Thursday 30 September 2010

Movie Review: The Game (1997)


On his 48th birthday, investment banker Nicholas Van Orton (Michael Douglas) has fabulous wealth, complete control over his surroundings, but little else. His marriage has fallen apart and he is haunted by the memory of having witnessed the suicide of his father, who threw himself off the roof of the family estate -- on his 48th birthday.

His brother Conrad (Sean Penn), very much the black sheep of the family, gives Nicholas a strange birthday gift: enrollment in a "game" offered by the mysterious Consumer Recreational Services. Nicholas reluctantly subjects himself to a battery of physical tests and psychological questionnaires at CRS's offices. And soon, the game starts.

The TV in Nicholas' house starts to talk to him; he suffers unexplained and unexpected business set-backs; and he is soon on the run with a careless waitress (Deborah Kara Unger), escaping from machine-gun toting men-in-black. What is real what is part of the game is totally blurred, and in a panic, Conrad re-appears to warn Nicholas that CRS are out of control. Nicholas is hurtled by a cascading series of ever more dangerous events, out of control, to a date with his destiny.

The Game is a flimsy excuse to dump a straight character into the middle of a long action adventure, much like the more comically oriented Into The Night and After Hours (both 1985). But The Game is also a clever commentary on how little a seemingly successful man actually has. The "game" as stage-managed by CRS fills Nicholas' life with everything that he does not have, and takes away from him everything that he thinks that he has control over, up to and including his life, -- in a matter of hours. It's a well-designed representation of "is the grass really greener on the other side of the fence"?, albeit in a most artificially manufactured premise.

Douglas is excellent as he reprises his Wall Street persona, with Nicholas Van Orten only slightly less abrasive than Gordon Gekko. Sean Penn's role is little more than a cameo, but he injects the few scenes that he is in with his unique brand of shifty energy. Deborah Kara Unger proves herself more than capable of matching Douglas through their night of many misadventures.

The Game is a struggle between the thoughtful and the contrived. We'll call the result a stalemate.






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Movie Review: Mission: Impossible (1996)


An action film that relies almost solely on two set-piece scenes needs to get these scenes right. Mission: Impossible almost pulls it off, but ultimately both scenes are not as good as they need to be, and the movie as a whole is vaguely unsatisfying.

The plot, which isn't pretending to be too important, is all about the Impossible Missions Force attempting to prevent spy secrets from falling into the wrong hands.

In the first showcase scene, Tom Cruise as agent Ethan Hunt and his buddies break into a CIA safe room to steal a computer file. Cruise spends the scene horizontally suspended from the ceiling and unable to touch the floor to avoid triggering a motion sensor alarm. The tension is good; the ease with which the computer gives up the secret file is ridiculous.

In the film's climactic and second poster scene, a helicopter chases a train into the Chunnel. Needles to say that while the idea may have seemed good on paper, on film this sequence gets ridiculous early and often.

Mission: Impossible is hampered by a couple of strange creative decisions: Brian De Palma is not an action film director. Even his action-oriented successes like The Untouchables and Scarface were all about the characters first. The Mission: Impossible script by David Koeppe and Robert Towne is nowhere near providing enough depth for the characters to compete with the need for an action-driven narrative, and it is difficult to understand what De Palma is doing at the helm of this film.

The second strange appearance is by Vanessa Redgrave as the mysterious Max, buyer of US spy secrets. She looks out of place in an underdeveloped, mostly unexplained and finally dumbfounding role.

Tom Cruise is credible as Hunt, and in the process establishes for himself a new franchise. The rest of the actors and personalities here are as predictable as any run-of-the-mill action movie.

Mission: Impossible is passable fun, but it proved to be a rare example of a film surpassed by its sequel.



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Tuesday 28 September 2010

Movie Review: Lethal Weapon (1987)


A cop buddy movie that benefits enormously from one of the most eccentric and memorable police officers created for the screen.

Los Angeles Detective Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) is depressed, suicidal, utterly unpredictable, and a deadly former military sharp shooter. In the hands of screenwriter Shane Black and director Richard Donner, Riggs is also somehow real. Edgy, unconventional and dangerous, but never straying into ridiculous territory. The film rides smoothly in Riggs' slipstream, as he and straight-laced, 50-year-old partner Detective Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) set their sights on breaking up a ruthless drug cartel. Glover as Murtaugh, a middle-aged family man comfortably settled in the suburbs, is the perfect antithesis and foil for Gibson's Riggs.

The baddest of the bad guys is the menacing Gary Busey as the terrifically named Mr. Joshua. Also formerly in the military, he is in charge of removing any threats to the drug-running cartel, and soon this means eliminating Riggs and Murtaugh -- or going after the latter's family, which proves easier. The film does not shy away from a gritty side, with Mr. Joshua and his goons torturing Riggs, and a fairly vicious but unnecessary final martial arts duel between the two.

Lethal Weapon cannot fully escape the relatively narrow constraints of the genre, and creaks due to some shallowness in the secondary acting talent. But the movie mixes good action with a streak of mean humour, and maintains a reasonable pace that allows the stars to shine and safeguards against whiplash.

There is a smoothness and assuredness to the movie that comes from Gibson, Glover and Busey perfectly fitting into their characters, and Donner directing briskly and with an eye to respecting the characters and maximizing the advantage of having such a strong cast. Credit also to Shane Black, who, at 23 years of age, wrote a fearless script that created a franchise and consolidated Gibson's star status.

Lethal Weapon spawned three direct sequels and numerous imitators, and set the standard for cop buddy movies. It was often imitated, but rarely equaled or bettered.






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Wednesday 22 September 2010

Movie Review: The Weather Man (2005)


Nicolas Cage and Michael Caine will transform any movie into a watchable experience, and The Weather Man certainly is that. But with the talent available, there is a vague sense of under-achievement that grows as the film progresses and the characters don't.

The film is a character study of David Spritz (Cage), who presents the weather forecast for a Chicago TV station. Spritz is a celebrity of sorts and should be enjoying a comfortable life, but his marriage has fallen apart, his 12-year-old daughter is an overweight smoker and a bully victim, and his troubled 15-year-old son is falling under the influence of a counselor who is getting ready to abuse him. Despite facing a cancer diagnosis, David's Dad, Robert (Caine), appears to be more aware of the needs of David's family than David is.

David also needs to deal with people throughout Chicago throwing fast food at him, usually from moving cars, as sort of a sport. He is also in the running to land a prestigious position as the weather man for a national New York-based TV show. David imagines the New York position as a possible solution to all his problems, but is torn between facing the demons that surround him or escaping them.

His dad Robert is a successful Pulitzer Prize winning author, and the unspoken tension between David's inability to live up to his idea of what his father expected of him is one of the more interesting aspects of the film, although like most good ideas in Steven Conrad's script, it is never properly developed.

The Weather Man is always interesting, particularly when Caine is on the screen, but never fully engaging, and it lacks the subtlety needed to fully connect the central character with the audience. As much as David's problems are blatantly - and literally - in-your-face, his solutions are equally broad-brushed. From carrying an archery set around town (to stop the fast food assaults) to physically confronting the counselor (to stop the assaults on his son), to the incessant swearing, nothing in David's life reflects the nuances of reality. The Weather Man stops earning points when it becomes more of a caricature study than a character study.

The forecast? Mixed conditions with variable cloudiness and some sunny breaks.





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Tuesday 21 September 2010

Movie Review: Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)


A mid-life crisis comedy that takes itself as seriously as its title, Hot Tub Time Machine gets enough of the details right to be enjoyable.

A relatively straightforward mix of City Slickers and Back To The Future garnished with recent bromedy spicing, Hot Tub Time Machine follows friends Adam (John Cusack), Lou (Rob Corddry), Nick (Craig Robinson) and Adam's nephew Jacob (Clark Duke) as they tangle with a mystical hot tub and are transported back from 2010 to re-live one critical night at a ski resort in the 1986.

With Adam, Lou and Nick all facing mid-life crises, and Jacob clueless as to who his father is, their actions on this single night is an opportunity to change the destiny of their lives. Will they do exactly what they did back in 1986, or will they change critical decisions to alter the course of the rest of their lives? Throw in nuclear-powered beer and the possibility that with the wrong series of choices Jacob will cease to exist, and there is enough material here for some solid humour.

Hot Tub Time Machine does not need to veer too far from the stock mid-life crisis cliches: Adam is luckless in love and has just been dumped; Lou never grew up and is stuck as an adult in party mode, depressed to the point of attempted suicide; and Nick regrets having given up on a music career, and is shackled by a controlling wife who is also having an affair. The three men are at unhappy dead-ends in their lives, and, in various guises, we've seen these emotional cul-de-sacs before from City Slickers (1991) to The Hangover (2009).

But Hot Tub Time Machine benefits from engaging and energetic performances from Cusack (who also co-produced the movie), Corddry and Robinson, and does not shy away neither from a strong streak of raunchiness nor from a string of body-fluid jokes. There is also an excellent running gag about a porter at the ski resort who, in 2010, has one arm. He lost it during that fateful night in 1986; we just don't know exactly how or when.

Throw in Chevy Chase in an unhinged cameo as the hot tub repair man, and Hot Tub Time Machine gains entry as a member of that rare group of low-brow comedy films: the ones that actually exceed expectations.






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Sunday 12 September 2010

Movie Review: Final Destination (2000)


A horror film good enough to spawn a series, Final Destination has some interesting touches but does not stray too far outside the traditional boundaries of the genre.

On a high school trip to Paris, Alex (Devon Sawa) is settling into his seat on the plane when he has strong visions of a fiery crash that will kill all passengers. Causing panic, he and a few of his classmates are bundled off the plane, which takes off and promptly bursts into a ball of fire, killing all who remained on board.

Alex is shunned as a freak at school, while the other survivors, including his friend Tod, his rival Carter and Carter's girlfriend, the moody girl Clear (Ali Larter), and a teacher, struggle with being the survivors of a tragedy.

But the grim reaper refuses to concede defeat, and soon enough, death comes-a-calling. One by one, the survivors of the plane crash are trapped into bizarre accidents that claim their lives, often with Alex close-enough by to arouse the suspicions of the FBI agents investigating the crash. To escape their fate, Alex and the dwindling number of survivors try to find a way to understand and break the cycle of death.

Final Destination takes itself seriously, which is a good thing, and takes its time to establish its premise, which is very good. The absence of a maniacal human killer, and the need to rely on self-staging, fate-driven accidental deaths, is also refreshing, although there is an over-reliance on electricity as a source of calamity.

But once the grotesque accidents start to claim the lives of the crash survivors, there is little the film can do to break out of the standard "here comes the next gruesome death scene" fare. And the assembled victims and the dynamics between them do not vary too much from the hordes of teenagers killed off in countless other movies.

Despite the flaws, Final Destination provided enough of a new concept to start a franchise: teenagers versus fate, in the shape of the grim - and grimly determined - reaper.







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Movie Review: The Blind Side (2009)


A real-life rags to riches story, The Blind Side is a heart-warming feel-good movie about how far a life can be improved with a gentle helping hand. It's a drama tailor-made for the Hollywood treatment, and the film benefits from a terrific Sandra Bullock performance.

Michael "Big Mike" Oher (Quinton Aaron), a 17 year-old giant of a man-in-the-making, comes from a broken home mired in poverty. His addicted mother has abandoned him to a succession of foster homes, and his life is drifting into nothingness. Unexpectedly admitted to a Christian school based on yet undeveloped athletic potential, Big Mike's fortunes are turned around when he is first unofficially and then formally adopted by Leigh Anne Tuohy (Bullock), mother, wife, and interior designer from the upper crust of Memphis society.

With Leigh Anne's guidance, Big Mike improves his academic performance and develops into a towering, dominant football player for his school. Offered numerous college scholarships, he has to choose between his home state of Tennessee or Mississippi, the alma mater of the Tuohys.

The Blind Side is powered almost single-handedly by Sandra Bullock, delivering a tour-de-force performance as Leigh Anne, and deservedly winning the Best Actress Academy Award. Once she welcomes Big Mike into her life, Leigh Anne dominates all events surrounding him, and Bullock similarly towers over the movie. She is nurturing and sympathetic for the most part, but tough as nails and overwhelmingly protective when needed. If Leigh Anne is written as an almost unrealistically perfect Texas family matron, she is at least a terrific role model in a world that desperately needs them.

Compared to Bullock, the rest of the performances fade away into unmemorable vanilla blandness. This unfortunately includes Aaron as Big Mike, whose main attribute is his presence as a gentle giant, but who is asked to do relatively little in terms of acting. The rest of Leigh Anne's family members are, for the most part, very much part of the furniture.

At 129 minutes, the film does drag on. A good 10 to 15 minutes could have been trimmed with no great loss in the narrative. But director John Lee Hancock does recognize that his film's core is occupied by his lead actress, and he directs around her without attempting to compete with her source of energy. When your star is on fire, its wise to dim the other lights.







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Movie Review: Casablanca (1942)


Casablanca may or may not be the best movie ever made, but it probably is the most perfect. Filled with memorable characters, rich scenes, an elaborate central locale, and sharp dialogue, and centred on a doomed love story set amidst a world war, Casablanca effortlessly delivers the pure magic of the movies.

With World War Two raging, Casablanca is a hot transit point for anyone traveling in or out of the conflict zone, and nominally ruled by the Vichy French government as represented by Captain Louis Renault (Claude Rains). Nazi officials keep a close eye on everything and everyone, and exit visas to a safe haven are the most coveted prize.

Jaded Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) runs Rick's Café Américain, the place to mingle, illegally gamble and swing deals. He competes with the Blue Parrot cafe, run by his rival Signor Ferrari (Sydney Greenstreet). Two visas fortuitously fall into Rick's hands, just as his former love Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) enters his joint with husband Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), who is an essential leader of the underground movement fighting the Nazis. Passion reignites between Rick and Ilsa, but she is torn between helping her husband escape to fight another day, or pursuing the true love of her life.

A small movie made in a hurry with limited sets and a cast of Warner Bros regulars, Casablanca catches lightning in a bottle. A mix of wartime intrigue, soulful romance and thriller stocked with desperation and no shortage of danger, the film oozes eloquent magic in every scene. Against a backdrop of a global conflict blanketing the city with a thick fog of mistrust, director Michael Curtiz cleverly exploits the ambience and uses an economy of scenes to package the film into a breezy 102 minutes, all the important threads tied up, but many others left to the rich imagination of another day.

One of the most perfect casts ever assembled brings the unforgettable characters to life. Bogart excels as Rick, the owner of the busiest cafe in Casablanca, emotionally hiding out and pretending not to care for the duration of the war, but inexorably drawn into it when the lost love of his life suddenly re-emerges.

Yvonne (Rick's casual floozy): Where were you last night?
Rick: That's so long ago, I don't remember.
Yvonne: Will I see you tonight?
Rick: I never make plans that far ahead.


Bergman is simply luminous as Ilsa, torn between her past and present lovers, having to decide between two men, and between her personal passion and her life's most important duty. And finally Rains as Captain Renault, charming his way through the tightrope of maintaining the peace and doling out favours in a nest of supposedly neutral chaos, and waiting to see which side will emerge victorious from the ruins of war. Rains also gets to participate in many of the best dialogue exchanges in the movie.

Renault: And what in Heaven's name brought you to Casablanca?
Rick: My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters.
Renault: The waters? What waters? We're in the desert.
Rick: I was misinformed.


Paul Henreid as Laszlo, Ilsa's husband and a leader of the French underground resistance, is billed along with Bogart and Bergman and ahead of Rains, but unfortunately, he is the weakest link in Casablanca. Whether due to the limitations of the role or the actor, Henreid almost comes across as more suitable for a silent movie. His wooden performance is not in the same league as the other three leading stars.

The depth of memorable secondary characters is part of Casablanca's enduring charm. Conrad Veidt as Major Strasser; Sydney Greenstreet as Signor Ferrari; Peter Lorre as Signor Ugarte; Dooley Wilson as Sam the pianist; and Joy Page as Annina, the Bulgaria refugee. None have too much screen time; nevertheless they all shine and make a deep and lasting impression in their few featured moments.

Renault (about Ugarte): I'm making out the report now. We haven't quite decided whether he committed suicide or died trying to escape.

Even further down the list, minor characters such as the waiters in Rick's Cafe, the pickpocket, and the assortment of desperate figures populating the corners of Casablanca linger in the memory.

In terms of locations, Rick's Cafe Americain is one of the most interesting places in movie history. Something is happening in every corner, and there is intrigue at every table, all the time. And if the main room of the cafe is not enough, the gambling den in the back is just as busy and even more entertaining. Adding depth to the exotic locations, Signor Ferrari's Blue Parrot cafe, Rick's main competition, is just as interesting, and much more ramshackle.

Renault: I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here.
Employee of Rick's: [hands Renault money] Your winnings, sir.


The script by Julius and Philip Epstein and Howard Koch is a masterpiece. Sharp, economical and funny, there is a classic line around every corner. The more famous lines are legendary. What is remarkable is that some of the less famous lines are just as good.

Michael Curtiz may have been the main Warner Bros. go-to guy to get the job done, and this proved to be a perfect fit for Casablanca. The flashback scenes with Rick and Ilsa in Paris are weak, but in the Casablanca locales, Curtiz adds clever and artistic touches without ever taking away from the urgency of the unfolding drama.

Renault (to the gathering police officers): Major Strasser has been shot.
[pause]
Renault: Round up the usual suspects.


A classic landmark in the history of movie-making, often imitated but rarely matched, Casablanca just gets better as time goes by.






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Monday 6 September 2010

Movie Review: Penny Gold (1973)


A British detective drama with a most awkward romance, Penny Gold manages to be clunky and clumsy in equal measures.

In a plot that gets progressively worse the closer it is examined, free-spirited model Diane (Francesca Annis) is bludgeoned to death. The investigation by detective Matthews (James Booth) leads him to Diane's twin sister Delphi (Annis again), a stamp collector seeking a most rare penny stamp. Matthews gets himself romantically entangled with Delphi and wades into the peculiar stamp collecting world to uncover the motive for the killing and the identity of the murderer.

James Booth and Francesca Annis both hovered on the extreme fringes of movie stardom, without ever stepping into the limelight. Booth stumbles through Penny Gold as a stiff and unconvincing detective, jumping to major conclusions on the flimsiest of evidence, while quickly and unprofessionally drooling over Delphi. Annis gets to play two roles, and displays little emotion or range as either Delphi or Diane. The supporting actors read their lines off the nearest wall with solemn seriousness.

Jack Cardiff is much better known as a cinematographer, and his unimaginative work as a director here is a long way away from his contributions to classics such as The African Queen (1951).

Penny Gold captures some atmosphere from England of the early 1970's, but is otherwise only enjoyable for the general sense of low-budget incompetence.








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Movie Review: Sorority Row (2009)


The killer is wearing a college graduation gown, and Sorority Row is just slightly more intelligent and enjoyable than typical slasher movies.

The film earns a couple of points for introducing a mean streak of humor in its final third, and for taking the time early on to establish a relatively original context for the killing spree.

A college sorority prank goes terribly wrong and a girl lies dead, gored by a tire iron. Instead of admitting what happened, her sorority sisters throw her down a remote mine shaft and decide to keep her death a secret. Eight months later, the girls are graduating, a mystery killer is loose, and one by one, the sorority girls and some of their friends meet untimely deaths at the sharp end of a pimped-out tire iron wielded by a gowned maniac.

The cast of catty characters are given quite a bit more personality than in the typical slasher flick. The sorority girls run the range from the uber-bitch Jessica (Leah Pipes) to the ultra-fragile Ellie (Rumer Willis, daughter of Demi and Bruce), passing through the conscientious Cassidy (Briana Evigan). The dialogue between them is quick and sharp, and turns, unexpectedly, to smartly funny as the body count mounts and the film decides to take itself none too seriously. Carrie Fisher shows up as the sorority den mother, and has no small amount of fun running around with a shot-gun.

At the end of the night, a few of the girls survive the carnage, and do they ever have graduation stories to share at their reunion.





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Sunday 5 September 2010

Movie Review: Wayne's World (1992)


A movie about exactly nothing nevertheless became a long-lasting cultural phenomenon, and catapulted Mike Myers into the front row of 1990's movie comics.

Based on sketch segments featured on Saturday Night Live, Wayne's World centres on the misadventures of Wayne (Myers) and his buddy Garth (Dana Carvey). In a Chicago suburb, they are the hosts of a late-night local community TV show about...not much beyond their vacuous thoughts on music and babes, broadcasting on a shoestring budget from Wayne's basement.

Network TV executive Benjamin Kane (Rob Lowe) spots Wayne's World while his wife is channel surfing through the dead corpses of late-night TV shows, and sees the potential of connecting with a young hip audience by taking the show onto his network and having it sponsored by a video arcade tycoon. As Wayne and Garth get ready to take their show to a wider audience, both Wayne and Benjamin lust over local rock singer Cassandra Wong (Tia Carrere).

None of the plot matters, of course. Wayne's World is all about Myers and Carvey having fun with their characters and introducing into the cultural lexicon "...Not!", "Excellent!", "Schwing!" "Party On!" and "Babelicious!". Myers plays Wayne as the insanely happy and perpetually smiling every guy, leaving Carvey to steal the movie as the clearly unhinged and dangerously shy Garth.

Lowe and Carrere hang on for dear life as director Penelope Spheeris allows Myers and Carvey to do everything contrary to normal movie-making etiquette, from talking to the camera to setting off on irreverent tangents, such as Carvey bashing out a terrific drum solo just for the hell of it, and having discussions about Milwaukee's name origins backstage with Alice Cooper.

Wayne, Garth and their buddies singing along and head-banging to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody while crammed into the light blue AMC Pacer is an enduring classic scene. And just to emphasize that all the rules are being broken, the film offers three separate endings, none of them remotely serious.

Wayne's World is both a cultural landmark and a lot of pure original fun.





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Movie Review: Chloe (2009)


A psycho-sexual thriller that examines the effects of throwing erotic oil on a smoldering matrimonial mess, Chloe is never less than interesting thanks to a strong cast and a steady current of tension lurking below the surface of a seemingly civilized marriage.

Catherine (Julianne Moore) is a doctor who suspects her husband David (Liam Neeson), a professor, of having affairs. Catherine approaches Chloe (Amanda Seyfried), a high-class escort, and asks her to seduce David as a test of his resolve. David appears to fail the test miserably; but when Chloe starts to report back to Catherine the sordid details of her liaisons with David, Catherine finds herself strangely attracted both to Chloe and to the specifics of her husband's infidelity. Soon, the triangle spirals out of control and Catherine's son Michael is drawn into the turmoil.

Director Atom Egoyan keeps Chloe simmering, and allows his cast to sparkle in a demonstration of restrained rage among professionals. Moore anchors the film as the suspicious wife who finds her own lust spiraling in directions that she never anticipated. Neeson is adequately dark as the professor chafing under the restraints of his marriage. Seyfried has the most complex role, as an escort available for seduction services who gradually turns into a much more dangerous intrusion into Catharine's life.

Chloe does suffer from a less than satisfying and all too convenient ending, and it does not take too much effort to spot the main twist in the unfolding drama. There is also a lingering sense that Chloe is essentially a modernization of 1987's Fatal Attraction, with a few new wrinkles added.

Nevertheless, Chloe's main lesson is a good one to re-visit: the most polished sex triangles have sharp edges and dangerous pointy ends.



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Saturday 4 September 2010

Movie Review: The Lovely Bones (2009)


A poor book turned into a disastrous movie, this horrid adaptation has strong potential as a contender for a future "so bad, it's good" classification.

Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan) is a 14 year old schoolgirl in suburban Pennsylvania. On the way home from school one day, she takes a short-cut through a corn field and is murdered by a creepy neighbour. Caught between earth and heaven, Susie observes how her death impacts her family and friends.

The trouble is, we are not really made to care about any of the characters, so in attempting to establish emotional connections, the movie starts from a poor position and loses ground fast.

To call all the characters in this film one-dimensional is an insult to the number one. The characters are so ill-defined they may as well all be ghosts. Mark Wahlberg as Susie's Dad goes from undecipherable in the book to just blank in the film. Rachel Weisz as Susie's Mom has most of her anguish cancelled; her affair is eliminated; her escape to another life is truncated; her return to her family is unexplained. Michael Impirioli as the detective investigating Susie's disappearance is reduced to a marginal wooden role. Reece Ritchie as Susie's would-be boyfriend, and Carolyn Dando as the dark school-mate who connects with Susie's spirit, are given very little to do except look serious.

A movie is always in trouble when the bad guy unintentionally becomes the most interesting character. We are not exactly cheering for Stanley Tucci as the murderer George Harvey, but we are tempted.

Instead of providing interesting characters in what should be a character-driven story, The Lovely Bones provides endless computer generated psychedelic images of Susie wading through dreamy and surreal natural landscapes, set against a bland soundtrack of limp electronic music. Unfortunately, the ground never opens up long enough to swallow Susie and put an end to proceedings prior to the interminable running time of 136 endless minutes.

Susan Sarandon gate-crashes the film with an over-the-top, scenery-chewing turn as the smoking, alcoholic grandma. It is a ridiculous role, but at least someone here is alive.

To his horror, Peter Jackson must have realized partway through directing this bowl of porridge that the only really good thing about the book is its opening line. The script jettisons large chunks of the book in an attempt to salvage a watchable film , but only succeeds in stripping a shallow story down to nothingness.

The most crushing disappointment in this mess? When heaven is finally revealed, it closely resembles a wheat field in rural Saskatchewan. Let's not all rush in, now.





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Movie Review: Date Night (2010)


A comedy that feeds off the boundless energy of its stars, Date Night manages to be funny and engaging while maintaining its human centre.

The Fosters, Phil (Steve Carell) and Claire (Tina Fey), are married with children, living in New Jersey, and navigating the unadventurous terrain of family life. Looking to liven up an evening by heading to a swanky New York restaurant without a reservation, they impersonate another couple, the Tripplehorns, to get a table, triggering a madcap adventure.

It turns out that the Tripplehorns are embroiled in a blackmail scheme that involves New York's leading mobster, apparent police corruption, and the District Attorney's office. The Fosters are soon being chased and threatened all over town as they try to figure out what is going on and how to stop it.

Date Night works, for the most part, thanks to Steve Carell and especially Tina Fey. They establish an early and believable rapport with each other, and their likability and natural talent for humor drives the films through its rougher spots. A lot of the dialogue appears to be at least partially ad-libbed, and with talent like Carell and Fey letting loose, this is a good thing.

The supporting cast, including Mark Wahlberg, James Franco and Ray Liotta, play their parts appropriately straight, to provide relief for Carrel and Fey's comedy.

The film is full of bright touches and pleasant surprises, including an unexpectedly innovative variation to the movie car chase scene. But unfortunately there is no escaping the over-the-top, just-in-time Hollywood climax with all threads neatly tied up.

Date Night playfully delivers an important message to married couples settled into a staid suburban routine: be thankful for the bliss of a calm life.





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Movie Review: The Losers (2010)


Neither smart nor sharp, The Losers at least succeeds in matching the expectations established by its title.

A US Special Forces team, led by Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), eliminate a high-ranking gangster in the jungles of Bolivia but veer away from their mission to save a group of children. Clay's team is summarily betrayed and left for dead by Max, their mission commander. Looking for a way back into the US, Clay is approached by the mysterious Aisha (Zoe Saldana), who offers a way for the team to get revenge on Max.

It is fair enough for a comics-inspired action film to veer far away from any semblance of reality with non-stop death-defying escapades if it offers up an abundance of matching fun and wit. The talent behind The Losers is too shallow to even come close to pulling off this trade-off. We are left with a succession of tired set-pieces, each progressively less interesting as a parade of mind-numbing cliches are trotted out: the special-ops team with each member a specialist; the rogue and brutal CIA man intent on starting his own war; the hard-drive that holds the secret to a conspiracy; and the final assault on the hide-out of the bad guys, complete with a ticking bomb of some sort.

Apart from some minor twists on a few of the stunts, it is difficult to find any ideas in The Losers that aren't recycled from numerous other films.

The cast singularly lacks charisma, and struggles against a bland script that neither looks for and much less finds any sparks. Dean Morgan as Clay is too serious compared to the ridiculous carnage going on around him, and the usually interesting Saldana gets no traction neither as the lady of mystery nor as the love interest.

The Losers is further proof, although none was needed, that comic book adaptations have long since found the rusted and fetid bottom of the barrel.






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