Movie Review: Boys On The Side (1995)

Genre: Dramedy  

Director: Herbert Ross  

Starring: Whoopi Goldberg, Mary-Louise Parker, Drew Barrymore, Matthew McConaughey  

Running Time: 117 minutes  

Synopsis: New York-based vocalist Jane (Whoopi Goldberg) is still pursuing a performing career despite the passing years. She decides to relocate to Los Angeles, and through a share-the-drive ad connects with Robin (Mary-Louise Parker), who is frail and wants to retrace a family road trip from her childhood. In Pittsburgh Jane and Robin rescue the bubbly Holly (Drew Barrymore) from an abusive relationship. The trio make it as far as Tucson, where health and law enforcement issues force them to settle down and explore their options.

What Works Well: There is enough character depth to create rich cross-currents of emotion, laughs, and tears among a trio of interesting single women. Jane is a headstrong black lesbian refusing to give up on a career in music, Robin is seemingly fragile and suffering from AIDS and the lingering trauma of a family tragedy, while Holly carries a perpetually positive attitude but is a magnet for the wrong kind of men. Matthew McConaughey augments the cast as a police officer who falls in love with Holly but also arrests her, and director Herbert Ross maintains balance between humour, drama, and a few off-the-wall surprises.

What Does Not Work As Well: Once the road trip yields to domesticity in Tucson, momentum stalls and edginess gives way to predictability. Robin gets involved in a tepid romance with a non-entity bartender (James Remar), a few secondary characters like Jane's friend Anna are victimized by editing, conflicts (including a privacy intrusion) are contrived, a courtroom showdown is half-baked, and the is-it-friendship-or-is-it-more tension between Jane and Robin is resolved by a sappy song.

Key Quote:

Jane: I'm not after you.

Robin: I'm not worried...Why?

Jane: Luck of the draw, I guess.

Robin: No, I mean... why aren't you after me?

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Movie Review: The Gentlemen (2019)

Genre: Action Comedy  

Director: Guy Ritchie  

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Hugh Grant, Colin Farrell, Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding, Jeremy Strong, Eddie Marsan  

Running Time: 113 minutes  

Synopsis: In England, reporter Fletcher (Hugh Grant) tries to blackmail Raymond (Charlie Hunnam), the second-in-command to crime boss Michael Pearson (Matthew McConaughey). Flashbacks reveal Fletcher's investigations on behalf of his editor Big Dave (Eddie Marsan). Michael rose from humble beginnings to control the illegal marijuana trade in England. Seeking to retire, he negotiates the sale of his empire to fellow gang boss Matthew (Jeremy Strong). Then another gang represented by Dry Eye (Henry Golding) makes an unsolicited offer, followed by a break-in at a secret cultivation facility by the acrobatic gang of Coach (Colin Farrell). As the level of violence increases, Michael has to sort out friend from foe.

What Works Well: This bright and breezy crime comedy buzzes with the energy of a witty and mazy script (by director Guy Ritchie). A multitude of enjoyable twists and turns are packed into less than two hours, the brisk pacing rewarding attention with non-stop enjoyment. All the performances add to the eclectic milieu of bad guys believing they are much brighter than they are, with Hugh Grant particularly memorable as the eloquent newsman well out of his depth but nevertheless taking a wild swing at riches. The short and sharp action scenes arrive at pleasingly regular intervals, and often carry spiky levels of humour. 

What Does Not Work As Well: As usual and expected when Ritchie splashes around in this genre pool, the action is bursting at the seams with a difficult-to-keep-track-of number of characters making noise aplenty, and inconsequential - although always entertaining - side quests.

Key Quote:

Michael Pearson: If you wish to be the king of the jungle, it's not enough to act like a king. You must be the king. And there can be no doubt. Because doubt causes chaos and one's own demise.

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Movie Review: Mud (2012)

Genre: Coming Of Age Drama  

Director: Jeff Nichols  

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Tye Sheridan, Sam Shepard, Reese Witherspoon, Michael Shannon, Ray McKinnon, Sarah Paulson, Joe Don Baker  

Running Time: 130 minutes  

Synopsis: In rural Arkansas, fourteen year-old friends Ellis and Neckbone (Tye Sheridan and Jacob Lofland) stumble upon Mud (Matthew McConaughey) on an isolated island in the Mississippi River. Ellis is intrigued by the stranger's story of a lifelong love for sweetheart Juniper (Reese Witherspoon), and starts bringing supplies to Mud and passing messages to Juniper. Ellis also experiences his first crush, get to know his mysterious neighbour Tom (Sam Shepard), and comes to terms with the painful separation of his parents (Ray McKinnon and Sarah Paulson). But Mud is a wanted fugitive, and his presence may unleash violence.

What Works Well: This coming-of-age drama combines lyricism with hard edges and tough truths. Director and writer Jeff Nichols finds a ramshackle section of river sustaining a simpler way of life, and populates it with characters harboring secrets. Within the stoic backwater isolation, Ellis' life is profoundly changing: his parents are splitting, the only home he knows might be dismantled, and he may have found a first girlfriend. But the revelations swirling around Mud are most potent, involving a deep love, easy lies, suspicions of murder generating a desire for violent revenge, and ultimately plans for an audacious escape. As the disruptions reach a climax, childhood is discarded and adulthood forged.

What Does Not Work As Well: Ten minutes could have been trimmed from the running length without dramatic loss, and Michael Shannon as Neckbone's river-diving uncle appears to be a character idea in search of a purpose.

Key Quote:

Mud (about Juniper): She is like a dream you don't want to wake up from.



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Movie Review: Fool's Gold (2008)

Genre: Action Adventure Comedy  

Director: Andy Tennant  

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Kate Hudson, Donald Sutherland, Kevin Hart  

Running Time: 113 minutes  

Synopsis: Off the Florida coast, treasure hunter Finn (Matthew McConaughey) is searching for the legendary Queen's Dowry, an immense Spanish treasure lost in a 1715 storm. After finding an important clue, Finn is betrayed by his benefactor Bigg Bunny (Kevin Hart). Meanwhile, Finn's fed-up wife Tess (Kate Hudson) finalizes their divorce, although they still have feelings for each other. In a final attempt to find the treasure, Finn convinces Tess' employer and wealthy businessman Nigel Honeycutt (Donald Sutherland) to fund the search.

What Works Well: This is a brains-off adventure, leaning into cartoonish characterizations, out-of-nowhere and over-the-top plot developments, ho-hum action set-pieces, and star charisma. Glistening settings, attractive skin-baring stars, and just-in-time heroics provide the necessary distractions on the way to all the obvious conclusions. The investment in the story of the treasure's origins is appreciated, although showing rather than telling would have been an enhancement.

What Does Not Work As Well: The plot strictly adheres to well-worn paths and embraces every superficial cliche. Finn as the lovable and passionate rogue who is always half a step away from disaster is an overly-familiar central character, and director/co-writer Andy Tennant is determined to bring stupidity to the fore: Honeycutt's daughter Gemma (Alexis Dziena) is specifically brought on board to compete with Bigg Bunny's henchmen for the biggest dummy prize.

Conclusion: Stays afloat, but barely.



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Movie Review: Amistad (1997)

Genre: Historical Drama

Director: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Matthew McConaughey, Djimon Hounsou, Morgan Freeman

Running Time: 154 minutes

Synopsis: In 1839, slaves being transported on the Spanish vessel La Amistad stage a mutiny, killing most of the crew members. The ship is eventually intercepted by the US navy and the slaves are held in New Haven. A legal case to determine their fate - murderers or freedom fighters - ensues, with political ramifications resonating all the way to the White House. Slave leader Cinqué (Djimon Hounsou), defence lawyer Baldwin (Matthew McConaughey), abolition activist Joadson (Morgan Freeman), ex-President John Quincy Adams (Anthony Hopkins), current President Van Buren (Nigel Hawthorne), Secretary of State Forsyth (David Paymer) and the young Queen of Spain (Anna Paquin) are all interested in shaping the outcome of the trial.

What Works Well: Director Spielberg and writer David Franzoni treat the historical events with reverential respect, connecting the lines between one mutiny, a broader national dilemma, international relationships, and a looming war. The flashback scenes of slave mistreatment prior to the mutiny are brutal, heartbreaking, and necessary. The complex trial machinations, arguments, and counter-arguments are patiently explained, and an impressive cast ensures prominence in every role. The rich production design brings the 1800s to life, from squalid marine conditions to White House grandeur.

What Does Not Work As Well: Excess defeats subtlety as every opportunity to over-dramatize is eagerly embraced, and John Williams' incessantly sappy music triple-underlines the Key Moments. Although an important narrative device, the language barrier is overplayed and frustrates the cinematic experience. The running time is drawn out by an over-elaborate John Quincy Adams climactic speech.

Conclusion: An impressively invested history lesson.



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Movie Review: Failure To Launch (2006)

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Director: Tom Dey

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Baker, Bradley Cooper, Zooey Deschanel

Running Time: 97 minutes

Synopsis: Tripp (Matthew McConaughey) is 35-years-old and still living with his exasperated parents (Kathy Bates and Terry Bradshaw). They hire interventionist Paula (Sarah Jessica Parker) to fake a romance with Tripp and encourage him to move out. 

What Works Well: Director Tom Dey adds plenty of breezy fun and frolic to the otherwise standard rom-com standard. Paula has a caustic roommate (Zooey Deschanel) at war with a mockingbird, while Tripp has two friends (Bradley Cooper and Justin Bartha) equally comfortable living with their parents. Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker make for an attractive couple, with Terry Bradshaw and Kathy Bates adding depth to the supporting cast. A running joke about Tripp being out-of-alignment with nature and his profession as a boat broker provide opportunities for good laughs and wind-swept scenery.

What Does Not Work As Well: The central premise is as flimsy and unlikely as can be expected.

Conclusion: Lightweight entertainment enlivened by high-voltage star power.



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Movie Review: We Are Marshall (2006)

A sports drama, We Are Marshall is an inspirational but also frequently melodramatic rise-from-the-ashes story.

In 1970, a plane crash kills 75 people, including most of the Marshall University football team. The survivors include team captain Nate Ruffin (Anthonie Mackie), who missed the trip due to injury, and coach "Red" Dawson (Matthew Fox), who gave up his seat on the doomed flight at the last minute. The university's community of Huntington, West Virginia, descends into shock, including influential local business leader Paul Griffen (Ian McShane), who lost his son in the crash. 

President Donald Dedmon (David Strathairn) considers shutting down the football program, but Ruffin rallies support to rebuild the team. After being turned down by all leading candidates, Dedmon hires Jack Lengyel (Matthew McConaughey) as head coach. Lengyel has no prior association with Marshall but plenty of energy, and convinces Red to join him as assistant coach. A frantic recruitment program results in a group of young and untested freshmen and walk-ons being cobbled together into a team to tackle the new season.

An undoubtedly touching story of grief and recovery afforded the full Hollywood treatment, We Are Marshall draws strength from a real-life tragedy giving birth to resilience. Director McG translates Jamie Linden's script into a polished and well-staged narrative, combining the search for meaning with the difficulty of life marching on, regardless. For all the tender emphasis on loss, the film is also unabashedly manipulative, seeking opportunities to pause and deliver rousing moments, motivational speeches, and fists-in-the-air demonstrations of togetherness, always accompanied by requisite musical flourishes.

The focus is on a small group of community members navigating numbness and fury, survivor's guilt, a father's sorrow, and overwhelming helplessness, fuelling different opinions on whether reactivating the football program benefits healing. With Matthew McConaughey in full charm-on mode, coach Lengyel becomes the outside catalyst not personally affected by the tragedy and therefore able to prod the community on the path to recovery. 

But grief this deep lingers, and to the film's credit, not all the characters are eager to join the rebirth process. While the overblown climax casts a long shadow, thankfully the journeys of grieving dad Paul Griffen and diner server Annie (Kate Mara), who was engaged to Paul's son, end on a more wistful note away from sports heroics. David Strathairn adds eloquent touches of hesitant humanity as the university president with no playbook on how to navigate a mammoth tragedy.

A gesture of respect by a rival school's football team asserts the unifying power of sport, and the on-field scenes are well-staged, capturing the grit, agony, and ecstasy of college football. We Are Marshall knows where the goal is, and despite bombastic tendencies, registers an assured victory.



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Movie Review: Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past (2009)

A romantic comedy with a fantasy twist, Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past borrows from Charles Dickens on the way to predictable destinations. 

In New York City, Connor Mead (Matthew McConaughey) is a celebrity fashion photographer, enjoying a hedonistic lifestyle, plenty of sex, and no commitments. He travels to the lavish New England estate of his deceased Uncle Wayne (Michael Douglas), where Connor's younger brother Paul (Breckin Meyer) is getting married to Sandra (Lacey Chabert). The wedding party includes doctor Jenny Perotti (Jennifer Garner), Connor's one true love from childhood and the only woman who punctures his Lothario act.

Connor does all he can to sabotage Paul's wedding, including delivering drunken tirades about the futility of love, hitting on Sandra's mother Vonda (Anne Archer), and exposing Paul's past infidelities. But then he is visited by the ghost of Uncle Wayne and the ghost of his first sexual partner Allison (Emma Stone), who guide him on a tour of his past, present and future to demonstrate the consequences of his actions.

A stellar cast and sense of flighty fun elevate Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past beyond the mundane. Co-writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore deliver a polished script maximizing concept enjoyment and packed with sharp humour, and the stars do the rest, diving into their characters with committed playfulness. The scenes with a ditzy Emma Stone whizzing Connor around his past on a time-traveling bed are a particular delight.

As usual with rom-coms, the peripherals help make or break the experience, and here director Mark Waters has plenty to work with. Wealthy and fun-loving Uncle Wayne was the perfectly enticing bad example on Connor's early life, setting him on a path of selfish gratification. The thorny dynamic between married-couple-to-be Paul and Sandra is a source of steady laughs, as are Sandra's parents "Sarge" (Robert Forster) and the cougar Vonda.

The necessary moments of pathos also register, the brotherly bond between Connor and Paul deployed to good effect, and the eternal but often denied passion between Connor and Jenny an underpinning for both their lives.

Despite the welcome streak of quality, typical genre pitfalls are also on full display. There is never any doubt about the outcome, and Connor's transformation abruptly arrives just in time for the requisite wrapping up of all loose ends. Obvious go-to devices include the destroyed wedding cake, drunken revelations, desperate bridesmaids, and doofus best men.

Ghosts Of Girlfriends Past does enough to justify a breezy trip through time, but still arrives at all the familiar conclusions.



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Movie Review: Sahara (2005)

An action-packed adventure, Sahara combines a wacky search for a lost ship with a rapidly-spreading medical crisis in the African desert. A bouncy attitude augments non-stop thrills, escapes, and investigative heroics.

In the final days of the American Civil War, the Confederate ironclad ship Texas is the last vessel to escape the Union naval blockade. The ship disappears, its fate lost to history.

In the present day, ex-Navy buddies Dirk Pitt (Matthew McConaughey) and Al Giordino (Steve Zahn) work for an underwater exploration company independently funded by the wealthy and retired Admiral James Sandecker (Willam H. Macy). In Nigeria, a shady dealer provides Dirk with a gold coin believed to be from Texas and originating in Mali, where a civil war rages between warlord Kazim (Lennie James) and the Tuareg.

Concurrently, World Health Organization doctor Eva Rojas (Penelope Cruz) is investigating a deadly disease spreading in the area, and she hitches a ride into Mali with Dirk and Al. Businessman Yves Massarde (Lambert Wilson), a Kazim ally, is not pleased to see Dr. Rojas and the ship hunters poking into his affairs and sets out to stop them by all means necessary.

An adaptation of the Clive Cussler book, Sahara carries a glossy Indiana Jones vibe and a strong sense of fun. Although the troubled and over-budget production resulted in four credited writers and multiple law suits, the film is a rollicking and enjoyable thrill ride. Director Breck Eisner makes good use of gorgeous scenery and adopts a galloping pace to keep up with the wild material, leveraging the joint charisma of stars Matthew McConaughey and Steve Zahn to deliver multiple highlights.

And it is the lead duo that differentiates Sahara. Beyond bantering buddies, thorny friends, and leader-sidekick dynamics, Dirk and Al are a (mostly) well-oiled partnership adept at on-the-fly problem solving and improvisation. Zahn adds scrappy charm, wit, and inventiveness, perfectly complementing McConaughey's bold self-assurance as they work their way out of seemingly impossible jams.

The plots threads together two stories, an urgent investigation of a spreading disease merging with a more playful - if not self-consciously bizarre - search for a lost Confederate war ship that somehow ended up in the African desert. Penelope Cruz as Dr. Rojas carries the weight of the medical quest, but is only modestly successful at transforming the duo into a trio while providing the requisite romantic interest.

The action highlights are all ridiculous, ridiculously fun, and spiked with sometimes wicked humour. On the Niger river, Dirk and Al tangle with several of Kazim's power boats plus one technical machine gun. Stunt performers have fun with a camel-enabled train take-over. A desert escape features the cargo bed of a pick-up truck then a plane wreck turned into a land yacht. An impressively massive solar-powered facility is discovered in the desert, setting up a raucous finale, which is then upstaged by the real climax in the desert, where old and new technology meet on the battlefield.

Devoid of any demands for intellectual or emotional commitment, Sahara bounces on the dunes of exhilaration.



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Movie Review: Serenity (2019)

A film noir drama, Serenity is ambitious but deeply flawed, with a dumbfounding plot twist undermining the narrative into fatal irrelevance.

In the fictional Caribbean-like enclave of Plymouth Island, where everyone appears to know everything about everyone else, Iraq War veteran Baker Dill (Matthew McConaughey) operates the Serenity as a tourist fishing boat. But instead of looking after his customers he is obsessed with catching an elusive big tuna, and he can barely afford to pay his loyal second-in-command Duke (Djimon Hounsou). Dill provides sexual favours to Constance (Diane Lane) in return for desperately needed cash.

Dill's ex-wife Karen (Anne Hathaway) arrives unexpectedly and offers him $10 million to kill her current abusive husband Frank (Jason Clarke). She urges him to commit the murder for the sake of their son Patrick, who is suffering in an abusive household. In the meantime tweedy sales rep Reid Miller (Jeremy Strong), incongruously dressed in a suit and tie, offers Dill a fish tracking device to help him snag the big tuna. Dill starts to suspect all is not what it seems.

Written and directed by Steven Knight, Serenity ought to be applauded at some level for trying something new. But unfortunately, the second half is unsalvageable, veering into weird waters and blowing a hole in its own hull. Once Knight starts to pull back the curtain on the story he really wants to tell, no worthwhile emotional investment can be justified in the characters or events.

The opening half is a decent enough modern noir mixing reasonably engaging ingredients. Dill is a sweaty and deeply flawed protagonist hiding out in an exotic locale, chasing his unattainable fish, lamenting separation from his son, and never expecting to achieve anything beyond selfish survival and control over his boat. Karen arrives with a tolerable approximation of a femme fatale, offering breathy remorse and unimaginable money in exchange for the small matter of murder. Intended victim Frank oozes slimy evil, a perfect shark food candidate if ever there was one.

Dill agonizes over Karen's offer, and the early involvement of fish-out-of-water sales agent Reid Miller is an initially edgy angle. But then all the promising metaphors and moral dilemmas dissolve into something much more obtuse and remarkably uninteresting. Serenity lists, then just sinks.



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Movie Review: The Wedding Planner (2001)

A banal romantic comedy, The Wedding Planner is devoid of wit, humour and crisp ideas.

In San Francisco, Mary (Jennifer Lopez) is a hyper-competent wedding planner but has no love life of her own. When her heel is caught in a utility hole, she is rescued from disaster by pediatrician Steve (Matthew McConaughey). Mary's assistant Penny (Judy Greer) sets them up on a date, hoping to help Mary snap out of the emotional doldrums.

Although Mary and Steve have a good time, she is then shocked to learn he is the fiancé of her latest client, wealthy businesswoman Fran (Bridgette Wilson-Sampras). Mary feels deceived by Steve but continues organizing his wedding. Meanwhile, her widowed father (Alex Rocco) pushes her to consider marrying Massimo (Justin Chambers), a passionate young man recently arrived from Italy.

Directed by Adam Shankman, The Wedding Planner is an easy to forget, by-the-numbers rom-com. In the central roles Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey hardly seem to be trying and spend most of the movie bickering, while the supporting characters consist of mechanically recycled assorted friends, family members and business colleagues.

The romance is devoid of both laughs and any moments of poignancy, but stuffed full of the typical plastic devices lovers have to navigate before the pre-ordained ending. And so Steve is marrying Fran despite their obvious incompatibility, Mary is being pushed by her father to wed Massimo and learn to love him later, and the script by Michael Ellis and Pamela Falk chokes on superficial references to what love is or is not. The insipid soundtrack featuring interchangeable self-empowerment musical fluff does not help.

To obscure the lack of content Shankman takes a tour of wedding preparation scenery, from selecting the venue to finding the flowers, including a desperate detour to a statue park that degenerates into an adventure with crazy glue and detached private parts. Steve gets one scene at his workplace hospital, but otherwise must be the most under-employed doctor in San Francisco. 

And somehow it's not sufficient for Steve to save Mary's life once from her heel-stuck-in-the-utility-hole predicament, so the old standby of a damsel in distress on a runaway horse being rescued by her white knight is wedged into the proceedings. The Wedding Planner is regretfully cancelled due to an utter lack of creativity.



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Movie Review: Killer Joe (2011)

A raw crime drama, Killer Joe takes pleasure wallowing in humanity's sewer. The twisted plot offers plenty of perversions before unravelling.

In Dallas, Chris Smith (Emile Hirsch) owes money to drug dealers. He conspires with his dimwitted father Ansel (Thomas Haden Church) to hire police detective "Killer" Joe Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), who moonlights as an assassin-for-hire, to kill Ansel's ex-wife. Her insurance policy pays out $50,000 to her daughter Dottie (Juno Temple), a naive young woman and victim of child abuse. After paying Killer, the plan is for Chris, Ansel and Dottie to share the money, but then Ansel insists his current wife Sharla (Gina Gershon) also gets a cut.

Joe takes a liking to Dottie, and in lieu of receiving his $25,000 fee up-front, he demands Dottie as a "retainer". With his sister now a sex slave and Joe making himself comfortable in the home of Ansel and Sharla, Chris starts to have doubts about the whole plot, but much worse is to come.

Luxuriating in the grime of immoral behaviour, Killer Joe aims for Coen brothers shadings. Tracy Letts wrote the script based on his own play, and William Friedkin directs with one eye towards sly humour and the other firmly fixed on extremes of depravity. With the slime glistening under the Texas skies, Killer Joe promises much and at least for a while delivers fine moments of white trash artistry

The Smith family are mired in poverty, stupidity and the pursuit of lost causes. Ansel at least knows he is dim and is therefore one step ahead of Chris, who is still awakening to his limitations. Sharla is just looking for a meal ticket and a roof over her head, and for now, Ansel will do. Which leaves Dottie as the only character worth caring for, a naive, pitiful young woman, essentially sold into sexual slavery by her brother and father. By the time Chris decides he ought to maybe rescue his sister, the damage is done.

Killer Joe struts into this family sniffing easy opportunities first for money then for free sexual favours. He is much smarter than Chris and Ansel, but also much more nefarious. And when his worst tendencies surface in the third act, Killer Joe unfortunately stumbles and falls. Letts and Friedkin settle for a stagebound single-set climax, then go looking for extremes of behaviour (involving fried chicken) for maximum shock value. The gambit misfires, the search for cheap notoriety sacrificing the drama's sharp edges.

Matthew McConaughey cruises through the film in icy arrogance mode, Emile Hirsch compensating with frantic desperation. Thomas Haden Church finds the necessary open-mouthed imbecility. Gina Gershon and Juno Temple are asked to do most of the heavy lifting, both actresses displaying courage in physically humiliating roles.

Killer Joe earns head-shaking stares, but when the drama is overrun by theatrics, it's time to look away.



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Movie Review: U-571 (2000)

A World War Two submarine action film, U-571 offers combat thrills in tight quarters but with limited character depth.

With German U-boats dominating the North Atlantic, U-571 sinks an Allied merchant ship but is then itself damaged by depth charges. The US Navy quickly conceives of a ruse to disguise the submarine S-33 as a German rescue vessel, storm the U-571, and seize the Enigma cipher machine and its valuable code books.

Captain Mike Dahlgren (Bill Paxton) commands S-33, with Lieutenant Andrew Tyler (Matthew McConaughey) as his Executive Officer. The respect between the two men is undermined by some tension as Dahlgren does not believe Tyler is yet ready to command his own vessel and make life-or-death decisions in the heat of battle.

Joining them for this mission are Major Matthew Coonan (David Keith) and Lieutenant Michael Hirsch (Jake Weber). The crew members include Chief Gunner's Mate Henry Klough (Harvey Keitel) and Seaman Bill Wentz (Jack Noseworthy), who is half German. In rough seas the U-571 is captured, but enemy action throws the mission into disarray and Tyler finds himself unexpectedly in command and under extreme pressure to salvage a desperate situation.

The Allied attempts to capture and decipher Enigma resulted in many heroic missions, most of them completed by British naval forces. Here Hollywood takes over with a crass Americanization of history, the US Navy crew and commanders of S-33 portrayed as instrumental in the intelligence gathering war.

Setting aside the snub, U-571 is a decent thriller within the typical limitations of a De Laurentiis production. Any half-hearted interest in people starts and ends in the first 10 minutes with Tyler's nose bent out of shape as a result of not receiving the commission he was hoping for. Once the S-33 mission gets underway the movie is all about hardware, torpedoes, depth charges and the typical thrills, spills, leaks, explosions, solar pings and stealthy combat expected from the submarine warfare sub-genre.

Director Jonathan Mostow co-wrote the screenplay (with David Ayer and Sam Montgomery), and delivers a taut if always-slightly-implausible two hours. The special effects and claustrophobic submarine cinematography convey the tension of enemy confrontations on the surface and underwater. The surprises arrive on cue, a few good men die, and heroics combine with out-of-the-box thinking as crews and machines are pushed to the limit, men sweating outwards in direct proportion to submarines leaking inwards.

The German submarine crew do receive several sequences at the center of the action and speak their own language, but are otherwise strictly confined to heartless enemy characterizations. Matthew McConaughey wears a grim and stony faced expression throughout, and the supporting cast members dutifully follow suit, including rock star Jon Bon Jovi stumbling into an acting gig.

U-571 reimagines history and celebrates machines more than people, but does it all with an admirably straight face.

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Movie Review:EDtv (1999)

A romantic comedy with a satirical edge, EDtv explores the ups and downs of day-to-day life in the era of trash reality television.

In San Francisco, television executive Cynthia Redd (Ellen DeGeneres) conceives of a new TrueTV network consisting of 24/7 live coverage of one individual's life. Ray Pekurny (Woody Harrelson) is keen to apply, but his more lackadaisical brother Ed (Matthew McConaughey) is selected instead.

The Pekurnies are a rambunctious blue collar family, with the intense Ray dreaming of opening a gym and making it rich, while Ed is happily stuck in a dead-end job as a video store clerk. Their mother Jeanette (Sally Kirkland) was abandoned by her husband Hank (Dennis Hopper) and is now in a relationship with the wheelchair-bound Al (Martin Landau).

With cameras recording Ed's every move, the show gets off to a slow start, but when Ray cheats on his girlfriend Shari (Jenna Elfman) and Ed and Shari become a couple, ratings and viewership take off. The network is renamed EDtv, and Cynthia's boss Whitaker (Rob Reiner) is thrilled. But maintaining a relationship under the constant glare of the cameras proves too much for Shari, and Ed confronts the downsides of sudden fame.

Directed by Ron Howard and written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, EDtv deserves credit for creating new space to explore within the romantic comedy genre. And the arena of reality television, where life becomes a show and every nobody can imagine being a celebrity, proves to be a challenging environment for love to thrive.

Howard captures the claustrophobic and bizarre freakshow of continuous filming around one individual. The camera operators and sound technicians capturing Ed's every moment are never more than a couple of feet away from him, or scrambling to catch up. The ego boost of course goes to Ed's head, and he frequently slips into playing for the cameras, often to the detriment of those around him. As real as it wants to be, reality television by its mere presence alters reality.

And Shari is understandably unable to cope. Living in a fishbowl, unsure of whether any of Ed's emotions are genuine, and judged by an entire nation of voyeurs, she seeks to disengage. Whatever could have been real between them is threatened by the freakshow of obsessive celebrity.

EDtv touches on other pertinent themes, including the pleasure Middle America takes in gawking at the unkempt lives of the unwashed, Cynthia and her team unable to resist stage-managing moments to boost ratings, television feeding on itself as Ed's life becomes fodder for late night talk show hosts, and the profits-above-all mentality of network executives.

The cast members maintain their footing amidst the unhinged reality, with McConaughey, Harrelson and DeGeneres adding the right touches of humour, while Elfman conveys the hurt confusion of a woman victimized - repeatedly - by a circus she never asked to attend.

Prescient and accurate, EDtv reflects a society regressing in real time on a diet of intellectual junk.

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Movie Review: White Boy Rick (2018)

A biographical crime drama, White Boy Rick delves into lives destroyed by poverty and drugs with a patchy plot and uneven execution.

It's 1984, and in crime-ridden inner city Detroit, Richard Wershe (Matthew McConaughey) is an uneducated and poor single dad making ends meet trading guns at the margins of the law. He promises his 14 year old son Rick (Richie Merritt) that he will one day open a chain of video stores, but that day never comes. Meantime, daughter Dawn (Bel Powley) is already addicted to drugs, with a crack cocaine epidemic sweeping through the city. Richard's parents Ray and Vera (Bruce Dern and Piper Laurie) live across the street but are of little help.

Rick picks up his father's salesman skills and starts trading guns to local drug-running black gangsters, earning the title White Boy Rick and attracting the attention of FBI Agents Alex Snyder (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and Frank Byrd (Rory Cochrane). They pressure him into informing on his criminal associates, leading to a cycle of turmoil and violence for both Rick and his dad.

Based on a true story, White Boy Rick breathes deeply from the foul air of urban decay and the flawed humanity it spawns. This is a story of place as much as it is a cautionary tale about characters. The gutted-out streets of Detroit, by 1984 a soulless city seemingly abandoned of all that makes a healthy community, are prime territory for the rule of gangs, drugs and guns. As much as Richard and Rick believe they can do something different and better, the odds are firmly stacked against them.

Director Yann Demange places the sins-of-the-father theme at the heart of the film. Young Rick has no role model other than a shifty dad whose occupation is to buy guns from shady gun show dealers, attach basement-manufactured add-ons, and sell the weapons at a profit to whoever is willing to buy from the trunk of his car. Not exactly a foundation for success, and sure enough young Rick is soon perfecting his dad's formula, with less misgivings about who his customers are.

At least Richard cares about his children and does try to be a decent dad, but he is also hampered by a lack of opportunity, talent and education.

Outside of the immediate familial bond, the film noticeably sputters. The gang members are provided minimal definition, and the film bungles all of Rick's brushes with the FBI. Exactly what he did for the authorities and the value of the information he provided remain obscure details tripped over by a script more concerned with people than events.

Matthew McConaughey brings a creepy intensity to the role of Richard Wershe, and whenever he is on the screen the film threatens to become more about the father than the son. In his film debut Richie Merritt is serviceable, but for long periods the purportedly central character of Rick is sidelined as an observer and a casualty of his environment. More sad than powerful or memorable, White Boy Rick crawls along the slimy underbelly of the American dream.

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Movie Review: Dazed And Confused (1993)

A teens-hanging-out movie, Dazed And Confused is a plotless exercise in capturing ambiance.

It's May 1976, and the last day of school at Lee High School in Austin, Texas. A group of seniors-to-be and incoming freshmen interact throughout the afternoon and into the night. The freshmen undergo initiation ordeals and hazings, while the seniors smoke weed, drink beer, cruise down the streets in their vehicles, and look for a place to party. The school's star quarterback "Pink" Floyd (Jason London), heading into his senior year, and struggles all night with his coach's demand to sign a good-behaviour pledge.

Written, directed and co-produced by Richard Linklater, Dazed And Confused is all about mood and music, a 20-years-later and much inferior spiritual successor to American Graffiti. Set against a soundtrack of early 1970s rock anthems, the film has an overabundance of characters doing very little. At a stretch, themes of growing up, fitting in, and striking out can be discerned in the jumbled debris of the film, but the presentation is painful, Linklater obsessed with a group of boorish seniors intent on abusing freshmen with paddle-inflicted bum-beatings.

Whether intended to be funny or painful, Dazed And Confused spends too much time on nondescript and poorly defined teens mistreating each other with no consequence, retaliation or after effects. Elsewhere, the characters' primary motivations are weed, beer, making out and parties. The conversations are instantly forgettable, and hardly any of the people who populate the film are remotely interesting or memorable.

The one exception may be Matthew McConaughey as Wooderson, the former school quarterback who now has a job and acts as the cool older brother to the seniors. McConaughey improves the film everytime he is on-screen, but not enough to create a compelling narrative direction. Other cast members who went on to prominent careers include Ben Affleck, Milla Jovovich, Cole Hauser and Parker Posey. Renée Zellweger makes a brief appearance in an uncredited role.

For fans of 1970s classic rock the film is a treat, and features music by Foghat, Alice Cooper, ZZ Top, Nazareth, Ted Nugent, Sweet, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath. and Kiss. Alas, Led Zeppelin inspired the film's title but denied permission for their music to feature. The aesthetics also evoke nostalgia for admirers of 1970s bell-bottom dominated fashions and muscle cars.

Dazed And Confused cruises up and down the main drag, looking good and sounding good but not intending to go anywhere in particular.

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Movie Review: Gold (2016)

A tattered rags to prospective riches story inspired by real events, Gold is a reasonably satisfying escapade through the rollercoaster world of gold stock promotions. The film draws some energy from a scrappy and desperate central character, but then idles instead of soaring.

In Nevada, Kenny Wells (Matthew McConaughey) is a down-on-his-luck mining stock promoter, down to his last penny and barely able to support his long-time girlfriend Kay (Bryce Dallas Howard). Desperate to reverse his fortune, Kenny travels to Indonesia and connects with geologist Michael Acosta (Édgar Ramírez), who harbours unproven theories about rich gold deposits deep in the Indonesian jungle.

Kenny and his coterie of similarly luckless penny stock promoters work the phones and raise enough cash to get Acosta's drilling operations up and running. No gold is found in the early samples and Kenny contracts malaria in the Indonesian jungle. With the money about to run out, the analysis lab starts to report rich gold content from the latest core samples. Kenny and Michael find themselves sitting on the biggest gold find in decades. Kenny's life is turned upside down, but profiteers in the form of bankers, large mining companies and the Indonesian government soon move in.

Inspired by the fact-is-stranger-than-fiction Bre-X scandal, Gold has a humdinger of a story to work with. And in Kenny Wells, the film finds a unique perspective, a prematurely aging, overweight, sweaty sad man with failure labelled on his receding hairline but still hoping for that life changing gold discovery. The front end of the film hums on the fuel of Wells edging ever nearer to the cliff of abject failure, having lost his father's business, reduced to making phone calls out of a bar and gambling everything on a final Hail Mary play to reverse his fortune.

But as directed by Stephen Gaghan, Gold becomes strangely subdued and loses momentum in its second half. As the drama shifts from the last-roll-of-the-dice rigours of prospecting to dealing with the aftermath of a massive gold find, the film suffers by sticking too closely with Wells. Rightfully or not, the global ripple effects of a multi-billion dollar gold strike become much bigger than one man, and the film sidelines itself by narrowly focusing on a small hustler who is now a misfit in a much larger game. Kenny does matter, but he matters a lot less when the big players move in and the entire mining sector is shaken to its foundations.

This does not stop McConaughey from delivering a committed performance, nailing the bug-eyed desperation of a small-time operator whose very survival depends on fake confidence. The supporting cast includes small roles for Bruce Greenwood, Craig T. Nelson and Stacy Keach.

Gold has decent sprinklings of stuff that glitters, but misses the motherlode.

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Movie Review: Contact (1997)

A science drama, Contact is an intelligent story about the passion to search for a connection with alien beings, and the implications once the unthinkable becomes true.

As a young girl, Ellie Arroway (Jena Malone) was encouraged to pursue astronomy by her father Ted (David Morse). The grown up Ellie (Jodie Foster) graduated from MIT and developed a passion for seeking signals transmitted by aliens. While on assignment at an observatory in Puerto Rico, Ellie establishes a rapport with fellow scientist Kent Clark (William Fichtner), and has a brief but passionate affair with Christian philosopher Palmer Joss (Matthew McConaughey). The Puerto Rico assignment is eventually shut down by National Science Foundation Director David Drumlin (Tom Skerritt), who does not believe that searching for alien signals is worthwhile research.

Ellie finds private funding through the Hadden Corporation, led by the extremely rich but dying tycoon S.R. Hadden (John Hurt), and establishes her team at the Very Large Array (VLA) of massive listening satellite dishes in New Mexico. After months of effort Ellie stumbles onto a signal transmitted from the Vega star system. Her discovery unleashes a global frenzy, with the White House getting involved in the form of Chief of Staff Rachel Constantine (Angela Bassett) and National Security Advisor Michael Kitz (James Woods). Then Ellie's team uncovers more: the alien signal contains a coded message and reams of advanced data including the blueprints for an advanced, massive machine.

Directed by Robert Zemeckis and based on the novel by celebrated astronomer Carl Sagan, Contact is a spiritual successor to 2001: A Space Odyssey and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. Although neither as fantastical as Kubrick's epic nor as fuzzy as Spielberg's opus, Contact brings its own attitude to the search for intelligent life: a science-first stance, a willingness to take a pragmatic look at how politics will interfere with any major discovery, and a deliberate eagerness to delve into the debate about the role of religion when the time comes for human interaction with another species.

The film excels at maintaining a clear-headed, science-based perspective through the eyes of Ellie, including the frustrating chase for funds, clashes with superiors, disappointing initiatives that lead to nothing, and long hours, days and years of research sustained only by hope and belief that a breakthrough must be just around the next frequency.

And when contact is made and Ellie shakes the world with her discovery, Zemeckis takes his time to capture the frenzied reaction. From President Clinton (masterfully weaved into the film) and his army of White House suits to religious zealots, and passing through the journalists and talking heads on the cable news networks and Chevrolet Vega enthusiasts, the world will react to alien communications in unpredictable ways, and Contact imagines the outpouring of emotion and insanity with plenty of colour.

Some parts of the film don't work as well. There is a serious sabotage incident that appears far-fetched and ultimately neither adds to nor deletes from the story. As the machine is being built at enormous cost, Zemeckis dials back the curiosity factor and does not even attempt to explain how it may be expected to work. And the personal scenes between Ellie and Palmer too conveniently and quickly devolve into a complicated relationship that mirrors the tension between her science and his religious philosophy.

Jodie Foster is at the core of the drama, and allows Ellie to not only be a bright and fiercely determined scientist, but also a human being with faults. She has to check her anger and attitude at meetings, and is too honest when it matters least. As Sagan intended, Ellie carries with her the struggle of women scientists to stand alongside the men, and more than once Ellie has to swallow her pride and plan a recovery after men brutishly shove their interests ahead of her rights. The supporting cast is adequate, but none of the men around Ellie achieve much depth.

The film ends with a journey sequence driven by spectacular special effects, and a conclusion built on sober reflection. The search for evidence finds belief and the intrinsically faithful find evidence. The quest to find answers will continue, built on advancements measured simultaneously in light years and milliseconds.

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Movie Review: The Newton Boys (1998)

Based on real events, The Newton Boys is a lighthearted drama about a band of brothers from rural Texas who robbed banks at will without hurting anyone in the early 1920s. Despite decent style, the movie never moves beyond perfunctory "good old boys" elements.

In rural Texas, Willis Newton (Matthew McConaughey) comes from a family of horse trainers. Recently released from prison for a crime he claims not to have committed, Willis joins career criminals Slim (Charles Gunning) and Glassock (Dwight Yoakam) in what proves to be a botched daytime bank robbery. Willis decides he can do better leading his own gang, and buys a list of bank safes that can be exploded open with nitroglycerin. He adopts the attitude that the banks and insurance companies are all corrupt, and that he is just a small thief stealing from bigger thieves.

Working with Glassock and eventually recruiting his brothers Joe (Skeet Ulrich), Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Dock (Vincent D'Onofrio), the Newton Boys successfully hit a succession of banks in various cities, all at night, and with plenty of guns but minimal violence. Willis meets and falls in love with Louise (Julianna Margulies) and tries to reinvent himself as an honest oilman, but has to admit that he is better at crime than anything else. But with the banks strengthening their safe security, the robberies start to get more complicated.

Director Richard Linklater tries his hand at a period piece, and does not do so well. The Newton Boys aims at a Bonnie And Clyde vibe without the violence, but instead delivers a frivolous piece celebrating charismatic hold-ups by characters who remain caricatures. There is plenty of 1920s style on display and the film generally looks attractive, but in the absence of depth behind the costumes, it devolves into a repetitive series of robberies by faceless and interchangeable men. The film is not helped by a cluttered cast that features plenty of side characters, including criminals, bankers, insurance agents and law enforcement types who come and go while contributing little.

The context and motivations start and stop with Willis Newton's Robin Hood-inspired philosophy that it's alright to rob banks because banks are corrupt and insurance companies anyway need robberies to sustain their business. It's a simple message for times that were perhaps simpler, but it's insufficient to sustain the film's two hours. The rest of the Newtons range from the charming Jesse (an animated Ethan Hawke) to the worrywart Jess and lughead Dock, and they all remain barely defined people, generally standing aside as the safes blow open with loud bangs.

There are a few good set pieces, including a particularly chaotic money-transfer hold-up in Toronto that descends into a well-executed farce. The romance elements fare much worse, with Louise easily falling under Willis' sweet talking spell and deluding herself that he is a businessman. Once she confronts the truth, Louise's role becomes to whine incessantly for her man to stop doing what he does best.

With jovial bluegrass music adding to the sense of flippancy, The Newton Boys is flighty film that unfortunately fails to impress.

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