Review: "Blood Diamond" Has Strong Leads in DiCaprio and Hounsou (Happy B'day, Leonardo DiCaprio)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 67 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux


Blood Diamond (2006)
Running time: 143 minutes (2 hours, 23 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong violence and language
DIRECTOR: Edward Zwick
WRITERS: Charles Leavitt; from a story by C. Gaby Mitchell and Charles Leavitt
PRODUCERS: Edward Zwick, Marshall, Herskovitz, Paula Weinstein, Graham King, and Gillian Gorfil
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Eduardo Serra (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Steven Rosenblum
2007 Academy Award nominee

ACTION/DRAMA/WAR

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly, Djimon Hounsou, Michael Sheen, Arnold Vosloo, David Harewood, Basil Wallace, Ntare Mwine, Jimi Mistry, and Kagiso Kuypers

Set during Sierra Leone’s bloody civil war in 1999, director Edward Zwick’s Blood Diamond blends challenging themes, social awareness, and riveting entertainment into a rip-roaring story about two different African men on a common quest. Along the way, Zwick creates a lovely thriller out of the devastating chaos of civil war in a Third World country.

While imprisoned, Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), an ex-mercenary from Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) turned diamond smuggler, discovers that fellow inmate Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) may have found a large, rare pink diamond. Rebels had taken Solomon from his family and forced him to work in their diamond fields where he found the extraordinary gem. Solomon hid the diamond in hopes of retrieving it and using it to help his family escape their war torn country. Now, Solomon will also have to find the diamond to save his son, Dia (Kagiso Kuypers), who was taken by rebels and brainwashed into becoming a murderous child soldier.

Enter idealistic American journalist Maddy Bowen (Jennifer Connelly), in Sierra Leone to uncover the truth about conflict diamonds – diamonds used to finance war. Archer and Solomon have formed a reluctant partnership, with the former guiding the latter back to the buried diamond. Maddy uses her journalistic credentials to help the duo embark on a dangerous track through rebel held territory, although each member of this intrepid trio has his or her own agenda. Maddy wants the journalistic expose. Danny wants the diamond that will help him to finally leave Africa. Solomon is seeking something far more precious – his son.

Zwick turns in one of the top directorial efforts of 2006. He dresses his powerful polemic into a breathtakingly handsome travelogue through Africa, whose striking beauty is marred by horrific and mind-numbing violence. He creates a drama as engaging as any other about civil war, but Zwick makes it into an international social cause – to close the market for conflict diamonds. Zwick grabs the viewer by the heart with his gut-wrenching action and explosive violence. Then, he squeezes your heart to wring out the tears at the sight of such misery and despair and also at the sight of such devotion and kindness amidst the cruelty.

It helps that Zwick has a fine screenplay and story that is of the same epic proportions at just under two-and-a-half hours as a movie over three hours long. And the characters are so rich and well formed that even the script’s preachy dialogue that tends to show up sounds so much better coming out of the mouths of highly skilled actors. The cast brings a stunning sense of authenticity to the roles. For some of them, I could almost believe that they are the characters in the film.

Right now, I’m having a hard time believing that Leonardo DiCaprio has ever been better. He takes the whole cloth of the screenplay and creates in Danny Archer a real, living and breathing person. To hell with those who say that his white African dialect was weird. It sounds so real coming from him. He is Danny Archer; it’s in every word he says, every move he makes, and even in his eyes.

Djimon Hounsou isn’t very far behind. He is rapidly revealing that he is a great dramatic actor with the kind of power and stage presence for which we’ve usually only credit British actors of the Shakespearean stage of having. Hounsou is magnificent. I could make a movie just with him… on a stage empty of props and sets. Jennifer Connelly starts off rough, but her performance grows into the film just as Maddy Bowen starts to really feel Africa.

It’s great that Blood Diamond will make people aware of conflict diamonds, but the drama is so good that the film’s social conscious gets lost behind the beautiful fiction and sweeping storytelling. Blood Diamond is that thing for which movie lovers hope when they go to the theatre – a film with winning characters, a magnificent setting, and a great story. What more is there to say? It’s all on screen.

10 of 10

NOTES:
2007 Academy Awards: 5 nominations: “Best performance by an actor in a leading role” (Leonardo DiCaprio), “Best performance by an actor in a supporting role” (Djimon Hounsou), “Best achievement in editing” (Steven Rosenblum), “Best achievement in sound editing” (Lon Bender), and “Best achievement in sound mixing” (Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer, and Ivan Sharrock)

2007 Golden Globes: 1 nomination: “Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama” (Leonardo DiCaprio)

2007 Black Reel Awards: 1 win: “Best Supporting Actor” (Djimon Hounsou)

2007 Image Awards: 1 win: “Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture” (Djimon Hounsou); 1 nomination: “Outstanding Motion Picture”

Monday, April 23, 2007

Review: "Constantine" is No Hellblazer

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 26 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Constantine (2005)
Running time: 121 minutes (2 hours, 1 minute)
MPAA – R for violence and demonic images
DIRECTOR: Francis Lawrence
WRITERS: Kevin Brodbin and Frank Cappello; from a story by Kevin Brodbin (based upon the characters from the DC Comics/Vertigo Hellblazer graphic novels)
PRODUCERS: Lauren Shuler Donner, Benjamin Melniker, Michael Uslan, Erwin Stoff, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, and Akiva Goldsman
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Philippe Rousselot, A.F.C./A.S.C.
EDITOR: Wayne Wahrman, A.C.E.

HORROR/FANTASY/ACTION with elements of thriller

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz, Shia LaBeouf, Tilda Swinton, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Djimon Hounsou, Gavin (McGregor) Rossdale, Jessie Ramirez, Jose Zuniga, Laz Alonso, Quinn Buniel, and Peter Stormare

In the mid 1980’s famed comic book writer Alan Moore created, at the behest of his artist collaborators, a character for their comic book series, Swamp Thing (that changed the face of mainstream or superhero comics), that would look like Sting, front man of the rock group, The Police. Two decades later, Keanu Reeves, not Sting, has brought the character, John Constantine, to cinematic life in the film, Constantine.

Back story: John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) was born with a gift he didn’t want – the ability to recognize the half-breed angels and demons that walk the earth in human skin. Constantine took his own life to end the torment of his visions, but he was resuscitated against his will. Constantine returned with the ability to walk the earthly border between Heaven and Hell. He attempts to earn his salvation as an exorcist/supernatural detective sending the half-breed demons back to hell. Still, Constantine is no saint; he lives a hard life of drinking and smoking too much while he tries to buy his way into heaven.

Angela Dodson (Rachel Weisz) is a skeptical police detective, really not buying all this occult mumbo jumbo, but she needs Constantine. Her sister, Isabel (Ms. Weisz), may have committed suicide. Angela finds that hard to believe because her sister was a devout Catholic, and devout Catholics know that suicides go straight to the inferno of hell. Angela convinces Constantine to help her, but their investigation quickly clears away Angela’s skepticism as their examination of the crime takes them to the world of angels and demons just behind the walls, on the other side of the metaphorical windows, and beneath the landscape of Los Angeles. The duo is caught in a series of catastrophic occult and satanic events that may not only cost them their lives, but the souls of all human kind.

If Keanu Reeves were a better actor, Constantine would have been a better film. First, we, the people who are familiar with the comic book, have to get over the fact that there were better actors to play the part. We may have been willing to accept that the character was changed from a Brit to an American, but Keanu? He has his moments, but most of them are in the last act. It’s not as if he were out acted; the rest of the characters seem extraneous, even the ones that are supposed to be important to the plot.

The story, which borrows heavily from the work of two early writers on the Constantine comic book (called Hellblazer), Jamie Delano and Garth Ennis, is conceptually interesting. The execution leaves something to be desired. Sometimes, it’s just pretentious, and sometimes, the occult angle is as good and as intriguing as the occult was in Raiders of the Lost Ark. The visualization of Hell (as a still-burning post-apocalyptic cityscape) is nice, but ultimately the script is just a hodge podge of concepts and ideas that are poorly thought out and used. It’s as if some things were added because they’d seem cool, but they were poorly used or just didn’t make sense in the context of the script. The writers seemingly knew how they wanted the film to begin and end, but only threw crap against the wall in between that.

Actually, director Francis Lawrence (known for his music videos for acts such as Britney Spears and Will Smith) gives the film a good pace and a tense atmosphere of dread. He manages to make something out of a poor script and Keanu’s monotone and flat speaking/acting style. It’s enough to make this worth renting for fans of horror and fantasy.

5 of 10
C+

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Julie Taymor's "The Tempest" on DVD September 2011

THE TEMPEST

 

From the visionary Director Julie Taymor (Frida) comes a modern retelling of William Shakespeare’s masterpiece in the visually stunning and innovative feature film THE TEMPEST. Available nationwide on Blu-ray™, DVD, Movie Download, and On-Demand on September 13, 2011.

Film Synopsis:
This modern retelling of William Shakespeare’s final masterpiece is an exciting, mystical and magical fantasy with Academy Award®-winner Helen Mirren (Best Actress, The Queen, 2006) leading a star-studded cast including Russell Brand (Get Him To The Greek) and Alfred Molina (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice). Exiled to a magical island, the sorceress Prospera (Mirren) conjures up a storm that shipwrecks her enemies, and then unleashes her powers for revenge. Directed by Julie Taymor (Frida) — and complete with exclusive bonus features — The Tempest, with its innovative twist, is a supernatural dramedy filled with Shakespearean villains, lovers and fools that will leave you spellbound.

U.S. Release Date:
September 13, 2011
(Direct Prebook July 19, 2011/ Distributor Prebook August 2, 2011)

Rating: PG 13 - for some nudity, suggestive content and scary images
Feature Run Time: Approximately 110-minutes
Release Format: Blu-ray™, DVD, Movie Download & On-Demand
Suggested Retail Price: 1-Disc Blu-ray = $39.99 U.S.
1-Disc DVD = $29.99 U.S.
Movie Download High Definition = $39.99 U.S.
Movie Download Standard Definition = $29.99 U.S.
On-Demand = for pricing, please contact your television provider or favorite digital retailer

Bonus Features:
Audio Commentary with Director Julie Taymor Russell Brand Rehearsal Riff
O MISTRESS MINE Reeve Carney Music Video
And more!

Talent:
Helen Mirren (The Debt, State of Play, The Queen)
Russell Brand (Get Him To The Greek; Forgetting Sarah Marshall)
Alfred Molina (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Prince of Persia, An Education)
Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond)
Alan Cumming (“The Good Wife,” It’s Complicated)
Chris Cooper (Remember Me, The Kingdom)
David Straitharn (The Bourne Ultimatum)

Director/Writer:
Julie Taymor (Frida, Broadway’s The Lion King and Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark)
Producers:
Julie Taymor (Frida, Broadway’s The Lion King and Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark) and Ronald Bozeman (Confessions of a Shopaholic)

"Beauty Shop" is Simply a Queen Latifah Vehicle

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 57 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux


Beauty Shop (2005)
Running time: 105 minutes (1 hour, 45 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 on appeal for sexual material, language, and brief drug references
DIRECTOR: Bille Woodruff
WRITERS: Kate Lanier and Norman Vance, Jr.; from a story by Elizabeth Hunter
PRODUCERS: Elizabeth Cantillon, Shakim Compere, David Hoberman, Queen Latifah, Robert Teitel, and George Tillman, Jr.
CINEMTOGRAPHER: Theo van de Sande
EDITOR: Michael Jablow

COMEDY/DRAMA

Starring: Queen Latifah, Alicia Silverstone, Andie MacDowell, Alfre Woodard, Mena Suvari, Della Reese, Golden Brooks, Miss Laura Hayes, Paige Hurd, Little (Li’l) JJ, LisaRaye McCoy, Kevin Bacon, Djimon Hounsou, Keshia Knight Pulliam, Sherri Shepherd, Kimora Lee Simmons, Sheryl Underwood, Bryce Wilson, Omari Hardwick, Jim Holmes, and Adele Givens

Gina Norris (Queen Latifah) is a long way off from Chicago where we last saw her in Barbershop 2: Back in Business. She’s in Atlanta (Hot-lanta!) making her rep with the cutting-edge hairstyles she puts on the customers at a posh Atlanta salon. However, her flamboyant, egotistical boss, Jorge (Kevin Bacon), is jealous of her, and after one insult too many from him, Gina quits. She opens her on beauty shop, but right from the beginning, she has all the usual troubles that a small business has: not enough money, state regulations, unruly employees, etc. One of her old co-workers, shampoo girl, Lynn (Alicia Silverstone), and a few key clients, Terri (Andie MacDowell) and Joanne (Mena Suvari), follow her. Now, all she has to do is maintain her family obligations and keep her struggling business afloat. That should be easy, right? At least, there’s lot of laughter and friendship along the way.

Beauty Shop is a spin off, but by no means a sequel, to the Barbershop films. This really is a women’s movie, and with its diverse cast of black and white actresses, as well as other persuasions, it’s a (grown up) girls’ movie with crossover appeal. The language is a bit blue, and the frank talk about sex is enough to make even a veteran of caustic movies like myself blanch. Still, I saw children buying tickets to see the film, and it does reach out to them. Gina has a daughter, a character to appeal to younger viewers, and frankly, girls want to hear women talk; besides, Beauty Shop’s subject matter isn’t prurient.

The plot is light, but deals with a familiar and appealing theme: the little guy taking on the evil big guy who wants to squeeze the little guy out of existence. Beauty Shop has lots of laughs, but it’s as much a drama as it is a comedy. Gina’s struggle to stay afloat is not only precarious, but has a hard ring of verisimilitude. Also, some of the confrontations between characters are filled with funny wisecracks, but also have a dark edge and tension to them.

This is also an ensemble picture, with Queen Latifah in the lead, a character-driven film that focuses on the players with the plot holding second place. Everyone plays her (or his) oddball well enough, although Alicia Silverstone’s Georgia cracker, Lynn, is a bit too much, as is Kevin Bacon’s ridiculous Jorge. The Queen is an underrated actress. She handles the topsy-turvy of the film’s comic/dramatic turns with dexterity that belies her size. She’s a beautiful movie star, and her radiance grows with each film. Without her, Beauty Shop would be another tired “urban” movie cliché full of mouthy, smack-talking ethnics. Luckily, she is in Beauty Shop, and she raises this sub-par material and takes her co-stars with her.

6 of 10
B

April 10, 2005