Review: "Cry_Wolf" Worthy of Attention

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 149 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Cry_Wolf (2005)
Running time:  90 minutes (1 hour, 30 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for violence, terror, disturbing images, language, sexuality, and a brief drug reference
DIRECTOR:  Jeff Wadlow
WRITERS:  Jeff Wadlow and Beau Bauman
PRODUCER:  Beau Bauman
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Romeo Tirone
EDITOR:  Seth Gordon
COMPOSER:  Michael Wandmacher

HORROR/THRILLER/MYSTERY

Starring:  Julian Morris, Lindy Booth, Jared Padalecki, Jon Bon Jovi, Sandra McCoy, Kristy Wu, Jane Beard, Gary Cole, Jesse Janzen, Paul James, Ethan Cohn, and Michael Kennedy

The subject of this movie review is Cry_Wolf, a 2005 horror film and murder mystery from the team of Jeff Wadlow and Beau Bauman.  The film focuses on eight high school seniors at a posh boarding school whose lies catch up with them after they create a fake serial killer prank.

Tossed out of his old school, Owen Matthews (Julian Morris) arrives at prestigious Westlake Prep where he falls in with the school’s unofficial and self-appointed “liar’s club.”  Playing on the fear caused by a young woman recently found murdered in the woods, the friends decide to expand the reach of their game beyond campus.

They create an online rumor that the girl’s slaying is just the latest in a long line of killings by a serial killer known as “The Wolf.”  Owen and Dodger (Lindy Booth), a female student that he likes, even create an M.O. for The Wolf and describe the kind of victims he prefers to murder after his initial kill, in this case, the girl he supposedly murdered in the nearby woods.  However, the club bases the victims on the people they know – each other.

After journalism teacher Rich Walker (Jon Bon Jovi) admonishes him about the dangers of online predators and spreading fear on the Internet, Owen regrets personally sending the initial Wolf rumor into cyberspace.  Worse still, someone calling himself “The Wolf” starts sending Owen threats via email and one of the liar’s club turns up missing.  Owen and his friends don’t know where their lies end and the truth begins.  However, campus officials consider the eight friends to be troublemakers, with Owen the ringleader and the one destined for expulsion.  So when the gang cries for help, everyone else views the distress as another hoax perpetrated by bad youths.  Nobody believes a liar, even when they’re telling the truth – perhaps, the real Wolf is stalking them.

Co-writer/producer Beau Bauman and co-writer/director Jeff Wadlow’s offbeat horror flick, Cry_Wolf, creates a novel twist on slasher films.  The atmosphere is good – occasionally creepy and will sometimes put you on the edge of your seat.  A quirky suspense thriller, Cry_Wolf has so many interesting twists and turns, quiet a few of which would make sense in the real world.

The film’s major problem is, of course, Bauman and Wadlow’s script.  They try something different and their concept is good.  One thing that works is the dialogue and interpersonal dynamics between the high school age characters; it’s sharp, witty, blistering, and dead-on.  However, the tense relationship between Owen and his father (played by Gary Cole with a bad English accent) is treated like stock footage.

The script’s big slip up is on the characters themselves, all of which come across as limp or wispy.  Some, like Owen and Dodger, are very interesting, but the screenplay is so focused on genre trappings and putting a unique spin on said genre that it doesn’t have time for the kind of rich character play Owen and Dodger both need and deserve.  The rest of the participants are intriguing, but are ultimately (or technically, as it turns out) just body count fodder.

That makes Cry_Wolf like so many other scary movies, soft on script even when the story concept is exciting.  Still, there is something to be said for trying something new.  At the end of the day, Cry_Wolf says that there is something scarier that the unknown killer in the dark.  It’s the people we think we know, people with something to hide and scores to settle for the wrongs they think their friends, colleagues, and associates have done them.  How far they willing to go and whom they’re willing to manipulate to balance the accounts can chill to the bones.

6 of 10
B

Updated:  Sunday, February 09, 2014


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: "Equilibrium" Borrows from Dystopian Classics (Happy B'day, Christian Bale)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 165 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Equilibrium (2002)
Running time:  107 minutes (1 hour, 47 minutes)
MPAA – R for violence
WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Kurt Wimmer
PRODUCERS:  Jan de Bont and Lucas Foster
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Dion Beebe
EDITORS:  Tom Rolf and William Yeh
COMPOSER:  Klaus Badelt

SCI-FI/ACTION/DRAMA with elements of mystery and thriller

Starring:  Christian Bale, Taye Diggs, Emily Watson, Sean Bean, Sean Pertwee, William Fichtner, Angus Macfadyen, Dominic Purcell, Matthew Harbour, and Emily Siewert

The subject of this movie review is Equilibrium, a 2002 dystopian science fiction film and action movie from writer-director Kurt Wimmer.  Starring Christian Bale and Taye Diggs, the film is set in a fascist future where all forms of feeling are illegal, and the story focuses on a law enforcement officer who rises to overthrow the system.

In a dystopian future, the totalitarian regime of the city-state, Libria, has eliminated war by suppressing emotions.  The rulers believe that ultimately emotions cause humans to kill one another.  The cost of ridding the world of violent emotions, however, is the loss of love and kindness.  Books, art, music, or any kind of creativity that might arouse the emotions are also strictly forbidden, and such material is contraband to be destroyed on sight.  Feeling is a crime, and those who insist on feeling are called sense offenders.  Sense offenses are punishable by death, and the government requires its citizens to inject themselves with a drug called prozium, which keeps their emotions in check.

Of course such a government would face rebellion, and it does from the regions outside the city known as the Nethers.  To fight sense offenders in the city and in the Nethers, the government created an elite unit made of a special kind of police officer/warrior known as the Grammaton Cleric.  Stronger, inhumanely agile, and quicksilver fast, clerics use a form of fighting known as “the Gun-Katas,” which mixes martial arts and firearms handling that makes it possible for one cleric to kill a room full of armed men in the span of several seconds.

The best of these warriors is John Preston (Christian Bale), who destroys sense offenders with ease (and perhaps relish, if he could feel emotions).  However, when Preston misses a dose of Prozium, he begins to have feelings again, and he experiences a pang of conscience when he must kill in the Nethers.  Suddenly being capable of feeling, he finds himself drawn to a sense offender scheduled for execution, Mary O’Brien (Emily Watson).  There is, however, danger in Preston’s feelings.  His new partner, Brandt (Taye Diggs, who gives a nice sheen to Brandt’s bold and ruthless ambition), is, like Preston, intuitive – able to sense when someone is have feelings and emotions, and Brandt is determined to make a name for himself – even if it means bringing Preston down.

Some might mistake writer/director Kurt Wimmer’s 2000 film, Equilibrium, for a clone of The Matrix (1999).  The fancy, martial arts fighting (Gun-Kata, a style developed by Wimmer and the film’s choreographer, Jim Vickers) certainly encourages that belief, but unlike The Matrix, wire work martial arts (or wire-fu) – using wires to lift the actors high off the ground – wasn’t used here.

Equilibrium actually borrows from or resembles (in part or whole) such classic science fiction novels dealing with dark futures as Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, George Orwell’s 1984, and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, and even a bit of William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson’s Logan’s Run.  In the case of Equilibrium, the filmmakers make the right choice of focusing on crime (feeling) and punishment (death) rather than on the practicality of these future laws against emotion and feeling.  In that way, the plot is free to unfold as a narrative about the struggle for freedom in a futuristic setting.  In terms of entertainment, that’s better than an examination of the hard science of using drugs to suppress emotions or even telling the story from a sociological point of view.

Christian Bale is expert at playing the tightly coiled male or the stoic warrior.  However, he’s also quite artful at slowly revealing his emotional side in ways that endear him to the viewer.  Watching his government-issued impassive and detached façade crumble to reveal a fully functional human is a joy.  Bale may not be the leading man, but he is a leading man.  Good performances from Taye Diggs, Emily Watson, and Sean Bean add credibility to Equilibrium’s concept.  Still, it would have been nice to see more character in the supporting characters.

7 of 10
B+

Friday, August 4, 2006

Updated:  Thursday, January 30, 2014

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Review "Murder at 1600" Surprises (Happy B'day, Diane Lane)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 10 (of 2002) by Leroy Douresseaux

Murder at 1600 (1997)
Running time:  107 minutes (1 hour, 47 minutes)
MPAA – R for sexuality, violence and some language
DIRECTOR:  Dwight H. Little
WRITERS:  Wayne Beach and David Hodgin
PRODUCERS:  Arnold Kopelson and Arnon Milchan
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Steven Bernstein (D.o.P.)
EDITORS:  Leslie Jones and Billy Weber
COMPOSER:  Christopher Young

DRAMA/CRIME/THRILLER with elements of action

Starring:  Wesley Snipes, Diane Lane, Daniel Benzali, Dennis Miller, Alan Alda, Ronny Cox, Diane Baker, Tate Donovan, and Harris Yulin

The subject of this movie review is Murder at 1600, a 1997 crime and detective thriller from director Dwight H. Little and starring Wesley Snipes and Diane Lane.  The film follows a homicide detective and a secret service agent as they try to unravel the conspiracy surrounding a young female staffer found dead in a White House wash room.

Washington D. C. Police Homicide Detective Harlan Regis (Wesley Snipes) gets a call that there has been a murder at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the address of the White House.  When he arrives, he discovers the body of a slain young woman, and it is obvious that the Secret Service has already tampered with and removed evidence from the crime scene.  He immediately suspects a cover up.

Through a lot of effort, he eventually convinces Secret Service Agent Nina Chance (Diane Lane) to join him in the murder investigation.  From that point, they operate through a myriad of roadblocks and obstacles.  They are constantly on the run from murderous pursuers and others intent on stopping the investigation.  Raising the intensity level, the murder occurs during a touchy international incident between the United States and North Korea.

Directed by veteran helmsman Dwight H. Little (episodes of “The Practice” and Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home), Murder at 1600 is a surprisingly intriguing and exciting movie.  With elements of suspense, mystery, and drama, it is something of a thriller and an action movie.  Little expertly paces them film so that there is never a dull moment.  Something’s always just around the corner, and some seemingly nefarious person is always in the next room.  Add the element of government paid snipers and assassins, and the result is a nice edge of your seat picture - a chase movie for grown ups.

The writers Wayne Beach and the late David Hodgin do a wonderful job creating a single plot line that neatly divides into other interesting plot lines.  Very little is thrown away in this movie.  Like a classic whodunit, the suspects and motives pile on, but not like crap on the wall.  Rather, it’s like a complex puzzle, with not too many pieces, for the viewer it’s an engaging challenge to put together.

Wesley Snipes has always wanted to be an action movie badass, but his gift is in his untapped acting talent.  His rock solid good looks and thespian skills make him a natural leading man in the old Hollywood tradition (Kirk Douglas or Humphrey Bogart).  Like them, he is best in dramas that are suspenseful and intriguing.  He carries this movie on his strong shoulders even when the movie action becomes implausible.

Diane Lane (“Lonesome Dove”) is also another surprise.  She is a natural beauty, more earthy than doll-like without a model’s overdone and artificial looks.  She’s a woman’s woman – gritty and determined to do her job.  Her Nina Chance is the ideal partner to Snipes' Regis.  She isn’t the typical action movie female baggage; she holds her own, and she gets to pull Regis out of the fire a few times.

Ronny Cox as President Jack Neil and Alan Alda as Alvin Jordan, National Security Advisor are very good and quite intense in their parts.  Both are seemingly determined and over anxious to “be real” in their parts.  Dennis Miller makes a light add-on to the story and manages to serve a function, but nothing, not even his light part, hurts this movie.

Murder at 1600 isn’t by any means great, but it is very good and somewhat smart entertainment.  The last fifteen minutes or so is an exercise in the implausible, and is often inadvertently funny.  However, there is something to be said for making a movie that could have been bad quite enjoyable.

6 of 10
B

Updated: Wednesday, January 22, 2014


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Review: "The Weight of Water" is a Heavy Drama (Happy B'day, Sarah Polley)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 81 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Weight of Water (2000)
Running time:  114 minutes (1 hour, 54 minutes)
MPAA – R for violence, sexuality/nudity, and brief language
DIRECTOR:  Kathryn Bigelow
WRITERS:  Alice Arlen and Christopher Kyle (based upon the novel by Anita Shreve)
PRODUCERS:  Janet Yang, Sigurjon Sighvatsson, and A. Kitman Ho
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Adrian Biddle
EDITOR:  Howard E. Smith
COMPOSER:  David Hirschfelder

DRAMA/MYSTERY with elements of a thriller

Starring:  Sean Penn, Catherine McCormack, Josh Lucas, Elizabeth Hurley, Sarah Polley, Ciarán Hinds, Ulrich Thomsen, Anders W. Berthelsen, and Katrin Cartlidge

The subject of this movie review is The Weight of Water, a 2000 drama and mystery film from director Kathryn Bigelow.  The film made its debut in 2000, but did not receive a U.S. release until November 2002.  The film is based on the 1997 novel, The Weight of Water, by author Anita Shreve.  The novel, which is historical fiction, is based in part on a real-life 19th century American murder case.  The Weight of Water the movie focuses on a newspaper photographer who is researching the lurid and sensational axe murder of two women in 1873, while dealing with her own marital problems.

Two couples: Thomas and Jean Janes (Sean Penn and Catherine McCormack) and Thomas’ brother, Rich Janes (Josh Lucas), and his girlfriend, Adaline Gunne (Elizabeth Hurley) take a boat trip to the island of Smuttynose, off the New Hampshire coast.  Jean is conducting a personal investigation of the double murder of two women back in 1873.  Having unearthed an eyewitness account of the murders, Jane seeks to prove that the Louis Wagner (Ciarán Hinds), the man executed for the crimes, was innocent, and that his accuser, Maren Hontvedt (Sarah Polley), was instead the murderer.  The film moves back and forth between the present day and the past, dredging up the incidents surrounding the murders and also the troubles in Thomas and Jean’s marriage.

After making films that fit one way or another in the action genre, director Kathryn Bigelow tackled dysfunctional marriages, dark family secrets, and murder in the film, The Weight of Water.  Quite skilled at creating mood and atmosphere (as shown in her earlier works), Bigelow constructs a movie in which disappointment and resignation saturate the story and anger boils mightily beneath the surface.

The jumps in time, between the present and 1973, aren’t really a distraction; rather they build up tension and allow the stronger half of the film, Maren Hontvedt’s story and the murders in 1873, to support the weaker half, the Janes’ boat trip.  Watching the film, one gets the idea that Bigelow was enamored with Maren Hontvedt’s half of the film and not as interested the present day half featuring the tense dynamic between Thomas, Jean, Rich, and Adaline.  Connection with the present day sub-plots isn’t fun; at times, Bigelow handles them a little clumsily.  On the other hand, she uses the riveting and bloody tale of 1873 to carry the past and present to an ending that is both gut wrenching and heavy.  Here, through Sarah Polley as Maren, Bigelow makes her strongest case that the mistakes of the past, like insistent ghosts, never leave.  They will drown the future if they aren’t guarded against – even in a small moment of weakness when the mind, body and soul lapse into rage.

6 of 10
B

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Update:  Wednesday, January 08, 2014

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Review: "Murder My Sweet" is Flawed But Compelling (Rembering Dick Powell)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 79 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Murder, My Sweet (1944) – Black & White
Running time:  95 minutes (1 hour, 35 minutes)
DIRECTOR:  Edward Dmytryk
WRITER:  John Paxton (from the novel Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler)
PRODUCER:  Adrian Scott
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Harry J. Wild
EDITOR:  Joseph Noriega
COMPOSER:  Roy Webb

FILM-NOIR/MYSTERY/CRIME

Starring:  Dick Powell, Claire Trevor, Anne Shirley, Otto Kruger, Mike Mazurki, Miles Mander, Douglas Walton, Donald Douglas, Ralf Harolde, and Esther Howard

The subject of this movie review is Murder, My Sweet, a 1944 film noir detective movie from director Edward Dmytryk.  This film stars Dick Powell (one of my favorite actors) as a private detective drawn into a complex web of mystery and deceit after being hired to find an ex-con’s former girlfriend.

Murder, My Sweet is the film adaptation of the Raymond Chandler 1940 novel, Farewell, My Lovely, which was also the film’s original title.  For the U.S. release, the film’s name was changed to Murder, My Sweet so that people wouldn’t mistake it for a musical, as the film’s star, Dick Powell, was, up to that point, known as a singer.  The role revitalized Powell’s career, and he went on to play many tough guys.

The plot is convoluted and takes some effort to follow.  It begins when a big bruiser named Moose Malloy (Mike Mazurki) shows up at the office of private detective, Philip Marlowe (Dick Powell).  Malloy has been in prison for eight years; recently released, he wants Marlowe to find his girl Velma, with whom he hasn’t spoken in six years.  However, another person hunting for something or someone walks into Marlowe’s office – Lindsay Marriott (Douglas Walton), a foppish fellow who claims to be acting as a middleman to retrieve a rather expensive jade necklace from the thieves who took it and who are willing to make a deal.

After Marriott is killed, the police consider Marlowe to be the lead murder suspect, but Marlowe has his eyes on a dysfunctional family trio:  a beautiful young woman named Ann Grayle (Anne Shirley), her wealthy father, Mr. Grayle (Miles Mander), and her stepmother, Helen Grayle (Claire Trevor).  Each one wants the jade necklace, for various reasons and is trying to manipulate Marlowe to get what he or she wants.  He, however, just isn’t having it, and he begins to connect his first case with his second.

Convoluted plot aside, some consider Murder, My Sweet to be the definitive film-noir movie in spite of its shaky script and throwaway and/or underdeveloped characters.  The characters don’t really stick and their connections to one another are flimsy and contrived, which drove me crazy because they had such potential.

The film is likely beloved because of its seductive vision of nighttime Los Angeles, here, shrouded in rich, lush shadows suggesting the quintessential film-noir setting for a hardboiled roughneck dick like Philip Marlowe.  There is hardly a daytime scene in this picture; it’s a dreamy nocturnal setting for night owls, and this is just the environment to make you forget a weak script and vastly undercooked characters.  Director Edward Dmytryk and cinematographer Harry Wild combine the former’s tendency towards flashy effects and the latter’s brilliant sense of noir into an atmosphere that is pure detective film from beginning to end.

The performances are mixed, although Claire Trevor as Helen Grayle creates a great femme fatale out of a very small part.  When she comes onto Marlowe, we know that she’d use her sexuality on him without hesitation in order to get her way, and this lady is just plain dangerous; you realize that from the moment you see her.  All that aside, the main attraction is Dick Powell as Philip Marlowe.  He interprets Marlowe as a no-nonsense kind of kind guy, but a glib fellow with a droll sense of humor.  He doesn’t pretend to play along with other’s bull, and he’s the proverbial straight shooter who calls bullshit when he sees it.  He’s not the strong, silent type because he talks a lot, but his verbalizing is merely the quick and tricky moves of a savvy fighter.  Powell adds life, a blazing presence, and practicality to the film-noir art of this movie.  Powell or artful noir – either one is more than enough reason to see this sadly flawed, but compelling film.

6 of 10
B

Monday, May 23, 2005

Updated:  Thursday, January 02, 2014

The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead Play to Type in "The Bat" (Happy B'day, Anges Moorehead)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 110 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Bat (1959) – B&W
Running time:  80 minutes (1 hour, 20 minutes)
DIRECTOR:  Crane Wilbur
WRITER:  Crane Wilbur – screenplay and screen story (based upon the play by Avery Hopwood and Mary Roberts Reinhart)
PRODUCER:  C.J. Tevlin
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Joseph Biroc
EDITOR:  William Austin
COMPOSER:  Louis Forbes

MYSTERY/THRILLER with elements of horror

Starring:  Vincent Price, Agnes Moorehead, Gavin Gordon, John Sutton, Lenita Lane, Elaine Edwards, Darla Hood, John Bryant, Harvey Stephens, Robert B. Williams, Mike Steele, and Riza Royce

The subject of this movie review is The Bat, a 1959 mystery-thriller starring Vincent Price and Agnes Moorhead.  The film is based on the 1920 Broadway play, The Bat, by Avery Hopwood and Mary Roberts Reinhart.  The play was adapted as a motion picture three times:  in 1926 as The Bat, in 1930 as The Bat Whispers, and again in 1959 as The Bat (the subject of this review).  The 1959 movie version focuses on a crazed killer, known as “The Bat,” who is on the loose in a mansion full of people.

Best-selling mystery author, Cornelia van Gorder (Agnes Moorehead, best known as “Endora,” the spiteful mother-in-law on the TV series, “Bewitched”), and her staff are summering at The Oaks, a fine estate near the small town of Zenith.  It is at The Oaks where Cornelia finds that she can write her hugely successful murder mysteries.  This summer, however, the locals are falling dead, and a mysterious, possible supernatural, killer known as The Bat is on the loose.

After The Oaks’ owner, John Fleming (Harvey Stephens), who also owns the local bank, dies, suspicions about the whereabouts of one million dollars in missing money from the bank, land squarely on The Oaks.  Soon, a bevy of townsfolk including the local coroner, Dr. Malcolm Wells (Vincent Price), Fleming’s nephew, Mark (John Bryant), the local law official, Lt. Andy Anderson (Gavin Gordon), and more are hanging around the mansion looking for the loot – with the threat of gruesome death at the hands (and claws) of The Bat hovering over them.

The Bat is one of those “spooky old house thrillers,” and is based upon a novel and play that was apparently very popular in the 1920 and 30’s.  This was the third film version of the story (the first was a silent film), and by 1959, this sub-genre of mystery films must have seemed quaint.  In fact, scary stories – the kind that take place in creaky old house riddled with secret passage ways where lies hidden money that is in turned hunted for by a masked villain – was soon to be (if not by the time of this movie’s release) children’s fare.  This is pretty much the template for most “Scooby-Doo” cartoons and other Hanna-Barbera cartoons like it.  Still, it’s very entertaining, and Vincent Price and Agnes Moorehead play to type.  This is a nice treat for the genre it represents.  In fact, The Bat holds the identity of its villain to the very end surprisingly well.

6 of 10
B

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Updated:  Friday, December 06, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: "Death of a President" Riveting, Troubling

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 62 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

Death of a President (2006)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  UK
Running time:  97 minutes (1 hour, 37 minutes)
MPAA – R for brief violent images
DIRECTOR:  Gabriel Range
WRITERS:  Simon Finch and Gabriel Range
PRODUCERS:  Simon Finch, Gabriel Range, and Ed Guiney
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Graham Smith
EDITOR:  Brand Thumim
COMPOSER:  Richard Harvey

DRAMA/MYSTERY/THRILLER

Starring:  Hend Ayoub, Brian Bolland, Becky Ann Baker, Robert Mangiardi, Jay Patterson, Jay Whittaker, M. Neko Parham, Chavez Ravine, and Malik Bader

In his mock documentary (also known as a “mockumentary”), Death of a President, director Gabriel Range presents a scenario in which U.S. President George W. Bush is assassinated in October of 2007.  Death of the President pretends to be an investigative documentary that examines the key players and events surrounding the killing of President Bush, several years after the as-yet-unsolved murder occurred.

Death of a President follows the events leading up to the assassination and its aftermath, and the film also features a bevy of talking heads, which includes the people around the president, murder suspects, and their families.  In his hypothetical film, Range focuses on the fallout that follows Bush’s murder – specifically the media’s reaction, the rush to convict a Muslim as the assassin, and the machinations of newly installed President Cheney to grab more presidential powers.

Since its appearance at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival, Death of a President has been highly controversial, and the producers had a difficult time finding a company to distribute the film to U.S. theatres.  Ultimately, Newmarket Films, which handled Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, distributed the film in the U.S.

I like this movie, although I did find the scenes in which President Bush was shot and the ones occurring at the hospital where he later died to be in poor taste.  Like him or not, he is (as of this writing) a sitting U.S. President, and to portray his death in so brutal and perhaps cavalier fashion is to traffic in mean-spiritedness and carelessness.

On the other hand, what takes place before the assassination and after is riveting stuff.  In the scenes leading up to the shooting, director Gabriel Range creates a riveting thriller that quietly races to its damnable turning point.  After Bush’s death, Range and his co-writer Simon Finch display a knowledge of the American mass media, of law enforcement (in particularly the FBI) and how they work and react to big events that is surprising considering they are not Americans.  Their spin on how Vice-President Dick Cheney would react if he became President after an assassination is dead-on (and maybe a little obvious considering Cheney’s actions as Vice-President).  Who doesn’t think Cheney would move to consolidate more power for himself with a Congress and a country reeling from shock, reluctant to challenge him, and desperate for leadership in such a time of crisis.

Range apparently specializes in these kinds of dramatizations of probable future events, such as his TV film, The Day Britain Stopped (which I’ve never seen).  He’s so-so at presenting interviews with the fictional talking heads involved in the events of Death of a President.  Some of the interviewees don’t come across as authentic, so the film sometimes feels phony.  Still, Range has created an engaging, unforgettable “what if,” and he smartly realizes what is most frightening about a U.S. president being assassinated.  Such an event could very well mean the definite beginning of the certain end of this grand experiment called the United States of America.

7 of 10
B+

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

NOTES:
2007 BAFTA TV Awards:  1 nomination:  “Best Visual Effects”

2007 International Emmy Awards:  1 win: “TV Movie/Mini-Series” (UK)

Updated:  Sunday, November 10, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: "Suspect Zero" is Not All it Can Be (Happy B'day, Henry Lennix)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 171 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Suspect Zero (2004)
Running time:  100 minutes (1 hour, 40 minutes)
MPAA – R for violent content, language, and some nudity
DIRECTOR:  E. Elias Merhige
WRITERS:  Zak Penn and Billy Ray; from a story by Zak Penn
PRODUCERS:  Paula Wagner, Gaye Hirsch, and E. Elias Merhige
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Michael Chapman, ASC (D.o.P.)
EDITORS:  John Gilroy and Robert K. Lambert, A.C.E.
COMPOSER:  Clint Mansell

CRIME/MYSTERY/THRILLER with elements of horror and sci-fi

Starring:  Aaron Eckhart, Ben Kingsley, Carrie-Anne Moss, Harry Lennix, Kevin Chamberlain, Julian Reyes, Keith Campbell, William Mapother, and Buddy Joe Hooker

The subject of this movie review is Suspect Zero, a 2004 crime thriller starring Aaron Eckhart and Ben Kingsley.  The film focuses on two characters, a mysterious serial killer who is hunting other serial killers and an FBI agent who suspects there may be more to this unusual vigilante than anyone can imagine.

A traveling salesman is found dead in his car just across the Arizona/New Mexico state line, and the killer performed some kind of ritual on the victim’s body.  The FBI and police wonder if there are others.  A second murder victim, a sixth-grade teacher from Boulder, Colorado, is found bound and gagged in the trunk of the car.  His killer also marked his body, so the police wonder if the two murders are connected.

FBI Agent Thomas Mackelway (Aaron Eckhart) isn’t sure, but he knows that the third murder is a personal message from the killer to him.  The victim is Raymond Starkey (Keith Campbell), a rapist/murder who escaped justice after Mackelway illegally goes to Mexico and does his Dirty-Harry-doesn’t-have-to-follow-the-rules routine that gets his case thrown out and lets Mackelway slip from the crack of Lady Justice’s butt cheeks.

Before long Agent Mackelway believes that the murderer is a man named Benjamin O’Ryan (Sir Ben Kingsley), and O’Ryan is either taunting him or helping him.  Mackelway’s past comes back to haunt him in the form of his ex-partner FBI Agent Fran Kulok (Carrie-Anne Moss).  He’ll need her to support him as the pressure mounts, and mysterious images…or could they be messages start to blossom in his mind as he tries to solve the riddle of Ryan and the next killer Ryan is hunting, the ultimate serial killer, Suspect Zero.

If, as the saying goes, the devil is in the details, it’s those devilish details that keep the mystery thriller, Suspect Zero, from becoming a great mystery thriller, but as the film is, it’s a damn good mystery thriller when all is said and done.  The film’s lone problem is its biggest, the slightly-more-than-paper-thin characters.  The character we get the most information about is Eckhart’s Mackelway, enough to find his plight and mission intriguing.  The script doesn’t give us enough to really enjoy and embrace him, and he’s the good guy, an enjoyable, embraceable kind of guy.  However, concerning Mackelway’s colleagues and the rest of the cast, we get next to nothing, just enough about them to move the plot.  There’s so little chemistry between Eckhart’s Mackelway and Ms. Moss’ Fran Kulok that if the filmmakers had replaced Kulok with a gay lover we still wouldn’t notice the character.

While the plot is the film’s strongpoint, the script isn’t.  It’s more or less a vehicle to move along genre conventions and to move the movie from one mystery, one murder, or one scary moment to the next.  It seems as if writer Zak Penn’s original script that he finished in 1997 was really a novel.  Screenwriter Billy Ray’s revisions tried to bring the novel back down to being a movie that runs just under two hours at the cost of characterization.  Luckily, both writers have made a career of composing actions and thrills for film so the missteps still make for a riveting movie.

When all is said and done and we look past the warts and all, Suspect Zero is not bad or great, but pretty good.  If you don’t mind the intense concentration this film’s oblique concepts and storytelling requires of you, and you accept that this is one of those times when you just can’t sit back and not think, then Suspect Zero will rock your recliner even if it doesn’t rock your world.

6 of 10
B

Updated: Saturday, November 16, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

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Review: Suspenseful "Taking Lives" is Also Predictable (Happy B'day, Ethan Hawke)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 36 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Taking Lives (2004)
Running time:  103 minutes (1 hour, 43 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong violence including disturbing images, language and some sexuality
DIRECTOR:  D.J. Caruso
WRITER:  Jon Bokenkamp, from a screenstory by Jon Bokenkamp (based upon the novel by Michael Pye)
PRODUCER:  Mark Canton and Bernie Goldmann
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Amir Mokri (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Anne V. Coates
COMPOSER:  Philip Glass

CRIME/MYSTERY/THRILLER with elements of action and drama

Starring:  Angelina Jolie, Ethan Hawke, Kiefer Sutherland, Gena Rowlands, Olivier Martinez, Tchéky Karyo, Jean-Hughes Anglade, and Paul Dano

The subject of this movie review is Taking Lives, a 2004 psychological thriller from director D.J. Caruso.  The film is loosely based on the novel, Taking Lives, a thriller written by Michael Pye and first published in 1999.  Taking Lives the movie focuses on an FBI profiler who is called in by French Canadian police in order to help them catch a serial killer that takes on the identity of each new victim.

Have modern film audiences seen everything?  Are they too jaded?  Sometimes I think they are, and sometimes I don’t.  Still, if films like Taking Lives are any indication, someone thinks film audiences, if they haven’t seen it all, have seen a lot.  Perhaps, a directors and screenwriters feel impelled to employ every twist and turn of a plot or story to shock the audiences into thinking, “Gee, I’ve never seen that before!”

In Taking Lives, Angelina Jolie is Illeana, an FBI profiler on loan to the French Canadian police in Montreal.  She is trying to track a serial killer who takes on the identity of each new victim.  When the police turn up Costa (Ethan Hawke), an alleged witness to one of the killer’s crimes, Illeana has an important lead in finding the illusive murderer, but when she begins to have strong feelings for Costa, she ends up getting dangerously closer to the mystery killer than she ever intended.

The film is competently directed, enough so to make it a standard and maybe a bit clunky, by-the-book thriller.  The acting is somewhat suspect.  In some scenes, Ms. Jolie hits her stride and without a word of dialogue, she’s able to transform Illeana from the typical, cardboard cutout FBI girl detective into a serious investigator with creepy insight into the mind of a psycho killer.  At other moments, her performance is pedestrian, and the only thing left for the viewer is to enjoy her beauty and admire those magical lips.

Taking Lives has some genuinely suspenseful and terrifying moments, but early in the film it starts to be a little too obvious who the killer really is and everything else becomes poorly disguised red herrings.  Taking Lives isn’t all that bad; it’s actually quite intriguing in a few places.  However, it’s not necessarily worth a trip to the theatre, but it’ll probably make a fairly decent rental.

5 of 10
C+

Updated:  Wednesday, November 06, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: "The Covenant" a Poorly Cast Spell

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 194 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Covenant (2006)
Running time:  97 minutes (1 hour, 37 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense action sequences of violence and action, some disturbing images, sexual content, partial nudity, and language
DIRECTOR:  Renny Harlin
WRITER:  J.S. Cardone
PRODUCERS:  Gary Lucchesi and Tom Rosenberg
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Pierre Gill (D.o.P.)
EDITOR:  Nicolas De Toth
COMPOSER: tomandandy

HORROR/FANTASY/MYSTERY/THRILLER

Starring:  Steven Strait, Laura Ramsey, Sebastian Stan, Taylor Kitsch, Toby Hemingway, Chace Crawford, Matt Austin, Wendy Crewson, Robert Crooks, Steven Crowder, Larry Day, and Jessica Lucas

The subject of this movie review is The Covenant, a 2006 supernatural horror and action-fantasy film from director Renny Harlin.  The film follows four young men who belong to a supernatural legacy and are forced to battle a fifth power long thought to have died out.  The young men must also contend with is their jealousy and suspicion of one another, which threatens to tear their union apart.

In 1692, four families of the Ipswich Colony of Massachusetts formed a covenant of silence to hide that they wielded The Power – what their fellow colonists identified as witchcraft.  Cut to the present: Caleb Danvers (Steven Strait), Pogue Parry (Taylor Kitsch), Reid Garwin (Toby Hemingway), and Tyler Sims (Chace Crawford) are the Sons of Ipswich, the heirs to the bloodline of those four families.  They are bound by their sacred ancestry, and Caleb, as the oldest, is their de facto leader.  As minors, they possess only a fraction of The Power they will have as adults, but Caleb is just a few days from his 18th birthday when he will “ascend” and receive his full powers.

Caleb and the other sons are students at the elite Spencer Academy.  There are two new students.  The attractive blond, Sarah Wenham (Laura Ramsey), catches Caleb’s eye.  The raffish Chace Collins (Sebastian Stan) becomes a rival for the affections of Pogue’s girlfriend, Kate Tunney (Jessica Lucas).  High school puppy love and rivalries are put on hold when the body of a dead student is found in the local woods after an outdoor party (rave?).  Caleb and Pogue sense that one of their own is abusing his power, threatening to break the covenant of silence that has protected their families for hundreds of years.  And this mystery user is very powerful and also hunting Caleb and Sarah.

The Covenant is kind of like the 1987 film, The Lost Boys, jammed into The WB’s (now The CW’s) TV series, “One Tree Hill.”  Director Renny Harlin (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, Exorcist: The Beginning) is no stranger to cheesy horror flicks that have a few scary moments, and The Covenant is a cheesy horror flick with some genuine atmosphere, a few scary movie thrills, and an obnoxiously loud soundtrack and score.  The main problem with The Covenant is that it’s all surface – lots of pretty visuals.  In fact, Harlin focuses so much on how the film looks – with its bevy of sexy male leads and haunting Québec, Canada filming locations – that he never gets into the meat of the story.

I will grant that co-producer/writer J.S. Cardone’s script is top heavy with backstory, pre-history, and mythology, so Harlin has a lot of text and subtext to transform into a movie that holds the short attention spans of its intended audience.  (This probably would work better as a novel, or hey, even a television series on The CW.).  There is so much intriguing stuff left in the air, and Harlin only brushes on the characters enough to give the audience a nebulous idea about what’s going on.  Still, The Covenant is a faintly entertaining, half-assed popcorn flick.  It’s the kind of horror movie that will live a half-life in the limbo of video rentals – lucky to be an afterthought behind the good horror movies.

4 of 10
C

Saturday, September 9, 2006

Updated: Thursday, October 31, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: "Boogeyman" Didn't Have to Be a Disappointment (Happy B'day, Sam Raimi)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 21 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Boogeyman (2005)
Running time:  86 minutes (1 hour, 26 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense sequences of horror and terror/violence, and some partial nudity
DIRECTOR:  Stephen Kay
WRITERS:  Eric Kripke, Juliet Snowden and Stiles White; from a story by Eric Kripke
PRODUCERS:  Daniel Carrillo, Hans Jurgen Pohland, Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Bobby Bukowski
EDITOR:  John Axelrad
COMPOSER:  Joseph LoDuca

HORROR/MYSTERY/THRILLER

Starring:  Barry Watson, Emily Deschanel, Skye McCole Bartusiak, Lucy Lawless, Tory Mussett, Robyn Malcolm, Charles Mesure, Philip Gordon, and Andrew Glover

The subject of this movie review is Boogeyman, a 2005 horror film from director Stephen T. Kay.  A take on the classic fear of a “monster in the closet,” this film focuses on a young man who is still haunted by a childhood terror that has affected his life.

Boogeyman was co-produced by Sam Raimi (director of The Evil Dead and three Spider-Man films), and also yielded two direct-to-DVD sequels. Actor Barry Watson, who was one of the stars of the long-running television series, “7th Heaven,” plays the lead character in Boogeyman.

A young man named Tim Jensen (Barry Watson) is traumatized by events he believes happened in his childhood bedroom.  His memories tell him that as an eight-year old boy he saw the boogeyman (Andrew Glover) come out of his closet and steal his father (Charles Mesure) away from him.  Now years later, after his mother’s (Lucy Lawless) funeral, he returns to his family home to face his fears that may be either a monstrous entity stealing away those he loves or the figment of his sick mind.

Boogeyman is lightweight entertainment, but sometimes it’s a gooseflesh raising, edge-of-your-seat, horror movie, even the cheesy bits, of which there are many.  Quick cuts from one shot to another, bumps in the night, slamming doors, knocking from behind locked doors, closets, and walls, lots of night scenes, and day scenes that look like night scenes are on the menu for this film.  There is even a shot of the footsteps of an unknown person who may be the (gasp) boogeyman, but still horror movie buffs, even the most difficult to please, will find a few moments of genuine fears and thrills.

However, Boogeyman tries to be mystery story about a child abductor, a psychological horror film, a monster movie, a family melodrama, etc.  It finally adds up to a scary movie that abruptly runs out of gas after trying on the rags of just about every horror sub-genre.  It’ll leave you asking what happened.  The screenwriters and director are too coy and too cute by a mile, so the result of their creative efforts is a film barely worth a rental.

3 of 10
D+

Updated:  Wednesday, October 23, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

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Review: The "Candyman" Can... Still Scare

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 132 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Candyman (1992)
Running time:  98 minutes (1 hour, 38 minutes)
MPAA – R
DIRECTOR:  Bernard Rose
WRITER:  Bernard Rose (based upon the story “The Forbidden” by Clive Barker)
PRODUCERS:  Steve Golin, Sigurjon Sighvatsson, and Alan Poul
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Anthony B. Richmond, B.S.C.
EDITOR:  Dan Rae
COMPOSER:  Philip Glass

HORROR/THRILLER with elements of fantasy and mystery

Starring:  Virginia Madsen, Tony Todd, Xander Berkeley, Kasi Lemmons, Vanessa Williams, and DeJuan Guy

The subject of this movie review is Candyman, a 1992 horror film from director Bernard Rose.  The film is an adaptation of “The Forbidden,” a short story by Clive Barker that first appeared in Barker’s short story collection, Books of Blood Volume 5 (published in the United States as In the Flesh).  Candyman tells the story of a grad student who is skeptical of stories about a local boogeyman until the boogeyman attacks her.

Stand in front of a mirror and say his name five times, and Candyman (Tony Todd) will appear behind you.  When someone calls his name, Candyman usually arrives to gut his caller from groin to gullet, but it’s all a children’s ghost story – an urban legend to scare the simpleminded.  That’s what Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen), a Chicago-based graduate student, believes when she comes across the tale of Candyman while doing research for her thesis on modern folklore.

However, when she hears that Candyman haunts Chicago’s notorious Cabrini Green projects, Helen thinks that she has a new angle for the thesis upon which she is working with her partner, Bernadette “Bernie” Walsh (Kasi Lemmons).  Still, Helen can’t really accept that Candyman exists.  Her actions and investigations also lead to an arrest that seems to put the Candyman tales to rest… until the legend himself appears and ignites a series of gruesome and bloody murders for which Helen gets the blame.

Thirteen years before earning the Oscar nomination that would revive her career (for 2004’s Sideways), Virginia Madsen was a scream queen – the heroine in a now-cult favorite horror movie entitled Candyman.  Based upon legendary horror/fantasy writer, Clive Barker’s, tale “The Forbidden,” Candyman took the unusual narrative approach that the final result of the film had to be that the heroine, in this case Helen Lyle, die in order to save the day.  Not only is Helen fighting a monster, but she’s also fighting a story that wants her dead.  Madsen was perfect as the doe-eyed beauty who swoons from one scene to the next, her plump, semi-Rubenesque body awaiting the fearsome savagery of Candyman’s hook.

Writer/director Bernard Rose (who would go on to direct Immortal Beloved, with Gary Oldman) moved the action from the housing projects of Liverpool, the original setting of Barker’s tale, to Chicago’s then-40-year old, decaying housing projects, Cabrini Green.  Rose’s choice was an excellent one, as he was able to make Cabrini an even more darkly mysterious setting for chills and thrills as good as any haunted house.  Rose makes the first half of the film a quietly, chilling suspense thriller, but he transforms the second half of the film into a dreamy and trippy dark horror/fantasy that only stumbles a little as it waltzes to the end.

The film also features a small role by Kasi Lemmons, who would make a name for herself in Hollywood as both a script doctor and as a director with the acclaimed, independent film hit, Eve’s Bayou.  Tony Todd became something of a horror movie/sci-fi cult actor (kinda like Bruce Campbell) appearing in episodes of “Stargate:  SG-1,” “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine” and also in the Final Destination horror film franchise.  Here, Ms. Madsen, Ms. Lemmons, Todd, and Rose put together a small, mesmerizing horror treat that bears many repeat viewings.

7 of 10
B+

Monday, August 22, 2005

Updated:  Sunday, October 13, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: "Nancy Drew – Detective" is a Delight (Remembering Bonita Granville)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 42 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Nancy Drew – Detective (1938)
Running time:  66 minutes (1 hour, six minutes)
DIRECTOR:  William Clemens
WRITER:  Kenneth Gamet (based on the novel “The Password of Larkspur Lane” by Carolyn Keene)
PRODUCER:  Bryan Foy
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  L. William O'Connell
EDITOR:  Frank Magee
COMPOSER:  Heinz Roemheld

MYSTERY with some elements of adventure, drama, and family

Starring:  Bonita Granville, John Litel, James Stephenson, Frankie Thomas, Frank Orth, Helena Phillips Evans, Renie Riano, Charles Trowbridge, Dirk Purcell, Ed Keane, and Mae Busch

The subject of this movie review is Nancy Drew – Detective, a 1939 mystery film.  It was the first of four films based on the Nancy Drew character and originally released by Warner Bros. Pictures in 1938 and 1939.

Nancy Drew – Detective is apparently a loose adaptation the Nancy Drew novel, The Password of Larkspur Lane, which was first published in 1933.  The novel was written by Walter Karig, using the pseudonym, Carolyn Keene, the name used as the author for all Nancy Drew novels.  In Nancy Drew – Detective, the girl detective sets out to solve the mystery of wealthy elderly lady who makes a substantial donation to Nancy’s alma mater and then, suddenly disappears.

When Mary Eldredge (Helena Phillips Evans) announces that she is leaving a quarter of a million dollars to Nancy’s high school, Nancy Drew (Bonita Granville) and her fellow students are excited and heartily announce that they plan to use the money to build a swimming pool.  But when Ms. Eldredge and her attorney, Hollister (Charles Trowbridge), are supposed to visit Nancy’s father, Carson Drew’s (John Litel) law office to legalize the donation, only Hollister appears.  He informs Nancy and her father that Ms. Eldredge has run off to an unknown sanitarium because she’s ill and that her donation to the school is on hold.  So begins the film Nancy Drew – Detective.

Of course, Nancy isn’t buying that her school’s donor has mysteriously run off, and after a chance encounter, when she witnesses the kidnapping of a local doctor, Nancy decides that Ms. Eldredge was spirited away by nefarious means.  She enlists her good-natured friend Theodore “Ted” Nickerson (Frankie Thomas) to assist her in the investigation of the missing donor.  Ted agrees and joins Nancy as they tackle an adventure that features a ruthless gunsel, skeptical cops, carrier pigeons, and an aerial search.  As usual Carson Drew has stern warnings and admonishments for his daughter about her recklessness.

Even after nearly 70 years, the Nancy Drew films retain its sparkling wit, tight plotting, engaging suspense, and find acting.  Nancy Drew – Detective was the first in a series of four films about the girl detective, and though it lacks the intensity of more adult or stronger mystery thrillers, it is still a quite engaging mystery film.  Personally, I like the clear photography (think of the better photographed black and white TV programs of the late 50’s and early 60’s), and the sets capture an idyllic suburban/rural/pastoral sprawl that you’d want to call home.

Sassy and stubborn, Ms.Granville’s Nancy Drew is a hoot, and her co-stars are playful and witty in ways that actors don’t seem to be anymore.  I give this film a hearty recommendation.

7 of 10
B+

Updated:  Friday, October 11, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: "Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 65 (of 2013) by Leroy Douresseaux

Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright (2013) – Video
Running time:  78 minutes (1 hour, 18 minutes)
PRODUCER/DIRECTOR:   Victor Cook
WRITERS:  Douglas Langdale (teleplay); from a story by Candie Langdale and Douglas Langdale
EDITOR:  Bruce A. King
COMPOSER:  Robert J. Kral
ANIMATION STUDIO:  Digital eMation, Inc.

ANIMATION/FANTASY/FAMILY and ACTION/COMEDY/MYSTERY/MUSIC

Starring:  (voices) Frank Welker, Matthew Lillard, Grey DeLisle, Mindy Cohn, Wayne Brady, Vivica A. Fox, Isabella Acres, Troy Baker, Eric Bauza, Jeff Bennett, Kate Higgins, Peter MacNicol, Candi Milo, John O’Hurley, Cristina Pucelli, Kevin Michael Richardson, Paul Rugg, Tara Sands, Tara Strong, Travis Willingham, and Ariel Winter

Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright is the 20th animated movie in the Scooby-Doo straight-to-video series from Warner Bros. Animation.  This series began in 1998 with Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island.  In Stage Fright, the Mystery Inc. gang tries to solve the mystery of a talent show plagued by a belligerent phantom.

Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright finds Mystery Inc.:  Shaggy Rogers (Matthew Lillard), Fred Jones (Frank Welker), Daphne Blake (Grey DeLisle), Velma Dinkley (Mindy Cohn), and, of course, Scooby-Doo (Frank Welker) heading to Chicago for a talent show.  The Windy City is the home of a hot competition reality show called, “Talent Star.”  Fred and Daphne are Talent Star finalists as a singer-songwriter duo.  Shaggy and Scooby do not want to be left out and have a secret act in the works, which they hope will help them storm their way into the finals.  Velma just wants to visit the city’s museums, one of which is exhibiting the legendary “Soap Diamond.”

However, Talent Star is being broadcast from an old opera house with a haunted history.  Now, The Phantom, the horror that plagued the opera house decades ago, is back to curse Talent Star.  Who or what is The Phantom?  The Mystery Inc. gang has a lot of suspects.  Among the many suspects are Talent Star’s publicity-obsessed host, Brick Pimiento (Wayne Brady); the fussy germ-a-phobic stage manager, Dewey Ottoman (Peter MacNicol); stage parents, Barb and Lance Damon (Candi Milo and Troy Baker), whose bratty daughter, Chrissy (Ariel Winter), is a finalist; and the scary and abrasive diva, singer Lotte Lavoie (Vivica A. Fox).

After twenty movies, one would think that this franchise could not offer any more surprises, but Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright does.  For one thing, there are several characters that could be the villain, and a few of them are actually villainous or could be described as an adversary, antagonist, or a general bad actor in the affair.  The story nicely mixes the classic story, The Phantom of the Opera (which originated in the novel by French writer, Gaston Leroux), and elements of the popular television series, “American Idol.”

Those are the things that kept me interested in this movie.  This is how I generally judge Scooby-Doo straight-to-video movies; if by the end of the film I actually wish it wouldn’t end, I consider that one to be a winner.

Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright is a winner.  In addition to the usual good voice acting by the main cast, Wayne Brady, Vivica A. Fox, and Peter MacNicol, in supporting roles, bring their characters to life in a way that makes them and the film a little more interesting to adults.  In fact, as a sidebar, this film does lampoon self-absorbed child stars and the stage parents who make the little monsters.  I think that fans of this film series and fans of Scooby-Doo will like Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright.

7 of 10
B+

Saturday, September 28, 2013


The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: "Phantom Lady" is for Fans of the Genre (Remembering Franchot Tone)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 79 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Phantom Lady (1944) – Black and White
Running time:  87 minutes (1 hour, 27 minutes)
DIRECTOR:  Robert Soidmak
WRITER:  Bernard C. Schoenfeld (from a novel by William Irish)
PRODUCER:  Joan Harrison (associate producer)
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Woody Bredell
EDITOR:  Arthur Hilton
COMPOSER:  Hans J. Salter

CRIME/FILM-NOIR/MYSTERY with elements of a drama, romance, and thriller

Starring:  Franchot Tone, Ella Raines, Alan Curtis, Aurora, Thomas Gomez, Fay Helm, and Elisha Cook, Jr.

The subject of this movie review is Phantom Lady, a 1944 film noir and crime and mystery film from director Robert Soidmak.  This film is based on the 1942 crime novel, Phantom Lady, which was written by author Cornell Woolrich and published under his pseudonym, William Irish.  Phantom Lady the film follows a secretary who risks her life trying to find an elusive woman that may be able to prove that her boss did not murder his selfish wife.

Although photographing a film in black and white was not an artistic choice but a matter of being the only choice for many directors during Hollywood’s Golden Era of the 1930’s and 40’s, some directors took advantage of black and white cinematography to create some of the most compelling and beautiful looking films in movie history.  Case in point:  German-born director Robert Soidmak took a Universal Studios B film, Phantom Lady, and turned it into a work of black and white movie art.

In the film, unhappily married Scott Henderson (Alan Curtis) takes a woman wearing a strange hat for a night on the town, but the woman insists that the two remain on a no-name basis for this one-night only date.  However, Scott’s wife is found strangled in their apartment, and Scott takes the rap for it because he has no alibi.  No matter how hard he and the police look, they can’t find the mysterious woman with whom he spent an anonymous date, and everyone whom Scott claims saw him and the woman together only remembers Scott being alone.

When Scott is convicted of the murder and sent to death row, his loyal secretary, Carol Richman (Ella Raines), and Inspector Burgess (Thomas Gomez), the policeman who has a change of heart about Scott, begin another search to find the mystery woman.  Someone, however, doesn’t want them to find the woman and actively interferes in the case with deadly consequences.

Phantom Lady is mostly a curiosity; it has a few good moments, and while it falls far short of being forgettable, it’s not really memorable.  Siodmak and his cinematography Woody Bredell compose countless exquisite black and white shots, staging the first three quarters of the film as if it were a series of artsy photographs.  While the look is classic film noir, the meat of the story is low rent noir.  The story stumbles towards an end, and the hammy killer, replete with pseudo psychological reasons for his killer tendencies, doesn’t help.  The cast is strikingly B movie, being made of character actors – most of them solid, except for Ella Raines’ wildly inconsistent performance.  Look for a nice sequence featuring Elisha Cook, Jr. (the "gunsel" from The Maltese Falcon) and Ms. Raines that is rife with overt and almost raw sexual energy.  Overall, this is mainly for those who love film-noir mysteries and crime dramas, but there’s little else for the average-Joe film fan.

6 of 10
B

Updated:  Wednesday, September 18, 2013

The text is copyright © 2013 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

Review: "The Order" is Unfortunately Out of Order

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 18 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Order (2003)
Running time:  102 minutes (1 hour, 42 minutes)
MPAA – R for violent images, sexuality and language
WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Brian Helgeland
PRODUCERS:  Craig Baumgarten and Brian Helgeland
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Nicola Pecorini
EDITOR:  Kevin Stitt
COMPOSER:  David Torn

MYSTERY/HORROR/THRILLER with elements of and fantasy

Starring:  Heath Ledger, Shannyn Sossamon, Benno Fürmann, Mark Addy, Peter Weller, and Francesco Carnelutti

The subject of this movie review is The Order, a 2003 mystery-horror film from writer-director, Brian Helgeland.  The film stars Heath Ledger as a young priest who travels to Rome to investigate the troubling death of the head of his order.

In Oscar® winning screenwriter Brian Helgeland's (L.A. Confidential) The Order, two priests belonging to an arcane order known as the Carolingians and a troubled painter track a figure of Catholic lore known as the Sin Eater.  When the leader of the Carolingians, Dominic (Francesco Carnelutti), dies, Alex Bernier (Heath Ledger) goes to Rome to investigate the circumstances of his mentor’s mysterious death.

Dominic’s body bears strange scars that may be the markings of the Sin Eater, a renegade who offers absolution of the gravest sins.  This is the only way to heaven for those who are outside the jurisdiction of the church, either by choice or because of excommunication.  However, there is a bigger problem; as Alex and his own colleague Father Thomas Garrett (Mark Addy) search for the Sin Eater, there may be a conspiracy surrounding Alex, drawing him closer to the Sin-Eater, a centuries old man named William Eden (Benno Fürmann).

The Order has an interesting premise, and it actually could have been a fairly good suspense thriller (and a creepy one, at that) without the hokey special effects.  The Order’s story is basically a tale of religious conspiracy, in this case, that old Hollywood standby, a conspiracy reaching the upper levels of the Roman Catholic Church and involving arcane Catholic lore.  One can wonder what Helgeland was thinking when he dreamed up this story.  It’s all flash and no substance.  What are the themes?  What is it really about?  Is it just a film exercise meant to be a scary movie.

Two things really hurt The Order.  First, the special effects and fantasy, horror, supernatural elements seem tacked on, as if the studio knew that people would not go for some religious mystery thriller if there wasn’t some unholy bump in the night going on.  Secondly, the actors, except for a few, spare moments, are pitiful.  They lack energy and seem lethargic or drugged.  Speaking accents and dialects are plentiful, but no actor is consistent.  Each one seems to grab whatever accent works for the moment, as if he or she will simply try everything in hopes that something will stick.

If you’re looking for a hardcore horror movie, this isn’t it.  If you like mystery and religious conspiracies, this isn’t a totally bad way to spend VCR time.

4 of 10
C

Updated:  Wednesday, September 04, 2013

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Review: "The Black Cat" Offers First Pairing of Karloff and Lugosi (Remembering Bela Lugosi)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 213 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Black Cat (1934)
Also known as: The Vanishing Body (1953)
Running time:  65 minutes (1 hour, 5 minutes)
DIRECTOR:  Edgar G. Ulmer
WRITERS:  Peter Ruric; from a screen story by Peter Ruric and Edgar G. Ulmer (based upon a story by Edgar Allen Poe)
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  John J. Mescall
EDITOR:  Ray Curtiss

HORROR/MYSTERY/CRIME

Starring:  Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, David Manners, Jacqueline Wells, Lucille Lund, Egon Brecher, and Harry Cording

The subject of this movie review is The Black Cat, a 1934 film that blends the genres of crime, horror, and mystery.  The film was released by Universal Pictures and produced by Carl Laemmle, Jr.  The Black Cat was re-released in 1953 as The Vanishing Body.  This was the first of eight movies that paired actors, Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff.  This is apparently one of the first movies to have an almost continuous movie score, which was composed by Heinz Roemheld.

The Black Cat takes its name from the Edgar Allen Poe short story, “The Black Cat” (first published in 1843), but little else.  Television and screenwriter Tom Kilpatrick contributed to the writing of this movie’s screenplay, but did not receive a screen credit.  The Black Cat the movie follows an American couple, honeymooning in Hungary, who becomes trapped in the home of a Satan- worshiping priest.

Peter Alison (David Manners) and his wife Joan (Jacqueline Wells) are American honeymooners vacationing in Hungary when they encounter a peculiar psychiatrist, Dr. Vitus Werdegast (Bela Lugosi) on a passenger train.  Later, the couple shares a taxi with him.  After the taxi accident is involved in an accident, the trio is trapped in the home of a Satan-worshipping priest, Hjalmar Poelzig (Boris Karloff).  Poelzig, an accomplished architect, desires Joan for a satanic ritual.  Unbeknownst to Peter and Joan, Poelzig and Dr. Werdegast are old acquaintances with a bitter history together.

I love gorgeous black and white movies, especially the beautiful horror films Universal produced in the 1930’s and 40’s.  The Black Cat is a superb example; the photography is excellent and the film has an eerie, but handsome dream-like quality.  A hip hop artist once commented on how films from Hollywood’s golden era of studio films had such class because everyone dressed so well, even the characters who weren’t wealthy.  The cast of this film wear the finest suits, in particular Lugosi’s Werdegast and Manners’ Peter Alison.  Lugosi’s ultra sharp suits add some kind of peculiar quality to his character that I just can’t explain; he looks so good in them that I can call him a mack.  Lugosi’s lounge attire:  smoking jackets, bathrobes, and top quality pajamas defy reason; they fit him like a tuxedo and would seem quite appropriate as formal dinner wear.

The most prominent element of The Black Cat is the art deco flavored art direction.  It does seem out of place in rural Hungary, but the mansion’s interiors add a special quality to movie.  Watching the story unfold in this art deco museum reminded me of a black and white version of a David Lynch creation like “Twin Peaks”.  It’s surreal, real, and dreamy, an atmosphere that I couldn’t ignore.  This is wonderful work by art director Charles D. Hall and set designer, director Edgar G. Ulmer.

Yes, the acting is a bit forced at times, but this kind of movie is special.  No one makes this kind of film anymore.  A kooky story, two famed, cult horror movie stars doing their shtick, exquisite costume design and the sleek designs of an art deco set are things too good to be miss.  This is perfect for Halloween, or just whenever you’re in the mood to see a kind of movie lost in time to us – gone, but not forgotten because quite a few gems like this still exist.  The Black Cat is also the first of eight screen parings of Karloff and Lugosi.

6 of 10
B

Updated:  Friday, August 16, 2013

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Review: "The Forgotten" - Good Premise, Poor Execution (Happy B'day, James Horner)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 193 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Forgotten (2004)
Running time:  96 minutes (1 hour, 36 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense thematic material, some violence, and brief language
DIRECTOR:  Joseph Ruben
WRITER:  Gerald Di Pego
PRODUCERS:  Bruce Cohen, Dan Jinks, and Joe Roth
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Anastas N. Michos
EDITOR:  Richard Francis-Bruce
COMPOSER:  James Horner

MYSTERY/THRILLER with elements of sci-fi and horror

Starring:  Julianne Moore, Dominic West, Christopher Kovaleski, Anthony Edwards, Gary Sinise, Alfre Woodard, Kathryn Faughnan, Linus Roache, and Robert Wisdom with J. Tucker Smith

The subject of this movie review is The Forgotten, a 2004 mystery and psychological thriller starring Julianne Moore.  The film follows a woman who delves into a strange conspiracy after being told that her son never existed.

The Forgotten is a riveting mystery thriller, but as the films moves through its plot, the film becomes ever more fantastical and, at time, eye-rolling ridiculous.  Still, the film has it’s moments, enough to earn it a recommendation as something to watch at home, either via DVD, video, or television.

The Forgotten begins with wife and mother Telly Paretta (Julianne Moore) grieving over the loss of her eight-year old son, Sam (Christopher Kovaleski), in a plane accident 14 months prior.  However, of the course of a few days, evidence of Sam’s existence starts to disappear, and before long, even Telly’s husband, Jim (Anthony Edwards), claims that they never had a son.  But Telly is damn sure she had a boy.

She meets Ash Correll (Dominic West), the father of one of Sam’s best friends, but Ash doesn’t remember having a daughter.  Telly eventually convinces Ash to remember his child, and that’s about the time agents from the National Security Agency (NSA) and the police start coming around looking for Telly and Ash.  That not only convinces Telly that she did have a son, but that Sam might still be alive.  As she delves deeper into the mystery, she discovers that hugely powerful and ominous forces may be behind the abduction of her son.

The premise of a mother fighting to convince other people that the memories of her dead son are the recollections of a real child and not the delusions of a psychotic is actually good.  If only The Forgotten had stuck with that.  The basic premise becomes an abduction story, a government conspiracy tale, and way-out-there sci-fi trick, and though The Forgotten has its moments, the film is ultimately a warmed over rehash of themes from “The Twilight Zone,” “Outer Limits,” and “The X-Files.”  In addition to that, The Forgotten wouldn’t stand out as a “best of” in any of those TV series.  The ploy is too make you think you’re getting a good mystery about a woman fighting for her memories of her deceased child, and you’re ultimately getting something else.  The “abduction” special effects are admittedly quite neat and a good reason to see the film.

The performances are flimsy, with Moore being the most effective and most annoying.  Her Telly Paretta is sometimes sympathetic, but mostly the character does come across as a whiny, obsessed, paranoid delusional.  For all that you might want her to find her child, you’d really like her to shut up sometimes.  The film also features a few other actors wasted in small, trashy parts including Gary Sinise, Alfre Woodard, and Linus Roache.

5 of 10
C+

Updated:  Wednesday, August 14, 2013

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Review: "Lucky Number Slevin" a Crime Film Treat

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 235 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Lucky Number Slevin (2006)
Running time:  110 minutes (1 hour, 50 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong violence, sexuality, and language
DIRECTOR:  Paul McGuigan
WRITER:  Jason Smilovic
PRODUCERS:  Chris Roberts, Christopher Eberts, Kia Jam, Anthony Rhulen, Robert Kravis, and Tyler Mitchell
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Peter Sova, ASC
EDITOR:  Andrew Hulme
COMPOSER:  J. Ralph

CRIME with elements of mystery and thriller

Starring:  Josh Hartnett, Morgan Freeman, Sir Ben Kingsley, Lucy Lui, Stanley Tucci, Bruce Willis, Dorian Missick, Mykelti Williamson, and Peter Outerbridge

The subject of this movie review is Lucky Number Slevin, a 2006 crime thriller.  The film is about a young man trapped by a case of mistaken identity that lands him in the middle of a brewing gang war between two rival crime bosses and also makes him the target of an infamous assassin.

Slevin Kelevra (Josh Hartnett) arrives at his friend, Nick Fisher’s New York City apartment only to find him missing, but Slevin does strike up a friendship with Nick’s chatty neighbor, Lindsey (Lucy Lui).  Later, two thugs looking for Nick arrive at the apartment and mistake Slevin for his missing friend.  It turns out that Nick owes a lot of money to two crime bosses:  $96,000 to The Boss (Morgan Freeman) and $33,000 to The Rabbi (Sir Ben Kingsley).

The Boss and The Rabbi, once partners, are now bitter, deadly enemies.  Before long, The Boss wants Slevin to perform a high-profile hit against The Rabbi’s son as a way to pay off his $96,000 debt.  The Rabbi just wants his money, and he gives Slevin a few days to come up with the cash.  And it doesn’t matter to them that Slevin isn’t Nick – that’s just his hard luck.  How unlucky is Slevin?  The infamous assassin, Mr. Goodkat (Bruce Willis), is also gunning for Slevin, or is he?  Slevin suddenly has to hatch an ingenious plot to win this game of death.  And what is the Kansas City Shuffle?

Paul McGuigan (GANGSTER Number 1) mixes sub-genres in his crime flick, Lucky Number Slevin.  It blends noir, gangster flicks, and the con game into a violent little tale of betrayal, crass brutality, and revenge.  The viewer that doesn’t figure out the trick early on will find himself rewarded for having waded through this often slow moving and gabby flick.  Even figuring out the surprise midway through the movie makes the waiting pay off.  Figure out the secrets early on, and you might have to enjoy Lucky Number Slevin’s execution and style.  (Strangely, the direction and writing on this film seem at their best during the flashbacks.)

The performances are good, but not great.  It’s these actors’ status as movie stars – whether it be A-list, B-list, or lower – and their ability to sell a character they’re playing that makes what they’re doing look good and convincing (although Sir Ben Kingsley seems an automatic for the most part).  Meanwhile, Josh Hartnett is a “face.”  He’s handsome and has movie idol written all over him, but he still hasn’t found enough good material to make him iconic.  Lucky Number Slevin isn’t that kind of great material, but it’s good enough for the time being.  Sexy, vulnerable, and utterly sympathetic, Hartnett makes this odd and sometimes uneven tale a sweet treat for fans of crime cinema.

7 of 10
B+

Updated: Friday, July 19, 2013