat, clean, and cement-like?—director Michael Anderson crafts a spellbindingly awful story around one captain’s hunt for the titular animal. When he harpoons a female, and it gives birth to a human-like fetus while swinging over the deck of his boat, the father orca decides to take vengeance. (As the British biologist narrator has already explained via a dull college lecture, orcas are devotedly monogamous and ferociously vengeful.) The whale follows the captain’s boat back to harbor, where it wrecks every other craft at dock, bites the plaster-bound leg off Bo Derek, and manages to set half the coastal town ablaze. This is a showdown, we’re told, and the final battle—between Nolan and the orca, between man and nature, between money and preservation—occurs in the Artic Ocean.
Undoubtedly one of the worst films ever made, Orca employs some of the very same cinematic tactics that made Ed Wood such a cult icon: repeated uses of the same footage—in this case, the orca leaping from the ocean in pure, unforgiving joy—terrible performances, and the sacrilegious misuse of actors like Richard Harris and Will Sampson. And while some may claim this film to be laughably bad—that is, a movie so bad it’s actually good—they forget this is a very serious attempt on the part of the filmmakers to create an actual man-versus-beast blockbuster. Wow.
by Adam Balz | Source: Paramount DVD
04 Jul 2007 10:30 PM | Comments (1)
Who knew Vin Diesel had it in him? Admittedly, the film is wildly oversimplistic, almost a hagiography of a deeply dubious character. It’s directed with stark professionalism by Sidney Lumet, who also co-wrote the witty and enjoyable screenplay. But it’s Diesel’s performance that makes the film, effortlessly better than anything De Niro’s given us in a good long while, managing to be simultaneously charming and pathetic, unpredictable and familiar. True, it’s not the most complex and demanding part in the world, but there’s undeniable talent on display here. Bring on The Pacifier 2.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
02 Jul 2007 3:23 PM | Comments (1)
Is it me, or is this basically The Fisher King without the Arthurian pretensions? I much prefer Adam Sandler’s brand of mugging to Robin Williams’, but otherwise this film suffers by comparison- there’s none of Gilliam’s visual flair, and the script takes the easy option one too many times. Still, a perfectly serviceable mainstream exploration of grief, anchored around some very likeable central performances. Great trad rock soundtrack, too, except for some dubious assertions about Bob Seger.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
02 Jul 2007 3:21 PM | Submit Comment
You can almost hear the hum of an outboard motor as Thomas Harris defiantly jumps the shark. Red Dragon and The Silence Of The Lambs were admittedly fairly hokey novels (your villain is a cannibal whose first name just happens to be… wait for it…), but they were fantastically twisty and addictive. Here all pretence at narrative sense or believable character just goes right out the window, in a slew of pseudo- intellectual psychobabble and cheap Dante references.
The film is a slight improvement on the novel, managing as it does that rare cinematic balance, trashy and sedate- it’s like a 2 hour Volvo commercial as directed by Herschell Gordon Lewis. And there are few more grotesque and riveting sights in modern film than that of Ray Liotta eating his own brain.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: ITV2
02 Jul 2007 3:19 PM | Submit Comment
Much more like it… the Farrelly’s second film suffers from a mild case of gag shortage, but the characters and snappy narrative more than make up for it. Jonathan Richman and Bill Murray in the same movie is almost too good to be true. But mostly, this is a film which knows how to get laughs out of hair.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: ITV4
02 Jul 2007 3:17 PM | Submit Comment
For some reason this was recommended to me by a so- called friend… It’s the sort of film you can imagine just about working on paper, onscreen it’s almost willfully unfunny, drowning in ‘surrealist’ gags and to- camera winks, setting up vaguely appealing character relationships and then destroying them with crass humour and endless mugging. Even Janeane Garofalo barely survives unscathed.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
02 Jul 2007 12:19 PM | Comments (5)
Universally lauded on it’s release two years ago, Gela Babluani’s no budget debut is already in production on it’s Hollywood remake. I’m not entirely sure what all the fuss was about- it felt like a Guy Ritchie movie with pretensions, and a better premise. The acting is adequate but the characters are uniformly thin, and often dropped just as they’re about to get interesting. It all looks very nice, but there’s precious little tension after the initial shock wears off.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
02 Jul 2007 12:18 PM | Comments (1)
An at times painfully deliberate East African take on an age old theme- young man goes looking for the man who killed his father, finds himself unable to do the deed. Fascinating as a glimpse into a truly alien world, the film unfolds at a terminally slow pace and never really goes anywhere special.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
02 Jul 2007 12:18 PM | Submit Comment
An uneven effort from the Tzameti director Gela Babluani and his more obscure Georgian director father Temur, working over well worn themes of Western naivete and middle class exploitation. Some nice scenery and architecture, not a whole lot of plot.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: 35mm print
02 Jul 2007 12:16 PM | Submit Comment
Re-watching a childhood favourite as preparation for a forthcoming interview on this site, I was struck by how much of an achievement Richard Stanley’s debut film actually is. Made for almost no money and under fairly strict script conditions, the film manages to create a vivid, believable (if none too original) future world in which to set a daftly entertaining monster-robot romp. And there are some surprisingly intense scenes here- the film is basically 45 minutes of setup followed by another 45 of climax, with pretty much nothing in between. But what a climax: the bizarre murder-suicide-acid trip sequence feels genuinely nightmarish, and Stacy Travis goes all out with the shrieking, running and all-round suffering as the beast pursues her around the flickering futuristic apartment. There’s generally a lot more going on upstairs here than in any of the film’s generic late 80’s techno-splat counterparts.
Plus you get the added bonus of the great unsung character actor William Hootkins (Star Wars, Raiders, Batman) in arguably his finest screen role, as monstrously loathsome sex pest Lincoln Weinberg, Jr. All together now… “Oh we all walk the wibbly wobbly walk…”
by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
02 Jul 2007 12:13 PM | Submit Comment
Lowered expectations can definitely assist in the enjoyment of a film. If I’d gone into this expecting Lost In Translation, or anything approaching it, I’d have been furious. As it was, I was expecting nothing, and so found myself pleasantly surprised. The film is impossibly beautiful, and not just in terms of scenery and actors. The framing and photography are wonderfully precise, lending the slightly thin script a lot more pathos than it might otherwise deserve. The scenes at Antoinette’s summer retreat are particularly lovely.
But it’s a frustratingly naïve portrait, perhaps intentionally so. The music choices range from the brilliant to the bizarre, and would have seemed far more rebellious if A Knight’s Tale hadn’t got there first. The film’s main problem is that it can’t really engender a massive amount of sympathy for its’ pitiful, pampered leads. Still, Rip Torn as the King of France… genius.
by Tom Huddleston | Source: DVD
02 Jul 2007 12:13 PM | Submit Comment
