Saturday 27 August 2011

Movie Review: The Devil's Own (1997)


A sputtering thriller that plays out in slow motion and suffers from a particularly leaden middle third, The Devil's Own has the benefit of two captivating stars in Brad Pitt and Harrison Ford, whose talents are deployed in full to help navigate the film around many rough patches.

Frankie McGuire is eight years old when he witnesses his father brutally assassinated at the dinner table, setting him on a path of unbridled commitment for the Irish Republican cause. Twenty years later, it's the early 1990s and Frankie (Brad Pitt) is the charismatic leader of a deadly cell in the Irish Republican Army (IRA), and one of the most wanted men by the British authorities in Northern Ireland. An attempt to arrest Frankie turns into a firefight and a debacle for the British agents, who suffer high casualties.

Frankie travel to the United States to finalize a deal for the IRA to purchase Stinger missiles: the ability to shoot down British helicopters would dramatically strengthen the IRA's hands. In the US, a respected judge sympathetic to the Republican cause provides Frankie with a bogus cover job at a construction site, and arranges for him to live with the New Jersey family of Tom O'Meara (Ford). Tom is a highly principled New York cop of Irish ancestry, married with three daughters. He welcomes Frankie into his family, oblivious to his terrorist activities.

Frankie connects with Billy Burke (Treat Williams), an underground arms dealer arranging the sale of the Stingers. The deal goes sour and Burke turns against Frankie; meanwhile, Tom is having troubles of his own with his cop partner Eddie (Ruben Blades), who shoots dead a fleeing but unarmed burglar.Gradually Tom clues in to the true purpose of Frankie's visit to the US, and has to intervene to try and reduce the threat of an ever increasing cycle of violence.

The Devil's Own proved to be veteran director Alan J. Pakula's final film prior to his unfortunate death in a 1998 car crash. Although far from his best work, he does provide the movie with a quality polish. Pakula has the experience to recognize the best assets at his disposal, and he keeps the focus on Pitt and Ford, trusting them with the heavy lifting.

Pitt is the more magnetic of the two stars, and conveys the charisma of a man single-mindedly dedicated to a life of struggle while fully recognizing that his death may lie around every corner. Until he meets that fate, Frankie does not hesitate to push towards his objectives. Ford plays Tom as the moral but perhaps none-too-smart cop, on the final downhill run of his career, overwhelmed by a noisy family life and just hoping to wind down his policing without having to kill anyone.

Having Treat Williams and Ruben Blades in the supporting cast helps to provide additional heft to the production. Neither is asked to stretch, but they do add strong personalities and provide some counterbalance to Pitt and Ford.

The strong cast and focus on characters are the main positives to emerge from The Devil's Own, since the credibility of the action sequences does not stand up to any kind of scrutiny, and the slowish pace throughout nourishes character development much more so than sustained thrills.

The script attempts to elicit some measure of mis-guided sympathy for the IRA's cause; this does not go very far, as the amount of killing and violence triggered by Frankie overwhelms any message about the tactics being justified.

The Devil's Own could have been both better and worse than it is. It lands as a decent vehicle for a veteran craggy actor and an emerging tousled talent, with both men proving the enduring value of star power.






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Friday 26 August 2011

Movie Review: Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (2011)


So how exactly did those primates in Planet Of The Apes (1968) take over the planet? 43 years later, Hollywood provides the answer: the humans did themselves in with bad science. In a story of medical experimentation run amok and greedy corporations pushing for the next miracle cure, Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes warns that the law of unintended side effects could be the last law that matters as far as humans are concerned.

Scientist Will Rodman (James Franco) is working for the Gen Sys corporation, testing on apes drugs that may treat Alzheimer's disease. The ALZ-112 compound appears to show tremendous promise, but after an ape runs amok in the lab, Will's boss Steven Jacobs (David Oyelowo) pulls the plug on any further tests.

Undeterred, Will covertly takes one baby ape, named Caesar, home, and persists with testing ALZ-112 on him. Will has a personal motive: his father Charles (John Lithgow) suffers from severe Alzheimer's. When Caesar starts to demonstrate incredible mental abilities, including remarkable sign language proficiency, Will injects Charles with the compound; he is almost immediately free of the disease.

The years pass; Caesar grows into a very bright ape, and Will marries Caroline (Freida Pinto). Charles' immunity system unexpectedly develops antibodies that counter the effects of the treatment, and his Alzheimer's returns with a vengeance, ultimately killing him. Caesar starts to develop an unhappy awareness that he is a unique pet, and his behaviour becomes more hostile. Will pushes on and develops the even more powerful ALZ-113, and sensing the potential for a miracle drug, Steven approves a new round of aggressive, uncontrolled test treatments on a new batch of apes at Gen Sys. Caesar eventually violently attacks a neighbour and is consigned to a primate holding facility.

While in captivity and held under inhumane conditions, Caesar sharpens his awareness, and starts to influence and command the hundreds of other apes held in grimy conditions. He finally leads a rebellion and assembles a formidable army of apes while ALZ-113 proves to have some very nasty side effects on humans.

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes is more thoughtful science fiction than thriller, and most of the brisk 105 minute running time is consumed by setting up the science and then the ape evolution towards rebellion. The final act crams in all of the action, most of it on the Golden Gate Bridge, and while the mayhem is appreciated and needed for the plot, it is also the most routine and least inspired part of the movie.

In a film dominated by the apes and the computer geeks programming their remarkable on-screen appearance and movements, the human acting talent takes the seat at the far back of the van. James Franco is worried about the science, worried about his father, and worried about Caesar. In short, he is worried, and he goes though the film making sure that everything knows that he is worried. Freida Pinto must hope that life after Slumdog Millionaire will consist of roles better than the hastily appended girlfriend / wife who contributes pretty much nothing to the proceedings.

John Lithgow has the showy mental patient role and grills it to carbon, and luckily he does not appear in any of the same scenes as David Oyelowo, otherwise they would be competing for large bites from the same chewable scenery.

But neither director Rupert Wyatt nor screenwriters Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver pretend that the movie is about acting talent. This is a science story where the apes are both the underdogs and the pre-ordained victors. The apes are therefore entrusted to solicit the sympathy, and this objective is achieved with ease thank to stellar performance capture technology. Caesar and the rest of the apes display subtle changes in emotion with spectacular success, to the point that the apes' expressions effortlessly convey their innermost thoughts.

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes will never be accused of being a classic, but as a technologically superior prequel to a well-loved movie landmark, it serves its purpose.






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Thursday 25 August 2011

Movie Review: Life As We Know It (2010)


The biggest challenge for romantic comedy writers is coming up with designs for new hoops to be jumped through by the inevitable lovers, prior to their arrival at the pre-determined happy ending.

Life As We Know It succeeds in reaching for a fairly new premise: Holly and Eric, who initially can't stand each other, are forced to jointly care for a baby under tragic circumstances. Life As We Know It turns a typical couplehood stress point on its head: instead of the pressures of planned parenting rupturing a pre-existing relationship, Holly and Ken are unexpectedly thrown into unwanted parenting roles, and the experience brings them closer.

Holly (Katherine Heigl) and Eric (Josh Duhamel) once went out on a date that turned into an unmitigated disaster. But Katherine is best friends with Alison (Christina Hendricks), and Eric is best buddies with Peter (Hayes MacArthur), and Alison and Peter are a happily married couple. Holly and Eric are therefore the appointed godparents of the newborn Sophie, the first daughter of Alison and Peter. The worst does happen, and Sophie is orphaned. Holly and Eric are suddenly thrust into becoming the parents of a baby, having to deal with overwhelming responsibilities while learning to tolerate each other.

Eric is a hopeless womanizer, and his new role as a parent makes him even more irresistible to a succession of one-night hook-ups. Holly attracts the attention of Sam (Josh Lucas), Sophie's pediatrician. But inevitably, Eric and Holly are drawn together and transition from mutually repelling each other to parents who become lovers. Life for Eric gets complicated again when he gets the career opportunity of a lifetime, but accepting it would mean relocating away from his new roles of an accidental father to Sophie and unexpected partner to Holly.

Watching adults muddle through early parenting responsibilities is funny but well-worn movie territory. Life As We Know It trots out the typical laughs that stem from diaper changes, baby-sitters who are more capable than the parents, and exhausting night-long car drives to sooth the baby. But director Greg Berlanti keeps his eye on ball, and the travails of parenting in Life As We Know It are all about Holly and Eric discovering what they are individually capable of, and seeing in each other as partners something much more than what they were as singles.

The film demonstrates more than the usual bravery in hinging a romantic comedy on a tragedy, and the drama that underpins the narrative ensures that a serious undertone permeates through Life As We Know It, keeping the laughs in control and allowing plenty of time for examining themes of loss and sudden responsibility -- not the typical fare for what is often a light-headed genre. The relatively unique setting of Atlanta, Georgia is another plus -- romantic comedies can exist outside of New York.

Heigl, still struggling to carve out a post-Grey's Anatomy movie career, is a likable female lead, more approachable and earthy than a Jennifer Aniston, and less brash than a Kate Hudson. From the mild and predictable menu of comic, dramatic, attractive, sexy and romantic emotions required in the genre, Heigl is not brilliant at any one thing, but is at least above-average in all of them. Josh Duhamel is only in the movie for his hunky I-think-I'm-so-cool-on-my-motorcycle looks, and not even he appears to be attempting to pretend otherwise. The supporting cast is bland enough to inoffensively deliver the expected sideline quips while barely leaving a mark.

The movie does suffer from a typical fundamental weakness of romantic comedies, in glossing over exactly what triggers the attraction between Holly and Eric. A lot of minutes are invested in highlighting why these two simply do not get along. After episodes of splattered baby poo, diaper changes, and loud arguments, they suddenly fall into each other's arms, just because the running time is dangerously approaching the two hour mark.

The interesting premise of Life As We Know It does not a great movie make, but in this genre, interesting is often quite good enough.






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Wednesday 24 August 2011

Movie Review: The Karate Kid (1984)


The Karate Kid delivers a strong punch of entertainment with a kick of sly humour. It is a memorable story about the weak kid who learns to defend himself from bullies, thanks to the guidance of a wise old man. It is also a solidly crafted movie, impressively patient in its build-up, allowing its two main characters to grow into well-rounded personalities.

High school student Daniel (Ralph Macchio) and his single mom (Randee Heller) relocate from New Jersey to California, and settle into an apartment building managed by Mr. Miyagi (Noriyuki "Pat" Morita). Quick to meet and make new friends, Daniel is soon attracted to the wholesome and friendly Ali (Elisabeth Shue). But Ali's former boyfriend Johnny (William Zabka) is immediately jealous, and along with his friends, Johnny launches a campaign of vicious bullying against Daniel. Johnny and his buddies take karate lessons at a school run by Kreese (Martin Krove), an ex-Special Forces soldier, whose teaching philosophy of merciless violence fuels the bullying behaviour of his students.

Miyagi takes Daniel under his wing, and negotiates a truce with Kreese: Daniel will enter a karate tournament in two months time to take on Johnny and his buddies. In the meantime, as Daniel trains, the bullying stops. For two months, Miyagi teaches Daniel the true philosophy and techniques of karate, and their relationship evolves beyond karate to cover many principles of life. In the meantime, Daniel maintains a stuttering courtship of Ali, and discovers a wide gap between her family's wealthy social status and his humble life.

The tournament arrives, and Daniel has to apply all that he has learned from Miyagi to survive and progress against the hardened students from Kreese's school, with all roads leading to a final showdown against Johnny.

Miyagi: Hai! Wax on, right hand. Wax off, left hand. Wax on, wax off. Breathe in through nose, out of mouth. Wax on, wax off. Don't forget to breathe, very important. Wax on... wax off. Wax on... wax off.
Daniel: Hey where do these old cars come from?
Miyagi: Detroit. 


Other than the obvious revenge-of-the-scrawny-kid attraction, the appeal of The Karate Kid stems from the relationship between the mystical Miyagi and the willing-to-learn Daniel. The strength of the Robert Mark Kamen script lies in the breadth and depth with which the bond between the mentor and mentee is probed. A painful and touching scene, atypical of the feel-good genre, reveals Miyagi's background, and it becomes clear that Miyagi needs Daniel as a surrogate son just as much as Daniel needs Miyagi as a father figure. From then on, the father-son connection achieves the strength of indestructible hardened steel.

Director John G. Avildsen applies all the lessons he learned from the classic underdog tale of Rocky to good effect, and provides The Karate Kid with texture and artistry to elevate it several notches above the routine. The production quality allows the film to overcome a soundtrack filled to the brim with the worst of 1980s pop-rock.
A cast of previously obscure acting talent works in favour of The Karate Kid, which is essentially a story about the success of the nobody. Relative unknown Ralph Macchio is competent as Daniel, rarely straying far from doing exactly what the script asks for, and projecting adequate and joyfully doe-eyed appeal for the target audience of 12 to 14 year old girls. Pat Morita was mostly known for television roles prior to exploding into prominence as Miyagi, a one-man quote machine and a competitor for Yoda's crown as filmdom's ultimate fountain of old-aged wisdom laced with cynicism. The Karate Kid was Elisabeth Shue's movie debut, and despite a perfectly boring and predictable role as Ali, the most stereotypical of girls-next-door, Shue would go on to have arguably the most interesting and varied career from among the cast members.

The Karate Kid does struggle to soften the otherwise blatantly worrying message that fighting back is the only solution to bullying. Miyagi stresses the need for balance, and there is dialogue about fighting as a last resort, learning to fight in order not to have to fight, and karate being a defensive skill. But it is all for naught: the film boils down to meeting force with force, and there are no attempts to promote the engagement of the intellect or diplomatic skills to cleverly sidestep retarded and testosterone-driven conflicts.

The Karate Kid is also not helped by a very sudden ending. As soon as the climactic tournament ends, the film ends. The otherwise relaxed two-hour running length is abruptly rushed to the exits, while the story screams for an extra, thoughtful 10 minutes to wind-down, tidy up Daniel's relationships, allow Johnny and his buddies some moments of reflection and partial redemption, and to emphasize the more useful, less violence-obsessed lessons that could be learned from the experience.

As it stands, The Karate Kid is an easy-to-like feel-good story, providing far-fetched hope for all underdogs: with the wisdom of a strange man from Okinawa, humiliation can be the platform to learn life's long-lasting lessons.






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Sunday 21 August 2011

Movie Review: Sahara (1943)


With World War II still raging, director Zoltan Korda and star Humphrey Bogart produce a stirring, against-the-odds story of survival and heroism in the North African desert. Sahara also presciently portrays a world united against the Nazis, with the rag-tag collection of soldiers assembled to fight the Germans coming from the United States, England, Ireland, South Africa, France and even Italy.

The tank commanded by American Sergeant Joe Gunn (Bogart) has barely survived a North African desert battle in which the Allied forces have been routed. With his only two surviving crew members Jimmy (Dan Duryea) and Waco (Bruce Bennett), Gunn's tank limps south, the only direction not cut-off by the Axis. Short on gas and water, Gunn nevertheless collects another group of British and South African Allied soldiers at the remnants of a destroyed field hospital. Soon they cross paths and also pick-up a Sudanese Major Tambul (Rex Ingram), traveling on foot across the desert with an Italian prisoner Giuseppe (J. Carrol Naish).

Increasingly desperate for water, Tambul's desert navigation skills prove crucial and the overloaded tank eventually arrives at a desert well. It is almost dry, but there is enough of a trickle of water to hydrate Gunn and his men before the well is completely depleted. Nearby, a battalion of 500 German troops is also traversing the desert, frantically looking for water. When Gunn realizes that he can distract the enemy from their plans by claiming that his dry well is overflowing with water, he decides to make a stand: he persuades his ragtag group of a dozen soldiers to defend the well against the attacking but dehydrated Germans. It is a seemingly suicidal mission against a much larger enemy force, but Gunn's men dig-in and decide to sacrifice themselves for the greater glory of aiding the overall war effort.

Sahara is an early example of what became standard movie material about war heroism: the small band of determined men making a stand against ridiculous odds to serve a purpose larger than themselves. Sahara throws in nature as a third party to the conflict: the desert is more powerful than either the Allies or the Nazis, and will witness - and contribute to - the destruction of many lives on both sides.

The black and white photography in the desert is haunting, with Korda and cinematographer Rudolph Mate capturing a terrain that is quietly menacing in its endless expanse, and suddenly lethal when the sand storms kick-up. Man's helplessness in the face of the desert's dry and scorching heat becomes the catalyst for battle, particularly for the Germans, whose need for water drives them off course and becomes much more important than ideology or the war's greater objectives.

In a film with a 100 percent male cast (to compensate, Gunn always treats his tank like a lady, and is most upset when she is belittled), Bogart's persona of toughness combined with a searing understanding of the right thing to do dominates. His Sergeant Joe Gunn is a natural leader, quickly taking the tough decisions, believing in the mission, following orders, consulting when needed, and most crucially, not afraid to reverse a decision once he realizes a mistake, as when he debates the merits of abandoning Giuseppe in the desert.


Sahara maintains a good balance between scenes of warfare and character development, and even in the climactic final 30 minutes, with the outnumbered allies stubbornly defending the well, strategically-timed pauses provide time and space to delve into the personalities of the men sacrificing everything for a seemingly hopeless mission.

Sahara is everything that a great war movie needs to be: inspirational, sad, exciting, entertaining, astute and memorable.






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Saturday 20 August 2011

Movie Review: High Sierra (1941)


More a character study than a heist movie, High Sierra marked Humphrey Bogart's step-up into leading roles. It is a surprisingly thoughtful examination of a gangster discovering his caring side as he hurtles towards a single, certain fate.

Hardened convict Roy Earle (Bogart) receives an unexpected pardon and is released from prison after serving eight years. Aging master criminal Big Mac did the work behind the scenes to secure Earle's release: the ailing Mac needs Earle to pull-off a final major heist out west. On his drive to California, Earle meets a farming family also driving to the coast. Their attractive granddaughter Velma (Joan Leslie) has a club foot, and her condition tugs at Earle's heart.

At an out-of-the-way California motel he connects with the rest of the gang, consisting of small-time hoods Red (Arthur Kennedy) and Babe (Alan Curtis). The inexperienced criminals have brought along Marie (Ida Lupino), a desperate woman who wants to escape a drunken father, and for whom becoming a gangster's moll represents major progress. Earle finds himself unexpectedly attracted to Marie, who is eager to become part of his life. Earle is also befriended by the cute but abandoned dog Pard: all of Pard's previous owners have met untimely deaths.

The plan is for Earle, Red and Babe to rob the safety deposit boxes of a swanky resort at the foot of the Sierra mountains, filled with rich customers and their jewellery. Mendoza (Cornel Wilde) is the resort's night manager and the heist's inside-man: the robbery will take place when Mendoza sends  word that the safety deposit boxes are full. As Earle waits for the right time to commit the biggest job of his life, he engages in the lives of both Velma and Marie, finding both the pleasures of kind generosity and the hurt of rejection.

After the robbery the newspapers bestow the nickname "Mad Dog" onto Earle. He is forced into hiding then escapes high into the mountains, where both freedom and fate await.

Although he received second billing behind Lupino, Bogart is the undoubted star of High Sierra, appearing in every scene and dominating as a man surprising himself by displaying unanticipated sensitivity. It is doubtful that the pre-prison Earle would have cared much for Velma's condition; or that he would have allowed Marie to hang around and distract him; or that he would have tolerated the cutesy presence of Pard. The post-prison Earle does all that, and clearly his actions are no longer consistent with that of a hardened criminal.

Caught between who he was and who he is becoming, Roy Earle cannot straddle the wide contradictory crack developing in his life and falls into the fate that even he does not find surprising. Bogart conveys a man wistfully hoping for a better future, over-reaching to Velma, settling for the comfort of Marie, forced to live up to his tough guy image with Red and Babe, and ultimately deciding that freedom is what he values most.

Raoul Walsh directs the script (co-written by John Huston and author W.R. Burnett) with patience, allowing Earle's character plenty of time to develop on the way to meeting destiny. High Sierra only turns into an action film in its final third, and even then Earle's dilemmas and decision points overshadow the gun-play. However, Walsh does put onto the screen one of the earliest highly dynamic car chases, as Earle attempts to escape into the mountains on tortuously winding roads hotly pursued by the authorities riding an assortment of motorcycles and vehicles.

Up in the mountains of High Sierra, a criminal chooses his fate with no regrets, and an actor becomes one of the brightest stars of the movies.






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Wednesday 17 August 2011

Movie Review: The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre (1948)


A classic tale of greed and the influence of sudden great wealth on those ill-equipped to handle it, The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre is a marvellous achievement. Director John Huston crafts an epic exploration of human nature, Humphrey Bogart is spellbinding in a transformational performance, and Walter Huston, lovingly directed by his son, delivers a career-defining performance.

Dobbs (Bogart) is an American drifter, scratching out a living in a small Mexican town in the 1920s. He meets Curtin (Tim Holt), a younger American in much the same situation. The two men appear to meet some good fortune when they are hired for a few days of well-paid labour by the businessman McCormick, but he cheats them out of their wages. Reduced to sleeping in a shelter, Dobbs and Curtin meet Howard (Walter Huston), a grizzled gold prospector who has found and lost several fortunes. His talk of heading to the hills and striking gold resonates with the younger men as an adventure if not a plan.

The three men head off into the surrounding hills and as the remote terrain gets harder, the older Howard is in his element. Eventually he hits the bull's eye, finding a rich deposit of gold deep in the mountains. Once the three men start mining, Dobbs' real personality emerges, causing deep divisions and mistrust. Prospector Cody (Bruce Bennett) shows up uninvited and offers to help, but trouble in the form of Mexican bandits is not far behind.

Huston directed and wrote the screenplay based on the book by the mysterious B. Traven. The narrative cleverly steers Howard, Dobbs, and Curtin to their chosen destinies, although not on any path they selected, the treasure proving to be a passageway but not an objective. Howard, of course, knows this already. Whether he is monetarily rich or not makes no difference, his life's pleasure fueled by sequential quests.

It's a different story for Dobbs and Curtin, who are new at the prospecting game. They will both discover for the first time who they really are, as the gold accelerates the revelation of the men's hidden values.

Huston composes every frame with artistic flare, finding camera angles to enhance the storytelling and add to the growing tension. The initial scenes of interaction between Dobbs, Curtin and Howard are brilliant examples of a master director's unobtrusive hand. Dobbs and Curtin are always in the frame together, facing Howard as the third point of the triangle, the catalyst who will help them understand their true selves.

Humphrey Bogart is captivating as he embarks on a dark descent into Dobbs' soul. In one of his most complex and satisfying screen roles, Bogart keeps Dobbs' anxieties well hidden until the discovery of the gold, then expertly and gradually delves into the corners of the psyche where self-destructive evil thoughts are harboured.

Walter Huston as Howard is the heart of the movie, an old man who has long since learned the impact of gold on weak personalities. Huston conveys the thrill of looking for and finding treasure; what happens afterwards is almost inconsequential, as he is just as happy losing a fortune to start the process of finding the next one.

Tim Holt, who spent most of his career in western movies, plays an earnest Curtin, and emerges as the perfect counterbalance to Bogart's Dobbs. Younger and less saddled with life's disappointments, Curtin is the innocent subject of Dobbs' growing lack of trust as it deforms into violence. Curtin has to first find and then hold onto his principles, and the gold adventure leads him to his dream but along a most convoluted path.

With masterful artistry, The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre exposes gold's most important property: reflecting back the character of the men who hold it.






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Tuesday 16 August 2011

Movie Review: Lucky (2010)


What happens to the winners of large lottery prizes? After the celebratory photos with the oversized cheques and the newspaper stories about huge payouts, how do the lives of the winners change?

In Lucky, documentary film-maker Jeffrey Blitz sets out to explore lives altered by huge injections of cash, and in chronicling the story of five state lottery winners, he finds experiences ranging from the rational to the tragic.

A calm mathematics professor is best equipped to manage his new-found wealth. Although his marriage crumbles, he finds a new love, takes up singing lessons, and uses his money to create educational opportunities for others. Similarly, a Vietnamese immigrant puts his new fortune to good use by providing better housing for his extended family, both in the US and in Vietnam.

Other winners have more mixed fortunes. A middle class couple jump up the societal ladder to the company of elites, lose all their old friends, struggle to redefine themselves, and eventually move to Florida to start a new life in a neighbourhood of similarly rich folks. An old man wins the lottery with effectively his last dollar. Having lived the decrepit life of a hobo, and with clearly limited intellectual abilities, he is careful with his newly found wealth, but at least upgrades to living in a seedy motel room.

Most dramatically, an old geezer who won the lottery after saving a child from a burning building has no wealth management skills whatsoever. He fritters away his winnings as quickly as he can, withstands assassination plots from his own family members, and before long returns to a life of simple poverty.

Lucky is entertaining without being outstanding. Blitz intercuts the five stories to keep the film interesting, and holds back a few surprises that are revealed as stings in the tail, effectively building up the human drama. He also spices up the documentary with sometimes humorous factoids about lotteries in the United States.

But ultimately there is nothing flashy or pretentious about Lucky: Blitz allows the characters and events to tell their own tale with a minimum of fuss, and the film achieves it's objective of confirming that a large amount of unexpected money is more likely to enhance rather than change individual characteristics.






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Movie Review: Skyline (2010)


A monster movie with plenty of special effects and little else, it's only the shiny technology that raises Skyline above made-for-TV fare. A B-movie cast spouts B-movie lines while scary aliens terrorize mankind, but thanks to enormous computer processing power, some of the imagery is striking.

Jarred (Eric Balfour), a struggling artist, and his newly pregnant girlfriend Elaine (Scottie Thompson) are on a visit to Los Angeles. Eric is reconnecting with his rich friend Terry (Donald Faison), and after enjoying a wild birthday bash, Jarred and Elaine sleep in the guest room of Terry's swanky apartment. During the night, mysterious blue light beams are unleashed onto Los Angeles. Any human who looks at the blue light is mesmerized, deformed and sucked up into the spaceships of hideous aliens resembling the descendants of the creature from the black lagoon, operating vessels that look like overgrown bottom-feeding ocean beasts.

With Los Angeles in carnage, the US military attempts a meek fight-back against the overwhelming strength and advanced technology of the aliens. Jarred, Elaine, Terry, and a few others who survived the initial assault have to decide between hiding and attempting to flee as the aliens start brutally efficient house-house searches to capture the few remaining humans.

Continuing in the recent tradition of movies such as Cloverfield, Skyline takes the perspective of the inconsequential, easily squished victims of rampaging monsters. The grand plan of the alien invasion remains elusive, and the US military fightback is a noisy but tangential backdrop to the tribulations of powerless civilians witnessing the literal end of their world.

Greg and Colin Strause (billing themselves as the brothers Strause) directed and co-produced with a strict focus on technology. The monsters and the spaceships are the stars of the show, supported by impressive vistas of Los Angeles being summarily destroyed. Shortchanged in this vision is any emphasis on the human drama, and Skyline is hampered by TV-level actors appropriately matched to an inane script that struggles to find a single original idea or innovative line of dialogue.

Skyline is a strict showcase of computer programming capabilities, with a heart as cold as the hardware.






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Sunday 7 August 2011

Movie Review: Eyes Of Laura Mars (1978)


A muddled film that tries to conceal its banal script with fluffy pseudo-psychology and chic sexuality, Eyes Of Laura Mars is a lot less clever than it thinks it is.

New York-based Laura Mars (Faye Dunaway) is an artistic photographer with a career on a rocket-fuelled upward trajectory: her vivid, glamorous in-your-face photos depicting scenes of violence and sex are all the rage in the art scene. But Laura's world begins to unravel when people around her start to get murdered, usually with a sharp object through the eyes. Much worse for Laura, she finds herself witnessing the murders while they occur, through the eyes of the killer.

John Neville (Tommy Lee Jones) is the police lieutenant in charge of solving the murders. As the body count rises, instead of finding clues and interviewing witnesses he gets busy seducing Laura, and before long they are lovers, apparently not bothered too much that a lot people are getting their eyes poked out with scissors and other assorted sharp objects. The suspects include Laura's haughty agent (Rene Auberjonois), her ex-con driver (Brad Dourif), and her broke alcoholic ex-husband (Raul Julia). As suspects start to appear on the list of murder victims, it gets easier to spot the culprit.

The script by John Carpenter and David Zelag Goodman introduces several unconventional elements: Laura Mars can see murders in progress through the eyes of the killer; her artistic photography appears to recreate old murder scenes that she has never laid eyes on; and late in the proceedings, a key character is revealed to have a complex split personality. Director Irvin Kershner is left high and dry, because the script fails miserably to explain any of these complexities, leaving a movie that is desperately attempting to be dangerous and relevant in a modern context floating instead in an easily dismissed supernatural realm.

The movie does occasionally boast a slick look, and is at its best in creating the glamorous photo-shoot scenes. But the acting is surprisingly at the B level, Faye Dunaway able to do little beyond opening her eyes wide, staring into the distance, and running around in almost mock terror. Meanwhile, Tommy Lee Jones' wooden performance serves as a reminder why it took him almost another 15 years to mature into a respected actor.

Eyes Of Laura Mars is a routine slasher flick trying to dress up in silky lingerie, but unfortunately incapable of escaping the smell of cheap perfume.






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Friday 5 August 2011

Movie Review: The Tourist (2010)


An extraordinarily muddled film that manages to spectacularly fail at everything: whether its romance, action or attempts at comedy, The Tourist hits the bulls eye of awfulness. Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp try to pretend to be strangers getting hopelessly attracted to each other in a foreign land; that they somehow manage to come across more as siblings than lovers pretty much sums up the hapless effort of director and co-writer Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.

In a plot that leaves all the interesting details to the imagination, all we know is that Elise (Jolie) is aching to get back in touch with her former lover, the elusive Alexander Pearce, who is very rich, in hiding and wanted for evading millions in taxes. Elise is in Paris being closely watched by the French police, who are acting on behalf of Scotland Yard, but whose plans at unobtrusive surveillance must have been put together by Inspector Clouseau.

Elise gets a message from Pearce to get on a train and choose a stranger to unwittingly play the role of the surgery-altered Pearce to throw the police of the real trail. Elise follows instructions and cleverly selects the bewildered Frank (Depp), a tourist, to be her patsy. The police don't fall for the ruse, but ruthless gangster Reginald Shaw does. It turns out that Pearce has stolen a whole lot of money from Shaw, and the ganglord wants it back.

Elise and Frank arrive in Venice, and Frank is in a heap of trouble: Shaw's henchmen are after him, and it's up to Elise to save him. As Elise tries to connect with the real Pearce, she and Frank are attracted to each other, although any reasons for this attraction to emerge are kept well hidden. Frank tries to stay alive, Shaw tries to retrieve his money, and the authorities, naturally, try to make sure that everyone pays taxes owed.

The final twist in The Tourist is predictable enough to be spotted from a mile away, but this does not make it any less ridiculous, serving as definitive confirmation of the film's abject bankruptcy in the wit, logic and wisdom departments.

The screen romance between Elise and Frank never comes close to igniting, suffocated as it is by an implausible plot layering on the foul-smelling cheese picked off the cutting room floor of other movies. The action sequences consist of an impressive array of exclusively borrowed items, and if the movie did contain elements of comedy, as apparently the film-makers intended, then these must have sunk to the bottom of the canals in Venice because they never made it to the screen.

The only thing The Tourist has going for it is hair, and lots of it. Jolie brings two things to the movie: a self-satisfied smile perpetual enough to shoot off the irritating scale, and lush hair that is coiffed just so for every shot. Depp disposes with the smile and replaces it with an expression of eternal bemusement bordering on stupidity, but he also attacks the movie with a shaggy hair look that would smack of desperation if it didn't bring back bad memories of the early 1990s when all heavy metal band members cut their long hair, but kept it straggly enough to assure their fans that they are rebels.

And then there is Venice. The film would work well as tourism propaganda for the City of Bridges if only the actors wouldn't keep getting in the way.

The Tourist is a stranger in a strange land, aimless, lost, without a map, and going nowhere useful.






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Movie Review: Groundhog Day (1993)


An updated but nevertheless old-fashioned morality tale, Groundhog Day strikes a balance between attractively quiet charm and bright lessons in life. It also features some of Bill Murray's best work, a career landmark as he transitioned from mindless comedy to serious acting.

Pittsburgh television weatherman Phil Connors (Murray) does not hide the fact that he is cynical, egocentric and utterly self-centred: there is not much in life that makes Phil happy. His mood is not served when the station sends him for the fourth year in a row to the small town of Punxsutawney in February, to cover the Groudhog Day festivities, when the remaining duration of winter is predicted by a giant groundhog. Phil deems the whole event to be trivial and well beneath him, and is rude and less than sociable towards his travelling companions, producer Rita (Andie MacDowell) and camerman Larry (Chris Elliott).

Phil gets through the day as quickly as possible, films his segment, and heads home, but a blizzard prevents him from getting back to Pittsburgh. He wakes up the next morning and it is the start of Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney all over again: the events of the previous day will re-live themselves. Phil is caught in a loop, doomed to repeat Groundhog Day over and over.

After getting over the shock, Phil takes advantage of his situation. He uses the information that he learns from each walk-through to charm and sleep with Nancy, an attractive local woman, and then tries the same tactic with Rita. After days of mechanically memorizing her likes and dislikes and using them to his advantage, Phil thinks he is close to seducing her but she rebuffs him. Increasingly depressed and unable to find a way out of the endless repeating cycle, Phil attempts to kill himself in all possible ways, but no matter what gory ending he plans for himself, he always wakes up the next morning at the start of the same Groundhog Day. With not even death offering a way out, Phil has to delve deep into his approach to life and his interaction with others to try and find the right path out of Punxsutawney.

Groundhog Day is structured like a maze,with all paths but one looping back to 6am on the morning of the same day. Phil's challenge is first to know that he is in this maze, and then to find the only way out. Bill Murray has rarely been better, the personality of Phil perfectly fitting his grown-up screen persona of a man who has seen everything, has a snide comment for everyone, and is dismissive of the value of all things. Equally engaging is Andy MacDowell, who quickly gives Rita a combination of depth and smarts. She is first the victim of Phil's insensitivity, then the target of his childish lechery, and finally the path to his salvation, and MacDowell makes Rita believable in all three roles without compromising the fundamentals of the character.

The message behind the movie is both straightforward and textured, and includes lessons about the futility of life's apparent short-cuts and the grim cul-de-sac of dark mentalities. Ultimately, Phil only starts to make progress when he pays attention to the needs of the people surrounding him and to his own need to grow as a person. Lack of self-improvement, at any age, is condemnation to life at a stand-still.

Whether a metaphor for a mid-life crisis or a call to greater societal re-engagement with more human sensitivity, Groundhog Day delivers the good news. It's a day worth living, and a movie to be treasured.




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Thursday 4 August 2011

Movie Review: Coming To America (1988)


A comedy about finding true love, Coming To America fits a familiar story into a shiny comedy package and provides decent laughs, mainly thanks to the comic talents of Eddie Murphy.

A rich man hiding under the rags of poverty to find a woman who would love him without his wealth is a love fable as old as they come. Coming To America distracts from the obvious by injecting its central theme with another ancient plot device, the worlds-apart culture clash. Prince Akeem (Murphy) is the next-in-line to the throne of Zamunda, a fictional African country. Raised in lush luxury at the secluded royal palace, and never having to do anything for himself, Akeem is turning 21 and his parents King Joffe (James Earl Jones) and Queen Aeoleon (Madge Sinclair) have arranged a bride for him to marry.

Unhappy at being pampered throughout his life, Akeem finds the rebel within, refuses to adhere to his parents' wishes, and flies off to America with his personal aid Semmi (Arsenio Hall) to seek the true love of his life. Since they are looking for a future queen, they naturally choose Queens, New York as the place to search for the perfect bride. They rent a dump of an apartment, pretend to be poor, and take jobs as floor cleaners at McDowell's, a fast-food joint operated by Cleo McDowell (John Amos). Cleo's smart and compassionate daughter Lisa (Shari Headley) attracts Akeem's attention and becomes the target of his wooing efforts. Akeem needs to overcome competition from Lisa's egotistical boyfriend Darryl (Eriq La Salle); whining from a home-sick Semmi; and a clumsily desperate attempt at intervention by King Joffe and Queen Aeoleon, before he can win himself a new future queen.

Eddie Murphy wrote the story, and he keeps the laughs coming with welcome good timing and some rather tiresome over-exuberance. He receives good support from Jones, whose booming voice and haughty personality are perfectly suited to the role of a domineering king. In one of his more memorable big-screen roles, Arsenio Hall is also excellent in the role of the side-kick who is too quick to harken for the comforts of home and even quicker to pretend to be Prince when it suits him.

Coming To America does suffer from Murphy always looking more comfortable in New York than the flagrantly artificial dream world of Zamunda, and once Akeem and Semmi settle into New York and the pursuit of Lisa begins, the plot is fixed onto the sturdy rails of predictability all the way through to the sugary ending. Director John Landis has the easy task of keeping his cameras pointing in the right direction, and allowing his star to do his thing.

Coming To America is a vehicle for Murphy at his peak: it lacks the freshness of unpredictability or any sort of edge, but nevertheless works as a showcase for his sterling talent.






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Monday 1 August 2011

Movie Review: Along Came Polly (2004)


A romantic comedy that mixes classy charm with bathroom humour, Along Came Polly benefits from appealing leads and good depth in the supporting cast.

Reuben (Ben Stiller) is an insurance risk analyst who does nothing without calculating all possible risks. He marries his sweetheart Lisa (Debra Messing), and is crushed when she immediately betrays him by jumping into bed with hunky scuba instructor Claude (Hank Azaria) early in their Caribbean honeymoon. Reuben returns to work and stubbornly hangs on to his spreadsheet-based risk-assessment mentality despite Lisa's betrayal exposing its failings in devastating terms.

At an art gallery, Reuben reconnects with Polly (Jennifer Aniston), a former high school classmate who used to be brainy but is now a lowly server with a catering company. Polly has chosen a nomadic life of planning for nothing and going wherever the wind pushes her. She is messy, unsettled and unpredictable, loves spicy food and dancing, and takes risks as a matter of routine. Polly is the exact opposite of what Reuben should be looking for, but they nevertheless fall in love. When Lisa comes back to town pleading for a second chance, Reuben has to decide between the comforts of familiarity or the adventure of learning to take risks.

Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston slip effortlessly into the two central roles of Along Came Polly. Stiller shines as Reuben struggles to explain his growing attraction to Polly's world of chaos, while Aniston has never been better on the big screen, her Polly not shy about having fun, but also struggling to hide the insecurities that drive her fear of growing up and settling down.

The supporting actors add a lot of entertaining and good quality colour to the world of Reuben. Philip Seymour Hoffman is Sandy, Reuben's boorish friend. A former child actor with one notable supporting performance on his resume, Hoffman is quite hilarious as Sandy goes through life demanding never-deserved respect, oblivious to a career that long-since seeped out of the bottom of the barrel. Alec Baldwin as Reuben's boss and Bryan Brown as a daredevil, Richard Branson-type CEO being evaluated by Reuben for insurability are much better than the usually predicable characters supporting romantic comedy leads.

Although he does dwell on some admittedly funny bathroom and body fluid humour, director and writer John Hamburg keeps the pacing brisk, with both the romance and the comedy progressing smoothly, an example of how a script written by one person often trumps the over-bloated malaise of scripts-by-committee.

Not all unexpected visitors are welcome, but Along Came Polly proves to be a pleasantly entertaining encounter.






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