The Sum of All Fears (IMDB) (Netflix)
My frustration stemming from this latest Tom Clancy thriller exists on two levels: the flawed, creaky and politically wussified plot and the all-too-vivid reminder, particularly given the real-world revelations of the past week or so, of the government's inability to communicate vital information in a timely manner.
Calista Flockhart's beau Harrison Ford has been traded in for a younger Jack Ryan model (no doubt Ford's ex-wife thinks that's fitting), Ben Affleck, as the CIA analyst who, straight out of The Hunt for Red October, is the only American with 20-20 insight into the Russians, who are being set up by some Neo-Nazis (a convenient oil-free villain) as the patsy for a successful nuclear explosion in the U.S. (no spoiler here, check the trailer). Affleck discovers some key information that even the FBI would have passed along, but of course he can't, which escalates everything into a cliffhanger that Fail Safe and Dr. Strangelove handled more courageously.
The above rant is mostly a time-delayed detonation of my own that's occurring while thinking through this review--there are plenty of things to enjoy, like Affleck being a worthy successor to the Ryan mantle, Morgan Freeman gives his usual mensch-like performance (he badly needs some roles that exercise more of his skills, however), Liev Schreiber adds some depth to wet-work spook Mr. Clark. Director Phil Alden Robinson manages to give this Clancy episode a much artier look than its predecessors (Field of Dreams is his sole other film of note--the "directed by Phil Alden Robinson" tag line in the commercials made it sound like he was a Francis Ford Coppola-esque auteur, which is ironic, since he clearly went to school on Coppola's montage technique for the ending). The safety tip for this one is: go ahead and see the movie, just don't reflect on it later.
Monday, May 27, 2002
Dogtown and Z-Boys (IMDB) (Netflix)
A narcissistic but entertaining documentary of a group of skateboarders in the 1970s, who grew out of the Southern California surfer culture, transformed the sport and, in their eyes, were the inspiration for the X Games and snowboarder culture. This film shows how you can take a bunch of grainy photographs, 8mm footage, and present-day interviews and put together an interesting, evocative story about the birth and evolution of a sub-culture. Were the History Channel this edgy...
Narrated by Sean Penn (holy shades of Ridgemont High), it chronicles the history of Dogtown, which connected the south of Santa Monica, Venice and Ocean Park, California, and the wrong-side-of-the-tracks kids who translated surfing to the dried-up pools of the California drought, took advantage of new technology (from clay to urethane wheels) and created a big-business sport. The only downer at the end is the realization that the film was made by some of the Z-Boys themselves, adding after the fact a sense of self-promotion and re-living of the past, but it's a piece of Americana that hasn't been shown, at least not nearly this definitively.
A narcissistic but entertaining documentary of a group of skateboarders in the 1970s, who grew out of the Southern California surfer culture, transformed the sport and, in their eyes, were the inspiration for the X Games and snowboarder culture. This film shows how you can take a bunch of grainy photographs, 8mm footage, and present-day interviews and put together an interesting, evocative story about the birth and evolution of a sub-culture. Were the History Channel this edgy...
Narrated by Sean Penn (holy shades of Ridgemont High), it chronicles the history of Dogtown, which connected the south of Santa Monica, Venice and Ocean Park, California, and the wrong-side-of-the-tracks kids who translated surfing to the dried-up pools of the California drought, took advantage of new technology (from clay to urethane wheels) and created a big-business sport. The only downer at the end is the realization that the film was made by some of the Z-Boys themselves, adding after the fact a sense of self-promotion and re-living of the past, but it's a piece of Americana that hasn't been shown, at least not nearly this definitively.
About a Boy (IMDB) (Netflix)
My mom said, "nothing special" and after all it stars Hugh Grant, so I was prepared to not like this message comedy much at all. He's is a self-professed emotional island who's happy to live off his dad's song-writing royalties, and would be quite the cad if he weren't such a ne'er-do-well. He does need the occasional girlfriend, however, and cooks up what he thinks is the perfect solution--recently single moms who need a transitional guy for awhile until they realize they're not ready for a deep relationship, and will dump him before he has to do the same to them. Brilliant strategy, but the execution is flawed, and he ends up being adopted by a hasn't-hit-his-stride kid with a mom with more than enough issues to make Hugh look like a role model.
Well-managed expectations aside, "Boy" does have a few things going for it, such as a Nick "High Fidelity" Hornby novel for a starting point that keeps the sap from flowing too heavily, and a Grant who's lost the prep school 'do and is virtually stammer-free. Unlike the TV sitcom Seinfeld, in which the point was that there was no point, "About a Boy" is very much about the message; our relationships are what makes it all worthwhile. Women will be satisfied by the ending, and guys can give in on the "which movie" decision without only a little pain, and build up points for Sum of All Fears or Undercover Brother.
My mom said, "nothing special" and after all it stars Hugh Grant, so I was prepared to not like this message comedy much at all. He's is a self-professed emotional island who's happy to live off his dad's song-writing royalties, and would be quite the cad if he weren't such a ne'er-do-well. He does need the occasional girlfriend, however, and cooks up what he thinks is the perfect solution--recently single moms who need a transitional guy for awhile until they realize they're not ready for a deep relationship, and will dump him before he has to do the same to them. Brilliant strategy, but the execution is flawed, and he ends up being adopted by a hasn't-hit-his-stride kid with a mom with more than enough issues to make Hugh look like a role model.
Well-managed expectations aside, "Boy" does have a few things going for it, such as a Nick "High Fidelity" Hornby novel for a starting point that keeps the sap from flowing too heavily, and a Grant who's lost the prep school 'do and is virtually stammer-free. Unlike the TV sitcom Seinfeld, in which the point was that there was no point, "About a Boy" is very much about the message; our relationships are what makes it all worthwhile. Women will be satisfied by the ending, and guys can give in on the "which movie" decision without only a little pain, and build up points for Sum of All Fears or Undercover Brother.
Sunday, May 26, 2002
Insomnia (IMDB) (Netflix)
They say that cops and criminals live two sides of the same psychosis, and any number of films and books have worked this theme, but few as smartly as this drama. A teenage girl has been murdered in small Alaska town, and two Los Angeles detectives have been dispatched to ostensibly help solve the case, but also to get the hell out of Dodge as an internal affairs investigation heats up. Al Pacino is the famous homicide dick with some secrets, Hilary Swank the eager, hero-worshiping local and Robin Williams as the key suspect, and the three get hung up in a complex cross-linkage of motivations and, for lack of a decent piece of non-jargon, co-opetition, that knocks together means, ends and living with consequences.
Director Christopher Nolan, who wrote and directed the innovative Memento, adapts a well-regarded 1997 Norwegian film of the same name (currently playing on the Independent Film Channel). Because this is a remake, you can bemoan the lack of Hollywood creativity (this is a summer of remakes and sequels), but the fact is that very few people saw the original, and a lot of people are going to pay to see this version--and they should. It's atmospheric, clever, and well-acted all-around; Pacino is at his weariest, Swank hits all the right notes as she loses her naïveté, and Williams exudes a restrained schtick-less creepiness that shows just how scary-looking a guy he is when he's not mugging for the audience.
They say that cops and criminals live two sides of the same psychosis, and any number of films and books have worked this theme, but few as smartly as this drama. A teenage girl has been murdered in small Alaska town, and two Los Angeles detectives have been dispatched to ostensibly help solve the case, but also to get the hell out of Dodge as an internal affairs investigation heats up. Al Pacino is the famous homicide dick with some secrets, Hilary Swank the eager, hero-worshiping local and Robin Williams as the key suspect, and the three get hung up in a complex cross-linkage of motivations and, for lack of a decent piece of non-jargon, co-opetition, that knocks together means, ends and living with consequences.
Director Christopher Nolan, who wrote and directed the innovative Memento, adapts a well-regarded 1997 Norwegian film of the same name (currently playing on the Independent Film Channel). Because this is a remake, you can bemoan the lack of Hollywood creativity (this is a summer of remakes and sequels), but the fact is that very few people saw the original, and a lot of people are going to pay to see this version--and they should. It's atmospheric, clever, and well-acted all-around; Pacino is at his weariest, Swank hits all the right notes as she loses her naïveté, and Williams exudes a restrained schtick-less creepiness that shows just how scary-looking a guy he is when he's not mugging for the audience.
Sunday, May 19, 2002
The Salton Sea (IMDB) (Netflix)
A stylish, imaginative, violent noir featuring Val Kilmer's first decent role in years. The film begins near the end, with Kilmer playing trumpet in a room that's becoming enveloped in flames, then flashes back to show how he got to that sorry state. The setting is Southern California's methedrine sub-culture, which is not for the easily appalled--Vincent D'Onofrio is the completely warped "cook" and dealer nicknamed "Pooh Bear" because he lost his nose to the drug and wears a plastic substitute ("Badly done facial prosthetics--the anti-drug"). Why Kilmer gets mixed up in all this and what he does to extricate himself makes for an original, if more than a little disturbing story. Peter Sarsgaard has a nice turn as Val's naive, trusting fellow tweeker, and there are sprinkles of I-shouldn't-be-laughing-at-that humor.
If you liked Memento and/or Sexy Beast, you'll probably be on solid ground.
A stylish, imaginative, violent noir featuring Val Kilmer's first decent role in years. The film begins near the end, with Kilmer playing trumpet in a room that's becoming enveloped in flames, then flashes back to show how he got to that sorry state. The setting is Southern California's methedrine sub-culture, which is not for the easily appalled--Vincent D'Onofrio is the completely warped "cook" and dealer nicknamed "Pooh Bear" because he lost his nose to the drug and wears a plastic substitute ("Badly done facial prosthetics--the anti-drug"). Why Kilmer gets mixed up in all this and what he does to extricate himself makes for an original, if more than a little disturbing story. Peter Sarsgaard has a nice turn as Val's naive, trusting fellow tweeker, and there are sprinkles of I-shouldn't-be-laughing-at-that humor.
If you liked Memento and/or Sexy Beast, you'll probably be on solid ground.
Saturday, May 18, 2002
Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones (IMDB) (Netflix)
When you're down and out, send in the clones. The Star Wars saga picks up steam after director George Lucas hit the excitement reset button in Episode I, featuring a half-dozen action sequences; the introduction of Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), Luke's dad and you-know-who; a romance between Anakin and Senator-demoted-from-Queen) Amidalah (Natalie Portman, who reveals that she's been spending plenty of time with her Abdomenizer) and some confusing webs of intrigue that only aficionados will attempt to unravel.
Although the film was shot entirely digitally, I saw it in a conventional film projection theater on a medium-sized screen, and it looked pretty good. The sophisticated computer-generated imagery effects support some extremely ambitious and effective action scenes and art direction--if only Lucas's dialogue-writing skills had followed the same learning curve (if I heard Obi-Wan say to Anakin "blah-blah-blah, my young apprentice" one more time, there were going to be some non-digital special effects generated all over the theater floor). The romance has minimal heat, and the movie feels like a grand Act II, which in essence it is, being the set-up for third/sixth/last episode, which will be released in 2005.
When you're down and out, send in the clones. The Star Wars saga picks up steam after director George Lucas hit the excitement reset button in Episode I, featuring a half-dozen action sequences; the introduction of Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), Luke's dad and you-know-who; a romance between Anakin and Senator-demoted-from-Queen) Amidalah (Natalie Portman, who reveals that she's been spending plenty of time with her Abdomenizer) and some confusing webs of intrigue that only aficionados will attempt to unravel.
Although the film was shot entirely digitally, I saw it in a conventional film projection theater on a medium-sized screen, and it looked pretty good. The sophisticated computer-generated imagery effects support some extremely ambitious and effective action scenes and art direction--if only Lucas's dialogue-writing skills had followed the same learning curve (if I heard Obi-Wan say to Anakin "blah-blah-blah, my young apprentice" one more time, there were going to be some non-digital special effects generated all over the theater floor). The romance has minimal heat, and the movie feels like a grand Act II, which in essence it is, being the set-up for third/sixth/last episode, which will be released in 2005.
Sunday, May 12, 2002
Happenstance ("The Beating of the Butterfly's Wings") (IMDB) (Netflix)
A slightly conceptual morsel-ette about the random interactions that determine how our life turns out (the beating of the butterly's wings in one part of the world sparks a set of events that become a hurricane in another part of the globe--the chaos theory metaphor) and the web of connections people belong to. Audrey Tautou, from Amelie, heads a cast of dozens of people who run into each other, don't run into each other, make choices, or let chance determine those choices for them.
There are some nice little moments sprinkled throughout, but the film never builds to hurricane velocity, or much of any kind of dramatic vortex. The butterfly might have been flapping his wings off, but he did it in a sealed container. For a more affecting take on the power of chance, try renting Sliding Doors with Gwyneth Paltrow.
A slightly conceptual morsel-ette about the random interactions that determine how our life turns out (the beating of the butterly's wings in one part of the world sparks a set of events that become a hurricane in another part of the globe--the chaos theory metaphor) and the web of connections people belong to. Audrey Tautou, from Amelie, heads a cast of dozens of people who run into each other, don't run into each other, make choices, or let chance determine those choices for them.
There are some nice little moments sprinkled throughout, but the film never builds to hurricane velocity, or much of any kind of dramatic vortex. The butterfly might have been flapping his wings off, but he did it in a sealed container. For a more affecting take on the power of chance, try renting Sliding Doors with Gwyneth Paltrow.
Saturday, May 11, 2002
Unfaithful (IMDB) (Netflix)
From 1934 until the late '60s, Hollywood films were subject to The Production Code, which --among its many specific rules--required that any character's bad deeds were punished. "Unfaithful" could not have been made under that system, but is a better movie for escaping those constraints.
Diane Lane is the wife who strays, and with this role, Richard Gere has ridden his career arc from American Gigolo to cuckold. Olivier Martinez is the young seducer, and succeeds in titillating all the women in audience while making the guys just want to smack his skinny little French--well, you get the picture. The performances are strong (director Adrian Lyne, who did 9-1/2 Weeks, Fatal Attraction and Flashdance, demanded an exhausting number of takes from the actors) and the technique of pumping smoke into the set provides an arty feel. The kid who plays Dewey (my favorite character) on "Malcolm in the Middle" does a good job as the couple's son. What takes this film up a notch is that there's no convenient justification made for anybody's actions: the affair, what happens when it all goes pear-shaped, and the aftermath. In one respect, no one gets off easy, but strict moralists will be frustrated.
From 1934 until the late '60s, Hollywood films were subject to The Production Code, which --among its many specific rules--required that any character's bad deeds were punished. "Unfaithful" could not have been made under that system, but is a better movie for escaping those constraints.
Diane Lane is the wife who strays, and with this role, Richard Gere has ridden his career arc from American Gigolo to cuckold. Olivier Martinez is the young seducer, and succeeds in titillating all the women in audience while making the guys just want to smack his skinny little French--well, you get the picture. The performances are strong (director Adrian Lyne, who did 9-1/2 Weeks, Fatal Attraction and Flashdance, demanded an exhausting number of takes from the actors) and the technique of pumping smoke into the set provides an arty feel. The kid who plays Dewey (my favorite character) on "Malcolm in the Middle" does a good job as the couple's son. What takes this film up a notch is that there's no convenient justification made for anybody's actions: the affair, what happens when it all goes pear-shaped, and the aftermath. In one respect, no one gets off easy, but strict moralists will be frustrated.
Sunday, May 05, 2002
Hollywood Ending (IMDB) (Netflix)
Woody Allen's latest confection, this time his self-referential premise has him as a washed-up movie director, who has developed psychosomatic blindness just as he's starting filming his comeback picture. Tea Leoni is his ex-wife and movie producer, who has wheedled her new fiance and studio head, Treat Williams, into letting Allen shoot the picture. The comedy comes from the lengths that Allen goes to in not letting anyone know he's blind as he goes through production, and the Hollywood jokes.
If you like Woody, and you get references like "can a hyphenate marry a below-the-line person? I don't know, check with Legal", then this picture's for you. Otherwise, it's Woody doing the Woody thing, down to the tweed jacket, black glasses and the whining dialogue, which can often be grating, but sometimes hilarious, as when he flips back and forth between discussing the picture and berating Leoni for leaving him and hooking up with Williams. I'd also would have liked more scenes with Barney Cheng, as the geeky translator for the Chinese cinematographer.
Woody Allen's latest confection, this time his self-referential premise has him as a washed-up movie director, who has developed psychosomatic blindness just as he's starting filming his comeback picture. Tea Leoni is his ex-wife and movie producer, who has wheedled her new fiance and studio head, Treat Williams, into letting Allen shoot the picture. The comedy comes from the lengths that Allen goes to in not letting anyone know he's blind as he goes through production, and the Hollywood jokes.
If you like Woody, and you get references like "can a hyphenate marry a below-the-line person? I don't know, check with Legal", then this picture's for you. Otherwise, it's Woody doing the Woody thing, down to the tweed jacket, black glasses and the whining dialogue, which can often be grating, but sometimes hilarious, as when he flips back and forth between discussing the picture and berating Leoni for leaving him and hooking up with Williams. I'd also would have liked more scenes with Barney Cheng, as the geeky translator for the Chinese cinematographer.
Saturday, May 04, 2002
Spider-Man (IMDB) (Netflix)
Casting Tobey Maguire, a scrawny, vegetarian, yoga-practicing actor who specializes in playing troubled characters, seemed like a colossal case of mis-casting for a super hero. But this is Spider-Man, the anti-hero super hero, who can't catch a break, even when he's saving scores of would-be crime victims and pawns of the Green Goblin's madness, making Maguire the perfect choice, as long he bulks up a little.
Compared to the campy-cartoonish Superman movies, this is a much darker, more textured and more interesting story that you'd expect from the stylish Sam Raimi, who's the only director I know of these days who wears a coat and tie to work and is said to have been a Spider-Man fanatic since he was a kid. Although the action sequences stretch the abilities of computer-generated imagery, Raimi knows how to blend special effects and camera moves as well as any movie director, and when Spider-Man swings Tarzan-like through the city, he really swings. Willem Defoe makes for a pretty malevalent Green Goblin, and Kirsten Dunst more than holds her own as Mary Jane, Spidey's love interest. Nice round of applause at the end of the film--a true crowd-pleaser.
PS--There was a short-but-incredibly-effective trailer for Ang Lee's The Hulk, starring the Delta Force stud in Black Hawk Down, Eric Bana, and I've never heard such a moan of disappointment when the words "May 2003" came up at the end. This movie already has "want to see" scores that rival Attack of the Clones.
Casting Tobey Maguire, a scrawny, vegetarian, yoga-practicing actor who specializes in playing troubled characters, seemed like a colossal case of mis-casting for a super hero. But this is Spider-Man, the anti-hero super hero, who can't catch a break, even when he's saving scores of would-be crime victims and pawns of the Green Goblin's madness, making Maguire the perfect choice, as long he bulks up a little.
Compared to the campy-cartoonish Superman movies, this is a much darker, more textured and more interesting story that you'd expect from the stylish Sam Raimi, who's the only director I know of these days who wears a coat and tie to work and is said to have been a Spider-Man fanatic since he was a kid. Although the action sequences stretch the abilities of computer-generated imagery, Raimi knows how to blend special effects and camera moves as well as any movie director, and when Spider-Man swings Tarzan-like through the city, he really swings. Willem Defoe makes for a pretty malevalent Green Goblin, and Kirsten Dunst more than holds her own as Mary Jane, Spidey's love interest. Nice round of applause at the end of the film--a true crowd-pleaser.
PS--There was a short-but-incredibly-effective trailer for Ang Lee's The Hulk, starring the Delta Force stud in Black Hawk Down, Eric Bana, and I've never heard such a moan of disappointment when the words "May 2003" came up at the end. This movie already has "want to see" scores that rival Attack of the Clones.
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