The Movie Room

2003-12-17T22:18:00.000-06:00

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2003-06-12T18:55:00.000-05:00

ITALIAN JOB (2003) I want a suped-up mini-Cooper to drive through the subways of LA. This heist flick certainly is no Oceans 11. There are a couple of ingredients every heist needs by definition: 1) Sharp dialogue, 2) a cool-as-crystal anti-hero, 3) a smooth, slick villain, 4) an elaborate heist, 5) a colorful crew. So I'll give it a grade on each ingrediant.

Dialogue - C-, maybe D. It's just a bland, unmemorable script, save one one about how one should never mess with "mother-freakin' Ukranians." And really, that was the place for the obligatory, PG-13 f-bomb.
Hero/Villian/Girl - straight across the board D- The biggest whole of the film is how incredibly bland Wahlberg, Norton and Theron are. It's a shame really.
Heist - B- If you've seen the tralier, well, then unfortunately there will be no surprises. The best part is the mini-Coopers that go just about everywhere they told you not to drive in driver's ed.
Crew - A The best part of the movie, that makes it all worth it in the end, are the crew of driver extraordinaire Handsome Rob (Jason Statham of those Guy Ritchie flicks), explosives expert Left Ear (Mos Def) and techie Lyle (Seth Green) who insists everyone call him "Napster" since he's the one who really invented it but his college roommate stole the idea. Green steals every scene he's in.

Oceans 11 is the standard by which all heist movies will now be measured and this one doesn't even come close. If you watch it expecting that, it's really going to suck. But if you're just looking for some quickie entertainment, hollow in the middle, to fill a Saturday evening, it's worth watching.

2003-05-24T21:20:00.000-05:00

You've got to read this Ethan Coen bit I found.

2003-05-24T11:08:00.000-05:00

TRAILER OF THE WEEK

Whale Rider limited release June 6
This was last year's winner at the Toronto festival. Past winners? Amelie, Crouching Tiger, American Beauty. Keep your eyes peeled.

In my Matrix note below, there's something I neglected. Another thing I felt lacking in comparison to the original was visual style. There's all the night scenes in the rain in the first one. Every single shot is carefully framed. The one shot from Reloaded that wowed me was Smith's entrance with the crows, an obvious reinterpretation of John Woo's signature dove symbolim with the hero just before the face-off. If you haven't seen The Killer, Jason, buy it the first chance you find.

The Muppet Movie (1979)
In the league of kid's movies, this one has to be near the top. It's got one-liners you'll find yourself quoting for weeks: "They don't look like Presbyterians to me."

Statler: I like this film fine so far!
Waldorf: It hasn't started yet!
Statler: That's what I like about it!

and on their critique of the movie at the end, "I've seen detergent that leaves a better film!"

Nobody writes sophisticated humor like this anymore. What a shame.

2003-05-22T22:39:00.000-05:00

... but what sequel is?
How about The Empire Strikes Back, my brother?

My top five sequels (as in film #2)
1. Empire Strikes Back
2. Godfather, pt. II
3. Two Towers
4. Terminator 2
5. Toy Story 2

The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
As Neo says when he faces the Agents, "Hmm.. upgrades." That's basically my reaction. Because of my screwy work schedule, I didn't see it until Sunday evening. I was surprised how underwhelming the reviews were. But I have to agree. And with you, Jason, I agree that the first one just blew our socks off, like nothing we've never seen before. Reloaded is bigger and more of the same. Some good, some not so good. The Burly Brawl scene was fantastic, a little drawn out and a little bit video-gamish at times. Likewise, the freeway chase was outstanding, though there were a couple parts, especially in Morpheus' fight on the semi, that screamed out to me "Blue screen!" I loved the Twins and though they got precious little screen time. I see they'll be back for Revolutions. The four philosophical conversations, I thought, stopped the pace dead in its tracks. They went right over my head. I kept thinking, "Yeah, get on with it, let's have another fight scene." Particularly, the conversation with the Architect. He was using really big words for an action movie. That scene alone warrants about 10 viewings. I thought the first half hour, the scenes in Zion, and especially the character scenes for Link (recognize him from Romeo + Juliet?) could have been cut altogether. Yes, we need to see and have some emotional investment in Zion, but, like Jason said, that just didn't do it for me.

I was emotionally ready for the film to end after the freeway scene, or to end at straight up midnight where the film started with the vision of Trinity. That whole last 10 minutes set up like a heist film (you know, break into the building, go through this surveilance, blow up the power reactor, you have five minutes) and then they skipped over it with choppy nonlinear editing. That could have been a film in and of itself. I thought that could have been expanded. I get this nagging feeling that they're trying to tell too big of a story for even 2 movies. But no critique is fair or just until all three can be seen together. 167 more days.

One parting thought... I haven't taking much time in mulling this over, it's just another nagging critique. The action in the first seemed to tell the story and advance the story. It's the #1 cardinal rule that doesn't exist in pretty much any other action movie. I left the theater feeling like the action and FX were all for FX's sake. After seeing it three times what do you think?

2003-05-22T19:44:00.000-05:00

jdubs general movie news. now that matrix is out of the way, i'm not too excited about the summer movies. i think the only one i'll go to in the theatre is probably the hulk. everything else will be dollar show, unless there's unexpected wonderful reviews on others. the new rob reiner romantic comedy looks interesting, i might check it out. in the dvd world, i bought myself the beatles anthology for a end of the year suprise. i'm gonna spread it out over the summer, but after watching the first 2 of 8 i don't know if i'll be able to wait. i've been keeping track online when everything is coming out and was going to buy a whole lot of new stuff but i've made my budget and my only buys will be the animatrix, and punch drunk love. maybe later on down the line when i can get adaptation used for ten bucks i will. non movie wise i'll only get radiohead and the new harry potter book.

2003-05-22T19:37:00.000-05:00

X2. i saw this a while ago, on opening weekend, so i don't remember every detail and feeling about it. i was pleased though. i thought i liked it better than the first. so i saw the first again and definitely appreciated it more than i remembered. i have this theory. character is key for me. and big ensemble cast movies either need to be 3+hours long movies to squeeze in story along with completing a characters development or have a sequel that continues development. i thought x2 was this way. the characters are made a little bit more complete so we can care about them in whatever story they are in. some new cool characters were added to. nightcrawler, my old favorite (at least in the video game) is pretty cool.

2003-05-22T19:29:00.000-05:00

Matrix 2. it hasn't been getting the ravest reviews, but i've seen it 3 times and can't wait to go again. it certainly isn't a perfect movie...but what sequel is? (except the godfather 2). one thing that made the first matrix so great was that no one had any expectations for the new keanu movie. then it blew us out of the water. we've had four years of hype. one year of clips and plot spoilers to take away the sense of suprise. keep also in mind that it is merely half a movie. there is no resolution or change in character yet. it just stops. my only quam was the sweaty rave sequence cut with the neo trinity sex scene. i don't understand the point. we all know that new and three like each other. and it made zion appear rather hellish. who care is the machines destroy it. i also miss dozer. the new oporator is a little watery. other than that i loved it. i liked where they went with the story. i can't think of a more logical or interesting place to take it. above all the action, fights and fx were incredible. the car chase, the agent smith and balcony fights are quite memorable. i just bought matrix one and sent in the card for a free movie ticket. looks like the fourth viewing is coming soon.

2003-05-10T22:09:00.000-05:00

TRAILER OF THE WEEK
Together limited release May 30. I remember reading about this way back as one of the highlights of the Toronto festival. I'd forgotten about it. Anyway, it's a about a young Chinese violinist. Look's right up Dad's alley.

Two Weeks Notice (2002) Alright Sarah, here you go. You'll love it. But only because it's no different from the dozens of other recent bland Hollywood romantic comedies. There's absolutely nothing unique or memorable about this, nothing that sets it apart. The idea seems to be get an A-list male star, get an A-list female star, insert trendy top 40 soundtrack and that equals bags of money at the box office. Sarah, I beg you, STOP FALLING FOR IT!

A cross country roadtrip, staying in motels can mean only one thing--HBO and movies I wouldn't normally watch, much less pay money for. The first night was Murder by Numbers, Sandra Bullock goes crime-drama. Bad acting, bad script, bad FX. I want those precious minutes of my life back. Roadtrip Night 2 brought us Scooby Doo. More like Scooby Dumb. Absolutely nothing even close to resembling the cartoon of my childhood. And what they did to Scrappy Doo was just sacreligious. It's almost as if this movie was made by nostalgic twentysomethings for a bit younger teeny boppers to prove how clever they are. Turns out they're not clever at all. I really want those precious moments of my life back.

And before I left, from the library there was George Lucas in Love, a parody short of the Gwenyth Paltrow Oscar winner that reveals where young film student George Lucas really got his inspiration. To say it's a must see for every Star Wars fan is an insignificant understatement. From the bun-haired student government female inspiration to the asthmatic, raspy voiced script-writing nemesis, to the diminutive professor who speaks in backwards sentences, the joy is in the details. If there's any justice in the world, it should be packaged with the eventual DVD release of Star Wars. Also on the disc were Swing Blade a parody trailer of Swingers and Sling Blade, showing Karl trying to pick up chicks. Pretty funny, but probably better had I seen either of those movies. Evil Hill crosses Dr. Evil with Notting Hill in a rather uninspired hybrid. Film Club parodies Fight Club as a group of frustrated independent filmmakers. It copies the Fight Club trailer, shot for shot, with some additional scenes, with some hilarious lines: "His name was Silent Bob. His name was Silent Bob." and "If you could shout any nude scene.... I'd shoot Shatner. William Shatner."

2003-05-06T19:05:00.000-05:00

I just found info on Wes Anderson's latest project, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.

2003-05-05T21:03:00.000-05:00

TRAILER OF THE WEEK

28 Days Later, June 27. From the writer/director of Trainspotting, it got loads of buzz at Sundance. And that was before the SARS mess.

2003-04-26T20:02:00.000-05:00

TRAILER OF THE WEEK

The Italian Job, May 30 Just what the world needs: another heist flick, and another remake. I just want to see Ed Norton and Jason Statham.

Hero (2002) This was China's representative among the nominations for Best Foreign Film this year. It didn't win, but it's a dad-gum gorgeous movie. You may be wondering how I got my hands on a film that isn't set for a stateside theatrical release until November. Well, I'll tell you. My kung fu buddy Richard ordered the DVD straight from Hong Kong. It was a little tricky finding the English subtitles as all the menus were in Chinese.

Its about a nameless swordsman (played by Jet Li) as he tells the king how he defeated the king's three most wanted assassins. It's got a little bit of Rashomon to keep you on your toes. It's going to draw a lot of comparisons to Crouching Tiger for the action. The music is very similar, too. But I don't think western audiences and critics are going to find it quite as accessible. I, personally, liked it better. I tell you what, though, those Chinese aren't ones for clean, happy endings.

What I can't get out of my head is the sumptuous cinematography. Color explodes out of every frame and each one is a gorgeous picture by itself. This movie is just a beautiful work of art. Just a film of beauty.

2003-04-24T00:13:00.000-05:00

TRAILER OF THE WEEK

I've been slacking. No excuses.

Pirates of the Caribbean July 9. Legolas goes a'swashbuckin' a la Douglas Fairbanks. But it is directed by Gore Verbinski (The Mexican) and produced by Jerry "Let's Blow Stuff Up" Bruckheimer.

Gandhi (1982)
Phenomenal. In the genre of biopics, find me a better one. Among important films of the 80s, perhaps only E.T. can be mentioned in the same breath. I mean, just scroll through the other Oscar winners of its time. Gandhi was well deserving of all 9 of its Oscars, including Best Picture (it beat E.T.), Director for Richard Attenborough (remember the grandpa in Jurassic Park?) and Actor for Ben Kingsley, who simply amazes as the Indian saint of humanity in the 20th century. I'm not well versed in the life of the historical Gandhi, and I'm sure there's as much myth as fact to his life, so I can't vouch for the historical accuracy of the movie, but it certainly stands alone as a film very well. Entertaining. Educational. Even inspirational.

2003-04-20T13:47:00.000-05:00

holes. good, fun kids movie. i can't remember the last time i saw a children's movie that wasn't full of suck. but this one could possibly rank up there with the best. princess bride, the goonies, the sandlot and the neverending story.

2003-04-20T13:45:00.000-05:00

i'm a little upset. i just typed a big shpeal on a mighty wind, holes and the coen bros. and it didn't post it. i don't think. so i'll do a quicky version.
mighty wind. funny. worth seeing. plenty of laughs. but not as good as the others. there are so many characters it doesn't get to focus on the little quirks of each character, relying on the obvious and often crude jokes. maybe the subtlties are there. only time will tell.

2003-04-20T13:40:00.000-05:00

i'm in

2003-04-16T22:17:00.000-05:00

The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)
First of all, what's so bad about being a barber? I saw Barbershop a couple of weeks ago about a disgruntled barber and now this. Hmm...

Lots, and I mean lots of things to like here. I seem to gush over the directors of the films I've been writing about lately, and honestly a discussion of my favorite directors can't even start without mentioning the Coen brothers. This has to go right up there with Barton Fink as one of my favorites of theirs. Its brimming with all of the odd eccentricities that make the Coens hands-down the most unique directors in Hollywood. The characters are every bit as wacky as you'll find. In the great Hollywood tradition of 1940s film noir, there's murder, blackmail, adultery, and a bit of UFOs thrown in for good measure. And its certainly not for the casual Friday night movie watcher. Roger Deakins's black and white cinematography is just beautiful. Just a movie I thoroughly enjoyed.

No Man's Land (2001)
Oscar winner of last year's best foreign film, I like Amelie better, though I can see No Man's Land's appeal. It's got politically charged statement that it saves for the very last frame, basically that the UN is an impotent bunch of clowns in the Bosnian conflict. In the film a pair of Bosnian soldier's and a Serb soldier trapped together in a trench between the front lines, one of them stuck on a mine that will explode if he gets up. In comes the UN forces to the rescue and the media circus in tow. As the situation develops, its clear that this serves as a metaphor for the foreign intervention in Bosnia and its inability to actually solve anything there. It's a good movie, worth seeing, but pretty heavy stuff.

Cool Hand Luke (1967)
Alright, what'd I miss? This one ranks #118 on IMDb's Top 250. I've heard it heralded as this great piece of Americana film, a great script. The epitome of non-conformity and self-will. I didn't get it. Sure, Luke's a likable enough character, but its more for Paul Newman's charisma as an actor, rather than anything Luke the character does. Sure, there's the scene where he eats the 50 eggs. As Luke answers why he does it, "So we'd have something to do." Exactly! Because there's nothing going on. There's supposedly a ton of Christian symbolism. The 37 on his prison uniform is a reference to Luke 1:37. ("Everything is possible with God.") But how it all ties into the story... You got me. And that score was just obnoxious. Maybe I'm just to young to appreciate this classic.

Signs (2002)
One director I'm dropping from my list of favorite young filmmakers is M. Night Shymalan, who seems to be suffering from George Lucas disease. You know, the phenomenon that causes the money people to greenlight a film and all the cast and crew the enthusiastically to jump aboard for the reputation of the writer/director and not the common sense of his script. So the aliens are vulnerable to water, huh. Lucky for us it didn't rain ANYWHERE in the world the day of their invasion. The aliens, who are smart enough to space travel, obviously forgot to do their homework and decided to invade a planet 70% covered with this poison water, not to mention our atmosphere is made of the stuff, too. And they must have been wearing socks the night they were running through a dew-covered cornfield at night. I just can't believe that nobody went up to Mr. Night and said, "Hey M, um, what about this water and the aliens stuff?"

Off the rant, what Shymalan's done in his previous films, and done very well, is take a standard genre and put his own twist on it, establishing an air of realism ("What if this really happened?") making a very personal story out of it. It worked great for the ghost story in The Sixth Sense. It worked for the comicbook hero in Unbreakable. But the B-movie alien invasion story is too much of a stretch. The other two films warrant a certain level of suspension of disbelief that doesn't translate in Signs. In the end, it's not more than a stylized B-movie. That, and it was just 5-10 years ago our pop culture was inundated with the X-Files, Independence Day, Men in Black and Mars Attacks. The alien invasion movie is as dated as grunge music and flannel shirts.

While the theme is admirable (that there is somebody out there on our side, that there are no accidents), I almost found it offensive (that's really too strong a word, maybe bothered) at the seemingly neutered religious conotations, just vague, politically correct hyperbole. But there I go probably taking it far too seriously than I really should.

Two favorite parts (really): The opening credits with their Hitchcockian score, and the scene of the kids wearing the aluminum hats. That was funny.

2003-04-13T20:36:00.000-05:00

About a Boy (2002)
I think there are two kinds of art in the world: Stuff that's made for sheer entertainment, and stuff made to preach a point. The great thing about any art, be it paint, music, architecture, film, is that it has the power to not just give a short thrill but also the power to resonate into the caverns where we ask the questions about the meaning of life. Sadly, in our pop culture there is far more of the former then the latter, and far more often than not, the latter is so bluntly moralistic, it has no entertainment value whatsoever. About a Boy pleasantly surprised me in that it has a very blatant moral, but it's equal parts of genuine wit, humor and pathos charm you away from being turned off by its moral-of-the-story ending. It's entertaining with substance.

Hugh Grant plays Will, a self-absorbed, shallow playboy who thinks that Jon Bon Jovi said "No man is an island," and that that statement is a load of rubbish. He comes to the conclusion that single mother's are the new dating goldmine, and through his involvement in a support group for single parents (inventing an imaginary toddler for himself) he meets Marcus, the social pariah of his school, the epitome of everything uncool. The film then unfolds through their budding relationship. The title About a Boy refers to both Will and Marcus as they both mature through the story, as they both learn that people need people, that no man is an island, and that we all need backup.

I love subjective point of view in a movie, and directors Chris and Paul Weitz (American Pie!) use both the differing perspectives of Will and Marcus to tell the story, which I thought was unique and offered numerous humorous ironic takes on scenes. It's based on the book by Nick Hornby, the British author who wrote the source material for High Fidelity, so the witty sense of humor is very similar to that film. Badly Drawn Boy provided the soundtrack. About a Boy just had everything I like in a movie.

In the Bedroom (2001)
Continuing the theme of "Single Mothers who Ruin Your Life," is In the Bedroom, the last of Oscar Best Picture nominated films for me to see. If you haven't seen it and plan on seeing it, just stop right here and come back later. I'm likely to give away spoilers, and trust me, the less you know seeing it, the better. You've been forewarned.

I don't if I've seen a movie that's made me think quite so much in a very long time. For that I liked it. It's definitely not the typical Hollywood film that spoonfeeds scene to scene with an ending that ties it up in a nice little bow. What I keep wrestling with, and whether in the end I personally like it or not, is the ending and what Todd Field, the writer and directory is saying and what these last 2 hours were all about. The story has 3 pretty well defined acts: The first establishing the characters and relationships of the well-educated and respected Dr. Matt Fowler and his choral teacher wife Ruth, their college-age son Frank, his single mother girlfriend Natalie and her separated but not yet ex-husband Richard. Lobster trap conversation that opens the film serves as the symbol that tells us exactly where these characters are headed in Act One. Act Two has some brilliantly underplayed scenes of the Fowlers' grief for which Tom Wilkinson as Matt and Sissy Spacek as Ruth deserved their Oscar nominations. It's near the end of Act Two that I realized there could be absolutely no satisfying ending to this story. And in Act Three Matt takes justice into his own hands. It plays out like a film of Hitchcock's only without the glamour. There's power in a title, and I think that the In the Bedroom is a sorry title for the story, probably at the hands of the marketers. The title of the short story it's based on is Killings, but that probably gives away the ending. But I think that more aptly fits the theme as we connect the wicked, white trash, wifebeater Richard with the sophisticated and intelligent Matt and what then draws them to their eventual common bond.

What I found most disturbing in the film was the final scene, where Ruth gets up from bet to make Matt breakfast, completely unfazed, though very aware of what has just happened, while Matt appears extremely disturbed as he gets into bed and removes his Band-Aid. Is Field saying that Matt's revenge has healed his emotional wounds, as his finger has healed? Or is it to contrast that Matt still isn't healed despite his healed finger? The look on his face as the film fades to black shows that Matt is clearly has no closure, and that I think is the point. I don't think Field is justifying revenge and unforgiveness, but instead portraying their insufficiency to placate grief. Obviously, it has satisfied Ruth, but never in the film do we identify with her or even like her, so her character arch proves to be the very opposite of the story's goal. It's Matt's story from beginning to end, so it's with Matt's dissatisfaction we are left with.

Once Upon a Time in China (1991)
From deep stuff to fluff, Once Upon a Time in China is another martial arts flick I got my hands on. It's the film that launched the career of Jet Li as the title character of Wong Fei-hung, one of the most prolific characters on Chinese pop culture. Like Robin Hood and James Bond in the West, Wong Fei-hung has survived multiple incarnations over several generations from newspaper serials to pulp fiction to some 70+ Hong Kong films. Jet Li serves as the definitive Wong Fei-hung to the MTV generation as some six sequels have spun off in the past 10 years. The story takes place in 19th century Canton as the influence of the British and Americans is slowly invading the Chinese way of life. Unlike most Hong Kong martial movies, this has story that for the most part holds the movie together. The action sequences are absolutely amazing, just jaw-dropping. The music, cinematography and translation are a bit silly and overdramatic at times, but I soon forgot about all that during the kung fu climax. From what I hear, Once Upon a Time in China is THE classic film to come out of Hong Kong. Today, before the Mariners game came on, there was an 80s Chuck Norris film on, and it's shocking to me that he ever had a job when this stuff was available.

2003-04-11T23:41:00.000-05:00

TRAILER OF THE CENTURY

The Matrix Reloaded.

Holy... Freakin'... Snot...Go now... 41 days and counting

2003-03-30T02:41:00.000-06:00

TRAILER OF THE WEEK

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - This one's been online for a couple months or so, but I wanted to comment on it. I've been following it for quite allow just because it sounds so dad-gum cool--based on a graphic novel about a sci-fi alternate Victorian universe and a band of literature turned superheroes, Tom Sawyer, the Invisible Man, Dr. Jekyll, Cpt. Nemo, and starring Sean Connery, Jason Flemyng (Lock Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels) and Stuart Townsend (notorious to movie geeks as the guy Peter Jackson fired as Aragorn). I was excited to finally see there was a trailer, but I'm not sure how I feel about it. The effects look mighty nice, and while the sets look moody, it looks like a soundstage. Maybe it's just me. It's directed by the guy who did Blade, which was the bloodiest movie I ever saw, but also had about the coolest style. Maybe my doubts will give room for it to impress me. The art direction reminds me of Dark City

http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/lxg/

TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942)
This flick is currently #199 on IMDb's top 250. It's a comedy set in Warsaw just before and after Hitler's invasion. It stars Jack Benny and Carole Lombard as part of a Polish drama troupe that matches wits with the Nazis. Check out that release date again. I want to say the Nazi invasion of Poland was 1939, so this is current events. America had only been in the War for a year. The film was directed by Ernst Lubitsch, who himself was a German born filmmaker who immigrated to Hollywood. Like Life Is Beautiful, To Be or Not To Be teeters on the edge of comedy and horror. Especially in light of the current events in Iraq, finding humor in war is a bit unnerving. Lubitsch's parody of the Nazi party is insightful mocking its absolute absurdity. And still... I don't know. I have to wonder what art will be inspired by the current situation. How many films and stories will Saddam inspire? Just a couple of concrete knocks: The ending of the movie turns into a spy thriller, the objective of which is never really spelled out. And that voice over opening was just plain annoying.

TERMINATOR (1984)
"A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days" (Revelation 12:1-6)

Now, I'm pretty disappointed in myself that I never saw the religious symbolism in Cameron's Terminator series before, for all the times I saw T2. Maybe I was too young, maybe the action is more attention-grabbing in the second one, maybe it's all the similar elements in the Matrix, I don't know. But there it is in black and white, or red. T-1 is far from a perfect, but it makes a good prelude to the second. While T2 can stand on its own as a story, the info from the first one provides a bigger picture. It had a tiny budget, and looks it. The special effects are corny and the acting and dialogue are worse. The violence is shockingly brutal in this post-Columbine world. (Arnold shoots a housewife in her home at point blank, and later storms a police station with an Uzi in one arm and shotgun in the other). And the gratuitious sex is unnecessary. But, this is 1984, and of the sci-action films of the 80s, this is the only one that still stands. (Anyone remember Solar Babies?) The Terminator is the definitive man versus machine struggle. Its the story here that makes it timeless. In the future, man is enslaved by machines. When mankind turns the tide in the war, the machines send one of there own back in time to terminate the mother of mankind's savior. And so mankind then sends back in time a human to protect her from the Terminator. No surprises if you've seen T2. But if you can through out what you know, the first half of the movie is pretty mesmerizing. The way Cameron structures his sceenplay (while the dialogue is lame), is perfect because, other than a brief subtitle at the beginning, he doesn't give the exposition until about 45 minutes into it, so you're left wondering, "What's up with the naked guys and the lightning?" Sarah Connor is a bit of a cypher of a character. We see her as a downtrodden waitress as an introduction, but other than that there is no sense of her identity, who she is, where she comes from. She becomes just a fish out of water. But then again, the point of the movie isn't characterization; it's stuff gettin' blowed up. I never really saw John Connor as a messiah-figure in T2, but that aspect to him is emphasized much more in this film, as the one man who rose up to teach the others to fight against the machines. While he's never seen onscreen, his presence weighs heavily as the savior and only hope for mankind. The cast is filled with Cameron regulars: Michael Biehn (Aliens, The Abyss) is Future Man bodyguard Kyle Reese, Bill Paxton (Aliens, Titanic) is a mowhawked punk whose demise provides the Terminator with his leather outfit, Lance Henriksen (the AI character in Aliens) is a police detective. Moreso in this film, then T2, but perhaps akin to his later Aliens, Cameron captures the nightmarish horror of helplessness against a seemingly unstoppable evil. The dark settings (there's only a handful of daylight scenes) work wonders on that mood. My one complaint is the plot hole the size of the future itself that is summed up in one of Sarah's final lines to her unborn John: "Should I tell you about your father? God, a person could go crazy thinking about that." It's the textbook scenario I remember seeing in a video in my 9th grade science class explaining why time travel is not possible. You can't go back in time and interfere with your parents because then you don't exist, but then you don't exist to interfere, so you will exist, and its just a mind-numbing cycle. And if the machines are so smart, why don't they go back and kill Sarah's parents, why wait every 10 years to take out the adolescent John Connor? Which is why T3 is a terrible idea. One sequel works because you could introduce John, flip the character of Sarah and reverse the role of the Terminator. But honestly, now, please tell me, is T3 nothing more than a cash cow to revive the dying career of Arnold? But enough cynicism, one thing that makes me wonder is the man versus machine struggle. Certainly, it's not a creative idea by Cameron. He was sued by Harlan Ellison after Terminator's release. The plot device of mankind enslaved by his own creation has been a staple of sci-fi literature since the inception of the genre. Terminator was the first (at least popular) cinematic manifestation. The e-generation has seen done better with the Matrix. But what draws us to imagine a world where we are conquered by our creation? Where we fantasize about the struggle between creator and creation? Is it because we are ourselves slaves to sin, the result of our own doing, with but one Savior to lead us to victory? I think so.

2003-03-22T22:59:00.000-06:00

TRAILER OF THE WEEK

Spider - The looks like a creepy, mind-bender in league with Dark City and Memento with Ralph Fiennes as our mentally disturbed hero. It opened in Seattle last week to a 4-star review.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/spider.html

And a last Nolan comment: David Julyan is my new favorite movie composer. He's provided the music to all three of Nolan's film. I especially liked the score of Following. It had this Myst-like, ethereal, atmospheric quality to it. Never distracting, but also moody.

On to this weeks viewing pleasures...

THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971)
Winner of 5 Academy Awards for best picture, director, actor, screenplay and editing, #70 of AFI's list of greatest American films and currently #244 on IMDb's top 250 list, The French Connection requires the right mindset for maximum enjoyment. In the new millenium of cliche buddy-cop drug bust movies and documentary-style hand-held cinematography, The French Connection can look a tad stale. But it was pretty radical filmmaking for its time. It's based on the true story of the largest drug bust in US history, and the real Popeye and Cloudy make cameos in the film. The style of realism that director William Friedkin achieves with his documentary-style cinematography, grungy portrait of New York City, and open ending resembles more closely European films of the same era rather than Hollywood. A relative unknown veteran of documentaries, this put Friedkin on the Hollywood map and he would later garner an Oscar nomination for The Exorcist. Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider star as the two narcotics officer. Hackman, especially, plays Popeye Doyle as one bad mamma-jamma. He's a flawed hero who teeters on the edge of taking his power as a law enforcer too far. Then there's the car chase. Nobody talks about The French Connection without mentioning the car chase, which I was a bit disappointed by. But then, when you think about it, a car chasing an "El" train, even by today's standards, is pretty original. The only problem is, it doesn't move the story along. You just have this 20 minute segment where you just know the producers were saying, "We gotta have a car chase!" so they just stuck in there. Well, it's still intense. So yeah, I'd say it's pretty worth of its accolades. It's influence on the modern independent film movement, i.e., Steven Soderbergh, is obvious. If you like stripped down, no frills, indie flicks, you should enjoy The French Connection.

WALLACE AND GROMIT: THE WRONG TROUSERS (1993)
This won Nick Park his second of three Academy Awards for his claymation shorts. He would later make Chicken Run, but I love his Wallace and Gromit shorts. Wallace is Roald Dahl-esque absent-minded inventor and Gromit is his trusty canine. In this episode, Wallace takes a boarder in the form a penguin with a dark side, who forces Gromit out of the house and manipulates Wallace and his mechanical trousers for a diamond heist. There's a great miniature train chase at the climax that makes you think "Wow!" when you remember its claymation. A great present for me someday would be the Wallace and Gromit series on DVD. All three episodes are on one disc.

BARBERSHOP (2002)
It makes a serviceable feature-length sitcom. It's entertaining, with some funny scenes and likable characters, but I couldn't remember anybody's names when it was over. The story's a bit trite and cliche. Calvin, desiring for something more in his life, decides to sell the neighborhood barbershop that's been in his family three generations, only to discover what the barbershop represents to the neighborhood and that people are more important than money. If you're in the mood for something light, I'd recommend it. It's probably funnier if you're black, though.

A couple of addendums to my Top Five characters in a movie, though these may just have to be honorable mentions:

Lawrence from Office Space - "Hey, Peter-man!" "Naw. Naw! No man. I believe you'd get your ass kicked saying something like that, man"
Doug from Ghost World - "It's America, dude. Learn the rules!" "Rock 'n Roll. Freedom of speech."

2003-03-15T00:29:00.000-06:00

Yes, I'm back, so I'll spit out what I can while I'm here...

TRAILER OF THE WEEK

Willard - What happens when you cross George McFly, Norman Bates and Dr. Doolittle? Apparently this remake of the 1971 film of the same name. On a side note, Michael Jackson had his first solo hit with the title song of Willard's sequel, "Ben." Anyway, this unique, stylish-looking trailer had me interested until every review I've found thus far trashed it. Oh well. It opened today here in the Northwest.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/newline/willard/

FIST OF LEGEND (1994)
I first read about Fist of Legend in The Art of the Matrix where it was mentioned as one of the inspirations for the kung fu sequences. I got my hands on it from this guy I've met named Richard who owns a martial arts school and has more than martial arts dvds than I have books. He's particularly a fan of Woo Ping, whose more namely involvment in American film includes the Matrix, as well as Crouching Tiger. Back to Fist of Legend (choreographed by Woo Ping)... On the kung fu end, it certainly doesn't disappoint. The fights are simply amazing, greater than anything I've seen in American movies with very little, if any wire work. The cinematograhy got a bit annoying with some comic book-style framing and slow-motion, speed-up. I got to thinking about it, and in the Matrix, Keanu and Co. are actors who had 6 months to learn kung fu. These guys on the other hand, have probably been doing it since the day they were born. They are truly gifted athletes and to them martial arts is an ART form. Incredible stuff. If you see it, make sure you find the disc with the original language track. I saw the dubbed version and we're talking camp material. It was horrible. The missus couldn't understand how I could watch it. The story, I thought, was pretty weak, but from what I've read it's once of the best in the genre. You don't these movies for character development.

THE CHRISTOPHER NOLAN TRILOGY
In course of the past month I've managed to see all 3 of Nolan's films, and I've got to say, he just might be my favorite young filmmaker at the moment.

FOLLOWING (1998) It's only an hour long, but it's great because then you've got time to watch the commentary, too, which is one of the best I've ever heard. In it, he gives a step by step course in Guerilla Filmmaking 101. It's a great companion to Rodriguez's Rebel Without a Crew. Nolan pretty much tells the same story. It's also seems to be Nolan's practice for Memento. You can see all of the techniques from Memento experimented with in Following: non-linear narrative, the use of key props to orient the audience, the trick ending. Like Memento, it's a completely different experience the second time through.
MEMENTO (2000) I've watched it now 2 or 3 times now since Christmas time, and I'm still seeing new shades to the character of Leonard. With each viewing, he becomes a much more sick, twisted and dispecable character. Yet, I find that the reason I love this movie so much is how I connect with Leonard. As much as I hate it, I can be pretty absent-minded. The missus says we've had conversations that I just don't remember. I can remember the situation of meeting someone 10 years ago to the minutest detail, but the location of my glass of water from 10 minutes ago eludes me. But I'm not unique, I don't have a "condition." I'm just forgetful. Then the thought occurred to me: What if Leonard is just a severely absent-minded person who's just making excuses, convinced himself that he has a true mental handicap? That certainly puts a different spin on things. He's a character who has taken his worldview and adapted it to fit his own needs. When faced with the truth of who he is, he instead manipulates it to a more palatable version. In reality, Leonard is an insane serial killer. In his own mind, he's a handicapped victim seeking justice. It's the same identity crisis of our society where everyone's a victim, where our world view is shaped by our fluid, shape-shifting memory of our limited experience. In religion, politics, science, every realm of life today reality is a la carte, reality is what we choose. Memento is an indictment of the humanistic world view where there is no concrete truth: "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie" (Romans 1:25).

INSOMNIA (2002) By far, the weakest of the trilogy. It's good, don't get me wrong. Just not great. I like the idea of setting a dark film noir in setting of perpetual light. Nolan has style out the wazoo. Al Pacino plays his typical cop role, though vulnerable, tortured with his own secrets and moral dilemmas. Robin Williams is creepy cast against type, and certainly makes a case to justify the criminal quite chillingly actually. Hillary Swank is in the throw away role as the straight cop. It's all a pretty intriguing story until a grinds to halt about 3/4 through it all and ends a cliche shootout. Again, as in Memento, Nolan gives the subjective point of view of a character on the brink of madness suffering from a medical disorder, sleeplessness in this case. He seems to be the Hitchcock of this generation, weaving tales of the darkness that lies beneath the faceless masses we pass on the street everyday.

2003-02-12T00:54:00.000-06:00

TRAILER OF THE WEEK:

A Mighty Wind - Christopher Guest, need we say more. In limited release April 16.

Just how long do you thing Guest can stretch this mock-umentery genre? At least he's picked a subject matter that hopefully makes us forget we've seen these same people in the same format.

http://movies.go.com/movies/M/mightywind_2002/trailers/index.html