Review: "Yours, Mine & Ours" is a Fun Family Film

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 183 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Yours, Mine & Ours (2005)
Opening date: Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Running time: 88 minutes (1 hour, 28 minutes)
MPAA – PG for some material may not be suitable for children
DIRECTOR: Raja Gosnell
WRITERS: Ron Burch & David Kidd (based upon the 1968 motion picture screenplay by Melville Shaveson and Mort Lachlan from a story by Madelyn Davis and Bob Carroll Jr.)
PRODUCERS: Robert Simons and Michael Nathanson
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Theo Van de Sande, ASC
EDITORS: Stephen A. Rotter and Bruce Green, A.C.E.

COMEDY/FAMILY with elements of romance

Starring: Dennis Quaid, Rene Russo, Rip Torn, Jerry O’Connell, David Koechner, and Linda Hunt

One evening, while he is in the middle of an unpleasant date, Frank Beardsley (Dennis Quaid), a widow, runs into his old high school sweetheart, Helen North (Rene Russo), and it’s as if the thirty years since they last saw each other never passed. Helen, a widow, also feels the attraction and can’t wait to meet Frank again, which they do at a high school reunion cruise. They rush into marriage, but they don’t tell their kids…

Frank has eight children: four-year old Ethan (Ty Panitz), six-year old twin boys Otter (Briger Palmer) and Ely (Brecken Palmer), eight-year old Kelly (Haley Ramm), 10-year old Harry (Dean Collins), 12-year old Michael (Tyler Patrick Jones), 16-year old Christina (Katija Pevec), and 17-year old William (Sean Faris).

Helen has 10 children – four she had with her late husband and six they adopted: four-year old Aldo (Nicholas Roget-King), eight-year old twins Marisa (Jessica Habib) and Bina (Jennifer Habib), nine-year old Lau (Andrew Vo), 10-year old Joni (Miranda Cosgrove), 11-year old Jimi (Lil’ JJ), 12-year old Mick (Slade Pearce), 14-year old Naoko (Miki Iskikawa), 16-year old Dylan (Drake Bell), and 17-year old Phoebe (Danielle Panabaker).

But maybe love can’t conquer all. The two families don’t mesh quite as easily as Frank and Helen had hoped. Frank, a Coast Guard Admiral, is a by-the-book disciplinarian, but the free-spirited Helen has no “book” and believes that the home is a place for free expression, not military style discipline. The children are always at odds. Helen’s brood aren’t pleased about moving or sharing rooms with a bunch of uptight strangers, and Frank’s offspring have nothing in common with the unruly and strange pack of kids their father’s new wife brings into their lives.

On the other hand, both sets of children realize that they have a common goal – breaking up their parents’ marriage, so they band together to create the kind of chaos that causes confusion between a couple with different parenting styles. As the kids succeed in their plot, they also realize that they really like each other in spite of their differences. Now, they have repair the bond between Helen and Frank that they broke, but are Helen and Frank still interested in being a couple.

The box office success of 2003’s Cheaper by the Dozen, the remake of a 1950’s film about a father managing a large pack of children, probably encouraged Paramount Pictures and MGM to remake another film about parents struggling to manage a large number of offspring. Thus, we have Yours, Mine & Ours, the remake of a 1968 film. This 2005 version of Yours, Mine & Ours isn’t as good as the Cheaper by the Dozen remake. For one thing, the acting by the leads playing the parents, Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo, two talented actors with a deft touch at comedy, waffles between listless and over done. Quaid has his moments when his talent shines through this murky material, but Russo delivers a surprisingly mediocre turn in a role she should sleepwalk through, or may be she did sleepwalk through it.

Also, 18 child and teen actors can’t get the screen time that even 12 can get, so none of young cast gets a chance to give his or her character personality. The script for the 2003 Cheaper by the Dozen gave the actors playing two of the older children (Tom Welling and Hilary Duff) a chance to bond with the parents (played by Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt), which gave the comedy some emotional resonance. Here, the script lumps the older kids in completely with the younger ones. The film would have more dramatic resonance if the older ones could be seen as a bridge between what the parents want and what the kids want. This doesn’t happen until the very end, and it comes across as a tacked on happy ending.

Still, Yours, Mine & Ours has some truly funny moments. It’s a silly and fun family flick for parents with ‘tweens and younger. The adult actors give the film some credibility, and director Raja Gosnell (Big Momma’s House and the Scooby Doo movies) keeps the pace fast, only slowing down for some romantic scenes between Quaid and Russo. It’s all too fast for us to stop and examine the numerous cracks in this picture and just fast enough to keep the easy laughs coming. Yours, Mine & Ours is chock full of predictable moments, and the audience can see the punch line the moment any particular joke or gag begins, but it’s all still funny.

5 of 10
B-

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

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Review: North Country is the Legal Thriller as a Gritty Drama

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 44 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

North Country (2005)
Running time: 126 minutes (2 hours, 6 minutes)
MPAA – R for sequences involving sexual harassment including violence and dialogue, and for language)
DIRECTOR: Nick Caro
WRITER: Michael Seitzman (from the book Class Action: The Landmark Case that Changed Sexual Harassment Law by Clara Bingham and Laura Leedy Gansler)
PRODUCER: Nick Wechsler
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Chris Menges
EDITOR: David Coulson
Academy Award nominee

DRAMA

Starring: Charlize Theron, Frances McDormand, Sean Bean, Richard Jenkins, Jeremy Renner, Michelle Monaghan, Woody Harrelson, Sissy Spacek, Thomas Curtis, and Elle Peterson

Josey Aimes (Charlize Theron) was stuck in a failed marriage, but this last time her husband beat her is the last time, she tells herself. Josey takes her two children, Karen (Elle Peterson) and Sammy (Thomas Curtis), and returns to her Northern Minnesota home, where she moves in with her parents, Hank (Richard Jenkins) and Alice Aimes (Sissy Spacek). Hank still carries an old grudge with his daughter Josey because Sammy was born out of wedlock when Josey was a teenager.

Encouraged by Glory (Frances McDormand), an old friend, Josey takes a job in the area’s predominant source of employment, the iron mines, where her father also works. However, times are tough, and jobs are scarce. The iron mines are traditionally a man’s job, and the men don’t want women there taking jobs from other men. Hank considers his daughter’s presence a threat to him and one more embarrassment on his family. The male workers let their feelings be known by making the mines an exceedingly tough place to work, and they do that through various forms of harassment – in particular sexual harassment.

Josey speaks out against the hideous treatment she and the other women face, but the mine’s owners, management, and fellow workers, including the other women, meet her with resistance. Her difficulties and the scorn she faces affects her relationship with her children, especially her sensitive teenage son, Sammy, who must not only deal with his mother’s sudden infamy, but also with embarrassing details of Josey’s past that she hoped he’d never have to know. When Bill White (Woody Harrelson) a local lawyer and former hometown hero takes Josey’s case on as a potential class action lawsuit, they’re forced to go it alone until dark secrets from the past come forward and open the eyes of those who should have supported Josey all along.

North Country is based upon and is a fictional account of the first successful sexual harassment lawsuit, Jenson vs. Eveleth Mines, which began in the 80’s and was settled in 1998. The courtroom scenes are TV movie quality (complete with the 11th hour miracle), but resonate when Charlize Theron is on the stand. While North Country certainly has compelling subject matter, the script seems to cherry pick scenes that go for maximum emotional impact or shock value. There is nothing subtle here, or new for that matter: men angry that there space and manhood have been challenged; assorted rednecks, cowardly women who won’t stand up for themselves, the pissed-off teenage son, the evil mine owner, the self-righteous and judgmental townsfolk, etc.

However, North Country takes a hard look at how honorable people keep quiet and let wrong go unchallenged for fear of drawing unpleasant attention to themselves. That’s why it would have been nice if the film focused less on giving the lead actress scenes she can chew up to get the attention of award voters and more on developing the other characters. Even the worst characters in this movie come across as interesting with something to say – their side of the story. Sometimes the villainy in North Country is just too thick, even if the villainous actions are not only in the realm of possibility, but actually happen in the real world. Fleshing out the “bad guys” would have so enriched the narrative, giving its central message and ideas some real, forceful impact.

Charlize Theron is so beautiful that a movie’s makeup department has to pile on the ugly to make her look plain. That worked in Monster, the 2003 film that earned her an Oscar, but here, her beauty shows through. She’s the working class babe – a diamond in coal dust. Sometimes, those good looks seem out of place, but when Theron takes an average script and believes in it, she can improve a movie. It’s OK that sometimes what the audience is supposed to think about Josey’s trials and tribulations seem plastered on a big signpost for the audience to see because Charlize looks good even when she’s hamming. Here, she’s mixes drama with a flair for the melodramatic.

North Country viscerally the film plays its subject matter. Director Nick Caro (Whale Rider) might be dealing in stereotypes, but she’s also dealing in truth. The way Caro portrays small town ignorance and bigotry gives her film sharp teeth and a razor-sharp edge. The meanness of a small town populace that capriciously picks its outcasts; the meanness of women who should be sympathetic to other women; and the meanness of co-workers who go overboard in their harassment of fellow workers take a limp courtroom drama with shoddy supporting character development and propel it to truth. Caro and screenwriter Michael Seitzman may often rely on old dramatic relationship formulas – the kind of relationship dynamics that sell soap operas. Still, North Country is an honest drama that takes no prisoners in depicting cowardice and evil. That is enough to take the edge off its faults.

7 of 10
B+

NOTES:
2006 Academy Awards: 2 nominations: best actress (Charlize Theron) and best supporting actress (Frances McDormand)


2006 BAFTA Awards: 2 nominations: best actress (Charlize Theron) and best supporting actress (McDormand)


2006 Golden Globes: 2 nominations: motion picture actor-drama (Charlize Theron) and supporting actress in a motion picture (Frances McDormand)

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Why no "Best Picture" Win for Avatar?

Here comes the post-Oscar analyst.  People are probably going to wonder why Avatar did not with the 2010 Oscar for "Best Picture," and The Hurt Locker did for years.  This article from Yahoo talks about that and offers speculation.  Here is a quote from the article:

Los Angeles Times columnist Patrick Goldstein sums up this sentiment by writing, "My suspicion is that academy members still find it difficult to believe that films largely created and sculpted in the computer--whether it's "Avatar" or the long string of brilliant Pixar films -- can be just as worthy and artistic as the old-fashioned live-action ones."

I think there are many reasons why Avatar didn't win.  I think some Oscar voters chose The Hurt Locker or some other film over Avatar because James Cameron already has 3 Academy Awards, from 1998 when the Academy lavished his 1997 worldwide smash hit, Titanic, with 11 Oscars out of 14 nominations.  Some Academy members may not have liked how Cameron acted during the 98 awards ceremony.  Remember Cameron declaring, "I'm king of the world?"  It was a quote from Titanic, so I wasn't bothered by Cameron's declaration, but some apparently were and still are.

Anything that involves voting involves politics, and awards, like politics, are often popularity contests.  Maybe some voters were a little envious at Avatar's monstrous success - 2.5 billion dollars in worldwide box office and growing.  Pretty much everyone knew Avatar would be a hit, but how many thought it would be this big?  Do some Academy members have the perception that Cameron already has everything, so why give him more?  Why not honor The Hurt Locker, this little film that could and the "Best Picture" winner with the lowest box office take - about $12 million - in the modern era.

Or maybe Oscar voters are put off with these made-inside-a-computer movies.  I think that is why Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Sin City, and 300 did not even receive Oscar nominations for "visual effects," when they seemed like obvious choices.

Review: "Spider-Man 2" is a Superb Sequel

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 112 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Spider-Man 2 (2004)
Running time: 127 minutes (2 hours, 7 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for stylized action violence
DIRECTOR: Sam Raimi
WRITERS: Alvin Sargent, from a screen story by Alfred Gough & Miles Millar and Michael Chabon (based upon the comic book created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko)
PRODUCERS: Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Bill Pope
EDITOR: Bob Murawski (D.o.P.)
COMPOSER: Danny Elfman
Academy Award winner

SUPERHERO/ACTION/DRAMA/ROMANCE with elements of sci-fi

Starring: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Alfred Molina, Rosemary Harris, J.K. Simmons, Donna Murphy, Daniel Gillies, Dylan Baker, Bill Nunn, Willem Dafoe, and Cliff Robertson

I had mixed feelings about the first Spider-Man, released in 2002. The action sequences featuring Spider-Man rescuing folks, being his Spidey self, and fighting the Green Goblin were for the most part pretty cool. The (melo)drama was well conceived, but was too dry and flat. Director Sam (Evil Dead) Raimi’s sequel, Spider-Man 2, doesn’t suffer from flat drama, and the action is even better than the first time. After X2: X-Men United, this may be the best superhero movie ever.

As SM2 starts, a myriad of personal problems beset our hero, Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire), and being Spider-Man doesn’t help any of them. He’s broke, and the bank is about to foreclose on his Aunt May’s (Rosemary Harris) home. He isn’t making enough money taking photos for the Daily Bugle, and his newspaper boss, J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons), doesn’t cut him any slack. Parker is in love with his longtime friend Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), but he’s afraid to let her into his life for fear that one of Spider-Man’s enemies will eventually use her as a pawn in their revenge schemes against him. His best friend Harry Osborn (James Franco) believes that Peter and Spider-Man have a close professional relationship, and Harry hungers to avenge his father Norman’s aka, the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) death (he believes) at the hands of the web-slinger. Peter’s also still haunted by the death of his Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson), for which he blames himself. If that weren’t enough, Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina), a scientist Peter admires, becomes a dangerous fiend known as Dr. Octopus, who has four monstrous mechanical arms attached to his body and who blames Spider-Man for his fate.

For years, my friends and I wondered if any Hollywood studio could make a good Spider-Man movie. Thanks to computer generated imagery and computer rendered images, at least the gravity defying antics of superheroes can be seamlessly translated from the four-color page of the comic book to the big screen. The SFX filmmakers on Spider-Man do extraordinary work creating a CGI Spider-Man who soars, spins, dips, hops, leaps, slides, dives, jumps, flips, and break dances across, through, and over the landscape of NYC, the city that is a very well used character in this film.

The writing, the second element very necessary for translation of superhero to screen, is much improved over the first film, likely because the three writers of the screen story are very familiar with superheroes. The strong writing of this film is combined with the fine acting of the first film, which carries over to SM2, and that’s what makes the drama so palatable. Of particular note is Rosemary Harris as Aunt May; Harris not only brings a solemn note to this fantasy film, but she also helps to humanize the Peter Parker character and lend credence to the idea of the hero as a regular guy dealing with the ups and downs of life.

Much credit to Sam Raimi, known for his horror and fantasy films, he is actually a very talented director who is equally at home with drama as he is with the fantastique. If he didn’t prove it in A Simple Plan, he certainly proves it with Spider-Man 2. Raimi can bring tears to your eyes with the drama and romance, and he can knock you back into the seat with heart-stopping action. Raimi’s new film will make your spirit soar vicariously with Spider-Man as he swings on his magical webbing over the city.

8 of 10
A

NOTES:
2005 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Best Achievement in Visual Effects” (John Dykstra, Scott Stokdyk, Anthony LaMolinara, John Frazier); and 2 nominations: “Best Achievement in Sound Editing” (Paul N.J. Ottosson) and “Best Achievement in Sound Mixing” (Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell, Jeffrey J. Haboush, and Joseph Geisinger)

2005 BAFTA Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects” (John Dykstra, Scott Stokdyk, Anthony LaMolinara, and John Frazier) and “Best Sound” (Paul N.J. Ottosson, Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell, and Jeffrey J. Haboush)

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Review: Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" is Really Gassy in Blunderland

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 10 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Running time: 108 minutes (1 hour, 48 minutes)
MPAA – PG for fantasy action/violence involving scary images and situations, and for a smoking caterpillar
DIRECTOR: Tim Burton
WRITER: Linda Woolverton (based upon the books, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll)
PRODUCERS: Joe Roth, Jennifer Todd, Suzanne Todd, and Richard D. Zanuck
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Dariusz Wolski (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Chris Lebenzon
COMPOSER: Danny Elfman

FANTASY

Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover, Matt Lucas, Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, and Christopher Lee with the voices of Michael Gough and Imelda Staunton

Director Tim Burton is a maestro. He can gather film actors, artists, artisans, craftsmen, etc. and bring them together to create cinematic worlds that dazzle our eyes and capture our imaginations. He has done that time and again in such films as Nightmare Before Christmas and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, among many. Yet three times, I almost fell asleep in the theatre while trying to watch Burton’s new film, Alice in Wonderland.

Tim Burton once said that he wouldn’t know a good movie script if he saw one, and Alice in Wonderland testifies to that. Alice in Wonderland is dazzling to look at, but the story is nothing but hot air. In the hands of screenwriter, Linda Woolverton, this return journey to Wonderland is a trip to nowhere.

This new Alice in Wonderland is actually a kind of sequel to the original stories. The Alice of Lewis Carroll’s famous books, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1872), is now 19-year-old Alice Kingsley (Mia Wasikowska). Alice is about to become engaged to a wealthy nobleman, when she once again follows the White Rabbit (voice of Michael Sheen) down the rabbit hole to Underland, the place she visited 13 years earlier and named “Wonderland.” Underland is in trouble, oppressed by a reign of terror launched by the Red Queen (Helen Bonham Carter), who now rules Underland.

Alice doesn’t remember much about her first trip to Underland, but it turns out that she may be the chosen one, prophesized to end the tyranny of the Red Queen and restore her sister, the White Queen (Anne Hathaway), to the throne. Alice falls in with a conspiracy or rebellion against the Red Queen. Some of the members are the White Rabbit, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Dormouse, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, and of course, the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp). The Hatter seems to be the leader, but his madness has left him broken down. Regardless of what help her friends may or may not be able to give her, Alice will have to face her destiny alone. She must slay the Jabberwocky (voice of Christopher Lee), the dragon that the Red Queen uses to terrorize the land.

The original Alice in Wonderland stories didn’t have plot or characterization (a deliberate move on the author’s part, I think). For this new film, screenwriter Linda Woolverton made Alice a heroine and gave her a cause, obstacles, and a goal to achieve. Now, Alice in Wonderland seems like just another big budget, Hollywood, fantasy action movie. It’s like Lord of the Rings or The Chronicles of Narnia, but with grrl-power. Who is going to believe that this pale, skinny girl can take on the world, let alone save another world?

On the surface, Burton effectively creates a twisted vision of Wonderland, complete with deranged characters, warped personalities, and wonderfully ingenious creatures – like the computer-generated, way-cool, smoky Cheshire Cat (superbly given voice by Stephen Fry). The story, however, is just dull and, as hard as Woolverton tries to be inventive, the best this tale can do is replace your sleeping pills.

What starts off seeming so enchanted becomes tiresome. Johnny Depp’s take on the Mad Hatter mirrors this movie’s problem – pretty, colorful, creative, but a bumbling mess of misfires and mumbled lines. As bad as Depp is, Anne Hathaway is so impossibly bad as the White Queen that I’m just at a loss to explain it. As the Red Queen, Helena Bonham Carter gives the only coherent, quality performance of any of the Underland characters. Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland 2010 is not a turd. I don’t think Tim Burton could ever make a truly bad film, but as amazing as it looks, this mediocre movie sometimes comes across like a loud fart.

5 of 10
B-

Monday, March 08, 2010

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Hooray for Sandy Powell

Last night I mentioned that I loved the acceptance speech given by Sandy Powell, who won the Oscar for "Best Costume Design" (The Young Victoria).  Well, here it is courtesy of Oscar.com:

Wow. Well, I already have two of these. So I'm feeling greedy. I'd like to dedicate this one to the costume designers that don't do movies about dead monarchs or glittery musicals. The designers that do the contemporary films and the low-budget ones actually don't get as recognized as they should do, and they work as hard. So this is for you, but I'm gonna take it home tonight. Thank you.

Go here to read more speeches, including the bizarre/awkward acceptance of the winners for "Best Documentary Short."

Complete List of 2010 Oscar Winners

OK, for those of you who don't want to comb through the individual posts of my semi-live blogging to see who one, here is a complete winners list from last night's 82nd annual Academy Awards:

List of winners at the 82nd annual Academy Awards:

- Motion Picture: "The Hurt Locker."

- Actor: Jeff Bridges, "Crazy Heart."

- Actress: Sandra Bullock, "The Blind Side."

- Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, "Inglourious Basterds."

- Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique, "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire."

- Director: Kathryn Bigelow, "The Hurt Locker."

- Foreign Film: "El Secreto de Sus Ojos," Argentina.

- Adapted Screenplay: Geoffrey Fletcher, "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire."

- Original Screenplay: Mark Boal, "The Hurt Locker."

- Animated Feature Film: "Up."

- Art Direction: "Avatar."

- Cinematography: "Avatar."

- Sound Mixing: "The Hurt Locker."

- Sound Editing: "The Hurt Locker."

- Original Score: "Up," Michael Giacchino.

- Original Song: "The Weary Kind (Theme From Crazy Heart)" from "Crazy Heart," Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett.

- Costume: "The Young Victoria."

- Documentary Feature: "The Cove."

- Documentary (short subject): "Music by Prudence."

- Film Editing: "The Hurt Locker."

- Makeup: "Star Trek."

- Animated Short Film: "Logorama."

- Live Action Short Film: "The New Tenants."

- Visual Effects: "Avatar."