Review: A Tad Bit Too Much Tom Cruise in "Mission: Impossible III"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 96 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Mission: Impossible III (2006)
Running time: 126 minutes (2 hours, 6 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense sequences of frenetic violence and menace, disturbing images, and brief sensuality
DIRECTOR: J.J. Abrams
WRITERS: Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci and J.J. Abrams (based upon the television series created by Bruce Geller)
PRODUCERS: Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Dan Mindel
EDITORS: Mary Jo Markey A.C.E. and Maryann Brandon A.C.E.

ACTION/ADVENTURE/SPY/THRILLER

Starring: Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ving Rhames, Billy Crudup, Michelle Monaghan, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Keri Russell, Maggie Q, Simon Pegg, and Laurence Fishburne

Super spy/secret agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) has retired from active duty with the Impossible Mission Force and now trains new IMF agents. When one of them, Ethan’s star pupil Lindsey Ferris (Keri Russell), turns up missing, Ethan rejoins his crack IMF team: his old friend and super computer expert, Luther Strickell (Ving Rhames); transportation expert, Declan (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers); and background operative, Zhen (Maggie Q) to rescue her. However, Hunt and his team run into their toughest opponent yet, Owen Davian (Philip Seymour Hoffman), an international weapons and information provider with no remorse and no conscience. Ethan later finds himself in the clutches of Davian’s employ when he kidnaps Julia (Michelle Monaghan), the love of Ethan’s life. Ethan must retrieve something called “the rabbit’s foot” for Davian if he is to save Julia from the ruthless villain.

The long-awaited Mission: Impossible III has the action movie chops to match the hype that lead up to its release. It’s full of high-octane action sequences that are more thrilling than they are over the top. MI3 is like the first film in the franchise, Mission: Impossible – an espionage thriller with intense thrills – more than it is like the second film, Mission: Impossible II, which was part secret agent adventure and part Hong Kong shoot ‘em up highball. In terms of action thrills, MI3 stands up with such classic 1990’s action flicks as Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the Die Hard sequels, the Pierce Brosnan James Bond movies, The Rock, Con Air, and Face/Off. Those movies were pure action pictures with heart stopping chases, riveting thrill rides, and die-hard heroes.

Mission: Impossible III is virtually a non-stop thrill ride, and much of the credit has to go to the imaginations of co-writer/director J.J. Abrams (co-creator of the TV series “Lost”) and the screenwriting team of Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci for coming up with the thrills. Kurtzman and Orci have collaborated with Abrams on his hit TV series, “Alias,” and MI3 resembles Alias’ smart thrills. Abrams, directing his first feature film, doesn’t stumble in his transition from the small screen to the big screen. MI3 is definitely a movie monster, the kind of wide-open adventure film that needs to be seen in theatres.

The flaw that does keep Mission: Impossible III from being a truly great film is that the movie focuses too much on Tom Cruise. Sure, he’s the star, but what is the point of having an actor with the chops of Philip Seymour Hoffman if all he’s going to do in the film is make threats, scowl, and generally look like a meanie. The press materials for MI3 say that Hoffman’s Owen Davian is supposed to be some remorseless bad ass, but we hardly get to see Hoffman really chew up the screen as a villain. Anyone who saw him in Capote, and wondered what he would be like if he played a major screen bad guy will leave MI3 wondering what could have been.

Even Ving Rhames’ Luther Strickell is just window dressing. The character got off to a great start in the first film, and although Rhames part is bigger here than it was in the second film, his potential hasn’t been scratched. The women especially are wasted. Michelle Monaghan and Maggie Q seem so underutilized, but so is everyone else. Only Laurence Fishburne in a small part gets to tear up some screen.

No, it’s all Cruise, just about all the time, and he’s pretty good. Mission: Impossible is his signature action franchise, and he can mine it for a long time. However, the films would be so much richer if Impossible Mission Force was really a team and not just Cruise and some other guys – pawns to be moved about in positions that simply maximize Cruise’s Ethan Hunt in his role of the secret agent as super hero. Still, Mission: Impossible III is more than worth the price of admission for those who remember when action movies were gritty, edge-of-your-seat thrill rides and not just a series of over the top stunts generated in a computer.

7 of 10
B+

Monday, May 8, 2006

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Review: First Tom Cruise "Mission: Impossible" is Still a Thrill

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 13 (of 2001) by Leroy Douresseaux

Mission: Impossible (1996)
Running time: 110 minutes (1 hour, 50 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13
DIRECTOR: Brian De Palma
WRITERS: David Koepp and Robert Towne; story by David Koepp and Steven Zallian (based on the television series created by Bruce Geller)
PRODUCERS: Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Stephen H. Burum (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Paul Hirsch
COMPOSER: Danny Elfman

ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLER

Starring: Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Béart, Henry Czerny, Jean Reno, Ving Rhames, Kristin Scott Thomas, Vanessa Redgrave, Dale Dye, and (uncredited) Emilio Estevez

The Impossible Missions Force (I.M.F.) must recover a computer disc that contains the code name of C.I.A. agents in deep cover in Eastern Europe and capture the spy who not only has the disc but also seeks the other half of the information, which gives the real identities of those same agents.

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is the point man for the mission, under the guidance of Jim Phelps (a character holdover from the “Mission: Impossible” television series 1966-73 and a revival 1988-90) and leads his team (which includes parts played by Kristin Scott-Thomas and an uncredited Emilio Estevez). The mission goes awry and places Hunt, the sole survivor, under the false suspicion of betrayal.

Hunt recruits a new team: Phelps’s wife, Claire (Emmanuelle Beart), a thuggish, Franz Krieger (Jean Reno), and a master computer hacker, Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), all to help him discover and expose the real mole in I.M.F.

One of the smartest summer movies of all time, Mission: Impossible, upon its release, left audiences shaking their heads. The film itself is like one of the mind games for which the television series was famous. The characters in the film, other than Hunt, are not what they seem, and the writers filled the film with hints that come and go quickly that inevitably reveal the secrets and secret identities. M: I is light on plot, but deceptively simple. Hunt must obtain the object of desire, the deep cover agent list that will in turn bring all the players out of the shadows and into the light of day. Only then, can he prove his innocence.

Cruise proves to be a very good actor (in addition to be such a magnifying screen presence) in the hands of a good director, and De Palma (Casualties of War), despite his spotty box office career, is a fine director. A student of Alfred Hitchcock’s work, De Palma brings the master’s sense of suspense and mystery to M: I. As with a Hitchcock lead, we know that Hunt is innocent, but the odds are so stacked against him that we wonder if he will escape alive, let alone solve the puzzle.

Jon Voight as Phelps fairly drips with duplicity and mystery; he is simultaneously an wise old teacher and reptilian cold war era spy. Vanessa Redgrave brings a lively elegance to the proceedings as the arms dealer, Max. Henry Czerny, as Eugene Kittridge, brings to the show the similar essence of his character Robert Ritter from Clear and Present Danger.

Mission: Impossible is a fine action thriller full of riveting suspense. It demands one’s attention with its unorthodox approach to action movies. Its premise is a gorilla that hangs by a thread on the suspension of disbelief. But it engages and demands that the viewer not only pay attention but uses his mind. The creators only ask that you surrender part of your thinking to them, while most movies, especially summer fare, ask for all of your good sense.

8 of 10
A

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"Death Race 3" Begins Production

The Stakes Are Higher Than Ever For the Ultimate Road Warrior In An All-New Deadly Race

DEATH RACE 3 Currently Filming in South Africa

Death Race 3, the latest heart-pounding entry in the high-octane franchise, is currently filming in and around Cape Town, South Africa. In this all-new original feature film from Universal 1440 Entertainment, hardened criminalsrace for their freedom in vicious new vehicles and face-off in the ultimateblood sport, when the popular Death Race is transported across the globe to the unforgiving and rugged terrain of South Africa. Forced against his will to participate in this global TV spectacle, Frankenstein - the greatest Death Race driver of all time - takes on this ultimate challenge to not only save himself, but his pit crew as well.

Inspired by Roger Corman’s cult classic thrill ride, Death Race 3 marks the return of Luke Goss (Death Race 2, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, Blade 2), Danny Trejo (Death Race 2, Machete, “Sons of Anarchy”), Ving Rhames (Death Race 2, Mission: Impossible franchise, Pulp Fiction), Fred Koehler (Death Race 1 & 2, “Lost”), Robin Shou (Death Race 1 & 2, Mortal Kombat) and Tanit Phoenix (Death Race 2, “Femme Fatales”). Also, joining the action are Dougray Scott (Mission: Impossible II, “Heist”) and Hlubi Mboya (How to Steal 2 Million).

“Universal’s first two Death Race films have garnered an ardent global following that is eagerly awaiting a new chapter in this riveting saga,” says Glenn Ross,General Manager and Executive Vice President, Universal 1440 Entertainment. “Death Race 3 will exceed their expectations with even more explosive action, elaborately outfitted cars, inventive weaponry and death-defying stunts that have made the franchise such a huge fan favorite.”

Director Roel Reiné (Death Race 2, Scorpion King 3) once again takes the wheel of the explosive, action-thrill ride. Death Race 3 is produced by Mike Elliott (Death Race 2, Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassins Ball), with Paul W.S. Anderson and Jeremy Bolt serving as executive producers. The screenplay is by Tony Giglio (Death Race 2). The film is an official South African/German Co-Production between Universal Pictures Productions GmbH and Moonlighting DR3 Production (Pty) Ltd, shot in South Africa and co-produced by Genevieve Hofmeyr, Marvin Saven, and Ralph Tuebben. The film’s stellar production team includes director of photography John Shields (The Last House on the Left).

SYNOPSIS:
Convicted cop-killer Carl Lucas, aka Frankenstein, is a superstar driver in the brutal prison yard demolition derby known as Death Race. Only one victory away from winning freedom for himself and his pit crew, Lucas is plunged into an all-new competition more vicious than anything he has experienced before. Pitted against his most ruthless adversaries ever, Lucas fights to keep himself and his team alive in a race in South Africa’s infernal Kalahari Desert. With powerful forces at work behind the scenes to ensure his defeat, will Lucas’ determination to win at all costs mean the end of the road for him?


Universal 1440 Entertainment is a production entity of Universal Studios Home Entertainment (USHE). Universal Studios Home Entertainment is a unit of Universal Pictures, a division of Universal Studios (http://www.universalstudios.com/). Universal Studios is a part of NBCUniversal, one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production and marketing of entertainment, news and information to a global audience. NBCUniversal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment television networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stationsgroup and world-renowned theme parks.Comcast Corporation owns a controlling 51% interest in NBCUniversal, with GE holding a 49% stake.

Review: Fun "Piranha" Paints the Town Red

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 7 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

Piranha (2010)
Running time: 88 minutes (1 hour, 28 minutes)
MPAA – R for sequences of strong bloody horror violence and gore, graphic nudity, sexual content, language and some drug use
DIRECTOR: Alexandre Aja
WRITERS: Peter Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg
PRODUCERS: Alexandre Aja, Mark Canton, Grégory Levasseur, and Marc Toberoff
CINEMATOGRAPHER: John R. Leonetti
EDITOR: Baxter

HORROR/COMEDY/THRILLER

Starring: Elisabeth Shue, Ving Rhames, Steven R. McQueen, Jessica Szohr, Adam Scott, Jerry O’Connell, Kelly Brook, Riley Steele, Christopher Lloyd, Eli Roth, Brooklynn Proulx, Sage Ryan, and Richard Dreyfuss

It was called “Piranha 3D” when it was released last summer, but Piranha, the latest film from horror movie director, Alexandre Aja, is a remake. In 1978, director Joe Dante unleashed a campy horror flick entitled Piranha that was a spoof of Steve Spielberg’s Jaws. I didn’t see the new film in 3D, but I doubt I would have liked it more if I had seen it in 3D instead of the way I did – regular D on DVD.

It’s Spring Break on Lake Victoria in Arizona. Scantily clad girls are shaking their melon-like ta-ta’s, swinging their curvy hips, and bouncing their ample asses. Strangely, as healthy as the girls look, the guys are scrawny, but they will still provide good meat for the waterborne death soon to come.

Sheriff Julie Forester (Elisabeth Shue) has her hands full trying to maintain order with an influx of rowdy college students. What she doesn’t know is that a small earthquake has split open the floor of Lake Victoria. From that chasm, a school of piranha has emerged from a subterranean lake. Sheriff Forester’s son, Jake (Steven R. McQueen), envies the fun everyone has while he has to baby sit his younger sister, Laura (Brooklyn Proulx), and younger brother, Zane (Sage Ryan). Fate has other plans for Jake, his family, his friends, and the visitors to Lake Victoria. The piranha are about to turn the lake into a bloody, killing field.

After the first 20 minutes or so of Piranha, I wanted everybody to die (even the two Forester children) because the movie seemed like it was going to be a disaster. By the time the piranhas really begin their killing spree, I was cheering this movie on and fretting over the fact that, at 88 minutes long, the movie would be over fairly quickly. As far as filmmaking merit goes, Piranha is trash, but as a horror movie willing to deliver bloody mayhem, it is pretty successful.

As a comic horror movie, Piranha is also winning, which isn’t all that common among films that mix comedy and horror. Director Alexandre Aja and his writers take the Spring Break movie set on the water and the wall-to-wall gore of a George Romero zombie movie and mix them into a death-by-trauma spectacular. There is so much blood in this movie that it often looks as if someone set off a cherry jello dirty bomb. The underwater shots of piranha pulling eyeballs out of sockets and stripping off flesh like pulled pork thrilled me – with my gleeful laughing as my own personal soundtrack.

Some viewers will consider Piranha a guilty pleasure. Others will wish more horror comedies could deliver the bloody goods the way Piranha does.

5 of 10
B-

Friday, January 21, 2011

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Review: "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry" Dumb and Eloquent

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 144 (of 2007) by Leroy Douresseaux

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry (2007)
Running time: 110 minutes (1 hour, 50 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for crude sexual content throughout, nudity, language, and drug references
DIRECTOR: Dennis Dugan
WRITERS: Barry Fanaro and Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor; from a treatment by Lew Gallo
PRODUCERS: Michael Bostick, James D. Brubaker, Jack Giarraputo, Adam Sandler, and Tom Shadyac
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Dean Semler
EDITOR: Jeff Gourson

COMEDY

Starring: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Jessica Biel, Dan Aykroyd, Ving Rhames, Steve Buscemi, Nicholas Turturro, Nick Swardson, Blake Clark, Mary Pat Gleason, Cole Morgan, Shelby Adamowsky, and Robert Smigel; also Rob Schneider and David Spade

In I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, two guys’ guys pose as gay lovers in order for one of the men to make sure his children get his insurance benefits.

New York City firemen Chuck Levine (Adam Sandler) and Larry Valentine (Kevin James) are the pride of their fire station. Loyal to the core, they’ll do anything for each other, but after Larry saves Chuck’s life, Chuck is about to find out just how much owing his buddy will cost him. When widower Larry realizes that civil service red tape might keep his children, Eric (Cole Morgan) and Tori (Shelby Adamowsky), from getting his life insurance benefits, he knows that one of the ways to insure his children’s financial future is to get married.

Still deeply mourning his late wife, Larry hasn’t dated since her death or really moved on from that tragedy. A newspaper article gives him a crazy idea – domestic partnership benefits for same-sex couples, so he asks Chuck to pose as his live-in gay lover. Chuck, however, has a vigorous sex life as a heterosexual and often entertains several women at a time, and wants no part of Larry’s plan. But he owes Larry. After the friends start posing as love-struck newlyweds, nosey city bureaucrat, Clinton Fitzer (Steve Buscemi), starts to investigate the alleged relationship, so the buddies are forced to present a genuine picture of domestic bliss. After the boys hire a lawyer that specializes in their situation, Chuck falls hard for their sexy attorney, Alex McDonough (Jessica Biel), and his lust just might reveal his and Larry’s secret.

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry is a somewhat badly made, broad comedy, but it sure is funny. The writers seem to have written a flimsy script that simply plays up to the numerous possibilities for comic misunderstanding this concept offers. It’s not lacking in cleverness so much as it is overly abundant in crassness and gross-out humor. That crudeness is actually personified more in Ving Rhames’ Fred G. Duncan, a sort of Mandingo as giant, threatening homo, than it is in Adam Sandler’s Chuck, who is a self-admitted “whore.” In fact, neither Sandler nor Kevin James is anywhere near doing his best work. As for Biel, her body is still a wonderland, and we get to see quite a bit of it.

Although this movie comes across as a rutting goat, where I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry actually beats the low expectations that many had for it is in the film’s not-too-preachy attitude about acceptance of gays and the gay lifestyle. The filmmakers and their stars, Sandler and Kevin, vigorously assault anti-gay sentiment, gay-bashing, and gay slurs wherever they find it. The film also offers generous samples of gay clubs, drag queens, and flashy dancing.

On the other hand, the film does offer several brief scenes that reveal the not-fun-side of being a gay couple. Quite frankly, it’s uncomfortable and embarrassing to watch Chuck and Larry’s friends and colleagues suddenly become quite skittish about their old friends once they discover that the duo is a gay couple. Even worse is to watch the people that Larry knows from his children’s school, sports leagues, and the Boy Scouts suddenly remove his name from participation lists. It’s almost as if he died.

How this mixture of raunch and gross can have positive messages about family and acceptance of others is a mystery. That the filmmakers made a bad movie so funny and entertaining is an even deeper mystery.

6 of 10
B

Friday, December 28, 2007

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Review: John Singleton's "Baby Boy" Returns to Singleton's Cinematic Roots

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 23 (of 2001) by Leroy Douresseaux

Baby Boy (2001)
Running time: 130 minutes (2 hours, 10 minutes)

MPAA – R for strong sexuality, language, violence and some drug use
WRITER/PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: John Singleton
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Charles E. Mills (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Bruce Cannon

DRAMA with elements of crime and romance

Starring: Tyrese, Taraji P. Henson, Omar Gooding, Tamara LeSeon Bass, Candy Ann Brown, A.J. Johnson, Ving Rhames, Snoop Dogg, Mo’Nique, Angell Conwell, Kareem J. Grimes, Kaylan Bolton and Kylan Bolton

Jody (Tyrese Gibson) is a 20-year-old black man living with his mother (Candy Ann Brown). He is the father of two children by two different women. The relationship with one of the baby mama’s, Yvette (Taraji P. Henson) is the romantic focus of the film. Jody’s mother has an openly sexual relationship with Melvin (Ving Rhames), himself a former banger; he is a muscular Mandingo and Jody’s mother doesn’t have to call Tyrone when she needs some good, strong lovin.’ B’leive ‘dat!

Jody’s homey, Sweet Pea (Omar Gooding) is lost and also unemployed; he is desperate for meaning in and a purpose for his life. As he relationship with Yvette deteriorates, her old flame, a recently released convict named Rodney (rapper Snoop Dogg) shows up, literally gunning for Jody’s life.

Directed by John Singleton (Shaft), Baby Boy is more a slice of social studies than entertainment. It belongs to Singleton’s South Central Los Angeles milieu that he introduced in Boyz N the Hood, but it is thematically similar to the Boyz follow up, Poetic Justice.

The film opens with Jody dreaming that he’s an adult still in the womb; it is a visually jarring set piece that conveys the troubled state of Jody’s mind. It’s not long before we also realize that Jody’s life is frozen. He going nowhere, spending his days hustling, watching television, and involved in sexual escapades with many women.

He resents his mother’s relationship with Melvin, but Melvin is very familiar with the type of “li’l nigga” that Jody is because Melvin was himself once of a similar type. Jody has a twisted view of his relationship with his baby mamas. He tells Yvette that he lies to her about his philandering because he loves her too much to hurt her with the truth that he is a man whore. He uses the other women for sex because they’re, in his words, “tricks,” but he really loves Yvette because she is the mother of his son. His other baby mama, Peanut (Tamara LaSeon Bass), a girl whose own mother seems to be well to do, is less tolerant of Jody and dismisses him. In fact, when his relationship with Yvette collapses, Jody tries to seduce Peanut, but she quickly lets him know that she intends on treating him like an on-call sex toy. For Jody, Peanut treating him like an object jars Jody.

The film has only two characters as fathers – Jody and Melvin; in fact, fathers are conspicuously absent from this film. Melvin is estranged from his own children; his eldest son informs Jody off screen that Melvin beat his mother. Jody isn’t much better; his children are merely vestiges of his fornicating rather than the result of some kind of manhood. Jody’s own father is rarely spoken of, and Jody could have been hatched from an egg for all the knowledge of being a human father he obviously does not possess.

One of the themes here seems imply that Jody can’t be a father because he never had one to show him what it means to be a father and a man. That was Singleton’s dominant theme in Boyz, much to the delight of conservative i.e. Republican critics and fans of the movie. However, if a boy who did not know his own father himself grows to be a bad father, the reason is not necessarily because he didn’t have a dad.

Jody is selfish, spoiled, and manipulative. It’s difficult to tell what part his mother played in his personality, as there isn’t much back-story to her other than that she threw Jody’s older brother out of the house. Someone killed him, and Jody believes his mother throwing the brother out led to that. We also learn that mom has had lots of boyfriends.

As stated earlier, this film is more social studies than entertainment. Singleton seems to be saying to his audience, see how these people are. Or it may be that it is easy for him to make a movie about a subject with which he is very familiar. The film aims at making some kind of point, but Singleton stumbles to a tacked on and predictable ending. Maybe, the film’s resolution is “real” or “how it is on the streets,” but this is drama and it demands some kind of structure and purpose.

Singleton doesn’t have to provide pat answers to solve social “problems.” There are no easy answers to social issues, but the demand for resolutions comes with the territory of making socially relevant films. Singleton overly relies on the visceral impact of profanity-laden dialogue and animalistic, confrontational sex. He’s onto something, having tackled an important issue, but he reduces his movie to a series of blunt, angry scenes. Maybe, he doesn’t know the power and danger of the subject with which he plays. He certainly doesn’t realize the dramatic potential of his subject. He wastes Snoop Dogg’s Rodney character, not to speak of under utilized Ving Rhames.

Boyz in the Hood had a good story that was universal in both its appeals and its themes. Singleton hasn’t been able to duplicate that quality of story since then. He has an idea of how to make really good films, but it’s a shame we have to keep waiting for his arrival as a really good filmmaker. He’ll become one when he takes a social issue and makes a film with a good story that clearly conveys its message to the audience.

Powerful and forceful, Baby boy is a diamond in the rough despite it structural shortcomings. There is enough good there that makes it worthy of considerable critical analysis. It’s a bold, brazen, adventurous movie. While stopping short of being great, it has more substance than most films today, so Baby Boy is worth your time.

6 of 10
B

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