Saturday 30 October 2010

Movie Review: Last House On The Left (2009)


An uncompromising story of evil and the ability of normal people to slip into violent revenge mode, Last House On The Left is chillingly disturbing, with violent characters and events not far removed from reality.

Soon after arriving at a remote country lodge for some vacation time with her parents, teenager Mari (Sara Paxton) drives into town to visit her friend Paige (Martha MacIsaac). The girls meet Justin (Spencer Treat Clark), a mysterious teenager, and make the unwise choice of accepting his invitation to smoke pot in his hotel room. A big mistake, since Justin's Dad is Krug (Garret Dillahunt) a recently escaped violent criminal. Krug's brother Francis (Aaron Paul) and girlfriend Sadie (Riki Lindhome) are equally sadistic.

Mari and Paige are soon abducted and tortured. When they attempt to escape, Krug rapes Mari and both girls are left for dead in the unforgiving woods. Seeking shelter from an overnight rainstorm, Krug and his gang take a refuge in the first house that they encounter: the remote lodge where Emma (Monica Potter) and her husband John (Tony Goldwyn) are frantically worrying about their daughter Mari.

Wes Craven produced this remake of his 1972 low-budget classic horror film, and the update draws its power from the intense yet disarming evil generated by Krug, Francis and Sadie. We have seen these characters on the more grimy streets of most cities and in most newspaper accounts of vicious murders. Aaron Paul as Francis and Riki Lindhome as Sadie are creepy enough; Garret Dillahunt as Krug is outright terrifying thanks to his understated viciousness, the ability to turn on some smarmy charm, and his belief that the world owes him.

Sara Paxton gives Mari the necessary mix of naivete and strength, and enough personal appeal to ensure that the rape scene is nothing less than harrowing. Less convincing are her parents. The almost instant transformation of a typical husband and wife into a couple capable of contemplating revenge requires a leap of faith, delivered neither by the script nor by Potter and Goldwyn.

Last House On The Left avoids most horror movie cliches, and is gory, bloody and unflinching. But it rises above typical horror movie fare by presenting villains that are depressingly real in their cruelty.






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Thursday 28 October 2010

Movie Review: Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)


Woody Allen's exploration of modern romantic misadventures is clever, funny, and filled with engaging characters who are only slightly exaggerated.

The brunette Vicky (Rebecca Hall) is practical and down to earth. She is engaged to be married to Doug (Chris Messina), a nice guy with a reliable job. Her best friend, the blonde Cristina (Scarlett Johansson), is flighty and adventurous. She is looking for something, but only knows that whatever she has found so far is not it.

Vicky and Cristina decide to spend a summer in Barcelona, and soon they both meet and fall under the spell of the passionate artist Juan Antonio Gonzalo (Javier Bardem). Vicky's brief and unexpected fling with Juan Antonio knocks her world off its axis. Cristina enters into a longer term romance with Juan Antonio, but soon find herself the catalyst in the turbulent reconciliation between Juan Antonio and his former wife, the wild Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz).

As usual, Allen's characters speak the way normal people do, with unsure pauses, irony-free hesitancy, and the seemingly inadvertent stepping on each other's sentences. It's the closest that scripts come to pretending to be ad-libbed, and it immediately elevates Allen's characters closer to real people. Allen also avoids any contrived scenes of high drama and climactic emotions or confrontations, preferring as usual to deploy his low key approach that mimics real life instead of life as Hollywood likes to imagine it.

Vicky and Cristina both go through several turbulent transformations in the movie, and both Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson admirably provide the necessary understated depth to portray, with a mixture of sadness and humour, the upheaval that unexpected love can cause. 

Bardem as Juan Antonio is the eye of the hurricane, and therefore does not have to emotionally move very much as chaos reigns around him. Penelope Cruz gets the showiest role as Maria Elena, a joyfully unrestrained force of nature that splatters anyone that surrounds her with a torrent of emotions, raised to the Spanish power.

Allen directs with his usual mix of subdued artistry, allowing the actors to take centre stage while never failing to find the interesting camera angle to remind us of his talent.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona is both enjoyable and captivating, and in the often unimaginative world of manufactured romantic comedies, it's a breath of fresh Mediterranean air.







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Sunday 24 October 2010

Movie Review: Major Dundee (1965)


A sprawling and ambitious western, Major Dundee suffers from meaningless meandering, ill-advised side-trips, and a severe lack of focus. 

Stories abound of director Sam Peckinpah being frequently drunk and incoherent on the set of Major Dundee, with star Charlton Heston having to step into the director's chair to keep the production on track. The resulting mess included a legendary, never-seen version of the movie that extended for 4 hours and 30 minutes. The released version is just over two hours, although it sometimes feels like four hours.

Major Dundee is a work of fiction, but very loosely inspired by some real-life skirmishes where Confederate prisoners joined Union soldiers in Texas to battle Indians. In the movie, as the American Civil War draws to a close, a group of Apaches under the leadership of Chief Charriba mount a series of raids and massacres against both Union and Confederate troops in and around New Mexico. The Union's Major Dundee (Heston) has accumulated a patchy war leadership record, and is assigned the somewhat demeaning command of a jail near the Mexico border. He takes it upon himself to assemble a rag-tag force of prison guards (including Black soldiers) and prisoners, including his bitter Confederate rival Captain Tyreen (Richard Harris), to go after Chief Charriba and his men.

Rather than focusing on their mission, Dundee's soldiers spend a lot of time threatening to kill each other as tensions between North and South, Black and white, and jailer and jailed simmer and sometimes boil over. With Dundee mounting an unconvincing pursuit, the Apaches soon take refuge in Mexico, where the French Army has assembled troops, setting up a triangular climactic conflict between Dundee's men, the Apaches and the French.

While there is enough going among all the galloping horses to maintain a rudimentary level of viewer attentiveness, the characters in Major Dundee are neither interesting nor sympathetic enough to ignite the movie. The conflict between Dundee and Tyreen, which should have given the film its centre of gravity, is drawn in crayons. Charlton Heston gives Dundee the same over-the-top higher calling that powers his biblical roles, while Harris looks like he just stepped out of a movie about those magnificent men in their flying machines. James Coburn wanders in and out of the action in an under-used role as Sam Potts, a one-armed half-breed who helps Dundee track the Apaches.

Santa Berger all of a sudden shows up in the unlikely role of a stunningly gorgeous European woman stranded in a tiny Mexican village. She further clogs up the progress of the movie by batting her eyelashes and contriving a romance with Dundee that mostly serves to prove her poor judgement and the ease with which he gets distracted.

The action scenes are a mixture of the sloppy, the bloody, and the confusing, with Peckinpah looking for but not yet finding artistry in cinematic violence. Although full of potential, Major Dundee is as flawed as its ragtag collection of characters. 






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Thursday 21 October 2010

Movie Review: Unforgiven (1992)


An artistic and visually appealing western, Unforgiven is a metaphor for the death of the old west, and a last hurrah for both the genre and the men who made it famous.

The Town of Big Whiskey, Wyoming, in the late 1800's: a prostitute at a brothel is slashed repeatedly across the face by two knife-wielding cowboys. The local law, represented by sheriff Little Bill Daggett (Gene Hackman), demands that the cowboys provide horses as compensation, but otherwise the crime goes unpunished. The prostitutes band together and place a $1,000 bounty on the head of the two assailants, much to the dismay of Little Bill, who does not appreciate greedy bounty-hunters from all corners riding into his town.

Will Munny (Clint Eastwood) and Ned Logan (Morgan Freeman) are two grizzled outlaws who have long since left their criminal days behind to settle into domesticity. They come out of retirement and team up with The Schofield Kid (Jaimz Woolvett), a brash young gunfighter, for one final job to kill the two cowboys and claim the $1,000 reward. They are soon on a bloody collision course with the sheriff and his men.

Unforgiven is beautifully photographed, deliberately paced, and benefits from a dream cast with Eastwood, Freeman and Hackman at its core. It does suffer from a lack of any truly memorable scenes, an absence of wit, and a relatively forgettable music score by Lenny Niehaus.

Director Clint Eastwood dedicated the film to Sergio Leone (A Fistful Of Dollars, A Few Dollars More, The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly) and Don Siegel (Two Mules For Sister Sara, The Beguiled), the men whose westerns launched Eastwood's career.

While Unforgiven is a visually absorbing experience, the morally suspect message is distracting. The film appears eager to celebrate the lawlessness of the old west, and is dismissive of early attempts to prevent gun crimes and solve violent conflicts by means other than death. The slow pacing provides many opportunities for the characters of Will Munny and Ned Logan to reflect on the demise of their era, but ultimately they are portrayed as heroic for killing men who are attempting to introduce a modern justice system, flawed as it may be.

Eastwood therefore positions Unforgiven apart from the westerns of Leone. The Dollars trilogy presented a range of characters all with highly suspect value systems, but there is never any doubt that Leone always parked his sympathies with the least despicable of the lot.

In his eagerness to bid farewell to the old West, Eastwood appears to have unsatisfactorily papered over the reasons why it was good thing when men stopped resolving all disputes with six-shooter battles to the death.






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Tuesday 19 October 2010

Movie Review: Amreeka (2009)


Is jumping from one seemingly miserable existence to another worthwhile? What happens when life hands us conclusive proof that the grass is most definitely not greener on the other side of the fence? What do immigrants have to put up with in their new chosen worlds, and why do they do it? In the independent movie Amreeka, first time director Cherien Dabis examines these pervasive issues with humour, poignancy, realism and a warm heart.

Single mom Muna (Nisreen Faour) is struggling to make ends meet, living with her teen-aged son Fadi (Melkar Muallem) in Bethlehem under the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. When they unexpectedly receive an opportunity to immigrate to the United States, Muna is hesitant but Fadi convinces his mom that the chance to start a new life is too good to pass up. They arrive in suburban Chicago circa 2003, to live with Muna's sister Raghda (Hiam Abbas), her husband Nabeel (Yussuf Abu Warda), and their three daughters.

Having jumped out of the frying pan, Muna and Fadi find themselves squarely in the fire. The Unites States has just invaded Iraq, and anti-Arab sentiment is rife among the ignorant. Nabeel, an established and well-respected doctor, is losing patients as his clients abandon him. His marriage to Raghda is strained with serious financial worries, not helped by having to sustain Muna and Fadi, and compounded by anonymous threats of violence directed at the family.

Meanwhile, despite ten years of experience working in a bank, the best Muna can do is find a humiliating job flipping burgers at the local White Castle. And Fadi is quickly the target of anti-Arab bullying at his new school, and gets sucked into drug use and petty confrontations.

Muna and Fadi have to face the reality that their new life has at least as many challenges as the life they left behind; and they have to decide if the new difficulties are worth overcoming.

At the centre of the movie, Nisreen Faour shines as the self-consciously overweight, dedicated mother who will try anything and sacrifice everything for her son, only to quickly lose him to a new culture. She never abandons her sense of humour, poise or can-do, positive attitude.

Another of the movie's assets is a mean streak of humour that shines through the darkest moments. Director Dabis also wrote Amreeka, and she demonstrates a keen ear for the sharp wit that sustains immigrants as they struggle to adapt to their surroundings and carve out some space and dignity in a new world.

Most impressive is the movie's focus on the real-world human experience, good and bad. There are no angels, no heroes and no perfect characters or relationships in Amreeka. Just flawed humans with big hearts, doing the best they can, and learning life's lessons mostly by committing every mistake in the book.

Amreeka ends not by wrapping up the story of Muna and Fadi in a neat package, but by celebrating the joy that comes in finding life's little pleasures, unexpected helping hands and sympathetic ears hidden within the messy daily trek that we call living.









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Sunday 17 October 2010

Movie Review: Hard Times (1975)


The directorial debut of Walter Hill is a period piece set in the Louisiana of the Great Depression, as desperate men engage in bare-knuckled fist fights to earn betting money. Given the subject matter, Hard Times is a surprisingly graceful and engrossing portrait of survival in miserable conditions.

The story is a relatively straightforward updating of the "mysterious stranger with a gun who rides into town" western narrative. Instead of a gun, Chaney (Charles Bronson) has his fists, and they are faster and stronger than any other fighter earning a living on the streets. He arrives on a slow moving train instead of a galloping horse, reveals little about his motives and even less about his background.

The locals are an assortment of low-lifes scratching for a living. Speed Weed (James Coburn) is the gambling-addicted fight promoter who discovers Chaney, and recognizes in him the opportunity to defeat all-comers and earn enough to repay his numerous debts -- except that Speed has the gift of gambling away money faster than even Chaney can earn it.

Poe (Strother Martin) is a medical school drop-out addicted to opium who helps Speed and Chaney, and Lucy (Jill Ireland) is the married woman with a husband in jail desperately looking for a man to be a provider to avoid abject poverty. The rich folks in Hard Times range from brutal loan sharks to cold-hearted business owners.

In short, when times are really tough, it's difficult to find anyone with a charitable soul. Walter Hill's cameras capture the poverty in every corner, from the desolate streets to the depressing eateries and the miserable room with its pathetic furniture that Chaney rents in New Orleans.

Bronson and Coburn play roles that perfectly fit their screen personas. Bronson is just Bronson, a presence more than an actor, speaking much more loudly with actions than words. Coburn is a lot more animated, sweet-talking his way to survival and making up for Bronson by talking too much in all circumstances.

Hard Times is a compact film that maintains its focus on a well-defined tableaux of hardship, and presents it with satisfying colour and texture.





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Saturday 16 October 2010

Movie Review: Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008)


Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist is a teen romantic comedy that has a lot going for it, including two appealing leads in Michael Cera and Kat Dennings, and a vibe that welcomes moments of awkwardness and avoids over-saturation with fake irony.

New Jersey senior high school student Nick (Michael Cera) has long since been dumped by his cheating self-absorbed girlfriend Tris (Alexis Dzeina), but he is far from over her. He phones her and records long-winded messages that she automatically deletes, and he gifts her CD mixes of his favourite music, which she promptly tosses in the garbage. Down-to-earth classmate Norah (Kat Dennings) shares Nick's music taste and retrieves and enjoys his CDs once Tris discards them.

Nick plays bass in his otherwise all-gay band. Over one long and frantic night in New York that starts with a concert by Nick's band and ends early the next morning with a concert by the hip but elusive band Where's Fluffy, a romance finally ignites between Nick and Norah, as he finally gets over Tris and she fends off a creepy "friend with benefits".

Complementing Cera and Dennings, the third star of the movie is New York City at night. Director Peter Sollett avoids most cinematic cliches and captures a city that never sleeps in all its quirkiness, focusing on tiny corner restaurants, ethnic groceries, grimy bus depots, and clubs half-full of people not sure why they are there.

The movie does not fully avoid all the genre's cliches, and after a most tender off-camera orgasm is enjoyed by Norah, there is an unnecessary confrontation between Nick, Norah and their exes as the film appears to muddle the sequence of its concluding scenes to contrive some needless conflict.

But in general, the movie hits most of the right notes, and there is enough going on around the blossoming romance to add welcome texture to the film. Norah's friend Caroline (Ari Graynor) is drunk about 15 minutes into the movie, and spends her night staggering through New York creating her own natural disaster, including some terrific moments involving her chewing gum and a toilet seat. The search for the mysterious Where's Fluffy is a useful plot device to emphasize the focus on music and keep everyone racing around New York. And Nick's yellow Yugo, mistaken for a taxi to great effect, is an extra character in the film, as is the lumbering van used by Nick's band.

In a genre too often beset by yawning predictability, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist offers some refreshingly original tunes.







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Friday 15 October 2010

Movie Review: The Sugarland Express (1974)


For his first big-screen motion picture, director Steven Spielberg celebrates the wide open spaces and endless back roads of rural Texas, and flexes his artistic muscles by painting grand canvasses filled with the impressive sight of an endless number of police cars cutting through the countryside.

Based on a true story, The Sugarland Express also foreshadows the era of celebrity criminals, and indeed the OJ Simpson slow speed police chase of 1994 bears a passing resemblance to scenes from the movie.

Lou Jean Poplin (Goldie Hawn) is released from a Texas prison only to find that her baby has been permanently given over to foster parents. Distraught, she forces her husband Clovis (William Atherton), a prisoner himself, to flee a pre-release detention centre to help drive her to the town of Sugarland and forcibly retrieve her child.

Lou Jean and Clovis soon kidnap a police officer (Michael Sacks) and commandeer his squad car to speed up their quest. With one of their own kidnapped and at gun point, seemingly every police officer and police vehicle in the state of Texas under the leadership of Captain Tanner (Ben Johnson) is soon on the tail of Lou Jean and Clovis. As they make their way through small towns on the way to Sugarland and with a mounting media frenzy, the Poplins begin to achieve local celebrity status.

The Sugarland Express has some creaky and awkward moments. A scene in which Lou Jean and Clovis stare at each other and giggle doesn't work, and some of the celebrations as the Poplins drive through small towns appear to be pure Hollywood overkill.

But for the most part, Spielberg uses the Texas scenery to create some wondrous vistas, and the movie benefits enormously from a tireless and appealing Goldie Hawn performance. In the character of Lou Jean she combines childlike immaturity, desperation, single-mindedness and sweetness to drive the movie forward from its opening scene to its conclusion, wrapping the hapless Clovis around her finger and fending off, until the bitter end, all the police power that Texas throws at her.

Atherton is convincing as the slightly dim Clovis, and Johnson effectively portrays Captain Tanner as he grapples with a chaotic situation that inexorably appears to be turning into a circus heading towards calamity.

The Sugarland Express is at least equal measures style and substance, and this is a rare case where these proportions represent the perfect blend.







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Tuesday 12 October 2010

Movie Review: Body Heat (1981)


About 30 years after the film noir era was supposed to have ended, writer and director Lawrence Kasdan conjures up what may be the best example of the genre.

Body Heat is memorably dominated by oppressive heat: the debilitating heat wave that mother nature has unleashed on Florida; the sensual heat of bodies rubbing against each other; the evil heat of fires caused by arson; and the suffocating heat of the ever-present cigarettes that most of the characters cannot stop smoking. Kasdan grabs control of the temperature dial, cranks to the right, and never relents.

In the middle of this heat, Ned Racine (William Hurt) is a small town lawyer in Florida. He's not a good lawyer, but that does not seem to bother Matty Walker (Kathleen Turner), a rich and unhappily married woman who meets Ned and seduces him with all the lust and sex that he can handle. Matty soon has Ned convinced that they need to murder Matty's husband Edmund (Richard Crenna) so that they can together inherit his massive fortune.

They pull off the murder, and Ned's life quickly starts to unravel, as he realizes that Matty is not exactly what she appears to be, and that he may have unwittingly stepped into an elaborate scheme way more complex than he can handle.

Body Heat catapulted both William Hurt and Kathleen Turner into super-stardom, and both are outstanding. Hurt portrays the sleazy and dim-witted Racine as both realistic and sympathetic. Turner, in her film debut, is outstanding as the lethal seductress, attracting and ensnaring Racine with passionate heat that is nothing but camouflage as she coldly manipulates him to serve her plot.

The quirky supporting cast adds to the enjoyment. Ted Danson as the only other lawyer in town and J.A. Preston as the local police detective undergo interesting transformations, from being friends with Racine to suspecting him of murder. Richard Crenna and Mickey Rourke add great depth to the film in minor but critical roles.

Kasdan's script includes many memorable lines and exchanges of dialogue, from Matty telling Ned "You're not too smart, are you? I like that in a man", to Ned telling Matty "You shouldn't wear that body". It's all clever, adult, and dangerous, perhaps too witty to apply to all the characters in this movie, but hugely successful as entertainment.

In all its elements, Body Heat simply crackles.






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Monday 11 October 2010

Movie Review: The Valachi Papers (1972)


It's not The Godfather, but The Valachi Papers is nevertheless a worthwhile and eye-opening look into the organized criminal underworld. Never one to shy away from a challenge, producer Dino De Laurentiis spotted the success of Francis Coppola's mafia book adaptation and quickly recruited Terence Young, famous as a James Bond director, to create his own mobster epic. Or, as often was the case with De Laurentiis, something close enough.

Based on the true events recounted in the book of the same name by Peter Maas, this is the story of Joseph Valachi (Charles Bronson), who became the first man to betray the mafia and name names to the justice authorities in the United States, in return for protection for him and his family.

Told mostly in flashback, the film traces Valachi's career from the 1930's to the 1960's, as he rose from a small time New York hood to the driver and confidant of some of the Mafia's most notorious bosses of the era, including Salvatore Maranzano (Joseph Wiseman) and Vito Genovese (Lino Ventura). Valachi's role is that of an observer, enforcer, participant and enabler, rather than a plotter, which gives The Valachi Papers more of a street-level, gritty front-line view of organized crime compared to the rarefied air of the Corleones.

There is no shortage of blood and gore as numerous mafia types are gunned down in a hail of bullets for a full two hours. As an added touch, we are treated to one memorable and quite painful castration, prior to the poor victim being gunned down anyway. There is also no shortage of production snafus, not the least of which is the appearance of the ill-fated Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in 1930's New York.

The Valachi Papers features one of Charles Bronson's less stereotypical performances, in a role that sees him more animated that usual, and in the center of the action but, unusually for him, not in control of events. Jill Ireland, in real life Mrs. Bronson, shows up as, well, Mrs. Bronson. The rest of the cast, a mixture of forgettable American character actors and lesser known Italians, stick strictly to one dimension.

Much like its topic, The Valachi Papers is in turns intriguing, engaging, and quite messy.





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Movie Review: Valentine (2001)


A slasher flick that stumbles around looking for a new idea - any new idea - to contribute to the genre. Finding absolutely none, it dies a painfully boring death on the field of bankrupt inspiration.

Rather that describe yet another collection of deserve-to-die drama queens getting unimaginatively slaughtered because years earlier they were mean to their 6th grade class dork, it is more interesting to examine some related career trajectories. Proving without a doubt that being a Bond girl is no guarantee of success, Denise Richards nosedives from co-starring with Bond in The World Is Not Enough (1999) to Valentine two short years later.

This does not discourage director Jamie Blanks from finding all possible reasons to point his cameras at Richards, her highlight a scene in which she leaves a lecherous would-be boyfriend tied-up and naked, only for the script to completely forget about the poor guy.

Heading in the other direction in terms of relative career success, Valentine strangely proved itself to be a training ground for two future Grey's Anatomy actresses. Katherine Heigl is the first victim to be slaughtered in the movie, and in the spookiest achievement of the film, she is a medical student! Heigl's brief scenes, which open Valentine, appear to be almost wholly unrelated to the rest of the movie. 

Another future Grey's Anatomy star is Jessica Capshaw, and here she gets to complain about never getting the attention of hunky guys. The rest of the cast members simply strengthen their grip on obscurity, a fate the film fully earns.






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Sunday 10 October 2010

Movie Review: A Beautiful Mind (2001)


A celebration of both the mind and the heart, A Beautiful Mind is based on the true story of Nobel Prize winning mathematician John Nash. It is a towering achievement that affirms the amazing power of shining intellect when supported by brilliant love.

Nash (Russell Crowe) arrives at Princeton University just after the end of the Second World War as a graduate student in mathematics, already recognized for his prodigious talent and social ineptness. He ignores his classes and all traditional learning methods to focus on finding a new breakthrough theory that would catapult him to prominence. His best friend is his room-mate Charles Herman (Paul Bettany), a free spirit more interested in beer and pizza than learning.

Nash appears to be on the road to nowhere at Princeton until he finally develops the theory of governing dynamics, a significant enhancement to mathematical economics. He indeed emerges as the best in his class, and gets his pick of distinguished careers.

Nash gets established as a senior mathematics professor working out of a military-associated lab at MIT. Alicia (Jennifer Connelly), one of his students, takes all the initiative to break through Nash's social incompetence, and they eventually get married.

As part of his work Nash is occasionally called to the Pentagon to help break codes related to national security. He meets William Parcher (Ed Harris), a tough, no-nonsense government agent, who becomes a dominant presence. Nash is soon consumed by complex code-breaking work assigned by Parcher, and is drawn into what appears to be a dangerous international conspiracy, with Russian agents after him. He shuts out Alicia and his behaviour goes from eccentric to dangerously erratic.

However, Nash is suffering an illness and will need radical medical intervention under the supervision of psychiatrist Dr. Rosen (Christopher Plummer). Over many years of struggle with the disease, Alicia's love, selfless dedication, and bravery are central to Nash's survival, and his road to any potential rehabilitation will be long and unsteady.

A Beautiful Mind is majestically constructed by director Ron Howard and his stellar cast. Howard manages to penetrate into Nash's mind, taking the audience on a wonderful journey that reveals the thin line between genius and madness.

Russell Crowe gives one of the all-time greatest acting performances in the history of the movies. He embodies Nash from the young adult at Princeton to the distinguished but wounded scholar receiving the Nobel Prize, and despite plenty of temptations, never succumbs to over-the-top histrionics that could so easily accompany a role centred on mental illness.  

Jennifer Connelly delivers the role of her career as Alicia. The second half of the movie belongs to her, as she transitions from an almost incidental part of Nash's life to become the only person that can rescue him. Connelly needs to convince us - and Nash - that her love is at least as important as his intellect, and she succeeds magnificently. Thanks to Connelly, A Beautiful Mind becomes a stunning example of the true meaning of marriage.

A supporting cast deep in talent provides a rich texture to the film. Ed Harris gives the tough-as-nails Parcher a real menace, a counterpoint to Paul Bettany's always available sympathetic ear. Christopher Plummer and Judd Hirsch ensure that even relatively minor roles are memorably delivered.

A Beautiful Mind is a rare achievement, an emotional tour de force that finds its impact by remaining under-stated, controlled, and in touch with the true inner humanity of its characters.







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Saturday 9 October 2010

Movie Review: Frantic (1988)


Director Roman Polanski, hiding out in France, delivers a classic Hitchcockian tale of an average man unwittingly dropped into the middle of dangerous international events.

Frantic works, thanks to an understated Harrison Ford performance, a deliberately measured pace that allows the characters to develop, and action scenes that stay within the bounds of reason. Polanski's stylistic touches are also a definite plus.

Dr. Richard Walker (Ford) arrives in Paris with his wife (Betty Buckley) to present a paper at a medical conference. Within hours, his wife has been kidnapped, and her violent abduction appears to be related to a mix-up in the Walkers' baggage. Walker does not know the language, gets no help from local authorities and even less help from the American embassy. His only ally emerges in the form of Michelle (Emmanuelle Seigner, or Mrs. Polanski), the mule in the middle of the Middle East-connected smuggling conspiracy that has entangled Walker.

The basic plot elements of an innocent man entering a foreign world, literally and figuratively, then having to extricate himself from a complex web not of his own making, is pure Hitchcock. Frantic also comes with a nested McGuffin, as first a piece of luggage, then a souvenir found in the luggage, then an item hidden in the souvenir, serve no purpose except to power the plot forward.

And with the character of Michelle, who admittedly is more cool than icy, Polanski does not forget about the blonde girl who is definitely involved in the messy situation, but who may or may not be helping resolve it.

Frantic is a welcome reminder that not all heroes need to be ex-special forces, and that sometimes, the most difficult challenge is to understand why your sheltered world has suddenly been shattered.








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Movie Review: Bollywood / Hollywood (2002)


Boy meets girl. Boy loves girl. Boy loses girl. Boy gets girl back, and they have illusions of living happily ever after. She's a whore, but hey, Richard Gere didn't care about that detail in Pretty Woman, and Lisa Ray is willing to have a go at the Julia Roberts role.

Bollywood / Hollywood labours under the misconception that it has an ace up its sleeve by setting a classic Hollywood story against an Indian cultural back-drop and inserting Bollywood movie touches, but this trick only goes so far.

The intentionally cheesy musical song-and-dance interludes that break out at random points in the movie, while cute, serve to only hide the emptiness of the rest of the material, and the old/modern cultural divide that our lovers need to traverse is even more tired than the cliched romance.

We are left with Lisa Ray, who gives the movie a spark and is several notches better than her co-star Rahul Khanna and the rest of the cast. She battles vainly against a sterile script but gets as smothered as the audience by the oozing warmed-over pap.

Director Deepa Mehta seems uncomfortable in both the Hollywood and Bollywood scenes, maybe because all the scenes were filmed in Toronto, which is neither.

Bollywood / Hollywood may have seemed like a good idea on paper, but that's where it should have stayed.








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Movie Review: Air Force One (1997)


One man must battle a group of ruthless terrorists holding hostages, including his wife, in a confined space.

Wait - did we not see this movie before, back in 1988, under the name Die Hard? Cheap knock-offs of Hollywood blockbusters with Grade C actors (think Steven Seagal and Chuck Norris) are common; it is less common for a virtual remake to feature stars like Harrison Ford and Glenn Close, and directors like Wolfgang Petersen.

Air Force One does throw a few twists into the familiar mix, and immediately nudges the stupid-meter a few degrees to the right. The action hero is none other than the President of the United States (Harrison Ford), and the wild-eyed terrorists, led by Gary Oldman, take over his plane, Air Force One, to force the release of a fascist general being held in a Russian prison.

Getting past this premise is difficult enough, but we'll let it pass. Air Force One, despite the undisputed talent and polish on display, unfortunately insists on slobbering the absurdities in thick, gooey layers until the movie collapses into a helpless wreck, long before the plane itself expires. Air Force One and the President miraculously survive too-many-to-count should-be-fatal encounters with missiles, bullets, explosions, enemy jet fighters, and expiring engines, as reality is stretched deep into Roadrunner territory.

Harrison Ford as the President has to deal with the moral dilemma of wanting to be tough with terrorists, but does this policy apply when guns are pointing at his wife and young daughter?

Oldman, having fun as the Terrorist Nut Case, has bigger problems: he needs to avoid explaining why his band of terrorists decided to hijack the world's best defended target, rather than, say, storm the prison in Russia, which it would appear they were more than capable of, given that entire air bases in Russia appear to be loyal to them.

And on the ground, Glenn Close has her own suitcase of trouble: she strains to appear Vice Presidential while holding things together at the White House surrounded by testosterone-fueled men as a succession of random staffers burst into the room holding a phone and announcing the latest news.

At the end, the President is flying through air literally hanging by a thread behind a rescue plane. James Bond would be proud, but he would at least have a knowing smile on his face and a blonde with a martini awaiting his landing.







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Sunday 3 October 2010

Movie Review: The Sum Of All Fears (2002)


Many films deal with the threat of a nuclear war; few dare to go ahead and actually portray the detonation of a nuclear device against a civilian population.

Half-way through The Sum Of All Fears, a nuclear bomb hidden in a vending machine explodes in Baltimore during the Super Bowl. It is a relatively shocking and brave plot twist, but the aftermath is handled sensitively. Real-life events after Hurricane Katrina proved that the United States is actually a lot less ready to respond to such catastrophes.

The Sum Of All Fears gains an enormous amount of momentum from the explosion, and the second half of the film, in which the world stumbles towards all-out nuclear warfare, is injected with heightened tension and urgency.

Based on the Tom Clancy book, The Sum Of All Fears hinges on a lost nuclear bomb falling into the hands of European neo-Nazis. They put the device to use in an attempt to trigger an all-out mutually destructive nuclear war between the United States, under the leadership of President Fowler (James Cromwell) and Russia. It is up to the CIA's Director William Cabot (Morgan Freeman) and junior analyst Jack Ryan (Ben Affleck) to intervene in a desperate race against time before all the bombs are unleashed.

The movie has its creaky moments and not unexpectedly stretches the bounds of credibility in the interest of Hollywoodizing real-world politics, but director Phil Alden Robinson generally has his hand firmly on the tension dial and smoothly cranks it up with a continuous layering of short, sharp, and effective action sequences. Freeman provides the necessary gravitas while Affleck finds a comfort zone as the young, smart but mistake-prone Ryan.

The Sum Of All Fears is never less than gripping, as it finds and delivers a highly satisfying blend of high-octane thrills mixed with reality-inspired geo-political intrigue.






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Movie Review: Eat Pray Love (2010)


As a study in nauseatingly indulgent self-absorption, it is difficult to compete with Eat Pray Love.

The character of Elizabeth Gilbert (Julia Roberts) is quite the terrible role model to occupy the centre of any movie. She is only able to see the negative in her privileged life, incapable of facing the challenges of adulthood, unwilling to deal with the consequences of her own decisions, and convinces herself that running away is a good solution.

Based on the autobiographical book by the real Elizabeth Gilbert, the 134 minute movie proceeds at a pace that snails would find slow, and includes a lot of talk about finding "balance", defining your life with a single "word", and "loving yourself". There is of course a starry eyed audience for such nonsense, people who find a lot of time to complain about their lives instead of investing in the happiness that comes with accountability.

As for the actual story, after endless whining, Gilbert dumps her loving husband and her seemingly successful New York life to go look for herself. She first falls into the bed of the first guy she sets her eyes on before her divorce is even finalized, a struggling New York actor (James Franco).

Then she dumps him and embarks on a round-the-world trip. In Rome she eats pasta and pizza and meets some happy people. In India she worships the picture of a guru and meets a crusty Texan with a sob story to match her own. And in Bali she meets a toothless Yoda-like character who spouts warmed-over morsels of wisdom with the depth of stale fortune-cookies. She finally falls in love with a hunk from Brazil (Javier Bardem), but not before screaming at him that she does not need to love him to prove that she loves herself. Perhaps nauseatingly indulgent self-absorption is too kind a description for Gilbert's journey.

The harsh truth is that almost everything that Gilbert does in Rome, India and Bali she could have easily done in New York City while keeping her marriage and life intact, if only she stopped complaining and got on with the business of living and finding pleasure within. 

The only reason to keep watching Eat Pray Love is a relatively good performance from Julia Roberts, who is several notches above the material. Otherwise the film tries, and fails, to find meaning in close-ups of pasta plates, endless scenes of meditation, and travel brochure scenery.

Eat Pray Love is a frivolous recipe for cowardice camouflaged in the language of psycho-babble selling non-existent short-cuts for self-empowerment.







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Saturday 2 October 2010

Movie Review: Battle Of The Bulge (1965)


Movies by necessity need to simplify complex battlefield events into simpler stories that fit into a 2 hour structure. But Battle Of The Bulge, despite a 167 minute running time, falls into an oversimplification trap.

The final decisive World War Two battle in Europe, that in reality lasted for more than a month and involved millions of men, is essentially reduced to a contest of wits between two men, the fictional German tank commander Hessler (Robert Shaw) and the equally fictional American intelligence officer Kiley (Henry Fonda). It's a harsh summary of the movie, but the battle is basically presented as a single tank column advance, over what seems like a matter of days, and once the Germans fail to secure a tank depot, it is all over. Even as a work of fiction, this is poor representation of a historical battle on film

What Battle Of The Bulge does well is to stage fairly massive tank battles, with director Ken Annakin making the most of the widescreen Ultra Panavision format. The terrain as portrayed may be all wrong, but there is no denying the grandeur of the scenes of advancing German tanks swatting away feeble opposition, and then meeting American tanks in hulking steel-on-steel duels.

The film, intriguingly a Spanish co-production, also benefits from a good cast. Fonda represents the ignored voice in the wilderness warning of a sneak German attack against the weakly defended Ardennes front, and Robert Shaw is an adequate foe, although his role suffers from a jarring split personality. Hessler abruptly transitions from a reasonable and realistic commander in the first half to a fire-breathing mental case in the second half. Maybe that is what war does to people.

In support is Charles Bronson, who is incredibly listed deep in the credits although his role as Major Walenski, leading the platoon defending the leading edge of the American front line, is more prominent and interesting than most of the stars billed above him. Telly Savalas plays the typical Telly Savalas role, a minor but loud-mouthed tank commander much more interested in his smuggling business than the war, but who gets caught up in the thick of the action all the same. Robert Ryan strides around as the fictional General Grey, representing both the lack of preparedness of the American leadership, and then their rallying to turn the tide of battle.

Battle Of The Bulge may have dodgy value as a history lesson, but as an old-fashioned, action-packed, star-powered World War Two epic, it is enjoyable.





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Friday 1 October 2010

Movie Review: Presumed Innocent (1990)


A courtroom drama that creaks under the weight of a ridiculous story, Presumed Innocent is a surprise disappointment despite a star-heavy cast.

Prosecuting Attorney Raymond Horgan (Brian Dennehy) assigns his top prosecutor Rusty Sabich (Harrison Ford) to investigate the brutal murder of fellow prosecutor Carolyn Polhemus (Greta Scacchi). But Sabich himself is soon a prime suspect: he had an affair with Polhemus, she broke it off, and he is still obsessed with her. Meanwhile, it emerges that Horgan was also having an affair with Polhemus; he had secretly assigned her a bribery file to investigate; and the bribery case just so happens to involve the judge who just so happens to be assigned to Sabich's murder trial.

Raul Julia, with a smile perpetually plastered onto his face, shows up as lawyer Sandy Stern, defending Sabich and using smarm as his main weapon. He quickly destroys the case against Sabich by doing no more the exposing the doctor who performed the autopsy as an incompetent fool.

There are investigators hiding evidence, prosecutors with political agendas, and a murderer who is perfectly careful in every detail -- but places the murder weapon, soaked with blood and with the victim's hair still attached to it, back in the tool box.

This may or may not be a case of a poor film utterly failing to capture the essence of the book, but the script certainly casts doubt on the quality of the Scott Turow novel.

Still, any movie with Ford, Dennehy, Julia, Bonnie Bedelia as Sabich's wife, and Scacchi, is worth watching, and the strength of the cast keeps the movie from sinking into a complete farce as the ultra-convoluted reality-free plot ties itself into a pretzel. It is evident, however, that Scacchi 's beauty is as captivating as her acting ability is atrocious. Appropriately, her role in flashbacks is mostly reduced to gazing into the camera...deeply.

Alan J. Pakula has much better films than this on his resume. He directs here with the main intention of keeping everyone and everything deadly serious. Only Julia is allowed to smile, but Presumed Innocent is a good recipe for general hilarity.








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