Review: Hawke, Fishburne Carry "Assault on Precinct 13" Remake (Happy B'day, Ethan Hawke)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 90 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)
Running time: 109 minutes (1 hour, 49 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong violence and language throughout, and for some drug content
DIRECTOR: Jean-François Richet
WRITER: James DeMonaco (based upon an earlier screenplay by John Carpenter)
PRODUCERS: Pascal Caucheteux, Jeffrey Silver, and Stephane Sperry
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Robert Gantz
EDITOR: Bill Pankow
COMPOSER: Graeme Revell

ACTION/THRILLER/CRIME (GANGSTER)

Starring: Ethan Hawke, Laurence Fishburne, John Leguizamo, Drea de Matteo, Gabriel Byrne, Brian Dennehy, Jeffrey “Ja Rule” Atkins, Mario Bello, Aisha Hinds, Matt Craven, Dorian Harewood

Assault on Precinct 13, the 2005 remake of the 1976 John Carpenter film, may lack the social commentary of the original, but it is a very entertaining action thriller that doesn’t try to break new ground in the tale of cops and criminals who must temporarily unite for their mutual survival. This new Assault on Precinct 13 is a by-the-books Hollywood effort that doesn’t throw any curve balls and sticks close to the original. The only thing the filmmakers wanted to go out on a limb for was to feature lots of gunshot wounds and even more kill shots to human heads. This is true R-rated action, and the film is proud of it. The actual assault on the precinct is full of sound and fury and smoke and blood – perfect for people who like the Lethal Weapon and Die Hard franchises.

Precinct 13 is a soon-to-close police station, and its last day, New Year’s Eve, is a snowy one. Stuck with the duty of closing the station one last time is Sgt. Jake Roenick (Ethan Hawke), who eight months earlier saw a drug bust go really bad and his two partners gunned down. He’s reluctant to be out on the street again, or so says his sexy therapist, Dr. Alex Sabian (Maria Bello). However, Jake is forced to again confront a heavy-duty assignment when a prison bus carrying four prisoners is forced by the intensifying snow storm to make a stop at Precinct 13. One of his new charges is the infamous Marion Bishop (Laurence Fishburne), recently taken into custody after killing a cop.

All Roenick has with him at the precinct is a skeleton crew, which consists of Iris Ferry (Drea de Matteo), a secretary, and Jasper O’Shea (Brian Dennehy), a copy on the verge of retiring, and none of them know that Bishop was in league with a band of dirty cops, who recently turned on him. They don’t want Bishop to live long enough to reveal their corruption, so they launch an assault on Precinct 13 to kill Bishop, and they don’t want any witnesses surviving. Now, Jake, Jasper, Iris, and Dr. Sabian must join forces with Bishop and the three other criminals: Beck (John Leguizamo), Smiley (Ja Rule), and Anna (Aisha Hinds), if they want to see sunrise.

In the original film, the audience knew next to nothing about the cast, and even less about the gang laying siege to the isolated precinct. The new screenplay gives us plenty about Jake Roenick, ostensibly the hero, including his (self-perceived) professional failures, so that we might root for him to overcome his personal challenges and demons and rise to the occasion. In the end, nothing about any character here rings true. The selling point of this tale is that a tiny band of good guys and some criminals, who look good compared to the ones trying to kill them, are seemingly cut off from civilization and from help and they’re facing a large band of relentless foes with numbers and weapons on their side. If the movie can get us to picture ourselves with the outgunned, the filmmakers have won half the battle, which the makers of Assault on Precinct 13 did. However, they only win a little of the rest of the battle, just enough to win the war, but win ugly.

Laurence Fishburne is a dashing movie star with plenty of charisma, enough to make up for the fact that he doesn’t have matinee looks. His presence wins every frame that he’s in here, but that hampers the film because the usually good Ethan Hawke doesn’t seem up to the challenge of matching Fishburne. Hawke’s performance is either flat or shrill, with only a few moments of truth (to which I desperately clung). It’s best to view this film the way one might the original. Don’t think about the characters; focus on the plot (which conceptually has more holes in it than the precinct after the assault), and still more on the setting. They’re the winning combination that overcomes hamstrung characters and pick-up-a-paycheck acting.

6 of 10
B

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Review: "Sahara" is a Solid Action-Adventure Film (Happy B'day, Matthew McConaughey)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 188 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Sahara (2005)
Running time: 124 minutes (2 hours, 4 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for action violence
DIRECTOR: Breck Eisner
WRITERS: Thomas Dean Donnelly & Joshua Oppenheimer, John C. Richards, and James V. Hart (based upon the novel by Clive Cussler)
PRODUCERS: Howard Baldwin, Karen Baldwin, Mace Neufeld, and Stephanie Austin
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Seamus McGarvey, BSC
EDITOR: Andrew MacRitchie
COMPOSER: Clint Mansell

ACTION/ADVENTURE with elements of comedy

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Steve Zahn, Penelope Cruz, Lambert Wilson, Glynn Turman, with Delroy Lindo and William H. Macy, Rainn Wilson, Paulin F. Fodouop, and Lennie James

The subject of this movie review is Sahara, a 2005 comedy-adventure and action film starring Matthew McConaughey and directed by Breck Eisner. The film is based on the 1992 novel of the same name by author Clive Cussler and is the eleventh book in Cussler’s Dirk Pitt book series.

Master explorer Dirk Pitt (Matthew McConaughey) is searching for a Confederate iron clad ship no else thinks exists. When he finds a fabled Confederate gold coin linked to the historical legend, his hunt takes him through some of the most dangerous regions of West Africa in the rousing adventure film, Sahara.

While searching for the long-lost Civil War battleship, the Texas, that African locals call the “Ship of Death,” Dirk and his wisecracking long-time sidekick and best pal, Al Giordino (Steve Zahn), meet Dr. Eva Rojas (Penelope Cruz), a doctor from WHO (the World Health Organization) looking for the source of a plague that is killing people in Niger. Her quest coincides with Dirk and Al’s search, and she joins their traveling party for a bit before going her separate way in Mali, a country that borders Niger. After a warlord named General Zateb Kazim (Lennie James) launches an assault on their boat in his hunt for Eva, Dirk and Al temporarily abandon their quest to find and protect Eva, endangered because her quest to learn the mysteries of the plague interferes with Kazim’s power. Together, the trio discovers an environmental catastrophe, battle Kazim and his forces, and survive the desert terrain of Northwest Africa on the way to getting to the bottom of both mysteries.

Sahara is a fun action adventure – aesthetically similar to The Mummy, but not quite as fun. The film’s hero Dirk Pitt, a charming rogue who is a scientist, but could get down in a barroom brawl, is a treasure hunter like Indiana Jones and is as resourceful as James Bond. So the film has a tone similar to a Raiders of the Lost Ark or a James Bond film. It’s a bit Die Hard, and has the buddy action vibe of a Lethal Weapon movie; it even throws in a bit of Lawrence of Arabia.

The direction by Breck Eisner (the son of former Disney head honcho Michael Eisner) is by the book, and almost, but not quite pedestrian. The film comes across as a true collaboration. The script hits the right notes. The cinematographer does a good job capturing pretty pictures. The editor does a professional job, not any more or less than any of the rest of the crew. The cast is also pleasant. Matthew McConaughey is a movie star with handsome, good looks and a good character actor – not always common in leading men. Steve Zahn is funny, but the role of Al Giordino is not like his better-known quirky, comedic parts. Penelope Cruz is just not a good actress (at least speaking English), and when she isn’t being a zombie in this film, she actually manages some good scenes. There is a nice supporting cast with Delroy Lindo and William H. Macy adding a bit of seriousness and gravity to the flick. The best supporting parts belong to Paulin F. Fodouop and Lennie James as feuding military leaders, Modibo and General Kazim, respectively.

Sahara is not a great film or even a very good film; it’s certainly not film art. However, it’s the kind of solid entertainment flick that doesn’t deliver too much to overload the senses or deliver too little, which pisses off the viewer.

6 of 10
B

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"The Skeleton Key" Unlocks Harmless, Eerie Fun

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 136 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux


The Skeleton Key (2005)
Running time: 104 minutes (1 hour, 44 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for violence, disturbing images, some partial nudity, and thematic material
DIRECTOR: Iain Softley
WRITER: Ehren Kruger
PRODUCERS: Daniel Bobker, Michael Shamberg, Stacey Sher, and Iain Softley
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Daniel Mindel
EDITOR: Joe Hutshing
COMPOSER: Edward Shearmur

HORROR/THRILLER/MYSTERY

Starring: Kate Hudson, Gena Rowlands, John Hurt, Peter Sarsgaard, Joy Bryant, Ronald McCall, and Jeryl Prescott Sales

Set in the backwoods of Houma, Louisiana (in the same region as New Orleans) in Terreborne Parish (what La. calls its counties), The Skeleton Key is the story of Caroline Ellis (Kate Hudson), a young hospice nurse hired to take care of an elderly woman named Violet Devereaux’s (Gena Rowlands) ailing husband, Ben (John Hurt). Ben supposedly had a stroke while poking through the attic of the Devereaux’s home, a foreboding and decrepit old plantation-style mansion in the Louisiana delta. Ben can’t speak because of the stroke, and Violet is certainly… eccentric. However, the enigmatic couple and their dark and rambling home intrigue her, so Caroline, armed with a skeleton key that unlocks every door in the house, Caroline begins to explore the home and discovers that the large attic actually hides a secret room.

The hidden room holds some darkly mysterious and terrifying secrets; according to Violet it was once the secret room of Papa Justify (Ronald McCall) and his wife, Mama Cecile (Jeryl Prescott Sales). Violet also tells Caroline that the couple practiced hoodoo, a mixture of African, European, and Native American conjuring or black magic (not related to voodoo), and that the couple was lynched and burned because they allegedly tried to teach their witchcraft to their white boss’ son and daughter. The written spells, potions, powders, etc. that they used in their dark arts remain in the secret room. Caroline believes that the method to curing Ben lies in that secret room, and that she must use psychology to convince Ben that the hoodoo only affects him because he believes in it. If she can prove to him that it’s all nonsense, he should be cured… or so Caroline believes as she slowly entangles herself in a dark trap that she’s apparently too stupid to recognize.

Universal Pictures’ advertising tried to sell The Skeleton Key as being a horror movie in the tradition of such late 60’s/late 70’s suspense thriller-type horror movies as Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist, or modern atmospheric suspense flicks such as The Sixth Sense and Stir of Echoes. Director Iain Softley (K-PAX) certainly makes use of the charmingly gothic and dread-inducing New Orleans area locations, and his cinematographer Daniel Mindel (Spy Game) and his crew add the final touches that make the film look both moody and morbid. Art directors Drew Boughton and Suttirat Anne Larlarb and set decorator Fontaine Beauchamp Hebb team up, however, to be The Skeleton Key’s true stars. The Devereaux’s creepy old mansion, the surrounding swamps, and dilapidated dwellings are like the drawings of Graham “Ghastly” Ingels, beloved creator of some of the best art ever to appear in legendary EC horror comic books. Ultimately, any legitimacy that The Skeleton Key has as a good horror movie rests in their creative vision; the film is as much theirs as it is Iain Softley’s.

The Skeleton Key, for all that it is sinister, is the kind of film that the less you think about it the more sense it makes. Dig deeply enough into Ehren Kruger’s (The Ring and The Ring Two) script and the film falls apart because its internal logic is full of holes that Kruger either didn’t notice or chose to ignore – likely that latter. Horror movies aren’t supposed to make sense (which is the belief of many fans and quite of few of its practitioners); the scary movie’s success lies in scaring people, and The Skeleton Key is certainly a delightfully spine-chilling affair… as long as you don’t take a hard look at it.

Sure, it seems as if Kate Hudson is slumming for a paycheck; sometimes she doesn’t even bother to act. She stands or sits there with a stony, blank expression on her face, as if she’s wondering in which script hides another potential Oscar nod while a movie is being made around her. Luckily, the superb Gena Rowlands is there to tear it up; her Violet Devereaux is a combination of pointed wickedness, proud dishonesty, and dismissive sarcasm. Rarely has matronly evil looked so good; she’s Joan Collins/Dynasty mean. John Hurt is also great, taking his crippled Ben Devereaux and turning him into a totem of fear-drowned and cuckolded manhood.

While Ms. Hudson struggles to bat .300 in this film and although the villains are as comical and they are scary, The Skeleton Key is a solid, suspense filled horror hit. For all the holes in the concept, screenwriter Ehren Kruger is probably the best writer of scary movies this new century. Cast and crew have glossed over their missteps with enough hair-raising and spine-chilling tropes to make The Skeleton Key a must-go trip to the theatre, at least for true fans of the scary. Sit back, let the feelings and emotions take control, and submit to the will of a big screen full of eerie.

6 of 10
B

Saturday, August 27, 2005

Review: "Fantastic Four" is Fantastic for the Entire Family

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 109 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Fantastic Four (2005)
Running time: 106 minutes (1 hour, 46 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sequences of intense action and some suggestive content
DIRECTOR: Tim Story
WRITERS: Michael France and Mark Frost (based upon the Marvel Comics characters created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby)
PRODUCERS: Avi Arad, Michael Barnathan, and Bernd Eichinger
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Oliver Wood
EDITOR: William Hoy
COMPOSER: John Ottman

SUPERHERO/ACTION/SCI-FI/ADVENTURE with elements of comedy

Starring: Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, Julian McMahon, Hamish Linklater, Kerry Washington, and Stan Lee

Marvel Comics longest running comic book series is the Fantastic Four, subtitled “The World’s Greatest Comic Book Magazine,” but Spider-Man is Marvel’s best known characters, while the X-Men are the most popular characters in North American comic book publishing; both the Spider-Man and the X-Men are also successful film franchises. However, there has been a nearly ten-year struggle to bring the Fantastic Four to the screen, and now, it’s finally happened. Fresh off Barbershop (2002) and the Queen Latifah vehicle, Taxi (2004), director Tim Story wows audiences with the Fantastic Four, the long-awaited silver screen appearance of Marvel’s first family, and unlike some other comic book to film adaptations (Sin City to name one), Fantastic Four is a joy ride for kids.

Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd), financially strapped scientific genius, has an important experiment that requires his use orbital space lab of his long-time rival, the jealous and grudge-holding Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon). Von Doom insists on accompanying Richards to the station. Also aboard the station for the research mission is Reed’s ex-girlfriend, Sue Storm (Jessica Alba), who now works for Von Doom, Sue’s brother, hot shot pilot Johnny Storm (Chris Evans), and Reed’s long-time friend, Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis), who more or less is Reed’s bodyguard. However, something goes wrong, and all five of them are exposed to an intense band of radiation that transforms their DNA and their bodies. Reed suddenly can stretch any part of his anatomy. Sue can turn invisible and create an invisible force field. Johnny can turn his body into living flame. Ben becomes a monster with a rock-like body. Victor’s skin eventually turns metallic and can absorb electricity.

After their powers become public, Johnny gives his compatriots names: Reed is Mr. Fantastic; Sue is the Invisible Girl; Ben is The Thing; and Johnny is the Human Torch. Together, they become known as the Fantastic Four, and though Reed, Sue, and Ben would like to be cured of their powers and new found physical gifts (or curses), they must band together as a quartet to save New York City from Victor, who becomes the super villain, Dr. Doom, a man bent on destroying the Fantastic Four and ruling the world.

The Incredibles was kind of an update or riff off the Fantastic Four, which is as much superhero action/adventure and fantasy fun as The Incredibles was, although FF is not nearly as well written and directed as the Pixar computer-animated hit. Still the emphasis is on fun. The Human Torch’s firepower is constantly on display, as he blazes across the sky like a pretty Christmas light with a rocket engine on it. Also, the Thing’s physical appearance and his monstrous strength are perfect for youngsters looking for vicarious wish fulfillment, because the brute wrecks, squashes, smashes, and breaks a lot during the course of the film. And I can’t forget that Mr. Fantastic’s stretching powers will cause a giggle or two, and they certainly made my eyes widen on a few occasions. The Fantastic Four comic book never made the Invisible Woman’s powers look as good as they do on the big screen.

The acting is good. Ioan Gruffudd is thoughtful and straight-laced as the serious and contemplative Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic. He’s not the infinitely intelligent leader that he is in the comic, and sometimes he comes across in the film as a bit too befuddled. Still, he’s more human and likeable here; I get the feeling that the filmmakers either didn’t know quite what to do with him or they didn’t like the character enough to make him the big boss he is in the comics.

For all her acting woes, Jessica Alba is a little spitfire as Sue Storm/Invisible Woman who keeps the boys in line. She’s a heroine for today; she doesn’t consider herself to be a second-class citizen. Yes, she’s boy crazy about Reed, but she’ll speak her mind to him. Even better, she won’t back down one bit in a fierce battle. Her screen chemistry with Gruffudd gets better as the film goes along, although it’s limp at first. I figure the relationship between the two characters will be tinkered with in any potential sequel, giving the actors more with which to work.

Michael Chiklis gives a surprisingly good turn as The Thing; even under the heavy and very thick suit he has to wear to portray the Thing, he gives the character a range of emotions and the air of the tragic, misunderstood monster. Chiklis plays the Thing as a heavily burdened man whose life is suddenly destroyed by his transformation into a monster. Sometimes the down-on-life bit gets too thick, but Chiklis still gives a good performance under all that makeup and costume, and his portrayal of Ben Grimm the human is pure action movie hero. It would be good to see more of that Ben Grimm in the Thing and less “woe is me” in a sequel.

The Thing is my number two favorite character in the film after Chris Evans’ hilarious and energetic ball of fire, Johnny Storm, the Human Torch. Evans is superb comic relief for the film; his antics, handsomeness, and cockiness is the much-needed smoke and mirrors for this film. Sometimes Johnny’s comic clowning around hides some serious flaws in this film, but he’s still fun to watch. Evans really seems to enjoy the role (as does the rest of the cast), and that comes across in the performance and entertainment value of the film.

The costumes, sets, makeup effects, and special effects are very good – not as good as Star Wars or War of the Worlds, but good enough to bring the Fantastic Four to life in a fashion that couldn’t have been done cost-effectively a decade ago or at all 15 to 20 years ago. The Human Torch’s special effects are quite simply great, and the Thing’s suit makes him look like a real, living, breathing monster. The Fantastic Four’s blue one-piece costumes are quite nice and look like they belong on comic book heroes, which makes them three times better than most of the Batsuits in the Batman film franchise.

The script, by Michael France (The Hulk and The Punisher) and Mark Frost, co-creator of the cult TV series, “Twin Peaks,” is weak; it’s mostly story-driven, rather than relying on a plot. That’s not a problem. What is the problem is that the hero/villain conflict takes too long to get going. We know early on that Victor Von Doom (nicely played by “Nip/Tuck’s” Julian McMahon as an anal, self-centered, egomaniac) is the bad guy, but the film is nearly over by the time he really tussles with the Fantastic Four. Also, the script seems to emphasize action and effects over character, and that’s a shame because the characters have so much potential. The Incredibles, the film that is so close to the FF, got a lot of mileage out of playing up individual characters and their quirks. In the end, it’s director Tim Story’s ability to weave action and comedy as he did so well in Taxi (2004) that glosses over the clunk in the script.

Combine high quality sci-fi/fantasy production values with a cast that believes in their characters and enthusiastically brings them to life and you have the makings of a very good film. The final product is a superhero movie that is more for the kids than Batman Begins (the youngsters that I saw this flick with were totally into the film), and Fantastic Four recaptures what it felt like to read a great adventure comic. There aren’t many of those around anymore, but thankfully this new Fantastic Four movie will make up for what today’s juvenile and “tween” readers can no longer get. Nothing says that better than seeing Ben Grimm, the Thing in action and the Human Torch blazing across the city sky like a flaming rocket.

7 of 10
B+

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"Street Fight" is a Heavy Weight Political Documentary

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 222 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux


Street Fight (2005)
Running time: 82 minutes (1 hour, 22 minutes)
(Not rated by the MPAA)
PRODUCER/WRITER/DIRECTOR: Marshall Curry
EDITOR/CINEMATOGRAPHER: Marshall Curry
Academy Award nominee

DOCUMENTARY

Starring: Cory Booker and Sharpe James

The subject of this movie review is Street Fight, a 2005 documentary film from director Marshall Curry. The film received a best documentary film Oscar nomination and was also aired on the PBS series, P.O.V.

In 2002, documentary filmmaker Marshall Curry followed Cory Booker, a candidate for Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, taking viewers behind the scenes in what turned out to be a cutthroat 2002 mayoral race. Booker, a Newark city councilman, was an Ivy League upstart who’d only won a single political race prior to his 2002 mayoral campaign – that of the city council seat he held at the time.

The incumbent Sharpe James was a four-term, old-timer who represented the old-fashioned political machine’s way of running a political campaign and managing a government. That old political machine will try to win by any means necessary. James was the undisputed king of New Jersey politics, and some called him a “king maker.” James was also not above using down-and-dirty tactics to win, and he was not above bringing forth race and skin color as divisive issues he could use to defeat his opponents.

Booker and James are both African-Americans, but Booker has a lighter skin complexion than James. James, who at the time of the film had been in politics for 32 years, was one of the politicians that enjoyed the first fruits of the hard fought Civil Rights battles. Booker, on the other hand, represented the new generation of black leaders born after the Civil Right movement. These young African-Americans want to bring new ideas to government, and race (skin color, ethnicity) is less of a factor in how they run their campaigns, manage government, and operate in the public arena. Just being one of the father’s of Civil Rights or being a first generation beneficiary of the movement doesn’t make one untouchable or above criticism from these young black leaders.

Such an attitude rankled supporters of Sharpe who saw Sharpe and his career as the epitome of the struggle for civil rights and what the movement wanted to achieve. So Booker, who wasn’t born in Newark (whereas James was) was seen as an outsider. James encouraged that sentiment and went so far as to suggest that Booker wasn’t black or, as a light-skinned Negro, not black enough. James also liked to accuse Booker of being Jewish (he’s not) and a lackey of right wing, white Republicans. Booker often struck back by pointing out Newark’s problems and how the city had languished under James’ stewardship.

Raising hard questions about American politics, race and racial identity, and democracy, Street Fight earned a 2006 Academy Award nomination (“Best Documentary, Features”) for its story of a bare-knuckles political race. Marshall Curry’s brilliant follows it all, letting his camera record something uniquely American and rarely shown to the country at large – an inner city political campaign in which two black candidates go after each other for blood. The film’s one flaw is that Curry deliberately avoided covering the issues and focused on the “street fight.” Curry has said in interviews that in the battle, in which both men went into the neighborhoods of Newark canvassing for votes and feting voters, he saw the true story. It’s debatable if issues such as poverty, gang violence, municipal construction, etc. weren’t as important.

Still, anyone who likes politics and documentaries will find that Street Fight is a gourmet meal and a lavish dessert in one.

9 of 10
A+

Thursday, October 26, 2006

NOTES:
2006 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Documentary, Features” (Marshall Curry)

Review: "The Village" is Great ... Until it Isn't (Happy B'day, M. Night Shyamalan)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 135 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Village (2004)
Running time: 108 minutes (1 hour, 48 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for scene of violence and frightening situations
WRITER/DIRECTOR: M. Night Shyamalan
PRODUCERS: Sam Mercer, Scott Rudin, and M. Night Shyamalan
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Roger Deakins (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Christopher Tellefsen
COMPOSER: James Newton Howard
Academy Award nominee

DRAMA/FANTASY/THRILLER with elements of horror

Starring: Bryce Dallas Howard, Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Brendan Gleeson, Cherry Jones, Celia Weston, John Christopher Jones, Frank Collison, Jayne Atkinson, Judy Greer, Michael Pitt, and Jesse Eisenberg

The subject of this movie review is The Village, a 2004 fantasy thriller and mystery film from writer-director, M. Night Shyamalan. The film is set in a late 19th century village built in a forest supposedly filled with dangerous creatures.

Circa 1897, Covington, Pennsylvania is a nice, quiet town surrounded by a beautiful, but haunting forest where strange, apparently dangerous, and unseen creatures live. For ages, there has been a truce between the citizens of Covington and the mysterious denizens of the woods. The people of Covington do not go into the woods, and the creatures (or monsters) do not come into the village.

But when quiet, almost sullen, young townsmen Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix) crosses the border from the town into the woods, the truce is broken, and the monsters start visiting the town. Soon, the villagers find an increasing number of their livestock slaughtered and skinned. In the midst of the fear, happiness blooms, but before long the scourge of the faraway towns comes to the village. Village elder Edward Walker’s (William Hurt) blind daughter, Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard) must pass through the woods to find aid. But will the monsters dine on her beautiful flesh?

M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village is probably the least accomplished of his films since his worldwide blockbuster, The Sixth Sense. However, like his best-known films, the journey of watching the film is usually more important than the destination, which is the flick’s finale. Like Signs, the supernatural element is a red herring, and the most important element of The Village is its theme of dealing with heart-rending loss. The film also tackles the ideas of locking oneself off from the world to avoid devastating pain and of living in paranoid fear of the other, which is quite relevant in an America where “gated communities” seem to spring up everywhere on a daily basis.

As a work of movie art, The Village is an ambitious stumble. The ideas are good, but muddled, lost, and poorly considered, or at least poorly presented in the structure of this story. As big studio entertainment, The Village has a small numbers of genuinely frightening bumps in the dark, but the suspense is tepid and the thrills are exhausted half way through the film. The movie also takes such an idealized view of utopias, that it sometimes seems to take wild flights of fancy. However, Shyamalan just might be making a sly comment about the upper middle class and upper class’ fear of violence at the hand of the lower classes.

The delight in this film is the debut of Academy Award winning director Ron Howard’s daughter, Bryce Dallas Howard. Her performance is luminous, so much so that it lights the way for this occasionally befuddled mess. Ms. Howard is spunky and rebellious when she needs to be, and the sheer terror she displays is practically the only thing that sells this film’s horror thriller aspects. She also portrays moments of bravery with openness in her performance that invites us into her life; she is the one through whom we live vicariously. She is The Village’s champion.

5 of 10
B-

NOTES:
2005 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score” (James Newton Howard)

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Review: "Shadowboxer" is Bat-Shit-Crazy (Happy B'day, Helen Mirren)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 253 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux


Shadowboxer (2005)
Opening date: July 21, 2006
Running time: 94 minutes (1 hour, 34 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong graphic violence and sexuality, nudity, language, and some drug use
DIRECTOR: Lee Daniels
WRITER: William Lipz
PRODUCERS: Lisa Cortes, Lee Daniels, Damon Dash, Brook Lenfest, and Dave Robinson
CINEMATOGRAPHER: M. David Mullen
EDITOR: William Chang and Brian A. Kates

CRIME/DRAMA/THRILLER

Starring: Cuba Gooding, Jr., Helen Mirren, Stephen Dorff, Vanessa Ferlito, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Macy Gray, Cullen Flynn Clancy, Tomy Dunster, and Mo’Nique

The subject of this movie review is Shadowboxer, a 2005 crime thriller directed by Lee Daniels. After the film’s theatrical release in the summer of 2006, two of its stars would go on to win Academy Awards, Helen Mirren and Mo’Nique, and one had already won an Oscar, Cuba Gooding, Jr.

Clayton (Stephen Dorff), a nasty crime lord, hires the assassin Rose (Helen Mirren) and her stepson/partner/longtime lover, Mikey (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), to kill his wife, Vickie (Vanessa Ferlito), whom he believes is cheating on him. However, during the hit, Rose, suffering from cancer and on her last job, discovers that Vickie is pregnant and hesitates. Vickie immediately goes into labor and delivers a son. Rose takes mother and newborn and flees with Mikey to a new life in a pastoral suburb. Soon, the baby is seven-year old Anthony (Cullen Flynn Clancy), and the past is about to catch up with this unconventional family.

Shadowboxer is an audacious, unconventional thriller. Director Lee Daniels and writer William Lipz create a crime thriller than can masquerade as a family melodrama. This flick, however, has an awkward pace. Sometimes it is slow, and other times it is a meditative tale that shadowboxes with being philosophical – philosophy that it delivers either through imagery or dialogue. (Mikey religiously practices shadow boxing.) Shadowboxer’s overarching plot is a crime thriller tale full of cold, ruthless murderers, thugs, criminals, and assorted lowlifes, but it often comes across as low budget thriller with most of the actors merely posing rather than acting. The bad guys and badasses come across as stock characters, or maybe the direction they received for their performances was too artsy.

Shadowboxer doesn’t have any great or even really good performances, but this strange off-kilter flick spends the second half builds into a story of an unconventional family coming to grips with itself. The fact that the family members can be a workable nuclear family (even though this merger wasn’t meant to be) only makes seeing things work out that much more desirable. Rooting for this desperate, but loving family makes Shadowboxer’s narrative, pacing, and structural problems all less important.

6 of 10
B

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Review: "A Sound of Thunder" isn't Too Bad

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 95 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux


A Sound of Thunder (2005)
Running time: 102 minutes (1 hour, 42 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sci-fi violence, partial nudity, and language
CINEMATOGRAPHER/DIRECTOR: Peter Hyams
WRITERS: Thomas Dean Donnelly & Joshua Oppenheimer and Gregory Poirier; screen story by Thomas Dean Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer (based upon the short story by Ray Bradbury)
PRODUCERS: Moshe Diamant and Karen Baldwin
EDITORS: Sylvia Landra
COMPOSER: Nick Glennie-Smith

SCI-FI/FANTASY/ACTION/THRILLER with elements of horror

Starring: Edward Burns, Catherine McCormack, Ben Kingsley, Jemima Rooper, David Oyelowo, William Armstrong, and Corey Johnson

The subject of this movie review is A Sound of Thunder, a 2005 science fiction and time travel movie from director Peter Hyams. The film is based upon a Ray Bradbury short story of the same title that was first published in 1952 (in Collier’s magazine). The film follows the efforts of a scientist who tries to save his world after a group of “time tourists” accidentally change the present by interfering with the past.

In the year 2055, a company based in downtown, Chicago, Time Safari, Inc., is an elite time travel agency. The corporation’s owner, Charles Hatton (Ben Kingsley), has cornered the lucrative time-travel market with something called a “prehistoric hunting package.” For a very high price, rich adventurers can travel back to the Prehistoric age and hunt a real life dinosaur. The trip has only three essential rules: (1) Don’t change anything in the past; (2) Don’t leave anything behind; and most of all (3) Don’t bring anything back – because the slightest alteration of anything that existed in the past could alter the existing course of evolution in unimaginable ways. But someone breaks the rules…

Before long, a series of time waves is rippling across the world. The change is slow at first – just the climate and weather. Within 24 hours, the major changes begin. Plant life grows to monstrous proportions, busting through concrete and pavement, overturning cars, engulfing entire building inside and out, and covering the city. Soon voracious insects are running amok in the city, and then come the hostile new creatures – primates in reptilian form that can move with blazing speed and that feed on humans.

The two people who have an idea of what is happening are Dr. Travis Ryer (Edward Burns), a scientist who leads the Time Safari expeditions so that he can further his genetic research, and Dr. Sonia Rand (Catherine McCormack), the brilliant physicist who developed much of the technology that Time Safari, Inc. uses to make its expeditions into the past possible. Now, Ryer needs Rand’s help if he is going to figure out exactly what went wrong on one of his expeditions that is causing the time waves. With the world collapsing into pandemonium around them, as deadly plants and monstrous new animal life forms attack humans, Ryer and Rand have to figure out a way to go back into the past and correct the error that will save themselves and the human race from extinction.

Once A Sound of Thunder missed its release date of March 2005, it was clear to fans that the distributor, Warner Bros. Pictures, probably thought the film was a bust. Without much advertising and little fanfare, the film finally appeared in early September of 2005, and failed at the box office (grossing less than $2 million domestically). The film was beset by production delays (the great floods of Prague in 2002 damaged the set), causing the film to miss its original release date of 2003. The original director, Renny Harlin, left in 2004 to helm another film (Mindhunters), and the production company went bankrupt, and there was no money to finish the film.

Still, what finally emerges is a rather entertaining, above average, B-movie; in fact, this is a glorified B-movie, a big budget version of the sci-fi monster movies that show up on the Sci-Fi Channel on Saturday nights. Some of the special effects are poor, especially some of the street scenes, which look phony and cheap; the viewer can practically see the “seems” between where the actors and real environment end and the CGI begins. The dinosaur that is the object of Time Safari’s hunts is so poorly animated, especially when compared to the kind of CGI dinos we get in mega productions like Jurassic Park. Part of that is because when the production company went bankrupt, the filmmakers hadn’t begun such post-production work computer animation. When money was finally received to finish A Sound of Thunder, the effects had to be cheaply done.

The script also takes great liberties with its source material, a classic Ray Bradbury science fiction short story, in order to become a full-length film. In the original story, the death of an insect changed an election’s outcome. Here, so much padding had to be added to turn a short story into a feature length film.

Otherwise, I liked the execution of the film’s plot, and its visual choices in terms of set design and art direction. The film’s monsters are also enjoyable even though they look more fake and plastic than the old-time movie monsters that were handmade. And A Sound of Thunder really is a monster movie, except it is set in the milieu of science fiction rather than of horror. In many ways, A Sound of Thunder is the kind of action oriented, sci-fi/horror thriller that director Peter Hyams delivers every blue moon – The Relic being a good example of one of his enjoyable B-movie, sci-fi/horror, action flicks. In Hyams’ films, the genre, be it sci-fi or horror, is just a setting for an action movie starring a solid, macho, can-do male hero. As simple entertainment, they work if you don’t think too much about the flaws and holes.

This flick likes the audience rather than take them for stupid, and it wants to give you a good time. The ending is too abrupt, unsatisfying, and doesn’t really resolve the story. However, A Sound of Thunder is fun, meant to be enjoyable even when the mistakes are right in front of your eyes.

5 of 10
B-

Sunday, May 7, 2006

First "Madagascar" a Looney Tune

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 86 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux


Madagascar (2005)
Running time: 80 minutes (1 hour, 20 minutes)
MPAA – PG for mild language, crude humor, and some thematic elements
DIRECTORS: Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath
WRITERS: Mark Burton and Billy Frolick and Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath
PRODUCER: Mireille Soria
EDITOR: Mark A. Hester

ANIMATION/COMEDY/ADVENTURE/FAMILY/FANTASY

Starring: (voices) Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer, and Andy Richter

The subject of this movie review is Madagascar, a 2005 computer-animated film from DreamWorks Animation. The film focuses on a group of zoo animals accidentally shipped to Africa.

Alex the Lion (Ben Stiller) is king of the animal attractions at New York City’s Central Park Zoo. He and his friends: Marty the Zebra (Chris Rock), Melman the Giraffe (David Schwimmer), and Gloria the Hippo (Jada Pinkett Smith) have lived there their entire lives. However, on the day of his tenth birthday, Marty begins to wonder what life outside the zoo – in particular life in the wild, would be like. With the help of four crafty penguins, Marty escapes the zoo for an overnight excursion. When his friends discover him missing, they also leave the zoo to rescue him.

The quartet attracts so much attention, and the sight of Alex the Lion running loose and free scares many New Yorkers. After the quartet is captured, they along with some other animals who escaped (two monkey’s and those darned penguins, again) are put on a cargo ship to be transferred to a zoo in Kenya. Once again, the penguins cause trouble and sabotage the ship, inadvertently causing Alex, Marty, Melman, and Gloria to be stranded on the exotic island of Madagascar. Now, the quartet has to learn to survive in this lush jungle paradise, but Marty, Melman, and Gloria discover, much to their chagrin, Alex’s wilder side.

Madagascar is the fifth feature-length computer animated film from DreamWorks through their computer animation studio, PDI (DreamWorks Animation). With each film, the art and craft of PDI’s computer graphics and animation markedly improves. In terms of the “drawing” style, this film is closer to the Warner Bros. cartoon shorts of the 1930’s and 40’s, in particular the work of cartoon directors Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, and Bob Clampett. The characters are designed to look 2D (two-dimensional), like the hand drawn cartoon characters featured in the aforementioned trio’s legendary work, although the Madagascar’s characters exist in the 3D (three-dimensional) world of computer animation.

How did PDI successfully create a computer animated film that looks like classic “cartoony” animated cartoons of yesteryear? What makes this work is that they mastered “squash and stretch,” the process which animators use to deform an object and then snap it back into shape to portray motion or impact. The ability to squash and stretch is essential to cartoon slapstick comedy such as the Road Runner cartoons. While squash and stretch are easy for animators to do with a pencil in hand-drawn/2D animation, it is more difficult for computer animators to do. DreamWorks Animation has successfully moved to the next level in terms of the quality of their work by creating characters that stretch and expand. It’s a film that able captures the manic energy of Avery, Jones, and Clampett’s Warner Bros. cartoons.

The animation of human characters and the layout, lighting, and set designs of human environments is shocking in how good it looks, but once the narrative moves to Madagascar the character animation really takes off. The characters bend, twist, elongate, and expand in a constant barrage that has the manic energy of classic cartoons. This also helps to sell a limp concept.

The plot is a basic fish-out-of-water tale without much imagination. The characters, except for the penguins, aren’t exceptional or memorable. They are good for some laughs, but they lack the zip, zest, or tang of cast of the Shrek franchise. The buddies of this buddy film, Alex and Marty, have some chemistry, but aren’t that dynamic a duo. Actually, the animals and the actors that give voice to them (Stiller, Rock, Schwimmer, and Ms. Jada) have the best chemistry as either a trio or a quartet. Put three or four together, and the film sparkles and splashes over with slapstick comedy that works. Cut the quartet in half and the narrative loses its energy.

Overall, Madagascar is a pleasant family comedy with some exceptionally strong humor that should appeal to adults; plus, the film references lots of other movies, and that keeps older viewers interested. DreamWorks Animation hasn’t yet reached Pixar, the gold standard in computer animation, but the quality of entertainment in Madagascar proves that the studio can deliver high-quality, if not classic, animated entertainment.

7 of 10
B+

Depp, Carter Make Magic in Tim Burton's "Corpse Bride"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 151 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux


Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride (2005) – animated
Running time: 81 minutes (1 hour, 21 minutes)
MPAA – PG for some scary images and action, and brief mild language)
DIRECTORS: Mike Johnson and Tim Burton
WRITERS: John August, Caroline Thompson, and Pamela Pettler
PRODUCER: Allison Abbate and Tim Burton
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Pete Kozachik
EDITOR: Jonathan Lucas and Chris Lebenzon, A.C.E.
COMPOSER: Danny Elfman
Academy Award nominee

ANIMATION/FANTASY/MUSICAL/FAMILY with elements of comedy and romance

Starring: (voices) Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Emily Watson, Tracey Ullman, Paul Whitehouse, Joanna Lumley, Albert Finney, Christopher Lee, Richard E. Grant, Michael Gough, Jane Horrocks, Enn Reitel, Deep Roy, Stephen Ballantyne, Lisa Kay, Danny Elfman

12 years ago, Tim Burton conceived and produced a fabulous stop-motion animated film, Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas (directed by Henry Selick). It remains something of a cult classic and family favorite and has spawned numerous merchandise spin offs, including several toy lines. Burton returns to stop-motion animation with the new film Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, co-directed by Mike Johnson.

Transformed from a Russian folk tale, Corpse Bride begins in a small, gloomily repressed Victorian town that is about to see the wedding of two young people who’ve never met. Canned fish tycoons, Nell and William Van Dort (voiced by Tracey Ullman and Paul Whitehouse) crassly make a bid to social climb by wedding their bachelor son, Victor (voice of Johnny Depp) to old-money aristocrats.

Maudeline and Finis Everglot (voices of Joanna Lumley and Albert Finney) have an old-money aristocratic name, but are penniless. All they have left is their name and social standing and a daughter named Victoria (voice of Emily Watson). The Everglots are willing to hold their noses and grudgingly marry Victoria off to Victor, whose money will allow them to climb back into the upper reaches of society (where their ancestor, the Duke of Everglot, was). By marrying Victor to Victoria, the Van Dorts will have the requisite class to go with their enormous wealth.

Upon their first meeting, Victor and Victoria do slowly and quietly begin to fall in love, but at the wedding rehearsal, Victor continually bungles his lines. Pastor Galswells (voice of Christopher Lee), who will preside over the wedding, sends Victor away until he can manage to learn the somewhat tricky lines of his vows. Humiliated, he wanders into the dark forest that surrounds his village. Alone, he successfully recites his vows, and even goes so far as to place his wedding ring on the root of a tree as a finishing touch.

However, the root is really bony finger. Like a magic incantation, Victor’s vows and the ring resurrect the decaying corpse to which the finger belongs. Up rises the strange and strangely beautiful Corpse Bride (voice of Helena Bonham Carter) wearing the tattered remains of a wedding dress. She may have died long ago (after being mysteriously murdered on her wedding night), but her search for true love and a husband never died. She grabs Victor, mistaking him for husband and drags him beneath the earth to the Land of the Dead, a colorful and rowdy place that is the exact opposite of the dull, somber, and cold Land of the Living (known by the denizens of the Land of the Dead as upstairs).

Victor tries in vain to return to Victoria. Meanwhile, the Everglots have hastily arranged a second wedding for their daughter, to a mysterious, arrogant, and somewhat sinister stranger calling himself, Lord Barkis Bittern (voice of Richard E. Grant). With his Corpse Bride determined to hold him in the bonds of their unholy matrimony, Victor must find is way back upstairs to his true bride-to-be before Victoria is also bond by an unfortunate marriage.

First, if I had the chance, I would tell co-directors Tim Burton and Mike Johnson and their animators and other crew that their 55-week shoot during, which 109,000,440 individually animated frames were set up and filmed, resulted in a truly glorious film fairy tale. I don’t know if they think the effort was worth it, but I sure as hell do. Corpse Bride is an exuberant stop-motion, pop Gothic animated fable. Delightfully and mysteriously creepy, the film is a sweet tale of love both lost and unrequited. Corpse Bride does have the usual Burton ticks. For instance, the Land of the Dead is a fun, colorful and oddly creepy place where the dead do more that just make the best of it, while the Land of the Living is so cold and somber. The living are so reserved, grave, serious and sober, while the dead party up!

However, it all works because the film’s internal logic makes sense (with only a few exceptions). The direction and camera work (they shot the film using digital still cameras rather than film cameras) create a sense of movement and a flow in the narrative that is… well, as animated as live action film. The script captures the film’s whimsical, yet eerie nature with a narrative that is melancholy, yet filled with funny moments and also dialogue that fits right in with all the whimsy, moodiness, and dead things.

The voice cast is excellent, and I’m loathed to single anyone out. However, Helena Bonham Carter as the Corpse Bride (whose name was/is Emily) does a superb job straddling the line between macabre and sweet and between comic and menace (especially in the scene when she arrives at the Everglot estate to get “her man” back from Victoria). Still, Johnny Depp (obviously Burton’s stand-in) and Emily Watson are also very good and make their characters charming and engaging. All in all, they’re part of fine cast and crew that made Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride a great film, a must-see for lovers of animated films.

10 of 10

Friday, October 07, 2005

NOTES:
2006 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Animated Feature Film of the Year” (Tim Burton and Mike Johnson)

Review: "The Honeymooners" is Sweet and Charming (Happy B'day, Cedric the Entertainer)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 93 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Honeymooners (2005)
Running time: 90 minutes (1 hour, 30 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some innuendo and rude humor
DIRECTOR: John Schultz
WRITERS: Danny Jacobson and David Sheffield & Barry W. Blaustein and Don Rhymer (based on characters from the CBS television series)
PRODUCERS: David T. Friendly, Marc Turtletaub, Eric C. Rhone, and Julie Durk
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Shawn Maurer
EDITOR: John Pace

COMEDY

Starring: Cedric the Entertainer, Mike Epps, Gabrielle Union, Regina Hall, Eric Stoltz, John Leguizamo, Jon Polito, Carol Woods, Ajay Naidu, and Alice Drummond

The subject of this movie review is The Honeymooners. This 2005 family comedy takes the classic television series, The Honeymooners, and transforms the characters into African-Americans, while also setting the story in the 21st Century.

Ralph Kramden (Cedric the Entertainer) is a dreamer. By day, he is a New York city bus driver. During his off-hours, he is an inventor, an entrepreneur, and an innovator who is always one get-rich-quick scheme away from instant wealth, and he has a closet full of failed products to prove it. Most of the time, Ralph’s best friend and upstairs neighbor, Ed Norton (Mike Epps), is along for the ride. Ralph’s wife, Alice (Gabrielle Union), has been putting up with it for years, but now she has had enough. Alice has her sights on a practical dream, the American dream; she and Ed’s wife, Trixie (Regina Hall), want to buy a duplex fixer-upper house that the two couples could share and build into their dream home. However, Ralph’s latest half-baked project turns out to be really half-baked, and he spent his and Alice’s savings on it. Now, he needs Ed’s help on another big money plan if he’s going to replenish their savings before Alice leaves him.

Other than the character names, a few domestic and job facts, and the title, the film The Honeymooners bares little resemblance to the CBS television series of the 1950’s that many consider classic TV and an important program in television history. The four lead characters that were white in the original are now black, which should set some tongues to wagging. All that doesn’t, in the end, matter when it comes to the issue at hand, and that’s the current film. Is The Honeymooners a good film, and how good is it?

The Honeymooners, like a lot of Hollywood film product for so many years now, is cursed with a limp script and an unimaginative director. The concept: Ralph’s latest get-rich-quick plan backfires and not only costs him money, but might cost him his marriage, was a stable of the original TV program. Apparently that concept worked great for a half-hour TV show (about 22 minutes of actual show and the rest commercials), but stretched to a 90 minute feature-length film, it doesn’t fly… or at least not long enough. The director moves The Honeymooners at a plodding pace, almost as if he were following the recipe to make bland-tasting baked goods. The script contains not a sparkle of wit or imagination, and the romance and love between husband and wife are woefully hollow notes.

The weak film structure forces the burden to entertain the audience upon the backs of the cast. Cedric the Entertainer and Mike Epps are up to the challenge; in fact, they add a lot of their own construction work to this shell of a film and make it worth seeing. A lot of the humor in Cedric’s comedic style comes from his expressive face and watching how he reacts in certain situations and to particular incidents. Epps is the perfect sidekick, a combination clown and straight man, he can do the silly stuff, or he can be the guy who balances the hijinks of the class clown. Sadly, the talented Gabrielle Union and Regina Hall (who adds meat to the comic routine she used in the Scary Movie franchise) have to fight for what little screen time they have. The limp script spends so much time anally fixated on Ralph’s next-great idea that it ignores half of what made the Ralph Kramden/Ed Norton act work – the wives.

John Leguizamo also does an edgy and hilarious turn as a jack-of-all-scams dog trainer that should remind a lot of people not only how funny this fine comedian is, but what a good actor he is. Cedric, Epps, and Leguizamo make a dynamic comic trio. Ultimately, the cast is funny enough and surprisingly charming enough on the strength of performances to make The Honeymooners worth watching, even though it’s not worth a trip to the theatre.

5 of 10
B-

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"March of the Penguins" a Quality Family Film

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 148 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux


La Marche de l’empereur (2005)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: France; Language: French

March of the Penguins (2005 ) – U.S. release
Running time: 84 minutes (1 hour, 24 minutes)
MPAA – G for General Audiences
DIRECTOR: Luc Jacquet
WRITER: Michel Fessler and Luc Jacquet, from a story by Luc Jacquet; Jordan Roberts (narration for American version)
PRODUCERS: Yves Darondeau, Christophe Lioud, and Emmanuel Priou
CINEMATOGRAPHERS: Laurent Chalet and Jérôme Maison
EDITOR: Sabine Emilani
Academy Award winner

DOCUMENTARY- Nature

Starring: Morgan Freeman (narrator, U.S. version)

The subject of this movie review is La Marche de l’empereur, a 2005 nature documentary film from France. It was released in the United States as March of the Penguins, where it was a box office success and later won the Oscar for best documentary film.

In the Antarctic, the emperor penguins make an annual trek in order to return to their breeding grounds for mating season. Leaving their home, the ocean, in which they spend only a short time considering the time they devote to breeding, the emperor penguins must overcome daunting obstacles, and their trek calls to the mind of the viewer many of human experiences: birth and death, courtship and mating, comedy and drama, elation and heartbreak, and just fighting for survival. Morgan Freeman narrates the American version of La Marche de l’empereur, entitled March of the Penguins, one of the most popular documentaries in American box office history.

Viewers who like nature documentaries may like March of the Penguins. I don’t find it anymore compelling than the numerous episodes of “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom” (1963-88) that I watched on TV when I was a child. The one thing that makes it stand out from what’s available on PBS, the Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, etc., is the amazing cinematography (all those lovingly long shots of the cold, foreboding Antarctic icescape) and Alex Wurman’s haunting and captivating score done for the U.S. version (the original French film has a pop music score). Morgan Freeman’s voice makes for an irritating narration, but I didn’t like his short prologue and short epilogue for Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds either. Mostly, March of the Penguins is a mildly fascinating, but quality TV show masquerading as a film, so try it on home video and DVD.

6 of 10
B

Saturday, September 17, 2005

NOTES:
2006 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Best Documentary, Features” (Luc Jacquet and Yves Darondeau)

2006 BAFTA Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Cinematography” (Laurent Chalet and Jérôme Maison) and “Best Editing” (Sabine Emiliani)

"MirrorMask" a Trip to Wonderland and Oz

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 47 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux


MirrorMask (2005)
Running time: 101 minutes (1 hour, 41 minutes)
MPAA – PG for some mild thematic elements and scary images
DIRECTOR: Dave McKean
WRITERS: Neil Gaiman; from a story by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean
PRODUCER: Simon Moorhead
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Tony Shearn
EDITOR: Nicholas Gaster

FANTASY

Starring: Stephanie Leonidas, Jason Barry, Gina McKee, Rob Brydon, Dora Bryan, Robert Llewellyn, and Andy Hamilton

The subject of this movie review is MirrorMask, a 2005 fantasy film from Jim Henson Productions. The film, which has animated elements, is the story of a girl who gets trapped in a fantasy world.

Helena (Stephanie Leonidas) is a 15-year old girl who works unhappily in her mother (Gina McKee) and father’s (Rob Brydon) circus as a juggler, and she loves to draw strange creatures and lands. Helena has covered the walls of her bedroom with her drawings and illustrations. When her mother, Joanne, falls ill, Helena blames herself because she had, in a fit of pique, told her mother that she’d wished her mother dead if that’s what it would take for her to escape the circus.

Driven by sadness and worry over her mother’s health, Helena falls into a troubled sleep that finds her transported to the Dark Lands, a civilization equaled ruled by light and darkness. When the Light Queen (Gina McKee) looses her charm, the MirrorMask, to the Princess daughter (Stephanie Leonidas) of the Dark Queen (McKee), the kingdom, which is filled with bizarre giants, Monkeybirds, and a variety of dangerous sphinxes, was plunged into gloomy shadows. Helena, with the aid of a masked companion named Valentine (Jason Barry) takes it upon herself to find the MirrorMask and the Princess in order to restore the Dark Lands’ rightful balance.

MirrorMask is a low budget, live action/animation, fantasy film from the Jim Henson Company It was born from the minds of two of the biggest names in American and British comics books, artist/illustrator/photographer, Dave McKean, and comic book writer/best-selling novelist, Neil Gaiman. McKean has worked on such acclaimed comics books and graphic novels as Batman: Arkham Asylum (which he painted) and Cages (which he wrote and drew). Neil Gaiman is known as the writer/co-creator of DC Comic’s Sandman series that was published from the late 80’s to the early 90’s and won a World Fantasy Award. He’s written several novels and short stories, two of his biggest book successes being American Gods (the winner science fiction’s most prestigious prize, the Hugo Award for best novel) and the recent hit, Anansi Boys. McKean and Gaiman have collaborated several times, two of the best known being Signal to Noise, a graphic novel, and Mr. Punch, a picture book.

McKean designed the film’s outstanding and imaginative visual appearance and directed it, as well as creating the story with Gaiman, who wrote the screenplay. Although MirrorMask has a visual vocabulary, which can dazzle the mind, as well as the eye, the film is highly derivative in its conception. Visually the film looks like Dave McKean’s comix and illustrations with a nod to Tim Burton and Salvador Dali. It’s also very much like the film version of The Wizard of Oz with the same aggressive visual invention, but without Oz’s simple, yet effective script.

MirrorMask can scorch the eye with its glittery mixture of live action and animation, but the story, an allegory about denying who you are and mother/daughter relationships is chump change. I’d give the visuals anywhere from an 8 to a 10, but if I gave the script and storytelling a 4, I would be generous. MirrorMask’s dream world façade seems to be imagination and weirdness for the sake of weirdness, and it’s Freudian, pop-psychology is laughable. The acting, a combination of amateur video and mid-level stage professionalism only serves to show the script’s shortcomings. Gaiman’s screenplay has taken a short story and turned it into a movie that is about 41 minutes too long. The tale needs more supporting characters, and the villainess is a baddie only by de facto menace. And Stephanie Leonidas doesn’t look like a 15-year old girl, just a moody 20-something. Iain Bellamy’s jazz inflected score often manages to establish mood and setting when the Gaiman’s writing or the actors can’t.

However, I can’t discount the talent and vision that created a movie that looks so darn inventive. The creatures, the blend of animation and live action, the backdrops, and settings, the low budget computer animation that so perfectly fits this picture book-like movie, and the Dark Land’s curious denizens make me want to watch this movie repeatedly. Sometimes, McKean makes the film hard to see. There are too many shadows, too many scenes draped in blackness, and scenes that look as if they were shot through a drinking glass. But when you can see the action, you will be dazzled. Think of MirrorMask as the best-looking and most fanciful straight-to-video flick (it did have a short theatrical run) made to this point in cinematic history, and then get ready for something trippy and nice.

6 of 10
B

Thursday, March 2, 2006

Review: 2005 Take on "Pride & Prejudice" is a Winning Romance (Happy B'day, Keira Knightley)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 103 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux


Pride & Prejudice (2005)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: France/UK
Running time: 128 minutes (2 hours, 8 minutes)
MPAA – PG for some mild thematic elements
DIRECTOR: Joe Wright
WRITER: Deborah Moggach (from the novel by Jane Austen)
PRODUCERS: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, and Paul Webster
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Roman Osin (director of photography)
EDITOR: Paul Tothill
Academy Award nominee

ROMANCE/COMEDY/DRAMA

Starring: Keira Knightley, Rosamund Pike, Jena Malone, Talulah Riley, Carey Mulligan, Brenda Blethyn, Simon Woods, Matthew Macfadyen, Tom Hollander, and Donald Sutherland, Kelly Reilly, Tamzin Merchant, and Judi Dench

The subject of this movie review is Pride & Prejudice, a 2005 British romance film. This French-British production is an adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice, which was first published in 1813. The 2005 movie was the second time the book had been adapted as a feature film, while there have been numerous television adaptations, including a few in non-English speaking countries.

Mrs. Bennet (Brenda Blethyn) has five daughters: the radiantly beautiful Jane (Rosamund Pike, who is, of course, radiantly beautiful), the spirited Elizabeth or Lizzie (Keira Knightley), the feuding Mary (Talulah Riley) and Kitty (Carey Mulligan), and Lydia (Jena Malone), and the girls are well aware of their mother’s fixation on finding them husbands and securing their futures financially. Thus, begins a story of love, misunderstandings and class divisions in England in the 18th century.

The excitement and drama begins when a wealthy bachelor, Mr. Bingley (Simon Woods), takes up residence in a mansion near the Bennets’ home. Serene and beautiful, Jane catches the eye of Mr. Bingley. Meanwhile, Lizzie catches the eye of her distant cousin, Mr. Collins (Tom Hollander), who, as the nearest male relative, will inherit the Bennets’ home upon the death of Mr. Bennet (Donald Sutherland). Lizzie refuses his offer of marriage, with support of her father who dotes on her, but angers her mother.

Mr. Bingley has an even wealthier friend, the snobbish Mr. Darcy (Matthew Macfadyen). There is something between Lizzie and Mr. Darcy, but their many spirited and often quarrelsome encounters are not an encouragement for union. When Mr. Bingley abruptly leaves for London, Lizzie blames Mr. Darcy for contributing to what seemed like a likely marriage between Jane and Bingley. However, a crisis with the youngest daughter Lydia opens Lizzie’s eyes to what Mr. Darcy is really like. The fuss and confusion leaves no one unchanged, and forces each person to examine personal beliefs, but will it bring Mr. Bingley and Jane and Lizzie and Mr. Darcy together?

Working Title Films’ (Bridget Jones’s Diary, Love Actually) production of Pride & Prejudice is the first theatrical film version of Jane Austen’s classic 1813 novel in 65 years (since a 1940 film starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier). Director Joe Wright presents Austen’s novel of first impressions and the issues surrounding courtship and marriage among the landed gentry as a comic romance that satires the politics and procedures of engagements while still tugging at our heartstrings. If the film bears more than a striking resemblance to Ang Lee’s 1995 Jane Austen adaptation, Sense and Sensibility, it’s because Emma Thompson, who wrote and starred in that film, reportedly did extensive rewriting of Deborah Moggach’s screenplay for this film.

However, Sense and Sensibility was a somber drama with comic touches, while Pride and Prejudice is thoroughly romantic and comic. There are moments of serious contemplation and ugly class confrontation, but for the most part there’s comedy in the romantic goings-on. Dario Marianelli’s score, highlighted by lush and swirling piano melodies, capture both the mood of sweeping romance and sly comedy. The production values (costume, art direction, photography) juxtaposes the different environments: middle class and upper class, impeccably clean mansions and dusty middle class farmhouses with startling frankness that makes the audience understand how wide the division between classes was. It makes it easier to laugh at how Lizzie keeps missing the obvious about Mr. Darcy and at how Mr. Darcy seems so befuddled and clumsy for all that he shows arrogance and conceit on the surface. We can both laugh at and deeply appreciate Mrs. Bennet’s desperation in obtaining financial security for her daughters in the form of husbands who, if not well-to-do, have solid professions.

The performances are remarkable in that they fit a comedy so very well, although they would seem too light and flimsy were this straight drama. If Keira Knightley initially came across as wrong for the part in a Jane Austen adaptation, she proves that wrong. Her high-spirited, tomboyish persona and droll comic wit (which isn’t obvious unless you really pay attention to her in other movies) bring Lizzie to life as a fully realized, three-dimensional, rich character. Knightley understands the tone director Joe Wright set for his adaptation of Pride & Prejudice, and she meets it in this winning romance.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
2006 Academy Awards: 4 nominations: “Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role” (Keira Knightley), “Best Achievement in Art Direction” (Sarah Greenwood-art director and Katie Spencer-set decorator), “Best Achievement in Costume Design” (Jacqueline Durran), and “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score” (Dario Marianelli)

2006 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: “Carl Foreman Award for the Most Promising Newcomer” (Joe Wright-director); 5 nominations: “Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film” (Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Paul Webster, Joe Wright, and Deborah Moggach), “Best Costume Design” (Jacqueline Durran), “Best Make Up/Hair” (Fae Hammond), “Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role” (Brenda Blethyn), and “Best Screenplay – Adapted” (Deborah Moggach)

2006 Golden Globes: 2 nominations: “Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical” and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical” (Keira Knightley)

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Review: "A History of Violence" is Really Violent (Happy B'day, David Cronenberg)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 160 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux


A History of Violence (2005)
Running time: 98 minutes (1 hour, 38 minutes)
MPAA – R for brutal violence, graphic sexuality, nudity, language, and some drug use
DIRECTOR: David Cronenberg
WRITER: Josh Olson (based upon the graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke)
PRODUCERS: Chris Bender, JC Spink, and David Cronenberg
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Peter Suschitzky
EDITOR: Ronald Sanders
Academy Award nominee

CRIME/DRAMA/MYSTERY with elements of a thriller

Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris, William Hurt, Ashton Holmes, Heidi Hayes, and Peter MacNeill

Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) is a pillar of the community in a rural Indiana town where he owns a small business, Stall’s Diner, and lives a quiet live with his wife, Edie (Maria Bello), and their two children, Jack (Ashton Holmes) and Sarah (Heidi Hayes). But the Stalls’ lives are forever changed after Tom thwarts a violent attempted robbery at the diner and kills the two, armed robbers. Lauded as a hero by his fellow townsfolk and by the media, he captures the attention of a Philadelphia mobster, Carl Fogarty (Ed Harris), and his henchmen who swear Tom is an old associate named Joey Cusack. It seems as if Fogarty wants Tom (or the man he swears is Joey) to tie up some loose ends…

In some ways, David Cronenberg’s new film, A History of Violence, is just like most violent crime dramas or action thrillers – the kind in which a man of few words tries to have a family and a peaceful life in a small town, but one day his violent history comes back to bite him on the ass. A good example of this sub-genre is the film noir (true) classic, Out of the Past with Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas, or even Clint Eastwood’s Oscar-winning Best Picture, Unforgiven. Like those two example of superb cinema, A History of Violence is contemplative. Where many directors would turn a movie crime drama into a hyper-kinetic music video, Cronenberg (who received a “Golden Palm” nomination at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival for this film) is almost painterly.

Bodies that are shot or mortally wounded in some other manner don’t fly off screen, nor do they disappear once used like some throw away special effects. We see humans rather than objects with gun shot wounds and nearly destroyed faces struggling to hold onto life. Cronenberg makes sure we hear the death rattle and the raspy, distressed breathing. Violence, even when justified, isn’t clean and pretty; there are real world consequences, as when Jack Stall badly beats two tormenting bullies at his high school. Cronenberg shows us chunks of flesh and some how that makes everything so visceral and more real, or maybe not so surreal, ethereal, and unreal as film violence normally is.

The performances are a mixed bag. Ed Harris and William Hurt shine with malicious glee in small, kooky roles. Maria Bello is sometimes, annoying and shrill, as Edie Stall, and sometimes she has moments where she is as earthy and authentic as a working woman with a family. Peter MacNeill as Sheriff Sam Carney is believable as the small town lawman who is as steady in the face of big city thugs as he is when dealing with his own people.

Still, this material truly stands out because of Cronenberg. The concept is pedestrian (almost pitiful), but screenwriter Josh Olson punches it up by creating weirdo and oddball characters and giving them quirky lines. Ultimately, Cronenberg is the ringmaster, or master chef, if you will, who makes this tale of a small town hero, who must face the vile and violent horror of his past, something a little different from the rest. A History of Violence is about the consequences of the past, and it’s too smart for pat resolutions; that only makes it special.

7 of 10
B+

Thursday, October 20, 2005

NOTES:
2006 Academy Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role” (William Hurt) and “Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay” (Josh Olson)

2006 BAFTA Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Screenplay – Adapted” (Josh Olson)

2005 Cannes Film Festival: 1 nomination: “Palme d'Or” (David Cronenberg)

2006 Golden Globes: 2 nominations: “Best Motion Picture – Drama” and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Maria Bello)

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Review: Gromit Shines in "The Curse of the Were-Rabbit"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 152 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) – animation
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: UK
Running time: 94 minutes (1 hour, 34 minutes)
MPAA – G
DIRECTOR: Nick Park and Steve Box
WRITERS: Bob Baker, Mark Burton, Nick Park and Steve Box
PRODUCERS: Claire Jennings, Peter Lord, Carla Shelley, David Sproxton, and Nick Park
CINEMATOGRAPHERS: Tristan Oliver and Dave Alex Riddett
EDITORS: David McCormick and Gregory Perler
Academy Award winner

ANIMATION/ACTION/COMEDY/FAMILY/FANTASY

Starring: (voices) Peter Sallis, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, Peter Kay, Nicholas Smith, Liz Smith, John Thomson, Mark Gatiss, and Vincent Ebrahim

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is a 2005 Oscar-winning, stop-motion animated film. This comic horror, British film focuses on the eccentric inventor, Wallace, and his silent dog, Gromit (the brains of this duo).

Director Nick Park and his stop-motion, “Claymation”-like characters Wallace & Gromit, return in a new film, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. The cheese-loving Wallace (voice of Peter Sallis), an affable, absent-minded inventor, and his faithful dog, Gromit, who doesn’t say a word, but is smarter and wiser than his human master/friend, have their first full-length film in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit; they previously were the stars of three animated short films, all Academy Award-nominated, with two winning Oscars.

In this new feature, Wallace & Gromit’s hometown is in the midst of a vegetable growing fever because the Tottington Hall Giant Vegetable Competition. The enterprising chums have been cashing in on this “veggie-mania” with their pest control outfit, “Anti-Pesto,” which captures and humanely dispatches the hundreds of rabbits that have invaded the town’s sacred vegetable gardens, trying to eat all those overly pampered giant veggies the town folks are growing for the Giant Vegetable Competition.

Suddenly, a huge, mysterious vegetable-ravaging beast begins terrorizing the town attacking all those prized garden plots by night, eating or destroying everything in its path. Panic sets in because this monster, dubbed the were-rabbit, endangers the Giant Vegetable Competition. Determined to protect the competition Tottington Hall has held almost annually for over 500 years, its hostess, Lady Tottington (voice of Helena Bonham Carter), hires Anti-Pesto to catch the creature, but in a humane fashion that doesn’t lead to the vegetable-chomping marauder’s demise. Also, lying in wait, is Lady Tottington’s snobby suitor, Victor Quatermaine (voice of Ralph Fiennes), who’d rather shoot the were-rabbit, which would not only make him a local hero, but might also secure him Lady Tottington’s hand in marriage. With Wallace & Gromit having so much trouble securing the beast, Lady Tottington must eventually give in to Victor’s desire to hunt the were-rabbit. What she doesn’t know (but Victor does) is that the hunt could have dire consequences for Wallace, who is smitten with Lady Tottington. Can Gromit save the day again?

Co-directed by Nick Park and Steve Box, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is easily one the few truly great films I’ve seen this year. Five years in the making, and the film shows that Park and his crew are geniuses of stop-motion animation (also known as Claymation®). There is just so much ingenuity in the film, from Wallace’s crazy inventions and assorted contraptions – such as the brain altering machine that is supposed to make rabbits shun veggies to the suction device and tanks that holds captured rabbits.

Park and company create amazing edge-of-the-seat action scenes as thrilling as those in live action movies. The Curse of the Were-Rabbit also has safe adult humor – a combination of soap opera romance and mystery and intrigue mixed with the offbeat Wallace & Gromit’s disarming humor. The film is a touch dry in several places, in which scenes play out slowly or seem padded. Also, I didn’t like Lady Tottington and Victor Quatermaine because they were both facially unattractive and too caricatured, especially Victor, more unlikable than he needs to be even as a villain.

The story, ultimately, is about a man and his dog – Wallace the happy chum and Gromit the good-natured patient companion who always takes care of his cheese-loving master. Gromit, who doesn’t have a mouth, has physicality on par with silver screen legends of the silent era such as Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, and Gromit’s face can be as expressive as a pantomime character. Gromit, made by hand and animated by a painstaking stop-motion process, has soul in a way that characters created in the other 3-D animated process, computer animation, likely won’t ever have. Wallace & Gromit, two of the most delightful characters in the history of animation, are more engaging than the characters that populate such films as Shrek and Monster’s Inc., as fun as they are.

Expertly crafted, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit will impress even viewers not interested in “how they do it.” Fun to watch, it’s one of the year’s premiere comedies and best films.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
2006 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Best Animated Feature Film of the Year” (Steve Box and Nick Park

2006 BAFTA Awards: 2 wins: “Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film” (Claire Jennings, David Sproxton, Nick Park, Steve Box, Mark Burton, Bob Baker) and “BAFTA Children's Award Best Feature Film” (Nick Park, Steve Box, Peter Lord, David Sproxton)

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