TRASH IN MY EYE Reviews

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Review: Woody Allen's "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger" is Not an Exciting Encounter

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 16 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)
Running time: 98 minutes (1 hour, 38 minutes)
MPAA – R for some language
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Woody Allen
PRODUCERS: Letty Aronson, Jaume Roures, and Stephen Tenenbaum
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Vilmos Zsigmond
EDITOR: Alisa Lepselter

COMEDY/DRAMA/ROMANCE

Starring: Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Gemma Jones, Freida Pinto, Lucy Punch, Naomi Watts, Pauline Collins, Roger Ashton-Griffiths, Ewen Bremner, and Zak Orth (narrator)

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger is the fourth London-set film from famed director Woody Allen. The film follows a pair of married couples in some state of marital dissolution.

After her husband, Alfie Shepridge (Anthony Hopkins), divorces her, Helena Shepridge (Gemma Jones) consults Cristal (Pauline Collins), a psychic, to learn what fate has in store for her. Alfie, in the midst of an old man’s version of a midlife crisis, is engaged to a prostitute named Charmaine Foxx (Lucy Punch). Helena and Alfie’s daughter, Sally Channing (Naomi Watts), and her husband, Roy Channing (Josh Brolin), are having their own marital problems. Sally is smitten with Greg Clemente (Antonio Banderas), the owner of the art gallery where she works. Roy, a struggling writer, falls in love with Dia (Freida Pinto), a grad student who is already engaged to be married. Meanwhile, Helena waits for the tall, dark stranger Cristal predicted would come into her life.

When one considers the films Woody Allen made in the 1970s, 80s, and even into the 90s, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, like most of Allen’s films from the last decade, does not measure up. Parts of this film are dull and uninspired, but some of it is also shocking and sincere in its depiction of how a person’s dissatisfaction with his or her life can manifest itself.

I think credit should go to the cast who seem to not only make the best of this middling material, but in some cases, make it better. Gemma Jones and Anthony Hopkins are the best examples of that in this film. I’m not familiar with Jones, but I am with Hopkins. As much as I always expect him to be good, Hopkins surprises me with his fantastic turn as the vain, confused, and ultimately tragic Alfie. Hopkins brings complexity to a character that needs complexity.

The themes of this film seem to be vanity and discontent, and the characters yearn for material things while ignoring how bankrupt they are spiritually. However, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger doesn’t seem to yearn for anything, being largely philosophically and spiritually empty. This movie doesn’t even have an ending so much as the story just seems to fade away.

I have to be honest. If anyone else other than Woody Allen pulled what he does with this movie, I would be intolerant. So if you are a fan of Allen or of at least one of the cast members, you may want to meet this movie. Otherwise, you will not want to meet You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.

5 of 10
C+

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Friday, February 18, 2011

Shane Black to Direct "Iron Man 3"

The website, Total Film, is one of many reporting that Shane Black will direct "Iron Man 3, scheduled for May 2013. Shane Black, who wrote Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout, also wrote and directed Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which starred Iron Man himself, Robert Downey, Jr. Apparently, the third Iron Man film will be a sequel to this spring's Thor and next summer's, "The Avengers." I'll post more information as I find it.

Review: "For Colored Girls" is Sho Enuf Good

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 15 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

For Colored Girls (2010)
Running time: 134 minutes (2 hours, 14 minutes)
MPAA – R for some disturbing violence including a rape, sexual content and language
DIRECTOR: Tyler Perry
WRITER: Tyler Perry (based upon the play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange)
PRODUCERS: Roger M. Bobb, Paul Hall, and Tyler Perry
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Alexander Gruszynski
EDITOR: Maysie Hoy

DRAMA

Starring: Kimberly Elise, Janet Jackson, Loretta Devine, Thandie Newton, Anika Noni Rose, Kerry Washington, Tessa Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, Whoopi Goldberg, Macy Gray, Michael Ealy, Omari Hardwick, Richard Lawson, Hill Harper, and Khalil Kain

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf is a 1975 stage play written by American playwright and poet, Ntozake Shange. It is my understanding that the Obie Award-winning play is a series of 20 poems or poetic monologues that express the struggles and obstacles that African-American women face throughout their lives.

Tyler Perry, the playwright turned prolific film director, adapted Shange’s play into the 2010 film, For Colored Girls. The film explores the lives of nine modern African American women, interconnected by one way or another, and uses poetic vignettes to illuminate their struggles, suffering, and conflicts (abuse, rape, and abortion, among others).

Among the characters is Joanne “Jo” Bradmore (Janet Jackson), a magazine publisher whose husband, Carl Bradmore (Omari Hardwick), is unfaithful. Promiscuous Tangie Adrose (Thandie Newton) and troubled teenager, Nyla (Tessa Thompson), are estranged sisters who find their mother, Alice Adrose (Whoopi Goldberg), to be the thing between them. Crystal Wallace (Kimberly Elise), who works for Jo, fails to see the true danger her abusive boyfriend, war veteran Beau Willie Brown (Michael Ealy), poses to her and her children. Meanwhile, watching everything and hoping to bring everyone together is apartment manager, Gilda (Phylicia Rashad).

I’ve always thought that Tyler Perry is as capable of directing moving film dramas as he is at staging broad comedies, and For Colored Girls affirms that, although 2009’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself already proved Perry could do drama. I’m surprised that this film has gotten such negative reviews, especially because Perry has taken the black social pathologies this story depicts and has transformed them into riveting tales of human pathology with a universal appeal.

Perry’s nuanced staging and graceful directing of the camera transform what could have been downbeat into a mesmerizing panorama of compelling character dramas. Seriously, if For Colored Girls looked exactly the same and a white filmmaker like Stephen Daldry, David Fincher, or Christopher Nolan was credited as the director, film critics would be turning verbal cartwheels to praise this film. Perry’s work here as a director can be described as, at least, occasionally virtuoso, and while his screenwriting here is weaker than his directing, Perry, as both writer and director, has done a superb job turning these poetic vignettes into a powerful film.

Perry gets some fantastic performances from his cast, especially the actresses, who all hit strong emotional notes. I hate to single out any, but if I had to pick favorites, I would go with Kimberly Elise, Thandie Newton, and Phylicia Rashad. Every moment she is onscreen, Elise delivers magic; her every move and glance makes you believe that Crystal Wallace is real. Thandie Newton is effortless in her brilliance (as usual), and Rashad shows colors, shades, and textures in a performance that certainly surprised me. I never knew she was that good.

However, all the women in this film shine, giving stirring performances that help For Colored Girls to ring true. Even if Tyler Perry doesn’t get his due from critics and haters, he has given us our due – a great African-American drama about Black women.

9 of 10
A+

Friday, February 18, 2011

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Thursday, February 17, 2011

Review: "Brick" is an Unconventional Conventional Mystery Film (Happy B'day, Joseph Gordon-Levitt)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 188 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Brick (2005)
Running time: 110 minutes (1 hour, 50 minutes)
MPAA – R for violent and drug content
EDITOR/WRITER/DIRECTOR: Rian Johnson
PRODUCERS: Ram Bergman and Mark G. Mathis
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Steve Yedlin

DRAMA/MYSTERY/THRILLER

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Nora Zehetner, Lukas Haas, Noah Fleiss, Matt O’Leary, Emilie de Ravin, Noah Segan, Richard Roundtree, Meagan Good, and Brian White

When teenager loner Brendan Fry (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) finds his former girlfriend, Emily Kostich (Emilie de Ravin), dead in a local canal, he’s determined to find the murderer and all those involved. Brendan enlists the aid of a local stoolie, The Brain (Matt O’Leary), who seems to know everyone, their hangouts, and all their business. Through a series of intense encounters with the various cliques at his high school, Brendan finds a drug connection and enters the world of a local drug kingpin, The Pin (Lukas Haas), and his enforcer, Tug (Noah Fleiss). But with Assistant Vice-Principal Trueman (Richard Roundtree) breathing down his neck, will Brendan be ensnared in the very trap he set to catch those responsible for Emily’s death?

A hit at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, writer/director Rian Johnson’s Brick is an unconventional Film-Noir (or neo noir) set in the halls of a modern day high school situated in a semi-affluent suburbia setting. Johnson mixes the film noir detective with the gangster flick and the undercover sting. It’s a latte of The Maltese Falcon, A Fist Full of Dollars, and your pick of Martin Scorsese crime flicks. Brick is never too smart for its own good, but sometimes Rian’s concoction seems mismatched with his setting. He has all the elements of noir right (even a femme fatale or two), but those elements often ring hollow against the backdrop of a high school.

Still, it’s always good when a filmmaker can make his movie engaging and make you give a damn, and Johnson does. The film starts off very slow, but Brick is hard to ignore. I just couldn’t stop watching, and in Brendan Fry, Rian has the kind of hero the audience will follow… even into danger and other places Brendan just shouldn’t be and just shouldn’t go. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, formerly of the NBC comedy, "3rd Rock from the Sun," plays Fry with chutzpah, nerves of steel, and the wily charm of a rogue twice his age. Rian came up with a good idea for a crime story, but Gordon-Levitt gives the performance that makes it a good movie.

7 of 10
B+

Monday, August 28, 2006

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Studio Ghibli's "Nausicaa" and "Earthsea" Anime Due on DVD in March

On March 8th, Studio Ghibli's TALES FROM EARTHSEA (DVD only) and NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND (Blu-ray + DVD Combo Pack) will be available to bring home.

Goro Miyazaki's directorial debut, Tales from Earthsea, features exquisite hand-drawn animation and the vocal talents of Timothy Dalton, Willem Dafoe, Cheech Marin, and Mariska Hargitay. Bonus material includes a behind-the-scenes look at the studio and Studio Ghibli Trivia Challenge.

Nausicaa of Valley of the Wind launched the Academy Award-winning career of famed director Hayao Miyazaki! This stunning animated tale features the voices of Uma Thurman, Shia LeBeouf, and Patrick Stewart. Bonus features include a behind-the-scenes look into the recording booth and the birth story of Studio Ghibli.

Nausicca Film Synopsis: For the first time ever, the magic of Blu-ray™ high definition reveals the exquisite details in Hayao Miyazaki’s epic masterpiece, Nausicaä Of The Valley Of The Wind. Experience the film that launched the Academy Award–winning career (2002 for best animated feature, Spirited Away) of one of the most celebrated filmmakers in the history of animation.

After a global war, the seaside kingdom known as the Valley Of The Wind remains one of the last strongholds on Earth untouched by a poisonous jungle and the powerful insects that guard it. Led by the courageous Princess Nausicaä, the people of the Valley engage in an epic struggle to restore the bond between humanity and Earth.

Like Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away and Ponyo, Nausicaä Of The Valley Of The Wind will dazzle your senses with its intricately imagined storytelling and stunning animation.

U.S. Release Date: March 8, 2011
(Direct Prebook January 11, 2011/ Distributor Prebook January 25, 2011)
Rating: US-PG; Canada-PG
Feature Run Time: Approximately 118-minutes
Release Format: Blu-ray Combo Pack (Blu-ray Disc™ + DVD)
Suggested Retail Pricing: 2-Disc Blu-ray Combo Pack (BD+DVD) = $39.99 U.S./$44.99 Canada
Exclusive Blu-ray Bonus World of Ghibli including
Features: Behind the Studio
Enter the Lands
Studio Ghibli Trivia Challenge
Original Japanese storyboards
General Blu-ray & DVD Behind the Microphone
Bonus Features: The Birth Story of Studio Ghibli
Original TV trailers

Talent/Cast: Uma Thurman (Kill Bill: Vol 1, Kill Bill: Vol 2, Pulp Fiction, Gattaca), Shia LeBeouf (Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Tranformers, Surf’s Up), and Patrick Stewart (Gnomeo & Juliet, Bambi II, Chicken Little)

Director: Hayao Miyazaki (Ponyo, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke)
Producers: Michio Kondô (Nausiacaä and the Valley of the Wind)
Isao Takahata (Castle in the Sky, Nausiacaä and the Valley of the Wind)
Yasuyoshi Tokuma (Spirited Away, Pulse, Ritual)

Tales from Earthsea:
Film Synopsis: From Disney and Studio Ghibli comes the epic animated adventure Tales From Earthsea, directed by Goro Miyazaki, and featuring the voices of Timothy Dalton, Willem Dafoe, Cheech Marin, and Mariska Hargitay.

Based on the classic “Earthsea” fantasy book series by Ursula Le Guin, Tales from Earthsea is set in a mythical world filled with magic and bewitchment. Journey with Lord Archmage Sparrowhawk, a master wizard, and Arren, a troubled young prince, on a tale of redemption and self-discovery as they search for the force behind a mysterious imbalance in the land of Earthsea; crops are dwindling,dragons have reappeared, and humanity is giving way to chaos.

Featuring a timeless story and magnificent hand-drawn animation, Tales From Earthsea is must-have DVD for every film enthusiast’s collection.

U.S. Release Date: March 8, 2011
(Direct Prebook January 11, 2011/Distributor Prebook January 25, 2011)
Feature Run Time: Approximately 115-minutes
Release Format: DVD
Suggested Retail Pricing: 1-Disc DVD = $29.99 U.S./$35.99 Canada
DVD The World of Ghibli including:
Bonus Features: Behind the Studio
Enter The Lands
Studio Ghibli Trivia Challenge

Talent/Cast: Timothy Dalton (Toy Story 3, The Tourist, The Informant), Willem Dafoe (John Carter of Mars, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Spider Man), Cheech Marin (Cars, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Spy Kids), and Mariska Hargitay (TV’s Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order)

Director: Goro Miyazaki (directorial debut)
Producers: Toshio Suzuki (Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke)

"Big Momma's House 2" a Plain House

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 125 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Big Momma’s House 2 (2006)
Running time: 99 minutes (1 hour, 39 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some sexual humor and a humorous drug reference
DIRECTOR: John Whitesell
WRITER: Don Rhymer (based upon the characters created by Darryl Quarles)
PRODUCERS: David T. Friendly and Michael Green
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Mark Irwin
EDITOR: Priscilla Nedd-Friendly
Razzie Award nominee

COMEDY/FAMILY

Starring: Martin Lawrence, Nia Long, Emily Procter, Zachary Levi, Mark Moses, Kat Dennings, Chloe Grace Moretz, Marisol Nichols, Jascha Washington, Josh Flitter, and Preston Shores and Trevor Shores

Eddie Murphy began his career as a standup comic and shot to fame as a cast member of NBC’s venerable sketch comedy variety series, “Saturday Night Live,” in the early 1980’s. By 1982, he had a hit movie, and by the late 1984 release of the film, Beverly Hills Cop, he was a certified movie star. Although he hit a dry patch at the turn of the decade in 1990, he redefined himself by appearing in family friendly live action films like The Nutty Professor and Dr. Doolittle franchises (both remakes of older films) and doing voiceover work in hit animated films such as Walt Disney’s Mulan and DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek franchise.

Martin Lawrence also began his career as an edgy “urban contemporary” or black comedian. The late 1980’s and early 1990’s found him in supporting roles and ensemble parts in several films. He had a hit show on the FOX Network, “Martin,” beginning in 1992. At the turn of the century, he had two big hit movies, one of them, 2000’s Big Momma’s House, was a surprise blockbuster hit. Then, the walls came tumbling down with a series of stumbles that began in 2001 with What’s the Worst That Could Happen? and Black Knight and continued with 2003’s National Security, before Bad Boys II righted Lawrence’s ship later that same year.

Martin has also recently remade himself from a formerly edgy comedian to one who now makes family friendly films. The first one, Rebound in 2005, was a misfire, but earlier this year, Martin once again donned the drag getup of an obese black matron in the (relatively speaking) surprise box office hit, Big Momma’s House 2. We find our intrepid hero, Malcolm Turner (Lawrence), married to Sherri (Nia Long), the target of his undercover investigation in the first film. Not only is he a stepfather to Sherri’s son, Trent (Jascha Washington), but he and Nia are expecting a baby in just a few weeks.

Wanting to spend more time with his family and stay out of danger for them, Malcolm took a desk job that sometimes finds him doing PR for the FBI (like dressing in a giant chicken costume and teaching children safety). However, an FBI agent and friend is murdered while investigating Tom Fuller (Mark Moses), a computer programmer who is creating a “worm,” that will allow foreign agents and outside enemies computer access into the most sensitive areas of government security information. Malcolm wants in on the investigation, but his superiors hold him to his request for desk duty.

But the story can’t stop there, especially when opportunity gives Malcolm a way back onto the job. The Fullers need a nanny, and Malcolm retrieves his fat suit, prosthetic face, and granny dresses from the closet. Before long, Hattie Mae Pierce aka “Big Momma” is back on the job and has wiled her way into Tom’s wife, Leah’s (Emily Procter), heart and becomes the Fuller’s nanny. Big Momma immediately starts searching the house for information on Tom’s activities, but before long Big Momma finds herself attached to the three Fuller children: teen goth girl with an attitude, Molly (Kat Dennings); unconfident cheerleader, Carrie (Chloe Grace Moretz), and three-year old Andrew (played by twins Preston and Trevor Shores), who hasn’t yet spoken a word, jumps from heights, and eats Brillo® pads and sand. Now, Malcolm as Big Momma is determined to help the Fuller kids through their difficulties and make their career-oriented parents spend more time with them. But will that comprise Malcolm’ mission and keep him from discovering the whereabouts of the worm Tom is creating and discovering the identity of the enemy agents trying to buy it?

I neither liked nor hated Big Momma’s House 2. It’s occasionally, mildly funny, although the last 20 minutes are actually the first time the film comes out of its stupor for something resembling a rousing ending. The first film really showcased Martin Lawrence’s talent for getting in costumes to create a variety of eccentric and wildly comic characters (of which we saw a lot in his series “Martin”). The sequel comes across as a cheap copy that mostly spins its and Martin’s wheels. The Big Momma act seems tired and desperate, even more so under the weight of the dull comedy written by Don Rhymer, the co-writer of the first film. There are times when Martin actually seems emotionally drained by returning to this role. It’s a look in his eyes.

Big Momma’s House 2 is a domestic comedy set in the home of an upper middle class family. The FBI half of the pic, which stretches the limits of suspension of disbelief and is full of holes, is just filler material for the family-based comedy and for Martin Lawrence’s new act – that of a family friendly black comedian. Big Momma is the beloved black matron teaching the nice white family how to come together and just love one another. Big Momma’s philosophy of “jus’ put it in the Lawd’s hand”-southern black Christianity and homespun wisdom are the essence of the quintessential black matron or mammy – a Hollywood and, let’s face it, American social fantasy.

That said, Lawrence gives Big Momma’s relations with the child characters more traction than this lame film deserves. There are times when she’s helping the family or rescuing one of the members when it looks like at least an ember of the old Big Momma fire is still there. Big Momma’s House 2 is a family flick, in spite of the sexual innuendo and assorted crudeness. So don’t see it expecting the madcap romp we got the first time. See it for what it is – a kids' movie with loads of potty humor.

4 of 10
C

Tuesday, June 6, 2006

NOTES:
2007 Razzie Awards: 1 nomination: “Worst Prequel or Sequel”

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