Review: "Fast & Furious" Faster and More Furious

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 44 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

Fast & Furious (2009)
Running time: 107 minutes (1 hour, 47 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some sexual content, language and drug references
DIRECTOR: Justin Lin
WRITER: Chris Morgan (based upon characters created by Gary Scott Thompson)
PRODUCERS: Vin Diesel, Michael Fottrell, and Neal H. Moritz
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Amir Mokri (director of photography)
EDITORS: Fred Raskin and Christian Wagner

ACTION/CRIME

Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Michelle Rodriguez, John Ortiz, Laz Alonso, Gal Gadot, John Conley, Shea Whigham, Liza Lapira, Tego Calderon, Don Omar, Greg Cipes, Brandon T. Jackson, and Sung Kang

Fast & Furious is the fourth film in The Fast and the Furious franchise, but it is set before the events of the third film, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. The plot of Fast & Furious connects with the original 2001 film and actors Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, and Michelle Rodriguez reprise their roles from the first movie. Having them return makes it feel as if this franchise got its mojo back.

Fast & Furious opens with Dominic “Dom” Toretto (Vin Diesel) and his new crew, which includes Letty Ortiz (Michelle Rodriguez), hijacking fuel tankers in the Dominican Republic. A shocking murder brings the fugitive ex-con Dom back to Los Angeles looking for payback against a mysterious drug lord named Arturo Braga. Meanwhile, Brian O'Conner (Paul Walker), the FBI agent who 5 years earlier infiltrated L.A.’s illegal street racing underground, of which Dom was part, is also after Braga. Although he is still feuding with Brian, Dom will have to forge a new trust with the lawman if they are to have a hope of outmaneuvering the wily Braga. As they cross international lines to foil Braga, Dom and Brian are also forced to do what they do best – push the limits of what is possible behind the wheel of an American muscle car.

Even with its explosive beginning and shocking turn of events, Fast & Furious starts off slow. The character drama and set up of the plot are clunky, but the stars rise to the occasion. Fast & Furious, for the most part, is exactly that – fast and furious, so viewers will get what they expect from this franchise, but not exactly. The car chases and races are so fast and crazy that computer generated images obviously played a part in making them. The story is, overall, darker and edgier than ever before. However, Fast & Furious doesn’t seem derivative, even as part of a franchise, and in spite of some occasionally uninspired character moments, it is just plain fun to watch.

I thought I knew how much I missed Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, but I really had no idea. When they’re blazing, these two stars show us why Fast & Furious had to be and why there will be more.

6 of 10
B

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

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Houston, San Antonio Among Cities Winning "Grease: Sing-a-Long" Showings

Press release:

HOUSTON, ORLANDO, PHOENIX, SAN ANTONIO AND DETROIT “DEMAND” PARAMOUNT’S GREASE: SING-A-LONG

CITIES TO BEGIN SPECIAL LIMITED ENGAGEMENTS ON JULY 15, 2010

Fans across the country have “demanded” GREASE: SING-A-LONG come to their hometowns. As a result, the digitally re-mastered film will expand to the following 5 additional cities: Houston, TX; Orlando, FL; Phoenix, AZ; San Antonio, TX; and Detroit, MI. These top 5 Demand it! ® cities will begin an exclusive run of the film on Thursday, July 15th.

GREASE: SING-A-LONG will begin playing on Thursday, July 8th in the first run of exclusive showings in 12 markets across the country. Tickets for these first cities are quickly selling out, including New York, NY (AMC Village); Los Angeles, CA (AMC Century City); Chicago, IL (AMC River East); San Francisco, CA (AMC Metreon); Boston, MA (AMC Boston Commons); Dallas, TX (AMC Northpark); Atlanta, GA (Regal Atlantic Station); Seattle, WA (AMC Pacific Place); Ft. Lauderdale/Miami, FL (Sunrise Gateway); San Diego, CA (AMC Fashion Valley); Austin, TX (Alamo Lamar); and Ocala, FL (Regal Hollywood).

The top 5 cities were selected based on the results of an online poll sponsored by Paramount Picture’s Insurge, with fans across the country “demanding” the musical open in their city. Tickets are available online at http://www.GreaseMovie.com

Is GREASE: SING-A-LONG not playing in your town? Demand it! ® at http://www.Eventful.com/Grease and help spread the word by tweeting #Grease on Twitter.

Demand it! ® to play in your city: http://www.Eventful.com/Grease
Official site: http://www.greasemovie.com/
Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/GoGrease
Twitter Page: http://www.Twitter.com/GoGrease (#Grease)

Review: "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" is Extra Special Fast and Furious

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 132 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)
Running time: 104 minutes (1 hour, 44 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for reckless and illegal behavior involving teens, violence, language, and sexual content
DIRECTOR: Justin Lin
WRITERS: Alfredo Botello, Chris Morgan, and Kario Salem; from a story by Chris Morgan
PRODUCER: Neal H. Moritz
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Stephen F. Windon
EDITORS: Dallas Puett and Fred Raskin

ACTION/CRIME/SPORTS

Starring: Lucas Black, Shad “Bow Wow” Gregory Moss, Nathalie Kelley, Brian Tee, Sung Kang, Brian Goodman, Lynda Boyd, and JJ Sonny Chiba

Sean Boswell (Lucas Black) is an Alabama-born teenager who defines himself as the hotheaded outsider – basically a loner at his suburban high school. He’s also a hotshot street racer, and it’s car racing that lands him in trouble with the law… again. To avoid going to jail, Sean’s mother (Lynda Boyd) sends him to Japan to live with his estranged father, Major Boswell (Brian Goodman), a gruff, career Navy officer living in Tokyo. Here, Sean’s also an outsider, a gaijin, but he eventually makes a new friend, Twinkie (Bow Wow), a fellow military brat who hustles American goods such as sneakers and electronics to local youths anxious to have hot American items. Twinkie introduces Sean to the underground world of drift racing. In Tokyo, the drag racing Sean loves is replaced by the rubber-burning, automotive art of balancing speed and gliding through a heart-racing course of hairpin turns and switchbacks – drifting.

His first night at a drifting event, Sean catches the eye of his classmate, Neela (Nathalie Kelley), but Neela has a boyfriend, a local self-styled crime kingpin, Takashi, better known as “DK” (Brian Tee) or Drift King. Sean’s attraction to Neela brings he and DK into immediate conflict. DK challenges Sean to a drift race, and Han (Sung Kang), a criminal associate of DK’s, loans his car to Sean. The race finishes in a disaster for Sean who has never drifted before. However, Han takes Sean under his wings, teaching Sean to drift while Sean pays Han back for the wrecked car by working as his driver and pickup man. However, things don’t cool off between DK and Sean, and DK also has a falling out with Han. Soon, matters escalate into violence, and DK’s uncle (Sonny Chiba), an authentic Yakuza boss gets involved. To settle the dispute, Sean challenges DK to a race in which resolution will be reached man-to-man and car-to-car in the ultimate drift.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is just as much fun to watch as the previous two films in the franchise. Although it isn’t quite as good as the original, The Fast and the Furious, it may be a technically better made film than 2002’s 2 Fast 2 Furious. Director Justin Lin (Better Luck Tomorrow, Annapolis) loves filming racing scenes way more than he concerns himself with developing characters and narrative. I lost count of the character moments in which half or all of a scene was out of focus. Still, Lin provides enough male bonding, teen romance, youth melodrama, and family dysfunction to make us at least somewhat interested in the character scenes that are just filler between racing sequences.

And that’s what this flick is – a racing movie. The Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift exists to give us the vicarious thrill of living through underground, illegal, street racing – sexy cars and dangerous, mind-numbing, brain-freezing speed. This is one of those “ultimate summer movies,” made for all the young male demographics from nine (despite the rating) to 35. If you’re older than that and know how not to take every movie seriously, Tokyo Drift will make you feel young again and want to be with all those hot Asian chicks in the film.

Best thing about this movie is that none of the racing scenes are CGI; no computers were harmed in the making of these furious races through the night streets. Lin uses professional drift racers to deliver all the races, high-speed chases, and crashes you could want, and then throws in more. He also gives Tokyo’s night life: underground clubs, backroom parlors, and smoky dens of iniquity where criminals hide a glossy, candy coating that would be right at a home on MTV. Yes, indeed, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift is pure summer fun: fast cars, fast girls, fast life, and dangerous hoods. It’s the high art of junk culture, and too bad there isn’t a special Oscar for movies like this.

7 of 10
B+

Sunday, June 18, 2006

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"Grease: Sing-a-Long" Winners to Be Announced Soon

Paramount Pictures is re-releasing the 1978 musical, Grease (a smash hit back then), as "Grease: Sing-a-Long."  The film is digitally remastered and the song lyrics will appear at the bottom of the screen.  The release apparently will be limited - thus this contest to be among the cities showing the film:

Press release:

FANS ACROSS THE U.S. “DEMAND” GREASE: SING-A-LONG

The Top 5 Demand it! ® Cities Will Be Announced By Noon on Monday, June 14th

WHO: Fans across the country are “demanding” GREASE: SING-A-LONG come to their hometowns.

WHAT: Paramount’s Insurge Pictures will expand the digitally re-mastered film to 5 additional cities across the country beginning Thursday, July 15th for an exclusive engagement. In addition, Paramount will simultaneously launch Demand it!® Canada.

WHEN: The studio will announce the cities with the highest “demand” by noon PST on Monday, June 14th.

WHY: The announcement comes on the heels of Ocala, FL, John Travolta’s hometown, “demanding” to be among the first select cities to open the digitally re-mastered, sing-a-long version of “Grease.” Paramount selected Ocala solely based on the results of an online poll in which fans across the country could “demand” the musical open in their city. Out of more than 1,700 cities lobbying for the film, Ocala, a town of only 53,000, hit No. 1 on the poll in record time.

Said Rob Moore, Vice Chairman of Paramount Pictures: “As we saw with “Paranormal Activity,” with the right amount of fan fever, even the smallest towns can win the right to have the film plan in their town via the Demand it! ® Program. We are excited to see which 5 cities top the poll next week.”

WHERE: GREASE: SING-A-LONG will begin playing on Thursday, July 8th in exclusive showings in 12 markets across the country. Tickets for these first cities are quickly selling out, including New York, NY (AMC Village); Los Angeles, CA (AMC Century City); Chicago, IL (AMC River East); San Francisco, CA (AMC Metreon); Boston, MA (AMC Boston Commons); Dallas, TX (AMC Northpark); Atlanta, GA (Regal Atlantic Station); Seattle, WA (AMC Pacific Place); Ft. Lauderdale/Miami, FL (Sunrise Gateway); San Diego, CA (AMC Fashion Valley); Austin, TX (Alamo Lamar); and Ocala, FL (Regal Hollywood).

Is GREASE: SING-A-LONG not playing in your town? Demand it! ® at http://www.Eventful.com/Grease and help spread the word by tweeting #Grease on Twitter.

Fans around the country will get a chance to re-live all of their favorite moments. Don’t wait and miss out on the fun! Get your tickets now at our official site (http://www.greasemovie.com/).

Demand it! ® to play in your city: http://www.Eventful.com/Grease
Official site: http://www.greasemovie.com/

Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/GoGrease
Twitter Page: http://www.Twitter.com/GoGrease (#Grease)

Review: "2 Fast 2 Furious" Not 2 Bad

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 89 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
Running time: 107 minutes (1 hour, 47 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for street racing, violence, language and some sensuality
DIRECTOR: John Singleton
WRITERS: Michael Brandt and Derek Haas, from a story by Gary Scott Thompson, Michael Brandt and Derek Haas
PRODUCER: Neal H. Moritz
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Matthew F. Leonetti (director of photography)
EDITOR: Bruce Cannon and Dallas Puett

ACTION/CRIME/THRILLER

Starring: Paul Walker, Tyrese, Eva Mendes, Cole Hauser, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, Thom Barry, James Remar, Devon Aoki, Michael Ealy, and Mark Boone Junior

When we left Brian O’Connor (Paul Walker) at the end of The Fast and the Furious, he was on his way to be stripped of his badge as an officer of the law for assisting hijacker Dominic Torreto in escaping. In 2 Fast 2 Furious, Brian has moved to Miami and plays the city’s street racing circuit for cash. However, the cops come calling again with a deal: help them infiltrate the domain of a drug lord named Carter Verone (Cole Hauser) and they will in turn clean his record.

Of course, the drug lord needs fast drivers (convenient, right), so Brian recruits Roman Pearce (Tyrese), a childhood buddy who has a grudge against Brian (which creates dramatic tension between the lead characters). Roman is also street racer, and Brian hopes Roman can help him pull off the sting better than another undercover cop could. The mission tricky with many complications, just like in TFTH. Brian is caught between anxious U.S. Custom’s officials and a jealous and violent criminal who doesn’t fear the law; neither side will let him and Roman let them down.

The first film borrowed liberally from the film Point Break changing Break’s surfer/bank robbers to street racer/hijackers. The street racing was an integral part of the film, and the original director Rob Cohen used every trick in the bag to heighten the illusion of super speed; he also had Vin Diesel.

2 Fast 2 Furious seems exactly what it is, a sequel, a by-the-book action movie that succeeds in at least being vacuous entertainment despite itself. The street racing exists solely because this film is a follow-up to a movie about fast cars. The script is lousy with action movie formulas. There’s a white guy/black guy dynamic with plenty of tension between the two. A sour incident from the past gives their partnership an extra edge and potentially endangers their assignment. Paul Walker as Brian O’Connor isn’t an energetic, kinetic action hero; he’s more stoic, so Tyrese as his partner Roman brings the comedy and raw sense of street bravado to the movie. Their chemistry is good in spite of a script intent on them not having any. Don’t forget the vaguely Latin drug lord who uses brutal methods to get his way. The cast is thoroughly mixed with sprinkles from every ethnic group, short of gypsies. The soundtrack is filled with slammin’ hip hop tracks (the first was a mixture of thrash, techno, and hip hop), and the score is surprisingly good and add fuel to the fire of the film’s best scenes.

Despite the paint-by-numbers scenario, director John Singleton manages to conjure a fairly entertaining car chase movie. While the cars were hot items in TFTF, Singleton treats them as art objects in his film. He lovingly caresses them with the camera; he suggests that they are almost as much the stars as the human actors. In fact, it’s a great move because all that attention on the hot cars distracts the viewer from some of the film’s drier moments. And don’t forget the girls; Singleton laps up the hotties when he’s not pushing up on the hot rides.

2 Fast 2 Furious isn’t bad, but it isn’t as good as its predecessor. But while TFTF was a hard-edged action flick, I will give 2 Fast credit for having a much better sense of humor. It never takes itself seriously. In fact, the filmmakers seem to insist on telling us that they know what this is – a perhaps dumber sequel to a dumb action movie, so let’s just relax and enjoy 2 Fast.

2 Fast is exciting and thrilling and hot and sexy. It’s a bad cartoon full of bullet-spitting guns, hot hoochies, fantastically speedy cars, explosions, and testosterone: in other words, a summer movie. When you go to see a thriller, you expect even the lamest concepts to give you that vicarious thrill of the jolt of danger, and sometimes I really believed that Brian and Roman might get a bullet to the head. So even if you don’t make it to the theatre to see 2 Fast 2 Furious, it will make a nice DVD rental.

5 of 10
C+

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Latino Film Festival Set for Mid-August

Press release:

14th Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF) Thursday, August 19 – Wednesday, August 25 at Mann Chinese 6 Cinemas • Hollywood

Presenting the Best and Newest Voices of Latino Cinema in Hollywood

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--From Thursday, August 19, to Wednesday, August 25, the heart of the entertainment world, Hollywood, rolls out the red carpet for the best Latino Cinema from around the globe at the 14th Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF) at the Mann Chinese 6 Cinemas.

LALIFF, co-founded by Oscar®-nominated & Golden Globe and Emmy-winning actor, director, and activist Edward James Olmos and Marlene Dermer, celebrates the diversity and richness of the best emerging and established Latino talent around the globe. The festival’s mission: to support and promote the development and exhibition of Latin Cinema.

Since its inception in 1997, LALIFF has grown to become a premier international festival that attracts film enthusiasts from a culturally diverse Los Angeles community, as well as industry executives and Hollywood celebrities. Through the years, LALIFF has hosted the U.S. premieres of hundreds of Latino films, many of which debuted at prestigious Cannes, Toronto, Venice and San Sebastian film festivals. Last year, two LALIFF selections went on to receive a Golden Globe nomination in the Best Foreign Film category.

The Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences validates the festival’s excellence by recognizing LALIFF as a qualifying festival for the Academy’s Short Film Category for Oscar® nomination consideration. LALIFF and the Academy’s Film Archive have also established the LALIFF Collection, where Latino films are available for free viewing to the public.

LALIFF 2010 will present feature films, documentaries, shorts and special screenings. In addition, filmmakers and audiences will be able to participate in industry workshops as well as musical and arts events at the Hollywood & Highland Center.

The festival will kick off with the Opening Night Gala at the most famous theatre in the world, the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, on Thursday, August 19. Festival screenings will begin Friday, August 20, through Wednesday, August 25, at the Mann Chinese 6 Cinemas, 6801 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90028. The Closing Night and the Award Ceremony & Gala will take place on Wednesday, August 25, at the Egyptian Theater on Hollywood Blvd. For more information on LALIFF 2010 screenings and events, please visit: www.latinofilm.org.

Become a fan of LALIFF: Facebook
Follow LALIFF: Twitter

Mel Gibson Returns in Average "Edge of Darkness"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 43 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux

Edge of Darkness (2010)
Running time: 117 minutes (1 hour, 57 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong bloody violence and language
DIRECTOR: Martin Campbell
WRITERS: William Monahan and Andrew Bovell (based upon the television series created by Troy Kennedy-Martin
PRODUCERS: Tim Headington, Graham King, and Michael Wearing
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Phil Meheux (director of photography)
EDITOR: Stuart Baird
COMPOSER: Howard Shore

CRIME/MYSTERY with elements of drama and thriller

Starring: Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston, Bojana Novakovic, Shawn Roberts, Jay O. Sanders, Damian Young, Gbenga Akinnagbe, and Gabrielle Popa

Mel Gibson’s most recent star vehicle is the film, Edge of Darkness, which is actually a remake of a 1980s British television serial (or miniseries). This film, Gibson’s first movie as an actor since 2002, is ostensibly some kind of crime thriller, but Edge of Darkness is only truly thrilling in the scenes that feature brutal violence, usually in the form of gunfire.

The story focuses on Thomas Craven (Mel Gibson), a veteran homicide detective and a single father. Early in the movie, Craven watches as his only child, 24-year-old Emma (Bojana Novakovic), is murdered on the steps of his home by a masked gunman. His colleagues in the Boston Police Department assume that Craven was the target, and it seems as if everyone else also thinks so. Craven insists that he be part of the investigation, but he soon realizes that he can find no credible evidence that he was really the shooter’s target.

Craven embarks on a mission that slowly reveals parts of his daughter’s life to which he wasn’t privy (such as a boyfriend), but his investigation also leads him into the shadowy world of his daughter’s employer, Northmoor, and creepy company head, John “Jack” Bennett (Danny Huston). Shrouded in mystery, Northmoor has ties to an influential senator, and the corporation’s activities have apparently drawn the attention of Darius Jedburgh (Ray Winstone), a mysterious operative and “cleaner” of some sort. As Craven gets closer to the truth, dark forces begin to align against him, and Craven seems headed for the same fate as his daughter.

The advertisements for this film would lead the viewer to believe that Edge of Darkness is primarily about a determined father relentlessly on the path of his daughter’s killer. It is actually a little more complicated than that and involves government conspiracies, political cover-ups, and international intrigue. This is mildly entertaining, but it really lacks the energy and dramatic tension one would expect of a cop-out-for-revenge drama.

Edge of Darkness does have its shocking moments and a few scenes that provide the kind of edge-of-your-seat suspense a thriller will general supply. However, much of the film is hollow. The complicated, bittersweet relationship between Thomas Craven and his daughter comes across as shallow in most scenes, although the flashback scenes featuring Emma as a child (played by Gabrielle Popa) are genuinely father/daughter sentimental.

Edge of Darkness’ biggest problem is that the characters are more like character types and stereotypes than fully realized characters. The only thing Ray Winstone’s Jedburgh seems to be doing in this story is looking mysterious. Even Mel Gibson’s Thomas Craven is listless, and there are only a few moments when Gibson seems passionate about this character (such as the moment when he asks a thug tailing him, “Did you shoot my daughter?”).

The screenwriters may have tried to pretend that this movie was ultimately the story of a lonely old cop’s search for answers about his daughter’s death as way to both avenge her and to somehow redeem their relationship. Edge of Darkness is really an uninspired, though occasionally pleasurable movie, and it is also nothing special in the exceptional career of Mel Gibson.

5 of 10
C+

Friday, June 11, 2010