Review: First "Kung Fu Panda" Kicked Butt

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 43 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

Kung Fu Panda (2008)
Running time: 88 minutes (1 hour, 28 minutes)
MPAA – PG for sequences of martial arts action
DIRECTORS: John Stevenson and Mark Osborne
WRITERS: Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger; from a story by Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris
PRODUCER: Melissa Cobb
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Yong Duk Jhun
EDITOR: Clare De Chenu
PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Raymond Zibach
COMPOSERS: Hans Zimmer and John Powell
Academy Award nominee

ANIMATION/MARTIAL ARTS/FANTASY/FAMILY

Starring: (voices) Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Ian McShane, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, Randall Duk Kim, James Hong, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Dan Fogler

Kung Fu Panda is a 2008 computer-animated, martial arts, action comedy movie from DreamWorks Animation. It is the story of a lazy, genial giant panda who dreams of greatness and suddenly finds it thrust upon him.

Kung Fu Panda is set in ancient China, specifically the Valley of Peace (a fictional place), which is inhabited by talking animals. That is where you will find Po (Jack Black), a giant panda who is also a kung fu fanatic. He lives with his father, Mr. Ping (James Hong), a goose and a noodle maker. Mr. Ping, who does not care for kung fu, owns the most popular noodle restaurant in the Valley and wants to one day pass the shop down to his son, Po, who would rather become a kung fu master.

Po gets more than he expects when a kung fu master, the elderly tortoise, Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim), suddenly and unexpectedly chooses him to fulfill an ancient prophecy. Po is the prophesied Dragon Warrior! However, the man chosen by Oogway to train Po, the diminutive red panda, Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), is unwilling to believe that Po could be the Dragon Warrior. Even Shifu’s students, the legendary Furious Five: Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Crane (David Cross), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu), and Monkey (Jackie Chan), don’t believe in Po.

Po will have to believe in himself and make his dreams of becoming a kung fu master into reality. Shifu’s former student, the vengeful and treacherous snow leopard, Tai Lung (Ian McShane), is headed to the Valley of Peace, and it will be up to Po to defend everyone from him.

I consider Kung Fu Panda to be the best film from DreamWorks Animation, to date. Virtually everything about this film is done to perfection. Every voice actor is just right for his or her role, but I must single out my favorite, the wonderful James Hong as Po’s lovable father, Mr. Ping. You can imagine that he does a really good job to get singled out, considering Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, and Ian McShane are superb in their respective rolls. Everyone brings his or her character to life in a way that matches topnotch performances in live action pictures.

The films by Pixar Animation Studios are so good that it is easy to forget that DreamWorks has become the co-gold standard in computer animated films. While Pixar excels in scriptwriting and storytelling of their films, DreamWorks has come to surpass them in software and tech. Computer-animated films generally do not have the character animation and movement on display in DreamWorks films, particularly those released during the last three years or so.

Kung Fu Panda moves like a Looney Tunes cartoon short – with the chaos of a Road Runner cartoon and the madcap comedy of a Chuck Jones Bugs Bunny short, but it does everything faster; the movement is so much more complex. The most important thing, however, is that Kung Fu Panda is just a great story about a lovable wannabe hero; he must put aside his slacker ways and psychological issues to be the hero he always wanted to be. Po the hero succeeds and along the way, his story, Kung Fu Panda, also reaches the summit.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
2009 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Animated Feature Film of the Year” (John Stevenson and Mark Osborne

2009 Golden Globes: 1 nomination: “Best Animated Feature Film”

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

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Review: "Seven Pounds" is Too Damn Dark (Happy B'day, Rosario Dawson)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 1 (of 2009) by Leroy Douresseaux

Seven Pounds (2008)
Running time: 123 minutes (2 hours, 3 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for thematic material, some disturbing content, and a scene of sensuality
DIRECTOR: Gabriele Muccino
WRITER: Grant Nieporte
PRODUCERS: Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, James Lassiter, Will Smith, and Steve Tisch
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Philippe Le Sourd (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Hughes Winborne
NAACP Image Award winner

DRAMA/MYSTERY

Starring: Will Smith, Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson, Michael Ealy, Barry Pepper, Elpidia Carrillo, and Joe Nunez

I don’t know how many readers of this review will remember Beloved. This 1998 film was Oprah Winfrey’s big screen adaptation of Alice Walker’s 1987 novel of the same name (which won the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction). Beloved, directed by Oscar-winner Jonathan Demme, was a technically well-made film, but was almost unwatchable because it was so depressing, heartrending, and morbid. The plot, characters, and setting were so gloomy that when I saw it, it seemed as if a pall had been cast over the theatre. There is a point when a movie is so sad that it can’t be entertaining.

Seven Pounds is a reunion of actor Will Smith and director Gabriele Muccino, who together made 2006’s The Pursuit of Happyness. Happyness was well made with good performances, and while the film featured Will Smith’s character undergoing so many hardships, he was ultimately triumphant, and the film was hugely entertaining. Seven Pounds is well, with good performances, but is so damn dark that watching it is really like having to sit and experience something irritating and painful for two hours.

The film focuses on Ben Thomas (Will Smith), a mysterious IRS agent with a somewhat arrogant air who loves to surprise clients with unexpected visits. He also goes out of his way to help people in need. Why would an IRS agent do that, and why is it so obvious that he’s hiding something? After he meets, Emily Posa (Rosario Dawson), an ailing young woman with a fatal heart condition, Ben begins to fall in love with Emily, and that causes him to struggle with completing his shadowy mission of redemption.

It’s safe to assume that Seven Pounds, a weighty, dramatic, star vehicle, is Will Smith’s attempt to make another run at getting Oscar recognition. As such, Smith probably would have better served his ambitions if Seven Pounds was less dour, sour, and gloomy and was instead more upbeat. Movie reviews and Sony Pictures, the studio behind Seven Pounds, have gone to great lengths not to give away too much about Seven Pounds’ plot, but honestly, most viewers will figure out Ben Thomas’ scheme and why he’s scheming 10 minutes (20 tops) into the film. So, I’m not giving anything away by saying that if Thomas’ efforts at redemption are so noble, then, he should be at least a little more lighthearted about the goal he has freely set for himself.

In a way Seven Pounds is too obtuse and too European. I say that because Seven Pounds’ director Gabriele Muccino comes out of a tradition of European cinema in which film narratives gladly go into the dark places of the human condition. There are characters in some European films that have excellent intentions, but their methods for doing something noble for other characters are jaw-dropping and even scandalous (see the wonderful, heartrending Danish film, After the Wedding, which is similar in passing to Seven Pounds).

Regarding Ben Thomas’ absolutely shocking plan, much of the audience for American films will be put off by someone like him, who so fits the saying “wears his emotions on his sleeves.” One can certainly question Thomas’ real agenda and intentions. Does he seek redemption, or is he just a guilty coward, or is he just a self-appointed martyr? In such a character, we would prefer a grim but determined, grieving but genial fella with a smile that can brighten our days even while we can see the sadness in his eyes – the kind of character played by Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, or Tom Hanks.

Instead, we get a Will Smith, practically wearing rags and his face covered with ash. Smith, an underrated actor who gives a good performance here, shows an impressive range of emotions in Seven Pounds – most of them of the sadder, negative variety. Seven Pounds is a good movie, but in the end, its darkness makes it too heavy to be entertaining or a great film.

6 of 10
B

Thursday, January 15, 2009

NOTES:
2009 Black Reel Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Director” (Gabriele Muccino) and “Best Film”

2009 Image Awards: 2 wins: “Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture” (Will Smith) and “Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture” (Rosario Dawson); 1 nomination: “Outstanding Motion Picture”

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Review: "The Visitor" Brings a Love of People

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 34 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Visitor (2008)
Running time: 104 minutes (1 hour, 44 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for brief strong language
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Thomas McCarthy
PRODUCERS: Michael London and Mary Jane Skalski
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Oliver Bokelberg (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Tom McArdle
COMPOSER: Jan A.P. Kaczmarek
Academy Award nominee

DRAMA

Starring: Richard Jenkins, Haaz Sleiman, Danai Gurira, and Hiam Abbass

The Visitor is a 2008 drama written and directed by Thomas McCarthy. The film focuses on a lonely college professor whose life changes when he becomes wrapped up in the lives of a trio of undocumented immigrants. This forces him to deal with issues of immigration in post 9/11 New York City.

Widower Walter Vale (Richard Jenkins) is an economics professor living and working in Connecticut. He not only lives a solitary existence, but he is also somewhat estranged from this colleagues. Walter reluctantly travels to New York City to deliver a paper at a conference, but when he arrives at an apartment he maintains in Manhattan, he is surprised to find a young unmarried couple squatting there. They are Tarek Khalil (Haaz Sleiman), a Palestinian-Syrian who plays the djembe (a type of drum), and his girlfriend, Zainab (Danai Gurira), a designer of ethnic jewelry from Senegal.

Walter learns that Tarek and Zainab are illegal immigrants, but he lets them stay in his apartment while they look for another place to live. He develops a friendship with them, but that friendship is tested when Tarek is arrested and sent to a detention center in Queens for illegal immigrants. Tarek’s mother, Mouna (Hiam Abbass), comes to NYC, and Walter also bonds with her as they try to keep Tarek from being deported back to Syria.

Much of The Visitor is sad and melancholy, and Walter Vale’s loneliness and grief permeate this film. This is, however, not a bad thing because as Walter bounds with his new immigrant friends, we slowly, but gradually see glimpses of the happiness he once had. And it’s a pretty thing. Movies about people connecting and coming together can be beautiful, and this humanist tale finds joy and light even in disappointment and heartbreak.

Good performances abound, but, of course, Richard Jenkins, who earned an Oscar nod for his turn as Walter, is the standout. Jenkins augments the wonderful everyman quality he brings to his work with subtle expressions which turn Walter into a conundrum that viewers will want to unravel and The Visitor a movie they will want to see.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
2009 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” (Richard Jenkins)

2009 Image Awards: 1 nomination: “Outstanding Independent Motion Picture”

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

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Review: "Burn After Reading" is the Best Moron Movie

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 10 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

Burn After Reading (2008)
Running time: 96 minutes (1 hour, 36 minutes)
MPAA – R for pervasive language, some sexual content and violence
WRITERS/DIRECTORS: The Coen Brothers
PRODUCERS: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Emmanuel Lubezki
EDITORS: Roderick Jaynes (Ethan Coen and Joel Coen)
COMPOSER: Carter Burwell
Golden Globe nominee

COMEDY

Starring: George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, Richard Jenkins, J.K. Simmons, Olek Krupa, Michael Countryman, Kevin Sussman, Elizabeth Marvel, and David Rasche

I certainly like Coen Brothers movies like No Country for Old Men and True Grit. These are classically formal, traditional Hollywood tales of murderous men and frontier justice done in the Bros.’ idiosyncratic style. These are the kinds of movie that will appeal to broad audiences and attract Oscar attention.

However, I prefer to watch the Bros.’ films that reflect their assumed quirky sensibilities: movies like The Big Lebowski, Intolerable Cruelty, and the 2008 flick, Burn After Reading. “Quirky” may not necessarily be the appropriate word. Coen Bros.’ films like Burn After Reading and the Academy Award-winning Fargo seem strange because, from top to bottom, the characters in these movies are unusually fascinating, especially compared to the characters that appear in most American movies.

Burn After Reading takes place in Washington D.C. It begins with Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich), a CIA analyst who quits his job in a huff and decides to write his memoirs. A compact disc copy of the memoirs ends up in the hands of two moronic employees of Hardbodies gym. After perusing the contents of the disc, Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt) and Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) decide that Cox should pay them money to get it back. Meanwhile, Osbourne’s wife, pediatrician Katie Cox (Tilda Swinton), is having an affair with Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney), a womanizing U.S. Marshal and agent of the U.S. Treasury. When Osbourne refuses to pay them, Chad and Linda try to sell the disc to the Russian embassy, but that only makes things worse.

Joel and Ethan Coen are supernaturally good at creating characters that seem eccentric, odd, and even peculiar. When you look at them closely, however, you may discover how maddeningly, poignantly, and hilariously human they seem to be. Their motivations are petty and absurd, but oh-so familiar. Their lives are exciting, strange, and sometimes boring, and the characters are as dull as they are fascinating. The Coens fill Burn After Reading with such characters. This tale of Washington D.C. insiders and outsiders playing a poorly executed game of espionage is an unforgettable farce because of them.

As usual, the Coens get excellent performances from the cast, acting that brings such atypical screen characters to life. Once again, George Clooney is dead-on as (for the third time) a Coen Bros. fool. Frances McDormand’s sparkling dramatic turn is pitch-perfect for this farce, and she has marvelous screen chemistry with Brad Pitt, who once again proves that he is exceptionally good in supporting roles and character parts.

Burn After Reading creates a confederacy of dunces for our entertainment. This savage comedy about vain idiots who always think they have the goods on everyone else may one day be an American classic. Today, it is a slice of America that captures the entire American pie.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
2009 BAFTA Awards: 3 nominations: “Best Screenplay – Original” (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen), “Best Supporting Actor” (Brad Pitt), and “Best Supporting Actress” (Tilda Swinton)

2009 Golden Globes: 2 nominations: “Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical” and “Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical” (Frances McDormand)

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

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Review: "Prince Caspian" is a Royal Adventure

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 101 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008)
Running time: 150 minutes (2 hours, 30 minutes)
MPAA – PG for epic battle action and violence
DIRECTOR: Andrew Adamson
WRITERS: Andrew Adamson, Christopher Markus, and Stephen McFeely (based upon the book by C.S. Lewis)
PRODUCERS: Andrew Adamson, Mark Johnson, and Philip Steuer
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Karl Walter Lindenlaub (D.o.P.)
EDITORS: Josh Campbell and Sim Evan-Jones
COMPOSER: Harry Gregson-Williams

FANTASY/ADVENTURE/ACTION/FAMILY/WAR

Starring: Ben Barnes, Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Sergio Castellitto, Peter Dinklage, Warwick Davis, Vincent Grass, Cornell S. John, Pierfrancesco Favino, Damian Alcazar, Tilda Swinton, and the voices of Liam Neeson, Ken Stott, and Eddie Izzard

Following The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media’s cinematic adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ book series, The Chronicles of Narnia, continues with the second film, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. While the first film was filled with displays of magic and a sense of wonder, Prince Caspian is darker in tone and is like a coming-of-age film, one that finds the characters grappling with maturity.

A year after their adventures in the world of Narnia, the Pevensie children: eldest child Peter (William Moseley), practical Susan (Anna Popplewell), second youngest child Edmund (Skandar Keynes), and youngest child Lucy (Georgie Henley), are back in London and struggling to adjust to their own mundane world. Meanwhile, in Narnia, 1,300 years have passed since the Pevensies left. In that time, the Telmarines, an ethnic group of humans, invaded the country of Narnia (the name of the world and of a country) and chased the mythological creatures of Narnia into hiding.

Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes), heir to the Telmarine throne, survives an assassination attempt by his evil uncle, King Miraz (Sergio Castellitto). Caspian convinces the Narnians to help him win his throne so that he can return their land. Meanwhile, the Pevensie children are traveling to boarding school when they are again transported to Narnia. They find Cair Paravel, the castle from where they once ruled the country of Narnia, in ruins. After meeting Caspian, they form a shaky alliance with the prince and the Narnians to defeat Miraz. They will need the help of the lion Aslan (voice of Liam Neeson), but he is nowhere to be found.

I enjoyed The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian much more than I did The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Prince Caspian is full of intrigue and fighting, bickering, and large battle scenes, whereas the first film was sometimes slow with a mechanical pace. The first half-hour to 45 minutes of the first film were largely dull, but Prince Caspian gets off to a roaring start. Prince Caspian is a medievalist-fantasy film like the Lord of the Rings movies, but not as intense. It is an adventure film with the characters running from one end of the countryside to the other, playing war. Prince Caspian is more spectacular than the original film, but like the first film it gets it messages and themes through, albeit in a more subtle fashion.

This is an especially well-directed film, and director Andrew Adamson deftly inserts the messages and themes (restoration and renewal) he and his co-screenwriters spread so evenly throughout the narrative. The story is not so black and white about what is right and wrong; this is not about good-evil and consequences of one’s actions and choices, etc. The story is more complex or more complicated than that. As Aslan says, things do not happen when people wish them, nor do things turn out exactly as people wish them. It is less about what might have happened and more about what we can make happen.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian sneaks its medicine – these lessons of faith, hope, perseverance, respect, and tolerance – in the sugar of breathtaking adventure. That is good enough to make this visit to Narnia an unforgettable one.

8 of 10
A

Friday, December 10, 2010

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Review: "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" is Strange, But Fun Star Wars

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 34 (of 2008) by Leroy Douresseaux

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)
Running time: 98 minutes (1 hour, 38 minutes)
MPAA – PG for sci-fi action violence throughout, brief language, and momentary smoking
DIRECTOR: Dave Filoni
WRITERS: Henry Gilroy, Steven Melching, and Scott Murphy; from a story by George Lucas (based on the characters and universe created by George Lucas)
PRODUCERS: Catherine Winder
EDITOR: Jason Tucker
Razzie Award nominee

ANIMATION/SCI-FI/FANTASY/ACTION/ADVENTURE

Starring: (voices) Matt Lanter, Ashley Eckstein, James Arnold Taylor, Dee Bradley Baker, Tom Kane, Nika Futterman, Ian Abercrombie, Corey Burton, Matthew Wood, Catherine Taber, Kevin Michael Richardson, David Acord, Samuel L. Jackson, Anthony Daniels, and Christopher Lee

Star Wars: The Clone Wars is the seventh Star Wars theatrical feature film and the first animated Star Wars movie. This film takes place between the live action Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002) and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005). According to advertisements for Star Wars: The Clone Wars, it recounts an untold tale of the Clone Wars – the central conflict that begins in Episode II and ends in Episode III. In spite of its ties to two recent Star Wars film, Star Wars: The Clone Wars isn’t getting the love the other Star Wars films have, when one considers early reviews and fan response. While this new film is by no means without its flaws, its light-hearted approach and lack of pompous seriousness make Star Wars: The Clone Wars the most fun Star Wars flick since the original trilogy.

As the film opens, the Clone Wars sweep through the galaxy, and the Jedi Knights are struggling to maintain order and restore peace, as more and more systems side with the Separatists. Darth Sidious (Ian Abercrombie) and his Sith partner, Count Dooku (Christopher Lee), continue to ferment dissension in the Republic; they are the puppet masters behind the Separatist movement and its Droid army.

Count Dooku and his assassin, Asajj Ventress (Nika Futterman), have orchestrated the kidnapping of the infant son of crime lord Jabba the Hutt (Kevin Michael Richardson). Desperate to have access to the shipping lanes on the galaxy’s Outer Rim, which Jabba controls, the Jedi Council pledges to rescue Jabba’s kid, Rotta the Huttlet (David Acord). This mission with its far-reaching consequences is passed off to Jedi Knights, Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor) and Anakin Skywalker (Matt Lanter), who are on the frontlines of the Clone Wars.

These two Jedi already have their hands full battling a seemingly endless droid army, with only a small, valiant contingent of clone troops, led by Captain Rex (Dee Bradley Baker), on their side. It’s more than enough that Obi-Wan and Anakin find themselves both fighting the droid army and launching a rescue mission, so when Anakin learns that Master Yoda (Tom Kane) has assigned him a padawan learner, a young female named Ahsoka Tona (Ashley Eckstein), he’s not happy. Meanwhile, Dooku and his agents will stop at nothing to foil the Jedi and their desperate, multi-faceted mission.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars is a computer-animated (or 3D animated) film, and its animation certainly looks wanting when compared to the work of such 3D animation studios as Pixar (Toy Story), DreamWorks Animation (Shrek), and Blue Sky (Ice Age). Early in the movie, The Clone Wars’ animation looks stiff, chunky, and even clunky, but as soon as my mind adjusted to the unusual look of this style of 3D animation, it actually began to look charmingly distinctive.

The look of the animation aside, what makes Star Wars: The Clone Wars such a winning film is, honestly, the action. The screenplay fashions a fast-paced narrative that constantly moves the viewer from one end of the galaxy to the next, with the capitol at Coruscant being the anchor (and there’s big action going on there, too). We’re treated to lively battle scenes and heady duels, and while the film lacks strong characterization and personality development of its characters, the film keeps them too busy fighting for their lives and their cause for us to really care.

This is also the first film that really allows Anakin Skywalker to stretch his wings and actually show (rather than tell) us how good a pilot and what a capable Jedi he is (which Obi-Wan Kenobi told Luke Skywalker way back in the original Star Wars). In a lot of ways and unlike any of the prequel trilogies, this is Anakin’s film. The character, after seeming mostly wooden in the prequel trilogy, is charismatic, bold, and brazen in Star Wars: The Clone Wars – a pointed contrast to the mannequin-like performances of the two human actors who played Anakin in the prequel films.

Back in 1999, Ewan McGregor, who portrayed Obi-Wan, described Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace as being like a fairy tale about a group of heroes flying from one end of the galaxy to another and having adventures. That’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars; it’s a little sci-fi fairy tale adventure – a Saturday morning cartoon version of Star Wars. This is indeed an imperfect flick, but it happily takes the dark out of Star Wars and replaces it with fun.

7 of 10
B+

Sunday, August 17, 2008

NOTES:
2009 Razzie Awards: 1 nomination: “Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel”

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Review: "Sex and the City: The Movie" is Groovy

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 86 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

Sex and the City (2008)
Running time: 145 minutes (2 hours, 25 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong sexual content, graphic nudity and language
DIRECTOR: Michael Patrick King
WRITER: Michael Patrick King (based upon the book by Candace Bushnell and the television series created by Darren Star)
PRODUCERS: Michael Patrick King, John Melfi, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Darren Star
CINEMATOGRAPHER: John Thomas (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Michael Berenbaum

COMEDY/DRAMA/ROMANCE

Starring: Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, Chris Noth, Jennifer Hudson, David Eigenberg, Evan Handler, Jason Lewis, Mario Cantone, Candice Bergen, Lynn Cohen, Gilles Marini, Joseph Pupo, and Alexandra Fong and Parker Fong

Sex and the City was an American comedy television series that was originally broadcast on HBO over six seasons from 1998 to 2004. Created by Darren Star, the series was based in part on Candice Bushnell’s book of the same title.

Sex and the City the series focused on 30-something Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), a columnist for the fictional New York Star and book author, and her three best friends: 30-somethings Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) and 40-something Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall). The girls often discussed their desires, sexual fantasies, love, and life. In 2008, the TV series made it to the big screen as Sex and the City: The Movie.

The movie’s story opens four years after the television series ended. Carrie and the on-again/off-again love of her life, John Preston A.K.A. Mr. Big (Chris Noth) are about to get married, but what began as a modest wedding has nearly quadrupled in sized. As her 50th birthday approaches, Samantha is living in Los Angeles with her boy toy actor boyfriend, Smith Jerrod (Jason Lewis). Samantha is also Smith’s manager, and she is starting to feel like a housewife, which she does not like.

Miranda and her husband, Steve Brady (David Eigenberg), have stopped having sex, and their marriage is in trouble, bigger trouble than she thinks. Charlotte and her husband, Harry Goldenblatt (Evan Handler), are also in for a big surprise regarding their marriage. 20 years after they first met in New York City, the girls are still supporting one another, and they need each other now more than ever.

I’ve only seen a few episodes of the Sex in the City series, and that was only in syndication when the episodes were edited for content. To date, I have liked what I’ve seen, although the series obviously isn’t aimed at me or my demographic group. The characters are what appeal to me. Each has personality traits which both attract and repel, but those characteristics are more substantive than quirky. Perhaps, I like them because I expected them to be vacuous, but instead found them engaging.

Carrie Bradshaw and friends are not shallow. While they are professional women living lives of affluence and abundance, those lives are not without conflict, drama, and dilemmas. The glamour is not without some gloom, and writer/director Michael Patrick King (a driving force behind the television series) freely goes to some dark places in the lives of the women.

Sex in the City is partly about love and all its complications – even the gritty complications that cause you hurt and make you want to punish the love of your life. Sex and the City, however, is really all about the girls. If you loved them in the series, you’ll love going through hell, healing wounds, and enjoying friends and family with them in this film. Sex and the City: The Movie is both effervescent and tart the way romantic comedy should be, and this movie is one of the best modern romantic comedies.

7 of 10
A-

Monday, October 25, 2010

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Review: First "Iron Man" Film Was Good - Surprisingly Good

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 26 (of 2008) by Leroy Douresseaux

Iron Man (2008)
Running time: 126 minutes (2 hours, 6 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence and brief suggestive content
DIRECTOR: Jon Favreau
WRITERS: Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby and Art Marcum & Matt Holloway (based upon characters created by Stan Lee, Don Heck, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby)
PRODUCERS: Avi Arad and Kevin Feige
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Matthew Libatique, ASC (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Dan Lebental, A.C.E.
Academy Award nominee

SUPERHERO/FANTASY/SCI-FI/ACTION

Starring: Robert Downey, Jr., Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, Leslie Bigg, Faran Tahir, Clark Gregg, Sayed Badreya, and Shaun Toub

After years of watching other movie studios make hundreds of millions bringing its comic book characters to the big screen (Spider-Man, X-Men), Marvel Studios makes its first foray into financing and making its own superhero movie. It’s called Iron Man, and this first Marvel Studios movie is as bold and as brash as Marvel’s attempt to bring the classic armored superhero to the silver screen on its own dime.

Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) is a billionaire industrialist and genius inventor, and his Stark Industries is the U.S. government’s top weapons contractor. He has celebrity status as the protector of American interests around the globe and lives a carefree lifestyle. While in Afghanistan, his military convoy/escort is attacked, Stark is gravely injured by life-threatening shrapnel embedded near his already weakened heart. Kidnapped and held hostage by a group of insurgents, Stark is forced to build a devastating weapon for Raza (Faran Tahir), the mysterious leader of the insurgents. Instead, Tony uses his intelligence and ingenuity to build a high-tech suit of armor and escapes captivity.

Returning to America, Stark is determined to come to terms with his past and vows to take Stark Industries in a new direction, but meets resistance from Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), his right-hand man and top executive, who took the reigns of the company while Stark was gone. Spending his days and nights in his workshop, Tony develops and refines the suit of armor that gives him superhuman strength and physical protection. When he uncovers a nefarious plot with global implications, Stark once again dons his new, more powerful armor, and with the help of his longtime assistant, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), and his trusted military liaison, Jim “Rhodey” Rhodes (Terrence Howard), Tony Stark fights evil as his new alter ego “Iron Man.”

There are several reasons why this Iron Man film turns out to be such a joyous and entertaining film. The main reason is Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man. Much has been made that Downey has used his experience as an addict to play Stark (a heavy-drinking playboy), who, in some of the Marvel comic books, was portrayed as an alcoholic. The truth is that Downey is simply a superb actor whose talent has been overshadowed by his public battle with his demons. Here, Downey offers a complicated view of both the man and superhero just as Tobey Maguire has done as Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Christian Bale as Batman (in Batman Begins).

Downey presents Tony Stark as a hard worker and hard player. He’s dedicated to creating the best weapons for the United States, but he focuses on his down time with equal zeal; he’s all work and all play. This is how Downey presents Stark as a man who is so self-centered and so focused only on what he wants to do that he essentially ignores everything and everyone else around him. Stark takes his friends for granted, and although he works hard to create the best inventions for his company, he actually ignores how Stane is running it. By presenting such a fully developed character, Downey uses that performance to drive both the narrative and its central conceit – in order to better the world, Tony Stark, with the help of Iron Man has to better himself.

Iron Man’s visual effects are another element that sells the film. The CGI and other special effects look slick, as would befit a futuristic hero who wears shiny, beyond state-of-the-art technology. Still, there is an earthy quality to it that becomes this tale of a knight in shining armor that saves both the world and the man inside the armor.

The third and fourth elements about Iron Man that really stand out are actor Jeff Bridges and director Jon Favreau (who also has a small acting role here). Bridges is a consummate actor, and I would be hard-pressed to find an instance in which he gave a poor performance. Stane, for the most part, is a small role, but Bridges so easily creates the duplicity, menace, and outright evil of Stane that the character’s dark presence and ominous machinations straddle the narrative just the way a villain and his wrongness should do in a superhero movie.

Finally, Jon Favreau already has a blockbuster to his directing resume, the heart-warming and wonderfully endearing Christmas flick, Elf. It was, however, his thoroughly underrated children’s sci-fi flick, Zathura (2005) that gave him the chance to show how much he understood handling a complicated technical production. In Elf and Zathura, Favreau also showed his knack for constantly offering surprises in his film narratives. It doesn’t matter if it is a quiet moment, a moment of intense drama, or a sequence of slam-bang action and SFX; Favreau always offers something visually appealing – the presentation of an event or a bit of dialogue that keeps the film fresh and moving. The viewer’s interest is usually stimulated and kept focused on the film. With Iron Man, Favreau wisely takes Downey’s witty and droll turn and makes a film that from beginning to end is absolutely fun to watch – with no time for a dull moment.

7 of 10
A-

Monday, May 19, 2008

NOTES:
2009 Academy Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Achievement in Sound Editing” (Frank E. Eulner and Christopher Boyes) and “Best Achievement in Visual Effects” (John Nelson, Ben Snow, Daniel Sudick, and Shane Mahan)

2009 BAFTA Awards: 1 nominations: “Best Special Visual Effects” (Hal T. Hickel, Shane Mahan, John Nelson, and Ben Snow)

2008 Black Reel Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Supporting Actor” (Terrence Howard)

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Review: "Wanted" is Trash Cinema, Thank God!

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 30 (of 2008) by Leroy Douresseaux

Wanted (2008)
Running time: 108 minutes (1 hour, 48 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong bloody violence throughout, pervasive language, and some sexuality
DIRECTOR: Timur Bekmambetov
WRITERS: Michael Brandt & Derek Haas and Chris Morgan; from a story by Michael Brandt and Derek Haas (based upon the comic book series, Wanted, by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones)
PRODUCERS: Jim Lemley, Jason Netter, Marc E. Platt, and Iain Smith
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Mitchell Amundsen
EDITOR: David Brenner and Dallas Puett
COMPOSER: Danny Elfman
Academy Awards nominee

ACTION/FANTASY/THRILLER

Starring: James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie, Terence Stamp, Thomas Kretschmann, Common, Kristen Hager, Marc Warren, and Chris Pratt

Once upon a time, the summer movie season meant trashy R-rated movies – big budget affairs full of foul-mouthed villains and heroes. Special effects weren’t used to create dinosaurs, talking dragons, or fairy tale lands populated by fairy creatures. Special effects were used to create loud car chases and blood spurting from gunshot wounds. Everything from Lethal Weapon and Die Hard to The Long Kiss Goodnight and Bad Boys II offered hard-R violence.

This sadistic nonsense is just what director Timur Bekmambetov offers in his new movie, Wanted. Anyone who has seen the Russian-Kazakh Bekmambetov’s films, Night Watch and Day Watch, which are hugely popular in Russia, knows that the director loves slow motion camera work and special effects that play with film speed. Just seeing the commercials for any of his films, including Wanted, will give the viewer a good idea of the kind of bracing, heart-stopping thrills Bekmambetov’s flicks offer. He makes junk action movies, but does it with the skill of an artist. Wanted is everything that is politically incorrect about a summer movie: implausible gun fights, explosions, automobile-crunching car chases, bullet-riddled bodies and exploding craniums, with a side of bare ass.

In Wanted, 25-year-old Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) is a disaffected, cube-dwelling drone account, and he’s probably the world’s biggest nobody. His girlfriend cheats on him with his best friend. Wes wiles away the days, dying in his slow, clock-punching rut until he met a gun-toting, action-oriented woman named Fox (Angelina Jolie). Fox recruits Wes into The Fraternity, a centuries-old, secret society of assassins led by the enigmatic Sloan (Morgan Freeman).

The Fraternity shows Wes how to awaken his dormant powers, which grant him heightened senses and super human abilities. As Fox teaches him how to develop lightning-quick reflexes and phenomenal agility, Wes learns that members of The Fraternity live by an ancient, unbreakable code: carry out the death orders given by fate itself – assassinating people who are destined to bring death and chaos to large numbers of human. Wesley learns that his father, who abandoned Wes when he was 7 days old, was a member of The Fraternity. Now, Wes has a chance to kill Cross (Thomas Kretschmann), the man who murdered his father and who betrayed The Fraternity. But who is Cross, and what secrets does he hold for Wesley and The Fraternity?

Wanted is based upon the superhero comic book series, Wanted by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones, although the film version drops much of the comic book, especially the superhero elements. Wanted the movie retains the imaginative, weird fantasy spirit of superhero comics, but makes it trashy and vulgar like the films and fake commercials in Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse. It’s not being unfair to call Wanted trashy and bad because it is. Even in the context of a world where super-powered assassins exist, Wanted is inconsistent in its own mythology and lacks internal logic.

The acting is plain bad, and neither Morgan Freeman nor Angelina Jolie attempt to make any pretense that they’re interested in this movie. Except for a few inspired moments, both of these Oscar-winning actors seem to be phoning in their performances, and the rest of the cast play characters that are poorly developed or have too small a part to make any difference (like Common’s Gunsmith character). I still fail to see why there is such buzz about James McAvoy (Atonement, The Last King of Scotland) being the next big thing. He’s actually horrible miscast in this film – he can play hapless, but can’t pull off the badass type that’s required for most of this film. Still, McAvoy is a good enough actor, and at least he works hard enough to out perform everyone else in Wanted.

Ultimately, what makes Wanted so much fun to watch is the work of director Timur Bekmambetov. His ingenuity in inventing new and myriad ways to attack and defend and ambush and annihilate is simply awesome. Some may find the relentless violence exhausting or be sickened by the glamorization of murder as a fun, sexy pastime. But Wanted is badass and filled with original visual thrills; the elaborate passenger train sequence alone is worth the price of a ticket. I expect summer movies – the good, the bad, and the trash – to thrill me, and Wanted did, plain and simple.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
2009 Academy Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Achievement in Sound” (Chris Jenkins, Frank A. Montaño, and Petr Forejt) and “Best Achievement in Sound Editing” (Wylie Stateman)

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Review: "Meet the Browns" Movie Needs More Browns

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 54 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux


Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns (2008)
Running time: 100 minutes (1 hour, 40 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for drug content, language including sexual references, thematic elements, and brief violence
DIRECTOR: Tyler Perry
WRITER: Tyler Perry (based upon his play)
PRODUCERS: Tyler Perry and Reuben Cannon
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Sandi Sissel
EDITOR: Maysie Hoy

DRAMA/COMEDY

Starring: Angela Bassett, David Mann, Tamela J. Mann, Lance Gross, Chloe Bailey, Mariana Tolbert, Rick Fox, Sofia Vergara, Irma P. Hall, Frankie Faison, Margaret Avery, Jenifer Lewis, Lamman Rucker, Phillip Edward Van Lear, and Tyler Perry

Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns is a 2008 film based upon a 2004 play written by Perry (like many of his films). The film was later spun off into a cable television series of the same name.

The film focuses on Brenda Brown (Angela Bassett), a single mother living in inner city Chicago, with her three children: daughters Tosha (Chloe Bailey) and Lena (Mariana Tolbert), and her oldest child, Michael (Lance Gross), a talented high school basketball player. Struggling for years to make ends meet and keep her three kids off the street, Brenda loses her job when her company shuts down (on pay day!). Brenda is feeling very down when a letter from Georgia arrives announcing the death of the father she has never met.

Looking for a chance to get away, Brenda takes her family to an unnamed small town in Georgia for the funeral. Nothing could have prepared her, however, to meet the Browns, her long lost relatives. Crass and fun loving, this Southern clan welcomes Brenda and her children to raucous family get-togethers and lavish meals of traditional Southern fare. Brenda also once again encounters Harry Belton (Rick Fox), a basketball recruiter interested in Michael’s future who first visited the family in Chicago, but Brenda is suspicious of Harry’s intentions both towards her and her son. Meanwhile, back in Chicago, Michael is determined to help alleviate the family’s financial problems and begins to consider becoming a drug dealer. Should Brenda stay and fight it out in Chicago or return to her strange, new family in Georgia?

Like Tyler Perry’s Daddy’s Little Girls, Meet the Browns is a drama with some humor. In a way, it also seems to be two movies – one focusing on Brenda and her family’s trials and tribulations in Chicago, and the other (the shorter of the two) focusing on Brenda’s small town relatives, the Browns. The parts of the film that take place in Chicago feature Perry’s usual besieged, single-parent melodrama, but it isn’t as good as what was in Daddy’s Little Girls. Frankly, except for a few sequences, the only part of Brenda-in-Chicago that I enjoyed was the delightful comic performance by Sofia Vergara as Brenda’s coworker and friend, Cheryl.

Meet the Browns is at its best when we are meeting the Browns, especially the wonderful Mr. Brown (David Mann), who is the main character of the spin-off television series. Jenifer Lewis also gives a salty comic turn as Vera Brown, and this film would have been better had Lewis had a bigger role. Former Los Angeles Laker, Rick Fox, gives an average performance, a bit stiff and dry, about what one would expect from former professional athletes taking up acting.

Another problem with this movie is that the lead actress, Angela Bassett, often seems out of place. There are moments when Bassett’s turn as Brenda Brown is pitch-perfect and poignant, but there are indeed moments when Bassett overacts and Brenda comes across as shrill. It is a testament to her skill that those bad moments don’t overwhelm the entire performance, as well as the movie

Audiences that enjoy Tyler Perry’s usual mixture of moralizing, affection, and forgiveness mixed with boisterous comedy and mockery will enjoy Meet the Browns, although as Perry films go, it is not one of his better films.

5 of 10
B-

Monday, July 19, 2010

Review: "WALL-E" Was and Still is the Best Film of 2008

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 48 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

WALL-E (2008)
Running time: 98 minutes (1 hour, 38 minutes)
MPAA – G
DIRECTOR: Andrew Stanton
WRITER: Andrew Stanton and Jim Reardon; from a story by Andrew Stanton and Pete Docter
PRODUCER: Jim Morris
EDITOR: Stephen Schaffer
COMPOSER: Thomas Newman
Academy Award winner

ANIMATION/SCI-FI/DRAMA with elements of action and comedy

Starring: (voices) Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, Fred Willard, John Ratzenberger, Kathy Najimy, and Sigourney Weaver

In terms of American animated films, WALL-E, a film from Pixar Animation Studios, is a visionary work, and even considering the few exceptional films released in 2008 (like The Dark Knight), WALL-E was the best film of that year. It is the extraordinary story of a lonely little robot that has been doing what he was built for until he accidentally discovers a new purpose in life when he falls in love.

WALL-E is set centuries in the future on a ravaged Earth, devoid of vegetation and with its cities now largely empty ruins. Mountains of garbage, waste, junk, etc. cover the planet, and humans long ago fled the planet in spaceships that resemble cruise-line ships. Left behind to clean up the mess are small robots with melancholy binocular eyes called Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class or WALL-Es, for short.

For hundreds of lonely years, one WALL-E (Ben Burtt) has been compacting garbage into small cubes and piling them up until they form skyscraper-like heaps. WALL-E also collects knick-knacks, keeps a plucky cockroach as a pet, and obsesses over the 1969 film, Hello, Dolly. WALL-E’s life changes when he meets a strange new visitor to the planet, an advanced probe robot called Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator or EVE (Elissa Knight), and falls in love with the sleek female robot at first sight. After EVE comes to realize that WALL-E has inadvertently stumbled upon the key to the Earth’s future, she races into space to return to the human flagship, the Axiom, where she will report her findings. Meanwhile, the smitten WALL-E has followed her.

WALL-E has the usual ingredients of that help make Pixar movies such huge hits, like exotic settings, splendid storytelling, winning characters and quirky but charming concepts. What makes WALL-E even more special is that it is the first Pixar film that is also a cautionary tale. The film assaults so many things that we hold dear: our materialism (as exemplified by the world-controlling mega-corporation, BnL or “Buy n Large”), gluttony (which results in obesity), our throwaway lifestyle (thus, the piles of garbage), and the instant gratification that high-tech gadgets offer.

This is the kind of thoughtful science fiction that American audiences rarely get. Director Andrew Stanton and his co-writers, Jim Reardon and Pete Docter, tackle our modern malaise and short-sightedness, the grasping corporation with their voracious appetites for wealth in almost any form, and our insipid and incompetent politicians.

Yet WALL-E, like other Pixar flicks is inimitably entertaining. All the robots, not just WALL-E and EVE, have such sparkling characters. Perhaps, that is the true magic of Pixar, the ability to fabricate humanity in any fictional characters – from a pack rat robot that picks up garbage and collects odds and ends to a busy-body sanitation robot neurotically cleaning contaminants. The voice performances (especially Ben Burtt’s) make all the characters, even the robots, seem uncannily human. The eventual robot mini-rebellion, which is a much smarter spin on man vs. machine than even The Terminator or The Matrix, provides the frenetic action-comedy that Pixar films always offer.

Thomas Newman’s exuberant score is consistently pitch perfect. It gives color to the film’s silent movie-like first act and helps brings the budding romance of WALL-E and EVE to life. Newman’s compositions turn the drama, conflict, and tension of the last half-hour into a whirlwind of action that just might take your breath away.

What else can I say? As usual, Pixar delivers, but this time WALL-E is especially special. It tells a wonderful love story, and asks us to love our world and to take care of ourselves. This is a visionary work.

10 of 10

NOTES:
2009 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Best Animated Feature Film of the Year” (Andrew Stanton); 5 nominations: “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score” (Thomas Newman); “Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song” (Peter Gabriel-music/lyrics and Thomas Newman- music for the song "Down to Earth"), “Best Achievement in Sound” (Tom Myers, Michael Semanick, and Ben Burtt), “Best Achievement in Sound Editing” (Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood), “Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen” (Andrew Stanton-screenplay/story, Jim Reardon-screenplay, and Pete Docter-story)

2009 BAFTA Awards: 1 win: “Best Animated Film” (Andrew Stanton); 2 nominations: “Best Music” (Thomas Newman) and “Best Sound” (Ben Burtt, Tom Myers, Michael Semanick, and Matthew Wood); 2008 BAFTA Children's Award Best Feature Film (Jim Morris and Andrew Stanton)

2009 Golden Globes: 1 win: Best Animated Feature Film; 1 nomination: “Best Original Song - Motion Picture” (Peter Gabriel-music/lyrics and Thomas Newman-music for the song "Down to Earth")

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

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Review: "Quantum of Solace" Finds James Bond with a Hard-On for Payback

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 46 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

Quantum of Solace (2008)
Running time: 106 minutes (1 hour, 46 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, and some sexual content
DIRECTOR: Marc Forster
WRITERS: Paul Haggis, Neal Purvis, and Robert Wade
PRODUCERS: Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Roberto Schaefer (director of photography)
EDITORS: Matt Chesse and Richard Pearson
MAIN THEME: “Another Way to Die” performed by Alicia Keys and Jack White and composed by Jack White
BAFTA Awards nominee

ACTION/DRAMA/THRILLER

Starring: Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, Judi Dench, Giancarlo Giannini, Gemma Arterton, Jeffrey Wright, David Harbour, Jesper Christensen, Anatole Taubman, and Joaquín Cosio

The 2006 version of Casino Royale rebooted the James Bond film franchise. The follow up film, Quantum of Solace (the 22nd Bond film), is a rough and tumble, rip-roaring action movie that is probably more Jason Bourne than it is James Bond. Still, this is a very good action thriller.

Quantum of Solace continues immediately after the events of Casino Royale. James Bond (Daniel Craig) rushes the captured Mr. White (Jesper Christensen) to Siena, Italy, where Bond and M (Judi Dench), his M16 superior, will interrogate White. The interrogation is interrupted, however, by a double agent. Bond follows the trail of the double agent to Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), the charismatic leader of an ecological organization called Greene Planet. Behind Greene Planet’s seemingly legitimate business interests and benevolent aims hides Quantum, a powerful terrorist organization plotting to overthrow the government of Bolivia.

For Bond, this mission is as much about vengeance as it is about duty. Quantum is also connected to the death of the woman Bond loved, Vesper Lynn, (who betrayed him and died in Casino Royale). In Bolivia, Bond is joined by Camille Montes (Olga Kurylenko), a young woman hunting the murderer of her family, Bolivian general, Medrano (Joaquín Cosio), and a co-conspirator of Greene’s. As he gets closer to finding the man responsible for the betrayal of Vesper, Bond leaves a pile of bodies in his wake, and soon the CIA and his own agency are hunting him.

By now, moviegoers are used to the fact that the Daniel Craig James Bond is not the “shaken, not stirred” Bond of the past. Bond is now as much an ass-kicking action hero, leaping and running all over the place, as he is a cool secret agent (if not more). And Quantum of Solace is certainly kick-ass. It isn’t more of the same; the film simply takes the cool action scenes of Casino Royale and multiplies them.

Craig is ultra-cool as the ruthless “blunt instrument,” and his performance here – balancing a broken heart with a barely concealed hard-on for revenge – is tasty. Mathieu Amalric is smashing as Dominic Greene; rarely has such a weasel of a villain been so attractive. Judi Dench and Jeffrey Wright deliver their usually good performances.

From the opening rollicking car chase (one of the best I’ve seen in a long time) to the desert hotel showdown, this Bond packs a wallop. Quantum of Solace lacks the smart elegance of the typical James Bond movie (which even Casino Royale had), but I’ll take solace in this quick, sweet, brutal gem of an action movie.

7 of 10
A-

NOTES:
2009 BAFTA Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Sound” (James Boyle, Eddy Joseph, Chris Munro, Mike Prestwood Smith, and Mark Taylor) and “Best Special Visual Effects” (Chris Corbould and Kevin Tod Haug)

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Review: "Religulous" is Brilliant and Funny

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 31 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux


Religulous (2008)
Running time: 101 minutes (1 hour, 41 minutes)
MPAA – R for some language and sexual material
DIRECTOR: Larry Charles
WRITER: Bill Maher
PRODUCERS: Bill Maher, Jonah Smith, and Palmer West
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Anthony Hardwick (director of photography)
EDITOR: Jeff Groth, Christian Kinnard, and Jeffrey M. Werner

DOCUMENTARY – Religion/COMMENTARY/COMEDY

Starring: Bill Maher, Julie Maher, Kathy Maher, Senator Mark Pryor, Pastor John Westcott, Ken Ham, Reginald Foster, Tal Bachman, Bill Gardiner, Aki Nawaz, Ray Suarez, and Jeremiah Cummings

Comedian and politically provocative talk show host Bill Maher took on religion and faith in the hot-button documentary, Religulous, a title derived by blending the words “religion” and “ridiculous.” Maher examines the presence of religion in many of the big news stories of recent years, from Muslim rioting over cartoon depictions of Mohammed in European newspapers to a born-again Christian being President of the United Sates (George W. Bush).

Maher, currently the host of HBO’s "Real Time with Bill Maher," also skewers the current state of organized religion, while visiting Jerusalem, Salt Lake City, the Vatican, and other holy destinations. Of the many questions Maher asks on his journey, the main questions are why are believers of many faiths so sure that their religion is right, and why they’re so certain others are wrong?

One thing I wish that Bill Maher had done in Religulous was to offer more commentary from cultural, historical, political experts on religion and faith. Often this movie seems like Maher vs. the crazy religious people, which makes Maher come across as a prankster (a la Borat) snarking on the loons. Still, what Maher and director Larry Charles do present is fantastic and also funny on so many levels.

Some of Religulous is laugh-out-loud funny, but some of it made me cringe as much as I laughed behind my hands. I don’t think Maher is able to get an answer to the question of why believers from a variety of faiths are so sure their religion is right, and why they’re so certain others are wrong? Many of the people Maher meets are quite sensitive to someone not only questioning their faith, but also questioning why they are religious.

In fact, the attitude from many people is that they don’t want outsiders questioning their faiths, although many of these same people seem to have large, answered questions of their own about their religions. Maher often interrupts his subjects, and many times, he should have let them rant, even if their ranting made them look bad, scary, or crazy. The best line in Religulous came from self-avowed Evangelical Christian and U.S. Senator Mark Pryor, D-Arkansas, when he said, “You don't need to pass an IQ test to become a senator.” Pryor seemed eager to be interviewed, and while he certainly comes across as a nice guy (maybe even a smart fellow), his willingness to declare his allegiance to superstition is both sad and frightening.

By the end of the Religulous, I got the idea that this film was less about the faithful’s embrace of irrationality, superstition, and blind faith, and more about Maher giving rational people a wake-up call. He thinks that the rational, non-religious are actually in the majority, and one can hope he is right.

That said, Religulous is a great documentary because it takes a blunt, unflinching look at organized religion and faith, not through the eyes of religious scholars and clerics, but by taking on the foot soldiers and rank and file believers who give voice to their faith, warts and all. Only Maher, brilliant as both a social observer/critic and provocateur, could deliver a documentary about blind faith that is almost as powerful as blind faith.

9 of 10
A+

Sunday, May 09, 2010

Review: Frank Miller's "The Spirit" Has Spirit

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 24 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Spirit (2008)
Running time: 103 minutes (1 hour, 43 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense sequences of stylized violence and action, some sexual content and brief nudity
DIRECTOR: Frank Miller
WRITER: Frank Miller (based upon the comic book created by Will Eisner)
PRODUCERS: Deborah Del Prete, Gigi Pritzker, and Michael E. Uslan
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Bill Pope (director of photography)
EDITOR: Gregory Nussbaum
COMPOSER: David Newman

SUPERHERO/ACTION/CRIME/FANTASY

Starring: Gabriel Macht, Samuel L. Jackson, Eva Mendes, Dan Lauria, Sarah Paulson, Scarlett Johansson, Jaime King, Stana Katic, Paz Vega, and Louis Lombardi

The Spirit is a comic book character created by the late Will Eisner. From June 2, 1940 until October 5, 1952, The Spirit appeared in a 16-page comic book that was inserted into newspapers the way the comics section, the coupon pages, and Parade magazine, etc. still are. Some readers called it “The Spirit Section.” In late 2008, Eisner’s hero finally made it to movie theatres in The Spirit, a film written and directed by a comic book creator turned movie director, Frank Miller. Among Miller’s creations is the graphic novel, 300, which became a worldwide hit movie in 2007.

The Spirit (Gabriel Macht) is the guardian of Central City, but before he was a masked man, The Spirit was a cop named Denny Colt (Macht). Seemingly murdered in the line of duty, Denny escaped death and continued to fight crime, working outside the law as The Spirit. He fights crime from the shadows, and his war takes him to the city’s rundown warehouses, to deep in the damp catacombs beneath the city, or to the windswept waterfront, among other unsavory places. No place is too high, too low, or too dangerous for this masked crusader.

His most fearsome adversary is The Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson), a loud and flamboyant kingpin of crime with a penchant for mass murder. The Octopus plots to destroy Central City and to conquer the world, but first he needs to augment his powers with the legendary Blood of Heracles. On its way to Central City, the vase containing the blood falls into the hands of an old acquaintance of The Octopus, Sand Saref (Eva Mendes), who also has a past with The Spirit. Now, The Spirit must face both The Octopus, who is determined to finally kill him, and Saref, the woman who once broke his heart and who may now break him.

Visually, The Spirit is dazzling, even brilliant at time. The shimmering colors, the extravagant costumes, and the lavish sets, as well as the shifting environments and complicated landscape that is the vibrant Central City. The characters are generally good, especially The Spirit and Dan Lauria’s Commissioner Dolan; Eva Mendes’ bombshell Sand Saref stands out among all the movie’s female characters. Sam Jackson’s Octopus is somewhere between edgy-meets-whacky and too over the top.

The Spirit was generally panned by critics and fans and was a box office failure. I think this film is too visually adventurous, and it is certainly experimental and daring in blending the cool static graphics of comic books and the basic compositional visual style of Film-Noir with cutting edge cinematography and computer enhancement and effects.

The film’s problem is that there is a disconnect between Frank Miller’s storytelling, in particularly the screenplay, and how the actors perform that story. On the technical end of the film, Miller seems to have gotten what he wanted. Directing the narrative and the actors’ performances and writing are the problems. The plot is okay and is quite straight-forward. The execution of the plot as a narrative is the problem. The story is awkward and has too many weird and/or unnecessary digressions. Quite a bit of dialogue is either too mannered or too stylized and when the actors perform the dialogue it sounds awkward and staged.

Still, The Spirit is too gorgeous to be considered a bomb or a failure. Its lustrous colors seem natural, almost organic compared to the look of Sin City and 300, two movies adapted from Frank Miller comic books. Focusing on what is good about The Spirit suggests that Miller has a future as a movie director, because this movie is just too visually alluring and too imaginative to be lumped in with truly bad movies.

5 of 10
B-

Monday, April 19, 2010

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Oscar-Nominated Documentary "Food, Inc." Goes to the Dark Heart of Bad Food

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 19 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

 

Food, Inc. (2008)

Running time: 94 minutes (1 hour, 34 minutes) 

MPAA – PG for some thematic material and disturbing images 

DIRECTOR: Robert Kenner

WRITERS: Robert Kenner, Elise Pearlstein, and Kim Roberts

PRODUCERS: Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Richard Pearce

EDITOR: Kim Roberts

Academy Awards nominee

 

DOCUMENTARY – Food 

 

Starring: Gary Hirshberg, Michael Pollan, Troy Roush, Joel Salatin, and Eric Schlosser

 

Drawing on the books, Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser and The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, director Robert Kenner’s documentary, Food, Inc., lifts the veil on the food industry in the United States and explores the food industry’s detrimental effects on both our health and our environment.

 

Food, Inc. explains that a handful of corporations control our nation’s food supply, and these corporations often put their profit and bottom line ahead of their workers’ safety, their consumers’ health, the livelihood of the American farmer, and the wellbeing of our environment. Kenner also spotlights the men and women who are working to reform the industry and change the way Americans think about food. Pollan and Schlosser are among those people. Food, Inc. exposes our nation’s food industry’s dark and highly mechanized underbelly, a side of it that has largely been hidden from the American consumer. The film declares that the food industry has been able to hide its dark side from us with the consent of the regulatory agencies that are supposed to police them, the USDA and FDA. The film presents an industry rife with monopolies, with questionable interpretations of U.S. laws, and with political ties that grants substantial government subsidies to the industry. One of the consequences of the food industry’s practices has been (and continues to be) rising rates of E. coli outbreaks. As evidence of the industries strange and harmful practices and innovations, Food, Inc. offers stories of science-designed food: bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won't go bad (because of the gas to which these tomatoes are exposed). The film’s scariest bit of information concerns new, drug resistant strains of E coli, the harmful bacteria that causes illness in tens of thousands of Americans annually and is not only being found in meat, but also on raw vegetables sold in grocery stores. I think of Food, Inc. as an important movie, but as far as documentary filmmaking goes, it isn’t particularly remarkable. Food, Inc. is more like an overview covering a wide range of topics, many deserving their own films. For instance, Food, Inc. informs us that the meat processing industry often hires illegal immigrants as labor. That’s not surprising, but the fact that the industry coordinates with immigration officials on ICE raids is. However, Food, Inc. only covers that aspect of the food industry in passing, and when this film does that to other subjects, I can’t help but be frustrated because I want more.

 

Still, Food, Inc. nourishes our awareness of food industry issues and leaves us hungry for more. This activist documentary may be frustrating, even infuriating at times, but it is successful at grabbing our attention concerning food issues that must have our attention.

 

7 of 10 

B+ 

 

NOTES: 2010 Academy Awards: 1 nomination: “Best Documentary, Features” (Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein) 

 

Wednesday, April 07, 2010 

 

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Review: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson Rock "Twilight"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 11 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

Twilight (2008)
Running time: 122 minutes (2 hours, 2 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some violence and a scene of sensuality
DIRECTOR: Catherine Hardwicke
WRITER: Melissa Rosenberg (based upon the novel by Stephenie Meyer)
PRODUCERS: Wyck Godfrey, Greg Mooradian, Mark Morgan, and Karen Rosenfelt
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Elliot Davis
EDITOR: Nancy Richardson

DRAMA/ROMANCE/HORROR

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Cam Gigandet, Ashley Greene, Christian Serratos, Anna Kendrick, Nikki Reed, Taylor Lautner, Kellan Lutz, Jack Rathbone, Michael Welch, Gil Birmingham, Justin Chon, José Zuniga, and Edi Gathegi

The 2008 box office smash, Twilight, is based on the 2005 novel of the same name written by author Stephenie Meyer. Twilight is the story of an outsider girl who falls for a chivalrous vampire.

Isabella (prefers “Bella”) Swan has always been a little bit different and has never cared about fitting in with the trendy girls. When her mother and her new husband move to sunny Florida, Bella returns to the rainy little town of Forks, Washington, to live with her father, Police Chief Charlie Swan (Billy Burke). Surprisingly, Bella does make a few friends at the local high school, but she finds life dull. Then, Bella spots the school’s strangest students, the Cullens, but she is most captivated by the mysterious and dazzlingly beautiful Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), a boy unlike any she’s ever met.

After he saves her life, Edward is forced to reveal to Bella that he is a vampire, but he doesn’t have fangs. His family is unique in that they choose not to drink human blood. The intelligent, sly, and witty, Edward sees straight into Bella’s soul. Her mere presence drives him crazy, and their passionate romance is as thrilling as it is unorthodox. They’re soul mates. However, the arrival of a small pack of vicious vampires threatens the peacefulness of Forks, the Cullens’ way of life, and Bella and Edward’s happiness.

I think the secret of Twilight’s success as a film adaptation of a (wildly) popular book is that it captures the essence of The Twilight Saga (which is composed of four books – for those not in the know). Twilight may have vampires, but it is unequivocally a romance. The birth of Bella and Edwards’ love and its continual growth is so powerful that it permeates Twilight and spills over into the readers’ imaginations. These are captivating characters. Bella is an independent girl, who keeps her own counsel. Edward is chivalrous and is something of a Byronic hero.

The success of Twilight as a movie, separate from the Twilight Saga, depended on how the film depicted the intense romance of Bella and Edward. First, screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg did a fantastic job adapting Twilight for the screen. Rosenberg is near-perfect at trimming the novel, creating new scenes that are true to the original text, and keeping pretty much everything from the novel that really encapsulates this story. Director Catherine Hardwicke has this deft touch at getting to the heart of what makes this story work, and she is especially good at capturing the magic of Bella and Edward as a couple. The best example of Rosenberg and Hardwicke’s storytelling is a magical sequence in which Edward puts Bella on his back and takes her on a journey through the lush forests surrounding Forks via the tree tops.

However, the biggest reasons for Twilight’s success are actors Kristen Stewart as Bella and Robert Pattinson as Edward. Stewart, who seems to have the makings of an exceptional actress, embodies the moodiness and independent streak of Bella that define the character. Kristen makes Bella seem like a real person even in the midst of Twilight’s fantastic scenario. Pattinson is simply a beautiful man, and he channels his acting through a passion for his craft; maybe, that’s why Edwards is so fierce and intense. Here, Pattinson is pitch perfect at playing the sly, tormented bad boy.

Stewart and Pattinson are so good that they are this movie. Simply put, Twilight is a winner.

8 of 10
A

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

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Review: "Four Christmases" Kicks that Holiday Spirit in the Butt

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 6 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

Four Christmases (2008)
Running time: 88 minutes (1 hour 28 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for sexual humor and language
DIRECTOR: Seth Gordon
WRITERS: Matt Allen & Caleb Wilson and Jon Lucas & Scott Moore; from a story by Matt Allen and Caleb Wilson
PRODUCERS: Gary Barber, Roger Birnbaum, Jonathan Glickman, Vince Vaughn, and Reese Witherspoon
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jeffrey L. Kimball
EDITORS: Mark Helfrich and Melissa Kent

COMEDY

Starring: Vince Vaughn, Reese Witherspoon, Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight, Jon Favreau, Mary Steenburgen, Dwight Yoakam, Tim McGraw, Cedric Yarbrough, Brian Baumgartner, and Kristen Chenoweth

Once upon a time, I hated Christmas movies, but now I enjoy the good feelings they bring. Four Christmases brings along lots of good feelings, simply because it is so funny. Packed with lowbrow, vulgar, and slob humor, Four Christmases works because it connects crude laughs with the rudest joke of all – Christmas with relatives.

Brad McVie (Vince Vaughn) and his girlfriend Kate (Reese Witherspoon) are an upscale, happily unmarried San Francisco couple. Because both their parents divorced, they aren’t thinking about marriage, even after three great years of dating, nor have they visited their parents since getting together. After their Christmas vacation in Fiji gets sidetracked by fog, they become obligated to finally visit their parents. That means not two, but four stops, where childhood, adolescent, and family wounds are reopened and resentment thrives. Somewhere along the way, Brad and Kate reexamine their relationship and future.

There are five Oscar winners in Four Christmases: Reese Witherspoon, Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight, and Mary Steenburgen. Usually this might mean a poignant Christmas drama full of family and healing. Four Christmases is full of family and healing, but it’s damn funny. It’s also damn honest. Getting together with family over the holidays, especially Christmas, is worse than nightmare on Elm Street or any street. We tolerate the toad relatives because they come with some beloved family that we’re genuinely happy to see.

Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon must be really good actors or their screen chemistry is the real deal. They are so good together that they should always be together, like a great screen couple. Vaughn performs his shtick to maximum effect, and Witherspoon is, as always, solid. Together, they make even this film’s turn towards serious relationship drama late in the story not seem phony.

Four Christmases captures the joys and the miseries of the holiday so well and with so many laughs that it is bound to be an impolite (but not boorish) Christmas classic. Also, watch for the always good Kristen Chenoweth doing some enjoyable scene stealing.

7 of 10
B+

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

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